A Short Summary

It's been a month now and there hasn't been any post in this blog. I've decided, due to little motivation and a multitude of things occupying me, to just complete the blog in short summaries up to present day in order to have a solid starting point for what is to come.

Meet the Parents

After my brother had left, with a delay of two days due to the closed airports and the riots in Bangkok, my parents arrived the same day. They stayed for eight days in which we tried to give them an idea of the place and the way we live here. It was, honestly, two different worlds that didn't collide, but didn't fit either. There were some memorable moments like me ending up carrying my parents on my back to cross a little stream or meeting a crazy monk.

The Monk

After we'd climbed Sai Rung waterfall the first day of my parent's stay, we decided to have a look at some cave none of us had ever been before the next day. We found the place, but we didn't actually find anything we would have considered a cave. Instead, there was a large boulder with an overhang that had been turned into some kind of closed room and served for religious ceremonies. We walked past that boulder initially just to end up on a trail soon ending in endless bamboo forest. As we walked back towards the parked car, we passed by the boulder again, in front of which now sat a monk who approached us. He pointed us to sit and started inquiring about Tony, my nephew.

Soon Tony sat next to the monk and personal details were being exchanged. Finally, the monk invited us to another place in front of his monastery to perform a ceremony bringing luck to us. During his proceedings, the monk would regularly get into some state between excitement and anger. None of the people watching seemed to be understanding his behaviour, but a monk is holy and none of us was to question his intentions nor his actions. Still, his main interest stayed with Tony. He wanted to have the boy for a month with him in the monastery and teach him. He was willing to pay for that and give his truck for that time. All in all, the monk was way of from any monk any of the people present had ever experienced.

We didn't "sell" the boy and left the place after a good hour of confusing conversation, ceremony and spiritual tests. It later turned out, that the monk we had met, was well-known to show some strange behaviour, especially after fasting for longer times. We had met him just after one of his longest fasts.

Fixing Up the House

My parents left and a feeling of uncertainty stayed with me. Now I had no idea of when I was to see my parents again. It might be month or it might be years. Still, with all visitors left, we were finally able to settle back in Sukhothai to fix up things in the house that had so long lay idle. We were able to finish the gipsum walls and paint the living room as well as removing a good bunch of boxes that were still standing everywhere. We were preparing the door for the new room to a state, where only the paint was missing and we made first preparations for the living room installment my brother had come up with for the TV wall. A Thai builder started to lay bricks for the new kitchen and then, sooner than we were able to think, the new year was approaching.

The New Year

The whole family came to visit. All brothers and sisters of Tuk with their families met at the house. It was amazing to see, how much more space we had been able to provide with cleaning out most of the boxes that had still been unopened since the move to Thailand. The party was clearly a feast. It was all about food and drinking. Every once in a while, we would launch some fireworks, but besides that we sat and ate and drink.

Shortly before midnight, I managed to have some small fireworks explode almost in my hand and tear the skin of my palm open in a couple of places. It bled like hell, but hurt very little. Still, everyone was concerned and the final benefit was that I was the first to receive my (Christmas-)presents.

I cannot recall when we actually went to bed, but I got there by myself and still upright, which, considering the amounts of alcohol served, really was an achievement. Still, I used the New Year's day to catch up with some sleep and didn't crawl out of bed before 4 p.m. I hadn't managed to stay in bed for so long in over a year and I enjoyed it to the fullest.

Working Again

It was two more days until all visitors had returned to their home. We were taking things slow, during that time, but started working again as soon as everyone was gone. Now it was time to prepare the living room wall. My brother had thought of some rough construction that involved two heavy wooden beams and a board between them not any less heavy. We had spend a whole day for gathering the missing building materials and were now working out the details of the construction. I ended up simulating the whole wall as 3D animation and we played around with the initial design for two days before coming up with the final version. Originally, two wooden elephant heads as main wall elements, but a by lucky conincidence a friend of mine gave us some lions as a gift that fit in the design much better finally yielding the desired appearance.

After finalizing the design we went into building it. Handling the heavy beams and boring massive holes, cutting the thick wood took its time. Five days had passed before we were in the position to finally fit the first pieces together, just in time. A german friend of mine arrived in Sukhothai and we had agreed to go on a trip together. But his first night in Sukhothai, we turned him into a helping hand for putting the heavy beams and the board in place. I doubt, we would have been able to do the job without his help.