February was the month of fast and slow. On some days we had builders, people for electric, people for the ceilings, for the frames and for the round part of the columns but on other days there was nobody. On the outside of the house the builders finished the roof tiles and the four terrace columns have their finished shapes. All the windows have now a concrete frames around them and the foundations of the house is now covered with flat stones. Also the lights on the outside were finished.

For the inside the builders made the ruffed building of the kitchen sink and the 2 bathrooms with bricks. Every room, the terrace and the hall have now light bulbs and/or spotlights. All bathrooms have now (a part of the) tiles. Before we had to find tiles in a shop chosen by our architect, supervisor of build. The most frustrating was that many of the examples tiles on display were not in stock and couldn’t be ordered in time. But we found our tiles for the floor, kitchen floor, bathroom floor and walls. As extra we bought 2 different decoration tiles for 2 of the bathrooms.

We also bought special tiles for the lower part (square shape) of the terrace columns. We now are shopping for other house things like furniture, beds and electronics.

For the switch from a Dutch Expat Health insurance to a Thai Health Insurance I had a test in a clinic at Udon Thani. At that clinic the doctor measured a high blood pressure and it was so high that we had to go a few days later to a private hospital for a bigger check-up. The result is 2 pills every day (+ a half pill for kidney clean-up) and an advice for diet (less salt, less sugar, more vegetables, more fruit and not spicy).

Other things that happened:
– Many times visit Kim, the baby of Kukkik and her husband.
– The visit of a German “farang”, Max, to our neighbor Nattapat.
– We bought new glasses (computer screen and reading) for Siripron.
– I installed the app for “Line” (a kind of WhatsApp) for Siripron to have contact with many of her old school friends. But because of a problem with pictures (memory) we bought a new Samsung phone for her. The renewed contact has already had a result: we had a Sunday lunch with a few of the old school friends in a nearby town.
– On my e-reader I now started a book by David Baldacci.
– Again a celebration of our part of the village on February 13 – this time music with singers by Wutti (the husband of Wannapa) and in the evening a movie marathon.
– Overtime at the hospital from 21 until 29 February (some days not).
– 22 February (full moon) was the first of the Buddha days.