Getting Organized

I’ve had a lot of things accumulating on my ‘to do’ list lately, and I have a deadline approaching that was making it feel more urgent.

First is the situation with my clothes.  Because I am so very large, I have a terrible time finding clothes to fit me here in Thailand.  Basically, except for some slacks and shirts I had tailor-made for work more than two years ago, all my clothes were purchased in America or Australia.  For the most part they are wearing out.

I have two shirts that I wear for sleeping… they are the sleeveless variety that I called ‘tank tops’ when I was growing up.  I bought both of them in Australia in 2004, and they are both getting ragged now.

In 2005, just before I came to Thailand on holiday, I bought 4 pairs of casual pants in four different colors for my trip.  Three years later they are all wearing out at once.  The crotch is simply wearing through on all of them.

At the same time I bought those pants I bought about two dozen pairs of underwear.  The same thing is true of them… the elastic bands are wearing out and holes are appearing in all of them at once.

A second issue is my eyesight.  As I speed rapidly towards my 50th birthday, my eyesight has been deteriorating.  I now have two pairs of glasses; one for long vision and one for reading.  When I’m reading a book or working on the computer, the short vision glasses are fine.  For walking around town or watching go go girls dance, the long vision glasses work. 

But multitasking sees me swapping glasses back and forth.  It’s impossible for example to work on my laptop and watch TV at the same time.  If I’m having a conversation with a friend and he wants to show me a photo on his mobile phone I’m forced to swap glasses, which is sometimes awkward.

It seems like it’s time to break down and get a pair of bi-focals.

And then theres the fact that I’m going up country in less than two weeks.  I will have an extended trip to parts of rural Thailand, and I am very concerned about my ability to stay in touch.

With all these things on my mind, I decided to use the Monday holiday to take care of them.  The impending trip upcountry gave me added motivation to get it all sorted now.

On Saturday I’d been to the DTAC office to arrange a change to my phone account.  I’ve been using a prepaid phone card since the first day I arrived in Thailand on holiday three years ago.  I was a little bit worried that I might run out of credit and have no way to refill it while traveling, so I changed to a monthly service.

I had no idea that for the past three years I’ve been paying stupid rates for telephone calls — 5 baht per minute.  My new rate on my new plan is 75 satang per minute — about 85% cheaper!

In addition, I arranged GPRS service, which allows me to access the internet via my mobile phone.  The package I took gives me access at a cost of about 4 baht per hour!  That’s almost giving it away.

(I need to acknowledge very helpful advice from Nick & Smitty at the Big Mango, my tech gurus.  They both helped explain to me what I needed and how to set it up).

Well, I had the service, but there was  a problem… I’ve got an old computer and a cheap mobile phone.  Neither one has bluetooth.

Monday morning I headed to Fortune Center to get sorted.  I went into a computer shop to get the computer set with a bluetooth adapter.  The lady assisting me may have gotten confused because my current mobile phone doesn’t have bluetooth; she told me I needed to get a cable connection via USB port to my mobile phone… that a Bluetooth adapter wouldn’t do me any good. 

This didn’t jive with what Nick and Mike had told me, so I questioned her about it, and she was adamant.  She said I needed to buy the cable at the mobile phone shop.

Off I went to the mobile phone shop.  I asked for the lowest priced option to get a phone and a USB port data cable.  I was pointed to a 3,100 baht Nokia phone with a 250 baht cable.  I bought it, but only after making sure it would support Bluetooth as well — I still had my doubts about whether I’d been given the correct advice.

I asked if I could pay by credit card, and was told it was no problem, but when I tried to perform the transaction, they wanted to see a photo ID.  The only photo ID I have is my passport, but that was back in my room.  I didn’t really argue, but I was surprised.   After about 20 seconds of rifling my wallet, I sighed and said that I would go to my room and come back with my passport. 

The owner of the shop was sitting in the rear of the shop.  He heard the discussion and called out in Thai that is not necessary… he took my credit card payment without insisting on the photo ID.  I paid and was on my way with a new mobile in my pocket.

With the holiday I didn’t anticipate any traffic, so I hopped a taxi to the area around Nana BTS station.  I went to the optometrist where I’ve gotten all my eyeglasses in Thailand, and ordered a pair of bi-focals.  The initial quote was 11,000 baht, but after a couple of questions we found a cheaper set of frames that I liked better and the final price was 7,950 baht. 

My bi-focals will be ready on Friday.  I feel so old…..

I walked to a nearby tailor shop where I’d been two years before.  The tailor, who hadn’t seen me for 28 months immediately said, “Hello, nice to see you back again.” 

I had a shopping bag with some samples of the clothes that I wanted.  I ordered three pairs of casual pants, arranged a repair of the zipper on a pair of work slacks as well as getting one new pair made, along with three patterned cotton ’casual’ shirts, and three wrinkle free ‘work’ shirts.

I tried to get a few ‘tank tops’ made but the tailor discouraged me from it, saying he didn’t have the appropriate material. 

Six shirts and four pairs of pants (ten garments total) were quoted at 12,500 baht.  Maybe a bit on the high side, but I was very happy with the work this guy did for me two years ago, so I paid it.    My clothes will be ready next Tuesday the 27th– too late for the wedding I plan to attend on the 25th, but several days before I go on my trip up-country.

And that was what was on my mind next… my trip up country.

I headed to Central World to get my computer configured for the GPRS connection.  The tech guy took one look at what I had and said that the cable I had wouldn’t work for GPRS.. that it was only for downloading photos, music ad the like.  He told me that I needed a Bluetooth adapter for my computer.

This was the same thing that I’d heard from Mike & Nick, but the opposite of what the lady at the Fortune Center computer shop told me.  Not to worry… there was a shop nearby where I could buy a Bluetooth adapter.  I went there and was quoted 390 baht, which I negotiated down to 350.  I’d been told by the lady in Forune Center that it would cost 220 baht, but I’d lose the 130 baht savings paying the round trip transport there and back, and I didn’t really have the patience.  I bought the adapter and was back at the DTAC shop inside of 4 minutes.

The setup process was quick and painless, and I walked out of the shop having effectivly logged onto the internet via my mobil phone — my first time.  My GPRS cherry was broken.

I was feeling pretty good about life at this point.

I’d spent about 25,000 baht today, but I was making progress.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I had a Thai girl with me.  She’d called me on Sunday night around 10 pm asking if she could come stay the night at my house since she had a holiday on Monday.  I told her it was okay, but only if she got up early and went out with me.  She had promised that she would, then kept her promise.  She’d been following me around to every stop, and had helped me pick out the fabrics at the tailor and the best frames for my glasses at the optometrist.

Now, here we were at Central World, and she wanted to go shopping at Platinum.  It had been raining on and off all afternon, but we seemed to have a break in the weather so we walked there.

Platinum is an inexpensive shopping mall that is dominated by women’s fashion and accessories.  With the holiday, it wa hot and crowded.  I suffered through an hour of shopping.  My TG bought several shirs, a head band and two pairs of shoes. 

By this time I needed a little refreshment, so we went up to the top floor and got a snack and a drink.  Five minutes later my energy was restored and we were headed for the taxi again.

My TG wanted to eat Korean food, so she gave the driver an address on Sukhumvit Soi 31 where we could enjoy a nice dinner.  It turned out to be good quality and low price.

When we were both full it was back to my place.  My girl was pretty beat… she fell asleep almost immediately. 

For my part, I was trying to log onto the internet but having no joy.  I struggled for 45 minutes, even calling Nick at the Duke of Wellington for some advice.   The computer was trying to log on via the new GPRS connection and ignoring my LAN connection.   I couldn’t figure it out.

Finally I had a brainwave!  I hooked up the Thai girl’s laptop that she had with her, and the LAN immediately connected.  I then simply transferred the LAN cable to my computer and everything was fine.

Here I am, ten hours later, fading fast.  My TG has been asleep for hours; I’ve been on the internet, watched a cable movie and even had a nap for an hour or two.  At the moment I’m falling asleep between words that I type.

Time to press ‘publish’ and get to sleep.

Sweet dreams!