The Embassy asked me to go and help a Mr. Bill Sunday fill in his passport application form as he had had a stroke and could not write - his wife could not read or write English. Aged 66 with severe Parkinson's disease, he used to run the Welsh bar where his wife, aged 28, had worked. They have three children all under the age of five. He can not focus to read and is badly coordinated, also bad tempered and paranoid.

Bill had a reasonable pension from the oil company where he worked. He was trying to persuade them to pay for the family's passage home where he planned to live in comfort at the expense of the welfare state. I took my wife, Pat, to talk to Ms Sunday,Tu, who made it clear that she had very little love or respect for her husband and that she did not want to go to England . He gave me their passports for renewal. They all had British passports except Tu.

Baby sick, so I had to take them to the hospital - much fussing.

New passports returned. The Consul made it very clear that the wife would not be given a visa unless they could prove that they had a home to go to and visible means of support.

Baby sick, asked missionaries to take it to the hospital.

They all went to Bangkok for an interview and managed to convince the Embassy that they would live in a caravan at the bottom of his sister's garden - I think that they were so fed up with him that they wanted to be rid of them all.

Baby sick, but they left for England on January 17th to my great relief.

February 3rd. They have come back. They could not stand the English winter and the welfare state refused them any help.

Baby sick. They have moved to live with Tu's family in Prae, thank goodness.

Two months later he called wanting to meet me on private business. He asked if I had given his wife a black skirt costing B600, and if so was I sleeping with her. I thanked him for the compliment (she was quite pretty) but said no. I then let him speak to Pat who told him that she had given Tu some old clothes for the children, amongst them a black skirt. He then wanted me to go to Prae and speak to his wife who was threatening to abandon him and the children and go to work as a prostitute in Hadyai.

Next day he rang to tell me not to bother. I don't know if that meant that she had left or not. He added that the baby was sick.