stratocaster

Regarding the utuber going for PR he has posted an update today. Scroll to 5 minutes to miss the drivel. He also has an interesting take on the new tax rules near the end. What annoys me is that people take life changing decisions on guys like this. His site has a link to the law firm he uses.

In the 70's and 80's there was a company that did a train run to Penang weekly to collect groceries from Penang, primarily to service restaurant owners in Pattaya of Western items unavailable locally. Unfortunately to to the rising standard of living in Malaysia this service lost it's cost advantage. As a 450 g tin of baked beans is available today at the equivalent of 34 baht in Malaysia, perhaps the service could be restarted. Today I spent 1550 baht in Big C. Exactly the same items in Cold Storage Singapore would be 1400 baht. In Lotus Malaysia it was 1360 baht. In Asda UK it was 998 baht using current exchange rates.

Regarding a link to the person claiming he is entitled to PR due to being "rich" and married to Thai. I have been reluctant to say who it is as he is an eight year veteran of Thailand who has a very limited knowledge of things Thai. His site is notime2besad. But I must warn you that you will have to trawl through 29 minutes of drivel per vlog to extract 1 minute of his reasoning for PR. The strangest thing is that he pays a retainer of 700 baht a month to a Bangkok law firm so I would assume they are advising him accordingly. Or do they know the back door to PR? For you to understand his knowledge of things Thai his last vlog stated he is going to Bangkok to get his US passport translated to Thai so that he can be added to his FIL's house blue book. He also mentioned that his Falang friends house is available for sale with a 90 year lease.

Vinfast have announced they will be entering the EV market in Thailand. They will be selling fully built up cars as they fall under the AFTA trade agreements and are not subject to Thai import tax. They have 15 dealers with 22 showrooms nationwide.

Just to update, as of yesterday he has stated that in around 6 weeks time he has his first interview for PR.

According to a conservative think tank the only way to keep the triple lock is to keep increasing the retirement age in stages. The consensus is that if the Tories win the next election 555 they will increase the pension age to 68.

There is an advert for a high end condo in Bangkok. As they state all foreign quota is sold out, but a 90 year lease agreement is still available for foreigners.

Last month the president of the Thailand used car association issued a memo to its members to exercise caution in accepting used EV's due to the fact that because of new car price cutting a used EV will lose value on a daily basis. Today the head of GWM issued a warning that this year will see a price war among EV manufacturers in the Thai market. My first 32inch flat screen TV cost me 32,000 baht. One year later they were selling for 5,900 baht.

The latest innovation in the UK is the pop up charging connection. You bury the cable from your house to the kerbside using a horizontal drilling machine, so the pavement is not disturbed, and have a rubberised pop up connection at the end. The pop up is activated by an app on your phone.

I am in the same situation as OP. I have found an old number in an old wallet. Could this be my tax identification number. Formatted as this x-xxxx-xxxxx-xx-x

Wife went to look at a BYD Atto extended range, full option, July 2023, 7000 kl, 870,000 baht. Seller claimed he paid almost 1,000,000 baht. Seems a heavy depreciation for Thailand. She phoned a dealer and was offered a brand new car for 899,000 baht. Is that a correct price? If it is the seller will have difficulty selling.

If the terminology is right and the car has been pawned at a government run pawn office the normal procedure is you buy the pawn ticket from the seller for whatever price they ask, then go to the pawn office and pay the outstanding pawned value to the pawn office, they then release the blue book and vehicle to you.

So a government that is trying to get out of paying legally granted payouts for the Post Office scandal, infected blood scandal, Windrush scandal and Grenfell tower scandal will entertain overseas pensioners demands. Ha Ha. Try again when Labour is in power.

https://www.tridge.com/news/overview-of-thailands-dairy-sector

A related article. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/schools-02252021125933.html

The ironic thing about this is that the Chinese all "work" at a pro communist college in London that's sole purpose is to spread Chinese propaganda. The college receives part funding from the UK government.

Nothing to do with the post masters versus the post office but the 2015 select committee meeting featuring then CEO Paula Vennells, which unfortunately, I only have a 5 minute clip. She is adamant to the point of boredom that every postmaster conviction were safe and that the Horizon software was, as she said “flawless”. The point of the committee hearing was to discuss the changes in bonuses that had occurred in the upper management and executive levels in the post office. Again almost to the point of boredom she apologizes for “confusing” the government over the way bonuses were calculated. In a nutshell the government assumed that there were 8/9 segments where ALL the targets had to be met to pay out bonuses. In reality this is what it meant in the post offices eyes. A score of 30% worker satisfaction was the human resources target. (A pretty low bar in my opinion). The actual figure for 2022 was 28%. Target not met, no bonus you would think. Wrong. Because the target was 2% short instead of paying nothing, they paid 84.7% of the bonus allocation. Dangerous goods act. Target was 85% compliance. Actual target was 95% so a bonus for that section was paid at 107% I am sure the select committee meeting with the Fujitsu and head of the post office yesterday was well publicized. It was a cracker. Especially the head of the post office saying that the conduct of their inspectors will be looked at seriously. If I were Mr's Bradshaw, Possnet or Thorpe I would have the ticket to Pattaya booked already.

I have recently been binge watching on utube those videos regarding retiring in Thailand. The first thing that is obvious is that there is a bucket load of incorrect info discussed. Back to the post title. None of the participants who have purchased a house have done so via the 51/49 company route. All have used the 90 year land lease and claim they have a separate document to prove ownership of the house. I am well aware a 90 year lease is impossible in Thailand, so curious how a 90 year lease is presented. Do you get 3 30 year leases dated consecutively and when one expires go to the land office and activate the second lease? What name is the land ownership in, ie. the chanote. Is it a company or individual name? What documentation do you get that says you own the house. There must be some sort of Sor Jor Kor legal document that has to prove ownership of the house with your name on. I was always told that the only way to divide a house from the land for a foreigner was to have his name on the, for want of a better name, the planning permission document before building commenced. Also all claim the lease with the remaining time frame can be passed on to their next of kin in the event of them passing.

An interesting fact that becomes apparent is that all the emails so far released all stop at the section line managers level. I find it impossible to believe that the file on a SPM accused of stealing 282,000 pounds would not be copied all the way to the CEO's desk. It is suspected that a two tier email system is used at the post office. Upper management and directors use a system called Microsoft 365 exchange. So far no emails from this system have been released to the inquiry.

Yesterdays inquiry was a little dry as it focused on the failure by the POL to release any material that would show the sub post masters in a better light. They have never disclosed any relevant material in the last 23 years either to the courts, MP's or the committee. In May 23 a court order was issued to the inquiry that documents had to be released. So far a request for 400,000 documents only 1.3% have been sent. Did you know post office inspectors can interrogate a suspect under caution with no other persons present. They can access the police national computer. They can access the national credit rating site. The can enter your premises with no search warrant. There is definitely a pattern emerging. The post office keep releasing witness statements and e mails to the committee that show the inspectors in very bad light with their bullying and intimidating interrogation methods. An e mail was shown from an inspector Gary Thomas that says. " I am fffffing pissed off with these guys always blaming the computer. I know they stole it as do you. Bunch of thieves." So you know who is going to take the can for this and it ain't going to be the directors and upper management.

This is a link to what Sunak calls the greatest injustice in the UK's history but is in reality the greatest traveristy committed in the UK's justice system. Nothing new you may think, but look at the date. 2009. https://www.computerweekly.com/news/1280090846/Post-masters-form-action-group-after-accounts-shortfall I have followed the inquiry for the past year and one of the most standout things is that the police or Crown prosecution service play no part only the bully boy PO investigators and the Post office in house lawyers. Could you imagine having to sign a confession on the steps of a Royal Mail sorting depot because they have no wheelchair access, no legal representative present and only one Post office investigator present. If these victims had been taken to the old bill cop shop they would, I believe, been in front of at least two policemen and a tape machine and would never confess to criminal behavior. "No comment I want my brief" would have been the standard reply to the police. Maybe the victims dropped their guard when faced with a person they regarded as a non authoritarian figure. One of the "investigators" went in six months, from a postie to a crime investigator overseeing a multi thousand pound fraud. ( No disrespect to postmen) Yesterdays witness was Post office Inspector Bradshaw a person described in the press as acting like a mafia hit man and and a person who bullies females and in particular Asians. His attitude appeared, that as he had worked for PO for 20 years the PO will protect him. Sorry but the directors and senior management are going to hang him out to dry and claim he was a rogue operator working outside of the Post office's remit. Hopefully he realizes this and turns whistle blower. PS If you are ever accused of a crime in the UK, your defense, as shown at the inquiry is "I don't recall" "I can't remember" "My memory is not what it was" "I have no recollection of that". All the mentioned can be used under oath without jeopardizing a perjury charge . (Or can it?)

This is the company I used for a previous project. https://th.rs-online.com/web/c/bearings-seals/gaskets-seals-packings/seals/?sra=p

Interesting interview from a Thai property guru on Thai TV regarding the 2024 forecast in Thailand, although it is Bangkok biased. Used property will be the driving force for 2024 with townhouses as number one, followed by detached property as number two, with condos at number three. Interested fact I never released is that financial lenders previously give 100% on new property but only 60/70% on secondhand property which could dispel the myth that Thais don't buy second hand property due to ghosts etc. It's purely a financial consideration. Lenders are being forced by the bank of Thailand to for 70% on new and second hand property, but I am sure developers will have a system in place to make up the 30% short fall. He predicts an uptake in used property due to older property being larger and have a better build quality. There is a significant number of buy to let investors realizing that moving their assets to a more advantageous ROI, ie selling up. Companies specializing in foreclosures are due to release more property in 2024 at a reduced margin to compensate for their reduced income level 2023.

I saw your first graph on Sky news. Interestingly they superimposed the 2012/13 forecast which should have seen a rise from 315.6 to 346.5 in 22/23.

Regarding EV insurance, I am surprised that no one here has commented on the article in the Thai press. The article was from a Thai insurance company, I can not remember the name but it was similar to Thaiteit?? They state to lessen the higher insurance burden on EV as opposed to ICE they were introducing a monthly payment scheme at no extra cost. Curious to know what is the cost of insurance comparing say a Ora good cat and a Toyota Yaris?