Felton Jarvis

My life was only made “hard” by very low pay. I was very late in getting a college degree, took me ten years working full time and I finally got a degree in my forties. I went ahead and got a Master’s Degree because I thought I might want to teach. I didn’t make decent money until the final 11 years of my working life when I worked for a public radio station, owned by a university. This actually funded my retirement. I had a sociopath boss for the final six years, who forced me to retire a year early. I bought my ticket to Thailand and was living here within a month after my 65th birthday. Many regrets, but it’s all water under the bridge. I certainly managed to avoid hard labor and marriage.

I could have predicted how this would end. The law is deadly serious about threatening the President and law enforcement.

I have not been inside a bar in three years and this is part of the reason why. Thai people can KILL you and there will be no charges filed, regardless of the circumstances. I pick up my booze at the 7-11 and take it home.

No wives, no children, no hope. My last eleven years in the work force were with a radio station owned by a university. I got state pension and an annuity on top of my Social Security at age 65. I was forced to retire by a pack of jackals that ran the most toxic work environment that I had experienced in 40 years of work. Once I agreed to retire a year early, I bought my ticket to Thailand and was gone a month after my 65th birthday. Came here determined to avoid bargirls but the gainfully employed women I was involved with, were little better than the prostitutes. When the pandemic hit, I took in a woman who had lost her job in Sriracha and three years later, we are still together. She doesn’t ask for much and seems happy to have a nice apartment to sleep in. I am 73, she is 46. It seems to work, for now.

How is the air conditioning over there in the “Ignore Zone”?

I have no intention of throwing my life away by marrying a bar girl. Ladies with regular jobs are enough of a challenge. I have found them just as duplicitous as those in the bar. All of the women I dated had straight jobs. All were very dedicated to getting their hands on my money. Only one never asked me for anything. She ran off with a Thai man. My current live-in lady asks very little and is happy to have a roof over her head.

You are required to report a new address within 24 hours, along with a TM30 report. You don’t wait 90 days unless you want to pay a fine. I agree about the reports being an easy way to generate more cash through fines. The reports don’t cost anything, but they must rack up quite a haul from fines which are assessed when reports are late. Got to keep the staff busy.

I generally go a couple of days early. Congratulations on your good memory. Some of us are not so fortunate. After brain surgery, I have memory lapses that can be very inconvenient if I don’t have a “crutch” such as phone alarms. I check the slip in my passport on a regular basis, but it’s still hard to remember the exact date I need to report.

90-Day reports are actually a “make-work” project for the artificially inflated workforce at Immigration. They don’t want them sitting idle, so they require these reports to keep them busy. Sometimes, things are less about racism than we imagine.

I don’t want to live in any place that requires a bank deposit for residency. You can currently live for three years in the Phil on a tourist visa before you have to leave and do a visa run. Not a big deal, I just wish they had a straight option for a certain income figure to live there. I do like the fact that you can get residency if you marry a local lady. This is something Thailand should copy but never will.

I set alarms on my phone and my PC to be sure that I don’t miss my report date.

Didn’t Big Joke have his vehicle shot up several years back? Apparently no lesson learned.

I never had anything in my youth that was remotely similar to Thailand. If the best I could do was relive my twenties, I would just as soon stay in the USA.

I’m American, but this kind of thing infuriates me. A pension is a gentleman’s agreement between the government and British subjects and should be honoured.

Cambodia and the Philippines must be writing some hefty checks to Big Joke, since they are the beneficiaries of any “adjustments” to the income requirements. With my next Social Security increase, I will be receiving 100 thousand Thai baht a month, but I will never deposit a dollar of that amount into my Thai bank account. Cambodia is far cheaper and doesn’t constantly tinker with the rules or require 90-day reports. I will be heading there if Thai I-O pushes me just a little bit. Let them eat millionaires.

Now that I am retired, I tend to smile much more. Work in the USA was Hell.

I am a low IQ human of only 132. I could never parse algebra, but somehow, I figured out that religion was garbage by age 15. Catholic mother, and father who did not attend church. Dad was my mentor. Broken homes and average IQ scores can yield some interesting results.

Many of us are in the same boat. Squat toilets are a near impossibility for me.

I only have trouble understanding Geordies. Even the Scots are fairly intelligible compared to folks from Newcastle.

An age gap of about thirty years would be ideal. I don’t want to sleep with someone who looks like me in a wig. My current girlfriend is 46, I am 73.

Fortunately, the UK is a CIVILIZED country. No need to apologise for compassion.

Imagine HELL,…. then multiply it by ten.

My experience has always been that I would have to spend the equivalent of my two months of deposits, in order to leave the condo in the state which the landlord desired. In other words, I got NOTHING.

One thing that I have learned to accept while living in Thailand is that in any business dealings with a Thai person…….YOU LOSE!!!! It’s not right, it’s not foir, but this is Thailand. What would you possibly expect??? Put it behind you and move on. Don’t give the landlord a reason to call the police.

It’s obvious that the OP transferred the 800 K into a joint account.