Another lockdown… another commute

[malmomike77]

Some 20 years back i used to commute on a route that took me up through Cirencester cross country. Lovely countryside but if you timed the run slightly wrong you came a cropper with a farmer who would move his milkers from the fields to the farm to be milked. The process of getting the cows from field to parlour was a 20 minute ordeal, sat there whilst he wrangled the last stragglers who always found a tasty patch of hedge to nibble on and refused to budge. On a bad day you got caught both ways. I swear he'd mix times up just to catch you out.

[Mendip]

^ We used to have lanes round here regularly blocked by cows going to and from milking in the mornings but I haven't seen that for years. I don't know if that's due to changing farming practices or the area now swamped with intolerant townies. A shame either way.


My wife seems to think I have negative tendencies but sometimes it's a good thing. I've just had my fourth negative Covid test result in two weeks so I'm outta here!

What a day... Bristol City beat Derby County 1-0 and now my return home is confirmed. I've been doing this working away shit for as long as I can remember but it's still a great feeling to be heading back. This time next week I'll be sitting with me dogs by the pond!

Now it's definite I can start acclimatising meself for the heat of Korat and the carefree, expat lifestyle so I started the process with a new cider. Tomorrow I think I'll go back to some proper stuff.

[Saint Willy]

course.

The 4 hour turnaround rapid RT-PCR test at Bristol Airport cost 120 quid, ker-ching!

I've also had to do a 2 day and 8 day home antigen test after arriving in the UK two weeks ago... that test kit had to be ordered prior to arrival and cost 60 quid

The home test kits are approx £1.50 here!

[Mendip]

The cost of these things in the UK is criminal.

To be fair this wasn't just the standard home testing kit...I had to order it online to be posted to my mum's house before I could complete the 'Passenger Locator Form', mandatory for me to enter the UK from Turkey. The two kits arrived with two pre-addressed Jiffy envelopes to send the swabs off to a lab somewhere... but 60 quid!

No wonder people are getting pissed off with this stuff in the UK.

[Saint Willy]

Anyway, good luck on the trip home mate.looking forward to the pond pics

[malmomike77]

No wonder people are getting pissed off with this stuff in the UK.

To re-enter the UK now i have to do a PCR test before leaving Thailand and another upon arrival. I reckon when i add the costs of COVID up inc re-booking my flight for the cancelled trip a couple of years ago, tests and quarantine its doubled the original cost of travel.

[ootai]

I used to go ferreting along those hedgerows many years ago. Sometime around the mid 80s a wave of myxomatosis swept threw this area and the rabbit population has never recovered



A few days after Christmas when I was around 12 or 13, I was doing some head-first sledging down this hill when I lost steerage and hit that b@stard telegraph pole squarely with my head. I knocked myself out and apparently I was unconscious for a fair few minutes. Why put a telegraph pole in the middle of a field?

I was badly concussed but the village was iced up and my parents couldn't get me to hospital. I lost all memory of that Christmas and it never came back, but I guess I was lucky... it could have been a lot worse. You need a bit of luck growing up, that's for sure.

I think that was the aim of myxomatosis i.e. to wipe out the rabbits, at least it was in Australia. Slowed them down but didn't wipe them out. Calicivirus did a bit better job though but they haven't totally gone.

As for you headbutting the pole at least we now know the reason for your disability.

Have a good and safe trip home, hopefully I will be allowed to visit you, the dogs and the pond but no way am i getting into the water unless it is substantially cleaner than last time I was there.

[katie23]

@mendip - don't worry, you're not alone (in the UK) re: high prices of RT-PCR tests. I've read that in Canada, it costs 150 to 200 cad and in Japan, around 200 to 300 usd. The ones in Japan are usually written in Japanese script, so it's another trouble & cost to get it translated. It's now the problem of returning Filipinos from Japan. PH now has required the test prior to the flight (just recently, due to the Omicron variant). Prior to that, passengers had a choice. If with test result, shorter quarantine (3N), if no test result 5N. Some travelers preferred the latter because of the cost of the test in their countries.

Agree that the cost of international travel is significantly higher due to the multiple required tests. Sigh.

[Mendip]

^ Katie, when I departed the boat in Turkey a couple of weeks ago there were a handful of us (not fully vaccinated) that had to get PCR tests before flying the next day and this included a couple of Filipinos. Many of the Filipinos on the boat have been getting their vaccinations in Norway the same as I did as it's becoming so difficult to travel when you're not fully vaccinated, whatever that may mean going forward.

As an aside, many offshore jobs on the freelance market are now specifying 'fully vaccinated' only. There was one Dutch anti-vaxxer on the boat I worked on... he is staff and a Norwegian company won't specify workers have to be vaccinated due to 'human rights' etc etc, but they can certainly specify what they like for freelancers. Unvaccinated offshore workers are a real pain for companies to mobilise due to the travel and testing requirements and I think it's only a matter of time until even staff have to be vaccinated. Hopefully the clients (oil companies) will soon specify 'vaccinated only' at the worksites and it will just become impossible to use the unvaccinated, without some pretty good reason. I was lucky since I go back a long way with the company I've just been working for, but I appreciated how awkward it was for them to accommodate me not having my fully vaccinated status.

Have a good and safe trip home, hopefully I will be allowed to visit you, the dogs and the pond but no way am i getting into the water unless it is substantially cleaner than last time I was there.

Thanks Ootai and if you want to visit despite my 'disability' you're always welcome of course.

Maybe bring along your Speedos in case you change your mind?

[OhOh]

The two kits arrived with two pre-addressed Jiffy envelopes to send the swabs off to a lab somewhere... but 60 quid!

Where to buy 40 baht COVID test kits in Bangkok

Oct 4, 2021 |

"COVID home test kits will soon be sold for a fraction of the price through government pharmacies, but Bangkok has to wait a couple weeks for them to show up.

Two million SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test Kit (ATK) will be sold starting Oct. 18 by the Government Pharmaceutical Organization at a price below market: THB40 (US$1.20). While the tests aren’t as reliable as traditional PCR tests, they are still relatively accurate – and very fast.

The home test kits will be sold at eight organization pharmacies around metro Bangkok:

1. GPO Pharmacy, Ratchathewi branch (opposite to the Ramathibodi Hospital) phone 02-203-8847 or 02-203-8849"

Where to buy 40 baht COVID test kits in Bangkok - Coconuts

[Shutree]

Now it's definite I can start acclimatising meself for the heat of Korat

Not sure how it is in Korat but up here where I am it is cold. A relative term, I know, we aren't going to compete with Somersetshire in the bleak mid-winter. This morning was about 12 °C and I had a fleece on until 1000 a.m.

That said, this is fine weather, cool air and warm sunshine. Hurry back.

[Jack meoff]

Welcome home Mendip.

[Joe 90]

Welcome home Mendip.

Seasons greeting Jacko, good to see you back!

[Edmond]

Welcome home Mendip.

Finally, a proper man is on here.

You wouldn't believe how many pussies are on TD nowadays.

[Mendip]

^^^ Nice to see you back, Jack!

Finally, a proper man is on here.

You wouldn't believe how many pussies are on TD nowadays.

I hope you're not including me in that?


I spent my last day in the UK doing jobs in my mum's garden.

This nice plump wood pigeon spends it's time waiting for the other birds to drop bits from the bird feeders. It looks a bit better than the manky Thai pigeons that live in our garden in Korat.



After my penultimate UK lunch of roast lamb...



... I had rice pudding for pudding. I got my mum to show me how to make it so I don't waste the bag of 'pudding rice' I'm taking back to Korat!



Tomorrow morning I'll see if there are any nice chillis in the Coop!

For my last evening in the UK I dropped my mum off at the local church for some kind of a Christmas carol service, and then picked her up an hour later. This was a bit of a pisser because it meant I couldn't drink any cider with my tea, but you have to do these things.



Is that manly enough for you Edmond?

[Joe 90]

Those sprouts are well manly!

Mint jelly as well, respect!


What happened to your smaller portions?

Thai stir-fried brussels sprouts-put some lead in your pencil

[naptownmike]

^^ That roast dinner looks great. Classic British like my grandmother used to have. I recall the mint sauce being copped mint in some kind of vinegar of but that was a long time ago so who knows.

I'm hoping for something similar at my parents tonight as I've been going for dinner more since my wife left for Thailand

[Mendip]

^ This was mint jelly but I think mint sauce is chopped mint in vinegar, as far as I remember. Try mint sauce Mike, it's way better.


^^ Chitty, that's a very small plate... and it's nearly all vegetables.

But anyway, I decided that since I've just had 3 months of pretty average food on the boat and an upcoming few months in Isaan, that I'd just enjoy this rare two week bounty of traditional English home-cooked food.

The strange thing is that despite my diet of pies and cider I don't think I've put any weight back on. Cereal/fruit for breakfast, a great lunch and a snacky ploughman's kind of thing for tea. I think it's the eating at lunchtime that's made all the difference and I hope to continue that back home... but it won't be easy.

I'll get some more sprouts down me tomorrow with my steak and kidney pie lunch... thanks for that tip!

[malmomike77]

Mendip, i switched to my main meal at lunchtime a few years back and i'd not go back now. I had my first non-thai food in a week or so yestetday when i caved and had a portion of french fries. Waking to a ring of fire every day is taking its toll, i suppose its like women and child birth, you soon forget the pain and before you know it you are slurping down your next mornings punishment. I would love that roast at any hour.

[armstrong]

Convinced to have a Thatchers yesterday.

[OhOh]

from the bird feeders

More bird feeders required in Korat.

I had rice pudding for pudding. I got my mum to show me how to make

What's her secret?

A lunch to die for.

Safe journey home.

[Headworx]

I spent my last day in the UK doing jobs in my mum's garden.

How's Jo Beth doing?

Safe trip home Bud, hopefully you'll post pics of local birds on your balcony while in quarantine this time too.

[hallelujah]

What a wonderful thread (again), Mendip. Thank you so much for all the photos, have a safe trip back to Korat and here's to the coming pictures of you in the garden with the dogs and your little 'un.

[David48atTD]

What a wonderful thread (again), Mendip. Thank you so much for all the photos, have a safe trip back to Korat and here's to the coming pictures of you in the garden with the dogs and your little 'un.

^ This!

... have a safe trip back to Korat

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.

... and the rest of it

[nidhogg]

That sunday roast could have been served up by my mum in her heyday.

Except she would not have any truck with that red cabbage, and we were a mint sauce family (fresh chopped mint in vinegar).