Seeing Out 2011 And Seeing in 2012

We decided to stay at home for New Years eve. Sensible idea given the number of road accidents on Thailand. Someone had told there were over 250,000 deaths on Thai roads in the last 10 years. And that's the recordable ones so I can only begin to guess the real number. But even if you use the published figures that's about 8 persons per day. And the figures about New year and Songkan are through the roof. So as I started out by saying we stayed home for the evening.

What to do? We decided to have a Bar B Q pig. First we had to buy a pig. No easy task, Yah, Wanna's brother was given the job of sourcing a pig then all the family got involved in its preparation. First it had to be slaughtered and cleaned. This was done in a quick and painless manner. Once cleaned the work began getting him onto the Bar B Q and cooked ready for the evening. He was about 17 kilos enough of us all. As you can see everyone enjoyed themselves. Wanna's Dad turned up and decided to sit and watch the activities. All in all a good night. I might add that Tiger must have thought something very special was going on. He kept being fed bone after bone after bone. And still he kept eating....Loved it.

Nearly The End Of The Year....

Between Christmas and New Year I had time to take several walks round our garden/farm. The place looked really good. Lots growing and it just felt good to be back and relaxing etc. Suffice to say it did not take me long to realise that I would soon be having to quite my farm walks and sitting around as in a few more days I’d return back to work!!! Before the dreaded day I know I have some good times ahead. New Years Eve, then Chang Mai, Pattaya to catch up with Owen and On, followed by a trip to Sydney and only then the flight into Gladstone (Happy Rock) as it is known locally. This followed by returning to the office, which I might add does not in any way resemble its TV’s namesake.

To give you some idea of our garden it is best to just upload a few photos. I’ve shown the main gate, the access road and some views across the rice fields.

Now I’ve done this upload I’m back to some more resting.

(Note:- Can't seem to upload my movie so sending through muy email account.)

Christmas In Ban Muang

Rushed posting. Thought I would just upload these photos of our arriving home and finding a Christmas tree, outside fairy lights and the house ready for us. Meals did not include a turkey but we had a super bar b q and grilled pork so all in all a couple of very good evenings.
Our dog Tiger was very happy to see us come back. Mem, Wanna's sister had been looking after him. Looking after him to well I can see as he is much too over weight. But he was excited to see us and has settled down and appears to have stopped running after our neighbours chickens, which you can imagine did not go down to well with them.
We plan to go up to Chang Mai tomorrow for a couple of days then down to Pattaya and Bangkok. All a bit hectic but we do seem to have a lot of people to get to see.

Tonight we take the Kids to the Khon Kaen night market for dinner and ice creams. Should be fun with plenty of activity and lots to see going on.

But for now I must leave posting Blogs and get back to my fishing....

Tiger - The Guard Dog

Just a quick note to show how Tiger is growing up. Super Guard Dog or just a very soft 'Pouch' ????

I am certain it is the latter. Look at him does he scare you?

Weekend Away

Been a while since I did any posting. Time flies and work is always only a moment away. Or so it seems.
Last weekend was a fun and relaxing one.
The original plan was to go to Khon Kaen and attend the motor bike weekend. There was no info about it on the web till I got my engineer to do a search in Thai. Amazing how much stuff is out there in all these other languages. Sure enough 20th and 21st Feb Bike weekend. Should be fun. Will visit and get some photos and of course the ‘T’ shirt. But TIT. Thailand being Thailand this was not to be. Sure it was the 20th and 21 st of February but that was for last year….
Putting that aside we seemed to cover a load of odds and ends. First off was my usual walk round the plot to check and inspect our plants etc. All doing well. Mainly down to Man daily providing water and manure.

The breadfruit trees continues to amaze by producing fruit while remaining so small. We have 4 breadfruit trees but only one is so far advanced and producing. No obvious reason for it. Perhaps location and better soil?

We had also planted some olive trees and I am told these are difficult to get to fruit. Well take a close look at my photo as I think one of is just starting.

But the big deal was…Wanna has acquired a new dog ‘Tiger’. Lovely chap and so full of fun. So far about 4 pairs of shoes have gone missing!
Of course a new dog then makes a trip to the Vet’s obligatory.

We also had time to start cooking a southern snail curry. Managed to get the start of the video with the idea of completing it, the curry that is, once we got back to Pattaya.
The curry comprises land snails boiled and removed from their shells then cooked with various herbs and assorted goodies. I hope to get it all on film this week.

Meanwhile whilst sitting enjoying my coffee I was shown a new snack. Buffalo hide. Yes complete with hair. Reminded be of South African ‘Biltong’. But a much coarser version. I was told it is first grilled on a Bar B Q and only then eaten as a snack. Have yet to try it… Back home my fish were not along. I had organized the feeding, with Tee kindly going round to our place on the Saturday. So its good to know you can leave things with friends and go away for a few days.

Now back to the snail curry…. Video to follow.