HauptmannUK

As far as I am concerned 'cash is king'. In most countries it is now difficult to deposit substantial amounts of cash without getting interrogated by the bank. In the UK/EU they start wanting a paper trail for deposits greater than €10000. Depositing multiple amounts of cash can also trigger a SAR (suspicious activity report) and lead to account closure. I bring cash into Thailand and change to THB over a week or two at SR, Damini and various branches of TT. Thai banks seem less concerned about large deposits (I've deposited ฿3M in one transaction without a problem). I try to avoid any kind of electronic payments/transfers, but its getting more difficult.

The husband of one of my wife's friends took it. A big fellow about 55 years old. Definitely obese. Anyway he couldn't tolerate it. Played hell with his digestive system (stomach pains/cramps, nausea/vomiting etc). I think he gave up after 6-8 weeks.

I thought the Indians walk on the road?

I think he means Took Le Dee restaurant at Foodland in T21.

I don't think anyone was 'denied their right to vote'. Voters in the UK have to show photo ID at the polling station. There is quite a long list of acceptable forms of ID including driving licence, passport, various types of travel passes, disability badge, defence ID (MoD 90) etc. The 'Veteran's ID' card is a new thing, introduced only a few months ago and not yet added to the list. The government have said they will update the list ASAP. Bit of a 'storm in a teacup'.

I'm not defending the £38k income threshold but many countries do require immigrants to have an income well above the national average or median. For example in Spain a long term visa for non-EU nationals requires a minimum income of something like €30k plus health insurance. Thailand of course requires ฿800k for retirement visa, which is a lot more than the average Thai lives on. Immigrants to the UK do not pay 150% of healthcare costs, they pay the NHS Surcharge when they apply for their visa (immigrants working in healthcare are exempted). Once they get ILR there is nothing more to pay.

I'm not yet of state pension age and a 'frozen' state pension is unlikely to affect me much in future (I probably won't relocate permanently to Thailand and I have a high passive income from part-ownership of a family business). Notwithstanding my own circumstances I do think that the freezing of pensions for pensioners who have paid the required NI contributions is one of the most unfair, unethical and immoral policies of successive British governments. The freezing of pensions is made all the worse by the provision of Pension Credit. Pension Credit is essentially a non-contributory UK state pension to which the entire global population above retirement age may claim, if they can show residence in the UK. Late last year I assisted an elderly Asian lady claim Pension Credit. She is not a UK citizen but by some fairly convoluted means became UK resident a couple of years ago. She has never worked or paid NI. On account of her almost nonexistent English I did a Pension Credit application for her. She was successful and now receives c.£800/month plus Housing Benefit, free dental and optical care etc. I would guess her benefits amount to in the region of £1600/month. She lives in a rented room in a shared house. Not a great lifestyle but tolerable. She's a very pleasant lady and I don't begrudge her the Pension Credit, but if does highlight the unfairness of policy when expats who were given no choice but to contribute to their state pension over many decades are deprived of a substantial portion of its value based on some archaic and whimsical policy.

Not sure if you have a particular UK private school in mind but my experience of 'private schools' is that there can be quite an element of selection (I attended boarding school many many years ago and my three children - now late 20's early 30's attended private day school). Many schools are over-subscribed and there are likely to be entrance tests and admission criteria relating to previous schooling.

Cost of car insurance for a few months cover for a non-resident foreign national with non-UK licence will be astronomical - if you can even get a quote. Cheaper to rent a car with included insurance and/or use taxis, depending on distances to be travelled.

Wanting to be German? Clearly has serious mental issues...

Well he started it. And in the video of the incident he certainly doesn't come over as a particularly pleasant character. Something odd about his whole background - a security guard in Switzerland then comes to Thailand and is renting elephants for his elephant sanctuary and living in a ฿1M /month villa? More holes in that story than in a piece of Swiss cheese!

The wife and I were planning a trip to Phuket later this year but seeing all the violence and crime kicking off down there I think we'd better stay in the relative peace and tranquility of Pattaya.

It just doesn't work like that. I have a daughter who is a doctor. She's worked in A&E and had to deal with all kinds of major trauma, illness and death. She just gets on with it. She now works in Urology and is in theatre three days a week and clinics two days - mostly dealing with prostate/kidney/bladder cancer patients. But away from the hospital she's actually quite shy and even gets nervous returning faulty items to a shop. I can imagine her being traumatised if she were to have her name and picture splashed over national media.

Actually not. Toilet tissue is specifically manufactured for use in waste and septic systems - it contains very little binder and breaks down into fibers after a few minutes in water. Other tissues such a facial tissues and kitchen tissue have much higher levels of binder so they stay intact when wet and don't shed fibers and disintegrate. Toilet paper is therefore pretty poor for drying hands and mopping up spills.

I don't think menopausal weight gain is inevitable and I don't think doctor can help much (other than put her on Hormone Replacement Therapy, if that's what she wants). My wife has gone through the menopause but is the same weight as when I met her about 13 years ago - slim and fit and looks better than most 30 year olds. Partly its likely lucky genetics, but she is very very active (always exercises at least 2 hours a day) and always moving around doing something. She also eats very healthily - Isaan food but very little sugar, a lot of vegetables, chicken and fish, not too much rice. Mentally she is very stable and not moody at all - so I think diet and exercise helps with that too. I think basically we all know what to do to stay fit and a healthy weight - move more, eat less and avoid all the sugary and fatty stuff, alcohol etc. That is probably all a doctor can tell you - other than prescribing HRT, which is another subject.