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A note on the dates: yymmdd
031227 Saturday
After two days of packing things, moved the entire houselhold from Bangkok Petchburi Centrepoint Apt. to Chiang Mai, with two pickups and my car. An's parents and cousins helped with the move. Arrived early 06:00 in the morning at the house, on the northern edge of Chiang Mai.
The house has a caretaker, T and she helped with getting all the things into the house. After emptying the pickups and car - it was time to take break and rest.
031228 Sunday
Slept late, and in the afternoon went to Wat Prataat Doi Suthep, on the hill overlooking Chiang Mai. After that a first trip to the Big C Supermarket for some bedding essentials and then enjoyed a nice evening with An's parents and cousins.
031229 Monday
An's parents and cousins left early morning for the long drive back to Korat. Initial arrangements for tv connection, washing machine installation, light re-arrangements. Paid int'l. phone bill, the office is open daily until 19:00 (excellent service!), shopping again for essentials at HomePro and Carrefour, rice cooker, small coffee machine, a newfangled cordless (!) iron, etc. The preferred microwave/grill combo was unfortunately not available. Had decided for the Electrolux microwave/grill combination in silver colour. The HomePro had only the demo and it had quite a scratch on it. had dinner at home, actually An preferred a pizza, but in fact this had already been a costly day...
031230 Tuesday
Went to UBC office for the satellite connection, but need to wait with the installation until the 2nd January! By phone hunted for the microwave/grill all over town, and found it at Lotus Supermarket - and got it immediately, unexpectedly even a new one in the box!
031231 Wednesday
In the afternoon, went out to repair the bicycle, but the shop was closed for the 31st. Got a grilled chicken to take home and shopping for small New Year's gifts, cake and a bottle of champagne for the New Year at Central Huay Keauw. Phone calls from Mom, Dad, P and friends. Nice and quiet evening at home with An for New Year's eve. The radio was a good New Year's eve compagnion too - see no need for the TV!
040101 Thursday
Relaxing and quiet day at home. Made a number of photo's of the house to put on the web site and uploaded them into the CM album. Chatted with Chris in the evening, while sitting in the garden. Great to have a notebook with good battery power and the gprs connection - no cables!
040102 Friday
Brought the bicycle for repair at a close-by shop, not the big one downtown. Then to the bank for an ATM transfer for An. The electrician, Khun Wisit arrived at 10:00 and spent until about 15:00 installing the washing machine, installing the home-made clothes cabinet/hanger made of a 2,5 m water pipe (this really works well), switching upstairs halogen lights to the kitchen and fixing the warm water problem in the downstairs bathroom: He concluded that the water pressure from the pump was isufficient and adjusted the pressure setting of the pump in the back yard, now the water heater works just fine, important in the currently quite cool nights and mornings.
Put up a makeshift cover for the washing mashine, which is placed outside, opposite from the kitchen door and installed a temporary clothes drying line using the trees as posts. In the jungle I also found a sturdy bamboo pole that now serves as a stabiliser for the clothes line - as the wet clothes from the first test wash threatened to bend the clothes line quite a lot.
In expectation of the satellite connection, also re-arranged the living room furniture and moved remaining not yet unpacked boxes out of the way. The working desk is now situated in front of the front window (also making for better gprs reception) and the couch and was switched with the large "tiang" (table/bed/sitting combination), so that the TV can be seen from practically all areas of the living room. It's a much better configuration than before - and is not yet reflected in the CM Photo Gallery.
At about 16:00 satellite installer arrived and proceeded to up the dish. This turned out to be quite an issue since it was difficult to get a clear path to the satellite with the house being on the hill and surrounded by trees and high bamboo. Finally it was decided to put the dish in the back of the house, and reception is excellent despite the some jungle's foliage!
Also in the afternoon, my friend's mother and some of her relatives dropped by for a very pleasant visit. And An got a compliment, as mentioned to caretaker T, for being "narak" (cute) and of course I could not agree more!
Calls with P on admin matters. Need to look for new lights upstairs to replace the lights moved to the kitchen.
Decided to have the TV on really only when watching, and not, like previously very often, just having it "on" without any real purpose. The atmosphere here in the jungle is really much too valuable for TV's junk distractions.
040103 Saturday
Brought the car to the Honda service station for its regular checkup & maintenance, and waited for the service, took about 2 1/2 hours. while there checked email and chatted with A concerning her domain transfer. Also K called. On the way back dropped by the bank and picked up the bicycle, back home at around 12:30. Started on this 2004 diary.
An tested out the bike by taking it downhill to the Raan khaa (small shop = warung) to buy some eggs to make lunch Suki and then of course taking it back uphill again. The bike's front gears are still very hard to switch and I still need to look into this.
Talked with caretaker T to assist with house chores.
Early evening went shopping at Carrefour and Lotus for some kitchen & stuff, laundry basket, garden footwear, mailbox, etc. Lot's of traffic in the city at around 18:00, and very long traffic lights!
030104 Sunday
Postal mail test has been successful - although somewhat partially. A test letter mailed on Wednesday 31.12. arrived this morning via the neightbours house, appearantly arriving there yesterday. Good thing there's a mailbox now, and the sign with the house number still needs to be moved, since it can't be seen when the gate is open. Did this right away.
Set up the new bookkeeping system for expense tracking. The German program did not want to install at first and I needed to reset the machine to German! Set up accounts and tracked past expenses.
This ends the week up to Sunday, 04.01.04.
Comments :) !
031227 Saturday
After two days of packing things, moved the entire houselhold from Bangkok Petchburi Centrepoint Apt. to Chiang Mai, with two pickups and my car. An's parents and cousins helped with the move. Arrived early 06:00 in the morning at the house, on the northern edge of Chiang Mai.
The house has a caretaker, T and she helped with getting all the things into the house. After emptying the pickups and car - it was time to take break and rest.
031228 Sunday
Slept late, and in the afternoon went to Wat Prataat Doi Suthep, on the hill overlooking Chiang Mai. After that a first trip to the Big C Supermarket for some bedding essentials and then enjoyed a nice evening with An's parents and cousins.
031229 Monday
An's parents and cousins left early morning for the long drive back to Korat. Initial arrangements for tv connection, washing machine installation, light re-arrangements. Paid int'l. phone bill, the office is open daily until 19:00 (excellent service!), shopping again for essentials at HomePro and Carrefour, rice cooker, small coffee machine, a newfangled cordless (!) iron, etc. The preferred microwave/grill combo was unfortunately not available. Had decided for the Electrolux microwave/grill combination in silver colour. The HomePro had only the demo and it had quite a scratch on it. had dinner at home, actually An preferred a pizza, but in fact this had already been a costly day...
031230 Tuesday
Went to UBC office for the satellite connection, but need to wait with the installation until the 2nd January! By phone hunted for the microwave/grill all over town, and found it at Lotus Supermarket - and got it immediately, unexpectedly even a new one in the box!
031231 Wednesday
In the afternoon, went out to repair the bicycle, but the shop was closed for the 31st. Got a grilled chicken to take home and shopping for small New Year's gifts, cake and a bottle of champagne for the New Year at Central Huay Keauw. Phone calls from Mom, Dad, P and friends. Nice and quiet evening at home with An for New Year's eve. The radio was a good New Year's eve compagnion too - see no need for the TV!
040101 Thursday
Relaxing and quiet day at home. Made a number of photo's of the house to put on the web site and uploaded them into the CM album. Chatted with Chris in the evening, while sitting in the garden. Great to have a notebook with good battery power and the gprs connection - no cables!
040102 Friday
Brought the bicycle for repair at a close-by shop, not the big one downtown. Then to the bank for an ATM transfer for An. The electrician, Khun Wisit arrived at 10:00 and spent until about 15:00 installing the washing machine, installing the home-made clothes cabinet/hanger made of a 2,5 m water pipe (this really works well), switching upstairs halogen lights to the kitchen and fixing the warm water problem in the downstairs bathroom: He concluded that the water pressure from the pump was isufficient and adjusted the pressure setting of the pump in the back yard, now the water heater works just fine, important in the currently quite cool nights and mornings.
Put up a makeshift cover for the washing mashine, which is placed outside, opposite from the kitchen door and installed a temporary clothes drying line using the trees as posts. In the jungle I also found a sturdy bamboo pole that now serves as a stabiliser for the clothes line - as the wet clothes from the first test wash threatened to bend the clothes line quite a lot.
In expectation of the satellite connection, also re-arranged the living room furniture and moved remaining not yet unpacked boxes out of the way. The working desk is now situated in front of the front window (also making for better gprs reception) and the couch and was switched with the large "tiang" (table/bed/sitting combination), so that the TV can be seen from practically all areas of the living room. It's a much better configuration than before - and is not yet reflected in the CM Photo Gallery.
At about 16:00 satellite installer arrived and proceeded to up the dish. This turned out to be quite an issue since it was difficult to get a clear path to the satellite with the house being on the hill and surrounded by trees and high bamboo. Finally it was decided to put the dish in the back of the house, and reception is excellent despite the some jungle's foliage!
Also in the afternoon, my friend's mother and some of her relatives dropped by for a very pleasant visit. And An got a compliment, as mentioned to caretaker T, for being "narak" (cute) and of course I could not agree more!
Calls with P on admin matters. Need to look for new lights upstairs to replace the lights moved to the kitchen.
Decided to have the TV on really only when watching, and not, like previously very often, just having it "on" without any real purpose. The atmosphere here in the jungle is really much too valuable for TV's junk distractions.
040103 Saturday
Brought the car to the Honda service station for its regular checkup & maintenance, and waited for the service, took about 2 1/2 hours. while there checked email and chatted with A concerning her domain transfer. Also K called. On the way back dropped by the bank and picked up the bicycle, back home at around 12:30. Started on this 2004 diary.
An tested out the bike by taking it downhill to the Raan khaa (small shop = warung) to buy some eggs to make lunch Suki and then of course taking it back uphill again. The bike's front gears are still very hard to switch and I still need to look into this.
Talked with caretaker T to assist with house chores.
Early evening went shopping at Carrefour and Lotus for some kitchen & stuff, laundry basket, garden footwear, mailbox, etc. Lot's of traffic in the city at around 18:00, and very long traffic lights!
030104 Sunday
Postal mail test has been successful - although somewhat partially. A test letter mailed on Wednesday 31.12. arrived this morning via the neightbours house, appearantly arriving there yesterday. Good thing there's a mailbox now, and the sign with the house number still needs to be moved, since it can't be seen when the gate is open. Did this right away.
Set up the new bookkeeping system for expense tracking. The German program did not want to install at first and I needed to reset the machine to German! Set up accounts and tracked past expenses.
This ends the week up to Sunday, 04.01.04.
Comments :) !