Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
The story of restoring my beloved Kujira Crown is long and unimportant. The sad fact is that the shop promised to be done in a month and a half and it’s been four and a half months with it still not quite done. On the upside, I won’t feel bad for getting it done so […]
You may understand part of the pain and frustration we experienced if you can recognize the complete set of gaskets and ferrofluid engine mounts (replaced with solid urethane mounts). Yes, the whole front end of our Cefiro A33 (USDM: Infiniti i30) was taken apart and put together again. It runs really sweet now, except for a […]
Since my Crown is being worked on for another month or so, I really needed to find a cheap motorcycle. It took some looking (thx Yon) and trying (thx Matt) and bargaining (thx Nam), but I finally found the perfect ride for my needs, for which there is a serious lack of information on the […]
I came home yesterday after lecturing for two days, fresh off finals week, looking forward to a nice, relaxing evening and some much-needed sleep. Alas. Max has chicken pox. Which means Mina will probably get them soon as well. Trying to keep babies living under the same roof quarantined is pretty much impossible, especially since […]
The Kujira Crown is still my daily driver; driving in heavy rain everyday with no power steering, no hand brake, fairly torquey rear wheel drive, and Max in the front seat (in his new, larger baby seat) is a challenge, but it’s cool driving such a unique car every day. Here’s a photo from the […]
…Bearing many gifts, one of which is a Radio Flyer with more bells and whistles than you might believe: Padded neoprene cushion on wagon bed Front and rear seatback cushions Modular drink holders Front and rear saddlebags Huge wheels with inflatable tires Removable sun shade Genuine cork grip handle Foldable (underneath wagon) handle for easy […]
The past 48 hours have been so trying, it would be easier to just forget about them. It is for that very reason that I now attempt to document them. Two nights ago, I fell asleep with a high fever and covered up with a heavy blanket when the chills started an hour later. I […]
The Kujira Crown has a mysterious problem with its plug contacts corroding at a high rate – enough to affect performance after just two or three weeks. I originally thought it could be fixed by using colder plugs, but that hasn’t helped at all. As it turns out it doesn’t seem to be caused by […]
A few weeks ago we decided to go out for a drive. It was time to take Max for his first visit to the monkey park in the nearby town of Kosum Phisai, so we put his car seat in the trusty old Kujira and were on our way. We took the Kujira instead of […]
Just as I left for work in the Kuj today, not even half a kilometer from my house and still inside our neighborhood, the air conditioner (under dash box unit) cut out and black smoke started pouring out from the dash. I stopped the car and cut the engine, but smoke continued to pour out […]