^ You'd have thought the daughter would have told me before she took the pic!
She's quick enough to pick me up on other stuff... 'please don't embarrass me again dad!'
^ You'd have thought the daughter would have told me before she took the pic!
She's quick enough to pick me up on other stuff... 'please don't embarrass me again dad!'
I had to scroll 3 times to get to the actual text in your post.
^^ It's not all beer and skittles in Isaan, mate.
Tonight I spent a bit of time sitting with the daughter by the pond... the boy dogs joined us and remember thinking the girls were a bit quiet, they're still segregated because of Maya's season.
Anyway, I got back to the house and found this...
Maya's been a problem with her chewing... but Coco was caught red-pawed. It seems a salty snake skin treat is irresistible.
I reckon Maya was involved as well.
So after all that work I'm left with a few scraps of snake skin. A belt is now out of the question... or even a band around my special forces bush hat.
What to do with this, the buggers?
May as well let them finish it
The plan was to put today's happenings in Looper's 'Pudding' thread, because that's what it was all about. But then I thought maybe the 'Dinner' thread would be more appropriate for obvious reasons... but I finally decided to stick it here. And besides, there's not usually anything exciting happening in Isaan...
This is why you should never say to a 10 year-old, 'what do you want to to today?'
But I must admit, cool, rainy weather was forecast so maybe a night camping would be OK!
It took a bit of setting up, but good practise for Khao Yai one day.
Why does the breeze start up as soon as you light the barbecue? Still, at least the smoke should keep the mossies away.
My survival skills soon got the fire going... this wild camping is not so difficult as people make out.
And this is why I considered the 'Dinner' thread. Outdoor cooked hotdogs... it don't get better than that!
And then the daughter announced it was time for 'Smors'. I wanted to put this in Looper's 'Pudding' thread, but it gets complicated with so much going on, and besides, I'm making a 'fusion' trifle tomorrow and that is a real pudding.
I had no idea what 'Smors' are or how me daughter knew about them. But she's 10... has her own life (obviously) so I was keen to find out.
It turns out 'Smors' are a combination of marshmallows and chocolate, sandwiched between a couple of crackers. All the rage on 'TikTok', no doubt?
Toast them up... I'd never heard of this as a kid. Is toasting marshmallows an American thing?
And in your hot chocolate... that's good! A KLM spoon on the left, there.
And this is it... a 'Smors'!
Chocolate and marshmallow melted together in a cracker biscuit. Should be in Looper's 'Pudding' thread really.
So, done my duty... time for bed.
Dan and Maya sniffed about... but no food on offer so they fukked off to the gardener's kitchen. I'd be lying if i said that didn't annoy me somewhat!
I'm sleeping in a tent in the garden while the dogs prefer to be inside the gardener's kitchen?
Something has gone wrong!
But Tommy stuck around. He's a great dog and will get a treat tomorrow. Loyalty gets rewarded.
At some point you have to take the plunge. We all know what a nightmare it is to need a piss while sleeping in a tent.
But it has to be done. I can't say that I'm proud to fill my daughter's new school water bottle with Mont Clair to get me through the night in a tent, but that's the way it is. Whisky would have been better, the less volume the better, but Covid has put paid to that.
Yeah... camping, I love it.
Takes me right back to the summer of '88 when I did my geology field mapping project in the Pyrenees for my degree. I got friendly with a female geologist and we shared a two-man tent for a few weeks, and I had a one-man sleeping bag!
Good times... and I know it's unhealthy to start reminiscing about life 30 years ago. But how can you not?
Anyway, a lovely night I shall have with my gorgeous daughter camping tonight. But I still can't help thinking about my caMping nights 30 years ago!
Where has the time gone?
Well done
You are a good dad.
PS:
No wifi an poor phone coverage in Khao Yai
Last edited by helge; 30-07-2021 at 01:44 AM.
^^epic stuff Mendip
I did not know people camped in Thailand with the heat, but I see you have a 5 star set-up
Don't forget to take a petrol/diesel generator with you to Khao Yai to run the 240v pat lom in the tent!
What happened to that hotdog? Did you drop it in the coals and eat it the next morning for breakfast? Blackest dog I've seen. Nice try on the Smors, but not even close. You got the Hersheys right, but thats it. Next time you go to Topps look for American marshmallows, there is no comparison, the others are not even worth buying. The cracker is wrong too. What is that a Saltine cracker? It needs to be a graham cracker, which I have never seen here. It is like when a Thai goes to 7/11 orders that nasty microwave shit and thinks they ate American food. You don't know a Smors unless you get the ingredients right.
My son insisted on camping one night in Jakarta, fuck it was hot we sweat like demons. And just as I fell asleep around 2:00am he woke me up and said “dad, you’re right it’s too hot can we go inside again!”
Gotta hate them !
I wonder if you were online that night.
Mendip, good read, Nice to read about someone life in Thailand and everyday living.
Outstanding effort. But Smors are pure Americana.
Listen to tunk on that one.
Been camping in Thailand once. It was too hot and then about 3am it was too cold and then at 6am it was too hot.
We only glamp nowadays.
Yeah, what with that and mossies.
Sod that for a game of soldiers.
Great stuff Mendip.
You're a brave man camping in Thailand, fortunately you had all the comforts of home.
That needing a piss in a tent is a right ballache.
Brings back memories of me waking up one early morning with a raging thirst and drinking some cheeky little fookers piss from a water bottle, oh how they laughed.
Shalom
After being away at work for nearly 4 months I've come home to a multitude of jobs that need doing. I haven't tackled any big ones yet as the daughter has been off school for the festive season and it's been good doing stuff with her. This has been great, but after Monopoly almost every afternoon I'm glad that school is starting up again next week, even if it has gone back to online. The daughter also has Aussie citizenship and has absolutely slaughtered me in the Monopoly Series... feels very familiar.
Anyway, to get in the mood for my jobs start-up next week we tackled a small one today.
We have a lovely pair of fan palms down by the pond but sadly as the mango trees have grown, one of the fan palms has bent over towards the available light and encroached on the neighbour's side of the wall. The trunk had become very close to his roof and he was worried about damage in strong winds as these palms act like a sail and don't half catch the wind. This was fair enough to be honest and I agreed to chop it down.
I was busy elsewhere so the gardener set it up and then gave me a call when he was ready. All I had to do was hold on to the rope and guide the trunk away from the wall when the time came.
I've got a lot on my mind at the moment and while the gardener chopped away I unfortunately lost concentration... and the gardener sadly neglected to tell me when the palm started to fall... so it twatted the neighbour's guttering on the way down. We had achieved precisely the event we were trying to avoid.
But with hindsight I'm glad it fell that way and not in my direction which would have probably put me in hospital.
And no biggy on the guttering... the gardener can soon get up the ladder and fix that... after all it was his fault, he should have called 'timber'.
The remaining fan palm is huge... maybe 6 or 7m tall and will soon have to go the same way, sadly.
Erm, why didnt you just notch it at the base facing away from the wall and then cut the wall side to fell the whole tree
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