How is your daily routine as expat looks like?

[DAN0]

Hey everyone,

So as I plan my move to SEA for a long term, i'm curious to hear from those who live there, how is your daily life / schedule looks like roughly.. 

Thanks for sharing!

[brokenbone]

play computer, smoke, eat, drink cappochino & tea, sleep,

rinse repeat

Edited July 15, 2019 by brokenbone

[Puchaiyank]

Wake up 4 AM with the local Wat banging a hugh log into a bell that can be heard for at least 1 kilometer.  Followed by every dog in the neighborhood howling for 10 minutes.  Coffee, news, walking for 30 minutes...

 

Emails, TVF, Immigration changes, baht to USD conversion direction, paying bills and going to market...

 

Food is great, people are sometimes friendly...sometimes despise your presence...

 

Weather is hot or rainy...or hot and rainy...

 

All things from western countries are very expensive...must try to blend into Thai culture or pay the price to try living as you did in your home country...

 

Neighbors can be a blessing or demon possessed...problem is...you will not know which until you move in...

 

Motorcycle noise, large trucks, local monk or village elder on a microphone blasting their views many mornings...loud music until wee hours of the morning...

 

Dogs run amuk...defecate anywhere and everywhere...sometimes can bite.  Snakes may prowl your property at night looking for food...cats climb into property to hunt and relieve themselves.

 

Afternoons spent...planning escape...????

 

Hope this helps!

[jabis]

13 minutes ago, DonDoRondo said:

My afternoons are either a 2 hour thai language class or a massage.

 

If you're moving to a larger city that has language schools signing up for

lessons right away is not a bad idea.  I always have taken private 1:1 lessons.

It's just you and the teacher, who may or may not be a hottie, and you'll be able

to ask questions about Thai culture and share your experiences with her.  

 

With the massage, 2 hrs with an occasional massage with sugar.

 

However, after 7 years, in 2 weeks, moving to Vietnam. 

Do you reckon the massage and thai language class is better in VN?

[wgdanson]

It all depends on where you live and what you personally want.

I live in 'my own' house in a a rural village but only 30km from Phitsanulok City where there are the usual Tesco, Big C, macro, Immigration, restaurants, etc. Go there twice a week. Also go to local vegetable markets twice a week

My day usually begins at 5.55 am, turn phone on for BBC midnight news. Check emails, currency, blood pressure, and have a pee. Take dog for walk/shit, back home to make a cuppa for me and coffee for gf. during which time I log onto TVisa to see who's dissed me !!!!! LOL

My day revolves around cooking, wine-making, watching catch-up telly or downloaded movies, listening to music, Popmaster, Countdown, playing Scrabble online. I used to be a professional musician so spend quite a bit of time recording on my PC, write some songs sometimes. Maybe mow my lawn and cut the hedge now & then. I am happy with my own company and my gf has so many friends I sometimes only see her morning and night....peaceful.

[BritManToo]

6 hours ago, DAN0 said:

how is your daily life / schedule looks like roughly.. 

Slowly but steadily drinking myself to death while sitting in front of the Tv.

Not long to go now (thank god).

Edited July 16, 2019 by BritManToo

[Andrew Dwyer]

Usually wake up around 7.30 , breakfast, shave and shower.
Out in the garden, gardening or diy projects until 11.30 ish.
Out for lunch or buy to eat in-house.
Usually visit some place, shopping or relax in house, do a little work on the house ( painting or diy ).
Around 5.30 out on the bicycle or drive to a nearby park for walking/jogging, call in the local market for some food.
Back home for evening, rarely go out in the evening unless it’s to visit a night market that is on every 2 or 3 months.

I’m retired so my routine is usually divided between resting or working at home. Still feel that I’m wasting my life if I’m not working and wondering why I’m working when I’m retired !! ????

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, DonDoRondo said:

I've got a private tutor lined up already for the equivalent of 300 TB an hour, which is 

around what I pay here in CM and I've done a couple of google searches and discovered

that Da Nang has massage service at both higher end spas  and also smaller

cheaper shops.  Looking forward to trying them out.

 

If you've had lessons for 7 years, I can tell you they weren't worth it.

Da Nang massage places are a bit odd, was there last week, it's always a thuggish looking guy out front, no girls to be seen, not for me, I like the menu outside. Beach was great, sea was great, but 99% Asian, no white folk, no free range ladies.

 

I can recommend N-pub (expat bar buy 1 gt one free) and Euro Draught Beer Village (Asian beer bar in beautiful setting) if you're a beer drinker.

Edited July 16, 2019 by BritManToo

[geronimo]

I am normally at home all day, with the 2 dogs, my office, and a beautiful garden.

 

Here is an account of a day I experienced a while ago ......

 

Ever woke up in the morning and though to yourself “It’s gonna be a great day?”

 

Well, I did the other day, and here’s how my day went …..

 

I actually awoke an hour later than normal, but my good old body clock was right on time, and ready for the morning dump. Bathroom isn’t free, not to worry, I’ll busy myself with some cleaning. 20 minutes later and I am ready to burst. Turns out my son is in the bathroom and he’s wearing my Bluetooth headphones while he sits and ponders life.

 

By this time I’m doing a unique Irish jig, and my dog has an expression on his face that I haven’t seen before, and just as I was contemplating digging a hole in the garden, son emerges from the bathroom. Aaaah Heaven!!!

 

I emerge from the bathroom a kilo lighter and in much better spirits, only to find my dentures are not in the glass by the bed. My search soon revealed a crushed set of teeth, probably thanks to the dog, who must’ve thought it was a new toy.

 

Oh well, who needs teeth anyway, they’re very overrated, and I refused to let such a minor thing get me down, and I even forgave my dog, who had a guilty look on his face telling me he chomped on my chompers.

 

Time to walk the dogs, and we get ready for the usual routine; I slide the front gate open and they tear off like a couple of possessed greyhounds, only this morning there happened to be a vendor riding past on her pushbike. Not sure what she was selling, I think I saw some cakes flying through the air as my boy crashed into her, sending the poor woman and my dog flying through the air. She got up and after a quick limb check, she smiled and began to clear up the debris. The dogs mistakenly thought she was a dog catcher and both disappeared as fast as their legs would carry them, and after helping her to retrieve all her stuff, she mounted her bike, and when I asked if she wanted financial compensation, she smiled and told me she would never ask a man with no teeth for money.

 

I’ve been awake for just over an hour and already had more drama that would normally occur in a week, and if I thought that was the end of it, I was to be sorely mistaken.

 

When I arrived at the piece of waste ground where my dogs do their business, I find the girl rolling in doggie poop, while the boy is nowhere to be seen. A yelp and a scream soon alerted me to his whereabouts, in a neighbour’s garden chasing her cat!

 

The cat was fine, they always are, but in his efforts to catch the feline, my Labrador had destroyed her collection of garden gnomes. After some serious groveling and apologies, I managed to coax Chokky out of her garden, and we went to finish our little walk. Time to return home and despite my attempts to get ahead, the girl, Lucky, goes straight into the living room and rolls around on the sofa, spreading the poo in every direction.

 

I duly drag the dog outside and showered her 4 times, then cleaned up the mess in the lounge (as best I could), then turned on the TV to see a “no-signal” message. By this time, I’m starting to think that the gods have conspired against me, and after checking that it wasn’t Friday the 13^th, I decide to take a long shower.

 

I like to really lather myself up when showering, and just as I finished doing that, the water stops running abruptly, leaving me looking like a snowman. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to remove soap without water, but take it from me, it cannot be done, and after using 5 towels, I was finally dry, and smelling sweet I might add.

 

My latent positivity told me that I was having a whole year’s bad fortune in one go, and I reasoned that this little series of misfortunes was not going to get me down.

 

Any thoughts I might have had that this was going to be a great day were shattered when I dropped a jar of coffee on the kitchen floor, and the dogs thought this was a new game and began to roll around in the brown mess I’d created. I used the 5 soap covered towels the clean up the mess, which turned out to be a great way to make the coffee bubble, while turning the floor into an ice rink!

 

I decided to treat myself to a glass of fresh orange juice, and to my surprise, the fridge light didn’t come on when I opened the door, probably due to the fact that someone had unplugged it. At this point, I thought about going back to bed and starting again, after all, it could never be as bad as this, could it?

 

I did have a brainwave, which consisted of me sitting in a chair and not touching anything for the rest of the day, but in the end I decided to continue my day like nothing happened.

 

The TV remote was nowhere to be seen, and while searching for it, I found a few pieces of my dentures, damning evidence indeed, as they were right where my dog sleeps. I thought about booting up my computer, but decided against it, fearing the dreaded blue screen, or worse, no power, and besides, the world can wait, at least until my life calms down.

 

I began to search for the car keys, not expecting to find them, so it was no surprise that my search yielded nothing but more bits of my teeth.

 

At this point, my other half gets up and wants to know why the bathroom has been coated in soap, and remarked on the brown mess in the kitchen, I simply smiled and said it was “one of those days”.

 

The afternoon …….

 

The car keys magically turned up, so I decided to risk a trip out on the roads ……

I mean, what could go wrong?

 

I knew the old girl was low on fuel and to my amazement the engine cut out just as I rolled into the LPG station, how perfect was that? Except the pump station was closed!

 

I duly waited an hour and sure enough the pump attendants arrived, so I told the girl to fill her up, which she did. I then realised I left my wallet at home!

 

Being a regular customer and fluent in Thai allowed me to drive away on the promise of returning later to pay my bill, which I did, of course.

 

The ATM

These hole in the wall cash dispensers don’t normally mess with me. I normally get exactly what I want and have never had an issue, in fact, I tell everyone I know, next birthday, I’d like an ATM if possible.

Armed with my wallet, I proceeded to do a little shopping in my local 7-11 and when confronted with the checkout, I naturally chose the till with only one person in front of me. Sod’s law was at work here, as the elderly woman in front of me produced a fistful of utility bills. It matters not which line I get in, I always seem to get the one with a heap of bills.

Finally on my way home, I reasoned with myself that this is all in my head, and that in fact, it was purely down to coincidence that my day was one catastrophe after another, when I suddenly realised that I had a rear tyre problem. Turned out that my brand new tyre just happened to make contact with a nail, and was now hissing like an angry King Cobra!.

 

I'm well-versed with changing a wheel on the car and get to work, only stopping when I couldn't find the jack! Turned out my son used it to jack up the back wheel of his Yamaha R3, to lubricate the chain. I actually laughed out loud at this point, looking up at the sky and shaking my head. God knows why I did that, I mean I am not a believer of any religion, and there's certainly not an old bearded man looking down on me, yet I do know that my own consciousness can affect physical outcomes, however, I think nothing but good thoughts, so that can't be the reason for having a lifetime's worth of bad luck in a single day.

 

Son brings jack, wheel gets changed and I arrive at home, wondering what catastrophes have occurred in the short time I'd been away, but, to my surprise, all is well. Dogs laying on the porch, and everything was where I left it.

 

It is now close to evening, yet it feels like a whole week has passed since I awoke that morning.

Time for some work, so I set up my laptop and boot her up on the porch, which doubles as my office.

 

 

 

 

[mike787]

My routine is very simple:  beer, cigarets, and as much sex as they body can handle until the next chapter for the after life begins.  They don't call this place the land of smiles (happy endings) for nothing.

[Andrew Dwyer]

I am normally at home all day, with the 2 dogs, my office, and a beautiful garden.
 
Here is an account of a day I experienced a while ago ......
 
Ever woke up in the morning and though to yourself “It’s gonna be a great day?”
 
Well, I did the other day, and here’s how my day went …..
 
I actually awoke an hour later than normal, but my good old body clock was right on time, and ready for the morning dump. Bathroom isn’t free, not to worry, I’ll busy myself with some cleaning. 20 minutes later and I am ready to burst. Turns out my son is in the bathroom and he’s wearing my Bluetooth headphones while he sits and ponders life.
 
By this time I’m doing a unique Irish jig, and my dog has an expression on his face that I haven’t seen before, and just as I was contemplating digging a hole in the garden, son emerges from the bathroom. Aaaah Heaven!!!
 
I emerge from the bathroom a kilo lighter and in much better spirits, only to find my dentures are not in the glass by the bed. My search soon revealed a crushed set of teeth, probably thanks to the dog, who must’ve thought it was a new toy.
 
Oh well, who needs teeth anyway, they’re very overrated, and I refused to let such a minor thing get me down, and I even forgave my dog, who had a guilty look on his face telling me he chomped on my chompers.
 
Time to walk the dogs, and we get ready for the usual routine; I slide the front gate open and they tear off like a couple of possessed greyhounds, only this morning there happened to be a vendor riding past on her pushbike. Not sure what she was selling, I think I saw some cakes flying through the air as my boy crashed into her, sending the poor woman and my dog flying through the air. She got up and after a quick limb check, she smiled and began to clear up the debris. The dogs mistakenly thought she was a dog catcher and both disappeared as fast as their legs would carry them, and after helping her to retrieve all her stuff, she mounted her bike, and when I asked if she wanted financial compensation, she smiled and told me she would never ask a man with no teeth for money.
 
I’ve been awake for just over an hour and already had more drama that would normally occur in a week, and if I thought that was the end of it, I was to be sorely mistaken.
 
When I arrived at the piece of waste ground where my dogs do their business, I find the girl rolling in doggie poop, while the boy is nowhere to be seen. A yelp and a scream soon alerted me to his whereabouts, in a neighbour’s garden chasing her cat!
 
The cat was fine, they always are, but in his efforts to catch the feline, my Labrador had destroyed her collection of garden gnomes. After some serious groveling and apologies, I managed to coax Chokky out of her garden, and we went to finish our little walk. Time to return home and despite my attempts to get ahead, the girl, Lucky, goes straight into the living room and rolls around on the sofa, spreading the poo in every direction.
 
I duly drag the dog outside and showered her 4 times, then cleaned up the mess in the lounge (as best I could), then turned on the TV to see a “no-signal” message. By this time, I’m starting to think that the gods have conspired against me, and after checking that it wasn’t Friday the 13^th, I decide to take a long shower.
 
I like to really lather myself up when showering, and just as I finished doing that, the water stops running abruptly, leaving me looking like a snowman. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to remove soap without water, but take it from me, it cannot be done, and after using 5 towels, I was finally dry, and smelling sweet I might add.
 
My latent positivity told me that I was having a whole year’s bad fortune in one go, and I reasoned that this little series of misfortunes was not going to get me down.
 
Any thoughts I might have had that this was going to be a great day were shattered when I dropped a jar of coffee on the kitchen floor, and the dogs thought this was a new game and began to roll around in the brown mess I’d created. I used the 5 soap covered towels the clean up the mess, which turned out to be a great way to make the coffee bubble, while turning the floor into an ice rink!
 
I decided to treat myself to a glass of fresh orange juice, and to my surprise, the fridge light didn’t come on when I opened the door, probably due to the fact that someone had unplugged it. At this point, I thought about going back to bed and starting again, after all, it could never be as bad as this, could it?
 
I did have a brainwave, which consisted of me sitting in a chair and not touching anything for the rest of the day, but in the end I decided to continue my day like nothing happened.
 
The TV remote was nowhere to be seen, and while searching for it, I found a few pieces of my dentures, damning evidence indeed, as they were right where my dog sleeps. I thought about booting up my computer, but decided against it, fearing the dreaded blue screen, or worse, no power, and besides, the world can wait, at least until my life calms down.
 
I began to search for the car keys, not expecting to find them, so it was no surprise that my search yielded nothing but more bits of my teeth.
 
At this point, my other half gets up and wants to know why the bathroom has been coated in soap, and remarked on the brown mess in the kitchen, I simply smiled and said it was “one of those days”.
 
The afternoon …….
 
The car keys magically turned up, so I decided to risk a trip out on the roads ……
I mean, what could go wrong?
 
I knew the old girl was low on fuel and to my amazement the engine cut out just as I rolled into the LPG station, how perfect was that? Except the pump station was closed!
 
I duly waited an hour and sure enough the pump attendants arrived, so I told the girl to fill her up, which she did. I then realised I left my wallet at home!
 
Being a regular customer and fluent in Thai allowed me to drive away on the promise of returning later to pay my bill, which I did, of course.
 
The ATM
These hole in the wall cash dispensers don’t normally mess with me. I normally get exactly what I want and have never had an issue, in fact, I tell everyone I know, next birthday, I’d like an ATM if possible.
Armed with my wallet, I proceeded to do a little shopping in my local 7-11 and when confronted with the checkout, I naturally chose the till with only one person in front of me. Sod’s law was at work here, as the elderly woman in front of me produced a fistful of utility bills. It matters not which line I get in, I always seem to get the one with a heap of bills.

Finally on my way home, I reasoned with myself that this is all in my head, and that in fact, it was purely down to coincidence that my day was one catastrophe after another, when I suddenly realised that I had a rear tyre problem. Turned out that my brand new tyre just happened to make contact with a nail, and was now hissing like an angry King Cobra!.
 

I'm well-versed with changing a wheel on the car and get to work, only stopping when I couldn't find the jack! Turned out my son used it to jack up the back wheel of his Yamaha R3, to lubricate the chain. I actually laughed out loud at this point, looking up at the sky and shaking my head. God knows why I did that, I mean I am not a believer of any religion, and there's certainly not an old bearded man looking down on me, yet I do know that my own consciousness can affect physical outcomes, however, I think nothing but good thoughts, so that can't be the reason for having a lifetime's worth of bad luck in a single day.

 

Son brings jack, wheel gets changed and I arrive at home, wondering what catastrophes have occurred in the short time I'd been away, but, to my surprise, all is well. Dogs laying on the porch, and everything was where I left it.
 

It is now close to evening, yet it feels like a whole week has passed since I awoke that morning.

Time for some work, so I set up my laptop and boot her up on the porch, which doubles as my office.
 


 
 

 

“These things are sent to try us”, as my dear old grandad used to say !!

Sometimes I have days where nothing goes right, not to the extent of yours though !! and I try not to get stressed out although occasionally I do blow a fuse but quickly calm down and try to forget.

I see myself as an extremely calm and forgiving type of person but maybe I’m getting cranky as the years go by.

Yesterday in the car I was cut up by one of those souped up Brios “ f&$@ing idiot “ exclaimed the gf ( much to my amusement !! ).
Wonder where she got this phrase from ?? [emoji848]

[bert bloggs]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Slowly but steadily drinking myself to death while sitting in front of the Tv.

Not long to go now (thank god).

Hey ,is life really that bad? sorry if it is ,life has been a ball for me , all i hope is when the time comes ,ime not there .lol

as for the original question ,have breakfast with the wife ,she starts ,cleaning ,gardening ,exercising ,etc etc while i read the news online ,download latest tv ,watch tv ,get dragged out of the chair to ,water the grass or exercise(the wife is a fitness freak and bloody marathon runner . then we go out shopping or whatever ,then i try to slink back to watch tv ,and get told by her who must be obayed to eat my plate of vegatables ,so that i keep healthy ,???? rinse and repeat.

[BritManToo]

8 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

Hey ,is life really that bad? sorry if it is ,life has been a ball for me , all i hope is when the time comes ,ime not there .lol

as for the original question ,have breakfast with the wife ,she starts ,cleaning ,gardening ,exercising ,etc etc while i read the news online ,download latest tv ,watch tv ,get dragged out of the chair to ,water the grass or exercise(the wife is a fitness freak and bloody marathon runner . then we go out shopping or whatever ,then i try to slink back to watch tv ,and get told by her who must be obayed to eat my plate of vegatables ,so that i keep healthy ,???? rinse and repeat.

Sounds like you're the same as me but with less alcohol and more nagging.

[Pharoticus]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Slowly but steadily drinking myself to death while sitting in front of the Tv.

Not long to go now (thank god).

I'm sorry to hear that. 

 

What's the problem?

[geronimo]

1 minute ago, Pharoticus said:

I'm sorry to hear that. 

 

What's the problem?

He spent too much time on this forum ......

[wgdanson]

2 hours ago, geronimo said:

I am normally at home all day, with the 2 dogs, my office, and a beautiful garden.

 

Here is an account of a day I experienced a while ago ......

 

Ever woke up in the morning and though to yourself “It’s gonna be a great day?”

 

Well, I did the other day, and here’s how my day went …..

 

I actually awoke an hour later than normal, but my good old body clock was right on time, and ready for the morning dump. Bathroom isn’t free, not to worry, I’ll busy myself with some cleaning. 20 minutes later and I am ready to burst. Turns out my son is in the bathroom and he’s wearing my Bluetooth headphones while he sits and ponders life.

 

By this time I’m doing a unique Irish jig, and my dog has an expression on his face that I haven’t seen before, and just as I was contemplating digging a hole in the garden, son emerges from the bathroom. Aaaah Heaven!!!

 

I emerge from the bathroom a kilo lighter and in much better spirits, only to find my dentures are not in the glass by the bed. My search soon revealed a crushed set of teeth, probably thanks to the dog, who must’ve thought it was a new toy.

 

Oh well, who needs teeth anyway, they’re very overrated, and I refused to let such a minor thing get me down, and I even forgave my dog, who had a guilty look on his face telling me he chomped on my chompers.

 

Time to walk the dogs, and we get ready for the usual routine; I slide the front gate open and they tear off like a couple of possessed greyhounds, only this morning there happened to be a vendor riding past on her pushbike. Not sure what she was selling, I think I saw some cakes flying through the air as my boy crashed into her, sending the poor woman and my dog flying through the air. She got up and after a quick limb check, she smiled and began to clear up the debris. The dogs mistakenly thought she was a dog catcher and both disappeared as fast as their legs would carry them, and after helping her to retrieve all her stuff, she mounted her bike, and when I asked if she wanted financial compensation, she smiled and told me she would never ask a man with no teeth for money.

 

I’ve been awake for just over an hour and already had more drama that would normally occur in a week, and if I thought that was the end of it, I was to be sorely mistaken.

 

When I arrived at the piece of waste ground where my dogs do their business, I find the girl rolling in doggie poop, while the boy is nowhere to be seen. A yelp and a scream soon alerted me to his whereabouts, in a neighbour’s garden chasing her cat!

 

The cat was fine, they always are, but in his efforts to catch the feline, my Labrador had destroyed her collection of garden gnomes. After some serious groveling and apologies, I managed to coax Chokky out of her garden, and we went to finish our little walk. Time to return home and despite my attempts to get ahead, the girl, Lucky, goes straight into the living room and rolls around on the sofa, spreading the poo in every direction.

 

I duly drag the dog outside and showered her 4 times, then cleaned up the mess in the lounge (as best I could), then turned on the TV to see a “no-signal” message. By this time, I’m starting to think that the gods have conspired against me, and after checking that it wasn’t Friday the 13^th, I decide to take a long shower.

 

I like to really lather myself up when showering, and just as I finished doing that, the water stops running abruptly, leaving me looking like a snowman. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to remove soap without water, but take it from me, it cannot be done, and after using 5 towels, I was finally dry, and smelling sweet I might add.

 

My latent positivity told me that I was having a whole year’s bad fortune in one go, and I reasoned that this little series of misfortunes was not going to get me down.

 

Any thoughts I might have had that this was going to be a great day were shattered when I dropped a jar of coffee on the kitchen floor, and the dogs thought this was a new game and began to roll around in the brown mess I’d created. I used the 5 soap covered towels the clean up the mess, which turned out to be a great way to make the coffee bubble, while turning the floor into an ice rink!

 

I decided to treat myself to a glass of fresh orange juice, and to my surprise, the fridge light didn’t come on when I opened the door, probably due to the fact that someone had unplugged it. At this point, I thought about going back to bed and starting again, after all, it could never be as bad as this, could it?

 

I did have a brainwave, which consisted of me sitting in a chair and not touching anything for the rest of the day, but in the end I decided to continue my day like nothing happened.

 

The TV remote was nowhere to be seen, and while searching for it, I found a few pieces of my dentures, damning evidence indeed, as they were right where my dog sleeps. I thought about booting up my computer, but decided against it, fearing the dreaded blue screen, or worse, no power, and besides, the world can wait, at least until my life calms down.

 

I began to search for the car keys, not expecting to find them, so it was no surprise that my search yielded nothing but more bits of my teeth.

 

At this point, my other half gets up and wants to know why the bathroom has been coated in soap, and remarked on the brown mess in the kitchen, I simply smiled and said it was “one of those days”.

 

The afternoon …….

 

The car keys magically turned up, so I decided to risk a trip out on the roads ……

I mean, what could go wrong?

 

I knew the old girl was low on fuel and to my amazement the engine cut out just as I rolled into the LPG station, how perfect was that? Except the pump station was closed!

 

I duly waited an hour and sure enough the pump attendants arrived, so I told the girl to fill her up, which she did. I then realised I left my wallet at home!

 

Being a regular customer and fluent in Thai allowed me to drive away on the promise of returning later to pay my bill, which I did, of course.

 

The ATM

These hole in the wall cash dispensers don’t normally mess with me. I normally get exactly what I want and have never had an issue, in fact, I tell everyone I know, next birthday, I’d like an ATM if possible.

Armed with my wallet, I proceeded to do a little shopping in my local 7-11 and when confronted with the checkout, I naturally chose the till with only one person in front of me. Sod’s law was at work here, as the elderly woman in front of me produced a fistful of utility bills. It matters not which line I get in, I always seem to get the one with a heap of bills.

 

Finally on my way home, I reasoned with myself that this is all in my head, and that in fact, it was purely down to coincidence that my day was one catastrophe after another, when I suddenly realised that I had a rear tyre problem. Turned out that my brand new tyre just happened to make contact with a nail, and was now hissing like an angry King Cobra!.

 

 

I'm well-versed with changing a wheel on the car and get to work, only stopping when I couldn't find the jack! Turned out my son used it to jack up the back wheel of his Yamaha R3, to lubricate the chain. I actually laughed out loud at this point, looking up at the sky and shaking my head. God knows why I did that, I mean I am not a believer of any religion, and there's certainly not an old bearded man looking down on me, yet I do know that my own consciousness can affect physical outcomes, however, I think nothing but good thoughts, so that can't be the reason for having a lifetime's worth of bad luck in a single day.

 

 

 

Son brings jack, wheel gets changed and I arrive at home, wondering what catastrophes have occurred in the short time I'd been away, but, to my surprise, all is well. Dogs laying on the porch, and everything was where I left it.

 

 

It is now close to evening, yet it feels like a whole week has passed since I awoke that morning.

 

Time for some work, so I set up my laptop and boot her up on the porch, which doubles as my office.

 

 

 

 

 

All in all quite an eventful day eh?

Edited July 16, 2019 by wgdanson

[bert bloggs]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Sounds like you're the same as me but with less alcohol and more nagging.

not nagging ,we are always joking around , i am quite lucky i suppose that my wife is from a quite well off family and has had a good education so she is almost as imtelimgent as me ????

[BritManToo]

4 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

not nagging ,we are always joking around , i am quite lucky i suppose that my wife is from a quite well off family and has had a good education so she is almost as imtelimgent as me ????

Sadly I'm in the top 0.1%, so I've never had competition.

Edited July 16, 2019 by BritManToo

[geronimo]

53 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

not nagging ,we are always joking around , i am quite lucky i suppose that my wife is from a quite well off family and has had a good education so she is almost as imtelimgent as me ????

and can probably spell too!

[GarryP]

4 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Usually wake up around 7.30 , breakfast, shave and shower.
Out in the garden, gardening or diy projects until 11.30 ish.
Out for lunch or buy to eat in-house.
Usually visit some place, shopping or relax in house, do a little work on the house ( painting or diy ).
Around 5.30 out on the bicycle or drive to a nearby park for walking/jogging, call in the local market for some food.
Back home for evening, rarely go out in the evening unless it’s to visit a night market that is on every 2 or 3 months.

I’m retired so my routine is usually divided between resting or working at home. Still feel that I’m wasting my life if I’m not working and wondering why I’m working when I’m retired !! ????

My biggest fear is having nothing to do and wasting my life. I will retire in 3.5 years and am seriously thinking what I will do once I retire. You can only do so much cycling and fishing.  

[geronimo]

Just now, GarryP said:

My biggest fear is having nothing to do and wasting my life. I will retire in 3.5 years and am seriously thinking what I will do once I retire. You can only do so much cycling and fishing.  

Yes, it is important to find a passion when you have loads of free time ....

[Tagged]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Slowly but steadily drinking myself to death while sitting in front of the Tv.

Not long to go now (thank god).

I thought you didnt have time to drink, to much young girls, drugs and rock´n roll!

 

a life like a king, a new mistress every day.

[Andrew Dwyer]

My biggest fear is having nothing to do and wasting my life. I will retire in 3.5 years and am seriously thinking what I will do once I retire. You can only do so much cycling and fishing.  

Yes, I lived in an apartment for a year and a half and it became that I needed something to occupy my time. Bought a house and now there’s not enough hours in the day !!
If I was single I probably wouldn’t leave the house, just spend all my time pottering around [emoji51]

[SteveK]

22 minutes ago, GarryP said:

My biggest fear is having nothing to do and wasting my life. 

Odd, that's my aim. Do nothing for the rest of my life.

[geronimo]

1 minute ago, SteveK said:

Odd, that's my aim. Do nothing for the rest of my life.

Do nothing for with the rest of your life, you mean?

[madmen]

4 hours ago, geronimo said:

I am normally at home all day, with the 2 dogs, my office, and a beautiful garden.

 

Here is an account of a day I experienced a while ago ......

 

Ever woke up in the morning and though to yourself “It’s gonna be a great day?”

 

Well, I did the other day, and here’s how my day went …..

 

I actually awoke an hour later than normal, but my good old body clock was right on time, and ready for the morning dump. Bathroom isn’t free, not to worry, I’ll busy myself with some cleaning. 20 minutes later and I am ready to burst. Turns out my son is in the bathroom and he’s wearing my Bluetooth headphones while he sits and ponders life.

 

By this time I’m doing a unique Irish jig, and my dog has an expression on his face that I haven’t seen before, and just as I was contemplating digging a hole in the garden, son emerges from the bathroom. Aaaah Heaven!!!

 

I emerge from the bathroom a kilo lighter and in much better spirits, only to find my dentures are not in the glass by the bed. My search soon revealed a crushed set of teeth, probably thanks to the dog, who must’ve thought it was a new toy.

 

Oh well, who needs teeth anyway, they’re very overrated, and I refused to let such a minor thing get me down, and I even forgave my dog, who had a guilty look on his face telling me he chomped on my chompers.

 

Time to walk the dogs, and we get ready for the usual routine; I slide the front gate open and they tear off like a couple of possessed greyhounds, only this morning there happened to be a vendor riding past on her pushbike. Not sure what she was selling, I think I saw some cakes flying through the air as my boy crashed into her, sending the poor woman and my dog flying through the air. She got up and after a quick limb check, she smiled and began to clear up the debris. The dogs mistakenly thought she was a dog catcher and both disappeared as fast as their legs would carry them, and after helping her to retrieve all her stuff, she mounted her bike, and when I asked if she wanted financial compensation, she smiled and told me she would never ask a man with no teeth for money.

 

I’ve been awake for just over an hour and already had more drama that would normally occur in a week, and if I thought that was the end of it, I was to be sorely mistaken.

 

When I arrived at the piece of waste ground where my dogs do their business, I find the girl rolling in doggie poop, while the boy is nowhere to be seen. A yelp and a scream soon alerted me to his whereabouts, in a neighbour’s garden chasing her cat!

 

The cat was fine, they always are, but in his efforts to catch the feline, my Labrador had destroyed her collection of garden gnomes. After some serious groveling and apologies, I managed to coax Chokky out of her garden, and we went to finish our little walk. Time to return home and despite my attempts to get ahead, the girl, Lucky, goes straight into the living room and rolls around on the sofa, spreading the poo in every direction.

 

I duly drag the dog outside and showered her 4 times, then cleaned up the mess in the lounge (as best I could), then turned on the TV to see a “no-signal” message. By this time, I’m starting to think that the gods have conspired against me, and after checking that it wasn’t Friday the 13^th, I decide to take a long shower.

 

I like to really lather myself up when showering, and just as I finished doing that, the water stops running abruptly, leaving me looking like a snowman. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to remove soap without water, but take it from me, it cannot be done, and after using 5 towels, I was finally dry, and smelling sweet I might add.

 

My latent positivity told me that I was having a whole year’s bad fortune in one go, and I reasoned that this little series of misfortunes was not going to get me down.

 

Any thoughts I might have had that this was going to be a great day were shattered when I dropped a jar of coffee on the kitchen floor, and the dogs thought this was a new game and began to roll around in the brown mess I’d created. I used the 5 soap covered towels the clean up the mess, which turned out to be a great way to make the coffee bubble, while turning the floor into an ice rink!

 

I decided to treat myself to a glass of fresh orange juice, and to my surprise, the fridge light didn’t come on when I opened the door, probably due to the fact that someone had unplugged it. At this point, I thought about going back to bed and starting again, after all, it could never be as bad as this, could it?

 

I did have a brainwave, which consisted of me sitting in a chair and not touching anything for the rest of the day, but in the end I decided to continue my day like nothing happened.

 

The TV remote was nowhere to be seen, and while searching for it, I found a few pieces of my dentures, damning evidence indeed, as they were right where my dog sleeps. I thought about booting up my computer, but decided against it, fearing the dreaded blue screen, or worse, no power, and besides, the world can wait, at least until my life calms down.

 

I began to search for the car keys, not expecting to find them, so it was no surprise that my search yielded nothing but more bits of my teeth.

 

At this point, my other half gets up and wants to know why the bathroom has been coated in soap, and remarked on the brown mess in the kitchen, I simply smiled and said it was “one of those days”.

 

The afternoon …….

 

The car keys magically turned up, so I decided to risk a trip out on the roads ……

I mean, what could go wrong?

 

I knew the old girl was low on fuel and to my amazement the engine cut out just as I rolled into the LPG station, how perfect was that? Except the pump station was closed!

 

I duly waited an hour and sure enough the pump attendants arrived, so I told the girl to fill her up, which she did. I then realised I left my wallet at home!

 

Being a regular customer and fluent in Thai allowed me to drive away on the promise of returning later to pay my bill, which I did, of course.

 

The ATM

These hole in the wall cash dispensers don’t normally mess with me. I normally get exactly what I want and have never had an issue, in fact, I tell everyone I know, next birthday, I’d like an ATM if possible.

Armed with my wallet, I proceeded to do a little shopping in my local 7-11 and when confronted with the checkout, I naturally chose the till with only one person in front of me. Sod’s law was at work here, as the elderly woman in front of me produced a fistful of utility bills. It matters not which line I get in, I always seem to get the one with a heap of bills.

 

Finally on my way home, I reasoned with myself that this is all in my head, and that in fact, it was purely down to coincidence that my day was one catastrophe after another, when I suddenly realised that I had a rear tyre problem. Turned out that my brand new tyre just happened to make contact with a nail, and was now hissing like an angry King Cobra!.

 

 

I'm well-versed with changing a wheel on the car and get to work, only stopping when I couldn't find the jack! Turned out my son used it to jack up the back wheel of his Yamaha R3, to lubricate the chain. I actually laughed out loud at this point, looking up at the sky and shaking my head. God knows why I did that, I mean I am not a believer of any religion, and there's certainly not an old bearded man looking down on me, yet I do know that my own consciousness can affect physical outcomes, however, I think nothing but good thoughts, so that can't be the reason for having a lifetime's worth of bad luck in a single day.

 

 

 

Son brings jack, wheel gets changed and I arrive at home, wondering what catastrophes have occurred in the short time I'd been away, but, to my surprise, all is well. Dogs laying on the porch, and everything was where I left it.

 

 

It is now close to evening, yet it feels like a whole week has passed since I awoke that morning.

 

Time for some work, so I set up my laptop and boot her up on the porch, which doubles as my office.

 

 

 

 

 

Nice pool

[mike787]

1 hour ago, geronimo said:

Yes, it is important to find a passion when you have loads of free time ....

SEX!  Excellent hobby!  Followed by long, slow whole body massages.????

[simon43]

Get up at 4.45, go run for 30 minutes, come home, coffee, fruit and muesli, teach English online (30-50 kids in Chinese schools) for about 3 hours. Rest for a couple of hours, maybe go swimming at the pool, teach Science and History online to Burmese students, rest/relax again, eat salad and fruit for lunch, teach Science online to private Chinese kids, relax again, supper (fish), bed at 9 pm.

 

But since teaching online from Thailand is a grey area (legally), I'm off in a few weeks to live in another, more welcoming country....

Edited July 16, 2019 by simon43

[brewsterbudgen]

Get up. Go to work. Finish work and go home to my wife and son. Eat/play/go to bed. Repeat.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

 

[KittenKong]

4 hours ago, GarryP said:

My biggest fear is having nothing to do and wasting my life. I will retire in 3.5 years and am seriously thinking what I will do once I retire. You can only do so much cycling and fishing.  

Very true, thank God. Personally for me the right amount of cycling and fishing is none at all.

 

As for my day, once I have listened to some music, decided where to have lunch, and decided whether to have a nap before or after my siesta, there isn't much time left for anything else.

 

I retired at 50 and over a decade later relaxing still suits me fine. My only regret is not having done it at 40 or 30 or 20 ......