gerryBScot

I think one of the things you need to get your head around is the British Embassy won't be too interested in whether this is your friend's favourite aunt etc. I am no expert in these matters but your friend will probably need demonstrate in some way that she has had regular contact with your aunt, copies of emails, letters,recent photos together and add them to a dossier with letters confirming employment in Thailand and job on return and everything else. The evidence you provide will either do the persuading for her or not. Good luck

My then girl friend, now wife, got a tourist visa to visit me last year when I was still living in the UK. She's a filipina, works and lives in Thailand and applied to the Brit Embassy in BKK. I provided sponsor's details in the format required by the embassy ie I had the resources and accommodation. I was self employed and provided an uncertified statement of income & expenditure together with bank statements; I shared a flat with a mate so provided a letter from the landlord and my flat mate saying they were happy for my gf to stay in the flat and that it was big enough. My wife is completely legit, she has a job a work permit and she can document everything so she provided copies of all this together with the school providing a letter saying she had a job to return to. I think this is important .... they want some tangible evidence that a person has a reason to return, and that usually means an economic reason. In addition we could evidence our relationship for the previous four years including my stamps in and out of Thailand and trips together to the Philippines, emails, photographs etc......... in the end we actually submitted a dossier but it worked. She got the visa.

Great to hear you are stilll knocking out the days LIE. You will grow to feel more comfortable in your skin, in time, gradually, bit by bit,and perhaps in ways you don't really expect or could never predict. You have a world of amazing opportunities ahead of you and you can seize them with both hands....something you could never do when you had a bottle in your hand. Keep going strong. God bless you

Yeah I have a copy of the book. Could I take that to the land transport office and try? Many thanks

Hey we stayed at the Aspen Suites but the cheap rooms had gone so we paid 2,099 for a bigger room. It was a really nice, cheerful pleasant place. I'd happily recommend it to people. Thanks for the tip

Thanks the car is newish so no problem with this. Will be insured before I drive it. However do you know if driving it without it being taxed would invalidate the insurance? and if the BIBs pull me is it the usual shakedown or what? Many thanks

I bought a car at an auction Saturday and the tax has expired. I am not going to get the blue book for about two weeks but planning to collect the car tomorrow. is there anything I can do to sort out the tax or can I only do it when I have the car? Many thanks as always for your assistance. GB

Living in Exile hope you are well! Be good to hear your news. Stopping drinking doesn't mean your problems go away! Take it easy and stay strong it is definitely worth it.

With the pregnancy, your main consideration will be transport and movement, both of which are or perhaps should be limited. I'm also presuming that you will be using public transport.

I often use the Aspen on Suk Soi 2 which you can book here http://www.aspenbangkok.com/ currently at Bt1799 including breakfast which is quite good. Some way down Soi 2 I admit but taxis are always outside, though perhaps sometimes wanting an agreed fare they will usually go for the meter. You're not going to walk to any hotel from a Sky Train with your missus so the distance is not important. Great hotel, good room service and easy access to everywhere in that region. Top TV / DVD entertainment as well. About 18 months old I think.

If that doesn't suit, post up your budget so we have some idea of where to look or recommend.

Thx looks good will be driving in good to see it has a car park.

We are coming into Bangkok for the weekend and looking for a decent hotel for a couple of nights preferably with lifts as the missus is extremely pregnant. I am sure there are many good deals to be had in these difficult times. Sukhumwit/Ploen Chit area preferred. Any suggestions and recommendations welcome. Many thanks

What a great thread and what a great poem Rick many thanks! I am a Glaswegian married to a filipina, both of us living and working as teachers in Thailand. My impression is that the filipinos are usually well qualified both in terms of first degree and professional teaching formation; most have a PGCE equivalent. However there is a huge disparity in terms of their spoken and written ability, from native speaker level to sub-good learner. Some of the filipinos must feel very resentful because they are undoubtedly better qualified, more experienced as well as being first class teachers, ( I am not saying this because my heavily pregnant wife has a gun to my head!) and earn significantly less than some of the thrill seeker native speaker types who are passing through. Maybe everyone who teaches should be required to provide some sort of IELTS rating. From what I understand this is what incoming teachers to the UK are required to do if they wish to use their qualifications to teach there. Hey just as well this is a written forum or nobody would understand my staccato machine gun rattle of a Glasgow accent.....as we say, you can take a man out of a tenement but you cannae tak the tenement oot ae a maun!

I am new to teaching and new to teaching in Thailand and I am quite surprised by some of the posting here, but at the same time I can already understand some of the issues. First up I don't even want to be in the toilet at the same time as students, I feel really uncomfortable and don't think it is right. However we do not have teacher designated facilities in our school so inevitably it happens. So following on from this I am not giving students my phone number or email address or anything. Common sense tells me it is inappropriate and most of all I really don't want to be interrupted when me and her are at home looking lovingly into each other's eyes! Secondly I am doing some 121 teaching with a student at her home, parents present. Now her parents have offered me the use of a car, free! I politely declined this. I really felt it would have been inappropriate for me to accept. However for the parents I recognise they were just trying to assist, to be helpful, to show jai dee. This is the joy of being here..... these moments when people are so kind and helpful and well meaning, wanting to smooth the way for you. Yeah a potential minefield of issues, lots of scope to blur boundaries, but I respectfully submit a bit of common sense needs to be used. Like tread very carefully.

I think you need to be very careful.

You are being asked by a Director for advice on what to do. Presumably the advice has to be the Director should thoroughly investigate the complaint. In order to do that the Director needs precise details of the complaint received by the MOE. The investigation should concern itself solely with the merits and demerits of the current complaint; the teacher should be invited to contribute to the process as should the original complainant.

Only after that process is over should any action be contemplated. The investigation should also consider any advice or guidance issued previously to the teacher and whether the teacher has complied with it. In general the investigation should consider facts as opposed to hearsay, gossip and what people feel about the individual. It seems to me to be entirely irrelevant that the individual has experienced relationship difficulties in the past. Tell me a human being that hasn’t?! Likewise seems irrelevant to the current investgation that he has been transferred before.

It may also be that after an investigation has been concluded that some general advice about professional conduct should be issued to all.

Living in Exile well done keep doing the days. Sure plenty of shi_t to deal with but the thing is sober you can deal with it and make tough decisions. My sp!onsor used to say it continuously gets better. My experience is he was right. The best is yet to come! Take it easy but make sure you take it!

Anywhere in the world is a bad place to be if you are a drunk, even in countries where alcohol is illegal or controlled. The problem for drunks is as much a mental one as it is anything else, meaning it is not just about physical consumption. Are you having a good time when you drink? Obviously not. How is your drinking affecting those around you? Are you available for your children and wife? Can you stop on your own? When you stop and then start again, does it get any better? When you stop do you use the time productively? You need to answer these questions honestly. I readily identify with your apathy and listlessness, I have to deal with this even five years after my last drink. You do not monopolise procrastination There are days I just wanna get under the duvet and hide from the world and people. I went to AA, it has worked well for me. I don't know where your nearest meeting is in Korat, I suspect there is one there so maybe you should drop in or make a phonecall. Sounds as if you would have much in common with AA members! Contact me if you need web site and numbers.

Well done LivinginExile keep knocking the days out and shout the numbers out loud. It is truly remarkable that you stayed sober for 1 day and now you have put the days together to make a month.....30 consecutive miracles. That's what we are....walking miracles, everyone of us that goes 24 hours without a drink. Good on you son keep working the miracles!!!!!

PS I haven't been told I need to take a Thai culture thingy and my health check did not involve a syphilis test

I have just completed my first three weeks' teaching here in Thailand. I had the qualifications, a degree and a TESOL certificate. I had a strong connection with a private school where I live. I was completely open about my lack of classroom teaching experience. The school allowed me to sit in on a few lessons and even allowed me to participate. They came back and said they had an opening for me in May this year. My degree is in history & philosophy. I am teaching Gr 5 & 6 (primary) Science & Mathematics. I have a teacher's license, I have a work permit and my visa has just been extended for a year subject to 90 day reporting....this can be done by mail and the school took the form and told me they would take care of it. I get a sense that if the school wants you then everything else will follow....the school did all my paperwork for me, they have an established relationship with the Teachers Licensing Authority, the Work Permit people and the Immigration. Looking back it couldn't have been easier although I was fairly anxious throughout the whole process.

The School of Oriental & African Studies SOAS part of London University Bloomsbury area often runs short term crammer and very expensive type courses. try their web page www.soas.ac.uk but whether they have one between now and your visit is another matter

Nice one living in exile. my old sponsor used to say to me when I would ask him about the God stuff : the only thing you need to know about God is that you are not it! I remember as a 20 year old picking up a Big Book and reading some of it. All I can remember is Step 4 and my reaction to it.........bollo*. I drank for another 25 years before going to my first meeting. There are those that say you only need to do Step One to get sober, but if you do Step One you'll probably be ready to do Step Two anyhow. keep going strong and remember our problem is the first drink. That's the one that kills us. if we don't have it we can't get drunk. so simple but so difficult

They don't want anything other than the forms signed for a non-o; for non-b they want a letter from employer. I got my original non-o on basis of visiting friends,nothing else needed than the internet docs completed and signed.

So glad to hear you are knocking out the days Living in Exile. Keep going strong! On one occasion I witnessed two long term sober people having a fist fight at meetings over the GOD question ....only problem was there were three new comers at the meeting. We don't always project ourselves particularily well but hey I am still sober! That is good enough for me. Interesting that the OP has gone quiet, possibly scared off. Keep going strong.

FYI I applied to Hull consulate in the UK for my non-b and was freaked about getting it cos the paperwork provided by the school was awful.....about 4 different spellings of my name, an unbelievable mess. It was processed in 24 hours! So I believe if your institution provides a letter saying you have been accepted then you stand a good chance of getting it and I think Ubonjoe's advice about multiple entries is good.

One of the amazing things about AA is that if you say you are in then you are in, that is if you say you are an alcoholic you are an alcoholic. There is no membership vetting, no committee, no sobriety police, the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. You do not have to prove you are an alcoholic! I would support some of the previous poster's comments, specifically you should come back and get round the various meetings to see what is on offer. Clearly this is might be a problem if you are in the middle of nowhere. See if you can find a meeting that you like, and if you hear some one tell your story or some one that you can readily identify with then maybe approach that person and have a chat. The God/higher power thing troubles a lot of members, including some of the folks with big years. AA literature suggests you remain open minded about this especially in the early days. I hadn't had a drink for 5 weeks when I was going out the house one lunch time for a drink a few years ago convinced I couldn't be an alcoholic and I phoned the local help line and ended up in a meeting instead and haven't had a drink for just over 5 years. I drank like you, stop start....... but not any more and I know this is because I went to AA and still go. Good luck

ubonjoe will they issue a non-b without a job offer letter etc?