New Year, Weather, Rice field and more…

Like every year many Thai went back to their home village for New Year. For our family the daughters of Den & Nong (May & Khai Mook) and the son of Wannapha & Wutti (Domon) came “home” with his Girlfriend. Preaw & Both visited us a few days and they gave Papa and us some presents but Benz is still in Taiwan, but Fern brought us also a gift from them. Like every year we gave our neighbors, the co-workers of Siripron and family Dutch stroopwafels as a New Year gift.

Because it’s also winter in Thailand the morning temperatures were sometimes lower, between the 13 and 17 degrees Celsius. In the afternoon it was between 25 and 32 and we had days with some rain. We are happy to have a warm air blower in the bathroom that we use with our evening shower. The colder temperatures also made our garden hose really strong and because of leaking I had to change 2 of them. On the rice field Arun build a tower for the water tank, because he needs sometimes help this goes not so fast but we’re getting there. He’s now making the stairs to reach the platform and after that the watering with pipes, taps and shutters have to be installed. We still have to measure how many water points we want to have.

For the house we changed the sliding door to the kitchen for a better normal glass door. It’s almost the same as we have to the living room, only the window above the door is in the old frame. The change left an open space on the kitchen wall where we decided to hang 2 new kitchen cabinets.

For the virtual challenges I received in January some medals. This month I virtual walked & biked in America (Appalachian Trail & Grand Canyon (new)), Brazil (Amazon Rain Forest), Egypt (The Mummy), Ireland (Dublin) and Singapore (City challenge). I’ve started the year cycling challenge (Conqueror 2024) and I finished a 2024 short challenge, Alaska (North Pool), France (Paris) and Vietnam (the Vietnam Coast, the short version).

Other things that happened:
– Siripron went with her Papa a view times to the Temple service.
– I went to Immigration for my official year extension of my Visa.
– We went 2 times to Udon Thani for some shopping.
– Kham Ta Kla for lunch and our monthly order of sausages & bread.
– On my bike I had a flat tire, they changed the inner and the outer tire.
– The Birthdays of Nong (the wife of Den) and Preaw.
– Preaw & Both bought a new car.