What else is new? This weekend Mint’s mum and younger sister visited - Mint’s mum ADORED Jack. Interestingly, Mint said that (prior to the visit) her Mum didn’t think we would be able to take care of Jack by ourselves. Usually in their culture, the grandparents pretty much raise the children and the parents go and work to earn the money, so I guess that tradition distilled into the philosophy that only old people can raise babies? Interesting anyway.

On Monday, we drove to Chiang Dao in a hired car. I had requested a baby seat for a 1 week old, but the baby seat we got was more like a 1 year old’s seat, so was useless. The car was a king-cab ute (ie, had 4 doors, two bucket seats in the front, one bench seat in the back) but Mint’s mum and Fern insisted on riding in the tray - that’s the most common way for them to be a passenger. Also, riding inside the car makes mum feel sick - I wonder if that’s just because she’s not used to it?

So imagine my stress-levels, dear reader, driving 50km on roads of various degrees of quality, up to 100km/h, with a 1 week old in his mother’s arms, no baby capsule, and an old woman and a 6 year old sitting in the back tray - both activities that we have had drilled into us since young as being very unsafe.

When we got to Chiang Dao, Mint’s mum took charge of Jack, Mint went to do paperwork, and I found an internet cafe and worked. When I’d finished work, I went back to the government building to see them, and had something to eat for lunch, and then waited another hour or two before Mint, exhausted, finally finished. Mint was wrecked - so much so that we apologized and paid for her mother’s Songtaew to her place rather than drive them ourself. We came straight home, Mint sleeping in the car, waking every few kilometers to adjust Jack in her arms, also asleep.

The next day, yesterday, Jack was a bit fractious which we were warned about after the car trip. He was a bit cranky this morning too, until Mint ordered me awake and to go pace around with him for a while. That set him right off to sleep, so 7am I popped him back into bed with Mint.

I have to admit that Mint and I both wondered what the mother approximately two houses away was doing so inneffectually with her new baby when the crying dramatically started in the wee hours. The answer, I now know, is changing his/her nappy. Babies apparently aren’t big fans, which suprised me … I’d prefer to be out of crappy drawers asap myself. Also not big fans of the bath, and not being fed immediately upon noticing they are hungry.

Hired a car for 3 days on Saturday, so Saturday morning we went shopping, picking up stuff for Mint’s mum, and stuff for Jack noi. It was wierd to drive again, and even though Thai traffic is moderately terrifying, it’s a lot easier than it looks.

Sunday morning we headed off to Mint’s mum’s place. First false start was me not bringing my passport, so we diverted home to grab that, just in case. Second false start was Mint forgetting her ID, so we diverted home to grab that, too. Then we were off!

Several toilet stops later, we were there! I was actually pretty impressed by the house, and it wasn’t too alien to my sensibilities. I already knew about there being no hot water, but was touched at bath time to discover Mint’s mum had boiled a bucket of water in the front fire for me to use in the shower. They also had just had power connected that very day, so it was nice to have a fan to sleep with.

I had a Mastiff, then a Cyclops, and then a Lancaster, which I loved. I then tried a Cetacea, then a Mantis. I then went back to a Nomad I think, that was virtually impossible to combat with, just one rear arc. It had a trading kit and a performance kit iirc, which brought it’s CKPH (which is Cargo Kilograms per Hour) to a quite respectable number - the highest configuration possible in a T2 plane I think.

Then I had an ill-fated experience with a triple-kitted Lancaster, which wasn’t as awesome as I remember when it was the original non-kitted version, but in reality it was almost certainly better than the non-triple kitted version
I had my best experience yet with a Vengeance, perf kit and combat kit, mad props, a large ammo feed and wings B. Actually it was even better when I had the wings A and the armor piercing rounds instead of the wings b and large ammo feed, but I kept running out of ammo. It was ultimately the ammo that made me decide to get a Bolo. And it’s top speed.

So I got my “Perfect Bolo” configuration completed:
http://lobachevsky.net/mechanic/compare.php?p=25&u=10,17,40,43,42,12&s_c=5&s_r=5
but 50 cargo wasn’t enough to run the missions I wanted so I was looking for something else.

I happened to be at Uurwerk when unobtainium dropped, so quickly sold the Bolo, bought a Leviathan, and filled it with Unobtainium. What a capitalist. The week that followed was the most boring skyrates I’ve ever played - it took 17+ hours to get anywhere, and I could only sell 20x crates at a time (with a cargo hold of 675 crates) before the price dropped too hard to be worth it.

So I finally got so sick of it, I went back to the Bolo. Unfortunately in the process, I lost so much money that I couldn’t afford the 2-kit version I had tweaked myself into. And with the 50 cargo not being enough, I now believe happiness looks like this:
http://lobachevsky.net/mechanic/compare.php?p=25&u=36,17,10,21,40,12&s_c=5&s_r=5
which is what I’m working towards, but that may change at any moment.

I had a Seahawk with my alt, “Squeek”. The only problem with it is the no engine slots, but they’ve all got a problem, that’s what makes the game so interesting - it’s a billion tradeoffs working against each other.  At the time I started Squeek I was running very boring long-haul trades in the nomad, just getting a bankroll together to get something else. That’s why I started Squeek and made him have a more intense experience - more combat, combat planes, combat skills etc. As I shifted my main character towards the more immersive combat play, I moved squeek more into a trading role, just gathering a bankroll to buy a monster plane.

Also Leyton plays a bit too, but for him a Leviathan would be a good choice because of how much trading he does, and how little time he’s got. That’s another interesting angle.

Anyway, we’re here.

Someone pointed out, I think Blacky, that my blog posts have become more and more random. And fair enough call too. They have.

Operation “Move to Chiang Mai” is underway. We have now bought our train tickets for 30-Aug, departing on the 22:00 train to CM. Mint didn’t have a very good experience on the train last time, but hopefully this time will go better, having prebooked and organized a sleeper carriage this time.

Sunday we have to break up with our Bangkok OB-GYN. I’m sure he’ll understand.

In Skyrates, I happened to be at Uurwerk when Unobtaiunium was in plentiful supply. As a gas, I sold my Bolo and bought a Leviathan, with a capacity of 675 crates, and filled it with said Unobtaiunium at an average of $48.50 per crate. The disadvantage to the massive craft thoguh is its speed, and I’ve gone from over 1,000kph in the Bolo to 125kph in the Leviathan. So the 2:30 hour trip to Uurwerk from Tinkspoit will take 17 hours to make on the way back. Hopefully I’ll get rich out of this experiment though, at least in what Blacky calls “the stupid plane game”.

Today I wandered down to the Petronas Towers shopping centre and ate a Nando’s burger, fries and coleslaw, then walked around the shopping centre and park, and had a piece of pie and icecream.

I was so determined to be ‘good’ while away, but with the lack of booze at the conference, there’s little to cheer up an unhappy attendee. I’m taking Mint’s advice, and enjoying the “holiday” I’m forced into.