Lovely few days in Thailand

House and garden looking good.

And there was a small procession and fancy fair in the village.  Was to celebrate the young boys entering Monk Hood.  Lots of floats. I took a few  photos and have added them below. Have not used Movie Maker for ages so apologies for poor editing. Nothing special but good reminders of a lovely relaxing afternoon.

Home Massage

Our Friend Noi was round for a few days.

She brought with her a Korea massage kit.  Its one of those ones where they out air cylinders on your back and suck the air our.  Leave them on your skin for about 5 minutes.  It is supposed to stretch the skin adn muscles etc. After 5 minutes she removes them she gives you a good back massage to follow up.

So relaxing unbelievable.  Should do this more often.  BTW the marks stay for a good 48 hours......
  

Busy day with a little drama.

Started off nice and relaxed this morning. Bit of a late start.  Had just settled into my second morning cup of coffee,as one does.  Very relaxed.  "Don't forget to fix the water pump electrics. Seems to have a short."

OK OK I'll get to it.  Actually good job I did. Plug completely melded away.

So what to go and do as follow up.  Obvious. After such hard work I went off to the music studio to play some blues with my mate Dante. Even there no rest.  Someone outside the studio came round to show us the new local resident..He was just leaving by way of being chucked over a a large wall at
the rear of the compound..... Thank God.  They give a nasty bit........and more.

Ban Muang country life

So I did get round to making some cheese.  The last lot was so so bad even the pond fish were suspicious of it....

Made from a 5 litre batch of fresh milk. Had a helper, Wanna's nephew.

While doing this Wanna was busy planting trees.  We put in 11 limes, 5 Durians and another 20 assorted fruits.  That was our day.  Evening was spend with family having Bar B q and an early night.

The usual excuses but this time I've been busy......

Keep saying this is my last time I will write with such a long time between posts.

So much as happened but I do not record it as I used to. Suffice to say the usual statement follows "  I will try harder, for you the reader and for me for the memories...".  Think I've written similar words quite a few times recently.

Last week Jane arrived in Thailand.  She has planned to stay in our house in Rayong but I has asked her to first come up to Khon Kaen and have a few days to settle in then we took her down to Rayong. I should add the house in Rayong had been empty for about 12 months.  We had been down a month ago just to give it a clean.  But being next tot he road and beach it accumulates a lot of dust. Also we have a cat decided to use our rear balcony. Don't know who was more shocked us or the cat when we returned. I think he also decided to stay on...

So very busy time in Rayong.  First job was organisation, as we had finally managed to rent our 2 condos.  They had been empty for over a year.  Don't know why empty for so long but then we got a new agent and done deal.  Thank God. So spent a day running round to get them Internet and remove the stuff they did not want. We re"owned" an unused microwave, water kettle and odds and ends including a load of coat hangers....

Then to help Jane settle in we have a few bits and pieces to do and we also developed "Tour Guide" techniques showing her the various spots and local restaurants etc.

It's difficult when you move to a new place  and everyone says Oh its easy !!  Shops are here, restaurant is there etc etc. But this was different.  Jane is not planning on a few days but months. So,  so much more to advise.  Where to buy drinking water, replace the cooking gas cylinder, which market/shop is open when.  Where to buy this or that. Lots of stuff.  Add in that she is only now learning to use Thai words.  A big ask !!!!

But we did it.  Much to our amazement we had a very good and lucky time, all ran smoothly. Internet installation with new box etc was supposed to take a week but second day after paying deposit we were fully connected.

Jane got herself organised with a bicycle. So now able to go off exploring etc. Exciting times ahead for her. I suspect quite a head on experience for her as no doubt so much looked different and yet at the same time looked the same if you follow my drift. It was not helped by Wanna and I constantly proving a narrative or explanation on this or that. I know it would have done my head in !!!!!   But it all worked out good.  It is only by showing other people around you appreciate how much there is. Rayong is a great town. Love it.

Yesterday evening we  returned from 5 days in Rayong back home. On the way back we bought some avocado and durian trees for our garden. We had bought about 10 lime trees a few weeks back and have about 50 Pawpaw ready to be planted.  Busy few days coming up...

Crashed..... But only after checking on my home brew, setting up the bread maker and feeding the crays and pond fish. A mans work is never done !!!!!! (Don't let Wanna read this bit.)

 And its a beautiful morning for sure.

And today off to make more cheese and get back to my Guitar.

More news tomorrow.....  For sure....



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Grog 1

I mentioned back on 11th March I would make some grog.  Well I made up a mix of yeast sugar and water and let it ferment.  Seemed to go on for ages about 12 days.  Only 4/5 litres.

Anyway cut a long story short.  The end...  :)................................
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Today got the still out and distilled my first batch. First section stank to hig heaven adn hte rest just like a rough alcohol. No real smell except for the sugar and yeast sort of thingy.

I am not planning on drinking it.  This being my first batch was a trial to run something through the system and see how it all works. In fact it was very easy.  If you check the cloudiness in the bottles compared to the last photo with thethe clarity of liquid is is quite amazing.

My main concern which did not materialize, was keeping the liquid from boiling over.  I was expecting to get to water boiling point very quickly but now realize as the alcohol evaporates this requires a lot of heat so things did not get much hotter. Whole process took me about 1 and 1/2 hours including setting up and checking final alcohol levels.  I used my hydrometer which indicated 56% proof by volume....Adjusted for todays amazing 37 deg Celcius and lots of sunshine and that's about 59.5  % ABV.

 Hehehe.  Lots of fun coming there.

Ban Muang

Hi Guys,

Hear in Ban Muang it 40 Degrees yesterday and very high humidity.

Today hovering around 37+  Definitely not Blog writing weather.  Praying for rain....

Another Day In Ban Muang

Life seems to be pleasantly drifting along.  Today had a few friends round for coffee. went out on the village road for some noodles. Had time to watch the cows go by !!

Made some more cheese. No time for bread today !!

Later "Pat" and "Pet" came round to give Wanna a fish. Well it was about 5 kilo, a Cat Fish. Still alive and ready to go in our pond. It arrived in a plastic bag obviously caught in someone elses' pond, Probably when being emptied.

 Lovely gift.  I'll leave it there swimming around for Rene or Owen to catch!!! (Charlie if you read this you need to be quick........).

Taking Photos

When I first got interested in photography I was in my 20's.  Before then it was just click and shoot. But over the years I bought several different cameras and did some black and white development and coloured slides. Got into underwater photography in a big way. But one of the most significant things I remember was reading a statement  in a photo magazine. Basically it said if you could not find enough things to make some really good shots within 3 miles of your base you needed to reassess your ability to see things.

I think what that means for me is everyday I pass stuff which I see time and time again. No big deal.  But it is a big deal.  Today I took the scooter out for a spin. 10 minutes. Spotted several charcoal kilns  and saw some lovely rice paddys, rivers and general pretty scenes.  I stopped and took a few shots. Again I do not think they are anything special as I'll see these places all the time and sure to again tomorrow ! But I need to start looking at things differently. Get some of the old magic back.

   

    

A day in Ban Muang....

Busy day.

Had a  trip out to look at the banana fields. We sold a few bunches (12)  of the bananas last week and eager to get some more funds in ASAP ! All looking good. The whole area around the village is looking sunny, dry and its hot.... Wanna's Nephew is planning staying in the hut when he gets it completed. Outside toilet as show below will I am sure get some walls eventually !!!!

We're decided to sell a Rai of land (1600 m2). Sign went up last night. Already had interest !!!  Sign reads "This for sale.  Area 1 Rai. "

Decided also to get my new still out and give it the first clean out. Only now getting round to reading the instructions!  Need to put water vinegar mix through it first, then, and only then, can I put it to use.  Even then it is advised I run the first batch of fermentation through and then throw it away.. Then I should have the whole thing cleaned out ready for real production. I won't bore you with the details suffice to say distilling in Thailand in illegal so I'll officially only be making distilled water for my motorbike battery !!!  But I think it is the sealed type.... :(