Drumbuie

The most reliable aircraft ever ( according to my test pilot dad). Good to see they're still going strong.

The first time I returned to Thailand after many decades, the traffic terrified me. People on motorbikes darting in all directions, no lane discipline etc. I spent most of the time flinching, foot clamped to the car floor, white knuckles clutching the door handle. After a year or two I realised that it's like music. We learned to drive in a rules-based system, like a Western orchestra playing strictly from the score. Thais drive like freeform jazz musicians play music. Everyone is improvising all the time, but they're all playing together; the trick is to be aware of everyone else all the time. As a result, when I cycle here, I feel a lot safer than I ever did cycling in the UK. I haven't been knocked over by any White Van Men ( which was a regular occurrence in London and why I stopped cycling to work). The fact that they don't follow the score doesn't mean they're stupid.

Sorry, I haven't had my morning coffee yet - could you explain that more clearly?

In the absence of an official ID card, a driving licence is accepted photo ID in the UK for all kinds of purposes. Since a driving licence is very easy to obtain for very considerably less than £1500, the only reason someone would pay that much money is presumably criminal purposes.

CCleaner is installed on my (Samsung) phone; I have to toggle it in Apps (it's in the Systems menu) before and after using it, otherwise my Kasikorn and Bangkok bank apps won't work. Because CCleaner has to have access to every part of my phone and - quite rightly - the banking apps' security settings don't allow that.

The short answer is "yes, she can refuse to return your deposit". The long answer is that you renewed your one year contract verbally and are now breaking that verbal contract, so you have no way to force her to return your deposit. If you don't pay the final month's rent you're unlikely to see any of the deposit back at all. The original written contract may well have had a clause prohbiting the use of deposit money in lieu of rental, in which case you've again broken the contract. If you were likely to have to move, it might have been worth negotiating a rolling month by month contract when the first one ended - but in any case a written and signed memorandum of agreement would have made things clear to both parties. That's what contracts are for.

There's a handy little phone app called ' Merlin' - with Sound ID. Record the bird song, and it tries to ID it. Be warned - some birds ( including the Koels) seem to sense when you click on the app and stop singing just as you press 'Record'...

All the things the government contributes towards. You may mock Thai policing ( and I'm sure you do) but try living in a country with no effective policing or judicial system *at all* for a while... and then you might see it differently. Ditto provision and distribution of electricity, public transport systems etc. A country with a completely uneducated population and no public health services is also not much fun to live in. I'll be happy to pay some tax here, as I was in my own countr, even though a lot is mis-spent, because the alternative is a lot worse.

https://www.chubbtravelinsurance.co.th/cti/th-en/home Travel insurance includes the cost of accidents and medical bills while you are travelling beyond your home country.

Oops. Looks like your empathy reserves need topping up. ( You do realise that what you're saying equates to " All men are rapists", don't you? )

No, I did *not* know that and this is absolutely the kind of content I am here for. More, please!

I met an Israeli lady last summer, here to see her musician daughter perform. She told me that she is one of hundreds of thousands of Jewish Israelis actively protesting against the actions of their Zionist government. I was with a Jewish friend who also loathes the actions of Netanyahu's government - we all hugged when we said goodbye. It's not anti-Semitism - and it never was, any more than protesting against Hitler was anti- Caucasian or anti-Christian. It's not pro-Hamas or pro-terrorism. It's pro- people being able to lead peaceful lives without being shot or bombed in their (hospital) beds.

Irresistibly reminded of Hermione Gingold's song with a refrain that went " But who will introduce the introducer's introducer....?"

It's many many years since I smoked a cigarette but I don't recall falling over as being part of the experience?

It's a strange idea, I know, and would involve men not thinking with their dicks for once ( so it may not be possible) but ..one easy way to find out is to use Google Translate and ask " How old are you?".

A friend with a Dutch father told me that n the Netherlands, there is often a little transparent compartment in a gravestone containing an object that symbolises the deceased's life. (She said he used to joke that his would be a boat - he was a captain - but her mum's would be a Hoover).

The sound of the nail being hit on the head!

A year ago I opened a bank account with Bangkok Bank in order to get a retirement visa extension. I had less than 30 days left of a 90 day non-O ( from the Thai Embassy in London), but as well as a one year lease on a property in BK, and my passport, I had a letter from Siam Legal - 5,000 baht well spent. (Admittedly I had shown all my finances to SL and told them about family already living and working here - they knew they could safely recommend me). After that I did a border bounce to Hanoi till the money had seasoned enough to apply for the extension. [Thanks are due to everyone, Dr Jack in particular, who posts good advice in these forums.] Opening an account with KBank once I'd gotten the visa extension was a doddle. And yes, try opening a bank account in any European country on a tourist visa - the answer will always be No. Legitimate and sensible tourists use a Wise account.

The incident happened in Phuket. He has been doing his 90 day reports in Chiang Mai. Obviously the police records from Phuket ten years ago were held as paper files. I would guess that Phuket's police records have now been digitised into a central RTP database. So after the first time after that, when he filed his 90 day report in Chiang Mai, it flagged up the Phuket incident. If, as it appears, all Thailand's police records are being scanned into a central database, we can expect a lot more articles like this in future.

Used to be a young guy hanging round the bus terminus in my town with a sad story about having lost the cash for the bus fare home. Every single day. You didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to spot the telltale signs that he was spending the money on drugs. I'm guessing this farang beggar is doing the same.

Corporal punishment was only made illegal in UK schools 1986, and that only because of a 1982 ruling by the ECHR. Poland outlawed corporal punishment in schools in 1783. Make of that what you will, but I wouldn't be in a hurry to get up on that high horse...

No. I don't miss Tesco. One of the more predatory UK supermarkets who systematically targeted every rival shop in my UK home town by deep discounting - first they put the greengrocers out of business, then the small toyshops, and so on. A year later the only independent shops left were the butcher, the baker and ....the bicycle shop. Even Tesco selling bikes at cost price in the runup to Christmas didn't affect them, cyclists were loyal. Plus Tesco don't pay or treat their staff well, unlike ALDI ( or Waitrose). No, I don't miss Tesco. (And their teabags are horrible, cheap, old, nasty tea dust).

If the transfer is made by Citibank to a receiving bank with whom you don't have an account, who automatically send it to your Bangkok Bank account, your bank should be able to write you a letter for each transaction, certifying that the funds came from overseas. Mine did; I had helped them by printing out my own copy of the statement ( easily done from the phone app) and highlighting each of the transactions that needed a letter. So then they had the information they needed to access the records easily without having to trawl through all the entries.

Did you not notice he was a farang teaching in an *international* school ?

Because it's stable. So do most UK banks because upgrading is expensive and not without risk, if not done carefully. RBS systems meltdown in 2012 was because they outsourced IT to India - where they had no idea how to handle the three 1960s mainframes on which the whole system was built. My experience of Thai banks apps is that they're miles ahead of the UK's, even if Starling which is entirely an online bank. And before you start complaining about your bank branch here, be thankful you have a branch. UK banks are closing most of theirs - worst of both worlds.