Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
This photo was taken when I was cruising down the highway in the old Crown to meet Max, Mina, and Nam, who were at a friend’s second house out in the countryside.
Sometimes the sky here is really awesome. I watched a thunderstorm last week off in the direction of Roi-et that had the most regular lightning I’ve ever seen.
This post is a simple plea to the monkey in the sky to help me find a working turn signal assembly for my 1971 Toyota Crown. The molded plastic latch lasted many decades before succumbing to normal wear and tear. Looking at modern cars, I’m pretty sure none of them will last quite as long.
Juju booster +10!
I really don’t want to try replacing the whole steering column.
“Max, Mina! Do you remember when the baby bird fell from its nest and daddy had to climb the wall to put it back?”
“What do you think happened to that bird? Did it grow up to be a big bird? What does it look like now?”
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The other day I was welcomed home by an enthusiastic Max, who excitedly reported that he had eaten a whole plate of spaghetti, ran around like crazy, then barfed it up into one of my shoes.
Mina will be going to school with Max after summer break. Mommy took her to buy uniforms (blue is for Fridays, and Thursday they wear uniform running suits), and she immediately wanted to try them on.
I guess I’m not the only one running to the People’s Republic of TOR before my RSS homeland disappears forever, joining its old arch rival Bloglines, or for that matter, its distant cousins Buzz, Wave, and Lively… but I guess the social features were amputated already, so…
I’m also trying Feedly, which is nicely designed but somehow difficult to use.
I raced this car home back to Sarakham last week.
I guess the driver was worried about spilling his Grey Poupon, because he had me on the straightaways (kind of rare because my wife’s VQ30-powered Cefiro A33 smokes almost everything under 2 million baht; such is the sad state of affairs in many road-tax-by-engine-displacement countries) , but slowed way down on the curves. I’m kind of sad because I don’t even know what kind of car it is, but if I had to guess — Chinese Bentley? Korean Cadillac?
Either way, it was hideous. Almost as bad as the ugliest car ever made, which I’ve been seeing kind of often lately.
UPDATE: Of course, Chris the master of all things with engines, called it – this is definitely a Mitsuoka, probably a Galue-III. It’s the first I’ve ever seen, having been in Thailand almost the whole time they’ve been produced, and it totally matches with what I saw. On another page it says this car “incorporates styling touches from such classic designs as the ’94 Cadillac Fleetwood.” Also, the specs indicate it was loaded with the same type of engine in our Cefiro, but newer and with higher output – either a VQ-25HR or VQ-35HR. Interestingly enough, the Galue-III was made in both RWD and AWD.
There are many.
Let’s call the whole thing off.