Our house is now a home, Pantip Plaza, and Roller Blading!

Our house is now a home, Pantip Plaza, and Roller Blading!

This morning the monk came to our house to accept the morning offering of food. On the gate in front of the house, over the front door, and on each bedroom there are markings from the house dedication ceremony. There is also a white string around the house that was used in the ceremony. The purpose of the ceremony is to provide protection and the atmosphere for a happy home. Jit's mom and dad have moved into the house and people come and visit at the front porch. Yesterday morning people came for an early lunch. Jit's mom came out and joined in. The odd things is that the house does feel different, it does feel like a home. I will post pictures of the marking and of the ceremony soon.

What was amazing about the ceremony was the community participation. Saturday night I visited at Juke's home and people were making flower baskets and palm leaf bowls for a fish curry. When I woke up at 3:00 AM there were people cooking and preparing vegetables in our kitchen. Under the big tree people they were cooking a large pot of soup and another large pot of green curry.

People brought dishes from all over the community and large pots and pans. A large blue ice chest, and even a large parasol were brought over to help out. Our house warming was a community event, not a personal event.

Monday morning people helped us put everything away and haul the dishes, tables, and monks chairs back to where they belonged. We then went with Juke's family to Pantip Plaza to get their computer fixed. The motherboard was replaced and a new DVD RW was installed as well as a complete software pack for under $60. We went to a small shop on the fourth floor. It was fun watching the person work on the computer, he was very fast and knew what he was doing. We will know in the next week or two if the repair really worked. I looked at the illegal software, the selection was amazing, Photoshop CS2 or under $3.00! There were also DVD training disks that were very cheap. I looked, but did not buy, but I was tempted.

I am frustrated with my new camera, it is slow and the images are noisy compared to my Olympus 7070. We are going to try to return it today, I purchased it with a credit card, so I should succeed. Also Jit will be around to do the negotiations. The Ricoh GR Digital is a great idea, poorly implemented. I really wanted to like the camera. Paying a premium price for a poorly implemented camera is not worth it. We will have to go to the store in Bangkok to work out the exchange or refund. After we are done I want to go to STOU to check out if my computer works correctly on the Internet. If it doesn't I will download and prepare all the software that I will be using in the demonstration.

Saturday night, as it was getting dark, a large turtle, with a lumpy head crawled out of the canal under the house and crawled to the next canal over. The turtle had to navigate around a maze of Jit's dad's plants. I could watch him for a awhile, and as the light got dim, I could hear him move. He finally made it to the other canal, but it took luck and persistence. I was hoping he did not get into a dead end.

We almost had a dog move in with us, during the house dedication a dog came over, joined in, was not a hassle, and picked up scraps, without begging. She even slept on the front step. I feed her some stuff across the path. I thought she was going to stay, but she got up, and walked away, I do not know where. It was a pretty cool dog, very considerate and friendly.

Monday night as we were returning from Pantip there was a women roller blading through the traffic. She carried a warning light, pretty amazing. If everybody Rollerbladed and used bicycles there would be no traffic problem! Anyway who ever was Rollerblading at night in downtown Bangkok traffic was both brave and skilled.

Across from Pantip Plaza, as we were going to a Pizza place, there was an amazing beggar. He was crying anguished tears, his expression was heart rendering. I can not imagine how he can keep up the tears and the anguish, but he does. Every human instinct is to reach out and try to help him, but it is an act, and excellent act, but an act.