Update on the house

Khamma tells me the kitchen is finished and looks beautiful. San the builder man has to finish the kitchen roof but otherwise the floor tiles, units, hob and granite work tops are in. The bath has been fitted but the plumbing is currently being installed as is the water supply to the house.

San continues to fit the window shutters and treat and varnish the upstairs floor. I hope he makes a good job of this because, despite my constant 'yak yak', the builders insisted on slopping cement and rendering all over the floor when tiling the bathroom and finishing the inside walls. Khamma was a bit annoyed as well so I expect San will be under scrutiny.

The inside walls are being painted and reported to be looking good.

The main jobs are almost complete but it looks like the final completion date will not be until early August. We plan to move in on the 18 July and all of us are really looking forward to it.

The second breach of the 'make tall' wall has been repaired by dumping about five lorry loads of soil on the outside of the wall to counter balance the pressure from the inside. A simple solution and one that was unanimously agreed upon amongst the men folk. I think this will be OK especially as Khamma's uncle, who is really nice chap and a retired teacher whom I can trust, agrees as well. This is an example where the farang (that's me) probably is best advised to keep quiet and let them decide. They having been building 'make tall' walls in rice fields for donkey's years, what do I know about it?

The other breach will be repaired after the party because it is holding up fairly well, especially as San improvised with a metal guy rope which is attached to the reinforcing steel in the wall at one end and the house pillars at the other. So far the house hasn't budged an inch.

Tomorrow Khamma is going to buy the cow for the blessing party and it will be kept in the field until the early hours of the morning of the 18 July (the big day). It will then be slaughtered and butchered. I do feel a bit sorry for the poor thing but this is another example of life going on and rather than taking the moral high ground or opinionated pomposity, I think it best to join in and enjoy the local customs as much as possible.

As I sit in my home in England on a cold and wet Monday night in July, Thamuang seems a very distant place. But in my mind I see it is alive with Khamma's excited chatter and constant laughter. It is alive with the steady industrious 'toings and froings' demanded by farming rice mixed with the hope and prayers for a decent rainfall. In my mind I can see the colour of the fields stretching into the distance with the lonely figures of people working in them. I can see the sun and feel the warmth of the wind as it gently whisps and glides through the trees. I can see the children playing with a football in the street, or playing badminton and laughing and running around barefoot or riding a bicycle without brakes and flat tyres. It is a place where values are deeply rooted in age old traditions and family life, and although there is a tendency on my part to think that there are secret aspirations for modern comforts and western lifestyles with fancy cars and the all the trappings, there is genuine happiness and contentment and a welcome that comes with no conditions attached. In my mind's eye I can look back from Thamuang to England and wonder who got it right.