British family relocated to Thailand a week before coronavirus closed down the island - now they’re homeless and without work

[4737 Carlin]

A strange time to be moving to Thailand to try and earn a living in tourism - especially with two young kids. It's fairly common knowledge that the regime have pretty much destroyed the tourist industry here. The Chinese virus has just put the final nail in the coffin. It's not the 1990's - this pair are about 30 years too late. They should have stayed at home and just re-read that crappy book 'The Beach' again.

Edited April 1, 2020 by 4737 Carlin

[samran]

32 minutes ago, 2long said:

FOURTEEN PAGES for what was either a non-story or an April Fool's! ????????

Hey, the TV masses need some poor sods to stick the boot into! 

[RJRS1301]

38 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

ROFL. Beef in Australia is not corn fed, it's grass fed. That's what those giant cattle stations in the Kimberley and Northern Territory are all about. Corn is what they give cattle in Kansas feedlots. Last time I looked, Australia grew wheat when the drought was not visiting.

While I can appreciate you have a good relationship with your butcher, and you are lucky to get low prices from him, the thought that what you are buying may be deliberately mislabelled to deceive both you and him has not occurred to you?

What is Grain Fed Beef? - Teys Australia

https://www.teysaust.com.au/grain-fed-beef/

These animals are fed grass for the majority of their lives and then transitioned to grain-based diets. Use of grain depends on customer requirements and seasonal conditions - about ⅓ of Australian beef is grain finished. The Australian grass and grain fed production systems are highly complementary, interrelated and dependent upon each other.

[Muzzique]

38 minutes ago, Logosone said:

He's French, he'd never lie about his meat. 

You'd be surprised how many women who have dated French men will find that statement to be completely untrue...

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Muzzique

[Namplik]

15 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Very hard to feel a great deal of sympathy for a couple who sold their home in the UK, and likely moved over here with a substantial amount of money in the bank.

 

I they can`t live in Thailand for 3-4 months they don`t have much money....

 

“And then we think ‘what happens after all of this, what happens in 30 days or if we’re stuck here for two or three months.’

“We’ll have no money left by that point.”

[Mister Fixit]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Only if you tell them.

I've been away 12 years, still registered with my (former) local GP.

 

You'd have to be exceptionally stupid to actually be refused/charged for NHS care.

I've been away 16 years and still registered with my GP, whom I used to visit annually when I went back to see my mother who died last year, so no need any more.

Anyone will be treated in an emergency on the NHS, but elective stuff?  Not really unless you can somehow wangle it.  A lot depends on just how long you have been away. 

Habitual residence and all that.  Had you read my other posts, you'd have seen that I mentioned that.

And no need to say someone is 'exceptionally stupid' not to be treated on the NHS.  That just sounds exceptionally pious and somewhat arrogant.

[NightSky]

Must be April fools?

[Eindhoven]

2 hours ago, Logosone said:

 

They made sure they had a job, they did nothing wrong. Those kids are very young and schooling was not an issue.

 

The reason they are in trouble is because of the global lockdown of economies the father can not do his job.

 

It's not their fault. 

 

Yes, I agree, I would certainly make sure that the visa situation is sorted in a clear manner, so yes, here maybe they were a bit careless. 

 

Of course the move was planned long before the pandemic. But actually during the pandemic, you'd be better off in Thailand, as the UK is going to go through peak infection time in around two weeks. Better to be in Thailand.

 

The reason they're in trouble is because the job disappeared. Not their fault.

 

They aren't in trouble. It's just a big sob story. Friend of mine just messaged me, asking if I wanted work as an English teacher, at a school in Central Thailand.

Since I'm a tourist I had no interest, but passed on the details to someone who does work as an English teacher.

 

The fact is that the family have a nice house on the beach and they are doing fine thank you. 

 

If they were stupid enough to pay 20,000 baht to get their visas extended, then more fool them. Especially when anyone arriving after the 1st of March now gets an automatic extension.

But that is just a lie, since they admit that they went to Samui Immigration themselves.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Eindhoven

[Logosone]

11 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

These animals are fed grass for the majority of their lives and then transitioned to grain-based diets. Use of grain depends on customer requirements and seasonal conditions - about ⅓ of Australian beef is grain finished. The Australian grass and grain fed production systems are highly complementary, interrelated and dependent upon each other.

 

"In the 1980s and 1990’s, barley and triticale were the pre-dominant grains fed to Australian dairy cows. However, since the late 1990’s, wheat has become more commonly used. Other grains fed to dairy cows, particularly in the more northern dairying regions of Australia, are maize grain and sorghum."

 

Google Dr Steve Little "feeding maize grain to dairy cows in Australia"

[dlclark97]

I can't believe anyone would come here now to work in the dive industry.  Over the last 3-4 years many of Thailand's liveaboards moved to Indonesia and Malaysia.  Now even they are in the same boat (pun intended) as everyone else.  SCUBA in Thailand is just not what it used to be and it was getting harder and harder for the liveaboards to even come close to filling their boats for 4-7 day dive excursions.  Until recently many of these boats that had moved to Indonesia and Malaysia were fully booked months in advance and even had wait lists for trips that were months away.  There are organizations working in conjunction with the Thai Navy harvesting and replanting corals in the many areas that have been devasted by over fishing and from boats dropping their anchors on the coral reefs and from the polluted runoff from what are sometimes torrential rains that wash all the dirt and sewage from the tsreets into the ocean.  Pattaya once had pristine corals and abundant marine life a short ways from the shore.  Now it's a great place to dive if you like sea urchins and little else.  

[Longchop]

Considering everything I think NOTVERY WISEMAN would be a more apt name

[Namplik]

7 minutes ago, NightSky said:

Must be April fools?

Nah...

 

https://www.picuki.com/profile/familygapyear_dad

[ttrd]

1 hour ago, Logosone said:

 

They made sure they had a job, they did nothing wrong. Those kids are very young and schooling was not an issue.

 

The reason they are in trouble is because of the global lockdown of economies the father can not do his job.

 

It's not their fault. 

 

Yes, I agree, I would certainly make sure that the visa situation is sorted in a clear manner, so yes, here maybe they were a bit careless. 

 

Of course the move was planned long before the pandemic. But actually during the pandemic, you'd be better off in Thailand, as the UK is going to go through peak infection time in around two weeks. Better to be in Thailand.

 

The reason they're in trouble is because the job disappeared. Not their fault.

… hopefully this post was ironically intended - hopefully ...

[Lacessit]

4 minutes ago, Logosone said:

 

 

It was labelled as corn fed beef from Australia! 

 

Pretty much every third Australian cow eats grains, even grassfed ones. 

 

I looked it up.

 

No, I'm not Australian. But your beef and lamb is not bad. I would prefer Italian, Argentinian, German or Irish, but they don't sell that here. 

 

Australia allows the use of hormones, so it is qualitatively inferior to European beef. But of course, Thailand buys Australian because it's closer, so not much that can be done about it really.

I have to admire your persistence, if not your grasp of reality.

Corn is the stuff that comes on cobs, also called maize. Australia produced about 440,000 tonnes of it last year, mostly in irrigated areas. A thirsty crop. We would not waste it on cattle feed.

Australia produces between 15 and 30 million tonnes of wheat a year, depending on rainfall. Oats are about 1.5 million tonnes per year.

I've traveled within Australia a lot, places the average tourist would never get to see. Cattle might get fed one or two helpings of grain to keep them going on their way to an abattoir, but the vast majority of their lives are spent on pastoral land which is running one steer every 20 acres. On the most marginal land, it's one per 200 acres.

Perhaps the last journey entitles the butcher to describe the meat as grain-fed. Nothing would surprise me in advertising

Australian beef got a bad rap when farmers in the Darling Downs tried to ward off drought by feeding their cattle cotton trash, which was doused in pesticides.

You have obviously never tasted grass-fed eye fillet steak from Gippsland or King Island, which runs 1 head per acre. So tender it can be cut with a fork. If you had, you would not be making such egregiously stupid statements about the quality of meat from other nations.

But hey, don't let me shatter your illusions if you enjoy them.

 

[ChaiyaTH]

Dumb and dumber, hope they learn from their silly mistakes. Time to go back to the UK when flights available if you ask me.
Doubt they would have lasted long without the coronavirus. 

Edited April 1, 2020 by ChaiyaTH

[NoComment]

Idiots.

They have Baht in the bank.........

Money to stay in apartment/ hotel/guesthouse....

Many many Thais have zero money, no homes and nothing to survive the next few months...

Many expats are struggling more than these two.....

Why move your kids and then come up with a fairy story such as this?(at anytime nevermind a pandemic.....

Go fund me page I hope is ignored by everyone...

 

 

[tomazbodner]

Mr. Wiseman... Covid was known to be spreading since end of January. I think you need to reconsider suitability of your surname...

[JIMHILL]

Contrary to his names sake "un-Wiseman"

[Expat Tom]

There is nothing so uncommon as common sense. I think that they are stupid and should not be allowed to breed anymore passing down the "stupid gene".

[WhereIsMyRyeBread]

5 hours ago, Logosone said:

why would you not get a house with a pool?

And why wouldn't you get a proper Chesterfield sofa, armchair with a matching Ottoman? 

It's a timeless classic and fantastic furniture. 

[Basil B]

3 minutes ago, NoComment said:

Go fund me page I hope is ignored by everyone...

There will be a lot more deserving cases on GFM in the coming weeks...

[rucker4012]

The last thing anyone in their predicament should do is appeal to the the press. I wouldn't be surprised BIB are looking for them as we speak.

[Logosone]

7 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

 

Corn is the stuff that comes on cobs, also called maize. Australia produced about 440,000 tonnes of it last year, mostly in irrigated areas. A thirsty crop. We would not waste it on cattle feed.

 

Oh but you do:

 

"In the 1980s and 1990’s, barley and triticale were the pre-dominant grains fed to Australian dairy cows. However, since the late 1990’s, wheat has become more commonly used. Other grains fed to dairy cows, particularly in the more northern dairying regions of Australia, are maize grain and sorghum."

 

Google Dr Steve Little "feeding maize grain to dairy cows in Australia"

 

Probably things have changed a bit since 1953.

 

I'm not saying that the corn-fed Australian beef was bad, it was very good. It's just not as good as Argentinian, Italian or Irish beef, that's all. That Australia allows hormones in beef, which is banned in Europe, is not exactly a mark of quality.

 

 

[AL]

What’s his name ? Wiseman ? ????

[Torrens54]

Were these two born stupid, or were they dropped in their heads at an early age ? Obviously have a total disregard for the laws of the country.

[AAArdvark]

9 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Other than him appearing to be working or trying to work without the correct visa and WP I do not see their problem. They just sold their car and house in Devon so will be sitting with millions of baht in the bank. They should just enjoy the next few months of holiday in Phangan and when the world returns to normal decide what to do. They are in a much better position than 99% of the rest of us.

How do you know they have millions?  Old car?  Not so nice house with a large loan on it?

[spidermike007]

21 minutes ago, dlclark97 said:

I can't believe anyone would come here now to work in the dive industry.  Over the last 3-4 years many of Thailand's liveaboards moved to Indonesia and Malaysia.  Now even they are in the same boat (pun intended) as everyone else.  SCUBA in Thailand is just not what it used to be and it was getting harder and harder for the liveaboards to even come close to filling their boats for 4-7 day dive excursions.  Until recently many of these boats that had moved to Indonesia and Malaysia were fully booked months in advance and even had wait lists for trips that were months away.  There are organizations working in conjunction with the Thai Navy harvesting and replanting corals in the many areas that have been devasted by over fishing and from boats dropping their anchors on the coral reefs and from the polluted runoff from what are sometimes torrential rains that wash all the dirt and sewage from the tsreets into the ocean.  Pattaya once had pristine corals and abundant marine life a short ways from the shore.  Now it's a great place to dive if you like sea urchins and little else.  

My wife and I both got out open water certification on Dark Tao. Worst diving of my life. Ten dives and never visibility better than three to four meters. I can see why the industry is dying. Andaman is far better but like you say, mostly live aboards. Indonesia diving can be stunning. Thailand is not even a pale shadow of that experience. 

 

And many do not want to have anything to do with Dark Tao, as it's reputation is horrendous. Plus it is really overpriced. Phangan has its charms. 

[Logosone]

3 minutes ago, WhereIsMyRyeBread said:

And why wouldn't you get a proper Chesterfield sofa, armchair with a matching Ottoman? 

It's a timeless classic and fantastic furniture. 

I did get an Ottoman, it's great to put your feet on and to put your diet coke, you can also use it as a coffee table. Splendid piece.

 

Chesterfields, no a bit too 19th century. All those buttons maybe made sense in the 19th century but these days you can get smooth materials that are stain resistant, no abundance of silly buttons required. 

 

You should make sure your sofa has springs though, those cheap cushion sofas are very poor.

[ivor bigun]

7 hours ago, Logosone said:

You live on 1875 paying two rents in Bangkok, university fees for son? How do you do that? 

 

This family has two children, they got in trouble through no fault of their own. They had, and still have financial reserves. But due to the lockdown and social distancing  mania the man can not do the job he was hired to do. It doesn't look like they expected anyone to look after them. The woman is working as well.

 

I see this more as a first casualty of the unnecessary lockdown overreaction.

One we lived in Pattaya at the time our rent 30k,our sons rent 2500 baht ,shared university accomodation with his cousin , him 12k a month to spend ,the rest our lecy ,wi fi etc so plenty to spend on food . no problem,i admit i must have taken some out of our savings to pay his uni fees,

[Mister Fixit]

3 hours ago, Logosone said:

It's a bit of a nonsense, because all they have to give is a UK address. No ID cards, no registration of domicile in the UK. How would the NHS know? They don't send out anyone to check this.

And you know this exactly how?  Or is it yet another of the fantasies you've cooked up and believe to be true just because you thought it?

 

Had you not realised that to get treatment on the NHS you need to give your GPs details?  And that your GOP has exactly the details that you say don't need to be given?

 

No record at a GP's practice = no treatment (except in emergencies).  How would you get your high cholesterol treated, your knees replaces, your other ailments treated?  

How would you get referred to a specialist for any of the above, pray?  A GP needs to do that and they have all your details.  

 

Jeez, just about every post you have made is utter nonsense.  I know people are bored at home, but I suggest you go for a nice long nap and see if you wake up with your brain working!  ????

Edited April 1, 2020 by Mister Fixit