Ok so Day 3 in Bangkok got off without a hitch. Pretty pleased with that - got some work done, had lunch, did some more work and then went shopping. Not a bad day.

So I meant to talk about the confusion regarding the deposit on the condo. Mint paid 10K baht in advance, to secure it. The contract said we were to pay 30K per month, and a 90K deposit. I assumed I would therefore owe 110K, ie 120K less the 10K Mint had already paid. But they only wanted 80K - ie, 90K less the 10K Mint had already paid. I asked Mint about it later, she said the deposit is only 60K, even though the contract clearly says 90K. Who knows what’s going on?

I bought a camera at Brisbane airport, duty free. This is not a good idea, especially now the TRS is in place. Seriously, if you know you’re going overseas, buy your stuff in advance from reputable online dealers - anyone know a good one? :p - and take the Tax Invoice to the GST Refund booth at the airport. I bought a Sony DSCW35S … around $245 at PP, including GST which you would get back at the airport, compared to $249 at the duty free shop, not including GST. Did I pay 10% too much? You be the judge.

I am proud to report that I now know my address here. And my phone number. International SMS are expensive, but so are local SMS, so if you feel like SMSing me, why not do so? Numbers are given on application.

What I’m not proud of, and is taking some getting used to, is the way that I am generally chastised for doing anything at all to contribute to the housework. When I’ve contributed, like this morning I made breakfast and was cleaning up after myself - like my mother taught me, I was shooed away with promises that it was ok, no problem. I later confronted Mint about it - confronted being the wrong word, more like “broached the subject” I guess - and explained that as a Westerner, I would feel guilty if I didn’t contribute to the housework. She looked at me very strangely - like you would look if someone told you that the sky was neon yellow and the grass was blue - and explained like you would explain to a child that “you boy. me girl. me do housework, you do work. you no feel guilt. i sure, 100%.” Asian chicks get +1 cool points for that. Lara - tell Bianca wouldya? SNAP!

I’d like to thank my sponsor, temazipam, for the great flight over. You almost can’t describe how awesome it is to fall asleep immediately after the “Fasten Seatbelts” light goes out, and wake up an hour before you land, right when they’re serving breakfast. It’s a shame - I could’ve just rolled over and gone straight back to sleep, but it was more than the smell and the lights and noise that got me up … I think the 7.5 hours (or near as can be expected) that I got are the maximum attainable before the uncomfortableness of the situation takes over.

The crate that I love so dearly survived the trip in remarkable good health. Perfect, in fact. I did have to pay for an additional 7kgs of luggage, which wasn’t cheap, but que sera sera … these little things are just obstacles on the bigger path.

Taxi from the airport early in the morning was a breeze - straight to Mint’s place in very good time. When I got there, she said she’d made it possible to perhaps move into the condo earlier than expected, so we were going to inspect and sign the paperwork at 10am. We had some difficulty in getting a taxi … I don’t really understand why, but Mint shut the door after quickly talking to the driver and waving him on. Perhaps they were only interested in the “foreigner’s rate”? Or they didn’t want to help us pick up luggage. Eventually we got one, and were only 20 minutes late to meet the landlord.

The place is nice … very nice. It’s either brand-new or very newly-renovated - appliances are all new, the furniture still has tags on, the cupboards still have the factory plastic on them. Unfortunately it means it’s also pretty dusty, which I’ll get to in a minute.

Mint went back to her place to meet some friends who were helping her pack up her stuff, and I had some work to take care of, so I did that. She brought her friends back to gloat a little about the niceness of the apartment, and I sat quietly smiling as a conversation in Thai went on around me that I understood *very* little of. I did get to use some of my better phrases - “Pleasure to meet you”, “Nice to have met you” etc, but that was as involved as I got in the conversation.

We did some shopping for essentials later Saturday evenining, and ate cheaply in a local’s food court. When I say cheaply, I paid $1 for curry and rice, and $0.80 for a massive Coke Zero. Nice. The essentials included such things as a new iron and a dish tray thing for when you wash dishes, and assorted groceries. When we got back to the apartment, I was so thoroughly exhausted from the long day, the heat and the amount of physical effort in moving, I was given leave to shower and go to bed. You can imagine my embarrassment the next morning when Mint had scrubbed the dust off the floors and every flat surface, and pretty much finished the “moving in” component.

As a result, I was up at 7am local time, bright as a daisy and she slumbered on until lunch time. Today we’ve done nothing at all pretty much, but I went back to the Japanese place I’m so fond of for lunch. I’ve just had a cup of tea, and I think it’s almost time to go back to bed.

Oh, the TV is all Thai on our default cable package. I can deal with that I think - I hardly watch TV anyway. And a note for tomorrow: talk about the confusion re the deposit on the condo. Happy father’s day, Dad!