I don't really know why they don't chase the chickens but there are many possibilities.
They are (I believe) well fed unlike some of the mongrel dogs around here. At night the chickens are locked up securely and surrounded by an electric fence. Sometimes during the night a yelp is heard when one of the mongrels touches the fence.
If the dogs even look like going after the chickens they get yelled at or even wacked. The missus likes to get them to chase the chickens out of the house yard if the gate is left open and they come in but they don't harm the chickens even then.
The final reason could well be that they are too busy trying to get at my cats. I have tried getting them to not attack the cats but they (the dogs) just can't help themselves. The cats are almost wild and they really only let me come close and that is to feed them. I usually feed the cats up off the ground so the dogs can't get at them and there plenty of trees that they climb to get away. However the dogs still get them sometimes. I have had as many as 9 and as few as 1, at the moment I have 5 that I feed. So I suppose the dogs maintain the ecological balance. The cats do sometimes grab a young chicken for dinner and the MIL wants to drown them all but they are also well fed which lessens the losses.
In mendip's case his chickens are always locked up and so his dogs don't mix with them. His dogs are mostly street dogs so at little wild and not necessarily under control. Even here in this thread I seem to remember him saying he would love his dogs to be well behaved but my opinion is he is a big softy and the dogs know it so do sort of what they please. Dog pack dynamics are interesting but difficult to fathom sometimes.
FIL, next door has three dogs, two from the same litter and one he brought back from his farm.
The male dog spends his days and nights inseminating all the hot bitches, if he survives the contests. He returns batter and scared many a time. The two bitches sleep in his house. The older bitch is the pack boss.
They all know they are not allowed in our house.
As Mendip will find out, they are always give the best welcome home, for those returning from foreign travels
A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.
We don't have chickens anymore but my neighbor has about 20 or so free rangers if you will and occasionally one rooster gets ballsy and hops the fence to be gobbled up by my very fast and stealthy Chocolate lab. I hear the rooster yak, my dog going nuts and then it's a full on sprint to try and save it. I have a success rate of about 25%. I leave it to my FIL to apologize to the neighbor and let him hand the bird back. The neighbor usually laughs with my FIL so not a big deal apparently. I call them Suicidal Roosters.
As Ootai, our 3 dogs are very well disciplined and behave as such. We have a big Kennel under the house where they stay at night and like it and head there as soon as it's dark and we close the gate. My wife leaves the fan on for them to keep skeeters away and keep them cool.
Well one must understand how to set up a Kennel. Ours is at the base of the stairs up to the house. Anybody even gets near the house they are up and barking and we hear it. Quick browse of the cameras and we can confirm if any danger is present. Most of the time it's either a cat or the neighbors dog.
On a side note, I would never do a fan or skeeter light for dogs but they are my wife's babies and she set it up.
^ And they have a pool to swim in ootai... lucky dogs indeed.
I keep my dogs restricted at night because to my mind their guard job is to wake up the humans. After that we can take over to save them getting poisoned.
But anyway, there seems to have been a lot of pond, chicken and dog talk lately... there's designated threads for that stuff!
My last view of Somerset while waiting for the taxi at my mum's house yesterday... less than 24 hours ago but already feeling like a distant memory.
I relented and paid 2 quid for a trolley at Bristol Airport. I could have done with two trolleys to be honest, but no way was I paying 4 quid.
And see that old Slazenger sports bag... well that was the last time I saw it.
Bristol Airport was OK, but it was a disaster at Amsterdam. I arrived late at the gate for Bangkok due to a late BRS departure and there was chaos. I joined a long queue at the gate and after maybe half an hour had a notification from the KLM App saying a different gate for BKK, the next one along. I went off to investigate and discovered that I had been in the right queue after all... which was the queue for a document and health check that covered a load of departures. So I joined the end of the same queue again, adding another 30 minutes. Nobody had a fukkin clue what was going on.
Several people were told to sit in a 'waiting' area due to failing the temperature test... which was not surprising really seeing as everyone had outdoor winter coats on, were stressed by the delays and it was as stuffy as hell in the health check area. Our flight was delayed again at the end due to luggage being taken off because of people failing the health check.
But anyway... eventually I boarded. When checking in I could see it was a busy flight so I paid an extra Ł116 for Economy Extra. It wasn't so much for the extra 14cm of leg room but for the empty cabin. I had 3 seats to meself and the plane was crammed at he back. Well worth 100 quid.
The flight was fine... it's all the hoops to jump through and shit at the airports that makes travel so unbearable these days.
Flew through immigration at Swampy...until baggage collection. Two bags were right next to each other on the conveyor belt, the third no-where to be seen. There was however a similar Slazenger sports bag going round and round... so it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. The girl at 'Lost Bags' came to the same conclusion and was confident of tracing the guy we suspected of taking my bag through his hotel registration at immigration. This put a dampener on my arrival somewhat... but what can ya do?
Have a shower and sit on your balcony with a drink, that's what you can do! My mini-bar was empty but luckily I have a bottle of Aberfeldy.
I heard nothing from the lost bags people after three hours so gave them a call. 'Oh yes, we've traced the person who did take your bag and it'll be delivered direct to your hotel'. Great news, but WTF couldn't they have called to tell me? It's always the same in Thailand, you always have to do all the chasing yourself. I just hope the guy didn't take a look inside my Slazenger bag because it has some rather embarrassing Christmas presents inside... and not just my festive boxers!!!
But on the plus side... he did carry my extra bottle of Highland Park through customs for me! I packed that before I left.
I have a 9pm PCR test (if I can stay awake) and hopefully I'll be a free man by 2pm tomorrow!
And some nice simple Thai food... just what I fancied.
My in-laws who live next door recently bought some chickens to breed and provide eggs. They roam all over our front dropping shit everywhere annoying my wife and one of them would not stop crowing at all ours waking my kids up almost nightly and again annoying my wife.
Eventually she made a comment to her mother and the next day we were presented with a nice chicken and veg dish for dinner which my wife and kids enjoyed and the bonus is the kids get to sleep through the night.
Mendip, i was in the airport lounge and was chatting to a KLM regular and he said he's cancelling his KLM flights in future because they keep losing his bags
So i see but mentioning KLM I thought about what this regular flier had recanted. I stopped KLM long ago. Just an aside if thats OK AO
So did you pinch any swag off the plane?
^ KLM have been plastic cutlery for a long time. I wasn't expecting any swag opportunities and wasn't surprised. I've already got a few of their blue blankets at home as well, so I decided against another.
^^, ^^^, thanks guys and it does feel like home. The memories of Thailand are coming back fast... I'm already getting frustrated. I was told my bag was found and being delivered 3 gours ago... yet still no sign. Maybe this guy found my Christmas shopping and liked what he saw?
^^^^ish... MM, I and many others found KLM awful with baggage back in the 90s with bags repeatedly not turning up, but then they seemed to turn it round. And I guess it wasn't KLM at fault, but Schiphol Airport. I haven't had a problem for a long time, even with tight connections.
I hate to give compliments, but the food KLM dished up last night was slightly better than the usual inedible, microwaved slop and I have a feeling they've got a new head chef. The flight was OK and way better than the Lufthansa flight I flew out of BKK on back in August. Although I did pay for a premium seat with KLM so it's not a fair comparison.
And bags... in over 30 years of frequent frequent flying I've still never permanently lost a bag. I've had plenty go missing but they've always turned up... eventually.
Just hope I'm not tempting fate saying that...
Welcome home bud.
Welcome home Mendy!
Well...
I got my negative Covid certificate yesterday lunchtime, I think...
I have been a free man for over 24 hours... where does the time go? I feel a bit out of it to be honest.
Anyway, a couple of pics from my short quarantine...
I love to be a part of the Bangkok skyline... but just for a short while. I couldn't live here long term.
So long s nothing else crops up I should be heading home tomorrow morning to arrive in Korat early afternoon. It's been a bugger to find a taxi.
This means another 'work thread' is drawing to a close. As much as I enjoy doing them, and they do help me stay sane (?) while away from home for long periods, I hope it's my last. I've been offered a regular 6 on/6 off starting March next year and I'd be a fool to turn it down... that's as good as it gets for a freelancer and I'm not doing a new thread every 12 weeks. There's nothing left to cover anyway and I don't want it to get too boring.
But... all dependent on Covid of course...
Just to address a few comments above about living arrangements. Life is a compromise. I doubt many in Thailand (or anywhere else for that matter) have the absolute dream existence you see on the telly. I work offshore... I can't take a kid back to the UK unless my wife is willing but to be honest I wouldn't want to go back anyway. Korat isn't perfect but I have my daughter, my dogs and an easy life and it kind of suits me. I get my 'Western' fix from work and I get my 'bar fly' fix from travel. It works OK and my daughter is happy and is having a great childhood. That's all that really matters to me. I can adapt.
And MM, as you say the one main draw back is education, although tbh I'm very happy with my daughter's international education at AngloSingapore. I have no qualms about it although maybe too much time spent on Chinese but that can only be good for the future. It ain't bloody cheap though with these exchange rates Snakeyes keeps giving us.
I chose an inner city quarantine this time mate, so no bird pictures from my balcony I'm afraid. However I did spot this lovely pair of red parasols... I wouldn't mind getting something like that back to Korat for my pool area.
I just found this pic on my phone... it appears I ate Norwegian chocolate with my quarantine cup cakes while having an Aberfeldy and coffee late last night. That's another of me daughter's Christmas presents that seems to have gone for a Burton but after 3 months of work I guess I deserve it!
And I finally got my larb moo for lunch!
Home tomorrow...
Last edited by Mendip; 09-12-2021 at 05:50 PM.
Travel Lodge, Sukhumvit Soi 11?
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The rooftop bar on top of LeFenix is worth a look. Not posh, but a bit of a larf.
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Money exchange? Turn right as Soi 11 empties onto Sukhumvit and there is a Chinese Exchanger just as the stairs rise up to NANA BTS.
Always a good price. Need to take your Passport.
Mendip, apologies re the education its really none of my business and if that you have provided suits thats all that matters.
On the work front, thats great news and although you have not said i am sure your prolonged stint on board demonstrated your commitment to them and the fact you didnt go stir crazy and end up drowning the flippa chef in his breakfast fry up must have sealed the deal.
When alls said and done it'll be great to see the family again and get mini mendip back on some proper food.
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