Big Adventure - Part 7

Back on my island.

I wasn’t sure I had the right number for Ju’s cell phone, so I called her from Singapore at the office to confirm it and that I would call at around 9 pm to get her to pick me up at the airport.

No answer. Ended up taking a motorcycle taxi home (safer anyway) She says she gave me the wrong number.!

Told Jacquie I’d call when I got back – but no internet (a common occurrence apparently) so no phone, no email, no iChat, no contact of any kind to tell her the plane didn’t crash. Finally got back on line the next day. (and contacted Jacquie)

Yesterday I told Ju I wanted the vehicle at 5:20 to go to basketball, so she went to the market at 4 so she would be back. You know where I’m going with this right?

Six o’clock – a good time to go to basketball. And we played till 8, so I guess it’s good I didn’t go earlier.

Lesson learned - don’t count on anything here.

According to the most recent “rape of our island” article they get 837,000 tourists per year to Samui. Given the size of the island I’d say that’s plenty. They apparently spend an average of 3,000 Baht (about $90.00) per day each. That part seems positive. Maybe they could find a way of diverting some of that tourist money to environmental and infrastructure concerns. Or I bet every one of those tourists would pay an extra $10.00 per day without hesitation.

I’m back to eating what is put in front of me, with no idea what some of it is. There is a basic philosophy here that if it is alive or growing, let’s eat it. Food is all now purchased, brought back and served by Ju since we have no cook. I think I was only delaying the inevitable when in Singapore. I think the pig organ soup was supper last night. Today for lunch I had something called – “Thai speak Mang Khut” “English speak Mangostine” – never heard of it before, but it is absolutely delicious. It would be a perfect dessert after animal organs.

On my way home from basketball I came upon an accident scene. A wrecked minibus, a wrecked truck inside a building, and two completely mangled motorcycles.

A very sobering scene. Chilling.

Moments later the motorcycle behind me passed in the face of an oncoming truck, and seeing that he had obviously gotten over it I decided I must too.

I got home to discover an invitation to next door for barbequed steak. Ju apparently feels very bad that she is not a good cook, and thus not cooking my meals for me, and is getting Kit (Richie’s woman) to teach her how. They even got some white wine, just for me.

Miscellaneous observations from Asia:

Men over 300 pounds should not wear speedos.
I eat something curried every day. Sometimes I know what something is, and sometimes I don’t.
If you leave the jar of Coffee mate in a tray of water the ants won’t get in. Screwing the lid on doesn’t seem to work, but they won’t swim the moat.
I eat tofu every day.
Women over 200 pounds should not wear speedos.
I don’t use as much Coffee mate as I used to.
“No thanks, I’m not hungry” translates to “Please get me a large bowl of noodles with wontons, tofu and barbeque pork” in Thai.
I eat something too spicy every day.
The really good restaurants don’t have names – just “the place across from / beside…”
I like curry.
I kind of like tofu. Even better than pig organs.
It’s important to be vigilant for motorcycles driving at night with no lights on (thankfully, so far this lesson not learned the hard way).
“Ndo” is Thai speak for “stupid”. I’m not telling how I learned that.
“Kao Phad” means fried rice. Worth remembering. Ju laughs at me when I clean my plate. Assumes I must want more – probably figures I’m starving.

I think I already mentioned that the airport is just up the road, and all planes arriving come in very low over the water at the end of my beach. So low they are below the houses on the hills overlooking my beach. At night it is a spectacular sight as the big planes with all of their landing lights on make a final turn lighting up the whole beach and then appear to fly into the coconut palms.

My reason for telling this now is that this morning a HUGE cruise ship appeared and anchored off of my beach (quite a way off – as I said it is huge.). Tonight every light is lit on that ship – it looks like at least 8 – 10 stories high. Anyway, while I was looking at it a big plane arrived. Made that final turn as it flew over the ship. Awesome.

Wow. This morning Ju cooked me breakfast. I know that sounds bad, but it was just breakfast. She was so proud, kept thanking me when I said it was very good. Cooked everything just like "Cooky" used to - two eggs raw on top with almost raw bacon, almost raw sausage and two toast. I told her not every day because it wouldn't be healthy. She seemed to understand that. (PS-it's been over a week and no breakfast since. I don't understand - it wasn't THAT unhealthy, and I told her it was very good. Damn.)

Staff at PDCLR: I bet Mike, Mark, Philip and JC would like breakfast. Come in a little early tomorrow to cook, so you don't cut into your work day.

I know I’m getting settled. On the way to play ball last night a truck came over the brow of a hill on my side, passing two other trucks. Flashed his lights to be sure I saw him and kept coming. Luckily there was a shoulder there so I swerved onto it and no accident. My reason for telling this story is that I realized afterward as I continued on my way that it didn’t even surprise me or scare me. No adrenaline rush like the first time it happened. Same Same. Keep your head up.

Also, the other day I chose not to heat my coffee up in the microwave, because of the loss of ant life that would have resulted ( I must be turning a bit Buddhist). Maybe we should keep the microwave in a tray of water.

Suddenly, since I’ve moved here, I have lots and lots of time. What I find interesting is that I am not the tiniest bit bored, but I often feel guilty for having it. The other day I was feeling bad that I haven’t even started reading that next book. I had that thought while walking on the beach after two hours playing basketball. I’m so used to everything, even all leisure activities, being on a schedule that I still haven’t come to grips with actually having time to waste.

Of course the big problem now, still, is that I should feel guilty, because Jacquie is still left with so much to do and not enough time, and I’m too far away to help. If only I could give her some of my time.

Everywhere I go I meet people who are thrilled that a new lawyer is here, because they need a good one. It seems there are lots of local lawyers but the quality of service is typically not high. Instead of me needing to find clients it seems the clients need to find lawyers. Refreshing change. I will need to guard against becoming too busy – not the goal of moving here (once Jacquie gets here and I get rid of the guilt, I’ll like all of this extra time).

Over the past week and a half I’ve been doing less to write about because I’ve been across the street at the sports bar watching the World Basketball Championships on the big screen. Alone. (sometimes the owner, Malcolm, sits and chats – knows nothing of the sport, but used to play semi-pro rugby when he was younger). I got the schedule off of the internet so he could put who was playing on the sign out front – I told him that would bring in customers. Nothing. Even USA v Germany over the supper hour. No one. Just me, being served fresh roasted peanuts and soda water (and the odd Singha). I feel like I’m sitting in my living room watching. Tomorrow (Sept. 1) the Semifinal games, then the final on Sunday – maybe some others will show for the final.

I’ve got a big problem tomorrow.
5:30 – 7:30 I’m supposed to play basketball;
5:30 – 7:30 basketball is on TV (USA v Greece)
6:00 – whenever? is the monthly Koh Samui Ex-pats Club party.
I want to do all three. Damn TIME.

If anyone who has Google Earth on their computer (and if you don’t you need to get it) is interested, I am living at latitude 9 degrees 33 minutes 26 seconds north, longitude 100 degrees 03 minutes 03 seconds east (please don’t use that info to send missiles) In the Google Earth Location window, you type “9 33 26N, 100 03 03E” (without the quotation marks) and click the find button (or press return) and Google earth takes you here. I’ll be outside looking up and waving.

And in case some of you didn’t hear, Google has just put hundreds of thousands of “public domain” full text books online, downloadable for free. I just got The Confessions of an Attorney by Gustavus Sharp, esq., of the late firm of Flint and Sharp, including several papers on English Law and Lawyers by Charles Dickens. 241 pages. Scanned and digitized from the Harvard College Library.

The internet isn’t all porn and Viagra.

That’s all for now from ten hours east of (most of) you. I’ve already wasted my ten hours – what are you going to do with yours?