friends,
still bogged down in seattle. i've had work and income over the last few months, but it seems to go right out the door as fast as it comes in. Tok and i have decided that were going to have to postpone the buddist wedding (again). we had it scheduled for november 11, 2008, but it's evident that i'm just not going to have the resources to pull it off. so, it will be... later. you marry three times in thailand- if you go the whole route. 1st is common-law: if you live with a person of opposite sex, and are known in the community as being married- you are. 2nd is buddist ceremony: you have the monks come and do the what-ever-they-do and have a wedding party. 3rd is to register civil union with the government: goto the local amphor (government district office) fill out the papers, pay $5.00 or so and get the papers and stamps. we've done 1st and 3rd, so we're good on 2 out of three. we decided that it was more useful at the moment to spend our money to the the bedroom house painted (stained) and send in the application for toks immigration. staining the house is about $500, and filing the immigration papers is $600 plus plus plus. THEN i can put the cash together for a plane ticket and life expenses to go home for a few months. whew!
at the moment, tok is at our house in rayong. she located a norwegian man online for her friend mot, acted as the go-between online, and now he has come to thailand for holiday and to meet mot. they spend nearly a week in bangkok, and are now in rayong. some friends of mine from seattle were in thailand the last three weeks of august on their honey moon. they came back to bangkok last week after going to phuket, and met up with tok. tok took them out for food and the market. if any of you readers come to thailand, we're glad to be helpful. just let us know. our house in rayong is available for supporting donation or whatever. and tok is only a phone call away.
there's all sorts of social/political trouble and noise going on in bangkok now (SNAFU). several people have asked if tok and the family are anywhere near it. no they aren't. tok has the sense to NOT go anywhere near protests and unrest. outside of a few specific areas of bangkok, it's not a problem.
we miss each other very much. this long distance thing is getting to be a drag, but, it is the best we can do at the moment. we've been using Skype for video, voice and chat, which is nice. works quite well actually. tok has to sit up in the bedroom house where the computer is though, and it gets warm (hot) up there in the day time. but i's free to use.
a friend of many years lives done in the san-francisco area. he's working on a computer related business, that has a good business model. he's asked me if i want to be part of the company, which i am excited about, but the company is in california, and i'm here. so i'm planning on going down there when work slows down here. i'm going to get my van running properly, put a penthouse on the roof and go down with all my tools. check out the business and see if i can help it become a revenue generator for me. if i can get handy-man work going, i'll stay down there for a while. stay tuned for that one.
we had a couple of weeks of nice weather in seattle, and then a little preview of it's like the rest of the year- grey, cold, and wet. since i've been converted to a tropical weather lover, i'm not digging it. california offers a bit of relief, so i'm working on getting there before the dread falls.
onward! NU
still bogged down in seattle. i've had work and income over the last few months, but it seems to go right out the door as fast as it comes in. Tok and i have decided that were going to have to postpone the buddist wedding (again). we had it scheduled for november 11, 2008, but it's evident that i'm just not going to have the resources to pull it off. so, it will be... later. you marry three times in thailand- if you go the whole route. 1st is common-law: if you live with a person of opposite sex, and are known in the community as being married- you are. 2nd is buddist ceremony: you have the monks come and do the what-ever-they-do and have a wedding party. 3rd is to register civil union with the government: goto the local amphor (government district office) fill out the papers, pay $5.00 or so and get the papers and stamps. we've done 1st and 3rd, so we're good on 2 out of three. we decided that it was more useful at the moment to spend our money to the the bedroom house painted (stained) and send in the application for toks immigration. staining the house is about $500, and filing the immigration papers is $600 plus plus plus. THEN i can put the cash together for a plane ticket and life expenses to go home for a few months. whew!
at the moment, tok is at our house in rayong. she located a norwegian man online for her friend mot, acted as the go-between online, and now he has come to thailand for holiday and to meet mot. they spend nearly a week in bangkok, and are now in rayong. some friends of mine from seattle were in thailand the last three weeks of august on their honey moon. they came back to bangkok last week after going to phuket, and met up with tok. tok took them out for food and the market. if any of you readers come to thailand, we're glad to be helpful. just let us know. our house in rayong is available for supporting donation or whatever. and tok is only a phone call away.
there's all sorts of social/political trouble and noise going on in bangkok now (SNAFU). several people have asked if tok and the family are anywhere near it. no they aren't. tok has the sense to NOT go anywhere near protests and unrest. outside of a few specific areas of bangkok, it's not a problem.
we miss each other very much. this long distance thing is getting to be a drag, but, it is the best we can do at the moment. we've been using Skype for video, voice and chat, which is nice. works quite well actually. tok has to sit up in the bedroom house where the computer is though, and it gets warm (hot) up there in the day time. but i's free to use.
a friend of many years lives done in the san-francisco area. he's working on a computer related business, that has a good business model. he's asked me if i want to be part of the company, which i am excited about, but the company is in california, and i'm here. so i'm planning on going down there when work slows down here. i'm going to get my van running properly, put a penthouse on the roof and go down with all my tools. check out the business and see if i can help it become a revenue generator for me. if i can get handy-man work going, i'll stay down there for a while. stay tuned for that one.
we had a couple of weeks of nice weather in seattle, and then a little preview of it's like the rest of the year- grey, cold, and wet. since i've been converted to a tropical weather lover, i'm not digging it. california offers a bit of relief, so i'm working on getting there before the dread falls.
onward! NU
