I dropped my sister off at the airport at 8 pm for her flight to England to visit her cousin Jill and spread my mom's ashes on the beach where she used to play as a child. That leaves me all alone with the 5 resident cats plus the one free loader who comes by during the night for his feed of kibbles. Each cat has his own dietary needs that I have to keep track of.
The cats are Caissie and her bay Kit Kat, Smokey and her sister Katie, and Mr. Tibbs who lives in the garage. I don't think the free loader has earned a name yet. Along with the 5 cats are 5 kitty litters which must be cleaned daily and 2 electric water supplies that must be maintained.
The bird feeder must be kept full as must the water container they drink from. The flowers and plants inside and outside must also be monitored and watered.
It appears that it is back to nature for me which is a big change form the bar scene in Bangkok. :-)
My sister Elaine is back on the 26th and like the little train, I keep repeating to myself, "I thing I can, I think I can ...".
Today, Saturday, I am meeting my daughter, Jaime for a walk along the Canada Trail in Stittsville and a look see of the model house that she just purchased and takes possession in the summer of 2018.
Tomorrow, Sunday Jamie and I are also travelling over to the Quebec side for a dinner and a few glasses of red wine with my sister Ann and her better half, Bill.
My business partner and I got some work done in our school board which left me some programming for Friday which I managed to get done, which means Brent has some testing to do.
All in all, I am staying busy. Oops, forgot I visited Chapters and purchased a science fantasy for reading in between feeding the cats and changing their litters.
I also get the use of Elaine's car while she is in England and Italy. It is a very sporty Honda.
Vroom, vroom, vroom .... just have to remember to stay on the right side of the road!
I chat with Thavorn and Jaidan daily via LINE. Next week they will take the overnight buss from Bangkok to Pha-Ngan (near Phuket). to stay for a week with her sister and her significant other Pom. They run a small ice cream shop. That should make a week go bye for Jaidan and her quickly.
Today's song is: A Medley of Tom Connors songs (33 mins)
I am back in Ottawa and today is my first full day, having arrived last night at 8:30 pm. My sister was waiting for me and we jumped in her car and headed off to her home. We had a great chat and some laughs over a couple of glasses of red wine and my head hit the pillow at 1 am and I immediately fell asleep until 8:30 am this morning.
The next morning I headed out for a short run along the Ottawa river bike path and arrived back for a couple of coffees which did not help much and I started to nap about 3 pm until 5 pm when my daughter Jaime and my sister Ann arrived to pickup Elaine to go see Cirque du Solei. They suggested I buy a ticket but I told them I doubted I could stay awake for the whole show.
The weather is sunny and about 25 degrees which is cool for my Thailand adjusted body.
My flight was uneventful for the most part and Air Canada gets the reward for the best food beating out ANA of Japan. However, it remains one long ass flight and I had to pop two Advil to get through the flight. I just find it hard to sit for 25 hours, despite getting up to stretch every 2 hours. The movie supply was bad despite listing many flicks. I settled for watching 'Fate of the Furious' for the second time and 2 other soon forgotten titles. Unfortunately ANA and Air Canada had the same list of movies. However, Air Canada (new 787 dreamliner) had some great games that I played to pass the time.
When I arrived at Pearson International in Toronto, I cleared customs very quickly and immediately visited Tim Horton's for my medium double double fix :-)
Tomorrow (Thursday) is a work day as my partner Brent and I visit the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board for our annual support meeting. Good to be in Canada, but missing my Thai family.
Today's song is: Leaving on a Jet Plane .. Timberlake
From the sort of good news department, Stickman's column is running for another week:
'I don’t like ambiguity and I really don’t like uncertainty. I don’t like not knowing what is going on when there’s a direct effect on me. I hate not being about to plan ahead. 24 hours ago I thought this was the end, the last column. I had written a long goodbye message outlining everything in detail….but things started happening and now I don’t know what is happening. I never intend to mislead anyone so when I say that I genuinely do not know what is going on or what will happen next, that is the honest truth. What can I say, other than tune in next week for the latest instalment in the Stickman journey to, well, who knows where'.
As for myself, I am up at 5 am tomorrow and in a Taxi by 6 am to get to Don Muang Airport for my 9 am flight to KL where I overnight and then catch my 7 am flight to Tokyo and then on wards to Ottawa via Toronto.It's never particularly easy travelling halfway around the world and 25 hours of travel time is about the best you can do. The reason I am flying out of KL is to use ANA and Air Canada all the way home. The food and service are great, and I will have a few fellow farangs on my flight.
The hardest part about going away is knowing will wake up tomorrow, an hour after I have left and will call, 'Poppa, Poppa, Poppa ...'
As for Thavorn, I asked her if she was sad I was going for a month and she said, 'Why would I be sad, you come back Jimmy!'. Thavorn did say she would miss the magic sink. I said magic sink? She said, 'Yes, i put dirty dishes in, and come back 10 minutes later and they all clean .. magic!'
I may end up writing a post halfway through the trip is some interesting observations come to light.
I must admit I am looking froward to my first Tim Horton's medium coffee, double double, and a breakfast sausage sandwich :-)
Today's song is: It's a Long Way Home .. Staccatos .. Ottawa group I grew up with ..
My last post mentioned that Stickman's website was coming to an end after 20 odd years of reporting on Thailand. Many of his readers has posted their laments and have done so, very eloquently.
Stick's readers hope he is not going to bale and will find someway to continue with his website.
On a personal note, I am packing for my yearly visit to Canada. This time, I am there from August 8th to September 9th. Hopefully the rain will be gone and I will have sunshine for the month.
I pack light, all carry on. My backpack serves to hold travel documents and my 2 laptops. My Oakley gym bag hold my sneakers, a pair of jeans, an additional pair of Oakley shorts, dry fit t-shirts, 5 pairs of underwear, toiletries and a hair dryer. It also servers as my pillow between flights. I sometimes chuckle when I see the 20ish somethings struggling down Sukhumvit with their ponderous packs. I can't imagine what they have in them. Ditto for the older tourists pushing their huge wheelies down the uneven pavement.
There is lots to think about when leaving Thailand. I am on what is referred to as a retirement visa. Whenever I leave Thailand I have to fill out a re-entry T8 form so I can get back in under my retirement visa. If I forget to do that, my visa is invalidated and I have to reapply all over again. Of course there is a charge of 1,000 baht for this but you can do it at the airport. However, you do need a current passport photo so that is another thing to remember and another 240 baht.
I use Grab Taxi (Think Asian Uber) to get to the airport and apparently they have closed the off ramp at the airport so they are recommending you leave 3 hours early for your flight. Bangkok is known for its traffic chaos.
I fly to Kuala Lumpur on the 7th around noon, overnight there and fly out very early, 6 am on the 8th. I fly from KL to Tokyo, and then Tokyo to Toronto, and then Toronto to Ottawa for a total of 25 hours flying time. Due to the wonders of the international dateline, I arrive at 9 pm on the 8th. Hopefully, my sister Elaine will be at the airport to pick me up.
Thavorn is tasked with looking after Jaidan for the time I am gone and ensuing he is in one piece, the same as when I left. I am trying to explain to Jaidan that I am going away for a long time, but he has no concept of what a long time is. However, usually after I have been gone for an hour or so he usually asks Thavorn where poppa is or sometimes, 'Where Jim Dale?'.
When in Canada we talk with the LINE app which works quite well. It has video as well as sound and Jaidan likes to see his poppa.
'Familiarity breeds contempt and children', Mark Twain.
Expats who spend a lot of time in S.E. Asia often find themselves disillusioned or bored with their host country and move on to what they assume will be greener pastures. The following discussion is symptomatic of what they think and feel. In basketball coaching we refer to this as 'The game has passed him by'. You have to adapt. Confucius summarized this by 'You can't step into the same river twice', By stepping into the river, you have changed the river, and you, yourself are changed by the river.
There is a very long running website that I always heartily recommended to any farang wanting to understand the Thai mindset, especially as it is reflected in farang-Thai relationships.
For whatever reason, Stick is shutting down. I can understand his feelings, because it is difficult to write a long running blog or website. Stick publishes once a week on Sunday and I try to get 3 posts out a week. In the next month, I will publish my 500th blog post on my experiences as a farang in Thailand. It has not always been easy, especially when I don't get out more than once a week.
Stick's last post will be this Sunday. He will be missed!
I am off to Canada for a month on August 7th for a month so you will probably see this farang's view on how Canada differs from Thailand. One difference is that Thailand gets 30 million tourists a year whereas, Canada gets far fewer. There is probably a good reason for the difference, and I chalk it up to the parochial beliefs our politicians and bureaucrats hold.
20 million looks pretty good until you notice that 13,000,000 are American's driving across the border because the Canadian dollar tanked in 2016.
Thavorn's friend Poi has landed a job at Shark Bar on Cowboy and will be making 18,000 baht a month, not including her lady drinks and pay-4-play activities. She is very shy and made a trial run with Thavorn last night to get a vibe for the bar. Poi thinks she can handle the gogo outfit with a gauze bra, and very short skirt with a g-string underneath. Time will tell.
Arthur and I are planning to attend Thursday night, her first night to buy her her first 2 lady drinks and see how shy she really is :-)
It's been quite a ride! It seems only yesterday that Jaidan arrived in the early morning of July 31st 2014 at Kua Nam Thai Hospital. It was quite different than the 2 previous births I attended as Thavorn was quite calm and nonplussed when her water broke. I then remembered for her last child, she spent 45 minutes in labour on the back of a 125 cc motorbike to get to the hospital. No big deal Jimmy, we have time :-)
We flagged a taxi and arrived at the emergency at the hospital and things just happened. Thavorn had been getting monthly checkups at the hospital as I had purchased a birthing package for 30,000 baht that covered everything, including an incredible room and 5 star service.
I asked Thavorn if it was possible for me to attend the birth, but there was no way the hospital would permit it. No big deal, an hour later, Jaidan arrived. I asked Thavorn if it was painful and if she cried. She said, 'No, Jimmy the doctor gets angry and tells you to be quiet if you make noise!' I was somewhat surprised as Jaidan was a big boy at 4.3 Kilos whereas most Thai babies come in at around 3 kilos.
Jaidan had a very healthy first 3 years with a couple of fevers and colds and 1 bout of pneumonia where he was hospitalized for 3 days, but other than that he was a going concern. Three years, and the formula, bottles, and diapers are gone except for nights.
Hopefully he is out of the terrible twos. Jaidan has mastered you tube on my smart phone and is owner of the TV remote during the day. Like most days, he loves dinosaurs. I don't get the attraction myself, but I now know most of the dinosaur names. Jaidan loves to run, run, run, especially now that he has his new Nikes. Unfortunately he still loves to parade around town on top of my shoulders and at 107 cms and 23.2 kilos, he is starting to get somewhat heavy :-)
I dropped Jaidan off at school today and he was greeted with Happy Birthday and they have a cake for him at lunch hour. I think school has been good for Jaidan. Thavorn is keeping Jaidan out of school for the next month for company while I am in Canada. Thais do not like to be alone, something to do about ghosts.
I was somewhat apprehensive about having a child at 64 years of age but it has turned out well and I think kept me young. Thavorn has also enjoyed Jaidan as she has actually been able to raise Jaidan herself, rather than placing him in the village with her Mother. As my buddy John told me when we announced the pregnancy 3 years ago, 'Children are God's gift to mankind!. He was right :-) It certainly has not been boring!
Here are some pics, throughout the 3 years, in no particular order.
Today's songs are: Bryan Adams's Greatest Hits .. A Great Canadian Singer
I started thinking about a friend the other day. His name is Kerry and I think my best friend throughout the years, starting at grade 5 and still ongoing despite my travels and his. The memory that prompted the thought was an idyllic end of summer day, up at the lake, where we spent many summers together, being boys and doing the stupid things that boys do from time to time. This particular day was the last day of the summer and the lake was smooth, the boat was fast, the sun was bright, and the water skiing sublime. There was a girl along for the ride, but not a friend, just passing through. It is important to differentiate between friends and those just passing through your life's journey.
I do not think of friendship the mushy way that people, women in particular do. Such as 'Aristotle's 'Two souls in one body'. A man's concept of a friend is much more simplistic. Some reflections ...
I think young children have it all figured out before they become children. A friend is someone they have fun with, play with, argue sometimes with, but mostly, just hangout with. The Dickman brothers come to mind, and we hung out together, night after night from grade 3 to grade 6 ish. Mark joined me later on in life on our infamous Florida trip in 1971 and his brother John joined me on first canoe trekking expedition in Algonquin park around the same time frame. I have not heard from either of them in 40 odd years. Would I still consider them friends? Yes, past shared experiences.
My best buddy Kerry arrived in grade 5 and played on all of my sports teams, throughout elementary and high school. The Dickman brothers were not into sports. John became an emergency room doctor and Mark became a career banker after a brief career as a forestry engineer that ended due to his fear of big black and brown bears that he encountered on Vancouver Island.
Throughout my high school years friends came and went. Some, like Stan Staples were friends of both Kerry and me. Others, like Tom Brock and Mike Teehan were friends of mine. High school is a time for trying on friends to see who stuck. Mostly, Kerry and Stan stuck and others gravitated away.
If you play team sports, like football, you make a lot of acquaintances, but unlike friends, they mostly are 'friends' during the season. I was fortunate to play high school and college football. The interesting thing about football is that it attracts many colorful characters that tend to stay in your mind occupying memory cells. Some, that I think about from time to time are Russ Larose, Ken Bull, and Ken Jones. There was Orville Adams, my first black friend for a season at Carleton, fresh from a season at Boston College. There was David Green, my fellow running back at Carleton and a host of others. I mention these because I spent time outside of football with them.
My time at the Carleton University Pub was of a similar vein to playing on a sports team. The staff was like a team and operated like a team. We were the largest retailer of draught beer in Ontario and had to be a team. Mark Killoran was a good friend during that time period.
After college seems to be the time period when friends drift apart mainly due to jobs and marriage. Jobs, marriages and family responsibilities seem to occupy everyone's time for the next 30 years which inevitably lead to new friends in the family neighbourhood and workplace.
My workplace lead to friendships with Liz Klassen, Francis Liu, Rheal Dumont, Bill Fox, Steve Evraire, Gabe Massicotte, Barb Zanon, Doug McClusky, Tom D'Amiico, Michel Pitre, Vic D'Amico, and Mike Baine, and many others. Work was a second family with me.
Brent Wilson, my business partner and close friend was also, initially a workplace friendship. We have maintained a working partnership/friendship for almost 20 years, which is quite an achievement. Ditto goes for my exPat buddy John McGrath. I have known John for over almost 40 years and he always makes me laugh.
However, I can't forget my hobby friends, my basketball coaching buddies. They are quite the characters. They include Larry Brown, Mike Bond, Ashley Coventry, John McGrath, Mike Laurie, Mike Kolberg, Steve Tierney, John Scobie, and Mike McMurchy. A common interest is almost always going to create friendships especially when you are as intense as these guys who would make up much of the coaching elite of Ottawa, not excluding David Smart :-)
John McGrath, Ashley Coventry, Mike Bond, and yours truly just being friends
Friends are really the roadmap of your life's journey. Without them life would be a lonely trip.
However, not all friendships pan out. The saying, 'A friend in need, is a friend indeed' has a negative connotation. If you are on the giving end of that kind of relationship don't feel the other side feels they owe you and don't be surprised when they are no longer needing that the friendship slowly drifts apart. For friendships to survive, the door must swing both ways. Takers and givers don't have the ying yang required for the long haul.
Time is the true test of friendship. If you find yourself thinking about a friend you have not seen in quite some time then send them a text or eMail and mention how much you miss their company. That's all it takes to keep it together for another few years until you meet up again.
