Drumbuie

The clue is in the word "retirement". If you've worked your whole life, the chance to get up without an alarm going off, to read without interruptions, to write (I thoroughly recommend getting your life story down 'on paper' as part of your spiritual 'death-cleaning'), to go to the cinema/theatre/concerts/art galleries, to make and meet up with friends, to learn new skills (have you tried an art class?), to explore at leisure, to wander occasionally with no purpose other than looking around at life, to sit down and appreciate a beautiful view without looking at one's phone/watch to check the time.... it's wonderful. Seriously, perhaps if you didn't want to stop working, you shouldn't have applied for a retirement visa?

I'm a woman, and a mother, so perhaps I pay more attention to the statistics regarding attacks on women by men than some. Taking the UK as an example, there are over 40,000 sexual assaults of women recorded every year. That's the ones that are reported. The vast majority of women don't report them because the process of reporting them is almost worse than the assault and the chances of prosecution are only 1.3% - the chances of a conviction are even smaller. "She was asking for it" being a very common reaction - and one I'm sure a lot of you are already saying. [Trust me, guys, no women is EVER asking to be assaulted, despite what films might show you - films made, in many cases, by men who've assaulted a lot of women in the course of their careers]. Nearly a million women in the UK reported domestic violence every year. Again, the percentage of women who report this is tiny. Then there's stalking and harassment (some of which leads on to murder, though most women are murdered by their partner - and most children are murdered by someone known to them). I can't be bothered to check the US stats but because guns are involved it's not hard to imagine the stats per head of population are even worse. Now, imagine you're in the UK/USA and read about an immigrant assaulting a British/American woman - how would you feel? And how would you feel towards all "immigrants"? Think about it.

It's been creeping up since COVID and Ukraine. Cost me £1100 basic ( I paid more on top of that for extra legroom) return to UK last May/June (KLM via Schiphol to avoid the hell of LHR,). Some of my family are flying over in July, going back August and it's around £1200 each return (Qatar Airways). Student friends flew out last month on Air China via Beijing (don't ever do this, folks) to get the cost below £1,000 each. No more cheap longhaul flights, I fear.

Switzerland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe, (and one of the lowest rates of accidental shootings due to its strict gun control laws). However gun ownership combined with poor anger management control and entitled attitude? - probably a good thing he's going to be deorted.

For future reference, you might find Indigo Car Hire useful. I didn't think they covered Oz, but apparently they do https://indigocarhire.co.uk/faq/car-hire-with-a-debit-card-in-australia/

Yes. Thai people think of us all as "farangs" . Every grumpy old guy who behaves in this kind of arrogant over entitled way reflects badly on *all* of us. This is not our country. At best, we're guests. At worst, we're ' economic migrants'. Sometimes I get the impression that not a few folk on here have forgotten that.

I didn't submit a hand drawn map; I searched my address in Google maps, printed out a page with that pin centred and hand drew a line to it, entering the address on the margin. I labelled the nearest main road and major khlong, too. I also printed out a map on a larger scale showing more of Bangkok with the same pin in. CW were perfectly happy with that. I signed all the documents I submitted, and the additional personal guarantee and acknowledgement of terms & conditions forms they give you, in front of the officer.

In the last year or so, that seems to be exactly what the IB has been working towards, digitising past records and integrating them into their new databases. Anyone relying on the fact that old paper records of entries into and exits from Thailand through different border crossing points are difficult to crosscheck should, perhaps, be worried.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thais_in_the_United_Kingdom So of course the first thing I wondered was how many Thais in UK? Seems to be a bit of znan asymmetric relationship, for some reason...😊

The photo shows the young murder victim.

My first visit to SEAsia was for a couple of months (working) when I was in my early 20s. By the time I went home I'd acclimatised and preferred to sleep with no AC, just a fan. Now I'm (a lot) older, I use the AC to cool the bedroom down for half an hour or so (even then, it's only set to 26C), then turn it off and sleep under a lightweight duvet with the fan on. I wish I had ceilings high enough for a ceiling fan, though, they're the best.

I've used Grab in Thailand ( mostly Bangkok) and Vietnam, Bolt in Thailand and UK. Never had any problems with the drivers anywhere; the only problems stem from the traffic and they can't do much about that. I've also used a local driver who advertised on the Facebook group for our mu baan, offering anything from a normal taxi ride to a full guided tour of the city. They've been excellent. Drove two young guests to Pattaya* for 1300 baht. * Big culture shock for them - first trip outside Europe 😄

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....?"