Trickcyclist

NEVER put valuables in checked luggage.

Get yourself a good strong Samsonite and lock it.

Never expect anything from RyanAir or any budget airline if things go pear shaped.

KLM?! They take the census over there by throwing a Euro in the street!!

don't ask!!

have a female golden about a month old, if interested.

could be ordering from Thailand with UK card address..

try putting your uk home address for card and Thai adress for shipping

can't understand all this.

My girl friend and I sat down in front of a guy in an office and walked out 4 minutes later, married.

No agencies, No serious money that I can remember, except at The Oriental for champagne, which was optional.

I have UBC..lots of channels that I don't want, but I do get EPL and TCM, MGM and a few more movie channels..its the top package, but I STILL CAN'T GET RUGBY; 6 NATIONS, HEINEKEN CUP, TRI NATIONS, LIONS ETC ETC.

saw a few Internet TV channels offering rugby over the net, but was loath to give credit card details to a bunch of cowboys for mickey mouse reception..

WHERE CAN I get a reliable RUGBY???

what are the chances of that happening?

its not life that matters, its the quality of life, human and animal.

had a lab that had sudden brain tumour and he was panicking etc etc..

Vet advised to him go.

After 14/15 years it was a wrench.

However, why keep him alive on a ventilator etc.?

Vet gave him a shot and I stayed with him until he stopped breathing.

Hope it will be as easy for me and my human connections-it hasn't been for some..

Went to the vets with my dog and came home with a leash.

Its part of life's cycle of events and the price you pay for having the fun and joy that animals bring.

What would we do without them?!

He taught me a lot, especially to turn around three time before sitting down!

Carpe diem!

This is a heart breaking problem.

If your friend was suffering, you would make the decision I think to free her from that.

However you say she is in pretty good health. Her back legs are a concern, why don't you make her a small cart, I saw a dog in Scotland who had lost use of the back legs completely, the owner had made a cart with 2 wheels, this was strapped around her middle and the 2 wheels worked in place of the legs. She was an old dog, but still went out for walks everyday and she was happy, the leg thing didn't seem to bother her al all.

Euro is too strong, even now, to get Europe going again. Another fall would be welcome.

Try link below:

http://www.thailand.com/exports/index.php

If it doesent work register with Google for Google Alerts using a selection of desired key words: EG 'Thai companies with overseas base.s'. etc etc.

Google will send alerts with websites to your email address, hopefully with the info you want.

If you know this already, apologies.

good luck

hope they catch them, lock 'em up and throw away the key, i.e. if some other people don't find them first..

Hats-off for bravery to Khun Pairort and hope he makes a complete recovery.

try dasa book cafe..they will deliver, although they are second hand mainly..

water supply is an under rated problem even in the tropics and its been an unusually dry winter here and the rain fall last summer seemed a lot less than in previous years.

It should be mandatory that all non sewage water i.e. from bath, kitchen etc., be diverted into storage tanks for garden/external use and rainwater tanks be installed in every new house to augment government supply. EG Many houses in Belgium have an underground rainwater storage tank.Can you imagine a long period of water shortages here?

you'll make money on individual stocks if you are fast on your feet and know what you are buying..

opportunities in battery development at present .. lithium ion and related and selected electric automotive..

he is probably right about passive investment in mainstream stocks.

Look around for non correlated investments that have an element of capital protection, those that avoid the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse: mainstream stocks, bonds and property

you don't have to be a genius to predict downturns across the board, its pin pointing the precise time is the trick.

He could be wrong about China, other gurus are expecting China stocks to go through the roof and have said that China is at the stage that the US was at in the 1890.s.

The problem is will America drag every other economy down if/when the current repair package aborts or, will China, India and the rest of the East drag the West out its slumber?

It seems that its business as usual for the big US institutions and the fat cats running them who created the recent economic problems and Obama seems to have let them off the hook,

Who IS running the show over there?

events considered strange in Kew

are everyday things in Katmandu

I live in the same neighborhood and was having dinner last night with one of the policemen who were at the scene. I heard the same details from him - young Thai in a car pulls up next to him and shoots him at a red light while on his motorcycle - all I can add was that Mr. Schuller was 43.

As safe as we may feel here, ex-pats should keep in mind that Thailand has the 3rd highest firearm homicide rate in the world behind South Africa and Columbia, and has a firearm homicide rate ten times higher than that of the US.

My condolences to Mr. Schuller's family.

Out of curiosity, where did you derive those figures from?

-Mestizo

Mestizo,

The figures come from a UNODC study - A Google search for "List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate" should bring it up.

I have a suspicion (that you might be able to confirm) that your numbers come from here: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_...s-with-firearms

In that case, I feel compelled to point out an oddity. According to that table, there were 20,032 murders by firearms in Thailand according to a UN report from 2002. According to another table on the same site ( http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur-crime-murders ) there were however "only" 5,140 total murders in Thailand in the same period. I don't know whether this should be interpreted as each victim having been shot with four bullets or in some other way

/ Priceless

we use large containers for cooking and boil it for tea.

and use the small bottles for for drinking water

have ordered a water distiller

Be Warned:-

UK IHT is governed by the domicile rules and not residency for tax purposes. Therefore use the IHT allowances, get rid of assets and cover the rest with insurance in trust, if affordable.

You can change your domicile if you feel the overall picture will not be compromised. But be careful that the new domicile IHT situ is not worse than UK's, or, you leave your estate and beneficiaries charged to both old and new domicile, which happened to an acquaintance of mine - father's estate hammered by both old and new domicle.

No you probably haven't, that remark was simply meant to point out that, as you say, that things have changed considerably since most of us looked at the "rules". The part that I find most irritating is the rule regarding "arising" income which reflects the US taxable income position quite closely. Also, that residency can be defined by lifestyle which is hugely subjective - yes you can appeal a decision but the cost of doing so is prohibitive to say the least. I've been out of the UK system for many years, free and clear, but I was contemplating reacquiring a UK base this year and splitting my time between the UK and Asia. After reading HMRC6 I now realize that it's quite difficult to sever residency ties with the UK for tax purposes and that it can take a lot of time - by contrast, reacquiring those ties can be done almost overnight, as far as the Revenue is concerned, which has made me reconsider my plans. On a related point, I tried recently to change my domicile and I asked The Revenue for an opinion on what I had done. I have spent over twenty five years outside the UK but despite this, The Revenue implied that as long as I had a single bank account remaining in the UK it would be unlikely to accept the change for IHT purposes! Good luck.

All good points, most interesting. I agree that it is getting harder, and as the UK government approaches bankruptcy, loss of the AAA credit rating, and hence more desperate for whatever additional loot it can extort from formerly economically active people, like us, who simply say 'b@llocks' and leave the place once the screw is tightened too hard, it will get worse.

I agree that IHT is the most scary one. My solution is to encourage my children to become expats too.

It's interesting that when I discuss this problem with my friends in Malaysia, especially the Chinese, they are absolutely astounded that such a tax can even exist, let alone be enforced at 40%. Many think I am making it up.

Choking can result in unconsciousness and cardiopulmonary arrest.

It is often caused by food or other foreign body lodged in the throat (airway).

Indeed, choking caused by foreign body airway obstruction accounts for about 3,000 deaths each year.

The recognition and proper management of choking is of key importance to safety in homes, restaurants, and other public places and everybody should be aware of the Heimlich manouvre in order to be prepared for an incident in home, restaurant, pub etc If you are a pub/restaurant get your staff trained in Heimlich Manouvre-the life that's saved may be your own.

Essential to watch this U-Tube demo of Heimlich manouvre. It has saved many lives.

More info:-

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/choke.htm

Good luck and good health.

is that the one in the old Thai house in garden?

many thanks.

does the marriage allowance apply even if you live outside the UK with a foreign wife?

It took me about 9 months to get my dependants allowance and it was backi dated so i had a nice lump sum for the first payment , i made lots of phone calls and sent lots of emails , the best about sending an email is that when you get a reply it is from an individual pensions officer so then it is easier for future contacts

usually 5/7 days for me, but, recently Europe has been having weather problems.

airline seats have a shelf life-once the flight departs those seat revenues are gone forever. Once flew to Nice from LHR with Easyjet and on the way home standby fares to London from Nice were just a tenner: might as well have the tenner and sell a meal and drinks than have an empty seat.

if they depart empty, well..

therefore the pukkah airlines sell-off blocks of seats to big agents/wholesaler/agents (Trailfinders etc) at a discount.

the discounts are used by the intermediaries to entice the customer: ads in newspapers, web etc..

sometimes the discounts are available, sometimes not.

It's not an exact science and depends on the vagaries of humanity, seasons, demand, weather, economy, how sharp the airline marketing people are etc etc.

Budget airlines like RyanAir e.g. generally do not use agents, as far as I know. They sell purely on price, direct on the web, phone. Air Asia seem to be mixing the formula of direct sales/agency sales about a bit.

Low season low price, high season high price: try getting a low fare from RyanAir in times of high demand and you will find that they are just as expensive as any other mainstream national airline and they will milk the market with high prices for all it is worth during periods of high demand e.g. sporting events when there is mass demand from thousands of desperate travelling fans.

Moreover, service during times of disruption/delay may be nil from the budget airlines.

The less you pay the more you may be going out on a limb in relation to service, comfort and safety.

just ordered one through Amazon.

Im looking at ordering a counter top water distiller, as the water that I have been getting delivered tastes like plastic. If its in plastic bottles and its sitting on the back of a truck under the hot sun all day, you are, in essence, consuming the plastic container. Figure the only sure way to know I am drinking pure water is to "make my own".

wonder if they could be used as solar energy gatherers to provide power, hot water etc and bi-pass the grid??