Pattaya again ..

(Gerry’s story part 5 )

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Hello again. Back in Pattaya

It’s Monday nite here and the first real big rain of
the rainy season has started tonite. It began raining
around 5 and it’s still raining 4 hours later. I
suspect it will rain all nite long. It’s not super
heavy but heavy and steady. It must be time to pack
the bags and head for home.

That has happened to a lot of foreigners. School also
started today so a lot of the condos are now vacant.
Even the Thai have pulled out.

I had a really good shopping time in China. Bought a
few items that don’t work but I should know better.
Should have asked the people to show me they work.
Locals do that all the time.

Just because I NEEDED it, I bought another induction
stove. Got yer high powered one. The first would
boil water fast with 1200 watts. The new one goes to
2000 watts. It smokes. I don’t know what good the
high settings are except to boil water. With a fry
pan I seem to not get above a 600 or 800 setting. And
already the pan smokes from overheating. These stoves
are neat. Cooking style needs to change. For
instance, put the steak in the pan then turn on the
stove. The moment you turn it on, the steak is
sizzling. The heat element is the pan. There is an
electro magnet underneath and it puts a charge to the
pan making it the heat element. Without a pan on it
you can put your hand on the stove and no heat.
Anyways, the Chinese version cost me 30 bucks. A
cheap one was 20. 150 or more in Canada so it’s a
bargain.

The second real good deal was a 32 gb USB flash memory
chip. I feel dumb that I didn’t buy 20 or so of them.
I was in the last day and was unloading my money and
only had 200 local left. One was 100 local or just
under 15 bucks. I should have just walked up to yer
local ATM and pulled the max again. Now that I’m
back, I checked Tiger Direct and they want over 200
for a 16 gb one. So I didn’t buy you guys all one as
a gift. I suspect, I’ll be back into China next year
so maybe next year. I’ll mail’m. They are 1 inch by
a half by a quarter and weigh nothing. My total
picture taking in the last 8 months or so only adds up
to 4 gigs, so 32 would just about cover everything
that I can possibly think needs to be transported from
one computer to another.

Dougie was here when I pulled into town. We went on
the pisser for two nites and then he left for Bangkok
to do the final few days of shopping. I’ve got him
trained pretty well. He’s now as cheap as me. His
1000 baht rolex has slipped a notch. The pin fell
out. They just don’t make rollies like they used to.
I saw a guy in China selling them on the street. He
wanted a buck 50. I asked if all the features worked,
he was honest and said no. I didn’t buy. I don’t
know if the fun in owning a rollie is looking at it
every ten minutes to make sure that it’s still going,
is my style. After all, I never wear a watch.

Things are not that perfect though, my Calvin Klein
shirt wore a hole in the collar after only 8 months of
every second day use. The Polo isn’t much better. I
noted after washing it yesterday, its collar is also
about to fall off. I paid a good hard earned 6 bucks
for those shirts. (My negotiating skills were quite
low that day). Should write a complaint note to CK
about the quality of his knock offs.
Headed into Bangkok tomorrow. My version of XP is
giving me trouble. It gives me a message that the
copy I have is a pirated copy. It tried to update and
phoned Bill and Bill has put this message on my
machine that comes up every time I turn it on. It’s
annoying. So it’s to the pirated market and buy the
latest update and see if I can straighten it out. If
not, there is a shop here in Pattaya that will look at
any problem on a computer for 200 baht. That’s 6
bucks.

I guess, I’ll also take a good look at the knock off
Bose speakers, I saw. I should measure the size
tonite to see how close they are to the originals.
They want 200 for a pair (6 bucks, right?). I think
the original Bose is 300 cdn for the pair.

So what are you doing tomorrow? Come on to town.
It’ll likely be a little warm. I suspect, it’ll feel
around a 100 (37). We’ll check a few knock off items,
restore your confidence in the Art of Shopping, run
into Dougie before he leaves for Canada, have a few
Leos (my NOW beer of choice). Then, go for a supper
of Clams with chili and basil and maybe a real nice
Tom Yam (Chili, lemon grass, lime and shrimp) dish
that are to kill for.

Are you sure you won’t join me? … Mmm .Okay.