Back to Bangkok in October

 I decided to celebrate my birthday this year with 3 weeks in Thailand.  I am booked frrom Oct 1st to October 21st for 3 weeks. The first 10 days will be in Bangkok and after that I am undecided.

I may vist Pataya or Phuket, or perhaps both. I have never been a big fan of planning too much ahead in Thailand. 

The weather should be decent as it is the end of the rainy season and the start of the dry season so the pollution should be down as well as the humidy and to some extent, the heat. However I have always found the temperature is always around 35 degrees.

Hopefully some of my expat friends will be around, especially Arhtur who should be back from the states in the Fall.

My buddy John is back in Canada for a couple of years so he definetly will not be there.

I am also travelling without Jaidan and Thavorn this time around so it will be like stepping back 10 years in time.

I am flying Air Canada and Thai airlines going there and Air Japan and Air Canada on the way back. The air fare was $1,700 for flex so not too bad at that time of year.

So now it is time to start looking for some places to stay after the first 10 days. I will start at the Davis Hotel for the first 3 days and then the Marriot near Pat Pong for the next 7. After that it depends where the wind blows me.

Should be fun,

TTYL

The Itch

 I have the itch to get back to Thailand. I was there last in January of 2024 when I spent a month with Jaidan and Thavorn. Actually, I spent most of the month with Jaidan as Thavorn spent about 2 weeks with her Thai family.

This time around I will go by myself for a variety of reasons. Thavorn does not like the flight and would rather save the money from the fight and she also finds visisting her family costs a lot of money. Jaidan will also be in school, so that leaves me.

Why do I have the itch. I love Thailand and the excitement that can be had. I will play a lot of pool, swim a lot in the pool. and visit bars to listen to music and just enjoy the vibe of being foot loose and fancy free.

Why now? I will have just undergone three operations in 2 years and will have just turned 75. I may be running out of time. After talking it over with Thavorn, she understands that I need a break from our daily, monthly, and yearly routines.

It also does not cost me much as I have resort points to use and accommodations costs will be minimal. It appears I can find a flight for under $1,500 so food and beer will be the major cost. I am planning for an October excursion for 3 weeks with time in Bangkok, Phuket, and perhaps a couple of days in Pattaya.

Hopefully this will all play out. Stay tuned :-)

TTYL

Another Month, Another Post

 It has been a month since my last post, so what is new? My hernia repair surgery that was scheduled for June 16 was cancelled due to a patient with emergency colon cancer surgery. Apparently when you are cancelled you get rescheduled in about 2 to 3 weeks so I am guessing the first or second week in July.

Jaidan is just finishing grade 5 at St. Lukes and is looking forward to about 70 days off. As a reward for a good report card I bought him a Nintendo Switch2 for the school end. He really likes it but all his buddies told him he was so spoiled. Probably true but he is a good kid so why not spoil him. Better yet he knows he is spoiled so he paid $200 from his savings towards the purchase.

My buddy John and Fon arrive on July 2nd so it will have to be a few beers and time to get caught up on how he adjusted to almost a year in Thailand for the first time without a full time job. Also time for a few games of pool.

My friend Paul Cotton is back in Ottawa for a few days so we will get together for a lunch and get caught up on what has been going on in our lives as we have not got together for almost 10 years.

My buddy Kerry is also spending some time at their cottage on Bob's Lake which is also where Paul likes to spend time fishing as well. Maybe it is time Paul and Kerry met as they have some early tech days in Ottawa in common.

Thavorn is the joyful Thavorn that she always is. As long as she gets to spend some time shopping for clothes once a week she is happy. She is so easy to dress as she looks good in almost anything. However her walkin closest is almost full to capacity.

My two older children, Jordan and Jaime are looking forward to summer holidays as they are both teachers.

My sisters Ann and Elaine are planning their trip to England in September to visit our cousin Jill.

I am also planning to take a 3 week trip to Thailand in the fall as long as my July surgery goes well. It will be my 75th birthday present to myself. It's much cheaper for just me to go and Thavorn does not like flying. Jaidan is envious but perhaps we will go as a family in the summer of 2026 for his grade 6 graduation present before he attends Mother Teresa High School in the Fall.

After he finishes grade 8 we are currently thinking of placing Jaidan in an International School in Thailsnd so that he can improve his Thai and make important social contacts in Thailand so he can decide where he wants to work or attend University in the future.

My latest robotic car with mecanum wheels and ESP32 control and receiver for ESPnow

My first 3D print - whale comb

TTYL

Life in the Slow Lane

 Lots happening in Canada but not much new, We had a federal election but the Liberals won with a new Prime Minister, named Mark Carney. IMHO he was elected because the boogey man down south scared the chicken little electorate up north who saw Carney as the best person to deal with Trump. Time will tell but I am not optimistic. 

The weather in Ottawa remains cool for this time of years but Thavorn and I decided to visit the Tulip Festival  yet again and we took many pictures. However, if you wish to see them you need to look up her Facebook page undet Thavorn Dale.

However it appears we stole the land the tulips are planted on from the indigenous folks who passed through it from time to time, hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Before that, it belonged to the dinosaurs but there are no descendents to make claims.

I am still enaroured with my Kia Forte GT that is now 5 years old and I plan on keeping it another 5 years or when we depart Canada, which ever occurs first. The jury is still out when we will start to spend more time in Thailand. It all depends on how PM Carney handles the economy and when Thavorn starts to feel home sick, which she has not to date.

I continue to coach basketall (U19 Boys) and this is my 47th year. This comimg Saturday I will coach againt my friend Alex who is in his 37th year of coaching. He has said this is his last year and I am starting to think the same. I reactivated my incisional hernia while coaching this year and go under the knife again on June 16th. Such is life when you start aging and pretend you are still capable of doing the same stuff you did 30 years ago.

Not much else going on so TTYL

Wow - so long since my last post

You can probably tell that life in Canada is pretty boring. However, March Madness is due and basketball is getting exciting once again as teams start playing defense.

I spent 5 hours with my sister in emergency as she came down with a stomach bug of some kind. She spent an additional 5 hours there before I arrived. Ontario's health system needs to be revamped. For example there should be a user charge of $25 in emergency to keep the losers out.

For example there was the well dressed druggy there to get his morphine injections and he joked about it with me. Not only does he tie up the nurses and doctors but also the security staff. He got a needle and an IV later for his morphine fix.

I can only think there are 2 reasons for the health care issue. The first is a shortage of doctors, especially family doctors and there is not the will to increase the number of doctors. Even the worst doctor will have no problems getting patients so the medical profession likes the shortage. The second reason is the province like the shortage, because the fewer the doctors, the less the billing. It is all about money!

On another health care issue, my hernia has come back and I probably caused it with coaching U19 boys basketball, I should not be demonstrating at 74 years of age. The good news is I called my surgeon and I am booked for mid June and will get a small mesh nserted this time around.

Jaidan continues to do well at school and Thavorn tolerates Canada much better than me. 

Trump has shown to be a moron and Musk is just as bad. We are in for interesting times in Canada and our dollar continues to suffer due to Canada's poor politacal leadership.

Not much else to say :-)

Never visit Thailand with your spouse :-)

Still lots of snow in March

I contunue with my RC hobby for sanity

TTYL

Reflections on 2024 and Looking Ahead

 2024 has come and gone. We started it off in Thailand during the month of January. It was a great trip, with Jaidan and I spending the majority of it in Bangkok and Thavorn spending half in Bangkok and half visiting her family in Phang Nga (hope I spelled it correctly).

We flew back through Abu Dhabi and spent a night there as our flight was delayed. Arriving back in Canada, Jaidan resumed school and Thavorn went back to work. Life became very routine! And I became very bored!

John and Fon were in Thailand and were scheduled to fly back to Canada at the end of June to live with us for the 2 summer months. However, I pulled the plug on Thavorn's job as it basically became worthless for her to work. I am sure that it came as a surprise to Fon as she was to work with Thavorn during the summer. I was also fed up with driving 2 hours a day over the past 2 years. I have not regretted my decision as I now have Thavorn home all day with me :-)

In February I developed an incisional hernia and went on a waiting list for surgery which happened in October so I became 100% healthy once again. Jaidan also entered grade 5 in school much to his chagrin.

My business has been going well which enables Thavorn to save as much as she would have if she had worked. We went from filling up the gas tank every 4 days to filling up once a month. We became carbon tax winners rather than losers.

We bought and learned how to ride an eScooter this year. This included Jaidan who has yet to learn how to ride a bicycle.

In June my basketball team won a gold medal albeit in div 5 at the provincials. In Septemver I signed up to coach U19 boys for the third time since arriving back in Canada. They keep me young :-)

I spent too much money at Christmas, as always, but Christmas is for kids (and Thai women) and as a wise man once told me, 'Work more, earn more'.

Looking ahead to 2025, we hope to bank about $20K and perhaps get ready to move back to Thailand in the summer of 2026. We would enrol Jaidan in an International School for grade 7. However as the best laid plans for mice and men, things could change.

We will have a new government in 2025 and I am hoping things will be better in Canada. They certaintly can not be worse than the past 9 years of liberal, woke government. When I arrived back in Canada in 2024 after living overseas for 10 years my initial thought was, 'What the fuck happened to Canada!'.

Happy New Year to All

TTYL