Weren't you saying you barely have a moment to yourself when in Korat, Mendy?
Weren't you saying you barely have a moment to yourself when in Korat, Mendy?
Thanks, Barty. To be fair, the tone mark can be hard to discern on a low-res screen.
By the way, I edited my post last night to correct the maternal/paternal thing.
^^ Thanks Barty... we do have a few crabs scuttling around but it seemed strange to have a shrine devoted to them.
Although to be fair the crabs seem to live a more worthwhile life than most the people round my way.
It's not going to happen Lom... there's no way I could do 10 hour days in a home office with a wife who thinks a busy day is telling the gardener to hang out the washing. I'd be expected to perform but wouldn't be able to apply myself while my daughter would be fed crap, ignored and expected to entertain herself while the wife would be welded to the telly. My daughter doesn't even get a swim unless I'm at home... and we have a pool in the back garden.
Anyway, rant over. Maybe a home office in the future when the daughter's a bit older, but in the meantime I've been offered some work in Norway later in the year which should just about cover expenses for the year... it all depends on the travel/quarantine situation.
I don't... see above... I wish I did...
Every month's a slow month in Korat, even with doing endless jobs.
Yeah... I know whenever my wife has had Thai friends around... there will be dog ends, plastic sweet wrappers, bottle tops, even crisp bags littering the garden... not to mention a seemingly limitless source of little red and green elastic bands. I just can't understand why they seem to be completely unaware of even dropping the litter and cannot seem to even see it. I try and keep the road clear of litter out the front of our house and have had cars slow down to watch me picking it up. I live in hopes it may make one or two people reflect on their littering but have a suspicion that they are just laughing at me. Bollocks to them.
Today I saw this which made me think... the old and the new. Maybe this was the takeaway drink container of choice 50 years ago, but sadly the plastic straw will be there many years after the coconut shell has rotted away.
^ Point taken.
We had rain last night... not the first of the season but it was heavy and sustained. It started around 10pm and continued on into the night which was wonderful for sleeping, and in the morning much of the vacant land around us was under water. When we built the house 15 years ago and before we had neighbours, it was like living on an island after heavy rain with water surrounding our raised land. In fact during most of the 15 years I have got used to not getting much rain before June at the earliest... it seems to have started much earlier this year (and last year)... I wonder if any long timers in Isaan have noticed any change?
Anyway, this plot of land was bone dry and comprised lifeless, hard baked soil yesterday.
And after rain, the explosion of life and cacophony of frog chorus in the morning was marvelous. Years ago before the land became developed, after the first heavy rain, the frog chorus was so loud that you'd have to turn the telly up.
Of course, nature's bounty doesn't go unnoticed. Our neighbour must have had a rare early morning and caught this unlucky frog. Seems a shame to kill them just before they breed but this area will be full of people with buckets and torches tonight, guaranteed.
This guy had more luck... I found a tree frog on the trunk of a tree so brought him in to the shelter of our garden.
Here in Nongbua we have already had three or four heavy and protracted storms. At least one lasted all night and one had very strong winds that took a couple of village roofs away. I already asked the gf the same question you did, she says the farmers don't know if this is the rainy season starting early or if it was simply a few random thunderstorms that happened to hit us. Some farmers already poughed their dry fields ready for the next planting, other fields are swamps of heavy clay that will be more difficult to manage.
I have already cut the weeds that pass as a lawn twice.
Plenty of froglets hopping about the place. Where do they go during the long, dry months?
One thing the gf does claim is that when she was young this hot spell rarely got much above 30C, that back then 35C was considered extreme. Now we can see days touching 40C. If her memory is correct, that is a big change.
Lately my gardener has been dropping lots of hints about getting some PPE for his work...
So I did something about it.
^ I think he's after a ride on mower
A dirty big Huntsman scared the shit out of me last week, I was laying on the lounge that night and it ran across my right foot up the lounge onto the wall. I have a can of chaindrite at the ready at all times on the coffee table so jumped up grabbed the can and drowned the big fucker and to add to the scariness this thing had like tiger stripes on it
Anyone living in Isaan, and probably anywhere else in Thailand, will be used to seeing one of these strange plastic covers in the kitchen.
They're used to keep flies off items of food not deemed necessary to be transported all the way to the fridge.
Even after 15 years in this damn place, ever the optimist, I still look under the cover now and again in the hopes of finding a treat... maybe a couple of cold sausages, a pork pie, or even a nice slice of quiche.
Never does this take on more significance than when you're tired and hungover and just fancy some comfort food.
15 years of disappointment...
Today was no different.
That chicken and chilli looks the bomb!
^ You ever seen a chicken foot that looks like that?
Those things are CLAWS...
Just be glad she doesn't have a penchant for more expensive grub.
Yeah, I do feel lucky at times.
oooh, a fat arsed guinea pig?
too big for a rat.
Nah... this was a rat. There's a bag of them in the freezer.
Thay can get quite big.
I have a feeling if rats were served at Thai restaurants worldwide, peoples' appreciation may change.
I'm not squeamish and will try a nibble on most stuff... but look at that!
It's certainly not hangover comfort food to take to the sofa on a wet Isaan Saturday afternoon.
^The bowl of rust remover on the bottom left shouldn't be left out in the open if there's kids or dogs around.
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