Geo: 16.392, 103.924After breakfast we bike out to the farm to begin clearing the old stuff from off our palm trees to make them ready for the new season. We didnt do this at all last year so there are dead flowers and rotten fruit on a number of the trees. Also gather up all of the old branches that we cut off and move them away from the trees. The new tool makes this a lot easier although its still hard work even though it is not too hot yet today.Back at the house we start to coverthe asparagus roots with rice grass.Jai gets a phone call to ask if she will go and help her friend Wan prepare a duck for eating tonight when her daughter comes homes from Bangkok to live in the ... read more

Geo: 16.392, 103.924It is very cold again this morning and I thought these mornings were gone for this year.Jai's niece has had a little boy in our absence but apparently he isnt very well and his chances aren't good.We have just finished breakfast when Fin arrives for the day. She plonks herself on the settee, turns on the TV, and is set for the day ...I bike into Phon Thong for the internet. Gloucester and England are both playing today so no rugby to watch.I do a little pottering in the garden this afternoon whilst Jai tidies and stakes the asparagus.Off for our evening exercise and I make a few short videos to satisfy 'Doubting Thomas' or should that be 'Doubting Pamela' ?On our way back we stop to see the new parents, Jaek and Boo. ... read more

Geo: 16.42, 102.83Awake with the alarm at 05:00. Have some breakfast, get our things up together and we are leaving the house still in the dark just before 06:00. With the three of us on the bike and all our bags we are well loaded down this morning so take my time on the dodgy roads.Drop Jai, Fin and bags off at the bus station then go to park the bike up at a relatives house across town. Bus leaves at 07:00 on the dot. Once again we are taking the bus that goes the long way, through Roi Et and Maha Sarakham, before getting to Khon Kaen. It is a nice comfy bus and no-one is ever able to tell us what time a direct bus will be leaving so ...Fin is a bit excited ... read more

Geo: 16.392, 103.924Weather forecast on the TV this morning reckons it is going to be 37 degrees here this afternoon ... cant wait.Quite early this morning we get a visit from a village monk wanting to borrow about GBP2. Wasnt such good luck giving him food yesterday after all.A little bit later the wife of Jai's late brother Lu-at comes to see us. Apparently, out of the blue (he died 5 years ago !) the company he used to drive for have decided to pay her a pension but she needs copies of his parents death certificates for some reason.Then friend Wan comes for lunch.We havent had so many people come through our front gate in one morning for ages ... hope it doesnt catch on !Sure enough by mid-afternoon it is baking hot and not ... read more

Geo: 16.392, 103.924Watch Blackburn 0v2 Man Utd at midnight and back to sleep before Fulham v Spurs. So much football on TV over here its just on at the wrong times of day !After breakfast I set about mending the bench/seat that sits in front of our house where some of the wood has rotted. Trouble is, all of the good wood I am using to replace the bad is old and very hard and all of my nails are bending. Get there in the end.It is definitely getting hotter in the afternoons now and for the first time since I got back I am starting to get a bit of a sweat on, even when doing nothing.I potter a little in the garden once the sun has cleared the back of the house.16:30 and its ... read more