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If it wasn't for Netflix I wouldn't have seen 'Breaking Bad', arguably the best tv series made in decades. A more up-to-date series that I've found worth watching is 'Designated Survivor'.

Just a bump to this thread, in the light of this article:- Tax change for expats living in Thailand - Thai Examiner Tony M's questions in the OP, which have been ignored by the Consulate, seem to be even more pertinent, and it would be nice to have some confirmation that our representatives understand the potential implications for us expats and are prepared to do something about it.

They don't burn Catholics any more, even in effigy, thank goodness. I was amused to see a report that a village in Kent is this year burning an effigy of Sadiq Khan, the much-despised London Mayor, because of his punitive taxation of motorists.

Try a government hospital. I enquired about a booster at the Bangkok Rayong Hospital early this year, but was told that they and most private hospitals aren't bothering because there's no market for them - the Thais know they can get them for free at government hospitals. I subsequently went to our local place and was given one for free - no bother. If you have paperwork and a "Thai id number" from a previous vaccination that will help the process..

I'm not sure this is still the case. Please see my post on the previous page dated October 20.

Yes, but I don't recall seeing such as 'To meet overseas Visa requirements' as suggested above. The options I have ticked are either "Pension payment" or "Living expenses" - but I don't rely on income transfers for my retirement extensions.

I've just renewed my car insurance (Bangkok Insurance PLC via a broker) and the documents include as usual a "Knock for Knock" form, the supposed benefit being that if both parties exchange these they can then separate without having to wait for a surveyor. I believe it's a common practice in the UK, although I never had to use it there. I just wondered if it is a concept which actually works in Thailand? Anybody ever had call to try it?

Any generation IMHO. Just about the only thing I don't like about my DMAX (coming up 14 years old) is the crap turning circle. Whilst not suffering the steering issues mentioned here, I find I have to keep an eye on the front tyre wear, as the nearside seems to lose tread quicker, probably because of constant U-turns.

There is no office in Banchang, the nearest is on the Maptaphut Industrial Estate. It does get crowded sometimes, and you can get held up by agents presenting bulk applications on behalf of company staff. I prefer to go there in the afternoon, but a retirement extension is dealt with on the spot, there's no "come back tomorrow".

Yes, you're right, I hadn't tried to use it and when I did I got the same message. If I was really bothered I might attempt the impossible/ridiculous by going to Kasikorn and trying to persuade them to verify my Covid registration number, but I don't need the aggravation. I would like to have Paypal as an option, but I have managed without it since the end of last year.

There are members who can give you much more detailed answers to your questions, I can only pass on my experience of the system I installed at the beginning of 2020. This is a "basic" 3kw grid-linked system, which I paid a local company 120k Baht to install. They did all the applications to PEA. I was advised that PEA would charge an extra 9k baht to license it for supply to the grid, it is set up as "no export". Over a 12-month period once some teething problems had been sorted out, I took readings at 9am and 5pm every day over 12 months of the PEA meter and the inverter app. The average meter consumption was around 2kwh, and the solar supplied 10.5kwh. Based on the last 3 months of app readings I reckoned that the panels were giving an extra 1.5+Kwh outside the 8-hour 9-5 period. We don't use much aircon during the day, so the main component of our electric bill is aircon in the bedrooms at night. Obviously there are periods when the solar production "goes to waste". I have a vague plan about changing to an EV to soak up some of that surplus, I'm not sure whether the expense of a battery would be worth it. The payback estimate quoted by the installation company was (from memory) 7 years, I think it will be at least 10 years. One thing that hacks me off is that although the system is "no export", it still gets cut off if the grid goes down, although that isn't too often.

Well well! - after being booted off Paypal at the end of last year because I'm not a Thai citizen, I'm registered again, same method, and linked to my UK credit card. Thanks very much.

And as Ken Dodd once said, Percy Shaw made his brilliant invention after seeing cat's eyes in the dark. If the cat had been walking the other way, he'd have invented the pencil sharpener.

This is such good news. I need a refill for the lawnmower.

I would leave it be, mate. The EVangelists know that they're right and you're going to hell.

Playing devil's advocate, I don't see why the OP can't do what he's proposing. The copy of the TM7 that I have on file says "I wish to apply for an extension of temporary stay in the Kingdom for another period of...........days" Why can't he put 30 in there? I always think it's a bit strange that I have to state 365 days rather than 1 year. I would apply for 30 and if they don't like it he can do a border run.

When you apply there is a minimum number of days spent outside the country in the previous 3 or 5 years to qualify, and you make a declaration that it is your intention to live permanently in the UK, but they can't really enforce that.

Apply for citizenship if you have indefinite leave to remain or 'settled status': After you’ve applied - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) On that page it says that you'll usually get a decision within 6 months. When my wife applied many years ago (on the basis of long residence, it was before she married me) the application got shunted into a siding for some reason and it took several enquiries over a year and a complaint to get some movement. We never found out what the problem was. I'm sure that was an exception rather than the rule.

That's a common feeling in many of my dreams - I've gone somewhere, by car or on the bus, don't find what I went to see/do and then can't find the way back. A variation is desperation to check in or board a flight. I get lost in a maze of corridors, go through a door and find myself out in the street or in a field.

I guess you're aware of TeatimeTV: TeatimeTV - UK TV for expats, worldwide This shows a lot of the free-to air channels in the UK and allows catch-up of more than a week. However the coverage is mostly highlights such as Match of the Day on BBC, but some European and International games are shown in full, so you can go to the previous day to watch them. I've almost given up on footy now. The Premier League is an over-hyped utter circus.

HMRC assume that you get the annual increases in the State Retirement Pension even if the DWP know that you are living in Thailand and don't pay the increases. You have to check your tax assessment carefully every year. There was a thread about this not so long ago, a few people discovered that they had been overpaying tax for years. Joined-up government it isn't.

How do you interpret this? - "Self Assessment goes digital from April 2026. All landlords and self-employed people earning above £50,000 will need to have compatible software in place by this date." Is it only those earning 50K+ p.a., whether landlords or self-employed, or all landlords together with only those self-employed earning over 50K? I think it could have been worded better. Either way it won't bother me. Like you I am an "accidental landlord" having rented out the house I used to live in. Over 14 years it's worked out ok, and the accumulated income (which I've never spent) is my health insurance here. But a combination of increasingly restrictive legislation against landlords and a desire to save my beneficiaries the bother of getting rid of it when I pop off in a year or two have caused the decision to sell the place when the tenants leave next year. I have an instant access account paying 4.5% at the moment so I stand to make just as much from the proceeds as I do from rent after the agents and their rapacious maintenance contractors have taken their slice.

Thank goodness that by this time next year I will no longer be a landlord.

This is very strange. When my wife renewed her UK passport in 2017, it was most definitely a requirement that all passports held by the applicant must be submitted, and the names in the passports must be the same. At the time her UK passport showed, same as your wife's, our married name. Ignoring the instruction in the guidance notes that the foreign passport name should be changed to the UK one, we changed her UK name by deedpoll to her Thai family name to match the Thai passport, and submitted that with the application. It went through, no bother. I posted on Thaivisa about this at the time. However, when I accessed the online instructions for an application from Thailand to support my previous statement, neither the application form nor the guidance notes make any mention of a requirement for matching names, although both passports (or copies thereof in our case) must be submitted. See this link:- Overseas British passport applications – Apply for a passport – GOV.UK It looks as though the matching names requirement has been dropped, so I withdraw my previous statement. The OP may be reassured by the advice on that same page that renewal passports are now supplied within 4 weeks.

Make an appointment to go there. Download the form and complete it before you go. Copy of every page of your passport to be submitted with the form, your passport is handed back to you, return with it when notified that the replacement is available for collection. P.S. If your wife is dual national, copies of both passports must be declared and submitted, name in passports must be the same.