Well maybe a bit more or a bit less.....

Greetings or should I say sawasdeekrap! A good few years ago an English guy, Peter Mayle, I think, wrote a best seller, A Year in Provence, that spawned a TV series and God knows what else. I think Mr Mayle triggered a huge boom in the sale of rural French real estate to Brit couples with too much money and a massive take up of French language evening classes. So with this in mind I launch this blog. Except I am in Thailand, in Ratchaburi province about 100 km to the west of Bangkok. 

I would certainly welcome the revenue streams Mr Mayle generated from his foray but I know already that is extremely unlikely. I note from www.amazon.com that there are currently 900 copies of Mr Mayle's book for stale starting at $0.01. Oh dear!

What can I tell you about the distinct charm of my local hosts in the city of Ratchaburi?  Well the truth is they are charming, and polite, respectful and decent. I have been here for about 6 weeks but prior to moving here I had visited on a good many occasions as I courted my wife, Luna, who works in one of the local secondary schools. Ratchaburi is a very typical Thai provincial city and it has the considerable advantage of being off the tourist trail. My type, faraing, are to be seen but nowhere to the same extent as on the main tourist beat. Head down to Hua Hin, about 100 kms due south on the Gulf of Thailand and you will see what I mean. Come the Christmas holidays the beaches there will be crammed with large lumps of mainly Scandinavian flesh understandably seeking respite from the bleak north European mid-winter. I feel a sense of resentment when I see other faraing here in Ratchaburi and I completely understand if they have similar feelings when they see me. 

My friend Lars-Olav, from Sweden, a Hua Hin resident, a retiree, tells me about gangs of burglars who head to Hua Hin from Petchaburi in search of the rich pickings in faraing second homes. Petchaburi is the half way point between Ratchaburi and Hua Hin and when Lars talks about this I am kind of grateful these gangs don't yet have Ratchaburi in their sights.

Ratchaburi is pretty laid back and easy going. I get a sense the people here are too busy taking it easy to bother about burgling each others homes or robbing each other. I leave the car parked out on the street and I never lock it. I just realised this morning that I had left my passport in the dashboard storage space these last few days, unlocked. Yet I can barely put rubbish in the shared bins on the streets than some motorbike pulls up and its rider rakes through it in search of recyclables and anything else. But they leave my car and its contents alone and as far as I know nobody has shown any interest in our house and its contents. Now I like this not that I have any major assets or personal effects of value.

So today is Saturday three weeks since our wedding day. That was a very happy and lovely day for us both. I am very happy with my new wife, she is a treasure. I am so lucky. We didn't do much today. Luna was scheduled to do some additional lessons for students today but in true Thai style they hadn't shown by 0930h for a 0900h start so we went home instead. We were without water for most of the day as one of the taps managed to break away from its connection so we had to switch the water off at the mains. I finally was able to suss it out later in the day and was able to buy a replacement pipe in Tesco's (yup that mob are here and very big!) which I successfully fitted. Finished this just in time to enjoy Arsenal versus Man United live on TV, a real classic encounter and top quality football which ended in a 2-1 Arsenal win.

So these two last bits of information will give you an idea of how immersed I am in Thai culture! In fact the truth is this:  Thais are fanatical about the English Premier League and in particular they love teams like Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Thanks to the time difference it is possible most Saturdays and Sundays to watch live matches continuously starting from about 2000h local time right through to the wee small hours. Occasionally they even broadcast Scottish matches! This truly is the land of the armchair sports enthusiast.

So not a bad day. And on this day the former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, currently a fugitive from Thai justice, had his British visa revoked. So Thaksin will need to find himself a new home and I must say I am glad that things are beginning to get a little bit uncomfortable for him. No doubt I will have more to say about Khun Thaksin in future episodes. But for now, good night.