The start of a 5 week break in Owerrrouse in Thamuang. I have been looking forward to this for a long time as it over 12 months since I was last here. The effort I have put into my business venture over the two years has been immense and I deserve a holiday. I am really enjoying working for myself. The freedom from corporate rules, regulations and politics is good and my clients are great. I am certain that there some sceptics back in the 'corporate world' that doubted I could make a reasonable living out of writing Wills. It has been hard work because when you do not know what is going to work out, you follow every single idea that pops into the head. As luck has it, some of them worked, and a lot didn't. Anyway, I might not be ordering a new Ferrari but at least I can join Green Flag to rescue me if the trusty Renault breaks down.
Khamma spent 6 wonderful months in Diggle over the winter, but returned to Thamuang in early May to start this year's crops and take over another 3 acres from her mother. That's a lot of rice to nurture, but it needs rain to make it viable. Every farmer in the world has two pet complaints: not enough rain, or too much! Last year there was so much rain Khamma was filling sand bags to stop the floods coming into the front room, but this year there is not enough and you can hear the rice is crying from dehydration. With all the rain we had in England this summer, it seemed like we should swap weather systems. The surest way to achieve this is for me to go to Thamuang and take the rain with me. This was a success and in the first 24 hours in Thamuang it has hardly stopped. In a way I want it to continue as you can almost hear the rice grown and burp as it sucks up the moisture, but on the other hand I have enough of rain in England and could do with sunshine.
It is good to be here though. I slept for 14 hours last night - sheer tiredness from the rush to finish off work for my clients and the journey via Doha to Bangkok en route to Thamuang.
Owerrrouse is really great and Khamma keeps it so clean. It is 4 years since it was built, and looks as good now as it did then
Over the next 6 weeks we plan to re paint outside and inside. You might ask why don't we get somebody to do this for us. The fact is that 'somebody' (ie your typical Thai local looking out for a quick bhat or three) does not know how to paint. You can expect everything to be slopped on with more paint landing on areas where it shouldn't and most of it on the face of the Thai labourer who is convinced they know what they are doing. No this is a job for me, at least supervising (controlling?) the labour force.
After that is air con, or maybe a new motor bike. Now that Yo is at senior school in Ubon and sharing digs with Pell there is a huge demand on the only road worthy motorbike. The other one is a clapped out Honda that was serviced in the last century. It has a braking distance of 3 miles at 15 miles per hour. Not good for touring round NE Thailand. Wait and see on this one - Air Con or Motorbike - what would you do?
Pell had a 'nose job' last week. In her never ending quest to change her already beautiful Thai features into something more 'European', she went ahead to have a bit of filler injected to change from a cute nose to a well 'cute nose'. I'm not sure I can tell the difference. It never fails to amuse me how Asian girls aspire to white Caucasian looks, whilst Caucasian girls aspire to tans to die for. Pell and Khamma are not exceptions despite my constant 'yakking' for them to be as natural as they are already.
I hope you join me over the next six weeks for the latest in Life in Asia and Thamuang.
No comments:
Post a Comment