Big Adventure 26

Hello again everyone. Finally back on the grid

First some short snappers:

- I didn’t miss all of the basketball tournament – they got rained out a few times, so I was here for the last three games. My team are now the Samui Basketball Club champions. Hooray.

- recently on my way to basketball a man and woman on another motorbike pitched me to buy some opium and/or cocaine. I declined and they sped off looking for another customer.

-why do men in their 50s and 60s wear “do rags” ?
-why do women in their 50s and 60s have tattoos?
-why do none of our friends and family in their 50s and 60s in Canada have either?

-my favourite sign is still “Wear safet helmet”.

-when having soup at a roadside stall, there is an important distinction between pork balls and pig balls.

- I moved here last July with one suitcase and a knapsack. Jacquie came in October with one suitcase and a knapsack (and one dog). On May 24th we moved and it took three full loads on our rented pickup truck.

Moving.

Sucks. Even on a relatively small scale and over a short distance (a touch over 3 km.). On a related topic, my parents moved two days after me – shorter distance but a lot more stuff. Sorry I missed it but hope and trust it went okay.

We moved on the 24th because work for the sailing regatta started on the 25th, so we got a full half day to get settled before spending our week (nine days all in) doing our volunteer thing. Every day we left home a little before 7 am, spent the whole day on the water laying out courses, timing boats, etc., and then raced home to feed and walk Sami before that nights party. Home by midnight so we could get up by 6 am and do it all over. Hectic. On day two I agreed to sit on the jury that decides disputes / protests, Five minutes after I said yes three of the big IRC Racing boats (60 feet long) all headed for the same patch of water rounding a buoy. A collision ensued. And three protests. Suddenly my week got much, much more hectic. A total of 8 protests were filed, 6 had hearings and decisions – and 4 of those were about that one incident. All in my spare time (plus I completely missed the Friday night Land Rover Beach Party because it took us until after midnight to make a decision.

A great time, and we both learned a lot (I now even know who has the right of way coming to a mark). “Jelik”, a beautiful and wicked fast 75 foot yacht with a crew of 19, won its class and the Asian Racing Series title. According to Jacquie we have been asked to go to Phuket to work at the Kings Cup Regatta in December. I also now know to say “no” to the jury gig.

So Sunday June 3rd was the first day we could relax and enjoy our new place. We were exhausted so other than moving some furniture around (surprise) we just laid around and swam and slept (not at the same time). Now it’s Thursday night and it feels like we’ve been living here for a few days.

On the surface this place is awesome. It’s huge – a total of 8 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, 3 kitchens, media room – high on a hill overlooking 3 beaches and spectacular sunsets and lightning storms, often at the same time. But now that we live here we of course get to see below the surface. So quickly big becomes simply more to look after and further to walk to get from the driveway to our living area, and we notice that there is no gate or security of any kind on the back stairs. We still have no internet – it was promised to be working by last Wednesday and this Wednesday, and I have a call in to ask when it is next promised for. Hey, here that is not even late yet.

The top bit of the road is so steep that our motorbike can’t get up with both of us. Jacquie has to get off and walk up the last 20 feet. And now the drinking water delivery guy says he won’t come up anymore (not too big of a deal – I have started buying it from a small store at the bottom of the hill for the same price (50 cents for 20 liters) and bringing it home one at a time on my motorbike, the Thai way driving one handed).

Okay, that’s about all of the negatives. Everything else about this place is pretty fabulous. The sunsets and lightning storms seem to get more spectacular each day. And the media room has the full meal satellite dish, serving up lots of movie channels and sports (read basketball) when we’re not sitting poolside watching sunsets and lightning storms.

We notice also that Sami is starting to smell a whole lot better now that he is not in the ocean every day. And the ever creepy, regular plucking of ticks from him that started last month has ended now.

I have seen my first ever scorpion (two actually, in one of the bathrooms here ) And a large and very nasty looking poisonous worm stung/bit Jacquie on the stomach. Jacquie is fine. So is the worm (but it lives out in the jungle now). The scorpions are both dead.

We have chosen a bedroom located poolside on the terrace level. The terrace bar has a refrigerator and barbeque, and the staff take the dishes up to the kitchen to wash, so it’s all pretty convenient.

We find it difficult to have staff, but we are doing our best to try to leave them enough to do to keep busy. Lots of yard work, watering, and a couple hours per day pool maintenance. And cleaning. We have started having them prepare and serve our Friday evening meal for us – candlelit table for two poolside. It actually costs as much or more for the ingredients than going to a restaurant, but it’s good practice for them and a nice change for us.

We are settling in - again. Getting a company set up to do some property management, and Jacquie will be using the same company for her furnishing contracts. We hope to get the name Big Black Dog Consulting Limited approved. We continue meeting new people and seem to be going out partying a lot. The biggest problem with the move is that I’m too far away from the “barbequed pork on a stick for breakfast” lady to go every day, but that is balanced by the great restaurant nearby where we can call the owner’s mobile phone to place an order, so we don’t have to wait around.

In a new story, the government here is considering a bill that proposes to ban drinking alcohol in certain public places. The proposed alcohol free zones would include temples, hospitals, drug stores and schools. Seems quite progressive. Or repressive.

Oh yeah, we now have some internet access – sort of. The new antenna is up effective June 15th, but won’t be at full power for “three or four weeks”, so we have access only in a couple of areas of the house, and the way it is implemented we only have access on one computer at a time which is and will remain a complete pain in the ass. On the plus side the company was very proud to tell us they are providing a “free” month of access, after they were paid for a month when there was no access. Wow.

I plan to upload a few photos – of our villa and a sunset or two – to our blog page within a day or so. I’ll send a separate email with the link for looking at those as soon as I post them.

Finally - for this "issue" - an unabashed plug for our friend Monika Wright, a visual artist who has a show of her art in Halifax starting on July 5th. See all of the details on her web site: www.monikawright.com and if you're interested check out the opening night. Sorry Monika, we can't make it. Have a great show.

Bye for now.