I am in a state where it is hard to reflect on the year just passing. I am quite relaxed and enjoy the rest. Yes I did my last trip into the mountains for the year. Last week I did two and I won’t go up for at least a week. I am tired and slowly I am relaxing. I couldn’t finish everything I wanted too, but sometimes it just is impossible to tie all ends up. There will be work waiting for me in the office next week. Office work was a drag lately because my computer is still broken. The laptop I am using now cannot use many of the programs I use. I guess I have to get a new one in the new year. I will have to take some time next week to reflect on the year and make plans. But now what I just want to do is nothing, have a holiday and spend time with my family. This morning is Monopoly time.
the adventure I find myself in / das Abenteuer in dem ich mich finde
Month: December 2007 (Page 1 of 2)
The elections are over. I red the Bangkok Post today with many articles of the outcome and opinions. I put it away. Still have to pack some presents and drink coffee with Lillian. Except from trying to commercialize Christmas through ever repeating Christmas songs and decorations in the shopping malls. The very special event that happened about 2008 years ago is just another day in Thailand. For us as a family it is a nice holiday. Tonight we have even special guests here. Lillian’s parents are visiting us and we are going to have cheese fondue for dinner. Right no turkey. We couldn’t catch the bird this morning and the cat is not fat enough yet. So I need to prepare the "röscho" I mean the thing under the "gaglo". What I mean is the heater under the pot we make the fondue. The only thing that I have left to say is:
"Happy Birthday Jesus!"
Yesterday evening I came back from our last Christmas village outreach this year. Hui Ma Jom was our last place we went. Four villages in a row. Meeting people, singing Christmas songs, sharing the great story of the birth of our Savior. We were in Hui Kau Laam, Hui Ma Fueang, Ken Tun and Hui Ma Jom. We also supported Christmas celebrations in the Prao area and the boarding home in Prao. This is one of the busiest times and I am never able to attend all the village celebrations I am invited too. The only "official" thing we are going to have with the Lahu team is on Wedensday. I am going to take the Lahu team up to Doi Angkhan for an outing "pai tiau" as a nice finish of a busy year.
Ich habe mal in einem update von meiner Lust nach einem richtigen Nussgipfel geschrieben. Im April hatten wir ein Team aus der Schweiz in den Bergen. Coni ist Konditorin und hat sich dies zu Herzen genommen. Gestern sind meine Schwiegereltern zu Besuch gekommen und haben tatsächlich einen riesigen Nussgipfel aus der Schweiz mitgebracht. Coni hat den extra für mich gemacht. Ich habe noch nie so einen grossen (45 cm.) Nussgipfel gesehen. Hier in Thailand gibt es das nicht und auch in der Schweiz gibt es dies nur in klein. Coni du bist die Beste. Merci viu, viu mal!!! Ich kann den nun in mehreren Tagen geniesen und natürlich Familie und Freunde teilhaben lassen. Das war bis jetzt die schönste Weihnachtsüberraschung und eine grosse Freude für mich.
I went shopping this morning. We were out of bread and coffee. As I walked through the sections I saw the the whole section where they sell alcoholic beverages closed up with a sign that no alcohol will be sold over the next two weekends. This is a nation wide thing and I am not sure if bars are included in the law. I think it is pretty amazing that the government can pull this off. For one part that people just accept this without complaint and for the other part that the government believes that the Thai people will take the occasion of election to get totally wasted. So no alcohol in Thailand’s shops from the 14th.-16th. and the 22th.-23th. of December. Why not do this for Songkran festival where hundreds of people die and thousands are hurt by drunk driving every year?
Update: Also the Bars and Restaurants are not allowed to sell alcohol. Many places close or have only the Restaurant part open.
I have been in Fang on Wednesday to do the planing and shopping for the Christmas outreach in the villages. It became a tradition to use the Christmas time to go to the villages we share the good News during the year to have a special time. We will be in five villages in five days. One of them I cannot go because my own children have a Christmas celebration at the school. My oldest, Tanja, has a main part in a Christmas musical. I don’t want to miss that. So I will come back from the mountains for this occasion.
I believe by now I probably bored you to death with my ibook computer problems. I went back to the Mac shop to see if they could fix the problem. Now it is probably my hard-drive that gave up. So I have to wait another week. So next year I’m going to have my computer back.
I am working on my new years resolutions…. (just kidding) Not really doing this kind of thing. But on the other hand it wouldn’t be the worst thing to do. At least make some plans for the next year. I guess I need to first kind of look back on this year and draw some conclusions.
Just kidding! I never was so into Mac to think that it is the only perfect thing in this world. I changed to Mac more then four years ago and still very much like it. I would not change back to PC. Still I had my share of problems with the machines. Perhaps it is because I by the cheapest Mac’s I get. Even though I would like to buy a more expensive one. Here a small history of my Apple adventure.
I got a ibook G3 donated by friends more then four years ago, after the IBM thinkpad had to be retired. It took me about two month to figure out the OS and get familiar with Mac. After making that I never looked back. A bit more then one year after I got it, the Logic board (mother board) gave up. The Mac shop in Chiang Mai said it would cost 30’000 Thai Baht to replace it. So I decided to buy the newer ibook G4 (nealry as much). I also got the extended Apple-care warranty, so I have three years time to crash my laptop. I was happy!
Later I gave my G3 back to Switzerland and told my brother in law to see if they could fix it cheaper with a second hand logic board. When he went there the Apple shop changed it for free. It was a factory problem. So I had two laptops for a while. The older one my kids used. Then after three years, actually one month before the warranty expired it broke down. I brought it in to the Mac shop in Chiang Mai. After checking/fixing it twice, they changed the logic board twice as well and it is still in repairs. (one month now) It seems like I have to buy a new computer after all. At the moment I use my old G3 but it is soooo slow I cannot use my iphoto, garageband nor imovie. No problem for e-mail or the web as well as writing documents. But after new year I will have to get a new notebook the Macbook.
Long story I know. I realized how depending I am on the computer for work. I have a back-up from all my work, but the older computer cannot open some of the newer files, like the iphoto. The hard drive is also too small. I have to wait till I have access to more than 10’000 photos and all my movies and all my music till I get the new machine. As you can guess by now, I am a bit depressed about it…. just a little 😉
This morning I ran errands I should have done a while ago. Something I don’t really like doing. Tuesday is the day where I stay home to look after my kids At least from lunch time on. In the morning I usually go to the office, then pick up some Thai food and at one my youngest in school. The afternoon I do work at home or do things around the house.
This morning I went to Macro to shop for the Christmas outreach we have in the mountains next week. After that I went to a internet provider to check prices. We want to change our current provider because it is expensive and slow and there are other ones now that are better. The other thing I looked at is prices for a new car. Our family car is getting to old and mainly to small to carry a family of five with growing children. Lillian also often has to pick other children from school. When we have visitors transportation is always a problem. Specially when I’m gone and we can’t throw everybody on the back of my truck. So finally I went to the garage to see how we could finance a bigger car.
12.00 picking up food; 13.00 picking up Two of my children; rest of the afternoon unleash Philipp the gardener into our garden. There is a lot of work to be done.
Tomorrow I will be off to Fang to meet my staff and to do some more outreach preparations.
It is still Monday. At least for a view more minutes. I should be in bed, but love the quite in the evening. My kids had a day off today because of Thailand’s constitution day. Last year was the coup d’etat. A new Constitution was written and accepted a couple of month ago. We are still under martial law in Chiang Mai. We don’t feel much of this. Someone I know though lost the business because of the situation. Everything seem to be like always. There will be election for the new government on the 23th this month and so will be another day off. Everybody is encouraged to go to their home towns to vote. There is a lot of lobbying for the different parties going on also in our neighborhood.
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