AyG

Why not consider a SIPP with pension draw down.

These guys have recommendations from financial magazines every year.

http://www.hl.co.uk/

Hargreaves-Lansdown don't accept overseas clients. (I know - I've asked.)

Is the next word, by any chance ดี? If so you are looking at สัสดี meaning "registrar".

A whole week visiting Bangkok is, in my opinion, too much.

Break things up with a couple of days' side trip to somewhere such as Ayutthaya, Kanchanaburi, Hua Hin, Nakhon Pathom, Amphawa, Sam Roi Yot, Khao Yai National Park.

Penis shrine at Nai Lert Park hotel.

Erawan museum.

Forensic museum.

It's been reported that True is going to set up an fund to sell off its network infrastructure which will IPO at a minimum value of $2.26 billion.

A curious aspect of this IPO is that at least two thirds of the IPO will go to private individuals - not institutions. Is this because it's such a dodgy investment that the big boys wouldn't touch it with a bargepole? Is True relying on brand familiarity and the gullibility of private investors to raise the cash? Am I being too cynical? And is it something you'd consider investing in?

Story at:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/thai-billionaire-plans-2-3-billion-infrastructure-fund-i-p-o/?_r=0

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9541191a-f36e-11e2-b25a-00144feabdc0.html

http://www.financeasia.com/News/351012,thailand8217s-true-plans-spin-off-of-network-assets-into-infrastructure-fund.aspx

Home made beef liver jerky. Very cheap to make, and dogs absolutely love it.

It's a centipede. Pick it up, they like that.

Sounds like you want to live in a sterile environment. Forget it. You're in the tropics an they are coming eventually.

I presume you meant this as a joke.

Centipedes come with a very painful sting. My advice is to kill on sight.

Verasu stocks Leifheit jars. Don't know the cost.

<The only way is to use a sharp razor blade and cut away the dirty silicone.

Once all is removed thoroughly dry the area and reapply with new silicone.>

Yeah I agree. I think you (/r better half) used the silicone sealant that aquaria are held together with, strong as Charles Atlas.

Razor blade/sharp knife the way to go. The stuff is virtually insoluble, inflammable, U/V undamagable.

Even hydrofluoric acid will chew up glass and metal before silicone. Good luck, AA

It's not the silicone sealant used for aquariums/baths/kitchens etc. to cover joins. It's a liquid that's used on glass so that water runs off quickly. Similar liquids are sold here to put on car windscreens so that they clear more quickly in rain, thus improving visibility.

The thought of using a razor blade to clear 4-5 sq. metres of glass is challenging to say the least.

You find those sentences memorable? I was thinking of something with more everyday vocabulary.

Rather than insulting those who try to help you, just think how naive your original request is. There are a lot of letters in the Thai alphabet that only occur in a few obscure words. Forming a sentence using all of them is inherently highly unnatural. Consider the equivalents in English:

- Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.

- Fat hag dwarves quickly zap jinx mob.

- Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz.

- Quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

If you're serious about improving your typing skills I suggest you visit http://thai-notes.com

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has just reported on the arbitrary arrest, torture and detention of LGBT individuals. Good to see that it's not only the Rohingya and pro-democracy activists that are targeted - equal police violence for all.

Report at: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-137-2013

I bought a silicone-based product to apply to the doors on my shower cubicle to stop shower scum building up on the glass. Unfortunately, my partner thought it was a cleaning product and applied it on top of the existing scum. The silicone is now doing a wonderful job of protecting the existing scum. I've tried both Mr. Muscle and a glass cleaner, but neither makes the slightest dent on the scum, even with vigorous rubbing. Does anyone have any idea how I can clean off the silicone/scum mixture? Thanks.

นายสังฆภัณฑ์ เฮงพิทักษ์ฝั่ง ผู้เฒ่าซึ่งมีอาชีพเป็นฅนขายฃวด ถูกตำรวจปฏิบัติการจับฟ้องศาล ฐานลักนาฬิกาคุณหญิงฉัตรชฎา ฌานสมาธิ

Mr.Sangkhaphant Hengpithakfang - an elderly man who earns a living by selling bottles - was arrested for prosecution by police because he stole Lady Chatchada Chansamat's watch.

AyG,

Do you pay UK tax?

I do.

Where does the money come from to run the embassy?

Overseas passport fees? Maybe a fraction.

Consular fees? A small amount.

The UK tax payer? The vast majority.

So as a UK tax payer, why should I pay for a consular official to visit you at home to notarise a copy of your passport just because you can't be bothered to get off your arse and go to the embassy?

Yes, I pay UK tax - and an amount way out of proportion to the benefits I receive for it. And over the years I've paid much more tax than the average British tax payer.

The primary function of the embassy it to promote British interests overseas and, in my opinion, it's those interests that should be paying the bulk of the running costs - arms dealers and similar international businesses.

A British passport bought in the UK costs £72.50. To apply from Thailand costs £151.01 - more than double. Hardly a "fraction" more - more than double.

And if you'd bothered to read what I've posted, my primary complaint isn't about having to go to the embassy - it's more about having to waste several hours for the officials to provide a simple service that actually takes only a few minutes. The fact that Thai lawyers can provide a much faster, more convenient service in my home simply rubs salt into the wound, showing how ludicrously overpriced and inefficient the "services" provided by the British Embassy are.

@AyG

When I needed a notarised copy of my passport last month for a different purpose I arranged for a lawyer to visit me at my home for almost exactly the same price as the embassy charges. Why couldn't the embassy offer a similar service in the Bangkok area? It would avoid customers having to travel into Bangkok and hang around for hour.

If you're happy to pay the THB 6,240 callout fee per hour on top of the other fee why not give them a ring?

That's rather missing the point. A legal company can provide an at home, convenient, fast and efficient service for the same price as the British Embassy charges for an inconvenient, slow, inefficient service. Why can't the British Embassy provide the same level of customer service at the same price?

(I'd also add that as non-UK residents we pay a vastly higher cost for passport renewal than UK residents. The higher cost is justified by the fact that we are alleged to require a higher level of consular assistance. In other words, we are already paying to subsidise the embassy. Logically, the costs of services provided to us by the embassy should be cheaper than those provided by a non-government legal firm.)

Take your passport to a lawyer to be notarised; how many other documents does he have to notarise that day? Very few, if any, I suspect. So he can do it then and there.

Take it to the embassy, they'll have a lot more to do that day. So collecting them in the morning and asking people to come back in the afternoon strikes me as a lot more sensible than making people hang around in the embassy while each person is dealt with one by one.

If the embassy actually cared about providing a decent service they could arrange an appointment system.

At the very least they could organise things on a production line basis, rather than batching up all the paper stamping work to be done between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m..

Actually, they could do even better than that. When I needed a notarised copy of my passport last month for a different purpose I arranged for a lawyer to visit me at my home for almost exactly the same price as the embassy charges. Why couldn't the embassy offer a similar service in the Bangkok area? It would avoid customers having to travel into Bangkok and hang around for hour.

In theory a Thai will could cover your assets worldwide. However, it may be more open to challenge than one from your home country. Safest thing to do is to have two wills, one covering your Thai assets, the other covering other assets. Just one thing to watch out for is that wording such as "I hereby remove all former wills and testaments" can be taken to revoke all other wills, including the one for the other country, so you need to word around this.

Sorry, OP, I think you're delusional. It takes native speakers 10 years to get from ป.2 to ม.6 - and they are speaking, reading and writing only their language. You think you can do the same in a couple of years? It's a hopeless daydream.

OP, if you're at ป.2 level, I would suggest that the Chula option isn't for you because, as far as I know, you can't readily repeat levels. One of the Union method-based places would be better since you can easily repeat levels as required. (To qualify that, in my experience, only levels 1-6, social problems and newspapers 1 & 2 are run regularly. Other advanced modules aren't available every term.)

You'll then need Chula, or something similar, to get you ready for university-level study. Realistically speaking, even if you're a very diligent student, you're several years away from that level.

I think the OP first needs to get a better assessment of his current level of ability. Based upon what he's written, I rather doubt it genuinely is ม.2. At that level one would be able to read a newspaper fluently, not "not so quickly". One way to do that would be the Chula test. However, probably easier is to approach one of the Union-method-based schools (Union, Unity, Piamitr and one or two others). They'll initially assess your level and then put you in a class suitable for that level. See how you get on. If you're placed above level 6 then discuss the possibility of doing the government test. I believe all these schools run a test preparation course which is well worth doing - there's quite a lot of very specific knowledge required for the test.

Realistically, if you're much above ป.6 these schools aren't going to be of enormous help to you. (You'll be held back by other students in the class.) Chula would be the only way to go in my opinion.

I would, however, question one of the OP's assertions about gaining a qualification in Thai: "a lot of recognition for having learnt it in Thai." Who's going to give the recognition? It's not going to help much with any employer in Thailand given that for any position there will be Thai people who will be equally qualified and not have all the added complications of hiring a foreigner, will probably work for less pay, and will be more culturally attuned to Thai ways.

I thought you could only get a residence certificate if you're doing 90 day reporting, which you wouldn't do on a tourist visa.

Will probably need to get a certificate from your country's nearest consulate or embassy.

Just one problem with this story: there are no mongooses in Thailand. They're only found in Africa, south Asia and southern Europe.

So what was it really?

I suspect that bank branches inside shopping malls will be open for business as usual on both days.

To answer my own questions:

(1) Yes. In fact, you're expected to pick it up the same day.

(2) No need for your own photocopy. Even if you bring one, the embassy makes its own.

(3) No, they won't EMS the document to you.

(4) Yes, the ludicrous restriction on mobile 'phones is still in force.

What annoys me most about the whole process is that if I got a document notarised by, say, a local lawyer, it would take at most 5 minutes. The British Embassy drags it out for hours because you have to submit in the morning (last service 11 a.m.) and can't pick up the copy until after 2 p.m.. In my case I left home at 7:30 in the morning and got back home a little before 4 p.m. - more than 8 hours of my time wasted, and I live in the outskirts of Bangkok. For people living in further afield provinces they're going to have to spend the night before in Bangkok. The FCO absolutely no concern whatsoever for the impact its ludicrously user un-friendly procedures have upon those of use forced to submit to them. (Why, for example, is there no service on weekends and holidays? Why in this day and age should a working person have to take a whole day - or longer - off work just to get a stamped photocopy from the Embassy? It's heartless and insensitive.)