Whatever happened to January?

One step forward two steps back! Having been away for a while I am picking up our story before we left for Christmas. On the right is our house just before we flew off for the UK., the concrete sections are the septic tanks that will go under the house; that's right, UNDER! The men will hand dig the holes and sink the sections one at a time. Everything else is done, except windows which were fitted a day or so after these pictures.




Later you will see how things have changed.
But there were more little events to come before getting home and one involved an overdue afternoon off sitting beside the lake Huay Tung Tao, where essential activities include swimming (only one person allowed at a time, I'm sure that's what the sign said......), and eating fried fish!
The picture below is a Kingfisher. I still marvel that after 50+ years of never seeing one, I am seeing them all the time!
This one was fishing off the life guards chair for ages whilst we whiled away the afternoon.

The balloon festival came around again. I was interested to note that after all the balloons had flown off in a crowd, one last one came trailing along 20 minutes after the rest:

Good old BT, drifting along behind the others!

Next came the serious business of a staff jolly! Here's Lilly doing "broken ship" another fried fish experience worth waiting for.
We had been given most of the food by the "vegetable lady" who delivers most days to the Juniper Tree. Pee Mauw (or something that sounds v.similar) is a lovely lady who is always smiling and brings us the best stuff, without fail.

A rare sighting of Somsak, Head Gardener, out from under his straw hat and very nearly smiling with his wife Nagor and Phet one of the Cooks.

This time with his straw hat and along with the other men laying the new footpath to the houses. New wellies essential.

Every project needs to me managed, and John (Simon's Father) is doing a good job. He also build some very attractive brick enclosures for the electrical boxes along the road. These house the proper junction boxes and switches, which John kindly rewired too. If you remember the electrical fire from last year, you will know why this work was so vital!

Two last reminders of the old house! This house will now become our "Mary and Joseph" rooms: rooms to be used in an emergency but also will be adapted for disabled access, once funds are available.

Here I am moving house Juniper Tree style. Our meagre chattels are ready to go, such essentials as a Christmas tree, guitar and (notice in the foil packs) tea bags!!!
2 trucks full and we were ready to drive off to the airport and head for home!

We were somewhat delayed in getting going by a deluge which made the path a big dodgy. By the time we got to London we looked back on this rain with fondness!

Can you guess who was behind this experiment? After we met Richard and Andrea on the South Bank in London, we visited one of those German Markets that have sprung up in recent years. One lady was selling hot smoked salmon and new potatoes which were really good. She had sides of salmon tied to wooden planks, suspended over a smoking fire. Richard was convinced that we should try this out over Christmas, and here is the result! two halves of salmon  beautifully sliced with a Christmas cleaver), wired to two oak boards and standing over the BBQ a previous visitor donated to the French cause. The fire was covered in hickory smoking chips and the fish gently cooked and smoked in a half hour or so. De -licious!






You can see by now, that we have flown 8,000 miles and moved from London to Normandy. Joan, Emma and I took the ferry from Portsmouth and had a good crossing, the others followed: Joanne and Jon using Euro-Star and taking in a romantic stop-over in Paris, then train to Flers, followed by Mum & Dad's taxi!
Richard and Andrea drove through the tunnel and down, but were delayed by the flooding in Surrey and a power failure necessitating a mercy dash by Auntie Carolyn to rescue "Hans" their tortoise from their freezing house. What would we do without her? The scene below is the view from the back of the house on arrival.

This fine, feline gentleman is called Romeo and he belongs to Madeleine,  our neighbor, but he thinks he owns all the houses in the hamlet (like all cats). It took me ages to workout how he kept appearing indoors when all the doors are shut, he was climbing on top of the freezer in the garage, jumping up into the hay loft, going through the gaps in the roof until he could come down the steps from the loft in the living room.

Joan was getting Emma's room ready but got distracted! I think the wall paper hypnotized her. Emma thinks the paper is great and has taken a spare roll we found in the loft back to Uni to use as an example of a genuine 70's design.
The French cat will only sit on the French chair! A bargain from the antique shop in Domfront. Jon lugged it out to the Ford Ka and Joanne came back under it - long time since she had to do that! We didn't have enough chairs as the big sofa from Higham couldn't come with us.

We managed to do a few jobs.

• These stepping stones to help get drinks and tools from the out buildings without trailing mud everywhere was a good one.
• We finished the kitchen units.
• Mended the floor tiles from where we demolished the walls.
• Dug some footings and cast them for a dividing wall in the workshop.

Not too shabby for a few days work I thought!

This next picture was a lovely morning from the front of the house:

This is where I start to get things all out of order, it's hard to remember sometimes what happened when! Below I am enjoying the new balcony, so this is definitely January at last! You will notice a couple of essential features: Brew close to hand and a Guardian quick crossword (thanks to the internet). Somsak's garden is so well tended and bananas ripening is something we've never yet seen in our previous gardens

This is the new living room. New furniture is due and curtains but it is essentially complete. The two pictures are worthy of note: one is a scene of Chiang Mai in the rainy season, with some orange, sarong clad Monks creating a wonderful atmosphere which embodies the City. This was a Christmas present we gave to each other which we bought at the Meeting Room, one of our favorite haunts. The other was another Christmas present. Simon did this picture of a Tribal girl on his art course. It is done in powdered graphite and is exquisite in it's detail and liveliness.

Alongside is a picture of a "Batchelorette" party Joan coordinated for one of our guests. The ladies are having their nails done and massage in our Reception lounge.

The story of the wedding is unusual to say the least. The Bride to be was at the Juniper Tree waiting for her future Husband to come to collect her, but she, at least, didn't know when that was to be. In their tradition, the groom would come at an unknown hour (v. biblical) to collect his bride and take her away!
Whatever the in and outs of that, it meant that the "hen party" (to revert to British) needed to be fitted in quickly!

Our furniture finally arrives!

I'm having flash backs! How could I blog about going back to London and not mention a re-visit to the "Crusting Pipe" in Covent Garden?

Back in Normandy now, and I'm putting tiles in the space where there was once a dividing wall. Fortunately for us the floors in the two rooms were the same level!

The pot Father Christmas isn't a whimsical decoration in this case, he's stopping anyone treading on the tiles while the glue sets!

This fine collection of breakfast things come courtesy of our local patisserie, whenever Joan calls in the lady gives her a new French phrase to learn! They are the most welcoming people! The table and chairs were a bargain, not from ebay, this time but from Le Bon Coin and it involved a French speaking guest from the Juniper Tree to negotiate for us, a English lady who looks after our place whilst we're away and her friend with a van, to collect it from Caen! Nothing like getting folks involved! (Notice the 4th year school woodwork project still going strong? Harry Knock would be proud!)

This striped delight turned out this way due to the fact that the only ready made marzipan we could buy was intended to be used to make petit fours, not for an iced Christmas cake! Joanne wasn't phased by it!
The cake was lovely!

The next few pictures speak for themselves, presi's!

As you can see we are back in Chiang Mai. 
The views are from one of our haunts on the Night Bazaar Road. It's an open air bar outside a hotel and is on a busy junction where Tuc-Tucs, taxi's, coaches cycles, and pedestrians do battle for right of way. Nothing moves fast and the people watching is fascinating, all of life drifts past this place of an evening. The vintage car passing the mobile ATM is an every day sight; look at the spelling on the sign for the Thai Kick Boxing event! On this corner you can see, without moving, the lit up signs for Burger King, Mc.Donald's and Starbucks; but equally you can also buy, within 10 paces, Northern Thai sausage, roti, khao soi, green curry and all kinds of fried meat and insects! There are many musicians in Chiang Mai from the single buskers like this young man playing Bach, to the Boy Blues Cub, above the Night Market.
One classical guitarist at the "House Restaurant" is brilliant, he is Burmese and plays with such skill and dedication to a mostly unappreciative audience.

This picture is in just in because I just love our staff's ingenuity! The Aerial broke off so the first thing to hand was a meat fork! It works-don't knock it!

This metal contraption is the welcoming host at the "Meeting Room" A Bistro/Art gallery/Reading Room. We bought a lovely ring for Joan there a while back but this time we went back for a beautiful painting of Chiang Mai in the rain.
It has some orange sarong clad monks scurrying along in the steely grey half light which is so evocative of the City for us.
Here you can get a decent bottle of white and a healthy salad or sandwich, even a toasted one! But the atmosphere is upbeat and the art interesting if not always to our taste- welded metal that looks like it never left the scrap yard is fairly low on my list.......
The bonus is that the owner is interesting to talk to without being intrusive when you're there for a quiet evening away from the crowd!
Talking  of crowds, this is why I haven't got near my computer for my own purposes- we have been mown out with guests-some sleeping on the floor I reckon! this collection of foot-wear is at only one of the two entrances to the dining room. There are 40 pairs here alone, but, strangely, none that are Joan's! We can never remember which door of the dining room we went in!

Last Post Repeat

Sadly I am making an unexpected further post before we head home. Our Day Watchman at the Juniper Tree, was knocked off his motor bike, when he was driving home from work on Saturday night. He didn't recover consciousness and passed away in hospital.
He leaves a family, including Grandchildren and will be sorely missed by all of us here, too. 
He worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day, or more and always greeted the guests cheerfully and took care of them with warmth and kindness.
God bless you, Len!

One of the things about working with people all day, everyday is that you start to get to know their family and so when we visited the family we were expected to go to the Temple to pay our respects to Len and to meet his family. We had already met one of his sons and grandchildren here at the Juniper Tree.
A Buddhist funeral has some striking similarities but some radical differences too, to funerals we are used to, both Christian and Humanist, in the UK.
Len's coffin was resting in the Courtyard of his local temple, here, packed with ice (wealthier families have chiller units, connected to their coffins) visitors can view the body and pray/meditate.
When we arrived at the Temple for the funeral, the coffin was already loaded onto the back of the pickup truck being used as the hearse. The coffin was a white-painted one with short "Cabriole" legs, like much Northern Thai style woodwork.
We drove in convoy through the village to a outdoor crematorium. There is a central high roofed pergoda style structure with a raised platform constructed over a fire pit with arched openings on each side like a bread-oven opening.
The fire is made with large diameter logs arranged criss-cross under the coffin .
Surrounding the platform area were 3 or 4 seating areas, one slightly raised for the Monks, the others for the guests. The furniture was all white plastic patio chairs, and folding steel trestle tables.
 The village Headman acted as MC and he welcomed the guests and gave a brief history of Lens life. As an "incomer" with Chinese roots, he wasn't very well known in his area.
The Monks were presented with flowers and robes as gifts and they prayed briefly in silence before the coffin. In pride of place was an enlarged photo we had given the family of Len, which was one we had taken for our Staff Notice Board. One of our Guests had photo-shopped the background to make it more like a portrait and we had framed it.
Another item that followed the coffin everywhere was Len's Christmas parcel from the Juniper Tree(he had chosen a water boiler)
When the Monks had finished, the pickup truck was manually moved to the front of the furnace and the coffin carried up into place over the fire.
All the guests had been given paper flowers on incense sticks, which we placed in a brass bowl set up in the front of the altar-like table at the front. As we passed by the coffin each person Waied (the prayer-like gesture made by Thai's in greeting and leave taking) Len and the family members standing along side the coffin.
As fuel was poured all over the coffin, the wood and the body, firecrackers and guns were fired off. This went on for 4/5 minutes whilst a wire was set up from the end of the coffin to a tree above the furthest people. 
When it was time to light the fire, a rocket (firework) was set off, which whizzed along the wire, crashing into the coffin and igniting the blaze.
After a few minutes of watching the flames get a good hold on the wood, the family all left quite hurriedly.
As I say, some very different ways of doing things.
We all returned to work, how the family continue in the mourning process I don't yet know. I wondered if they a have a "wake" style of family party?
Having conducted a few funerals myself now, I think the presiding Monk seems to get off lightly; Just a walk on part!

Last Post! (of 2013!+)

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?

Dr. Seuss

We are just beginning to get ready for heading off home! This trip to Christmas with the kids goes: Chiang Mai -Hong Kong-London-Surrey-Kew-Portsmouth-Caen-Passais-la Conception.
With any luck, Lucy (our intrepid fixer in France) will source the necessary Wild Boar (no jokes about why we need 2, please); otherwise we will turn to the good old "on-line" shopping answer, which will, no doubt, create chaos for our family,friends and neighbors again! (Humble apologies and many thanks to Claire and Derek for all the hassle they willingly went through in collecting my latest Ebay bargain!) They have just shared the very special news that they are now engaged! We are looking forward to hearing all the details very soon.

The photo features: (Including the photographer!: Bride to be's Mother, I assume?) The Bride to be, Bride's Father and 2 Bridesmaids; the core of the entourage to the Whit Sunday Islands, 2015!!
I think the LGC (little green car) looks fine, and so pleased to get a replica of the one I had to let go last year.
Thanks as always to Ian, Derek and others of the famous "BASH" team (Bacchanalian Appreciation Society,Higham.) for taking delivery and coordination of the collection etc! You're good guys really!

Goodbye beetles .........hello karaoke!! 

With a new year approaching I wanted to round off the years blogging with some of the  pictures I haven't had space for yet and last minute events.
Any of my reader's who may be worried about the news they are hearing about political unrest here in Thailand can rest easy, The troubles are confined to areas in Bangkok, security here has been stepped up, but all is calm and peaceful at present in Chiang Mai.

One item of good news for us is that the beetle fighters have finally given up! They finished up with a karaoke night that started at 7.00 p.m. and blasted us at full volume until some time around 3.00 a.m. when I finally went to sleep.......only to be woken at 5.00 a.m. by a hammering on the door! Our Handyman had discovered a distraught young Romanian man running around the site, yelling for the Police.
His story was that he had been left by his friends still dancing at a night club in the middle of Chiang Mai, when he tried to leave he was asked to pay 8,000 Baht (£160) He argued so the Police came and told him he could either pay-up or take the consequences. He didn't pay so he was left to sort it out with the club staff. He says they beat him up , stole his phone and bundled him into a tuk-tuk (perhaps taking him to a ATM?) either way as he passed the Juniper Tree, he jumped out of the Tuk-Tuk and jumped over our gate!
When we telephoned the Tourist Police, they were mysteriously unable to speak English, half way through the story!
We ended up driving him across town to his hotel just to get some peace!
These two pictures of Chiang Mai by night where not taken on the way to his hotel, but during this year's Loy Kratong festival and were taken by Joachim, who came to help us with some jobs recently. He completely overhauled the tractor which is now sold, fixed a load of internal telephones; I am just doing the last 2 to get 100% coverage back. He also did a big clear up of the storage room and too many little repairs to innumerate. 
The following pictures are a mix of the Staff Day Out to Sticky Falls, and other highlights of recent weeks. Most speak for them selves, but I'll still add a caption, which may, or may not, help elucidate!

Juniper Tree Pool by night

Muriel and John Davies Trustees of the Juniper Tree and previously,

We visited Lilly's Noodle Shop with John & Muriel, Joan
 gets an enthusiastic welcome!

The Staff are ready for the off!

Nader leads the way !

Don spent nearly 2 weeks working on the tractor
 with Joachim, he gardens for us but has hidden talents!

I look like "Billy no-mates"-but they all fled from the camera on my side of the party!

Somsack sets of to sell the tractor, at speed, we wouldn't want it to break
down on the way! It took him over an hour to drive it to the dealers.

Don and Joachim at work, cleaning injectors.

Whilst John was here we celebrated 13 years of JTCM, we released 13
sky-lanterns simultaneously!

The staff insisted on an air-con mini bus, not a song-thew,
and who am I to argue!

Khamsi, maintenance man, brought the family! He drove his smart new truck

Laughter was heard all day, we had a ball!

Our staff know how to make a picnic, no soggy sarnies or pork pies. Do
you like the look of the giant pork scratchings though?

Khun Phet enjoying a day with less cooking!

Remember, remember, November

With so many guests, visitors and jobs underway, I got a bit tired of looking at a p.c. screen and hence the lack of posts for weeks on end......
Lots of photo's taken during the "silence" and so I'll bring you up to date with a mainly picture story!

This scene is our attempt to simultaneously release 13 sky lanterns in celebration of the 13th anniversary of Juniper Tree Chiang Mai! John and Muriel Davies were here and it was John who negotiated the purchase of the original "Holiday Resort" that became JTCM. As Elliot Carey's photo shows, staff and guests combined to light and release the lanterns; it is a good thing we had spares because we discovered exactly how long you can keep one alight without releasing it!  We also had to contend with one young guest doing his best to blow out the lights!! (He was given the priviledge of blowing out the candles on the amazing chocolate cake that Phet( one of our cooks) made to help in the celebrations!

John gave a potted history of the JTCM and prayed a brief, thankful prayer before the cake vanished faster than a blink.

The kitchen staff are so proud of their efforts and they work so hard for the guests, who can sometimes test their skills to the max!
It was a blessing that John was here to adjudicate in a dispute between our builder and her foreman; we are hoping that the buildings will be finished in time for their first residents, who I have booked in to arrive on the 2nd Jan. That seemed a very cautious date when the foundations went in over 12 months ago!

No windows, no septic tank, no bathroom fittings, electrical fittings, curtain poles, mozzy nets........ 3 weeks and counting!

If you look closely, in with the biscuits are 2 visitors! Still eat them (the biscuits) One other four legged resident of the JT got made homeless this week, he is a Tokay lizard (gecko) who was hiding among a pile of wooden roofing shingles that we sold for reuse.

These guys are responsible for the extremely loud calls in the night that most people think are birds calling. If you've never heard it, Wikipedia has a good sound clip! tokay 

Khamsi supervising whilst Joachim, Don and Chai fight the good fight with a very reluctant tractor. Having stood idle for a good number of years it needed a lot of persuasion but Joachim's patience and determination paid off:

The internal telephone system and Juniper Tree's motley collection of bicycles also came in for the same thorough treatment!
The sale of the tractor is hopefully going to pay for the air conditioning units needed for the new houses.

Since we came to JTCM we have often heard the well worn observation about how it's a small world; however, meeting the Hartley's just goes to show..... They have supporters at St Anne's in Fence (a mile or so from Higham) It was good to share a few Lancashire moments so far from home!
More Lancashire moments with Pat and Bob (Joan's Sister & B.I.L.):

We visited the Zoo with them, managed a Jazz in the Jungle, night (more later) various meals around Chiang Mai, but Pat & Bob managed to get some really good birding done (see Pats blog)

Part 2 will follow soon: too much to do in one go!!

O is for: Observations on Oriental, October, Occurences

In case you've forgotten what we look like:

It isn't a romantic hug......I'm stopping her running away from a camera!

We took Lynn and Shelley the the airport this week, but not before they gave us one last day off! We are missing them already, it's nice to meet folks from so far away that you see eye-to-eye with, in so many ways, good, good times, Guy's!

We headed off up to "Sticky Falls" to suss out the lay-of-the-land, ready for the long awaited Staff Picnic on Monday. The water levels are safely down and the ground is less water-logged so it's full steam ahead. Mr Teera will arrange a 14 seater, fully air-con bus (the Staff's one stipulation!) Will post more after the event!
Whilst we were there we did the climb up the water falls just to make sure that we could still make it, before we are there with the staff! 
After this we went to check out the Jade Factory on Doi Suthek Mountain. Many guests go there, but we needed to make a visit for purposes related to jewellery that can't be mentioned here, due to the fact that a certain person is likely to read this and spoil their surprise!

With no Shelly and Lynn, days off are not really viable but with Ruth's help the odd half day have been lovely.
A return trip to the Zoo to try out the mono-rail and give Joan a chance to reacquaint herself with the hippo's was welcome.
The view of Chiang Mai was good from the mono rail and you had a good view of the animals you can't see so well from ground level. We enjoyed the ride but got the giggles when we realized that 5 Thai people could comfortably sit on their side of the car, whilst 4 Europeans were squashed into ours!
Decided to walk a bit further after that.....
We saw the beautiful white Tigers this time, they must have been sleeping somewhere last time we came.
We also enjoyed the special Chair with the attached table they have given the panda.
The orchids are flowering much more now and so the grounds looked wonderful.
As we hold Thai driving licences, we get in for only 70 Baht (£1.40) so we didn't feel obliged to stay all day.
JT will be busy for a while ahead as we have a number of visits ahead of us: Pat and Bob will be here soon as will John and Muriel Davies (Trustees and long term JT workers) and Joachim, a volunteer from Germany. An engineer who we are hoping will get tractor working and the internal phone system back in full working order. (both maybe over optimistic but nothing ventured....)
Only a short blog today; possibly a mammoth one next time!