Welcome to Mike’s 2010 Blog

I ended Mike’s 2009 Blog with some christmas cheer of - “Weeweechu a Mely Klistmas, and a hapi nu year.”

I hope the 2009 holiday season was enjoyable for all.

I spent christmas and New Years in Qatar again away from home on a new job. I arrived back in Qatar December 18. This job is a camp job. That means that every thing is provided - all my meals, transport, food, laundry etc., is taken care of for me and all I have to do is go to work.

My day starts about 5 am - I am out the door and on the bus to work by 5:30. We have the option to take a lunch back at the camp or eat at our desk. I eat at my desk and take a half-hour so I can get away on the 4:30 pm bus back to the camp. The food is fine and it doesn’t look like many here have missed many meals. It is easy to overeat in the cafeteria style and put on weight. So far I have done ok and kept my weight were is has been for the past several years - still to heavy but no one gets to pick their genes. I try to get to the gym - if i have any energy left. This job is about 70% outdoors and pushing the work with very little office time required. there are around 45,000 workers here so i have been told.

The size of this project is in the order of ‘huge’ as in it is a monster. the plant site is about one square mile of area. i am working in what is called the utilities area. this includes air compressors, boilers, gas turbine generators, steam turbine generators, combined cycle power generators, cooling water, water treatment - the list goes on.

the paycheck is much better than I could make in the usa and i am happy that i am working. they say that i will get 6 months and possibly more. i like the idea of more. the downside of this job is the job politics - very thick and i am doing my best to stay under the radar by keeping my mouth shut. i have a lot of conversations with myself so i can keep my tongue out of trouble. the other guys that i am working with are a mix of nationalities and all seem to have their heads on straight and know what they are doing.

one of the better things about this job is the work schedule. i work 8 weeks on and 2 weeks off. as i get 4 travel days, i get 19 days off. this keeps me and tay together more often. we both like the idea of together more. the other day we went to the pattaya floating market. here are a couple of photos.

This past weekend, tay and i went to bangkok for a break from pattaya. yes pattaya can get boring after a while. I was able to meet up with my friends from swiss boarding school - pichet. we went to dinner with him and some of his other friends and i had one of the best melt in your mouth filet mignon steaks that i have ever had. it was imported australian beef with great flavor. if you come to bangkok, let me know and i will give directions to - artur - the name of the restaurant.

I returned to work at the beginning of March. The weather at work was good to work in but by the end of April it was starting to get warm. Fortunately at that time of the year the humidity is not up so it is ok working outside. Work was the usual to much work and not enough bodies - but then chaos creates cash so there was some overtime to boost the paycheck. I try to work everyday as there is no reason that I can think of to take a day off in Qatar. I am there to work and not play. My attitude is that If i am away from home then i should work as many days as possible.

During my time at work the red shirts appeared in bangkok and created a bunch of problems. I had to go to bangkok to do a bit of business. The red shirts have taken over certain key intersections in the bangkok business district and have created a lot of problems for the local business owners. fortunately the area that i wanted to

visit was just outside one of the problem areas. the government has refrained from using any force and is trying dialog instead. As of may 13 the situation has turned very ugly and unfortunately people are getting killed. it is a class struggle and the rural poor are not happy with the ruling elite in bangkok having all the control and that is why they want new elections. the current prime minister has tried to be flexible and has set a date but the red shirts have added to their demands and are not budging on certain issues. you can read the local english language newspaper ‘the bangkok post’ for the current situation.

I have spent my time off with Tay who just loves pink one day she told me that she had bought a mini cooper. now a mini cooper here in thailand costs about $75,000. the thai import duties are on the side of ridiculous but who am i to fight city hall. when she told me this i was wondering where the money came from because i certainly wasn’t going to buy a car for that price when i could buy a house t

hat would appreciate in value instead of losing value. as it turns out the mini cooper is a bicycle - much to my relief which she paid about $125. of course it is pink.

I am leaving on may 18th to return to qatar for another 8 week rotation of work. i hope that the red shirt situation is resolved sooner than later as it is really affecting the local businesses in the areas controlled by the red shirts. most of the shop keepers are small business and live day to day in some cases.

I got back to work on may 19th. Around the start of june the heat index took off - the humidity went up and stayed up.

this made for some very miserable working conditions with the temperature corrected for the heat index around 130 degrees Fahrenheit. it was like working in a sauna. when the temperature with the heat index reaches a certain point they raise the black flag and all work stops except for critical activities. They have flag system to tell workers what the working conditions are - the flag colors are green, red and black. The past several years things have gotten hot around the start of july - it came early this year.

my 8 weeks were basically work as usual with no drama. I returned to thailand july 16th and started to relax. previously I had been working 7 days a week - this past 8 week cycle i stayed on a 60 hour week - 6x10 hour days - as i was so exhausted the it would take more than a week to recover once i was on leave. after my third day back i was starting to feel pretty good and get some energy. tay and i went out for the evening and met some of her girl friends down on walking street. walking street is the main entertainment area of pattaya. after visiting a couple of venues i decided that i wanted to go back to the condo, so i left tay and her friends to have a good time. i got on the motor bike and headed up the hill to the condo.

at the street where i turn i had to wait for traffic. i was waiting to make the right turn (remember in thailand they drive on the left side of the road) and finally had a break and was just about to turn when i heard screeching tires and a sudden ‘wham bam’ and i was in mid-air crashing down on my right side. I looked up and the driver of the car rolled down his window and he said ‘ what’s wrong man - are you drunk? why you stopping here?’ i replied that i didn’t drink and that he had hit me from the back. i picked myself up and he got out of the car and proceeded to tell me that i had damaged his car. remember that i am a foreigner and he is thai. this means that it is assumed that it’s the foreigners fault and never the locals fault. the normal course of action in thailand is for the police to come and do an investigation. so I was waiting for him to call the cops. he was getting very agitated that i said the i would wait for the police. i called tay and told her to come as there had been an accident. she called the security guard from the condo to come up the street to keep and eye on things. tay and her girl friends arrived about 10 minutes after he had hit me. the driver on the car changed his attitude when tay and her friends arrived. he started to be reasonable and once things were sorted out the cops were not part of the equation. he had been drinking and in thailand they do have monetary penalties that can hurt most thai’s pocket book. he agreed to repair the motor bike and pay for my hospital charges. Pain and suffering is another matter - lots of luck getting anything for that.

so off to the ER. they cleaned up my elbow that had a little road rash. i had a bruise on my right hip. i got back to the condo and went to bed. tay and i were off to bangkok the next morning for some shopping. i got up and was a bit tender on my right side. off to bangkok we went. i managed to get through the day with some pain killers. i got back to the condo and took off my clothes to take a shower and discovered my right buttocks - from the crack of my you know what - to my groin was purple.

next morning i was off to the hospital. i got in to see the doctor and he told me that all i could do was wait and put on hot compresses to get things to clear up. he sent upstairs to the cardiologist to see about adjusting a medication. i was told to stop one medication for several days then start again half dose for a period of time then back to normal dosage. i spent the next 10 days basically house bound recovering. i was lucky that my injuries were not more serious.

I went back to work on August 3rd. I was still sore but able to do the job. the brutal work conditions have continued up until the second week of september. things are starting to cool off - in reality the humidity is going down. this of course reduces the heat index. it is still around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. this time back, things are business as usual except for the holy month of ramadan. work slows down during the holy month. those observe the holy month have reduced work hours due to the fasting during the day.

i am due out on september 30th for my next leave. i will be in thailand for a day then tay and i are off to Los Angeles and las vegas to start with. who knows where we will go during our 2 weeks or so in the usa. it will be tay’s first trip to the usa.

I left for my leave on September 30th and got back to Thailand the next day. one day later, Saturday, the 2nd we took off to Los Angles on EVA airways. We splurged and went business class. taipei to la is along flight. we arrived the same day we left bangkok and headed towards fountain valley. we check into a motel and there were some very nice flowers for tay from barbara and friends. t

he next day was tay’s birthday. we went over to my friend barbara’s house and had a nice home cooked meal and birthday cake with barbara, andy and leslie. the next 2 days i had doctors appointments.

We left for las vegas on Tuesday and arrived in the evening. it is quite a sight to come down into lv at night with all the lights blazing away. glad i don’t have the electric bill. we headed over to the Hilton and checked in. the next 3 days were spend checking out the lv strip and various sights in town. we did a little gambling. my limit is about $100 and that is about what we gambled and lost. we went over to the bellagio and watched several fountain shows. You can see the fountain to the song of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ at this link. quite spectacular.

Saturday we checked out and headed up to bellingham via elko, boise, tri-cities and seattle. it is a good road but a hard drive until you are back on the interstate at twin falls. we got to lake samish around mid-afternoon and visited with my friend karl and his parents. off to dos padres for a fine mexican dinner. found a motel and then went back to the lake and visited with some lake samish friends. the next day was a business day in the morning. once that was wrapped up we headed back to lake samish and visited some more friends. wilma asked me if i wanted to see the house. last time i was at the lake i declined and was not sure of what emotions would come up. i was reluctant but wanted tay to see the inside of where i had lived for so many years. we went next door to see if the current owners jim and susan were home. wilma introduce us and i explained that my parents had built the house. i told him that it had been built by mail which is story that he had heard before. They invited us in and i gave a history of the house as it was before it had been sold to MacGregors who later gave the house to one

of their children. as they did not live in bellingham the house became a burden so it was sold to jim and susan. i think i have the story right. there have been some changes/upgrades made inside but is about the same as it was when i was living there except of course the furnishing and decor have changed.

After that we were off around the lake to visit even more friends. there are a lot of people that i wanted to visit with but as always there was not enough time. i did the best that i could and it was nice to see some familiar faces.

the next day we were off early to seattle to go to the pike place market and space needle. we got into seattle sort of at the end of the morning rush hour(s). we found a spot to park near the market and headed up the hill. i was hoping that the fish throwing thing was going to happen - sorta did but not the way that i have seen it in the past. t

he hard rock cafe is near by so we went over to get our hrc souvenirs. we then went over on some of the nearby piers before heading to the space needle. i will say that parking sure has gotten expensive in seattle. we went up the needle and did the walk around and photo taking before going into the restaurant for a lunch.

considering the view, the size of the portions along with the discount coupons the lunch was reasonably priced. the lunch took an hour which is how long it takes to make one rotation. it was a nice sunny day so the view was very nice. then we were off to pick up an old friend and go to everett for a dinner with even more friends. lots of visiting going on. After the dinner we

were off to the motel - up early to get through seattle before the rush hour - we didn’t get to tangled up and were on the way back to la with a visit in eugene to see aunt dorris. we visited for several hours then were on our way. we stopped in redding and spent the night.

We arrived back in fountain valley the next evening. the plan for the next day was to go to china town and visit my friend candy. Tay likes nice clothes. Candy works at black halo - since we are friends we get the nice price. Tay found a bunch of stuff that she liked. what cost thousands retail, tay got for hundreds. this also made my pocket book happy. Th

e next day we were off to - yup - disneyland. it has been a few years since i have been to disneyland and things looked about the same for me but as it was tay’s first time it was a entertaining day. as it was a weekend the place was packed and lines were long. tay enjoyed herself.

The next day was a rest day. we had been on the go since we got to the USA and not sure that we ever got over the jet lag. tay from thailand and me from qatar. we did some shopping and picked up on some stuff that i cannot ever find overseas.

on Monday We went to meet candy and have dinner before a ride to the airport and the long flight back to thailand. yes the extra cost for business class was worth it. i had one full day then back to the airport to go back to work in qatar. by now i am sure that i never got over my first jet lag.

I got back to work october 23 and finally the weather has cooled off. the first week or so was hot. i turned the hot water heater back on. it is so hot here in the summer that the water gets heated to almost ambient temperature so i turn off the hot water heater and use it as a source of cold water when taking showers. that is how hot it gets in the mid-East in the summer.

It is now thanksgiving day and they do know how to cook a good turkey. i am due out on leave again on december 16 to january 7. the best news is that i have been extended until june 2011. as times are lean i am happy to keep working.

My next leave i will stay in thailand and relax and enjoy christmas and new years with tay. she is very happy that i will be home for the holidays.

I arrived back in Pattaya as scheduled on December 17 in the morning to a very happy Tay. Before I left qatar i caught my second cold in 3 weeks. it sucks having a cold. i wasn’t quite over it when i arrived and fortunately did not pass on the cold to tay. we have just been relaxing and enjoying each others company. i bought a new led tv as a household christmas present. it is an lg 42 inch led and cost about $US 900. tay did some haggling and got the price down and saved us about $75 over the already discounted price. the first tv that i bought for the condo was a phillips 32 inch lcd and it cost about $US 1500 back in 2006. so the new tv is about half the price, bigger screen and loads more features. there is a nice difference in the picture quality on the new versus the old.the old tv has gone upstairs to the master bed room. Over the next week we might get to bangkok for a day for some after christmas shopping. there are a couple of guys that i work with in qatar and thailand is very popular and i hope to meet some of them here in pattaya before i head back to work around January 7, 2011. I have been extended for another 6 months until the end of June 2011. i feel fortunate to be working and have enough of the right stuff to be extended a 2nd time. i have been blessed with great opportunities and great friends. compared to the other 99% out there i really have nothing that i can complain about that has any merit.

The highlights of the year are - employed for the entire year at a very nice salary, - the guys that i work with are a pretty good bunch of folks - got married to tay, - i know i didn’t tell very many about that, now you know - got hit by a car on the motor bike, - damn it hurt life is short and things can happen fast- went to the USA with tay - which we enjoyed - and ending the year at home for the holidays with a job to go to in the new year.

In closing this 2010 blog - I thank all that have been reading the blog through the year. tay and i wish everyone a very merry christmas and a safe happy new year.

That is all for 2010 - stay tuned for mike’s 2011 blog

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Here is the link to mike’s 2011 Blog