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Sunday 30th April 2000
I went to Koh Samet again this weekend but stayed overnight in a bungalow this time. So click on the link and join me in paradise. Tomorrow is a holiday here and I haven't decided what I will do, maybe just sit by the pool and do nothing, maybe hire a scooter again and get out and about. Who knows. Oh by the way, Chester lost on Saturday but thankfully so did Shrewsbury. That means it goes right down to the wire next weekend with the final game of the season deciding our fate. It's all in our own hands, we have to beat Peterborough, no more no less. Come on you Blues!!!!
Ian
Friday 28th April 2000
Today is Niki's birthday, so "Happy Birthday".
It's the second year running that I've not been at home for her birthday. I've also missed
the kids birthdays too. These are the hardest things about working away from home.
The buffet last night was good. I did a lot of singing again, as did a
lot of others. The singers in the band had a night off as we took turns to get up and have
a go. It was a late night and I paid for it this morning. Four hours sleep is just not
enough. I had to drag myself out of bed this morning. Tonight it's laundry run. I may go
for another Indian but it won't be a late night tonight as I'm off to Koh Samet in the
morning. You can expect to see plenty of pics when I update my page on Sunday.
If results go our way this weekend Chester could assure their Football league survival. We are away to Cheltenham, my palms are sweaty!
Ian
Thursday 27th April 2000
Following on from yesterdays story, I saw the Australian
News Channel last night and they had a copy of a tourists holiday video showing the
elephant attack, not nice.
Paul, who is included in some of the pictures on this site, was talking
to me in the bar a couple of nights ago. He said to me "My wife is coming to visit me
soon, if she receives her airline tickets on time". I though about it for a minute
and realised he has been saying that to me for two years. Every time they have planned for
his wife to visit him something has gone wrong and she hasn't been able to travel. Two
years is a long time. The good news is that she now has her tickets and will arrive
tomorrow afternoon. Tonight the hotel is laying on a buffet for all long term guests. Free
ale and food but I promise not to make a pig of myself. (Get the ale in!)
This coming weekend and the following one are both holiday weekends in
Thailand so next week is only a three day week!!!!! This weekend I will probably go back
to Koh Samet and stay a night in a beach bungalow. Then next weekend I am thinking about a
trip to Koh Chang and Koh Kut. Leave on Thursday (take a day off) Stay in Koh Chang
Thursday and Friday night then travel to Koh Kut on Saturday and stay till Sunday when I
would come back to Pattaya. Koh Kut looks like a really good place. I looked it up in my
guide book and it looks like a beautiful place, so hopefully I'll get to see it first
hand. Paul explained to me that in Flemish Kut means the same as "Pussy" (no,
not a cat) so this place to him is "Pussy Island".
Ian
Wednesday 26th April 2000
I read a bit of a shocking story in the paper today (The same story is in the press at home too) An English tourist was killed by an elephant earlier this week. She was 23 and was at Nong Nook national park, the same place I stopped at on the way home from Koh Samet. She had gone there with her parents and was watching an elephant show. After the show the elephants come up to where the audience is sitting and you get the chance to feed them. Some other people were teasing the elephant. Offering it food and then taking it away. The elephant got angry and started lashing out. Three people were hurt, one of them, the girl, was gored by the elphants tusk and later died. I can think of better ways to go than that.
Ian
Tuesday 25th April 2000
No snake attacks so far today. We had our first
"saleable" car off the line today, see pics. A small celebration ceremony, a few
speeches etc. I should have a small celebration mysef as the number of hits to my page has
reached more that 200. Of course, at least 25% of those are me checking to see if it has
updated properly. But that still means more than 150 hits aren't mine. So wherever you are
reading it, in England, Belgium, Germany, Poland, China, Canada or the U.S. etc. thank you
for taking an interest.
I met a new employee in the audit area at work today, his picture is
below. I don't know what type of lizard it is but the local bloke told me it was safe as
it was dead. I thought it was just resting or pining for the fjords or something. But it
really was dead, dead with it's eyes wide open.
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Four of the "original" launch team. Luc, Greg, Me and Paul with the first saleable car. |
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The Lizard. |
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Me and Khun Somchai, my Thai opposite number. |
Ian
Monday 24th April 2000
I had a lovely Indian meal yesterday. Lamb Rogan Josh, Pilau
Rice, Keema Nan Bread and Popadoms with a spicy sauce. Then I had a couple of beers, some
ice cream and two Irish coffees. They were the stongest Irish coffees I have ever had. The
head waiter asked me if it was OK, I said it was very good. He told it was the first time
he had ever made one. The second one I had was even stonger, he must have been pleased
with my compliments.
Saturday Man Utd won the Premiership title, can't say I'm too happy
about that. Chester could only manage a draw at Macclesfield and as Shrewsbury Town won at
home, we are bottom again by 1 point. But the fat lady isn't singing yet, although she is
tuning up in the wings. I won't get to see another home game before next season so I pray
there will be a team to watch next August.
There was a note going around at work today about an employee who was
bitten by a snake at work!! They were even good enough to supply a picture of the thing
after it had been killed.
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Thankfully it wasn't a poisonous one but it still bit the poor bloke that walked past it. Only a small one too, 1.4 metres which is about 4 and a half feet. It's 5S could do with some improvement, it's not inside the lines!! |
Saturday 22nd April 2000
I was supposed to go to an island today and woke up early. It was peeing down with rain so not a day to visit an island. I had breakfast and went back to bed. I will take my laundry into town later, what an exciting time I'm having!!!! Chester play Macclesfield later so I'll follow the scores on Skys web page.
Ian
Friday 21st April 2000
What a frustrating week. I have had a lot of problems with my computer this week. I had some additional software installed at work this week and it has messed up my existing software. For two days I could hardly get the thing to work. Then on Thursday I couldn't get connected to the internet to update my page. So here's a brief rundown of this week. Monday: I decided to go into town to see the real Songkram activities. It was like World War 3. Impossible to walk or take a taxi anywhere without getting doused with a hose, squirted with a water lance or having buckets of water thrown over you. But still some stupid people were out on the town dressed to the nines and becoming the main targets for the for all water squirters. Then they were complaining about it. The outlook has to be "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" and if you come to Thailand during Songkram you WILL get wet, no question. Tuesday: I got home from work and ate at the little Korean place outside the hotel, came back to my room and puked!! Wednesday: Sick. Thursday: There was a welcome party at the hotel for all of the new arrivals who are working for GM in Thailand. There was a huge spread laid on, much more than could be eaten. I stuffed myself with seafood barbeque, prawns, fish, crab etc. and loads of salad and fried rice. The ale was free but I wasn't greedy, for once. I took a few pictures so you can see for yourself. Tomorrow it will be........... yes you guessed it, an island again. I think it is Koh Lahn again but with a different ferry that goes to a different part of the island. The first time I went I only saw one beach and didn't explore anywhere else so tomorrow I will try to get around a bit.
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From the left: Tamas, Me and Dave. |
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The "happy" Belgians: Paul, Greg and Luc. This picture is not really representative of how they usually look. In this one they look completely miserable. Normally they are only marginally miserable. (Only joking) But compare the expressions on the first picture and you'll see what I mean. |
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Paul getting stuck in to his tea. The food was excellent but Paul was complaining of stomach problems this morning and Doug, one of the aussies, spent all last night on the bog. |
Ian
Still Sunday 16th April 2000
The good news is Paul is not dead!! He followed a motorcycle he thought was me and obviously it wasn't. The one he followed turned left so he went the same way and realised, after some time. that it wasn't me. Somehow we missed each other but we both got back safely. Paul gave me the picture he took of me. Unfortunately I left my helmet on so I look a bit of a tit but I will use it anyway because it shows the "powerful" machines we were riding.
Ian
Sunday 16th April 2000
I met up with Paul last night. He and I shared a house when we were working in Poland. Today we went into Pattaya to hire a couple of mopeds. Then we went for a drive South. Paul's guide book had a page about a small island close to a town called Sattahip. When the tide is out you can walk across to it. The mopeds we hired were little 100cc Suzuki's that are good for about 65 mph (110 km/h) The Thai new year festival (Songkram) is coming to a close but there are still kids lining the streets waiting to soak anybody they can with water. They especially prey on moped riders, if they happen to be foreigners then even better. The place we went to was about 30 km from Pattaya. Waiting at some traffic lights a pick up truck full of water pistol toting kids pulled up and they absolutely soaked us. When we got to Sattahip it turned out to be some type of naval base with war ships in port. Everywhere seemed to be blocked off by Military Police so we didn't find this small island. On the way back I overtook Paul then slowed down a bit to wait for him to catch up. There was no sight of him so I stopped and waited, still no sight so I went back to look for him. I couldn't find him. God knows where he is! I hope he's OK. He took a few digital pictures so I will have to wait until he re-appears before I can stick them on my page.
Ian
Saturday 15th April 2000
Normal service resumes. I had a pretty eventful home leave,
culminating in me nearly crashing the car!! Strange thing was I didn't know I'd had this
near miss till I got to Manchester airport and called Niki. She said some of the other
Mums had mentioned it to her yesterday afternoon. I had taken the kids to school and had
just seen Jack walk into class. I went back to the car (obviously upset) and just drove
off. What I didn't know was that somebody was just about to pass my parked car as I pulled
away. Very very near miss going by eye witness accounts. Oops.
I went to the bottom of the table clash between Chester and Carlisle
last weekend. We (Chester) battered them in the first half but couldn't score. Second half
was more even. With 88 minutes gone Carlisle had two players sent off and I really thought
we could stick one past them and take all three points. Fate has a nasty habit of kicking
you in the balls and, of course, it did. Three minutes into injury time Carlisle scored
from 25 yards out. A belting goal but it may have sealed our fate.
Last Sunday I got my motorbike going (Someone my brother knows was
interested in having it off me). It hasn't run for about 6 months and I finally managed to
get it to start. I went for a short ride, it felt weird being on a bike again but made me
more determined to hire one out here. Then Sunday afternoon the bloke and his missus came
to have a look at it. They wanted to swap their bike for mine but I didn't like theirs so
I told him it would be a cash sale only. They were really keen to have mine so I will wait
and see what happens. I will be sorry to see it go but I just haven't used it over the
last two years.
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| Here's my bike. One careful owner (me) I don't know how many other un-careful owners. | If you want to buy it, it's yours for £1000. |
Ian
Tuesday 4th April 2000
Today was my last day at work until 17th April. I go home tomorrow, the total journey time is almost 24 hours!! So, there will be no update until I get back from my home leave. Tonight I will go down to the bar and have a few beers. Some of my German colleagues aren't coming back (That's another story) so I will have a few farewell beers with them and throw a few things into a bag. I leave the hotel at 8:00 (02:00 UK time) and arrive in Manchester at 23:00 (UK time) on Wednesday night. By the time I clear customs and drive home I will walk through the door at 00:30. I have to be careful. One of the Australian blokes went home for a short break (4 days) and because it was so short he only took a back pack with him. When he arrived they assumed he was a back packer and gave him a strip search. They checked every orifice!!! So maybe I will take an empty suitcase with me to avoid the rubber gloves. Normal service will resume when I get back. Bye Bye.
Ian
Monday 3rd April 2000
Not much of a diary update today. However, I have updated the page from my visit to Koh Samet. So have a look at that. This morning at work the boss came up to me and said "You didn't miss anything on Saturday" I asked if he knew what had happened regarding the mini bus picking me up on Saturday morning. He said he didn't. So I told him how p***ed off I was that I could have gone to the River Kwai on Saturday and that I had stayed in on Friday because I was working on Saturday. He said "Don't worry, you didn't miss anything" I said "No, you misunderstand me, the issue is it messed up my weekend" He just looked at me in a puzzled way........
Sunday 2nd April 2000
Today I went to the beautiful island of Koh Samet. Check out the new page devoted to this island paradise. It really was one of the most picturesque places I have ever been to, it knocked my socks off!!
Saturday Reprise....
I went into Pattaya to drop off my laundry this afternoon. After that I went for a beer in the "Dogs Bollocks" It's a pub run by a Chelsea supporter. Apparently he's a bit of a geezer as he has stories from newspapers, about his previous convictions for assorted offences , displayed over the walls of the bar. After that I came back to the hotel and had a cocktail in the bar (something with lychees in). It was happy hour so 2 4 1!!
Saturday 1st April 2000
April Fool!!! Well I think I am the April Fool. I got up early to go to work. The bus was due to arrive at 6:45 and me and 3 others waited for it. It turned up with 1 empty seat. Then a car turned up, also with 1 empty seat. So now I am fed up. I could have gone to see the bridge over the river kwai today. Brian, an English bloke living in the hotel, asked me on Thursday if I wanted to go with him and a few others. I told him I couldn't because I had to work. So thank you GM Thailand for screwing up my weekend. I have included a picture I took by the pool last weekend. It isn't very clear but if you look carefully you may see a small lizard sitting at the bottom of the children's swing. I watched him for 10 minutes. He was just doing what I was doing..... sunbathing.
So I have to decide what to do today. I didn't take my washing into town last night. I stayed in the hotel all night as I knew I was going to work today (Or should I say thought I was going to work today) I might take a taxi to Jomtein beach and see what that is like, I'm told it's very nice. Whatever I do I'll try to take a few pics and post them later. Also I have changed the back ground music. It is now me playing the intro to "Half the world away" by Oasis, I thought it was apt. The sound quality, or musical skills are not up to much!
Ian
Saturday Continued....
I've just spent 3 hours by the pool. Doing nothing again, only swimming and sunbathing, listening to U2 and reading the local paper. No, I can't read Thai, it's a local English language newspaper. Saturday has a full preview of all the English Premier League games. Today is FA Cup semi final day and Aston Villa (My mate Andy's' team) are playing Bolton Wanderers. Come on Villa! If they get to the final Andy has promised to get me a ticket, if I'm home at that time. He's gonna use his air miles to get home for it. Actually, I think I will be in Thailand for the cup final so I will watch here in the hotel probably. Anyway, here's a few more poolside pics from this morning. I've just got out of the shower and covered myself with aftersun. This afternoon I will go into Pattaya and get my laundry done. Bye.
Notice I've got my feet covered up I don't look sun-tanned at all. So I will do my best to get brown this weekend as I have to show off my white bits to everyone when I get home next week.
Luc showing off his suntan
Jose, Peter and Jorg