9 Days to Canada

Today's song is: Old Man  .. Neil Young

Wow, single digits. I just put together an online calendar for the rest of February mapping out where, what, and when. Things get a little scary when you start realizing you have run out of time to do something you have forgotten or neglected to do, such as translations and certified copies, etc.

As you can probably guess, I am not a big fan of Google. They know way too much about us as it is, without giving them my calendar.

We are hoping for a dinner at Paul's Vancouver condo on either the 18th or 19th. The whole extended Cotton family just happens to be in Vancouver at those dates.  :-)

We are showered and getting ready to walk to market Village to get some nuggets for Jaidan and a hamburger for me. They have a Thai food court upstairs and Thavorn is likely to eat there.

We celebrated Fon's 41st birthday at John's condo last night and John's mom was lamenting that she had not seen a potato since she arrived in Thailand.  The things you miss from your culture  :-)  Thavorn is in for a bit of a shock with regards to food in Canada. Here's hoping she adapts.

TTYL

10 Days to Canada

Today's song is: Funny How Time Slips Away  .. Willie

It is getting real now  .. 10 days!  Thavorn and Jaidan bought their bus tickets from the village to Bangkok and depart at 8:45.

Tonight is John's wife's birthday and Thavorn and Fon are heading out for some music and dance at Hillary 2 on Nana tonight. That means Thavorn will sleep most of tomorrow. Thavorn does not subscribe to my, 'If you hoot with the owls at night you must fly with the Eagles in the morning' belief.

I am still going through drawers and moving things around, trying to decide , keep, move, or chuck. Last night I bought one more bin so we will leave 2 bins of apartment supplies at Big Tree for our arrival on September 1st 2019.

Luggage almost fully packed

Big Tree has been good for us. If you need a place to stay out near the airport that is not too pricey (1200 Baht) it is highly recommended. I like the plant art.

I just received an eMail from my friend Paul Cotton and it turns out Paul, Cathy, Cecilia, and Allison are all in Vancouver at the same time. Paul and Cathy will host all at their Condo for a welcome party. Does not get any better! Cecilia and Allison both played basketball on my teams and Paul helped coach for a while.  However, hopefully the snow melts off Paul's balcony before we arrive.

TTYL

11 Days to Canada

Today's song is: Concert with Willy and Bobby  .. 96 mins  .. kick back and enjoy

One thing I will miss when I am in Canada is the Bangkok Iced Coffee. Starbucks sells their version for 155 baht whereas the street vendors make it for 20 baht and the taste is pretty well identical.

Bangkok Iced Coffee

Red line encloses 2 ngan of land area

Thavorn has been looking at one ngan of property in her village available for 300,000 baht or about 12,000 CDN. A ngan is just big enough to build a 2,000 square foot bungalow with room for a driveway out front.  Maybe  :-)

We have managed to save this amount over the past 6 months.

Our departure is rapidly approaching and I am prepping for it. Tonight I will go to MegBangna Mall and buy 2 plastic bins to store some items, mostly kitchen stuff, while we are in Canada. We are coming back to Big Tree on September 1 and they have agreed to store our stuff for the 6 months we are gone.

I have finished prepping our new server for our business and it is ready to go when I get to Canada. Unlike our previous servers, this one is hosted in AWS's Canadian data centre in Montreal.

Time marches on  .. scary  .. I asked Thavorn if she was scared to leave Thailand and she said yes. She was surprised when I told her I was anxious as I was responsible for making sure everything went OK for both herself and Jaidan.

TTYL

12 Days to Canada

Today's song is: Mr. Tambourine Man  .. Dylan

At some moment in time we need to purchase some land and build a basic house near Thavorn's village, or in the village. The reason why is because we are spending more money on condos and apartments than we would buying the land and building the house. I figure 5 years of rental costs would build the house. It kind of makes sense and would give us (Primarily Jaidan and Thavorn) a base in Thailand to call home.  To put things in perspective, the total cost would be about $40,000 CDN, about the price many Canadians spend on a vehicle.

The other thing about building a house is that it would give me something to do. I am quite handy with plumbing, electrical, and carpentry work.  The benefits of a Science and Tech 5 year high school program in Canada.

We have a lead on a .25 rai (ngan) of land that the owner wants 300,000 baht for. It already have water an electricity on the property which is level and clean, and lo and behold, is very close to my running track in the village.

However, never rush into something. My dad used to say, 'Never go grocery shopping when you are hungry, and never buy a car when you need one'.  I would add another from personal experience, 'Never look for a girl friend when you don't have one or two already'. Of course that would be my Thai experience.

Jaidan is having a riot in the village with his siblings and village friends.

I went to the gym today for a workout.

As Thavorn is want to say, 'Not bad for an old man'  :-)

TTYL

13 Days to Canada

Today's song is: We're Not Going to Take It  .. Twisted Sister

Have you ever looked into the mirror and wondered who that old person looking back at you is? Disconcerting at best  .. downright demoralizing  .. but yet a reason to embrace life  :-)

Thavorn and Jaidan are arriving back in Bangkok in 3 days on February the 6th. Thavorn is goind out that night with John's wife Fon to celebrate her birthday. Jaidan and I will be batching it that night. On Tuesday I will go buy the final large suitcase and start packing up my clothes as well as Jaidaan's that we do not plan on wearing before departing Thailand.

Our last night at our apartment is February the 12th and then we move downtown for 3 nights and will be staying at the Hyatt/Regency for 3 nights to enjoy what downtown Bangkok has to offer. Also a good time to say goodbye to friends.

I have been chatting with family back home and they are excited to see us.  Ditto for us.

After our 3 nights at the Hyatt we move back to Big Tree Residence for our last night as it is close to the airport and we fly out early.  The journey begins soon!

I have been busy configuring servers while the family is in the village. I discovered I had inadvertently created very expensive storage for our new server when the AWS bill arrived. I manged to waste $300 US. Ouch. I had to delete that server and create a new one which takes about 3 days. Day one is done and if I am lucky I may get done in 10 more hours.

Sometimes you just don't like computers  :-)

TTYL

14 Days to Canada

Today's song is: Girls Like You  .. Maroon 5  .. for not bowing out of half time show

Wow, 2 weeks and counting  .. excited for us!  It is cold in Vancouver for our arrival:

but not as cold as Ottawa will be  ..

We will definitely have to buy some winter clothing for Thavorn and Jaidan. I have winter clothing at my younger sister's house.  Apparently there is no shortage of snow in Ottawa which should make Jaidan happy.

Thavorns clothing fit into one large and half a median. One more large should do us especially when we have 3 carryon for odds and ends.

Jaidan and I

Thavorn's clothes  ...

Thavorn's empty closet

As I mentioned in a previous post. Counting down is like wishing you life away.  You should try to take advantage of everyday, learn something, do something, live something.

Especially, the older you get:

As the poet Dylan Thomas famously wrote, “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

TTYL

16 Days to Canada

Today's song is: 60 Mins of Top Hits  .. great tunes to listen to with my new buds  :-)

I broke down and against my minimalist approach to life, I bought something.  For quite some time I have been thinking about some ear buds. I have been using the pair that came with my smart phone, but they don't fit well and fall out all the time. My sister Ann had lent me a very expensive pair of Bose over the ear that were needed to be charged all the time which I find very inconvenient. I was looking for something that plugged in, had a microphone for Skype use, and most importantly made me smile.  Gamers like cool stuff  .. great sound  .. best of all 540 baht .. about $20  :-)

Last night I headed to downtown Bangkok to get a new faster backup drive for my work.  I headed off to the IT Mall, where you can find anything and everything and ended up buying a Samsung SSD, USB 3.1, type C, and it is very fast and will be faster with my new laptop when I arrive in Canada.. Does not count towards minimalism as I need it for work  :-)  Highly recommended  .. 4,400 baht

It was hot so after I made the purchase I headed off to Carls for some chicken tenders and a coke and then Country Road for a pitcher of Singha. I left after 90 mins for Nana for a Vodka and Red Bull and then off to the Bier Garden in search of someone who was good at pool, was female, funny, and good looking.  After securing the lady we headed off to Gulliver's to play pool for a couple of hours and then I decided bar hopping in Cowboy was in order and I decided to take my pool companion with me as she was good at making me laugh. About 10:30 pm I decided to hop on the BTS and go home.

All in all a good day and I was happy to get out because the apartment is boring without Thavorn and Jaidan.

TTL