SUNDAY 10th APRIL, 2022:
Up at dawn, 05:30 and the family started to ready for the blessings and party later in the day.
Close family started to arrive at around 8am to help get the food ready. At 10:00am, the blessings ritual began. Aom, Jack and myself clearly being the main object of the blessings as we are distant (literally) family members.
A freshly slaughtered pig from the farm was centre piece on the blessings carpet.
It is totally normal here for the male family members to start drinking beers and Thai whiskey early morning. Not for me, I’ll wait until much later in the afternoon.
By 9:30 most of the clan had arrived.
First off was the Blessing Ceremony. This was purely to welcome Aom, Jack and me back into the family. I’ve been through this a number of times before over the years and it’s a truly lovely highly emotional experience.
First up was young Jack who sat there bemused at the attention being given him. The ceremony consist of prayers and the tying of coloured strings around the wrists and in Jack’s case money is wrapped in there as well.
Next up was Aom followed myself.
The rest of the clan’s get-together was easy; lots of BBQ food and an enormous spread of other Thai delicacies and, of course, beers, etc.
Family members and close friends came and went throughout the day, but such gatherings rarely last after nightfall.
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TOP ROW: The "blessings" array.
CENTRE LEFT: Jack's up first.
CENTRE RIGHT: ... then Aom.
BOTTOM ROW: ... my turn.
MONDAY 11th:
Bit of a lie-in this morning after yesterday's festivities.. Very lazy for farm life, but up and about at 7:30.
Looks like it’s going to be a hot one today… no breeze at all.
Today I have to get the timing-belt replaced on my Toyota pick-up… I’ve been putting it off for too long.
A drive to Prasat with brother-in-law, Joe and into a servicing centre. The job was accepted instantly and finished in 20-25 minutes.
It always amazes me that this is a land of CAN DO.
And this is a perfect example. We just breezed in to an engineering place that does tyres, brakes, clutches and the like... a bit like a UK KwikFit I suppose. The car was immediately accepted and after a 20 minute wait… job done.
Back in UK there’d be a “have you booked it in?” Mmm were very busy at the moment come back in a week and other such negativity.
If they cannot do it they always know someone who can.
A quick visit to the local supermarket, Lotus's (formally Tesco-Lotus) to stock-up on a few essentials then back home.
I thought I’d explored every inch of the farm over the years, but I’ve discovered 2 new ponds; one the size of a lake. How did I miss them before???
We decided to test it out and go for a cooling swim in this "new-found" lake/pond. Good fun!
Back home and sipping some ice-cold Chang beers followed by one of my favourite Thai dishes: Massaman curry... fantastic.
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Swimming in one of the large ponds. Great way to cool off.
The lower pics are of young Jack in Chet's tub he uses to collect water plants for both Somjit's culinary skills ans other types for boiling down as food for the pigs.
TUESDAY 12th:
Today even hotter at 39.6°C with a very high humidity; a bit uncomfortable to be honest. As fast I pour water down my throat, it pours (pores??) out of my skin.
Things to do today.
1. My father-in-law has to build an extension to the pig-pens. This is because one of the sows is heavily pregnant and the piglets will need space. In this heat 10 minutes of work is knackering for me. At about 10:00am I had other chores to do:-
2. The house kitchen is fairly basic. It’s not a small kitchen by any means but poorly equipped with very little storage space
So, I decided to amend that situation.
Drove into Prasat again and into a mini version of UK’s B&Q stores. Bought a blender for mum-in-law (her name is Somjit) as I’ve seen her struggle chopping up foodstuffs.
But the main purchase was to be some wall-mounted kitchen cabinets. Not much on display to be honest, but we decided on some white units only to be told they were out of stock.
Only alternative was to drive the extra 20 miles into or near to Surin City (the capital city of the Surin Province) to an enormous home-centre; the place is easily twice the size of any DIY store in UK. Anyway, we found more or less what we wanted.
These places are dripping with staff; I think they are really poorly paid but I guess they need the work. For example there were 5 security guys by the exit doors checking everyone’s bills. One would have been more than enough. However, the joke is the check-out tills/cashiers are a mere 2 or 3 metres away in full view of these guys, so it’s patently obvious customers have paid because they are watching them do just that. But they go through this ridiculous process of checked again.
I recall going to a major Thai bank once to withdraw a banker’s draft. On entering there was a female staff member sitting there on her own who’s sole job was to tell customers to go to one of the tellers which is precisely what one would do anyway. But, again, the joke is I did actually go straight to an empty teller slot only to be told I had to go to the solo woman who then told me to go to the same teller…. plain daft, but this is Thailand.
Halfway back home, we popped into an Amazon coffee shop. These Amazon coffee shops are all over Thailand and in 90% of large sercice areas. The coffee is excellent and very much better tha the dishwater one gets from Stabucks, Cafe Nero and the like back in UK.
Aom & I decided on iced-coffees since the temperature is a touch under 40ºC today. Back home to chill-out for an hour or two and keep away from the sun.
Well, time to chill lut after the day's chores in the heat of the day, so it dossing and drinks time
Another family was due to visit late afternoon; one of Aom's cousins, uncle, aunt and 3 kids. However, they didn't arrive until around 7pm and by then I was not feeling that sociable so I sat this one out. They are good people but it is always a struggle because they have no English and my Thai is below basic; so I will always have a drink with them but after half an hour it becomes tedious... hence my feeling anti-social. In any case, it had been a very hot day and even at 8pm it was still 33ºC.
There is no air conditioning on the farm, just dozens of fans whirring away. One day we'll get around to solving this. What many Thais spend on a/c is the eqivalent on what we in UK spend on central heating; although the current so-called energy crisis at time of writing has hit Thailand too with fuel priced going up 4-fold. A huge number of vehicles, particularly HGV's run on LPG. Taxis too and most of the thousands of mini-busses (the ones we use regularly) that are in use all over the country. The downside of the LPG powered taxis is the is very little room in the boot or trunk for luggage as there is a large gas-tank in there.
