Bits and pieces day

---

Geo: 16.392, 103.924

Jai is up and about really early today for some reason and by 06:15 we have finished breakfast.
We stop at brother Pad's on the way out to the farm and find that he has popped home to get some breakfast. Leave him there and take Jai out to the farm then I bike into Phon Thong.
Use the internet for a while, do a little shopping then back to Khamnadie.
Before I left for town I stopped at the village shop to make sure that their photocopier was working as I need copies of several pages from my passport to extend my visa next week. Everything is OK and that will be no problem so I didnt bother carrying passport into town with me. Back at the house I collect passport and return to the shop to be told that the photocopier hasnt worked for ages. Thanks folks !
John stops briefly in passing and sneaks a coffee which he isnt supposed to drink.
After lunch I move some more sacks of rice from the kitchen into the rice house. Have to move it and lock it up before we go away as it mightnt all be there when we get back otherwise. Whilst lifting one of the sacks a large beatle runs out so I pick him up to take him out to the garden before Jai's mum sees him and thinks its lunch time. He was really strong and his legs gripped my finger tightly when I tried to put him down.
Out to the farm about 16:00 to find Pad trying to catch up on his sleep with Jai wandering around the paddies regulating the flow of water between fields.
I start a fire of the grass I have been clearing and spend the next hour or so topping it up whilst keeping it small to stop it burning the adjacent palm trees.
They decide that there is now enough water in the fields so before we leave tonight we take the pump apart and load it up on Pad's dak-dak. Typically, about 19:00 the rain arrives with a vengeance. We cant hear the TV because of the noise it is making on the roof and then we lose the signal altogether. Have to switch to te DVD and an old episode of Starsky & Hutch. The rain lasts a few hours but I guess that we were lucky. With the pumping finished Pad wasnt sleeping outside at the farm and I had managed to burn nearly all of the grass that was lying around whilst it was still dry.

---