Friday (9 September 2016)
After I dropped Adri at school I realized that the bike’s fuel was getting low so stopped off at the local PTT station for a fill up. Once filled up my stallion was raring to go, chomping at the bits, so I gave it free rein and it bolted out of town towards Phon. It then turned off towards Ban Phai at a fine gallop and only slowed down to a canter and then down to a trot when I reined it in to take me into and around a number of little villages in the Nong Song Hong area.

These villages and villagers were just coming to life and you could see people strolling about, just coming to terms with the day. I wondered whether they would also think it was just another day in paradise. I don’t believe these people have it easy, and although there would normally not be a lack of food or shelter, it somehow does seem like a tough life for some of these villagers. One thing we can learn from them is that they always seem happy, friendly and very content to be alive and living the life they do.

I woke up from my near slumber out on the porch where I was working with a rather audible shoooosh! sound. What the…! Frank is forever upgrading his resort and yesterday he started replacing the grass around the pool with a layer of crushed granite rock. It’s less maintenance and looks quite smashing. The shoooosh! I heard was the second load of rock that did the slip sliding thing down the back of the tipping truck.

It was five minutes later when I heard another shoooosh! sound but it continued to grow in intensity and voice, ending up sounding like rolling thunder. It was a Thai fighter jet fighting his way overhead. Somehow I don’t think these two incidents were connected… At least I hope not.

During the day I continued to fine tune the brand spanking new web site called www.travelandall.com and by 16:30 it joined its brethren and sistren out there on the “wah wah wah dot com”. I had such a lot of fun during this process and the fun will continue while I add functionality and fine tune the site, and also while migrating the old site. There’s a lot of fun to be had still.

Jay arrived for supper and it being Friday evening you by now know what Jay and I had. Adri tonight though had a change of heart from her normal order and went for the Penang curry. Once dinner was confined to the history books we were having a Blue Hawaii cocktail when Frank joined us and brought out some shots to be had during lulls in the blue. I can hear you say “That does not sound like a terribly good idea”, and I suspect you may be right.

We all then moved to the pool table for a spot of pool, the girls against the boys. I had almost forgotten how much fun it was to play the game. Not that I’m terribly good at it though. With cue in hand and a view of the green cloth covering the bed and rubber cushions, chalk dangling from its rope, my mind was cast back many a year to when I first experienced such scenery. I could not have been older than 10 or so when my dad – bless his soul – took me to his company’s country club which all employees could use to their heart’s content. It was out Midrand way, those days it was called Halfway House, but of course it is now long gone, disappeared in the name of progress. This club was a real haven with open fields all around its perimeter, today there are only fields of concrete.

The club had a huge pool, a few tennis courts and bowling greens, a function room… Now this may sound like a very posh and upper class club but it wasn’t, it was just a nice and ordinary country club that was very well kept and maintained. But of course there was also a billiard’s room with a full sized billiard table squarely placed in the centre of this huge room. It was nice and dim and dusky and quiet with the lights above the table shining brightly over the table, its shadows secretly casting spots on the balls below that one could use when calculating the angle of one’s shot.

My dad used to play against the caretaker of the club which of course was a very good player, billiards was his game and he had oodles of time. I still clearly remember Oom Piet (Uncle Peter) teaching me how to properly hold the cue and I picked up many long forgotten tips from him at the time. Oom Piet would have one or two games of snooker after which he would have to go and take care for the club again, and that’s when my dad and I had a few games where he would teach me the rest of the tricks. Man, how clearly I remember those times, father and son spending some quality time together. Sadly, after those days and also after the club had passed on, I have not been exposed to playing snooker or pool very often.

Except of course for the times that Marc and I played a few rounds in Hillbrow in the wee hours of some Saturday mornings. We were in our early twenties and stayed in the east of Johannesburg, the girls stayed in the west. On a Friday evening we would trek from east to west, then back into Johannesburg for a jol (clubbing), then back west to drop the girls off, and then it was, not back east, but back into town for our own jol. We would hit Hillbrow with a vengeance, have a burger at Bimbo’s, normally pretty inebriated by now, and then we would hit the pool tables and beers until way too late.

Oh and by the way, it was years later that I would have my 21^st birthday party at the club and man, what a party that was! What a party it was!

I was yanked back from my stroll in the past to the present with “It’s your turn” coming from Frank. Man, did I enjoy the few games we had. Another blue cocktail and then a pink one appeared, and then there were more beers and more music, more pool, more beers… And then… And then it was 02:00 in the morning. More fun we could not have had anywhere else in Nong Song Hong.

Saturday (10 September 2016)
I took a pink Ibuprofen just for good measure before going to bed this morning… Not sure whether it was the pink or the 600mg of Ibuptofen in that tablet, but this morning I was feeling just fine. Tired, but fine. Either way I promised that beer will not pass my lips today.

It was just past 08:00 when there was a knock on the door. It was Lucy coming for her next swimming lesson with Adri. Lucy never leant to swim when she was younger but under Adri’s watchful eye and guidance she has made great strides towards her goal. She was getting the hang of things and decided she needed more exercise this morning. I turned over and continued with a few more Z’s while Adri was out at the pool, teaching.

We went for an English breakfast at Tanoo Coffee just up the road and while there I added it to OpenStreetMap, hopefully that will bring them some business. We were having too much fun relaxing that I clean forgot that Adri had another extracurricular English session tomorrow, and that some agency people as well as Lucas and Megan will be joining us at the resort during the course of the day.

A message made itself heard that Lucas and Megan had just arrived in town and they were having chicken at that place whose chicken is, according to them, better than Nando’s. It was not long after we got home that they arrived with an assortment of beers. So much for my earlier promise to my lips, the beers started flowing right over them.

Stewart from the teaching agency and also Jay arrived and joined us out on our front porch where the beers were by now liberally flowing. Soon enough we moved inside to watch the New Zealand/Argentine rugby game which New Zealand won handsomely in the end after struggling to get ahead in the first half.

It was 17:00 and time for the South Africa/Aussie game and for that we needed a larger screen so the party moved to the big screen at the bar. The first thing that Frank asked me when I saw him now for the first time today was “Hey, what happened last night?” I shrugged my shoulders, I did not know, it just happened, but it was so great.

The game was not streaming on any of the channels Frank had available but Lucas soon enough found a site of questionable origin that broadcast the game. Soon enough that channel was no longer cooperating so I started streaming through my normal channel on the Iphone. And there we were, six adults sitting at the bar watching the match on this tiny screen, precariously balanced on top of the bar counter. We upgraded to the Ipad once Adri had the good sense to fetch it from the bungalow. No one else was moving.

You will notice that I have not said anything about the game… The less said the better; suffice to say that Lucas and I each lost 100 baht to Stewart.

After the game and a number of beers we settled down for supper with a glass of red wine in hand. It was incredibly hot, or rather humid, and Adri predicted that there was a huge shower in the offing. Clouds did start building and the distant sky was occasionally illuminated by streaks of lightning, but nothing too menacing.

Supper was super, as always, and because it was just so hot we decided to go for a swim before turning in. Most of us, or shall I say “they”, had a heavy day ahead tomorrow so a reasonably early night was called for.

Thirty minutes into the swim those streaks of lighting were essentially right overhead and Jay still had to ride home, which meant I still had a trip to do as well. The rain was desperately threatening. Understandably Jay was in a hurry tonight, he broke his last record by 2km/h, reaching a grand new record of 40km/h. I delivered him to the circle in town and hurried home. I kid you not, as I entered the bungalow the rain came down…

There was a deluge which continued on and on, not letting up for even a second, for the next five hours. This was crazy mon, I have never seen anything like this in Thailand before. Outside it looked like a dam. By now we know that when it rains heavily, creepy crawlies creep out of their crawlies to try and find shelter with you, not having the decency to ask permission first.

And so it was that I saw two of these long earth worms slip sliding and snaking along, half crawling half gliding in the water, towards us. At first glance they had a snake-like look about them and I would not have been surprised if they were. But on closer inspection from the relative safety of the bungalow’s window, I shone a light over them to determine its correct species, not snakes thankfully. Then, as I turned around to meet the bed there was this huge spider, no permission asked, but he was no match for the sole of Adri’s sandal.

Sunday (11 September 2016)
The crew had to be at school by 07:30 so it was 06:00 when the alarm shrilled and Adri started preparing a few things for breakfast for Lucas and Megan. They were occupying the bungalow next to us, as they did when they came to visit us the weekend of 23 July 2016. Breakfast consisted of yogurt, chicken pies, sausage rolls and muesli… Oh, and of course coffee. It was just past 06:30 when they came over and started breakfast while I was still trying to wipe the fog from my head.

I eventually emerged just before 07:00 for a final chat before they were off to school and from there, off to Borabue, and from there, off to South Africa next weekend.

The agency’s people started emerging from their quarters and soon enough there was a convoy leaving for school, leaving me in the peace and quiet I deserved.

I settled in for a spot of news, still smarting from the Boks’ loss to the Aussies yesterday. An article on News24 this morning reported “Bok ratings: Regret, there’s no ‘best’!” And I concurred.

Johann was back at the resort for the weekend after a two-week business trip to Bangkok and Chonburi. It was later in the day when he came over for a chat, I do so love our chats.

I watched The Bridge On The River Kwai in the afternoon as I was notified by Netflix that it would soon be removed from its repertoire. As the movie was obviously shot in Thailand I have wanted to watch it again but Adri was not so keen, so today was a perfect opportunity to indulge. I could still remember too many parts of the movie which removed the surprise or suspense factor, but I still enjoyed it nevertheless. And by the way, it was only after the movie that I checked and realized that the movie was actually shot in Sri Lanka. I hate it when they do that.

Adri came home thoroughly tired but she just had to get out for a while, thinking that we may happen upon a nice sunset. We drove around the dam area for a while but the sky had turned darker rather than lighter as we had anticipated, so a decent sunset was not in the offing. We have never been to the Chinese Tempe right there by the dam so took this opportunity to stop there and managed to get a number of nice pictures.

Supper was at the restaurant with Jay. Jay can no longer stomach his staple Thai diet of seafood fried rice and seafood Pad Thai, so he has been coming to the restaurant more frequently lately. Initially he used to join us only on a Friday night, then it progressed to Wednesday and Friday, then to Monday, Wednesday… you catch his drift. It’s always nice having Jay around, we will miss him when we all part our ways at the end of this week.

On Friday Jay will be heading to Bangkok for a two-week teaching stint, then he’ll be on holiday in Cambodia with a few friends and then back to teaching in Chonburi for one semester. Thereafter he will be heading back to SA to find a job, so if anybody needs a young up and coming chemical engineer, Jay’s your man.

Tonight Jay and I ordered the massaman curry, this was for some or other reason the best massaman I had ever had, and it was not that I was particularly hungry… it just was.

The sauce was delectable with just the right amount of chicken and nuts in there with ample of the softest imaginable pieces of potato in the mix, something I have been craving. Now you know how I love my potatoes. Adri wanted a pizza with not too many toppings so chose the Margarita, which came overflowing with cheese and margarita stuff… and the tons of garlic that she craved and ordered. We’re really gonna miss Oi’s food… and of course Frank’s pizzas.

Monday (12 September 2016)
I was sitting outside having my news fix when Johann came over for another chat and to enjoy his last cigarette before heading back to Bangkok. As always, we had a great chat about allsorts and allsorts. And by the way, Johann also has an Iphone 5S and also recently had to have the battery and screen replaced due to the same issue I had. Furthermore, Maria, Adri’s niece also had the exact same problem with her Iphone 5S. Apple should be ashamed of itself for not publicly owning up to this expanding battery and resulting screen issue. Oh, and both my and Johann’s screens are cracked in exactly the same place, just on opposite sides. We tried but we could find no way to blame Apple for that one!

It was an hour or so later that Johann’s driver appeared and they were off to Bangkok. We agreed to stay in touch and I am sure we’ll meet up again… sometime… somewhere…

Dolly came by, cat on the back of her cart, with a “Kitty ees seeck, I’m taking her to zeee doctor”. I enquired after Kitty’s health but her answer got lost in the wisps of wind created by her churning slipstream as she was increasing her speed on her highway past the bungalow

I received an email from a friend in SA this morning which just plain pissed me off. I won’t go into any detail here but suffice to say, I hate the politics of business, I hate the politics of politics, ‘nuff said. There is so much skullduggery going on it is astonishing, eye-poppingly so, but real. If I did not know any better I would have put it down to conspiracy theories, but no, these issues are quite real, I am sickened and saddened to say.

Today there was quite a bit of admin that required my attention and you know how I hate admin. After my admin it was on to Adri’s admin. I had to prepare spreadsheets to enable her to capture the grading for her 18 classes which adds up to around 700 pupils. This I got done just as I was about to fetch Adri from school, leaving her only to capture the results from the latest test.

Today I was nearly run over… Twice! While Adri got stuck into her grading spreadsheets I went to fetch water. The first near run-over was by a woman, two kids on the back, her lazily sucking away at a carton of chocolate flavoured milk. Man, I came so close to her I could see the price tag on that box…

This lady came right at me while I was doing a very legal left turn down a side street. She just had to cut across the intersection, right in front of me, because that was where she wanted to be. And of course, as always, no eye contact was made, she continued as if nothing untoward happened. If she would just make eye contact, just so she could acknowledge the thunder in my eyes, but no, never… Even the kids at the back did not make eye contact; they were in on this conspiracy.

Then, as I was nearing my destination, a bike came hurtling out from behind a parked truck, right in front of me… I mean right in front of me. I slammed on brakes, he did too, my brakes were better so he continued on his way. There was no way this guy could avert eye contact, his eyes were as round as pierings (saucers) from the groot skrik (big fright) he had just given himself. Then his whole face lit up into a huge smile so I forgot to commandeer the thunder to my eyes, how could I get thunderous at a smile like that!

Dolly came past this evening and advised that Kitty had some pulmonary affliction and is not a happy puppy… well, you know what I mean. She did receive medicine that knocked her out so we’ll see how she’s doing tomorrow, Kitty that is.

New24 reported that Jacob Zuma raised the R7.8 million to pay for the upgrades to his Nkandla homestead through a home loan. Hmm… Uhm… Hmm… Yea right! And even if that is true, who is paying off the home loan? Hmm… Uhm… Hmm… C’mon Guptas, you cannot leave the old man in the lurch like that, it’s payback time.

Anyway, here’s a conspiracy theory for you. Personally I believe the amount payable by Zuma is probably a tenth or less of what he should be paying. Be that as it may, did Treasury come to this amount of R7.8 million so that it may look possible for Zuma to get such a loan on his salary of nearly 3 million rand per year? I may be wrong…

ay came for supper and tonight he wanted to go healthy so ordered the veggie dish sans any meat, but then he cancelled all that goodness by ordering a large plate of French fries…

There was a lady in the restaurant that looked like someone we know back home… it’s just that this lady was Thai, very drunk and playing pool against herself… and losing. I later saw her pacing up and down between the bungalows, seemed to be too intoxicated to make a decision of exactly where she wanted to go, bungalow or bar, bungalow or bar… The bar was the eventual winner.

Adri continued with updating her grading spreadsheets well into the night while my eyes dipped at around 23:30.

Tuesday (13 September 2016)
The alarm went off and it felt like I had only slept for about five and a half hours. And I had. Adri got up at 05:00 to continue working on her grading sheets. With a groan I turned around and continued on the path I was on.

After dropping Adri off I found a few new words that crept into my vocabulary while having coffee outside. The latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary just published includes more than 1000 updated entries and 1200 additions. I always love to hear about new words but lately they have included some really offbeat slang words which I am not sure many people care much for.

Be as it may, aiyah, I hate freemiums so fuhgeddaboudit, it’ll just get on your moobs, but they always do seem to have a non-apology for that. So, squee, yola, else you may just vorm. And oh, please try the leche flan, it is simply scrumdiddlyumptious, and don’t you go and uptalk this last sentence now, it’s not a cool thing to do.

And would you believe an Afrikaans inspired word also made it all the way to Oxfordd. Foefie slide was included and is described as “South African – A rope or cable with a suspended handle or pulley by means of which one may slide between two points.”  Ours didn’t have a pulley, the gradient of the rope between the two points just needed to be steep enough to ensure forward motion while hanging onto the handle.

This morning I added a little honey to my oats, not a she-honey though, the syrupy kind, and man, was she… it good. My second mug of coffee found me outside on the patio typing away at the latest blog post while the rain fell ever so gently all around… how nice, how peaceful.

One is already starting to feel a sense of loss of friendships built up over the last few months. That feeling started on Sunday when we had to say goodbye to Lucas and Megan and it continued on through Monday when having to say goodbye to Johann. Yes, it is sad to leave so many people behind but looking at it from a different perspective, these are people that we did not know before, so when all is said and done, we have only gained friends rather than lost any. There, now I feel much better.

The soft rain continued throughout the day. Adri phoned to say that she was still busy finalizing her grading sheets, and seeing that the rain was now coming down much harder than earlier, she would save me a wet trip saying “Fetch me when the rain stops”. The rain never did stop so I took pity on her and dared do the trip at around 18:00.

Even though I donned my cheap raincoat it was a miserable trip. My glasses kept the rain out of my eyes at first but of course the rain intensified… just then. My face became a catchment area, my eyes dams, but soon enough it burst its banks. As I said, it was a miserable trip.

There was no way we were gonna stop off for food in that, and also remembering that the restaurant is closed on Tuesdays, we would have to make do with what the cupboards offered at home. Knowing that we will be leaving in a few days time we had not stocked up on much of anything, so supper consisted of two tins of tuna, cream crackers and bread with thick creamy butter, olives with pimento, and cheddar cheese. Not bad considering.

Adri started saying goodbye to her classes this week as they finish their last session with her. This can get very sad as she had grown very fond of her pupils over the last four months. In this one particular class today she could not hold back the tears. The whole class ended up in tears, every single one of them, after which they wrote some very touching going away messages to the teacha on the whiteboard. These kids really do creep into ones heart.

Both the director/owner of the school and the head of the English department have asked Adri to stay on and teach for at least another semester, but alas, it is time… it is time to move on. You know, places to go, people to see.

Wednesday (14 September 2016)
This morning Adri sent off her grading sheets to the head of the English department and her agency, so now she was really on the home straight heading for the finish line that was now in clear sight.

Herewith a snippet from an article I found on Buzzfeed this morning.

“Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star general who served under three Republican presidents, slammed GOP nominee Donald Trump as ‘a national disgrace’ and an ‘international pariah”, according to his personal emails seen by BuzzFeed News.”

And that was being polite, in my books at least.

One does not get much positive news nowadays from around the world and also not from SA. So I was very pleased to read an article on Bdlive that proclaimed that “Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba has promised motorists they can stop looking over their shoulders over e-toll payments.” Does this mean that my stiff neck affliction will now be something of the past? The article goes on to specify all the good things that the newly elected DA mayor have in store for my home city. If all comes to fruition it would make a difference in so many people’s lives.

I continued blogging outside with non-stop music from TuneIn Radio filling the empty space all around. There were so many wonderful songs that came on but the one that stood out this morning, one that I have not heard in a long while, was Voices Carry by ‘Til Tuesday. Take a listen to it below.

As I reported yesterday, our cupboards were now bare, even the sugar, milk, coffee creamer and coffee decided to run out this morning. No kidding. I stopped off at Tesco and purchased the former three items, the latter we still had an unopened 500gm bag of, a dark roast Douwe Eggbert. I opened that Mr. Eggbert up and man, that shit was strong, really great and full bodied.

Now it was time to start migrating some of the old blogs and believe me this is a tedious task, should have created the web site a long time ago. Anyway, the really fun part of it though is scanning through these old posts which bring back such good memories!

I was feeling peckish so moseyed on up to the fridge but before opening it I remembered that all the cupboards were bare, stripped of anything that could fill the gap. I opened the fridge in any case just to make sure, and there in the one furthest corner, was a Coke bottle with some of its flat contents still visible. Aha, I thought, a liquid lunch, and poured myself a flat Sangsom and Coke. I’m not that particular about the carbonation level of the Coke when it comes to Sangsom. And don’t frown; it was past 15:00 already.

If you have not followed the Trump election campaign in the US you need to watch the Keith Olbermann video below. If you have followed it, watch it in any case, it’s not supposed to be a comedy show, but it is, quite shocking actually. Olbermann concludes with “This is madness, any questions?”

Jay came over for his last supper of massaman curry which I also indulged in, with Adri tonight not sharing any of her favourite pizza. And I don’t blame her. We normally do not have more than one beer at dinner during weeknight dinners but tonight was different; we just had to have that blue Hawaii cocktail as a parting drink. Whoofff.. there must have been a case of vodka in that cocktail, Oi sure did have a heavy hand in the manufacture thereof tonight. Megan on Saturday so wanted to have a blue Hawaii as a parting drink but alas, the weather interfered with those plans with the heavy downpours we experienced that evening. But I suspect we will have that Blue Hawaii with them still, somehow… somewhere…

Thursday (15 September 2016)
After I dropped Adri at school I felt like taking a ride out of town but those voices in my head agreed for a change and said “Just go home and enjoy that mug of coffee”.  As I rode into the resort I was met by a text message from Adri stating “Can you believe, I left my data stick at home… Please bring”. Now I’m glad I listened to those voices.

Speaking about voices, I received a joke from Lood the other day that read “I know the voices aren’t real, but man, do they come up with some great ideas”. So true… so true.

As I was riding home from my drop-off I noticed a thin longish black as night snake starting to snake its way across the road. I was going to miss it but at the last moment he saw the angst in my eyes, obviously did not know how to interpret it, and doubled back on himself going back the way he came. Unfortunately, that was the same way I was taking evasive action in and I felt a rubbery wobble on the bike as I crossed over his doubled-up body. I hope he’s OK.

So my morning ritual will soon come to an end. The ritual of having my first coffee outside on the patio, sitting on the low wall of the patio with my back against the outer wall of the bungalow, reading the news or just gazing past the bungalows opposite us to the very green rice fields beyond. Next to me the wooden table contains the mug of coffee which is never further than an outstretched arm’s length away. And of course, with sounds from an 80s or 90s music channel on TuneIn Radio reaching me loud and clear though the open window. Man, I’m gonna miss this place.

After my news update I did a spot of blogging but became restless at around 10:30 and forced myself into a number of yoga poses, pretty much the same zoo variety as the last time.

After a cold shower I continued blogging but once again became restless at around 13:00, took a break and watched The Great Raid on Netflix. IMDb describes it as “Taking place towards the end of WWII, 500 American Soldiers have been entrapped in a camp for 3 years. Beginning to give up hope they will ever be rescued, a group of Rangers goes on a dangerous mission to try and save them.”

It was not bad but my interest was heightened when the end credits started rolling, and my eye caught a fleeting glimpse of the person responsible for the musical score; it was none other than Trevor Rabin. Now the older folk in SA will remember Trevor as part of that amazing but unfortunately short-lived rock band called Rabbitt. Trevor, together with Duncan Faure, Neil Cloud and Ronnie Robot drove the girls crazy in the 70s with hits such as Charlie, Morning Light, Hold On To love, and many more.

When they split up Trevor went on to play for the group called Yes with that wonderful hit of theirs called Owner Of A Lonely Heart, and yes (no pun intended),  it was written by Trevor. He went on to collaborate with many artists such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Seal, Manfred Mann and many more. He was responsible for many musical scores for feature films such as Enemy Of The State, Armageddon, Deep Blue Sea, Con Air, Gone in 60 seconds, Remember The Titans, National Treasure and some 40 others. Wow.

Take a listen to Charlie by Rabbitt below, great 70s memories.

If you’re interested, below is a short so-so documentary on Rabbitt.

With Adri, Jay and Michelle finishing their teaching stint they were taken out for dinner tonight, and I was invited. It was at a restaurant that we had passed many times before but never visited. And what a pity, they have the most wonderful hot pot buffet which we enjoyed tonight with Katy, Banana, Tina and a number of other Thai teachers. Patrick and Daniel were there and also our extended Chinese family of Lucy and Summer.

We all had a great time but saying goodbye is never easy, it always feels like a loss, but actually it isn’t. As I wrote a few days back, we see this goodbye as a gain of many friends rather than a loss of friends. Had we not been in Nong Song Hong for the last four months we would never have met this wonderful bunch of people.

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