Jump to content

Kitsch22

Member
  • Posts

    251
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Kitsch22

  1. So, as you can see I have done quite a bit of research in order to get everything correct, as I did not want to waste time and being told to go back to the UK and get a NON immigrant B from the Embassy in London.

    I repeat again that Liverpool was TOTALLY FREE. Unless they have now changed these rules, it should be FREE, but only in Liverpool.

    Frm-Bkk

    Strangely, the Liverpool Consulate is now maintaining that to qualify for a free Tourist Visa the traveller must actually use the visa before 5 March rather than simply apply before that date, even though that seems to contradict the policy as announced by MFA.

  2. "fatty" for example. I bet you all had a "Fatty <insert last name>" in your school.

    I bet that you were not "fatty", or you would not take it so lightly. :rolleyes:

    But in Thailand it is unexceptional for people to be fixed with a chue len (the common name by which they are known for life), frequently descriptive, which westerners would find terribly politically incorrect. "Fatty", "Frog", "Pig", "Manure" and so forth are commonplace.

    Why cannot the OP simply explain to his daughter that: "Na Falang suay maak"?

  3. Disposable prepaid credit card numbers??????????????

    What the hel_l are they?????????

    Hl :D

    Maybe the previous poster, halfhead, meant a prepaid credit-account with PayPal ? :unsure:

    Just guessing.

    LaoPo

    My guess is that he is referring to one of those accounts (I use Cahoot) where you get an individual creditcard number per transaction and so it cannot be copied, cloned, stolen or similarly abused. The problem is that I never have a physical plastic card with that once-off number on it - hence nothing to produce at the airport.

  4. Go see a solicitor, if possible drag her along. If she tells the solicitor she is willing to give you a divorce, it will be much easier. At one stage of my farce, I was considering coming here and dragging her to the Amphur. Thai friends warned me against that, they thought physical violence against me was probable.

    Why suggest that he goes to a solicitor and pays a lot of money (at a rate almost certain to be in excess of £100 per hour) to do what he can do himself with a little effort and some Internet surfing?

    If the OP takes his wife to see a solicitor then the first thing the solicitor will do will be to ask him for money up front on account of costs and the second thing the solicitor will do will be to send the wife off to see another "independent" solicitor who will ask her for money up front on account of costs and will then encourage her to squeeze as much advantage (financial or tactical or both) out of the OP as she possibly can.

    If the wife is willing to let the proceedings go uncontested, then all she needs to do is to sign the Acknowledgement of Service form to that effect once she has been served with the petition.

    The OP needs to issue his petition as quickly as possible. Doing anything else is wasting valuable time.

  5. so if i lose baillif service of the petition and she has left the country never to return what happens then, will i still be able to go through with the divorce in her absence? this is all so complicated, i just want to go through with the original plan of divorcing in thailand quick and easy, no problems. she has obviously got alot of thai friends in the uk advising her on how to make my life as difficult as possible.

    2 weeks ago she was quite happy for this to go ahead with the divorce in thailand, now i just spoke to her on the phone and when i told her i would not be divorcing her in the thai embassy in london she went crazy screaming at me down the phone. i would be quite happy to divorce her through uk courts but can see this process being long and expensive with no cooperation from my wife.

    i want to try and keep to the original plan but i have to speak to the thai embassy in london about divorce proceedings through them at 2 oclock today, will let you know the outcome, thankyou for responses so far.

    You have already been told that a "Thai Embassy" divorce will not be effective under the law of England and Wales.

    Time is not on your side. Get the petition going in the County Court now. If you let her leave the Country without first being validly served, then obtaining a divorce will become (in the absence of her cooperation) enormously more complicated and expensive.

  6. no she has already expressed her willingness to go back to Thailand, she has her ticket booked for the 28th of march. she has told me she has already been to citizen's advice. After reading that if we divorce at the Thai embassy it will not be recognized as a divorce here i believe that is her plan to divorce at the thai embassy in london then she can go back to thailand and marry who she wants whilst i am unable to marry again in england.

    very smart and devious girl.

    she will not be happy when i advise her that i will not be going through with that. i will happily divorce her in thailand, but now am actually generally worried for my own personal safety whilst in thailand i.e repercussions from her family.

    just wish i'd never gotten myself into this mess, should of listened to people around me who knew better at the time but you live you learn.

    If, as you say, she has booked her ticket to return to Thailand on 28 March, then it really is quite urgent that you issue your divorce petition in your local county court now, without further delay. From what you say there is a real chance that she will fail to sign and return to the court the acknowledgement of service form which is the first step on the respondent's side in the proceedings and in that event you will need to arrange bailiff service or, failing that, obtain an order for deemed service or substituted service of the petition, either of which will be more easily achieved if you do it before she has left the jurisdiction of the court. Once she has left you will, effectively, have lost the opportunity for bailiff service of the petition.

  7. All iPhones have Thai fonts built-in.

    Possibly "all iPhones" purchased in Thailand.

    I have been buying Macs and iPod for decades, and none have had Thai font's pre-installed.

    Probably any of the little shops that sell iPhones can install the font. Don't ask True though!

    I thought that the international fonts reside in firmware. Are you suggesting that if you update to the latest firmware version via iTunes, you will not then have an available Thai font? Why do you think it necessary to visit any shop?

  8. If you are running the latest firmware (3.1.2) and your primary language setting under "International" is "English", then you need to go to Settings>General>Keyboard>International Keyboards and enable "Thai"

    Thereafter you will be able to select keyboards using the key immediately to the left of the spacebar on the soft keyboard.

  9. Accepting the risk that I may appear even more harsh and cynical than I have already, please let me advance my own summary.

    The following appear to be significant facts:

    1. You are not able to formulate your account of the relevant events in a way that shows that you have a case that is properly arguable as a claim in law.

    2. You cannot afford to hire a professional lawyer to marshal the true and demonstrable evidence and then tell you if you have a viable claim and, if so, to pursue it for you.

    That being the position, you need to put all this behind you and move on. Your present approach will lead to a heightening obsession and, eventually, misery for you.

  10. The taxi driver's reference to Burma was a metaphor for poverty more than a commentary upon politics (although it is a fact that in both countries the nascent shoots of democracy have been uprooted by the military).

    Additionally his "Taksin loves the poor" is a fair enough position for a Thai elector to take. What better champion than Taksin have rural poor Thais had within the last 20 years?

    Your post suggests that it may possibly be you rather than the taxi driver who has been the victim of brainwashing. The fact that a number of farangs and Bangkok Thais repeatedly chant a "Taksin = evil" mantra does not mean that it is so.

  11. I am not an expert on this but from the facts which you have given it appears that if indeed an "administrative" divorce is available from the Thai Embassy at London, then in your case it would not be recognized under the law of England and Wales. I say that on the basis that in such circumstances the divorce would have been obtained other than by "proceedings" and that at least one of the parties would have been habitually resident in the United Kingdom throughout the period of at least one year immediately preceding the divorce.

    I base that opinion upon the provisions contained in section 46(2) of the Family Law Act 1986.

    Much safer to proceed on the basis of an ordinary divorce petition issued in your local county court in the usual way.

  12. I bought an AIS (One2Call) Netsim for 130 Baht and this gives me 30 hours of EDGE/GPRS connectivity per month for a monthly fee of 119 baht. The limitation is only as to time. You can up/download as many megabytes as you like during your 30 hours. NetSims should be available from any Telewiz shop.

    DTAC have similar (but not identical) products, but AIS network coverage is better for me in northern Chiang Rai.

  13. I had a pair made for me at Siam Bootery on Sukhumwit about three years ago - 13,000 Baht. They were (and still are) okay and I am sure that they will provide years of useful wear if I continue to look after them. But the shop (or their contractor) took three weeks to make them and I think that I could probably have bought them in UK for similar money ... and that was when a pound bought you 70 Baht or so.

  14. The paranoia that abounds is indeed astonishing. I'm not sure how many different ways I can answer the same question but I'll give it a try.

    Regardless of where we come from, we are all now living in the Rai. Okay, that is a large spread out area and maybe we don't all have a lot in common. But, how are you supposed to know that, without meeting? What is wrong with civility, a polite smile and a kind word? Are we all so self-possessed, that no one could possibly be good enough for us?

    I am not sure why you choose to use the word "paranoia" to describe the fact that I value my privacy, but if it makes you feel better, then I do not object. You evidently perceive the existence of a "community" which I do not recognize. I am not even really clear what you mean when you use the expression "the Rai"; I presume that you must mean "Jangwad Chiang Rai" but it is possible that you really mean "Meuang Chiang Rai". Either way, the fact that I am a farang and the fact that I live in a particular geographical area does not instil within me any desire to make my personal details known to a bunch of other individuals who happen to tick the same two boxes. The fact that I am The Only Farang in the Village is one of the features that makes life there such a delight.

    Since we don't all live next-door to each other, it is not always easy to cross paths. For those of us who are happily married and don't spend our evenings warming a barstool, it is even more difficult to meet likeminded couples.

    I guess I am questioning if there is any sense of community in the Rai. Are we all just isolated islands in a vast sea? Are we that embarrassed of this place we live? Acknowledging that one lives in the Rai hardly makes one lesser of a person. It is a starting point, however, for a sense of community.

    You give the impression that TV is a kind of members club. It is not. It is a commercial venture that makes money for its owners by attracting Internet users to click within certain web pages. Its use as a member is subject to a set of highly restrictive rules focused entirely upon the proprietor's pursuit of profit. I accept those rules in order that I can use TV as an information resource and as an occasional recreation. As I go along I tend to allocate three different labels to the other members whose contributions I read: "Like", "Do Not like" and "Neutral" although reclassifications occasionally occur as I read more and more. Without having performed any detailed analysis or statistical survey, I can tell you that the aggregate of "Do Not like" and "Neutral" significantly exceeds the total of "Like".

    Might I ask what the benefit is in being so insular? What is the benefit in not knowing what or who is out there? What is the benefit of being rude to each other?

    For me, the benefit of being insular manifests as a mild sense of well-being. In the highly unlikely event that I feel at any time a desire for face-to-face contact with another farang I can get in my car and drive to Rico's or somewhere similar. Or, I suppose, I could always PM another TV member from my "Like" list, although I would be instinctively reluctant to do so for fear of invading his privacy in a way that might be unwelcome. As to your suggestion that I or anyone else in this thread has been rude or uncivil to you, it would help if you could point out the offending words because I always try to avoid unnecessary rudeness and I do not think that I have been uncivil towards you in any way whatsoever.

    Again, perhaps I am just letting the holiday season get to me.

    Perhaps, but not necessarily. My take on the situation is simply that you are a person of a gregarious nature (bloggers necessarily have at least a mild streak of exhibitionism in their makeup) whereas I and many others are more naturally private and self-contained. You possibly like playing group games at parties; I do not. You might be the kind to organise the group singing of songs on coach trips; I hate that kind of thing. You may well get a buzz from joining clubs and societies; I avoid them like the plague. My families (in UK and in Thailand) and our village in the hills of northern Chiang Rai provide me with all the social "community" that I need.

  15. Since I started this thread so long ago, there has been a marked increase in the number of visible Chiang Rai residents in the member's list.

    I have even overcome some of my reluctance toward meeting others. Ventured out onto the playing field, as it were, though only in the light of day.

    From those I have met, it is clear than many still are not listing themselves as living in Chiang Rai.

    So here I am breathing life back into this ancient topic, in an effort to get other residents of the Rai to stand up and be counted.

    At the risk of duplicating the sense of what svenivan has already said, what is the purpose of your crusade? If I break my resolve (firm until now) to have no TV profile and instead begin to advertise my Jangwad, what is the benefit for me? And what is the benefit for you?

  16. Thai girls?

    Surely they are women. Do you refer to British women of a similar age as "girls"?

    I suggest you grow up.

    "Thai women"?

    Surely they are "ladies". Or have you never learned the old British army Terminology Protocol:

    "Officers and their ladies, Sergeants and their wives, Soldiers and their women"?

    I suggest you learn some decorum.

    Alternatively you may conclude that I am just an opinionated old prat who presumes to dictate to others their proper use of language based upon his own perception of what is politically correct.

    Errrr. So I should have used either "ladies", or "wives"?

    You are defending the use of the perjorative "girls", remember? Where does the use of the word "girls" fit into your lesson on decorum?

    A sad, opinionated old prat. Your description, not mine. Happy Christmas.

    I agree; you do err. I am not telling anybody what should or should not be their choice of words. I am not a member of the Language Gestapo. That was my main point.

    I have no need to defend anything. I seek only to attack your evident presumption. On the assumption that you really mean "pejorative" your application of that adjective to the word "girls" provides further demonstration (if any were needed) that you are sadly lacking in command of the language concerning which you presume to instruct others.

    But, to be seasonably charitable, I shall draw the inference that your false attribution to me of the word "sad" must be a consequence of your failure to take enough water with it in the course of your celebrations.

  17. Thai girls?

    Surely they are women. Do you refer to British women of a similar age as "girls"?

    I suggest you grow up.

    "Thai women"?

    Surely they are "ladies". Or have you never learned the old British army Terminology Protocol:

    "Officers and their ladies, Sergeants and their wives, Soldiers and their women"?

    I suggest you learn some decorum.

    Alternatively you may conclude that I am just an opinionated old prat who presumes to dictate to others their proper use of language based upon his own perception of what is politically correct.

  18. Not a Wingroad, but my wife still drives the NV QueenCab automatic with Carryboy which she purchased 11 years ago. It has been 100% reliable (serviced strictly according to manufacturer's schedule by Nissan Chiang Rai) and the only downside is its rather thirsty fuel consumption. Great little vehicle.

  19. Whether the dismissal is unfair or not is probably a moot point. Does it contravene Thai Labor Law is the better question. Were you dismissed while on probation?

    No, shortly (4 days) after the probation ended. They let me finish lesson plans and exam papers, before coming out with the bombshell. As how they did it, it was clear that they wanted to save the money for the visa extension. They are paying me until the end of the month, though. Mind you, I took all the grading sheets with me, so they'll have to start from scratch, in the same way as I started in the middle of the term.

    You make it sound as though the grading sheets were produced by you during the period for which you have been paid. If that is correct, then would you not agree that your depriving the school of the sheets amounts to theft?

  20. Thank you all again, esp. Mr/Mrs Noise and KITSCH. If you have specific questions, you may write mail (PM) to me.

    Have a good day.

    The specific questions which I listed in post #7 were intended to help you decide whether or not you have a valid claim. I do not need the answers to them; you do.

    At present you have advanced no facts sufficient to raise even a prima facie case against the University for either breach of contract or negligence. Or did the University initially agree that they would keep teaching you indefinitely beyond the planned schedule without further fee until you achieved a pass?

  21. Leaving aside the issues of practicability already raised in this thread:

    1. Are you alleging breach of contract? If so, are you able to identify clearly in one or more documents the term or terms of the contract which you claim to have been breached?

    2. Are you alleging negligence? If so, are you able to identify clearly the precise elements of the duty of care which you say the University owed to you and failed to discharge?

    3. What is the amount of your claim? From what you say it sounds like USD 2000 (GBP 1,250 approx). That appears to have been the amount of the increase, the validity of or justification for which you challenge. Did you pay the money and, if so, did you lodge a formal written protest at or before the time of payment?

    4. Taking a view as detached as you possibly can, do you think that there is any possibility that some or all of these difficulties could be the result of a bona fide misunderstanding between you on the one hand and the University on the other hand?

  22. I have lived in Thailand 15 years, speak, read and write Thai well, and live 100% of the time in an all-Thai small northern town.

    I have only ever heard two feeble attempts by the Thai to be politically correct. Neither has caught on at all:

    1) - Say "khon dtang prathet" ("foreign person") instead of "farang" (etymology uncertain, but NEVER used to refer to orientals of ANY ethnicity. My Japanese wife is not a "farang" but I am.)

    2) - Say "khon Thai poo khao" or "chao Thai poo khao" (both meaning "Thai person in the mountains") instead of "chao khao" ("mountain person")

    Both of these PC expressions are by some Thai who feel the current, popular expressions are denigrating.

    And, by the way, I was just overhearing Thai people instruct other Thai people. They were not talking to me about what I should say.

    I think you may be right. My wife is a Northerner as well; I shall try them on her, except that she would say Khon Doi where you say Khon poo khao. A parallel may be the fact that she will now occasionally say "Akha" when in company, whereas years ago it was uniformly "Meo"

×
×
  • Create New...