It is January 1 2016 .. Happy New Year. On the first day of the year, all throughout Thailand, the local monks walk around their district and receive alms from their constituents. In Bangkok, the line of monks is kilometers long!
Today's song is: Don't stop the music by the Village People .. bit of a theme while I am there :-)
If yesterday was the epicenter of my intestinal maladies then last night was the calm of the eye of the storm and I foolishly ate (because I was starving) a spicy chicken hamburger from 7/11. Big mistake as I paid for it all night! The good news is I appear to be getting better today ( a 7 out of 10) and I only ate a slice of bread and a boiled egg and it stayed down and is causing no discomfort. However, the toilet trips are still occurring albeit not as frequently.
Pictures tomorrow, I promise. Last night I missed the school extravaganza and everyone asked Thavorn where Jimmy was and of course all the girls wanted to hold Jaidan (for a short period - 18 kilos) and they all say ... Jaidan so cute! Thavorn could not shoot any photos or videos as she was concerned about where Jaidan was at all times.
The lost boys (16-24 are all in the woods and have been having a bush party for over 24 hours. It is starting to quiet down down that the temperature is climbing past 30 degrees. Alcohol can only take you so far. What is the saying ... mad dogs and Englishmen?
That is it for the time being, time for another recovery nap .. after a toilet stop :-)
The conditions were all there for a perfect storm, and like George Clooney doing his 'Old Man and the Sea' modern version he thought he could cheat the Gods of the Sea.
It was blistering hot when we arrived 3 days ago and I started chucking back the bottled water but I should have noticed that the bottles were the exact same bottles I bought over 6 months ago. The labels should have alerted me me as they looked weathered.
Dinner was a varied menu of eel, snake, rat, and pork. Thavorn had previously told me she would only feed Jaidan and I pork. However, I noticed that everything went into the same two fry pans, so I think all the meat tasted the same with different textures. My insides were rumbling a bit so I thought I would wait to eat a bit and it turned dark about 6:30. I previously showed you the lighting is not great in the house (term loosely applied) and I eventually put some pork together on a plate with some rice. About 5 bites later I noticed that some black spots were moving on my rice so I put on my glasses and discovered at least 20 black ants dining alongside me (minus the ones I already ate). I picked out all that I saw and finished the plate. When in Rome ...
I started to get Jaidan ready for bed and decided I would sleep with him under the too small mosquito netting. Thavorn would sleep on the floor beside us with the 2 fans on high to keep the mosquitoes away from her. I, and Jaidan had only shorts and a t-shirt each. During the night, the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees and I woke to an odd feeling in my kidneys and an overall general malaise, combined with a fever and headache. The rest of the night was toss and turn waiting for daylight and a trip to the john out back.
Jack Nicholson has a classic line in the Bucket List .. 'Never Trust a Fart' .. I did, and it was not pretty, trying to keep Jaidan out of it and trying to wake up Thavorn. Of course there is no toliet paper in the whole place (a bucket of water suffices) and I looked around for a solution. You would be amazed what a diaper can soak up.
The day has progressed and I am taking amoxicillin (purchased at the local Thai pharmacy without a prescription), a couple of advils and nothing but water and a few S-100 soft drinks. It has taken me all day to write this, a sentence at a time. I may end up missing the school extravaganza tonight.
This is only the second time Montezuma has had his revenge on me and like I said, it was probably a perfect storm of bad little wiggly things.
Today's song is: I Would Do Anything for Love .. Meatloaf
Last night the 3 kings from the orient (John, James, and Arthur) had a night out in Bangkok and we paid for it today with mighty hangovers .. but I seem to remember we had lots of fun :-)
Tomorrow morning Thavorn, Jaidan, and I will head off by taxis to Mo Chit, the Northern Bus Terminus and catch the bus and a commuter truck transport to Thavorn's village. It is one of my semi annual trips to the village and I am sure the local mosquitoes just can't wait until I feed them some farang blood.
I will attempt to be better at taking some pics from around the village as well as the local school and school show extravaganza and get them posted. The internet is quite fast in the village (go figure) and I believe it is because the school is less than a kilometer away and I suspect the tower is close by.
I will also truck around on Thavorn's motorbike, a 135 cc Honda.
I am off to sleep early tonight as I try to placate my body after last night's abuse.
Christmas brunch at the Novotel was the best Christmas brunch I have experienced. They put on an immense spread of food and the beer and wine are free flowing. Simply the best brunch or buffet ever and the service was fantastic! Highly recommended and at 1,500 Baht it is a fantastic value.
Jaidan was extremely well behaved and we were able to hang in for about 3 hours and 7 glasses of wine :-)
I have decided that there is no reason to buy Christmas gifts for Jaidan. This is Christmas #2 for Jaidan and so far the only gift he has is this Christmas hat that we bought at a bar on Christmas. No Tree, no gifts, and no bah hum bug. Times have changed :-)
Party hats all around for the children .. many, many children!
Today's song is: Don't Cry for Me .. by Sinead O'Connor .. a good song if you are into the Scotch
and if you like it you will like Molly Malone
It is that time of year to reflect on the impact we have had on the world. Perhaps you indulge or perhaps not, but I do. I figure if you are not making a difference in someone's life other than your own then you are simply a waste of space and resources in this world we live in.
Sometime, companies seem to get it right. I just received this advert online from Cloud9 .. a company that provides programming IDE's online as well as hosting projects. Here is the add:
Now, I am not so naive to think this is not a marketing ploy but I also feel, it is a marketing ploy with a conscience and a desire to facilitate making a difference in someone's life.
I have no firm stats but I would estimate that about 50,000 people will have come in contact with software that I have written. Everyone from students, teachers, education administration both in Canada and internationally, conference administrators and attendees, and others over the 30 years of software development. Has it made the world a better place or made someone's job easier, or perhaps possible? I hope so, and in many case I know so. I would estimate my average hourly salary earned coding is about $2 an hour, so why do I do it. Why does a starving artist paint, or an author write.
Programming is the only art form that fights back! .. don't know who coined this, but it is so true.
I treated myself to a couple of bottles of Scotch today. Dewars White label at 650 baht for every day holiday consumption and Crown Royal (12 years) at 1,699 baht to take home to the village for a toast on New Year's Eve. Thai people in the village do not appreciate fine wine or champagne, only whisky, and they really like a good whisky when they get a chance to taste it, which is only when Jimmy comes to the village. Last New Year's it was Canadian Club so I one-upped it this year to Crown Royal. Mind you, I could have bought 3 bottle of Dewars for the same price and everyone would get blotto and have a great time. Tough decision :-) but they will be into the 35 baht a bottle Thai whisky which really has to be tasted to believe. Makes Tequila taste yummy, but has the same effect, perhaps a little worse.
I have finally embraced Windows 10 and converted over my two Windows 8.1 computers but left my Windows 7 computer as is. This is also the year I moved my one server from a downtown TORONTO location to Amazon's cloud. I now have 3 servers for less than price of one in Toronto and they are faster. I continue to use Google's Blogger because it is free and does a good job for me. It was a good year for technology in 2015.
Jaidan became very proficient at walking in 2015 and is now running at a fair clip at 16 months of age. He understands a lot of Thai and English and talks up a storm but neither Thavorn or myself have a clue about what he is saying. Much like my son Jordan when he was a toddler.
Thavorn and I still get along great and never argue. She is starting to move away form, 'Up to You', but still my happiness more important than hers. Such a change from Farangland. The Thai way of life is antithetical to farang women and their beliefs but that does not deter farand women from visiting Thailand in greater than ever numbers. Not so sure this trend is good for the bar scene in Bangkok.
The army is doing a good job of running the country and it has had zero impact on my life in Thailand. My Dad always said a benevolent dictator was the best form of government and he may have had it right. Speaking of my Dad, I still miss my Dad and Mom and also miss my sisters back in Canada. My two older children are both busy developing their careers and I am still not sure how they feel about my divorce as they never want to discuss it. The divorce was finalized in 2015, and now and I am free to be me, whatever that means :-)
Today's song is: Say Something . A Great Big World .. Christina ..
Life in Thailand just keeps getting better. AIS, my cell phone provider just rolled out LTE and they upgraded my access from 3G to 4G by providing me a new sim. Same data plan as before just much faster access speeds. About 50 GBs download and about 35 GBs upload. Ping was 25 seconds.
I was paying 1,699 Baht a month for a 10 GB download cap per month. Sometimes when I am working a lot I go over by a gig or 2 and I get throttled back to 387 kps access. AIS just released a new plan with a 20 GB download cap per month for 1,799. Kind of a no brainer to get an extra 10 GBs for about an extra $3.50 CDN per month.
We have Christmas dinner brunch set up at the Novotel hotel for the 25th and Thavorn really did not have an appropriate dress to wear so we went shopping. We found a red dress at Guess that makes her look awesome so she is good to go.
In case you are wondering I am loving my new monitor. Also, the weather in Bangkok this week is great. We leave for the village on the 28th and it will be cooler still.
As you can see .. as soon as the sun goes down it is quite cool .. party time ..
Today I went out and purchase a Samsung UHD 34" monitor with a resolution of 3440 x 1440 Ultra WQHD which means lots of open windows, which means improved productivity for a programmer like me. It is expensive at $1,000 CDN and I am not sure I would purchase it for personal use but I can certainly justify it as a business expense as it is very ergonomic and will increase my productivity. Easy on the eyes and neck. It has a curved screen like some of the new Televisions. I decided not to go with 4K HD after reading reviews on many of those monitors.
Couple of pics of my work area:
Overall area ..
The monitor with programming environment open ..
My existing laptop is over 2 years old now but is capable of driving the monitor albeit at 50 MHZ. My new laptop which arrives in the first week of January has a display port and will drive the monitor at 60 MHZ. More MHZ is better as it is perceived as a more stable image, not that I find 50 MHZ bad.
The ergonomics are great as I can move the monitor vertically on its stand and keep it at eye level despite my chair height.
Today, one of Thavorn's cousins is visiting with 2 of her children. Looks like they will be staying overnight. Her cousin is 3 months pregnant with her 5th child but still has the typical slim Thai figure. I am not sure they can pull that off after 4 or 5 children but Thavorn does as well.
I am looking forward to Christmas dinner on the 25th at the Novotel hotel. All the turkey you can eat with the trimmings and the booze is free flow as usual with special dinners in Bangkok. They don't have the LCBO looking over their shoulders :-)
