Author: Justin

Our New Thai House Part 5 – The Blessing Way

The end of 2007 coincided with the milestone of 98% or so of the basic house being completed, so we decided to move in on New Years Day. We invited some monks for a blessing ceremony and they did us up well.
It was the first time we were living in a new house. This coupled with the fact that we were one of the very first houses up in the neighborhood and hence kind of solitary made for a strange but very relaxing time coming home after work every day. I mean, in front of the house was our pond and around us was future house plots and rice fields. It was very cool. We bought some golden lions to protect our house, and they have worked out very well.
//////////////////////////
This isn’t necessarily the end of the Our New Thai House series, but it marks the end of the first chapter.
20080101blessing-new-house0019.jpg
20080101blessing-new-house0020.jpg
20080101blessing-new-house0021.jpg
20080101blessing-new-house0022.jpg
20080217banhao-front0017.jpg
20080321house0004.jpg
20080321house0005.jpg
20080321house0007.jpg
20080408ford-escort0017.jpg
20080408ford-escort0022.jpg
20080408ford-escort0023.jpg

/////////////////////////////

Our New Thai House entries:
Our New Thai House Part 1 – Picking a Plot
Our New Thai House Part 2 – Foundations
Our New Thai House Part 3 – Groundwork
Our New Thai House Part 4 – Roof and Walls
Our New Thai House Part 5 – The Blessing Way
Landscaping Our House – Before and After

Manzai Conspiracy Theory (not really)

So I didn’t even know about the Two Ronnies until today. They apparently had a show on BBC from 1971. In Japan, Beat Takeshi and Beat Kiyoshi formed their manzai act, Two Beat (aka Two Beats) shortly after that and first appeared on NHK in 1976.
Coincidence?
Or did Takeshi borrow the naming scheme from the Ronnies?
////////////////////////////
BTW, the naming is pretty much the only thing these two duos have in common:

Want your wallet back, daddy?

20090629various-doodie0061.jpg
The other day I was holding him and trying to get money from an ATM. When the cash was about to pop out, I opened my wallet in anticipation, and Max grabbed the sheaf of bills contained inside in a monkeylike flash and motioned like he was going to throw them in the air… There were lots of people waiting behind us, so it caused quite a stir.

I scream

20090629various-doodie0007.jpg
This has nothing to do with the photo, but last week we went to the fish sanctuary again and suddenly found ourselves surrounded on five sides by a billy goat, a baby goat, a huge yellow frog, a stray dog, and a tethered brown cow. It was quite exciting because we had a loaf of sliced bread to give to the catfish, but ended up feeding the mammals instead (the frog wasn’t having any of it and hopped away).