I completely forgot to blog about my 40th birthday party!

This happened back in March on the day that Loeky flew back to Holland. I invited a bunch of people over to the house for a barbeque and a few beers. Luckily Nok was visiting Nuth for a week so we had an extra pair of hands to help cook. It took all day to blow up the balloons, decorate the house and prepare the food. Mick came over in the afternoon and I fed him beer whilst he sat in the middle of the garden blowing up balloon after balloon.

The girls did a fantastic job of preparing the food and we thought we had far too much but people managed to eat it all! Above is a picture of Nuth and Nok who spent almost the entire night cooking food and delivering it to the guests, although they were more than a little drunk for most of the party!

The only bad thing about the party was the fact it was Gab’s last night in Thailand before heading home to Lesbos to open his bar for the summer season. So we all had to say goodbye to him, but at least he will be back next year.

I’m not really keen on large social gatherings these days, I prefer smaller groups of people, but I really enjoyed this party, just a shame none of the TDP guys could be there.

Yesterday I walked into the Honda dealer on the island and said ‘I want a brand new CBR150, black and I want it tomorrow’.

They shipped one over from Samui last night and I picked it up at 11am this morning! Check this out! I love it to bits!

Top speed of 135kmph, no crash helmet, heaps of fun! Can’t beleive I have been riding a scooter for so damn long!

The guy who owns the dealer on Samui told me I must go to Koh Samui and ‘make paper for ride motorbike’ at immigration, it was gonna cost 2,500 Baht and I could smell hours of hassle. So I asked if I could buy it in Nuth’s name, no problem! Just go up the road to ‘building of government’ and ‘make paper’. It cost 20 Baht!

Sorry, there hasn’t been an update to this blog for a while, I’ve been in the UK taking care of business, I’ll be back in paradise in a week so and will resume blogging from the island when I get back.

In the meantime I just have to blog about this topic, it’s pissed me off a little and shows me exactly where the island, my home, is heading.

Let’s first of all invent somebody named Fred so that I don’t get into all sorts of problems for slandering somebody on my website, I know Fred, not well, he’s part of the local village community I live in, I’ve spoken to him a few times.

Fred just finished building a house on the island, it’s not a bad house, not my cup of tea but ok, I know exactly how much it cost to build (if he’s telling the truth) and it is a little over 2,000,000 Baht.

So today I am surfing the net as you do, I ended up on a property website for Koh Phangan, I was looking around this site because it was quite badly designed and I was enjoying seeing such a good demonstration of want outstripping skill. A virtual case of eyes bigger than the belly so to speak.

I noticed a thumbnail of Fred’s house and was surprised to see it up for sale as construction was only completed a couple of months ago, so took a closer look. I read the blurb about the house, looked at the pictures (cunningly taken to hide the fact the plot is surrounded by local development) and when I get to the bottom and read the price I almost fall off my chair. They are asking over 6,000,000 Baht! That’s a 200% profit margin!

This kind of person blatantly has no interest in living on the island for it’s character and beauty, they are here for a quick buck. Fred has a habit of criticising the Thai workers who built the house for him, he comments often on their greed, laziness and untrustworthiness.

I reckon Fred fits in quite well with them don’t you think? A real kindred spirit so to speak.