Surgery..the patient will live

While in NL, I was having "treatment" for a small cyst in my left eye. Not a major issue really just a bit of a niggle that made it feel red and sore, like I hadn't slept for days... but constant. It also liked to cry for no reason at all... but the Dutch were treating it with eye drops. Sadly after several different types of drop, they agreed that surgery was the best option. Not something I was at  all happy about, as I loath having even the air pressure test on my eye at the optician..

But it needed to be done and we tried to arrange it, but sadly despite my excellent private health insurance... there was a bit of a wait.. And we had an appointment, with Thailand.

So the surgery never happened, and I planned to have it done here, but of course when I took out medical insurance they excluded it from the cover... bugger.. 

But it needed doing, as my eye has been getting angrier and redder as time went on, so I booked an appointment with a specialist eye clinic...They booked me in for a consult at my convenience, and doc had a look, agreed it probably wouldn't respond to any more drops after so long, and he could take it out today...

Ulp.... today... ermm no, I hadn't built myself up to that yet... and we had a road trip planned at the weekend, so we set a date 1 week from then, and sure enough. In I went, a few valium to calm me down, then off to a private room, on the bench, needle in eye to numb... which was the worst bit, I did flinch a lot, that panicked them. But once a pretty nurse held my hand I was a big brave boy and the jab was done. Waited a minute and he was off..snipped or slipped it out...in under a minute. Doc was happy, it was a clean flat cut, so no need to stich it, just keep it well lubricated with drops and take a few pills to avoid swelling.

Now..it was a good outcome, so far at least... 2 days later I don't really have much discomfort and don't seem to need to wear the eyepatch, but it will take a few more days to heal.

However... it fucking scared the shit out of me and I still hate having my eyes messed with... so no way in hell will I be doing Lasik or other eye stuff unless I realllllllly need it.

Total cost, consult, drugs, surgery and a lab biopsy just to be sure, came out just under 20K Baht.... about 520euros.... not bad for instant treatment is it?

There's a lot of people here saying insurance is a mugs game and I kinda see why when you can get things like this done so quickly and relatively cheaply. 

But this was a simple 10min procedure... imagine the cost of a heart stent, or major abdominal surgery, broken bones, cancer care, etc... yes you probably could pay them, up to 10, 20K euros... but the drain on your finances is very real.. 

Though I did this as a private patient, I'm happy to use the government hospitals for any minor ailments or injury I might have, its not free for me, (it is for Jirawan), it might take a bit longer to see specialists, etc... but the cost is very cheap.. So the insurance is protection against big events, high costs and not just comfort.

It is reassuring to know that health care is easy to access and affordable here, lets hope I don't need it too often.

Ahthankyew

Marriage Visa

After being here 4 months, 3 months on the waiting for visa status, 1 month extended awaiting approval. I now have the final 11 month stamp on my marriage visa.

So am now "officially" able to live here, not work, not yet, though not sure there's a real need to work at this point.

Our savings/house equity, are funding the building of our house and future financial needs just fine, and there's a little interest coming from those funds, but that will decrease as it is used for the build... But we have enough to last the 4.5 years until the pensions start to kick in.  A bit more wouldnt hurt though, so hopefully I will get a few bob in book royalties.

My 1st 4 months have been quiet, there's no doubt, we're living a quiet comfortable life in a nice rented house, eating sensibly and not going out too much, though we do like to find nice places to eat, we've resisted the 5000bhat western style places.. We tend to eat locally and cheaply 2 or 3 times a week, and of course Jirawan is in her element cooking up food she picks up for comparativly nothing at the markets. Or just getting premade from the noodle bars. 

I see a lot of expats complaining that Thailand isn't cheap any more.... I suspect they've not been home for a while :D prices may indeed have risen here over the years but they did so in spades back in their home country. Thailand is still cheap as chips as long as you get out of holiday spending mode as quick as possible.

The air quality though....oh thats pretty bad here. Yes we knew about it, yes we were all warned, but wow... somedays its like fog and its going to stay this way for a couple of weeks more at least, maybe a month...It has curtailed some of our trips to landmarks, walk abouts etc...but its also suuuper hot at the moment, temps up to 40-42 are hitting some days, so staying home in the air con room is wise..

But overall, my 1st 4 months have not been too overwhelming, I am failing miserably at learning Thai, and Jirawan isn't the best translator in the world, she tends to have conversations with people I want to ask questions about things, rather than just simple translate and reply... but she can't help chatting away to people. Her friendly nature finds a conversation in even the most mundane of interactions, she's not really interested in how high will the wall be, when the builder has a family story to tell :D

I can't wait for the rains to come and things to cool down and the air to clear, yes I also know those rains are apocalyptic in nature but its going to be wonderful to see and really smeel some fresh air.

Yes 1st 4 months, great, next 4 months, expecting rain, then looking forward to the cooler "winter" season where will will do a bit more exploring. Next year for sure though we're going to bug out and go south during the burning season... Condos in Hua Hin and places like that are cheap enough when we're no longer paying rent here.

Ahthankyew

I hope I'm wrong.....

I think I have found a potential downside to living in Thailand..

Bloody immigrants.... or more specifically the type of ex pats who join up local ex pat groups and do nothing but moan and complain.. have 0 sense of humour and are all opinionated mostly right maga types, or extreme left, or hippies floggin crystals.... I mean not all, but so so so many utter pricks on those forums its scary.. And when you see some of the posts, drill down to discover they are flat earth, anti vax, 60+yo with 20yo commodity wives, that rent cos they don't trust their wives to buy... oh dear god..there is a pattern.

I'm hoping its just a case of the loud ones are the pricks and the nice ones are generally quiet and rolling their eyes.. but... it does seem that for the most part ex pats here are entitled nasty pricks.

but as I say, I hope I am wrong.. 

However if not, thats fine, the very nice thing about being my age with no real cares or stress on me is I can literally walk away and ignore such people.. I don't need them in my life.

Meanwhile my eye rolling exercises are showing great results as is my block button.

Ahthankyew

Happiness is measured in many ways.

Having my babies back home is one of them
I shipped 4 over, including my Vintage Les Paul, Goldie, and my MadDog acoustic, hand picked from a small shop under railway arches in Ramsbottom of all places,...both very nice guitars which I like to play, but nothing very special....

These 2 however and very special, much loved parts of me, and I have been a bit lost without them. I did buy a cheap Acoustic to play but didnt enjoy it. And a nice G&L electric, which was more fun, but not quite my thing.... now I have my babies back, maybe some creative juices will start flowing again.


Ahthankyew

that 

Margaret, Goldie, Breedlove and Maddog are coming home

The four guitars I couldnt part with, are finally on the last leg of their trip.. After an absolute age being shuffled around, stuck in a container, being stored, being loaded and waiting.. they are finally going to be here on Friday....oh and lots of other stuff too, but my babies, especially Margaret are on their way home to pappa...

Im very excited, also a bit nevous, especially for the 2 acoustics, even though they were packed well, such intruments dont like wide ranging temp changes, so I hope all is ok when they get here.

I will update when they arrive.

Ahthankyew

Parkinsons Law multiplied

Back when I was doing Project managment, I was aware of a thing called Parkinsons law, which basically outlines the fact, that any work you have to do in a given time, expands into that given time

So give someone a 15 min job, and allow them a day to do it...it takes a day.

Well I've discovered there's a catalyst to Parkinsons Law... its called Thai weather.... its hot... so so so hot at the moment... And if you try to do ANY kind of work outdoors....it's going to take the entire day...there's no way to rush, or hurry. You need breaks to catch your breath, gulp down a gallon of cold water and to just stop for a minute to check on how much is left.

Yes you guessed it, I was doing a job outside, something I thought was simple, about an hour/90 mins, and it utterly destroyed me. 

I added to our garden watering/cooling system. Extending the mini hose to the upper part of our central tree and then around the fence to our small "alpine" (no it wasn't me that put it there) garden, so that when the water is turned on, strategically spaced nozzles, spray a fine mist out into the garden to give the little plants a drink/soaking.. 

It was a great idea... it almost works perfectly....there's a slight issue with water pressure by the time it gets to the last couple of nozzles, but it does still give a thirst quenching drip feed to the plants under it.

But it took me all day, and I am physically destroyed....

I'm going to have to adapt to this heat, but its hard work, 37+ today, and with poor air quality it wasn't easy.

But its done, for now, I have another misting set coming in a few days which will do the other side of the house, which is a smaller amount of trees/hedges to soak. So it will only take me... a day to do.

Oh and Immigration came to see me on Monday last, and didn't ask me a single question, but told Jirawan, its all fine, I just need to go get my passport stampled the day before it runs out for a full marriage Visa... So...I get to stay :D

Ahthankyew

We're a two bike family :D

I love my "little" GPX DZ3, its nippy, quite powerful and honestly, a good looking bit of kit.. But its a wee bit too big for my wee wifie, so Jirawan can't really drive it. (though I've seen smaller Thai ladies on much bigger bikes). But she wanted to be a bit less reliant on the car, especially since there are currently lots of queues at the petrol stations as people panic buy fuel.

So she went for lessons this weekend, passed her test and went to get  her license :D After which we went out and bought her a bike. We went 1st to a 2nd hand dealer but they wanted a lot for a Honda Scoopy with 117K km on it, 40K.... a new one costs 57..... so we went to the dealer and bought a new one.

Amazingly, she picked one off the forcourt, and they cleaned it up and got it ready for her to drive home as soon as she paid for it.. Never seen that before, usually there's a lot of inspections and stuff... but sure enough..after she filled in the forms, there it was, ready, and 10mins of salesman explaining the buttons later, she was ready to go.

I was a bit worried about her driving a new unfamiliar bike home, and suggested she go for a short run around, then meet me at the car park across from the dealer to decide who would ride it home... I waited and waited....and waited a bit more,  and it became clear she either had a horrible crash, or had headed straight for home... So I went home...

I kinda winced a bit when she was not there on my arrival, she'd had a good 10-15mins head start... but not to worry, 5 mins later, she showed up with the biggest grin I've ever seen (since our wedding at least).

So now we have a new Scoopy in the family, and it is rather nice, Jirawan is happy.. life is good.

Ahthankyew

Getting our youtube channel up and running.

I had kinda wanted to get our retirement channel up and running before we actually left The Netherlands. I thought the process itself of applying for visa's and getting goods shipped etc would be interesting. It really wasn't. I did make a few videos but honestly they were dull as ditchwater.. so we've left it till we got here before we started to make content... and its now starting to get a bit easier as I now am getting better at editing the videos, and just need to try to make more interesting content.

I don't have any hopes that this channel will be a money maker, a lot of people seem to rely on youtube channels as a source of income and are very diligent about making regular content, all shiny and relevent to their subscribers needs.

We don't really care... We will make videos about everyday things that happen here, and some things that I might find interesting. Of course documenting the build of our house, good/bad/wtf on a regular basis will be of interest to lots of people I think, many retiree's come here with different ideas about renting/buying/building a house.. So our content will help them do some research on that.

But for now, Im just learning how to put videos together make them interesting and hope that we can get the subscriber count up.

Today I uploaded 2, including this test of our GoPro 13 camera, which its pretty awesome.

I hope people find it interesting, but if not, at least I have a few people reading this who might like the content as it will document how we're getting on in Thailand.



Ahthankyew

Clinging to some false hope?

Our scales may be wrong.... today it recorded 99.xx kg... last week it recorded 105.xx 

I either had a really bad case of the shits (which I did but...) or the scales are just not that accurate...

either way...walking daily, building up to a light jog and trip to the communal gym. By the time I move to the new house later in the year I want to be 75 kilos, 30 years old, and have a full head of none grey hair.

maybe

edit... yeah scales didn't work on the slightly soft floor surface on the stairs... The hard tiles in the living room give accurate readings... Im fat.

Ahthankyew

so.. something something, weight...something

In the back of my mind... way back... I had an idea that coming to Thailand, I'd lose a bit of weight, due to smaller thai meals and a bit more movement. 

Well after 2 months living here, I've put on about 5 kg... so that was wrong wasn't it.

I need to do something about it.. I might have to lock myself in a condo for a couple of months away from Jirawans, you want to try? Encouragment?

I really do need to drop the weight, summer is just round the corner and the temps will start to rise and there's nothing worse that sweaty fat men trying to clean out their folds.

ahhh So much temptation here... but gotta do something.

Ahthankyew

we have a design

We have the plan outline for our house, still subject to some twiddles but we put in our feedback on the 1st draft which then resulted in a nice 2nd draft... we like it... so ...we're off

Still have to work out aesthetics and a few things like placement of switches/power etc... but as a working draft we have our plan. Builder will start to break ground early next month, hopefully we'll get the bulk of the work done before Rainy season, cos things will just stop then.

Its a 4/5bed house, one room is sectioned as an office but its really a bedroom without and ensuite so its a good size, not massive, the space isn't a lot more than we have in our current rental home but large kitchens, an Lshaped lounge dinning area, and nice clear bedrooms will give us plenty of space to host family and friends without living on top of each other.

Exciting times. 

Ahthankyew

new teeth day.....

God Im old... when I have to be happy at getting a new set of falsies from the dentist.

Well anyway, got a new set, feel different but thats to be expected.. seem to do the biting, chewing, eating, not looking like a Maga voter when I smile bits ok,

Not much more to report... recovery from cold/flu is progressng, just a bit of coughing left.

Ahthankyew

Did I say the worst was over?

Oh I was wrong there....yes for a day we felt better and ventured out, but rather than continue to improve we returned to cough, sneeze, uggg 

Now a solid week + of feeling crap and having variable energy and concentration levels.

So this is for sure a 7 -10 day virus and we're not going to get an early release... but it is what it is.

No movement yet on the design for the house, its in progress, we did drive to the plot again to make some video for our soon to be updated channel, but almost immediatly headed home for a nap.

Can't honestly do a huge amount until we get well enough to not need a nap after every tiny task.

Weather here is lovely though, 30-33degs every day and getting a bit warmer every week as summer creeps in. I wish I could get out a bit more to enjoy it before it gets too extreme and we end up hiding indoors with the aircon on blast.

Anyway, trip to the dentist tomorrow to pick up new teeth after my old ones broke... I was supposed to pick them up last Friday but I was starting to get ill and cancelled to save them me being patient zero. 

Should get some design drafts in the next few days which will just be a baseline design to build on.

Ahthankyew

The worst is over...but the damage is done

So for about 3 days we were jibbering sneezing, coughing wrecks... no kidding, it was horrible, well on track to be the worst cold we've ever had.

Today, I at least, am over the worst of it, the brain fog has gone, but still very low energy and sore ribs and lungs and a very red shiny dry nose, so will need a few more days to get those fixed. Jirawan has taken a bit longer, but she's starting to get over it.

As I was feeling a wee bit better, I took the time to get my new PC all set up ready for its daily chores, and so far so good, took me 2 days :D 1st day 1 little thing done meant resting for 2 hours, but today, as long as I was slow, bending down, plugging things in, lifting things, installing things, it went pretty well

With a bit more mental acuity tomorrow I can get back to work I hope.

I got my refund for the scam PC, which of course I still have, I will fit in a nice little ssd for it, ,and sell it, for what it actually is, not really got much use for a low end mini. I can use either my linux I5 or my N100 for lower end things... 

Ahthankyew

Same illnesses then?

Jirawan got struck down low with a nasty cold, she's been pretty sick,  lots of tea, ginger and honey, and a trip to the hospital, not so much for the cold, but to register there... They did give her some of the basic ingredients for lemsip, so it will help.

And sure enough a few days after her I start getting the running nose and sore throat and cough, so my turn now.. so... need a bit of bedrest for a few days and keep my head low.

Its good to know we have not totally left Europe behind us. A cold is a cold no matter how warm it is.

In the meantime the house design is progressing, Jirawan is making suggestions for things she likes on Facebook, and we hope to get a final design withing 2 weeks, after which they will break ground and get started.

Im going to start making a serious vlog to maintain our retirement website... should be fun.

Ahthankyew

We bought the land

Well we're off.  We bought the land 641sq meters,  and we'll have a few more meetings over the next week or 2 to decide on the design of the house.. It will be a 4 bed (maybe a small 5th) house 3 or 4 bathrooms, Side garage, and a large open living/dining area and a large kitchen/dining area, as well as an external thai kitchen,

We could make a massive house but we're going to just make better use of the space, having the garage on the side and not part of the ground floor, means we can open that space out to big wide open lounge.

All the rooms will be expanded a little, 20% or so.

If needed we might do a 5th room, more of a store than a bedroom, but we'll see.

And of course we'll have plenty of space for a large garden, with fruit trees and flower beds and a gazebo/sala to sit in.

Exciting.

Ahthankyew

We're gonna build

Yup, we've decided, and put a small token  downpayment on, the building of a new house... We liked the 4 bed house so much but the worry that it was a bit too small niggled us, so we are buying a plot across from it, which is 2x the size of the 1st house, and building a house 50% bigger with garden and side parking, so that the car park area does not take any of the living space away.
Basically more living room area, larger kitchen, bigger bathrooms (with a bath in the main ensuite), a dedicated office, garage on the side and room for fruit trees and a veg patch.

Early days, initial talks and chat with both the land seller, the architect and builder.... but we agree. 

We are going to build our dream home.

We hopefully wll have it all done by October, and in the mean time we'll start buying things for the new home.

Exciting times ahead.

Ahthankyew

Bike was delivered today, they took a nice delivery photo, but for some reasons decided to obscure my face.... oh well

But its here its nice, need to take it easy for 1K to run it in, so no red lining, they delivered it with a thimble full of petrol, so 1st job was to find petrol, which is easy normally but with roadworks nearby its a bit of a trek around the houses to get to the station. Anyway the thimbleful made it, and it then took just under 300bhat to fill it, not bad at all.

I don't yet have full accident insurance though, and bizzarely I am still allowed to drive without it beign fully registered, but over the next week or two It'll take to get the paperwork sorted to get a full reg and with it a full accident cover....bizzare

It's no Shadow, but it is a nippy comfy scooter, so I think this will last me a while as long as someone does not run me off the road or pull out, or change lanes, or just run up my backside as is quite common here...

relax..relax, I'll be fine. I was properly trained in defensive riding, Im not going to be a lane switching numpty...yet.

Ahthankyew

We're going for it, twice

We have had a look at quite a few houses recently, and most of them have been dissapointing.. yesterday we went to see one we first saw on Youtube a year ago and totally fell in love. We still love it but, its not even close to being viable for us, depsite being a good size and lovely fruit tree filled gardens, it didn't deliver.. It smelled of damp and worse, turned out to be miles away from Chiang Mai town... closer infact to the neighbouring city of Lamphun.. a nice place but... not Chiang Mai

So.. we're exploring the build our own place more forcefully, as noted that almost perfect place is almost perfect, but the builder could build us our perfect place in the plot opposite it, with space for garden and a bigger living area and bedrooms as well as at least one bath in one of the Bathrooms...

So... we're going to go for it.. Meetings are being arranged next week to discuss how to proceed. Basically Jirawan buys the land (I'm not allowed), and we pay the builder to build. It will be within our budget and give us a lot of say over how the final house is built.. I don't like WC's next to the Kitchen for example (ugg), which are common here. We can dictate the lay out of both the Euro and Thai Kitchen, make sure we have a living room with room for nice big sofa's facing TV's and have good sized bedrooms for guests, as well as a purpose built office and nice terrace for relaxing in the sun.

It will be great. I'll update you on this as we go. And it will make for an interesting vlog.


Also I'm buying a new bike, well a scooter, but one big enough to handle my bulk and do a bit of longer distances.. the little 150cc's that are rife here tend to scream a bit when I give them a bit of welly. So I've gone for a slightly bigger 280cc GPX DZ3 SPORT. 

At a later date I might.... might get myself a more traditional bike bike, like a Royal Enfield, but really my cruiser days are over and I can't see myself buying a Hog or another Shadow like most of the old fat bikers here, so this will be the runabout when Jirawan is out with the car and a bit of nipping into town for shopping. 
The car is good, but its not like my little Kia, and needs the air con running full tilt all the time which guzzles gas, even though its half the cost here, we're using twice as much, so this will be a cleaner more economical runabout for me.

Ahh, as I type this I realise Im not going to get a comment from mum, telling me Im crazy to ride a bike here and to be careful....but Im sure she'd be happy to know I'm settling into how things are done here. Miss you mum.

Ahthankyew

Out door cooking

Cooking outdoors is a big part of Thai cooking, thats why many ex pat homes have 2 kitchens, one for the western tastes (hello) and one for the Thai's and their chilli mad cooking (have you met my wife). So even though we have a small kitchen here, at the rental house, we realised we needed to do more with our outside terrace, so we got some out door cooking stuff. Need to get some charcoal and gas/fittings.. They didn't come with them...strange.. But soon we can cook all the thai food we need without gassing the termites.

Ahthankyew