This weekend!!!

Well the builder is still confident they will hit their 31st Oct Deadline, but.... honestly I'm not, but I'm not massively worried, and for sure there's going to be a list of snagging jobs to fix that will need to be addressed next week, when in theory we will be in place.

The main issues at the moment are that the electrics are not yet in place and connected to the grid... and as a knock on effect, the solar is not fully installed, panels are up but the inverter and batteries are not in place yet....There's also a complication in that the power load in the kitchen was not properly set up to handle 3 ovens... despite me telling the spark we had 3 ovens and him even repositioning the sockets behind the ovens to make plugging them in easier... but all 3 socket were on a single circuit with a 16amp breaker... each oven take 12-15amps...ermmm yeah that was a strange mistake for an experienced spark to make.  A hasty rewire has been arranged to add 3  circuits to handle them.

Plumbing is also stalled, mainly due to some missing mixer taps. We changed our spec several months ago to add a hot water boiler to feed the 3 bathrooms on the right,  (east/west...no idea) side of the house, so instead of a single cold feed they now have hot and cold but for whatever reasons, no one prompted us to choose new taps to handle the dual water flow....And there's been a slightly mad delay  in getting those taps sorted resulting in a freeze on the plumbing work. Also hot water heaters for the guest room shower, were not in our contract, but again no one actually pointed it out.

Granite tops are also slightly delayed... won't be ready until Tuesday...hmmm means we can't really use the kitchen properly for a few days, but again... not really a biggie but annoying that we get told today, and not last Friday...cos we ordered it 3 or 4 Fridays ago.

Windows however, and the bedroom/balcony door are replacement in progress and looking 100% better than the cheap crap that was there before...Furniture is mostly in place, though still waiting some wardrobes and sideboards for the guest rooms... We fitted Index Wardrobes in the master bedroom...the fit isn't exact sadly, but it's close enough for jazz. We do still need to buy a coffee table, and a load of bedding.
 
Jobs still to do.
Fit cooker hood,

Kitchen backsplash tiles.
Fix PEA reported issues to allow us to get meter. (and the knock on, of solar, but that's not the builders issue)
Rewire power and install ovens.
Final outdoor clean down and painting
Seal and install locks on some windows.
Glaze the front window.

Several water faucets to be fitted to blue pipes (for example the washing machine point)
Change handle on front gate (which we really don't like and will point out during handover)
Install boiler/bath and bathroom sinks and a granite sink top in the master.(next Tuesday...grrr)
Finish spreading subsoil to level the ground
Fit heater to guest shower
Fit heater to kitchen sink
Install grease trap (and presumably sink?) may be delayed until the counter top is in place and sink installed. (which by the way I have not seen yet...)
 
Only today and tomorrow left to do these jobs.......though I can't hold them responsible for things delayed by granite... So overall I'm not confident, though I would not be surprised if the worker numbers double today and tomorrow to get these things done.
Hand over is scheduled on the 31st, which of course gives me a chance to point out issues, then they can
deal with snag list which already has a few issues like a light switch not working and some slightly wonky tiles on the kitchen counter.
We can also point out any other issues that might crop up for a year after handover.. so we're covered for any big or small issues.

On the plus side, we don't move out of the rental until the 18th, so if we need to stay here a few more days that's not a problem, we're not being chased down the street.. We will do a slow gentle transition..

Then stage 2 begins... Jirawan gets to design her fantasy Garden
 
Stage 3... Thai Kitchen, Laundry point and Patio..... Again Jirawan gets to have her choice of Thai kitchen, I'll help with sorting out the patio.

Phew, I have missed out some things for sure but that's where we are.... as far as I can remember

Ahthankyew

It's coming

Its been months in the calendar, but now we're down to the last week... The new house is almost ready.

There's a little stress, some issues still with windows, bedroom/balcony doors, solar waiting for PEA power to be turned on...but all will be fixed before the 31st... 

And then we have to work out how to make all the document changes I need as a foreigner living in Thailand.... what fun.

It really is very exciting though, for such a long time things have been disjointed and unclear, but these last couple of weeks we see things that were left hanging being finished and delivery of items/fittings in place.

The most exciting for me has been the new kitchen, and the final processing of the car port/drive. This week we will be able to park the cars/bikes on our drive.

We got an official address, though strangely we don't have a street name, which I am sure will make for a few deliveries going astray until google maps starts to take note that Brian and Jirawan live here....

Furniture deliveries also start this week, assuming they can find it. a bit too early for my liking but there wasn't anyway to stall them longer... some paintwork is still underway so lets hope we don't get splashes on our new couch/sideboard/table/bed etc...

One small luxury we have though is we have 18 days still on our rental lease, so we can move in over the course of a few days with not too much hassle, for sure some things like internet/TV won't be switched over at the flick of a switch, but we'll be able to time the final jump and a couple of truck loads of clothes and other things with relative ease

The only currently outstanding issue, is the wardrobes for the master bedroom, we were considering having the craftsman who made our kitchen do fitted robes, but the price was high...way over our budget, so we're going to have to do a quick rethink and get something more budget friendly from Ikea. But that will be after our move, rather than before... oh well.

Ahthankyew

Cold, Covid, man flu??

Must be a seasonal thing, around this time last year we were both struck down with a mega flu that took us off our feet, and its happened again!

Started with Jirawan having a bad cough, then getting more and more tired before developing a low grade fever. At which point I told her to get to bed and rest..I kept her pumped up with orange juice and light snacks and cold meds. She basically slept for 2 days... when her fever broke she was still tired and listless but improving.

At which point, Florence Nightingale here, started coughing and getting tired and developing a mild fever... I'm not blessed with Jirawans ability to nod off at the 1st opportunity but I certainly had to take a lot of paracetamol and cough mix...and stayed in bed as much as I was able.

We're over the worst, but as with all these respiratory virii,  the cough lingers and our ribs ache... we'll need a few more days.. of chilling.

But I still had to go to the house daily to take the update photo's and videos and progress is really accelerating in these last few weeks, maybe days even.. A couple of minor issues with the windows not being as we asked but an honourable compromise was reached.

We are on track.. Oct 31 is move in day..18 days.... exciting....and scary.. the costs ramp up..but we'll almost on budget...we will make it.

Ahthankyew

Spend spend spend

Or more accurately, try not to spend, spend, spend.

The hunt for bargains is ongoing, we're finding we can save quite a bit on things when we shop around. And also there's a temptation to spend big on things when we find really nice stuff.

The intention is to furnish the house as minimal as possible, at least to start, we can add things month by month as we go, but this rash of spending as we move in needs to have a hard limit....though don't ask me what the limit is, I was hoping 250K but 300K is probably closer. I will itemise things soon.

But we're doing ok, we've got beds sorted now, TV's, matresses, kitchen units, ovens, hob, hood, couch, Table, chairs, sideboards, units, wardrobes, and at least a couple of options on Fridges and freezers.

We overestimated on the garden, it will be around half what we expected, and we found good deals on a large table, matresses and ovens... as well as the kitchen units, saving us a pretty penny which allows me to get TV's and matresses on order before we move.

Jirawan gets to let her hair down on the garden now and stll keep a bit of cash in reserve for plants, or home gadgets.

We certainly overspent on hand made wardrobes... and one of the beds....But they were just too nice to not buy.

However... as far as we can see, we've got all the main things sorted out... and more or less under budget even if that budget is not totally fixed down, its not red....yet.

But now we have things like bedding, towels, crockery, pots, pans, storage bins, shelves, and things we've not thought of yet... But will discover we need the day after we move in.

There are still some final installments on the build to pay though, almost 1m baht in total, which leaves us with about 2m to fund these last few bits and feed ourselves for a year... its actually quite tight.

Lets hope we can pull this off..

Ahthankyew

Bugger...its fried

The phone is fried... there was water in it...probably from a showe accident where the shower was not pointing down and sprayed all over the bathroom sink...where I had my phone...

But bottom line its screwed, they can't fix it, it still works, and mobile seems to be ok, but wi-fi is dead.. so its kaput.. had to buy a new one.

11K ouch.... an Iphone 13, just 3 months after buying that iphone 12...grrr

But I have learned from this my bank and phone locks are now totally different codes.
5 hours or so later, the new phone is working ok. Lets hope I don't need to replace it in another 3 months.

Ahthankyew

Feckkk I feel so naked

My phone had a small brain hemorrhage this morning, it turned out it has a major fault requiring some internal surgery.

Took it back to the place I bought it, who acknowledged it used to be one of theirs, even though I've lost the receipt and they will fix it...3000bhat (normally 5000 for phones not bought there)

Im ok with that as thats cheaper than buying a new phone and all the hassle of getting it set up again. But what did unnerve me was Jirawan willingly game them my unlock passcode to test it out when they fix it.

Which in turn potentially gives someone access to all my other passwords and app access....

I know Thais are honest, and trusting, but I wish she'd translated his request to me before giving him the numbers...

going to stress a bit now.. Lets hope my bank accounts don't get drained in the next few days.

Ahthankyew

Quickest way to get poor

furnishing a house......

And we've just started. So far we have 1 bed, 1 dinner table, 8 chairs, a sideboard, and now we're agreeing details on a fitted kitchen (partial) made from reclaimed teak, which sounds expensive but compared to the kitchen company prices we investigated its actually at the lower end.. Some of those specialist kitchen places are seriously taking the piss..Having it made by a Baan Tawai craftsman will ensure a solid sturdy set of properly fitted cabinets...maybe lacking soft close doors and sensor controlled lights with auto opening hidden drawers and other bollox they add these days, but still it will look amazing.

Bloody expensive though... And we've still got 3 more beds/mattresses, 3 TV's 6 bedside tables, Sofa, a coffee table, bookcases.
Wardrobes...oh god wardrobes...probably fitted in master, but likely some cheaper options for now in the other rooms. If the fitted kitchen goes as planned, we'll probably get the same craftspeople to do the bedroom(s).

AND!!!! ovens, hobs, fridges, freezers, fryers, plates, cutlery....

Christ the list is endless, and the cost seems to be just as endless.... bargain hunting though, doing our best.

Ahthankyew

Getting ready

We have less than 2 months now till the house is finished, I'm not totally confident they will have it done in time maybe a week over, but we're allowing for that by extending our rental lease a month.

We've started to turn our attention to the not as obvious as it seems, task of furnishing the house. And that means a lot of looking around in different places. We've been to Baan Tawai a few times and bought some stuff...expensive for some things, but bargains for others. Bed, and sideboard, a bit pricey, a stunning 80-100yo table thats being refubed for bargain...even so a drain on the funds.

Now we're trying to find a kitchen...or more accurately half a kitchen, since the builders will provide us with a sink, hob and counter station, with cupboards, along the window wall, but we need a fitted section on the other wall..

Prices are absurd, honestly, what a con, same basic requirements of 2 tall stacks holding 3 ovens and some store, and 3 base units holding drawers and/or cupboards.  Quotes so far range from 50-350K for basically the same prebuild mdf crap.... 

We are also looiking into having them made by a Baan Tawai builder, this is not uncommon, but again I fear it will be on the high side...

We will get a few more quotes and decide, but Im thinking that ikea is going to be the best overall value at around 70K and with free fitting....we'll see.

Follow our daily shorts for progress on the house, and we'll do a few more update videos on it in general as we lead up to the move in, and calm down stage.

Ahthankyew

Walking in straight lines

Its gone.. the BPPV has gone. For the last 4 or 5 days I've woken up and managed to turn around and get out of bed without the room spinning. And walk in straight lines again, not that I appeared, falling down 1 legged man walking, but I was veering off line a lot.
A trip to the doc for my follow up, had her do the test to see if it was BPPV and it did nothing... despite me holding my breath in anticipation of a monster spin, nothing happened.

She has declared me BPPV free, at least for this session, but the thing is it can happen again... bummer

But hopefully if I do the Epley manouvers myself I can treat it and I know what drugs to get to help..

Horrible, horrible experience, I really hope its not going to be a frequent visitor.

Ahthankyew

Starting to feel normal...for now

After another set of Epley manouvers on Monday, which did trigger a dizzy spell at the time, I've had several non dizzy days... for the 1st time in over a month, I was able to turn over in bed, get up, and bend down without feeling mega dizzy..

I am starting to feel a lot more myself too, since the dizzy spells do tend to leave me feeling a bit uggh and detached for hours at a time... which can give me issues with my mood and my attention span, especially for coding.

But that last 2 maybe 3 days, I've felt ahem...normal :D which is nice and I've been doing some coding, and getting stuff done... Very nice!

Too early to say I've been cured, or if its just another few % toward the 100% but I am certainly feeling a lot better. 

Watch this... tomorrow I will post about a relapse.....so keeping the fingers crossed!

Ahthankyew

The Honeymoon is over.

This is something I have noticed more strongly as I've been a bit ill with the vertigo and limited in my moving around. I can't drive too much, Jirawan does that for now, and I certainly can't ride my bike, so I content myself with a bit of coding in my office and pottering around the house. I'd love to do a bit more cooking but we don't really have the facilities here in the rental, so I'm looking forward to having a proper kitchen in a few months.

The days highlight is my trip to the house site to record my videos and take my 1 frame per day pic. I watch a bit of Western TV on Netflix or whatever and I'm quite content with what has become a fairly uneventful day.

This is fine, and in fact its more than fine its totally normal.. I'm no longer "impressed" by Thailand, its all just very normal and ordinary. A trip to town isn't filled with wonder, I know what to expect, I  know, most of the time, where we are going and what we will see. I kinda know most of the good food things to buy, and avoid,  and I'm kinda bored with temples....well only the ones' I've seen already seen.

This is normal, it comes to everyone after a while when you move to a new place. I felt exactly the same when I moved to Breda, and Manchester, years ago. A sense of confusion and wonder at the new sights, smells, people you suddenly find around you.

Inititally your brain is scanning everything, making maps, plotting where you are and how to get home, and building an internal set of rules of where to go, how to get there, what to expect.

But that initial phase, the honeymoon, is over, I'm content, and I'm happy with where I am.. I don't seek the excitment of a new market, or a new shopping mall.. I just enjoy the calm of knowing the market is there if I need it, and the malls are a bit too expensive for most things, find a local shop instead... familiarity has bred both contempt and confidence in living in Chiang Mai.

And this is often the point where a lot of ex pats, up-sticks and run... they miss that excitment of new things to learn, new places to go....They don't want the honeymoon to be over, they crave more and decide Chiang  Mai, or Bangkok, or Pattaya isn't of interest to them.

I have seen a LOT of videos of expats falling out of love with Thailand..due to the end of the honeymoon. Their reasons for moving on are so timid, I wonder why they even chose Thailand in the 1st place. Too hot, too expensive, too quiet, too noisy, too hard to make money (duh!), too whatever, its an excuse.

Not me.. I'm loving it even more, the familiarity of  new things I now find comforting, learning from mistakes, or poor assumption is becoming easier to handle, the ease of just having a nice quiet day is exactly what I craved, the total and utter lack of care for earning money or responsibility was exactly what I craved... and its awesome.

The house construct is ongoing, and we can't wait to make the move, Jirawan wants me to be a bit more social and also keep some sensible hours (I tend to tinker on the computer till the wee small hours) and I think she's right, but for now, I just want to unwind all the tension and western BS out of me, and soak up the good stuff here... Weather despite the rain, food, friendliness, simplicity of getting things done....all awesome.

I'm home.. the honeymoon is over and the marriage is strong and growing.

Ahthankyew

Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?

yeah it is getting better, the vertigo has been a bit persistent and there are still certain head positions that trigger it, especially lying down in bed, if I turn too quick.  But it is reducing, and today after my 4th visit to the clinic, the doctor was very pleased to see a marked improvment, despite my slight relapse last week.

So another appointment in 2 weeks, with instructions to call if I have a relapse or if I want to cancel.

Also.... I can give a bit more of a report on the "cure" for my 3,2, you're going to shit yourself, 1, issue.

Fasting in the daytime is definitely working, not 100%,  there are still some days where I get the 3, 2, 1 go signals, but overall, as long as I don't eat in the daytime I can comfortably travel around a bit, and should I need to go, I get a bit more time to go..so its more of a t-minus 4 minute countdown now, which means I can duck into a mall or cafe toilet.

So if the vertigo and the urgent bowel issues get resolved soon I might be able to venture out into the town a bit more than I/we currently do... well as long as its not raining.

Ahthankyew

This is not...an improvment.

The Vertigo.... still got it

Overall its been fairly managable, unpleasant at times, but mostly confined to periods where I was lying in bed, and  turning on one side or another... occasionally leaning sideways to look inside the fridge... 

But generally it wasn't impacting much on my day, but for safety and an abundance of caution, I decided not to drive or ride the bike. A dizzy spell while travelling could be quite nasty.

Yesterday we went for our 3rd check with the doctor and she again did a series of positional placements designed to move the crystals in my ear into safer spots... but I think she made it worse. Much much worse.

The actual head tilt this time produced, the...worst...dizzy..falling into a cavern... experience ever... just monumental dizzy... apparently she'd never seen my eyes bounce around as fast to date... The vertigo attack causes Nystagmus to occur and boy did it occur.. It was so ovewhelming that it took nearly a minute to pass rather than the normal 10-15 secs,  and she decided only to do 1 cycle of positions.

I assumed that I'd get the usual after effect, a little ikky feely for a few mins, then basically normal but not cured... not so....not so at all.

Ok, so she wants be back in 5 days... and didn't give me any more Serc 24 meds to control the dizzyness... apparently they just make me happy (never been so bloody miserable in fact) So on the surface this seemed positive.... but I noticed as I was walking to the car, that I was having trouble keeping a straight line...actually quite a lot of trouble.

And when we got moving in the car, I also noticed that I felt incredibly motion sick the whole trip, so much so that half way I asked Jirawan to stop and we'd go get some noodles, just to give my head a break.

Now normally after a quite bad dizzy spell, in bed for example when I get up I feel a bit ugg for an hour or so, then feel fine as long as I avoid another dizzy spell.. but yesterday... the whole fucking day... I was unable to walk around, look around the house, or just basically engage with the physical reality of life... I felt like utter shit the whole day... and spent most if it in a recliner chair keeping my head as still as possible, it was genuinly awful.

Today I've been up about an hour... I don't feel quite as shit, but I am still experiencing the dizzy when I look around or try to walk...I'm a drunk without the benefits.... and I don't like it.

Jirawan is going to go to the pharmacy and get more Serc 24, to see if it helps, if so I will point this out to the doc... but I'm really struggling with this.  2 weeks so far... I've seen online reports it can go in a few days or a few months... it better get tae fuck a bit quicker than that.

Ahthankyew

Update... I got some more Betahistine Dihydrochloride which is basically serc 24 and... about 4 hours later started to feel human again... symptroms have reduced considerably... I will discuss with the doctor on Tuesday.

Update 2 I postponed my appointment as I do feel considerably better, with almost...almost..no vertigo for 2 days on the trot.. I dunno however if this is due the the Serc masking the condition... so I've decided to wait a few more days this week, then tail off the Serc, and see if symptoms return... if so, back to the doctors... if not... cured :D

Update 3 We needed to get our car AC fixed so went to a garage and they said it would take about an hour to drain and refill the coolant and a new part was needed.. ok so we decided to look around the area in Saraphi and noticed a massage place across from the garage, so Jirawan wanted a massage, I don't really like full massage, but a nice foot massage sounded good....since Jirawan was going to take longer and also asked for an extra 30 mins, I opted to add a shoulder head and back massage..........that was a mistake.
As it involved me moving up and down a bit and....boom vertigo... big time...which left me spinning for several hours after...and some of the day after...  infact this was on Thursday, its now Saturday and I still feel it... So we will call the doc on Monday and make another appointment for some controlled tortudre.

Glen Hansard died.

Last week, he passed away, apparently crashing on his motorbike near Dublin,  and I've been surprised by just how much this as impacted on me. 

I truely love this mans music.

I don't have all his albums but I have quite a few, and many especially the Swell Season, Strict Joy, are pretty much on every play list I have.  

I watched so many of his live performances on Youtube, often just him and his beat up guitars, playing and singing with more emotion and fire than anyone I ever saw. I wish I'd got to see him live, but he never played anywhere near where I was...pity.

I sang his songs with bands, and more often by myself, poorly but with feeling, and really felt he was one of the most gifted and talented songwriters and performers alive. His songs really get into your soul if you want to be poetic, there was just something about them, love, loss, happiness, anger, sadness, remorse, guilt, redemption,  he tickled every heart string with poetic words and that amazing voice and passion he put into every one.

And now he's gone, the sense of loss that his fans are feeling is deep.

I watched his wake and funeral live on Youtube and could see the amount of love and sense of loss that his passing has caused, I've shed a few tears watching his loved ones and his fans express how much they will miss him..

I will miss him too.

Far too soon. RIP.

Ahthankyew

More health scares?

Had something horrible happen to me when I woke up Saturday very early in the morning, and turned over in bed... the room just started to spin at an astonishing rate and like a gyroscope pushing back against motion, I was totally unable to complete the turn, I fell back overwhelmed with motion sickness as the room flashed before me.

The spinning took about 20seconds to stop... Bugger, I must have been drunk last night, was my 1st thought... but... nope, I literally had one small glass of whiskey and lemonde as a thrist quencher rather than a session..

So I carefully get out of bed, slightly uneasy and get myself some water and go back to bed...noting that I can't move my head left or right without the spinning. I fully expected this to go away with a bit more sleep

It didn't... I was able to pinpoint it happened when I put my head in certain positions, and from then tried hard to avoid those, but this was very odd..

A bit of googling revealed I had something called BPPV, a type of vertigo that can be caused by....nothing at all, just happens.

I decded to wait till Monday to see if it died down, but it didn't ...off to the docs. Jirawan called a local clinic for me but they were not open, so she called the hospital to check if we could go in...yes.

Off we went, Jirawan driving as I can't honestly be trusted to drive if I get a dizzy spell. Registered at the desk and took basic details, then informed us the doctor was in surgery till 2,30 could we come back.

No problem, since we were going to go to the house site and take videos.

Off we went, and came back... I was seen by the doctor within 20mins, and she diagnosed the BPPV , though an attempt to check my ears was thwarted by 60+ years of accumulated ear wax, which she happily used a vaccuum tool to remove, with great delight showing the lumps of a future candle to Jirawan...
BPPV is harmless but unwelcome, it's caused by little crystals in your inner ear getting into the semi circular parts of the ear and throwing your balance off, the crystals are usually in a different part of the ear naturally but somehow get detached...your inner ear tells your brain you're falling when you're not and then you get intense motion sickness and balance issues that take you off your axis.

I was then taken to side room, to sit on a bed, where a series of positional head movements are done, which are designed to move the crystals back into the safe part of your ear, but.... in the process it triggers the vertigo, and you have to not move....which... is.....horrible.....

Anyway, she repeated this horror 2 times... and told me to be very careful not to move my head around too much or too quickly for a day or 2...and to sleep as upright as I can..

She also prescribed some drugs for the motion sickness, and some vitamin B12....no idea why.

Total time in the hossie, about 1.30mins, total cost... about 34 euros... wow... good service, good price...

I still have the vertigo though, it is better though, but its not quite cleared, but I have a follow up on Friday, and a Doctor friend of mine on Facebook has given me details of  very similar positional excercises I should do 3 times a day, so I will try those..

In the meantime, no driving...

Ahthankyew

Quick and cheap health care

edit, this a few weeks ago, but for some reason I didn't publish it, it got stuck in draft....

Yesterday I had an appointment at RAM skin clinic, to check out what I thought were two large moles (chest and back) which I'd had for a while but noticed were growing after seeing some holiday photo's from a few years back.

Booked appointment, was a bit late due to traffic, and went to main Hospital clinic, but got a golf buggy shuttle to the skin clinic who were ok about my lateness..
Saw the doctor within 10 mins. He reassured me they were just harmless but large, skin tags, a bit big for the band removal method but possible. What would I like to do?

I wanted them gone so he agreed to cut them off and I took a seat in the waiting room. 10 more minutes and I was called into a treatment room.
Small injection, stings a bit but not too bad, chop chop, bit of cautarization and flip over for the one on my back.

All done in less than 30mins, total cause 3,348 bhat... less than 90 euros.

Now... when I was in the NL (we left Dec 2025), I went to my doc in August, who sent me to a specialist in November, who was going to refer me to the local skin clinic for removal sometime in 2026.... I didn't really have time to follow that through as we were about to move to Chiang Mai...

Now I'm told RAM is one of the more expensive places to pay for things out of pocket, but honestly... I'm very happy with the service, the process and the price.

Oh btw I do have insurance, but because I'd seen the doctors in NL beforehand, it was excluded as a pre-existing condition.

We will continue to use small clinics, or government hospotals for minor issues we can pay out of pocket. The insurance we keep for big emergencies.

Ahthankyew

I'm legal again

I made mistake, quite a big one... in thinking that my International Drivers Permit allowed me 3 years of driving in Thailand.... it does not. While the IDP is valid for 3 years, in fact you are only allowed to use it for 3 months in Thailand...oops...this was a bit of a shock, and as soon as I found out I curtailed my driving and started collecting the paperwork to get my license exchanged.

This, turned out to be a bit of a chore, for a number of reasons.. First I needed a Certificate of Residency...actually 2, car/bike. A quick trip to Immigration and 120baht later, I get.... a tracking number for my post in about 3 weeks.

oh.. oh so we wait, Jirawan has to do the driving.

3 weeks come... and no sign,... But I get a call from a Thai number that immediatly hangs up on me when I greet the caller in English... 30 mins later, the Thai chat app, Line, pings me with what I assume is spam friend request, I get a lot of those.. but no... it is in fact someone in our neighbourhood who got my CoR.. her boyfriend was the hang up who didnt speak English. It seems our house numbers contain the same digits, but in a different order...and those wrong numbers are on the paper work..ooops.

I assume that I must have filled out the form wrong and transposed the digits, but no... they send the certificates to..the address on your TM.30, a legal document you get from immigration that registers where you are living....and on checking, indeed the TM.30 is wrong, but we'd never noticed it.

So I start panicking as I am prone to do when official things go wrong. But Jirawan calmly takes my tm30 to immigration, gets if fixed, then we collect the faulty CoRs, and go to immigration to get them fixed....next day...excellent.. no charge. Jirawan is amazing at doing such fixes.

So... now I have the paperwork. we go get medical certs, which is nothing more than a rubber stamp of health if you can actually walk into the doctors office with a heartbeat...... 800baht. and I need 2, 1 for bike, 1 for car.

Next step, according to the DLT website you can no longer walk in and wait....so you have to register with the DLT smart que app......its not smart... in fact, its the opposite of smart... but after struggling with it for hours, if finally let me get to the point of booking a day.....in October, 3 months away... my certs only have 30 day lifespans.

arrh... I again start stressing and getting wound up when Jirawan says just turn up.. I can't, I snap, they say I have to book.... 
But Jirawan calls them up... talks to someone, who tells us to get down to the DLT now, they will check our docs and give us a quicker date..

We rush down, to get there before closing...and indeed they check our docs, and give us a date.... tomorrow.

wow.

Now tomorrow is today and off we went at 9-30, was seen almost immediatly, docs, checked, some very very simple eye and co-ordination tests taken. And wait for 30 mins... 
Number called, pay 310 baht, go to queue for photo...

10 mins later I walk out with 2 shiny license.

Yes there is a lot of beaurocracy in Thailand, so much paperwork and steps to be taken, but the simple fact is, if you have a brilliant Thai wife... its all sabai sabai.

Ahthankyew

Ok... that is a lot...I mean... a lot of rain

Smokey season was interesting, it basically didn't start, despite all the warnngs, and doom sayers, Feb then, March.  April came with nothing to worry about......then......

When it did come it was horrific, the air was rancid, the sky was at times blocked out and it really was shocking, for about 4-6 weeks Smokey season was all anyone could talk about... We stayed in with our air purifiers running full tilt.. Going out, we didnt' actively wear masks, but some days, ok it was just safer to wear one...

But it passed, and gave way to the "rainy" season, the 1st rains were light, refreshing and cooling and most importantly washed the skies clear we had some truely wondeful weather, and despite a few showers which did that clearing, rainy season didn't really rain a lot. I scoffed at rainy season..

Lots of lovely clear days, I got a nice set of tee-shirt then vest, tan lines riding my bike around. Things were good until maybe 5pm when a nice light shower would clear things and we'd have a warm maybe humid evening to look forward to.

So rainy seasons, didn't really start.........

And now it has..... I'm thinking of building an Ark.... I may be able to persuade the neighbors to help... we need to be quick.

Ahthankyew

A cure???

Time for some embarrassing medical issues, a few years ago, I noticed some issues with my bowels... basically, a lack of regularity, and timing issues. I went from being a normal poo in the morning person to, 2 or 3 poos at semi random times... 
Not the most unusual of things in old fat jocks with a liking for fried fast food.. But I did notice in my 50's a lot more urgency to get to the loo...and on 1 occasion some unpleasant consequences to finding the train station loo closed......oh yes, had to do the waddle of shame to get home...

Now... like most old farts I didn't really do anything about this, didn't go to the docs, even when the urgency of needing to go went from being, when you get home go to the loo, to, you're going to shit yourself in 3...2.......

Then I had a an episode where I had severe pain and felt very ill, and went to the docs, who did that palpation of my tummy trick which just about knocked me out from the pain..... I had a problem... and was hospitalized. Where they discovered I was having an episode of Diverticulitis... basically an infection in my bowl that could have turned very nasty... 

The primary cause was an undiagnosed underlying condition called Diverticulosis... you can look it up, but basically there are malformations of my bowl resulting in little thin pockets forming in my gut, and can from time to time pop or otherwise become infected, leading to the Diverticulitis.

This... explained my irregular bowel movements, my gut has issues moving things down to the colon, which means the regularity and consistency of my bowel movements is highly variable.

Ok so I got an issue, the problem is there's really no cure for it.. Other than taking drugs like Loperamide (Imodium ) to shut your bowels down, which has knock on issues and can give you constipation if you do this a few days in a row... also not nice as struggling to poo can make the diverticulosis worse.....

But for the most part I have managed this for a few years, taking Imodium when I know I have to be out and about for a few hours, and trying hard to stay at home the next day, or 2, not taking any, knowing when the Imodium wears off, and I can get access to the loo. But this is rather restrictive.

Now... there are of course contributing factors to this, my weight and my diet being the 2 biggest things I have some control over.

I'm afraid I have been very bad at managing my weight, and I'm surrounded by so much wonderful food in Thailand, but a lot of it is low fibre, when I need a high fibre diet.

I tried various granola/cereals but they have the opposite effect on me, providing loose movements, and the added random 3,2, 1 go... problem.

So to the point... I think I have discovered something, though only a few weeks into it. I tried to do a bit of a fasting diet... and don't eat now until around 5. And.... I've noticed there's a direct connection to my eating and an hour or 2 later...needing to go.

Basically if I don't eat, I don't shit...... which is a perfect, but impractical result... it sounds more obvious than it is, but there's sound reasons behind this.. my system kinda shuts down when there's nothing to digest, but when  there's  food to be processed, my digestive system kicks in, but starts with initiating the clear some space now protocol, which is causing most of my issues.

If I don't eat in the mornings, I seem to be ok for the rest of the day, after I eat however, all bets are off....But that gives me some margin of control when I can be at home/near a loo.

Lets see how it goes?

Ahthankyew

NOW its almost 6 months

I kinda miscalculated the 6 month mark, but its coming up now.. I have to do my 1st 90day report this week, which is going to be a big step... After this 1st one in person, I can do it online each time which saves a lot of waiting in line.

The house is progressing well, though there's a bit of a conflict over the window arrangement on our extended bedroom 4. I missed the plan which has 3 windows in the room, 2 narrow opening ones, and a larger square sliding one. The sliding one isn't very obvious on the plan... and yeah so we have 3 windows, 2 different types... it looks a bit silly and prevents clean walls to place beds/wardrobes etc... sadly we didn't see this till the brickies built the wall.. We hate it.. so we're having to get that changed, to just 2 windows, Jirawan favours 2 of the square ones. I'd prefer the 2 narrow ones... But am not pushing hard, Jirawan gets the final say but either way it means knocking out bits of the wall to fix it.. so that's a cost... not massive but annoying.

Other than that, the sense of scale of the house is starting to make itself felt. It's going to be a  nice cosy home, nowhere near the massive scale people said it would be, its a cosy house with a 4 good sized bedrooms. But the lounge is medium sized, the office is small, the kitchen is decent...the Thai ki...ahhh that's a point

We have had to change that.. the idea of having two kitchens at the rear of the house had to be dropped, when we realised Bed4 was just too small. Hence we extended that room into where the rear Thai kitchen was.. That made the Euro kitchen a little bigger, with an added pantry.  But had to drop the Thai Kitchen. But only for a while, we plan to build it as an extension.

We did ask the builder to draft an extension to the back of the house with a Thai Kitchen, laundry area and BBQ patio, but they wanted far too much money for it, 475K... We couldn't see a way to cost that out in our budgets even though we can trim or drop some things (like solar) so we are going to wait till the build is done and stabilize our funds, then see what options we have, 

When we do get that extension done, then the house will seem bigger with that outdoor area opening things up..

Aside from that... we're now at the costing for fixtures and fittings, aside from bathrooms, we don't get partial furnishing with this, unlike a house purchase, so its up to us to source and fit, or get fitted, all the basic furniture we need. 

We currently rent, so we have had no reason aside from TV's and computer gear to buy anything... so kitting out the whole house is expensive.. But we are going to go minimal to start with and build up. Once the big outlays are done we can make minor purchases over the coming years, like everyone else does.

It does however mean fitting 2 main bedrooms, getting basic content in 2 others. Lounge and Dining Room furniture and of course the  now main kitchen, with the Thai kitchen to follow a few months later.

Another big expense will also be Solar, we have nearly 100m2 of roof we can put panels on, and we will use as much as we can afford to power a 10Kw inverter and battery system, to help us power the house, from the sun... We won't be entirely off grid, but we should be able to count our electric bills in pennies rather than 10's or 100's of pounds 
Scheduling the pricing for that is fun, but we've got a few quotes now from 320-420k, we will be looking for one more... surprisingly the lowest may not be the best as their quote lacks detail in the type and quality of the components but it does gives us a window into how much

Life here however, continues to be calming and peaceful... I spend far too much time on the computer without being especially productive though... So we're trying to get out more as part of the Kill Brian with Exercise campaign.. Both of us need to lose weight so we're going out and about more to sightsee and walk and cough...exercise.

Ahthankyew