owl sees all

Years ago when I first arrived in the village, Nan (Mrs Owl's daughter) had a good friend named Nun. She was a bit on the plump side. I can't recall the origins of the conversation, but it got jokingly round to sexual preferences. Nan said; 'Nun not care girl or boy, just cares food."

So he hasn't discovered Thai girls yet then Andy.

If ya looking for a wife. Get a guide!

TBH Andy. You either have a knack for it or ya don't. I certainly don't. I had a bit of a talent for engineering and technical drawing. But art?! No way. This drawing was almost doodolin while she was chatting to her friend on the telephone. Just a coupe of minutes scribbling!!

Indeed!! Just the fishy section. video_25621206_140246.mp4

Wonderful encouragement Andy. Thank you. As far as the loans go! Getting the truth is like trying to extract blood from a stone. It is only when she gets found out (factually cornered), that a drop more is revealed. I'm thinking that I have to ensure my own - and Mildred's - destiny. Just can't leave it to anyone else. Call me stupid. Call me naive. But that's life. Have to cut my cloth. Have to rethink what is left of it. I went back to England in 2015. Before I went - for the previous two years or so - I was getting Mildred to draw. I put some of her very imaginative work on the wall. She would have been just 6/7 then. I could see a little something back then. Unfortunately all the work from way back then was binned while I was away. Give your step lad every encouragement Andy. Get him a web-site and put it up there. Not expensive; about 60 squids a year. I would help him get started with the HTML coding.

Far too big an area to cover in just 4 weeks. Basically it come down to what you are interested in. There are the well known commercial places like snake farm or croc pits. There are some wonderful Buddhas and Buddha related stuff that you would be directed to. But there are dozens of places that are not on the beaten trail. Between my village and Udon City, there is a horse breeding centre, a koi-carp farm, a silk-village and many other places of interest. Close by, in the other direction there is Kham Cha nod, a film set (open to the public) and buffalo riding. In the Nong Khai area there are canoe trips down the Mekong, hang gliding and fantastic markets to visit. Like fishing? Like animals? Like temples? Like strange rituals? Love nature? 12 months would not do this wonderful part of the world justice.

Owl Log - 25-06-2023 - Sunday afternoon Very lightweight Owl Log this week. Last went to Ban Dung on Monday gone. Not been to the farm for 5/6 days. TBH I haven't got any enthusiasm for any of it; with a few exceptions. Mildred, the cats and dogs. In Bang Dung, in a soi leading to the daily market, I parked up and waited for The Mrs and Mildred to return from their shopping. Mildred had a small problem at school with her ID card. We had to go to the Government office for her to get a new one. That done we went to the market. What caught my eye was a young lady on a tri leccy bike. She was obviously helping out with the moving of market goodies. Lifted my heart to see. And she was off with the cucumbers and chilies. On the way back from the farm in the week. I couldn't resist stopping and taking a couple of pics of the beautiful countryside at sun-down. And from the other side of the road. Little did I khow what was waiting for me. At the village Sang has removed his little Buddha house thingy. It is no more. Asked him what happened. Did he drive into it and cause damage? He mumbled something in sort of Englishee that couldn't understand so I left it there. Probably gonna replace little Buddha with a 10 metre high owl hide. The Mrs and me had a tiff. She casually told me that she had borrowed 100,000 baht off the big mango lady and needed my help to pay the interest. We had a nut cut last week end with different people. They pay any dosh due straight into ya bank. My bank. Not a great cut; just over 4k baht. So as we normally do, I sent her 50%. She complained that she needed more to cover her outgoings. But things seemed fishy to me. The big mango lady was just 40 metres away, and these sorts of loans are normally cash. So my questioning of the situation led to a row. A little row. The dust settled and I sorted out some of Mildred's paintings. Put a board up and stuck on 6. Also three on the window wall. That I don't now like and will take them down as soon as I get more board. Fist job in, doing it this way is to cut plastic sheet out the same size as the painting. Then cover the face in industrial 'cling-film'. Put taunt and sick the film on the back with 'selo-tape'. That done, it is then a job of setting the pic into position using 'double-sided' tape. The idea is that no sticky or tape actually touches the paintings. View from my spot. Absolutely beautiful. I especially like 'Greeny' (bottom right). Was that an attempt at a selfie? Artist's licence! 9 on the wall. 70 to go. I stood on the settee to do the biz. Put my foot through the corner section. Another job to sort out. But it's the corner section so 'Heath Robinson' is called for. The bank account that I sent the 2k to came up as a Thai name. I asked the Mrs about it. It turned out that it was her maiden name of 30+ years ago. And she had both an 'App' on her phone and a debit card. This was all new to me. Getting truth here is like getting Champagne out of a brown ale bottle. I was not best pleased. Now we had a debt of 100k baht at 5% interest that I didn't know about, and the new bank account. I'd only - in March - finished up paying for the pick-up loan for over 100k.. I pressed further. Turned out that two of the farms were in hock. Her gold was in hock. And Nan hadn't sent any dosh for a year. Nan!!!!! The wayward daughter. I am informed that Mrs Owl got this money to give to her for various reasons. One was that she could win big money on 'Internet Casino'. Strange that she should lose money playing on internet games. Everyone else wins!!?? A medium size row ensued. So in what was a traumatic week; I was not feeling too good. Spent Thursday and Friday basically feeling sorry for myself, with regular trips to the loo, and I still didn't have the full story. But then!! The truth??? The Mrs has borrowed over 600k baht in the last two years. I had already sorted 106k baht. So only 500k - plus interest - to go. A monumental row. Farm for sale. Must go quick (hot sale). Going cheap. Right at the present I seem to be in a numb, can't be bothered mode. Trying to look at it all in a realistic way. My aim is to get Mildred as much as I can. See how I feel later in the week. Only one thing left to say; bye y'all. ps. Mrs Owl's birthday yesterday. Mildred had picked out a very nice hand bag the week before last. We went 50/50. After my prompting. Mildred handed it to her mum at 7 last night. Been in touch with Key for my PP renewal. Details next week.

I dumped KrungThai because they went all mobile. Got hooked up with Kazikorn internet banking; with a struggle. This is not good news about SCB. How long before Kazikorn follow. All getting ready for the cashless era.

I prefer the blue one. Is there a choice? Just got started thinking about my PP renewal. Is it not possible to send the passport to the UK and a trusted do it for ya?

Thanks for the encouragement HP. I was only looking at you this morning. Sorry about the missing pics. They are pond 6: Didn't go to the farm today. Mrs Owl and Mildred did; on their bikes.

Had trouble with the editor today. What with adds sprawling across my workspace and editor playing up; not an easy post. No! Not been on the weed drink; yet!

Owl Log - 18-06-2023 - Sunday afternoon Plenty of rain last night and early this morning. Hope it was enough to fill the rice field, which will then overflow into ponds one and two. From there, water can flow through 4inchers into other ponds. They need that, as rainfall on its own nowhere near enough to fill them. I'll see later today. Ponds 6 and 7 were dry last month. Now!! But the shape of an empty pond means that it gradually fills slower as water goes up. But not complaining. Pond 6. Pond 6 again Pond 7 Mildred wants to put catfish in these two. I'm not so sure. Without rain for 4/5 months, ponds 6 and 7 dry up so easily,. Don't look as though we are getting any water from the deep water community well. This month's rain has turned everything beautifully green. Went also to see progress on the temple over the pond. Building construction seems to be finished. Painting underway. Time to go back across the bridge. The beginning. Saw a lovely dog in Ban Dung. Mrs went into the shop for some dog eye-drops. Very cute. The lady said it was a French Pug. Looked more like a Colorado Terrier to me. But what do I know? Perfectly normal. Dog eats dog food, and chickens eat their food. Role reversal. Curly Wurly on his way over. vid dog and chickens.mp4 Had a decent cheese delivery in the week. 2 kilo for just under 800 baht on Lazada. A really handy poly container too. Not bad at all. A bit mild. But!! Cheese and Thailand don't mix so good. Also got me dates and cranberries. They turned up last night at 19-20. The Mrs is paranoid. Not only have we two big dogs, now we have intruder detectors at the back of the house. But do they work? Put one at the front so I could test it. They do work. Range of about one metre. That's sorted then. No need for a safe now; to keep all my gold and gems in. Beautiful sky as I returned from the farm yesterday. The buffs are on their way down the soi. A farm near us cut their eucas. They didn't want them to grow again. The white stuff is hard salt. Stops growth; allegedly. Our eucas are 3 years old this month. Every three months I take pics from the same spot. That spot is the far corner of farm one. About 300 metres (diagonally) from the farm house. To north. Look east. Looking north-east, towards the farm house. The trees are mostly between 2 and 4 inches across. That's averaging out at about 7cm or so. Farm 4 has some crackers. I'll post some pics next week. Back to Big C on Friday. The cannabis drink section is growing. We bought a few different bottles. I'm careful when I drink any. Don't want to be doing anything important - like last week - when I swig away. Bought everything we needed to put Mildred's painting and drawings on the wall. No sooner did we put the first 4 up and our minds were changed about presentation. Decided to put them onto big boards. Will get to it as soon as the Owl Log is posted. Champs Man City go to Burnley first match. Chelsea host Pool. Newcomers Luton have a real tough one at Seagulls down the coast. Anyone watch the darts international between Poland and Lithuania? What a match!!!!! Tennis man Novak Djokovic triumphs in France. Can't get excited over F1 and cricket like I used to. Glad I fixed to roof on the rice store. Rain quite hard on Friday afternoon. We have new people cutting the nuts for us. They did farm 3 yesterday and we finished up with over 4k baht. They gonna do farm 2 today. World news; Boris and Donald sick as pigs. Nigel Farage (Brexit man) wants to team up with Boris to form a new 'Ensure Brexit is Done' party. Ukraine and Russia still fighting. Still doubt about Move Forward Party in Thai parliament Only one thing left to say; thank you and Bye for now.

Good news indeed. Have to start somewhere with this new stuff. I can recall when an elastic band was used to keep the pony tail in place; to stop our hair flopping all over. Now it's being used to drive big engines.

Bang on the money there Mr J2U. Not everyone is after me. You are right. Just the wife at the mo'. Don't take any medication. Pull me own teeth. Sew me wounds with bamboo thread; or fishing line. Don't trust anyone wearing a white coat.

Only have 600k baht in the bank (for 12 months). Only have 50k baht a month coming in (have records). Can the two be merged to satisfy Imm'?

Why not make the entire body of the car out of solar cells? Would make the battery distance driving much longer. Especially here in Thailand.

Web site for www.keyvisathailand.com up and running. Thanks @pjuk for link. Looks good and will contact them today.

I'm not up to his standard yet. My best; just over 3 minutes. Mildred is a minute quicker than me. Can't see myself getting any faster TBH.

I'm not keen to go to BKK or CM. Want a recommended agent who will do the biz for a reasonable fee. The two I've tried so far have been a blow out. www.thaivisauk.com and www.keyvisathailand.com So if anyone can recommend a service it would be great.

Kevin and Pook (Isaan Farang) recommended www.thaivisauk.com Went onto there www and rang both the numbers. Guy consistently hung up after saying 'Hello'. Anyone have experience with this? Is this service just for Thais? If I can't do business with this lot, can anyone recommend? Tried www.keyvisathailand.com (Fulhamster post above) but can't reach them.

The clinical studies done by Big Pharma? The narrative about the covid vaccines changed dramatically over the last couple of years. Not by aliens or Bigfoot, but by the 'white coats' themselves.

OMO! Reminds me of years long gone. Is it still about? Surf and Tide too. Don't recall FAB though.

I've noticed the VW parking. The Merk was outside a repair shop - on a back-street - for at least a year. At least it goes. Unless it is towed about. Never seen it moving.

Make you right about the wet season B. I just love it. I took a couple of pics of the owner getting into the VW. He didn't mind at all. I think he is the DJ at the big bar at the rear. Real shame about the Merk. Just hand paint it. Sooner or later the body will beyond a paint job .