Trip 4 - Day 95

November 12th

I wake at 08:15 and as I put the kettle on, I get a text message on my phone. It’s a message from Kev saying that with ‘Mama Joy’ staying over, he’s being woken very early every day, so after drinking my tea, I get a scooter over to his place to investigate his ADSL problem and his ‘non booting’ laptop.

The problem with the ADSL is a service problem rather than a network problem, so it’s necessary to contact the service provider. This is easier said than done and it takes several calls and trying to explain to Joy what to report.

Eventually, it’s determined that there is a major communications problem affecting many customers in Chonburi and it’s unknown when the issue will be resolved. This is a major problem for Kev as he is expected to be in contact with work on a daily basis as part of his recuperation ‘deal’. From a security perspective, it’s not acceptable for him to use an Internet café and he doesn’t want to sit in a public place to utilise a WiFi connection.

An additional problem was that his laptop had stopped working yesterday and simply went in a continual reboot sequence. To get over this, he’d just gone and bought a new laptop and that’s when he’d found the problem with his Internet connection.

I check out the laptop and as he now has a new system and all his critical data has already been backed up, it’s going to be simplest to do a reinstall of the Operating System rather than spend too long attempting to rectify the problem. The problem with this is that he has no OS media, so I say that a trip to Tukcom would be required. Kev then says that if I go to Tukcom, could I also arrange to get his hospital bills scanned and have the images put on his memory stick and also to get some new dressings for his back.

I use his scooter to set off on my chores and the scanning costs 200 baht; Windows XP costs 150 baht and a couple of dressings from the pharmacy next to Tim’s cost 130 baht.

I return and get started on the software installation. This is a success; however there are a number of drivers that need to be downloaded from the Averatech website which cannot be done until a ‘net connection is back.

By 16:45, I’m ready to return home, but the heaven’s suddenly open and there’s no way that I’m going anywhere for a while. After 30 minutes, the rain ceases and Joy then gives me a lift home and 30 minutes later A arrives home with Phil.

A is tired as she hadn’t finished work until 03:00 and was up at 07:30 to take Phil to school, so she just goes out and gets some stall food. She returns with chicken in coconut, a selection of vegetables in a clear broth and a deep fried fish. Asking what type of fish it is, solicits the response “I not know name in English. Is black fish”

By 20:30, it’s time for Phil to sleep, but A takes the opportunity to lie down to settle him quickly. 15 minutes later I look in to find them both fast asleep. I have a shower and watch TV for an hour before carrying Phil to his bed and snuggling up to A. I consider waking her, but feel that this would not be fair and I can simply wait until morning.

Expenditure :

Scooter Taxi – 60 baht
Stall Food – 100 baht