cussblog

Song Kran(2)

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:23:32 +0000

Hi All, Full moon here so the usual 4.30 am bongs and dongs from the Temple plus, this time, the suicide death-pact of hundreds of identical twin flies in the pool.(Nobody has told them that they cant swim!) This is leading up to Song Kran, the annual Sloshing-of-Water Festival of which I still have vivid memories with the Tsunami Volunteers,- going round with a 3,000 litre water bowser drenching everybody,- cyclists, m/biked, the lot!

I got a sudden nasty growth on my back which local surgeon cut out while I sang the old ditty of “The Eddystone Light”. Growth to Bangkok for analysis, me on anti-bios. Cost GBP 20.

One day of welcome rain and the “Pheasant Trees everywhere (2 in ours) in glorious scarlet blossom!

I’m happily building-in shelves, hanging-space. beds,- all in tongue-and-groove teakin first chalet. Keeps me out of greater mischiefs!!

S’All, Folks Best Wishes, Kan, Sep &Yrs Happily Mike, Cuss etc

Cuss “Oasis”

admin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:09:04 +0000

It has been a long time waiting but at last the two houses are in place and looking good. Cheers Mike. Big building is the Wat(temple) next door .

Thailand Today

admin — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:56:16 +0000

Hi all, Greetings! Full moon here recently and His Nibs at the Wat next door started bonging and gonging at 4.30 am and still at it at 19.30 with occassional pauses fo breath

On the aches & pains front the VIARTRIL-S has definitely reduced pain in knees, but I’ve regretfully given up any Olympic ambitions!! (for this year)

Two lovely teak chalets have arrived via low-loading lorry with 2 chaps perched 5metres up on roof topush aside many mains electric cables! After several months of drought the clay soil was nicely baked hard… then, the day before they arrived came heavy storm so the lorry got bogged down and really churned-up the nicely flattened ground! However, they look good and we’ve started to build the brick toilets for each, then two similar chalets in brick, hopefully with identical “Chinesey” roof. Whole “OASIS SPA”, incl. pool, trees & chalets looking good with decorated walls. Please, a request! I want a picture to copy of “Autumn” to link one of “Summer” of local buffaloes in a parched landscape with “Winter” (by courtesy of Ron Barriball,) – a beautiful Oxfordshire landscape covered with snow by a Mouth Artist for whom I couldn’t have more praise! Ideally, an Autumn with masses of red, yellow, russet trees, maybe a babbling brook… Many thanks!

All going well. Unemployment rate expected to rise to (wait for it!) Zero point seven per cent Temp up to 35. Schools on holiday for Song Kran (the sloshing of water festivities!) We are hoping to introduce Sep to his birthplace of Taiwan if we can sort out Visas1 Very best wishes to all from Kan, Sep and Yrs happily Cuss

Latest

admin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:44:32 +0000

Hi All, After 3 months of horrifc flooding much further South, here in Nong khai the River Mekhong is at its lowest for 30 years! Watering , – well,?Can one have a daily nightmare? The King ordering the Government to plant masses of trees as each big tree absorbs about a ton of the wet stuff!
On the personal front, I’m getting new aches and pains around my waist to add to knees, so grateful for no cold ! Cheers to All Mike & Co XXX

Thailand

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:22:28 +0000

,Two daze in Bangkok, travel by new model sleeper train in bright purple & silver instead of old dull green,- but still2 hours late! Then BKK roads with l-o-n-g hold-ups!. But big Hospital super . At 86 I dont want surgery for painful knees, esp. after seeing model of what they do! so I’m trying 6 weeks of cartillage-making pills. Ear-clearance in Nong Khai very painful, but in BKK only uncomfortable & excellent! Dental filling came out needs several treatments, so back to Nong Khai. All done in excellent Englisk and charges reasonable

Very interesting to see MASSES of work already done on new Chinese high speed rail alongside old track, altho// v. little in news. I really think Big BUsiness in Thailand works by corruption instead of government
Flooding not in news now, but from train see thousands of houses with 1 ft of wet. Big prob with such vast area very low and flat Cheers Mike% Co XXX

Floods

admin — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:14:44 +0000

Hi All No newly-arrived P.M. could have done much to improve Bangkok’s flood situation. 8 million tons of water per day is a lot to move! Coming slowly from about 300 miles North it had alredy stopped the functioning and damaged many very large industrial complexes and stopped supplies to many industries here and abroad. The Govt. now proposes to build a huge canal by-passing BKK to the East,- exactly as the King proposed 17 years ago!!
Bad political news for half of Thailand is that the King and Govt, have decided to grant a Royal Pardon to ex(exiled)-PM Thaksin on King’s birthday Dec 5th, – but someone in Cabinet leaked it! Now the matter is tabooooo! The corruption is horrific!
Weddings! (not mine!)
You may remember about a year ago I was informed at 5 a.m. that I was to officiate as Step- Father at the Wedding of Kan’s adopted 23 yr old son Tong, ceremony to start 150 miles away at 10 am… The Bride Price (200,000 Baht) played a conspicuous part in the proceedings which were otherwise a very low-level affair,- at floor-level in fact! Last nightwe attended a much grander affair!- the weddingof the 30 yr-old son of our Estate-Developer to a stunning Laos lass. About 2000 guests at tables in the warm evening ,Orchestra. Huge overhead lights,.. The invitations were accompanied by beauful envelope with our name and big space in which we wrote how much cash we enclosed. Everything put on computer at the entrance… Many delicious courses,- but only chopsticks to eat them,- and which I cant!! Only Whiskey and many different types of water. Compared with U.K. I was rather disappointed at how few were the meetings, greetings and mixings among guests. Maybe corruption makes one wary of strangers…?
However, seeing the mass of construction and projects inder way maybe Thai business works despite poor governance and corruption… I see that U.S.A is turning its face from Atlantic to Pacific

‘Sall, folk. Hope all are well. Cheers Mike & Co

Whether it be Wet or Fine

admin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:09:33 +0000

Hi All Several letters asking about IT! The Monsoon opened with tremendous rain first of Aug and flooded the motors of the pool. IT hung about here noisily for 6-8 weeks then concentrated on the central plains where it could do more damage. And it really has! – Our bread is baked in Bangkok -Sink City! -and we’ve had none for 2 daze cos the bakery is flooded! Disaster ! Who said “No Bread? Let them eat cake!”Off with her head!” Really, the big disaster is the lack of Thai Government! There are apparently ELEVEN different Authorities who control the many sluice gates around BKK, and the locals break them down with pickaxes if they feel it will help their own locality!However, Nong Khai couldnt be sunnier or drier No problems at all, and I hope for all readers either Cheers Mike & Co

Health (or Such-Like!)

admin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:07:29 +0000

Hi All,

I have absolutely no qualifications at all to write this, other than the fact that I find myself in Asia with a Thai lady partner ,Kan (pron, GAAN) and her 7-yr-old son, Sep, to whom I am ‘Papa’, But those simple facts have led my path into situations and ideas that I don’t think would have occurred had I followed a more conventional life-style.

Physical Health. Since age 72 (I am now85) I have suffered from tinnitus,- a 24 hr/day buzzing in both ears. European doctors said there is no treatment hence I must “grin and bear it”. Happening to find mysedf in China, I visited a Chinese doctor. I will say straightaway that the treatment he gave me (a vile-tasting herbal concoction) did not affect the tinnitus at all, but I think it could have done! In Europe, many doctors have taken my pulse, by hand or machine, and arrived at a pulse-rate. The Chinese doctor very delicately held my left wrist and, according to the interpreter, obtained a much-wider knowledge of my heart than just the pulse-rate.Then he held my right wrist and got a good knowledge of my liver and kidney functioning. He enquired in depth about my toilet functions, which, in the West, are just flushed away,- yet they can give important indications of our “innards”

Separately, I have for many years suffered from a swollen right leg. Spanish doctors said only a small operation could cure it,- but they never offered surgery,-probably because of more pressing cases. But here in Thailand Kan’s skillfull (often painful) massages have done the trick, as confirmed by a local surgeon.

In Thailand, as in China, physical fitness is far more “to the fore” than in Europe. Obesity is relatively rare. Early morning exercises to a very fast pace are common in public spaces, -car parks, Proms, etc. No-one looks twice if one walks along waving arms above head to improve circulation. I certainly applaud all this,- and join in. I feel happier, healthier and more’positive’ than when I came here! Not bad,- and it’s FREE TOO !!

THE MONSOON
It broke with a silent bang at the beginning of August. Seoul got 40 cms in 24 hrs! For us, it had rained steadily all night but I hadn’t thought anything special – until I opened the door of the below-ground pump for the pool,- and found water up to ground level,- the motors completely submerged.Lukily they were dry-outable. Since then, steady drizzle at nights and cloudy days. Grass and weeds loving it! In Thailand’s huge, flat central. rice-growing plains floods are an expensive and difficult problem for any Government, bearing in mind the long distance to the sea. And we’ve got this new young lady Prime Minister to face it!

Sep

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:59:20 +0000

6-year-old Sep is on the left. Bot (Honestly!) shares the same desk at their new school. Behind them are the coconut trees-in-waiting!

My Murals

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:55:23 +0000

Thee of the many paintings I have done on the 3 x 2 metre cement walls surrounding the house, swimming-pool and coconut grove. Acrylic water-proof paints. They keep me out of greater mischiefs!!
Two are typical rural Thai scenes and one ?psychedelic Chinese scene with a wooden junk glued in place.