Still Here

I have not posted for a while, but I am still alive. Very hot at the moment 40ish.
Playing a lot of golf (best score 89) and scrabble (best score 522).
Lottie is growing up quickly, she is very entertaining. Presently she is having a few tantrums, when she doesnt get her own way, which I am hoping she will grow out of soon.
Not been on the net much as the connetion is very slow. My email address is andylee1964@hotmail.com :-)

Lottie goes to School

Even though she is only 2 and 1 month, Lottie has started school. It is a private school in Buriram, which teaches Thai and English. £30 per month including lunch. It also has its own indoor swimming pool. It looks very nice, cartoon characters all over the walls, and English and Thai wall charts in every room.

Owl

I arrived home from golf to find we had an young owl, Paa's dad and others had found it up a tree, and because Lottie loves pictures of owls, he thought he would bring it back for her. I obviously made him take it back immediately, which he did. When we got back to the village I found out that there were 3 young owls, the other 2 were still in the village, taken by people who thought they looked nice! Unfortunately they are probably now dead, but the locals dont seem to think there is anything wrong in what they did.

Lottie's 2nd Birthday

For Lottie's 2nd Birthday we had a buffet party at the house, most of the village came. Lottie was asleep for a lot of the party. Everyone had a good time except my wallet.

Chalermkarnchana University

Outside Surin on the road to Prasat there is a new university being built. It looks like a French building from a few centuries ago. I suppose they wanted people to notice it, and I certainly did, which is why I have posted a picture of it.

Phanom Sawai Forest Park

On the way back from a trip to the Cambodian border, we went to see Phanom Sawai Forest Park. An out-of-city attraction 14km south of Surin. It is signposted but there is no information for the visitor to read, however, we rang the bells, and Paa prayed at "Buddha's Footprint". There wereancient lava flows in the woods as well.

Honey

Paa's dad is a great tree climber, fisherman, and food finder. Occasionally we will see him collecting ants, fruit or salad from nearby trees. This day he came back with honey. The bees were very small, but the honey was lovely. The first time I have had honey from a honey-comb.

Drying the Rice

This year we had a new helper to dry the rice, and drive the little tractor. It was a reasonable harvest in our area theis year, unfortunately many other areas had flooding this year.

Grapes and Lemons

I have bought a couple of grape vines, they are not available round here as far as I know, but this area, Buriram, does grow grapes according to my research on the net. I believe they are red grapes. I made a raised box for them and they are doing very well. I am hoping that they will grow over the shelter round the back of the house.

The lemon tree is 5 ft high now and is the best one of 6 I have grown from seeds from a lemon that I bought in the supermarket. They prefer a cold season, which is prbably why no one grows them here. We will see what happens.

The Pond

The pond has been doing well, we have been catching catfish for people in the village, the Nin fish are just about big enough to eat, but I want them to get bigger. I put another 200 small nin and 100 small catfish in 2 days ago. Round the edge are a couple of banana plants, 4 bamboo, eucalyptus trees, coconuts, and some other fruiting trees.However the soil is horrible at present, much of it from 2 or 3 metres down when they dug out the pond. So the trees are struggling at present.

Golf

Surprisingly I had started playing golf twice a week. I was absolutely loving playing, even though I was usually 40 over par for 18 holes. My best 9 holes was my last 9 holes, 53 only 3 off my present target. Unfortunately during my next round my back went, so golf is on hold at the moment I am hoping to try playing Friday or next week.

Lottie

An update to the blog is never finished until I have put new photos of Lottie on. She is great, just getting over a bad cold, she had a high fever, but is just left with a cough now. Even so she was hardly a problem, no crying and even took the medicine without the usual spitting it out.

Drying Fish

Something I haven't seen around our village before. Someone brought a load of fish to a neighbour. They went round in a truck selling them off the back. They sold a lot, but still had some left, the women gutted the fish in the village hall and then they attempted to dry them, however, it rained soon after this photo.

Snooker Room

The extension to house the pool/snooker room, store room and outdoor kitchen is finished. It looks great, though the roof leaks in one area of the pool room. But Uncle E-at who made it is away working in Bangkok at the moment so I am waiting for his return to mend it. Here are some pics from when it was being made.

Planting Rice

Most of the rice directly around us is just thrown into the fields from a bucket. However if there is enough water in a field it can be hand planted. The seedlings are replanted about 10cm apart. This increases the yield and obviously cuts down on seed costs. But it is back braking work. Here are some locals getting bundles ready to go and replant.

Patanar

Cleaning the village. This year as well as tidying up the village, all the houses made name/number plates (except us, we still have to make ours) The village looks a lot better now. Lottie and I went to watch, and I bought the people some whiskey and pop.

Fishing

I have been learning how to throw a Thai fishing net. I am not very good yet. Five men from my village and I went fishing in a large lake about 15km from the house. I caught about 15 fish, however, everyone else caught over 200.

Elephant in the garden

As usual when I see an elephant in the village a picture or two appear on here. Lottie loves elephants on the TV or on her cartoon DVDs. Elephant is chang in Thai and Lottie must say chang at least 50 times a day. However she was very scared when she saw a real chang.

Seaside

We popped to the seaside for a short holiday. Lottie loves the sea, well she loves water full stop. There are swimming pools in Buriram so will have to start swimming lessons soon. A girl from our village works on the beach doing manicures and massage, so Paa got a manicure.

Bangkok

We went for a short holiday in Bangkok, we have been before but not taken many pictures. So here are a few, the Grand Palace, the river etc.