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Hi,

The weather has been on a lot of peoples' minds lately.  With hot days and cool nights, it feels a little odd for this time of year.  Nothing I can do about it, just enjoy the parts I like.

The ‘Old School Friday’ song was “Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis Presley.  This ‘Easy Monday’ song is one of the easiest:

“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day.  When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May.  Well, I guess you’ll say, ‘What can make me feel this way?’  __ __, talkin’ ‘bout __ __ (__ __).”  Hint:  I’m tempted but I won’t.  You should know this.

Saturday evening we had dinner at the mall with our good friends Sutheera and Nukoon.  It’s always fun when we get together, sharing different takes on local life as well as the political scene.  There is a theory that some of the land that’s being bought in Chiang Rai will remain vacant until there is a new government.  Speculation is the name of that game, at least when it comes to homes.  Nukoon has a big pond on their property and a duck decided to move in.  She spends the nights in a tree and flies down in the mornings and floats around all day.  Not a pretty duck, but a duck just the same.  

There were lots of celebrations around town and I think the reason is similar to the other holidays.  This is the first Chinese New Year since the end of the mourning period for the late King.  The balloon festival was bigger this year and there just seemed to be bigger energy everywhere.  

Sunday afternoon we went to The Wanderer for a concert of Biggles Big Band, a group from Amsterdam that makes an annual tour of Thailand.  We’ve seen them before, and they were good.  The band is bigger this year, with a string quartet added, as well as a few new horns.  It was also nice to see some women playing in the horn sections.  They did a segment with the Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra but we missed that.  We saw a few of our Thai friends there although most of the audience was made up of the local expat community.    

Today’s photos are a ‘Tree Update’.  There are two trees in our yard that were planted in memory of our dear friend Blue Johnson.  They are doing well and both have started to bloom.  It’s the first time for the little jasmine tree to bloom and the flowers are very fragrant.  Our friend Claire said that the new flowers are like Blue saying ‘Hi’.

This afternoon we went to get the second injection in the Dengue Fever vaccination series.  Our doctor talked to us about new findings and said that if we hadn’t actually had the fever, we should not take the vaccine.  I wasn’t sure if I really had it so they did a blood test and it turns out that I didn’t.  That meant I didn’t have to get a shot today.  I just had to give blood, which is still on my list of things not to do (555).  

The big news around here is that tomorrow Gong and Natcha will be bringing home a 2 month old dog.  It’s a Siberian Husky.  Gong has wanted a dog since they move in and they are confident that they can handle it and Neechanon, who has not met the dog yet.  More will be revealed.  Daku will have a new friend that hopefully will like to play.  He has missed that.  

Have a Great Week.

                   Peace,

                             Danny

“We don’t stop playing

because we grow old; we 

grow old because we stop

playing.”

~George Bernard Shaw