My post-lockdown commute back to work

[helge]

mistel and rohypnol but it's a bad idea

[Stumpy]

So far Covid has taught me two things... after the lockdown In korat I realised I seriously have to rethink my retirement plans,

One thing for sure Mendip, retiring to do nothing doesn't pan out well for all that I know that just went to the end of their career and "retired". While I don't believe retirement takes a lot of planning, it does require the individual to have a list of hobbies they want to do. Of course the age you retire will determine a lot as well. I retired before 50 but I was here in Thailand and it was perfect as I had lots I wanted to do and kept me very busy. Of course my first attempt at retiring ended after a few years by being asked to join a company. Going back to work was way harder then being retired as I had established myself and was really busy. The second time I retired was easier as I knew what to expect and now I was married and had lots to do. Again though after a few years I was tracked down to come join a company and did. I will say this time around it has been different with the Covid virus and the change of how we all do business. I feel retired at work if that makes sense.

As I have always told people who asked me about retiring early, I always say, "Retirement isn't about sitting around doing nothing, it's about enjoying life on your terms".

[lom]

The usual lunch place by the office has closed this week as there were two Covid cases among the staff. It really does seem to be all around and is getting very close to home with this going on.

You are still better off in Sweden than in Britain, the number of new infected in Sweden is increasing daily but the number of daily deaths due to covid is stable at around 25 pax.
That would be 200 with the same population size as in Britain or 800 with the same population size as in U.S.
Their daily deaths are currently 5-600 and 3000 respectively, horrible numbers!

The weather is prolly equally shitty in Britain right now, snow and cold in Sweden usually comes from Siberia while rain and mist usually comes from Britain.
"There is a low pressure over the British Island moving towards Scandinavia which will cause rainfall in the western parts for the coming days" , guess how many time I've heard that on the weather report..

[PAG]

The weather is prolly equally shitty in Britain right now, snow and cold in Sweden usually comes from Siberia while rain and mist usually comes from Britain.
"There is a low pressure over the British Island moving towards Scandinavia which will cause rainfall in the western parts for the coming days" , guess how many time I've heard that on the weather report..

[OhOh]

Talking... questions, answers, discussion, opinions... it never ends... I have to concentrate all the time... does life really have to be so hard? It's wearing me out.

A mobile free date is a given., I hope.

[cyrille]

I always say, "Retirement isn't about sitting around doing nothing, it's about enjoying life on your terms".

Must be easy for you by now, JP...you've done it so many times.

[lom]

^

[Stumpy]

Must be easy for you by now, JP...you've done it so many times.

Yeah this will be my 3rd time, I am not good at this retirement gig yet. 2 years on, 2 years off. I have to say though, I enjoy the jobs more now that I do not have to work . I guess that's life on your on terms...sort of.

[Mendip]

^ The way things are going I'll still be offshore in my 70s... dunno how I'd get up a gangway with a zimmer frame though.

But the good news is... I put my my CoE application in today.

Should hear the good news about my application being accepted within three working days... then book PCR test... flights... ASQ...

It's happening now! All I have to do is get this work finished and get back to the UK next month. And stay Covid free of course.

What can possibly go wrong!

[Mendip]

I thought after uploading my CoE application to the London Thai Embassy website this morning I could forget about it for a while... they said it takes three days to process.

Just before I left work tonight I had an email saying the application was approved... in less than a day!

I knew that marriage certificate would be useful for something!

So now I have 15 days to sort out flights and an ASQ hotel. But I may as well just get on with it.

I'm looking at a flying the first week of February... that'll give me three weeks with me mum. I'll have to isolate for the first 14 days so me poor old mum will have to go out on pork pie and cider runs!

To be honest the exercise will do her good, and anyway, she'll be immune by then!

So now to decide which Bangkok hotel room I'll lose 14 days of my life in. After all this work I'm gonna splash out a bit... shame you can't bubble up with someone!

[Joe 90]

shame you can't bubble up with someone

Save those shenanigans for the Xmas party.

Thai embassy mustn't be very busy at the moment.

3 weeks on the cider, well done you've earned it.

[Joe 90]

Fukkin 'conversation', it's done me in. Talking... questions, answers, discussion, opinions... it never ends... I have to concentrate all the time... does life really have to be so hard? It's wearing me out.

I know it's a bad reflection on the way my life's gone... but I just wanna sit with my dogs again.

I'm sure you are not alone in that train of thought.

[Mendip]

^^ Yeah... a work in progress!

It ain't really going as planned... and I don't fancy bubbling up with Mohamed.


This is all getting a bit real now. It's been easy not to think about getting home until I actually start getting proactive about it, and now it's all I can think about.

It's nearly five months now since I left home and while I think about it a lot, after all this time it seems like a world away.

I must admit my main worry is about Coco... whether she'll remember me or not. She only turned up in April so I've been away longer than I've been with her. She'll have doubled her age while I've been away.

And Dan of course... she's over 14 now and has kidney problems. I've already got a camping trip planned in the garden with me daughter and the dogs so we can all have a big cuddle!


But I still have another month's work to get through first...

[Chico]

Mendip hopefully the way things are going the Quarantine could be less time isolated, the way things are going.

The Thais are itching to open up.

[panama hat]

the way things are going the Quarantine could be less time isolated, the way things are going

Quite

[TheMadBaron]

I must admit my main worry is about Coco... whether she'll remember me or not.

She'll remember you. I think you should have someone who isn't you ready to video record your next encounter. They seem to like that sort of thing on YouTube.

[Saint Willy]

Get some remote work, a 14 day salary would be a bonus!

But that's damn good news my man

[Mendip]

^ yeah well, it's not all beer and skittles...

Tonight my Gallic friend offered to cook dinner.

I thinks, well, we all know that French cuisine isn't a patch on English but why not give it a go. It'd save me having to sort anything out at least.

It turns out that she's previously had a Norwegian husband, which kind of makes sense, but weirdly she misses the Norwegian food... (says a lot for Froggy cuisine to be honest).

She cooked up lutefisk tonight. Yep, she picked it up at the market (a few pics up).

I guess this is what five months does to you... lutefisk is rotten cod fermented in sulphuric acid, stinking and jelly like, yet still I ate it.



Furthermore, the peas were ruined, those orange things weren't carrots, and that thing at the front of the plate wasn't a potato... and absolutely fuk knows what it was.



What I go through... jellied, fermented in acid, stinking cod.

I could have just had a heated up pie. The outcome would have been the same.

[Saint Willy]

A girl in your room, the plot thickens...

[Loy Toy]

^ The things we do for love mate......

[panama hat]

A Brit criticising French cuisine . . .

[Joe 90]

^ The things we do for love mate......

Bollocks, he's warming Emmanuel up for some tonsil tennis under the mistletoe.

[TheMadBaron]

I guess this is what five months does to you... lutefisk is rotten cod fermented in sulphuric acid, stinking and jelly like, yet still I ate it.
Furthermore, the peas were ruined, those orange things weren't carrots, and that thing at the front of the plate wasn't a potato... and absolutely fuk knows what it was.

It does sound horrendous. Still....

A Brit criticising French cuisine . . .

.... the hat does have a point. British cuisine is, famously, the worst in the world. The Gallic Gal probably took this as a challenge.

You're going to have to return the favour, Mendip. You must prepare some traditional British fare for her. Mad Cow with incompetent potatoes and soggy Yorkshire puddings, like me ald mum used to make.

Or, bubble and squeak, the old school favourite.... something involving cabbage, anyway. And turnips. And parsnips. No flavourings. Well, perhaps a knob of butter.
And gravy.... runny, insipid gravy. See if you can find a use for pearl barley, that's good, it tastes like bark.

Poison her back, Sir. Our national pride demands it.

I'm having an Indian.

[ootai]

Furthermore, the peas were ruined, those orange things weren't carrots, and that thing at the front of the plate wasn't a potato... and absolutely fuk knows what it was.

What I go through... jellied, fermented in acid, stinking cod.

I could have just had a heated up pie. The outcome would have been the same.

I had an American friend who used to eat at the mesh same as me when I was working in Indonesia who, when asked "What's the food like?" would reply, "It'll make a turd!"
So I guess you, at least, will get that outcome.

[lom]

Furthermore, the peas were ruined, those orange things weren't carrots, and that thing at the front of the plate wasn't a potato... and absolutely fuk knows what it was.

Those orange things are rutabaga (aka swede) and the fuk knows thing is prolly a turnip.
The only thing Swedish christmas on that plate is the lutfisk which is something most Norses and Swedes are lyric about. I ain't..

I found a good article about Swedish christmas food (and christmas eve tradition/behaviour) written by a yanke girl become Swedish

Dopp i gryta | Something Swedish