I have not been back to Thamuang since the house blessing mainly due to amount of work I have in Singapore, but also because it isn't exactly a direct route to Ubon Ratchathani airport from Singapore. It is a strange fact but, in their wisdom, the Thai authorities have decided that the majority of domestic flights will fly in and out of Bangkok's old Don Muang airport. So if you arrive at the new international airport and want to travel internally in Thailand you have to catch a bus or risk a taxi to drive the hour or so to DMK. Not only that the flights from Don Muang are very early in the morning making it a logistical nightmare. Air Asia are the only carrier allowed to have domestic flights from the new airport, but there is only one flight a day to Ubon and it departs at the wrong time to make a reliable connection from Singapore. So I need a bit more than a weekend to make it worthwhile to go to visit the village. This means I have more chance to explore Singapore and I have visited some new places in the last couple of weeks. The Arab Quarter in particular has become a favourite. But more on this some other time.
Khamma and I speak everyday so I keep up with what's happening in the village. There was a wedding yesterday where Khamma's cousin, whom she has not seen for ten years, tied the knot with a guy from Japan. Earlier in the week the weather was very wet and she wasn't able to leave the house for two days. But the rice fields were grateful for the prolonged rains and all is well again in the fields now. Fickle farmers! Always too much or not enough!
The builders have finished so she is busy tidying up and getting rid of the sand, soil and stone used in the cement mixing and generally trying to make the place less like the building site it was.
It was Mother's Day on Tuesday and the kids made Khamma feel very special by doing all the cooking and generally pampering her. Also Khamma's mother was treated and spoilt a bit and it all seemed to get emotional with everybody being kind and loving. Certainly life has changed for them in the last few months and it is good to see them so happy. Yo is working hard at school and he was very proud to be 'top of the class' in essay writing.
Khamma's sister, Fern, is going back to France in September to work in a friend's restaurant, but she couldn't resist the temptation to buy a puppy dog from the Ubon pet shop. Sadly the poor little mut had the same fate as Snow White and died barely two weeks after arriving in its new home. These poor animals are taken away from their mother's too early and cannot survive the tough village life.
Fern is having a birthday / leaving party next week. It promises to be a wild night.
Meanwhile the plan is to take a breather from the house building project for a couple of months to get our breath back and then build a rice store for the bumper harvest we are expecting and to upgrade the furniture and things like the television, sofa, pictures on the wall and that sort of thing.
Khamma is coming down to Singapore in a couple of weeks and I am really looking forward to that. She will brighten up Singapore and the apartment with her smile and laughter.
I can't honestly say I have done anything exciting this week. It has been relentless at work but at last it is the weekend and wall to wall sport from Beijing and the UK. The ladies marathon is on Sunday (good luck Paula!), the start of the premier league season (will Man U carry on where they left off?) and a couple of good sessions in the continuing quest to keep some level of personal fitness with a couple of runs on along the beach and a session or two in the fitness centre.
Life might be a roller coaster but you need a rest every now and then.
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