Well if nothing else, life here is never dull!
The kidney problem I have finally been excommunicated from seems to have fallen by the wayside in the need to "Make Merit"...vomit!
They borrowed the car yesterday to "take care" of the poor lady with the kidney problems, it now transpires (from my 8 year old son) it actually involved going to a market, playing on some rides, visiting the Saffron Mafia, passing some food to the poor woman and returning home.
I loaned them the use of the car. Where I live, you need four wheel drive to get in and out of my place, so naturally, the thing, being parked up was left in 4WD.
The wife and family then went on a 200km jaunt (a mercy mission of merit making and self promotion thinly disguised as "helping a dying women") with her Captain in charge of the wheel traversing the whole journey with the damn thing left in 4WD.
Today, they planned another little jaunt, from which I most happily refrained from sharing their enjoyment, and stayed well away.
Another merit making fiasco (which to be honest, if I had gone along would no doubt have ended in a shouting match) (from what I can gather from my son, most of the people on the road drove like "arseholes" and most of the people in the car were tainted with the same brush...he seemed quite happy to be home for some reason, I didn't envy him in the least!
Anyway, the same pilot/captain then took the controls for another mammoth journey to Lampang....again ALL the way in 4WD, it appears to have been a productive trip, they made some merit (whether it gets them anywhere or not will be seen in the afterlife) Sadly my son was not impressed at caging small birds in a 1 inch square box that you paid 30 baht to let go...yes, he understands the idea of "why put them in the box in the first place"
We both had a laugh, on his return, at how dear grandfather was nearly splattered whilst walking merrily in the middle of the road! (isn't life full of Nearly and Maybe...If only...I hold my breath)
Well to cut a long story short, they arrived back about 7pm, close to 350 KM, and they were besides themselves at the Diesel consumption, they probably spent all their food money to fill the car up and get home.
I took a look, and yes, the car has been in 4WD all the time.
The Captain, a 30 year old Thai then started querying the excessive fuel consumtion, and this nice little green light on the dashboard, the 8 year old pushes the 4WD lever from "HI4" to "HI2"....amazing...We live and learn.
Sometimes I really need to find a wall and bang my head against it!