Movin’ Movin’ Movin’

 

Well, July has been a rather interesting (to say the least) month. I learned near the start of the month that my house, the mini-mart and two other homes have been sold and will be torn down to make room for a new resort! That was the bad news. The somewhat good news was that the place could still be mine for nearly two more years as the lease on the mini-mart has that long to run and the new owners won’t take possession until that lease expires. What to do?

 

Well, as the years are seemingly passing by at an ever-increasing rate, I decided that now was the time to start looking for another abode. So onto the Internet. My desire was to stay in the Rawai Beach area if at all possible. Not just because I know the place well (after all I’ve had the house for nearly 14 years), but costs to move to another area would decrease my available budget significantly (i.e. if I had to change my land-line phone number it would cost nearly $300! But staying in this same area would reduce that to only $30 as I could keep my current number). So I limited my search to within the Rawai/Chalong area (an area about  4 x 3 miles). I found 30+ listings on the net for the area posted by real estate companies / agents and private parties. These were within my price range and had the required number of bedrooms, good size yard, etc. In addition to the web search I let word out to Thai friends to let me know if they came across a rental property that fit my needs (buying property here is not an option as a foreigner can not own land, other than a condo unit).

 

I have mentioned the young Thai man who watches my house while I’m gone and who has become my right-hand-man, Chai. His plans and mine seemed to coincide so I asked him to take advantage of the extra bedroom my searching-for home would have. He knows nearly everyone in the area and when I found a place on the net that looked promising he knew just where it was and had friends he could call to ask about the place, neighborhood, nearness to transportation, restaurants, shopping, etc. So mid-month we started looking at places that met my list of “must haves”. The second place we found – mentioned to Chai by a friend and not listed anywhere – was ideal, close to everything and with more room that where I am now. We talked to the caretaker who said yes, it was for rent (amazingly at the same rate I now pay) and that we could put a deposit down and start moving in right away. (I had decided that the longer I delayed my inevitable move, the more likely the lease prices would move higher and as I’m not getting any younger, I felt that with the amount of “stuff” I have to move, the sooner the better – while I’m still physically able to do the move easily.) We headed to my bank and withdrew the deposit money and Chai took it back to the caretaker – only to find that the caretaker had called the owner (in Bangkok) and found that the owner had decided not to rent the place after all! Bummer!

Chai is not one to give up so easily. On the way to give me the bad news he passed by a friend’s home. The friend asked if we were still looking for a new place. If so, she knew of one near her. So off we went again. This new place (new to us, it’s actually a 30-year old house built in a more Thai style than newer places) was quite a bit larger than my current place with a very large welcome room (what we westerners call the living room), three bedrooms (one for me, one for Chai and one to be the “shell room”), two bathrooms (my bedroom has one ensuite), two airconditioners (we’ll add a third that I bought for the current house) and with the kitchen in a separate small building in the back – this keeps cooking odors and heat out of the main house. There’s also room in that area for a barbque and a laundry area. The front yard is large (and we are in the process of moving my “:jungle” there as I write this). There is a large covered patio outside the front door with plenty of room for my parrots (we are planning a screened area so they can be safely kept outside at all times [now I bring several of the cages indoors each night as the residents of those cages are too valuable to leave outside]).

 

Oh yes, another great advantage of this new place is that it directly across the street from my “Thai Family”, the Patamakanthins! They were the family Charles Cardin and I journeyed to Phuket to meet 22+ years ago and are even more involved in shells than I am myself. And they’ve always been there for me when I needed help with something, just like my biological family back  in the U.S.A. So being next door (sort of) neighbors will be great!

So now we’re in the midst of moving my 730+ drawers of shells and the dozen+ shelving units that hold them. Pluss 50+ boxes of other shells and memorabilia. Then comes the large things like beds, fridges, tables, sofa, several large TVs and four computers.

 

Other than the things mentioned above the rest of the month has been quiet. Weather typical for this time of year with a day of wind, rain, sometimes thunder and lightning. Then periods of sunshine. Until last night we had had no rain for a week.

 

To those who enjoy birds I have a quick story to pass along. I have three pairs of lovebirds – one pair where born on my front porch. They, as well as the Cockateils and Budgies all enjoy the herb basil and I give sprigs of that to them each morning and late afternoon. The Conures and Lorikeet don’t care for it. A bird shop owner recommended this a she said it help keep the birds healthy and strong. Anyway, we have observed something strange with the pair that were hatched here. This is a behavior that we’ve never seen with their parents. The male of the pair, when the basil it put into the cage, pulls off the leaves and bites the stems into lengths of approximately two to three inches. These stems he then tucks into the feathers at his back end, between the tail and the wings. When it has tucked away three or four he then flies up to his nest (a small wooden “house” and adds hem to those from previous days that make up the nest were he and his love have laid some eggs. So0 rather than take one piece at a time up to the house using his beak, he has figured out how to do the job more efficiently. He’s looking at me now as I type this – wondering if I’m going to give him some more material to work on and move. Guess he’s movin’ movin’ movin’ too!

Well, hope you all have a great summer. Will bring you more news of our move in a few weeks.