HauptmannUK

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.

Toilet paper everywhere but in the toilet..

Over the years my wife has bought hundreds of kilos back to the UK. We have travelled many times with Emirates with a combined 100kg of baggage - 70kg+ of it being foodstuffs of every kind. Customs never taken an interest in it. Part of her 'empire' is a restaurant which serves Thai food and she likes to experiment with different foods/regional styles etc. and if recipes work out she then finds a proper importer to source for the business. But in truth you can now find everything you need, fresh, in the UK provided you're prepared to pay.

Suzie Wong was played by Nancy Kwan - she was Eurasian (Chinese/British) hardly a Wan Chai girl. She was actually educated at Kingsmoor School in Glossop, England, very close to where I was born and brought up.

1. The link you provide relates to provision of SERVICE parts by ACDelco. Obtaining service parts will not be a problem. The issue will be obtaining slow-moving non-service parts because there is almost no profit in them so no incentive to hold stock. This can be a challenge for vehicles that have an active dealer network, let alone one without any dealers.... 2. The OP is specifically asking about the Captiva. This is a GM-Korea product and completely unrelated to the Trailblazer, Colorado, which are GM-USA originated, part of a joint venture with Isuzu, and a different prospect altogether.

I am not angry at Chris. Obviously very old wall advertising was done in a different era when there were fewer regulations and some of it is actually now protected by heritage legislation (it can't be overpainted). Modern wall advertising and OOH signage is covered by planning regulations, as I stated above. Not really surprising or difficult to understand, is it? I know a bit about the subject since I've had to apply to a local council to install and change signage.

Its nothing to do with the union jack. The regulations around what is called 'Out of House Advertising' (OOH) - which includes most external signage - have always been pretty strict. For most councils for anything bigger than 0.3 sq. m. (which is actually quite small) you need planning permission. If councils let this sort of thing slide then half the walls in the town would have stuff painted on or stuck on. The chip shop owner is milking it for all its worth for the free publicity.