Jeff the Chef

Tastes like chicken had a dish of some fried up a few night's ago after one of the locals caught it, know idea what it was but was ok to eat.

Looks good, have you got a link to the seller on Lazada, please.

I've found F/B Marketplace a good source of cheap used cars over here, okay if you know what you're looking at, and know a bit about cars.

When I was a kid a small Trump was a quiet fart, normally brought tears to your eyes :-}

Most of the stuff in the Green shops is hybrid of questionable potency, over priced and for the tourists. For me the home grown naturel weed I get free from the local Thai's that know I enjoy the odd joint now and again is great stuff, I just cut it up roll a fat one and then have a good nights kip. I'll admit is is not the same as I was used to in Europe, strength wise but it does the job for me, I'm 70 and a spliff with me Horlicks, is a great way to end another good day on planet earth.

Yes it has Non O written in pen by the Stay Permit stamp, on the Non-Immigration Visa stamp everything is covered by the big red stamp/seal thing, so thanks Dr Jack, that explains why we had the home visit, is there a thread somewhere on here explaining all the different visa categories and what is needed/expected from Immigration Offices, I'll bet there are many thicko's like me who get confused by it all.

OK fine.

I've no idea, just saying what happened, we did discuss the 2 options of either a Marriage Visa or Retirement, as far as I'm concerned they can do as they please , I'm only a guest of Thailand and am going with the flow.

On the 15th Feb 2023 I moved in with G/F, arrived on a 45 day on arrival visa, first thing we did was go to local Immigration office, Phitsanulok, to notify place of residence, all good, while there I also acquired a 30 day extension, which permitted me to stay till the 29th of March. On the25th March I departed Dom Mueang for Vietnam, returned the following day for another 30 day visa on arrival, no problems, I am 70 years young. Back to Phitsanulok Immigration to declare place of residence again, Where I asked what was needed for a Retirement Visa. Was given a A4 sheet of paper in English of all the requirements. I also informed the Immigration Officer that I had lost my International Driving License and would like to take the Thai driving test, for this I needed a Residence letter for the Test Centre. He said , no problem and after some discussion provide me with 2 letters saying I would need one to open a bank account as well, it cost me 2k baht. Took a week to pass the test, and I was so pleased to pass as I have no Thai, the day I passed test and received my 2 year license I thought now I'm legal to drive my car, phew, dreaded being stopped at a police check. That afternoon thinking I'm on a roll, lets try opening a Bangkok Bank account, into local branch, told them what I was after, showed them my Passport, letter from Immigration, deposited 1k baht and received a bank book. Transferred 22k from my UK bank by Swift for 914k baht on the 19th April. We went on holiday to see friends and had gone on a day trip to Myanmar from Ranong, because of another on arrival visa on our return, back to inform Immigration of the new visa, where I showed them my bank book with the funds in the officer said I would need a letter from the bank dated that day, no problem went to bank deposited another 1k baht and paid 100 baht for a letter, back to Immigration where I was told to return on the 25th May and they would issue me with a Non O with a view to retirement. May 25th back to Immigration and duly received my Non O visa, and a stamp about retirement pending in Thai and a 90 day permit to stay which is good till the 21st Aug. Now the plan is to go with the required Docs sometime in late June when the money deposited has been in my account for over 2 months to get the Retirement Visa as per their office paperwork received in English. We have also had a visit from them at home where everything was very friendly, few photo's taken and our neighbors were interview and signed some paperwork, so all's good here. Hope this helps OP

Thanks for all the replies, very informative. The one I had today was excellent, if I moaned he was a bit more gentle and was very responsive to how I was reacting. My only other experience of Thai massages was in the flesh pots of Pattaya and Bangkok which I found to be more about getting your rocks off than being like anything therapeutic, nowt wrong with that but gone are the days when Jeffers could cum for Britain. To be honest the best massage I've ever had was in Turkey, probably 20 years ago, in one of the oldest bathhouses in Fethiye, a completely different experience to a Thai massage, a 3 stage affair of steam room , olive oil soap body scrub with a soft leather mitten followed by a liberal wash down with buckets of warm water. Then a couple of beers followed by a rose oil massage, all done by men, totally non-sexual but you feel like a million dollars at the end. Takes about 3 hours to do but priceless, including a shave and hair trim it was about 8 quid. I will definitely be going back to this blind guy at least for the next couple of weeks. Again thanks for all the responses.

I'm a 70 year old Englishman, now living happily in Phisanulok out in the sticks with my 55 year old girl friend, she is a devout Buddhist and I have no religion. She is a great believer in having massages on a regular basis and I decided to give it a go out of curiosity. To be honest I was a bit skeptical at first but now after 2 different hour long sessions with 2 different ladies she has put me in the hands of a blind man, from what I can gather he is ex-military and lost most if not all of his sight. I had an hours session on Monday which was completely different to the 2 Ladies both of which have great reputations locally. I have just finished a 2 hour session which while painful in places, I now feel fantastically calm and at peace with the world, is this normal? I suppose what I would like to know is this perhaps a way to a better life and has anyone else on here have any experience of something similar or any advice they would like to share.

So that makes it OK then, it always happens and everybody excepts it. Well done to the Governor for at least trying to bring an end to it.

Would have happily stood on the balcony with Goggle translate on in Chinese on full volume saying "go on then jump you idiot"

The problem with your ongoing process is the damage has been done, Labour or the Tories have between them sowed the seeds to break up the UK, sadly IMHO. Give it another 5 years and we will be a tourist attraction, with a wonderful history of shooting ourselves in the foot.

Now, that I can agree, so what now is the alternative?

As I said previously, Tory Light, aka anything to get into power and not upset the real power in the UK, MSM and the Establishment.

OK, then try this, another good read https://novaramedia.com/2022/07/21/the-forde-report-lays-bare-the-lie-at-the-heart-of-the-medias-war-on-corbyn/

Really, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elp18OvnNV0&ab_channel=AlJazeeraEnglish

As I personally will never partake in another UK general election in my lifetime, I know I shouldn't give a toss but it still bothers me all the lies and skullduggery that went on in that time, especially since the Forde report. There was a one-time only chance to change the course of British Politics, sadly as stated previously the Establishment and the MSM alongside Starmers Labour, Tory Light Party.

Anyone who considers Keir Starmers Labour Party left-wing is clearly living in a dream world. Over 150k real Labour members left the party after Jeremy Corbyn was hounded out of the party, by the establishment, MSM and the Blairites. After the 2017 GE, At best the Labour Party is now a version of Tory light.

My experience at Phisanulok I.O. Booked an appointment the first time I went, which was for a change of residence, my partner did all the talking to be fair, signed a few forms, done and dusted in 10 minutes. I was then asked if he could do anything else for me in English to which I replied can I get an extension to my current on arrival Visa. Another look at my Passport and yes certainly, it will be 1900baht and I can do it now. All very pleasant, even had a laugh with his boss and another colleague about me trying to talk Thai. This was all back in February, since then, I've made the decision that I like it here so much that I want to stay, so made a visa run to Vietnam overnight and on return went back to same I.O. to renew the residence permit and to find out what my options were, I was then given two options of either Marriage or a Retirement Visa, the I.O. gave me a form explaining the rules for both in English. I opted for the Retirement Visa after reading on here some problems with the Marriage Visa, I also needed a Thai driving License as I had lost my International driving license somewhere on my travels, I also said about having a problem getting a Thai bank account to deposit the 800k. No problem says him and his boss, 20 minutes later I have 2 official letters for both. Took the driving test, took a week and opened a Bangkok Bank account and deposited the monies from my UK bank. Took a fortnights holiday with friends down to Bangkok, Hua Hin, Ranong and Ko Phayam, did a day trip to Myanmar where I had a small problem with a Lady I. O. on the return leg, something about a small slip that was missing but SWMBO soon put her right as the part she was after had been kept by her colleague, so got a fresh 30 days. On returning to home went back to Phisanulok I.O. to renew Residence permit and to show my bank book, mainly out of curtesy to show we were getting on with sorting things out. This was all at the beginning of May, I did have to go to the Bangkok Bank for an updated balance letter, took 20 minutes and cost 100 baht, returned to I.O. to be told to come back on the 25th May to change to a Non-Immigration "O" Visa with a view to getting the Retirement Visa, he did say before that that I might have to go to Vientiane to do this but as we were leaving he came out and stopped us to say his boss thinks he can save us the trouble of doing that, can we wait a minute certainly said I so we went out for some food and went back. Signed some more paperwork and was told to come back on the 25th May, this all happened on the 10th May 23. About a week later SWMBO had a call say Immigration wanted to visit us at home, Ok she says and along came 2 I.O.'s we hadn't met before, met them on the drive, invited them in where we had a chat and they spoke to our neighbors, Swimbo;s older sister, lovely lady but she cannot read or write, she is a big noise in the local Temple though, chatted with the older guy a lot. Had a few photos taken around the place signed some more bits of paper and generally had a few laughs, banter etc etc. The older chap smoked those slim fruit/menthal slim smokes same as my mrs so they swopped cigs, turns out he gets his from Mae Sot, 200baht cheaper than she pays so they agreed that next time we go in to Phisanulok I.O. he would get her 3 packs as he was going there soon, few more photo's and off they go, all very pleasant. Bright and early on the 25th May back to Phisanulok I.O. where I received a Non O Visa Stamp, a Retirement pending stamp and a extension of stay stamp till Aug 21st 23. So from my understanding, once the 60 days of over 800k in my bank comes round I should get my Retirement Visa, that will be after June the 18th. Just as we are leaving I said what about your cigs that the guy said he'd sort out for you after the visit, so she has a word in Thai and it turns out the older guy is a big boss, and the young girl I.O. says she'll try and get hold of him, 10 mins later in he comes with said cigs and it took 20 mins to get away but the looks on the other I.O.'s faces was priceless. It was as if we were all now all good friends, we'll see how it goes but to me it always pays to be nice with everybody.

I've heard of Chomsky and Musk and I'm sure they have their merits but to say Peter Sellers was not a funny man I can't agree with that, Bluebottle.

Brexit has failed, now who said that?

You can all faff about with Brexit till the cows come home, nothing will ever convince me it was a good idea to leave the EEC for the working man of the UK. I've held that view since it all began, the good thing for me was I was at the end of my working life and after 50 years of graft was lucky enough to get out of it while the going was good. I'm sure the usual subjects are all convinced that the sunny uplands are just around the corner in 10/20/50 years, I hope you're right for the sake of the old country but I think the arguments for and against will drag on forever, sadly.

If his lips were moving, of course he was, same as Farage