Drumbuie

In international schools, the teacher pupil ratio isn't 1:30,: in my granddaughter's class it's about 1:5 and that's without including the excellent Thai teaching assistants. In her school the aim is not to ape the traditions of the snobby, repressive private schools of the UK and the USA. Every time family are invited to visit the school, I am impressed by how happy and confident the children are, and how proud they are of the work they're doing, how well they're socialised. Thee is no way any parent could replicate that nurturing and stimulating environment on their own.

Like many, I have two Thai bank accounts. One for my retirement extension 800k, the other for daily spending. Tasking Immigration with assessing total Thai income is not going to work, they'd all have to be retrained. But what *might* happen is that supplying a copy of a filed Thai tax return becomes part of the conditions for granting a retirement visa extension. But nobody knows yet. So this article appears only to be a crude way of drumming up trade for accountants in Thailand.

Wait till the osteoporosis kicks in as well. I simply don't understand why women want to do this to themselves or why anyone with a conscience would encourage and abet them Oh,wait . .is there a lot of money in it for somebody? A pharmaceutical company, for example?

Defence Chiefs of Staff have already rubbished this idea and said it's simply an electoral ploy. Without extra funding for defence (the Tories have cut the Defence Budget in real terms while wasting money on eg Rwanda and #HS2) the last thing the Forces need is an influx of disgruntled, untrained 18 year olds, and you can quite see their point. Conscripts need uniforms, housing, equipment. There isn't any. They don't even have enough for troops on active duty. No wonder the Chiefs of Staff are fuming. 14 years ago the UK was still anm respected actor on the international stage. Now it's a pitiable wreck of a country run by clowns who've feathered their own and their chums' nests at the expense of everyone else, where the seas and rivers are full of sewage ( and so is the Parliament). #NeverVoteTory

The British Women's Group runs a second hand book stall upstairs in the Royal Oak, Sukhumvit 33/1; the proceeds are donated to selected good causes in Thailand.

There is a distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Many thousands of Israelis are on the streets regularly protesting against the actions of their own government - are they anti-Semitic? Some Israeli government ministers have even had their fill of Netanyahu's actions - are they anti-Semitic?

A phone is pretty well essential in today's world - how else can you get and keep a job ? My maid had a second hand cheap Chinese phone that cost a few hundred baht; her child dropped it, it broke, and without it she was lost. So I bought her a new cheap Chinese phone and it was still less than 3000 baht.

The Telegraph article from which you're quoting the "25% of pensioners are millionaires" factoid is somewhat misleading. 25% of over 65s ( remember the pension age is moving upwards as fast as the Tories can manage) live in a household whose *combined wealth* - including the house - is over £1 million. But a 3 bed semi in the London suburbs now costs over a million quid, so that's not surprising. In poorer areas of the UK the average life expectancy is less than 60 years. As for a pint costing £2.10 - what are you drinking? Milk?? https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/distributionofindividualtotalwealthbycharacteristicingreatbritain/april2018tomarch2020

The Telegraph article from which you're quoting the "25% of pensioners are millionaires" factoid is somewhat misleading. 25% of over 65s ( remember the pension age is moving upwards as fast as the Tories can manage) live in a household whose *combined wealth* - including the house - is over £1 million. But a 3 bed semi in the London suburbs now costs over a million quid, so that's not surprising. In poorer areas of the UK the average life expectancy is less than 60 years. As for a pint costing £2.10 - what are you drinking? Milk?? https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/distributionofindividualtotalwealthbycharacteristicingreatbritain/april2018tomarch2020

I'm assuming you speak fluent Thai and are completely assimilated into Thai culture? 🤣

The short answer is : make a will in Thailand dealing with the disposal of all your assets in Thailand. Regarding the wording and legality of that will, anyone living in Thailand can get free legal advice on this and any other subject from the Office of International Peoples' Rights Protection, www.humanrights.ago.go.th Tel:0-2142-1532 E-mail:humanrightsa[at]go.go.th They can also give you advice on drawing up a Power of Attorney (which everyone ought to do) in case of incapacitation. For your assets in another country, make a separate will according to the rules that apply in that country, although it doesn't have to be made in that country. Incidentally, for your Thai estate, a handwritten*, signed and dated will without witnesses is valid, unlike most other countries. * by the testator, the person whose will it is, not by another person.

Low blood sugar levels can lead to tiredness and/or irritability. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/low-blood-sugar-hypoglycaemia/

What provincial narrow-minded nonsense. In the UK more than half of all taxpayers earn less than £20k a year ( and thanks to the skyrocketing cost of living have no savings at all) and the *average* salary is less than this threshold. So the majority of British citizens are now unable to marry anyone without a British passport and bring them home to live. Not just Thais. *Anyone*. Including former Commonwealth citizens. It's a needlessly cruel, vindictive policy, a further diminution of citizens' rights, and we should all sign that petition now.

So will all the various forms of local wildlife that eat mosquitoes and their larvae.

Did you see a bear or a Bactrian camel while you were in Russia or Mongolia? Does that mean there are no bears or Bactrian camels in Russia or Mongolia? Always beware of generalising from personal experience. There are over 2.3 million motorcycles in Russia so that's about 1.6% of the population. But it's still over two million motorcyclists, in a country which makes its own motorcycles as well as importing them https://siberianlight.org/russian-motorcycles/ ...and it's a country which has a lot of motorcycle clubs, some of which are like Hell's Angels with international chapters, eg the Night Wolves who have featured in the news fighting in Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Wolves I knew absolutely nothing about Russian motorcycles before you made that sweeping generalisation and it's been fascinating spending a few minutes finding out. You should try it sometime.

In the winter much of Russia is usually cold and icy. In the spring it thaws, in summer much of Russia is warm ( by European standards: 20C +) and dry. The autumn can be frosty at night but real winter doesn't usually start till November. You know you can find this sort of stuff out on the internet and save yourself embarrassment?

Not only am I a woman, I'm the mother of three sons, and stepmother of another. Having seen them all through adolescence, including sharing a school run with another family with three boys, I'm injured to the kind of chat that is widespread in these forums. Although I must confess to being slightly surprised that so many fifty-plus year olds' conversation is eerily similar to that of a carful of hormonal, Lynx-drenched teen boys. .

A scholarly analysis of "EastEnders" [a long running soap opera in the UK, for those lucky enough never to have seen it] showed that on average characters were shown having an alcoholic drink every 30 seconds. That, combined with the last few decades of Radio 1 shows in which presenters gloried in the previous night's excesses, has helped to normalise the over-consumption of alcohol in the UK. Before then, being visibly drunk was a source of shame. And rightly so.

There are separate totals for the UK and England - which rather undermines the reliability of this chart.

If the putative farang has a bank account or any personal possessions in Thailand, he has, in legal terms, an estate in Thailand and if he dies without making a will he is going to cause a lot of problems for people including the Consul of his own country. Far better to get free legal counselling on this and any other legal matters ( now) from the Office of Human Rights. www.humanrights.ago.go.th Yes, it's free for all those living on Thailand, whether Thai or foreigner. A humane and considerate policy which other countries would do well to copy.

And another Bella Caledonia quote. "As former *Conservative* MSP Adam Tomkins, writes in the Herald: “Under the Hate Crime Act, the threshold of criminal liability is not that a victim feels offended (a subjective test), but that a reasonable person would consider the perpetrator’s action or speech to be threatening or abusive (an objective test).” He continues: “Asserting that sex is a biological fact or that it is not changed just by virtue of the gender by which someone chooses to identify is not and never can be a hate crime under this legislation.” * My emphasis. For the hard of reading.

There is an absolute tsunami of misinformation at the moment in the UK media, especially in the mainstream which is, of course, majority extreme right wing, and it's important to remember that when this is aimed at Scotland, it's because according to some recent polls, there is actually a danger that the SNP could equal or even outnumber the Tories in Westminster after the next election. So the misinformation machine in Tufton Street has gone into overdrive and all its apparatchiks like Andrew Neil are frothing away at maximum speed. Always ask yourself, cui bono? Who benefits? And you can rest assured, it's not the ordinary people (who in Scotland have done increasingly better than their English counterparts since the SNP took over in 2007).

Call me naive but even I was surprised by the level of anti-Scots prejudice on here. Can I just quote Mike Small in "Bella Caledonia" today - "Embarrassingly for the narrative that’s been built-up, age, disability and transgender identity have been added along with religious grounds and sexual orientation, bringing Scotland into line with *checks notes* England which have had religion and sexual orientation as crimes down south since 2006 and 2008 respectively". So wheesht, you lot. Just wheesht.

There are many things you could do and there'll be plenty of facetious suggestions on here but if this is a serious question, sign up for a language course and learn to speak Thai properly. (And good luck in your recovery - it's a hard road, but it's worth it)

I would usually take Dr Jack's advice on all immigration matters but in this case, I humbly beg to differ. if it is not too late to get an extension, apply. It appears that Immigration are not only now operating digitally but are in the process of digitising all their records. It is very easy to write code that will pull up all overstays and flag the individuals for further investigation; if I were Immigration, I'd be doing that already and I've noticed a flurry of news reports that could indicate they are. So I'd go for the extension, smartly dressed. Explain that you've miscalculated the dates, only just realised your mistake, can't change your ticket and please can you have the extension? Quite apart from anything else, it's the truth. With a respectful, apologetic attitude , they might give you the extension - but at any rate you've shown you're an upright citizen trying to do the right thing, not another cheapskate farang trying to dodge paying an extra 800 baht.