Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Retirement--"I love It "(Most of the time) no really "I love it"

This is what the house looked like when we bought it one year before we moved to Thailand
Me acting like I am helping , when most of the time I was just in the way

We are seeing some progress , we really did a lot

The folks that did the work remodeling and almost rebuilding, were great and it took a lot of work and reconstruction work to get the house the way we wanted it .

We're very happy with the way it turned out ,and we have added a lot that I will show in the post to come .


Malcolm and Ciejay Retired in Thailand

I love being retired and especially ,being retired here in Thailand , but loving it and enjoying all the benefits that come with being retired and accepting all the not so fun things, and some of the lack of benefits that come with being retired also, all this and more (of which I will share in later post ) took quite a while to get use to and even longer to get my mind, to accept the fact that I was indeed retired .
Almost all the things I will write about will be from my own experience, being retired here where we live in (Kanchanaburi) in the small village of Wang Pho, Thailand , from time to time I may mention other places and people , but for the most part it will be about us and OUR retirement life .
The first couple of months , it was life as usually , just in another country , we were busy remodeling the house we had bought pr yer to our retirement in the USA.We were there everyday watching , and sometimes complaining about the way the work was progressing , we were, trying to make this little house into a home , that we could live and enjoy, the rest of our lives in comfort and with as many of the conveniences that we were use to back in the good ole USA . Little, did I realise that some the things I hoped for , would never happen, and that this is not the good ole USA and they don't think , live , work ( or even think important ) many of the things we just take for granted , living in our homelands. I had to wrap my mind around these facts real quick or go crazy , fly into fits of rage, and show my anger and disapproval, just as I would in the good ole USA, have a long , hard and intense, talk with everyone and end up getting things done MY WAY. Well it don't work that way here in the LOS they will just pack up their tools and leave ,and you will not see them again and no one else in the village will come to work for you because the first folks that you ran off are all related to everyone in the village, and now you are on a Thai black list , which can take years to get off of , and then only if YOU learn how to be Retired in Thailand and Loving It . Some things I have learned the hard way , but for the most part I was at least smart enough to do a lot of research and learn a lot about Thai life and customs and Village life before we arrived and I have to say up front ,that I have the most wonderful Thai wife in the world (Ciejay) and she saved me from many a pit fall , and kept me from making a lot of mistakes along the way, starting in to this new way of life , Retiring and living in a strange and new country all at the same time .
Once all the work on the house was done, furnished like we could afford and learning how to get along without the things we could not afford right away, and we had things almost like we wanted them , we moved in , Then the real life of being retired set in, and believe you me , did this time in my life ever take some getting use to .You ask "like what ", well these are some of the things I am going to write about in the up and coming post :
Family , food , shopping , money ( having a lot or a fixed income based on a small to medium pension) , market days , health care , exercise, (enjoying or lack of ), village life ( how much to get en voled,)Kids , grand-kids , neighbors , animals, (yours and the neighbors) social life, together time with wife or husband, time for self (hammock time ), and any other subjects that pop into my mind or that you as my readers and folks retiring or thinking about retiring(in Thailand) would like me to write about , from our point of view, and from mine and Ciejay's experiences.
I hope you will enjoy this post subject and the follow-up post and that you will be kind enough to take a moment out of your retired or not retired life and leave a comment. Malcolm

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

an intriguing topic and I very much look forward to your upcoming posts M. I am sure I will be picking up very sage advice.

Anonymous said...

You've certainly turned the old place around. Well done.

All the best, Boonsong

Paul Garrigan said...

You seem to have done a great job on your new home.

I think it does take time to adjust to the Thai way of doing things. Assertiveness training doesn't really help here; it can sometimes be so frustrating. Things work out in the end so I just go with the flow.

Tom yam said...

Your new home looks great. You must be very pleased.
Life here is very different but you don't need me to tell you that.
To try and understand a little bit about the way thigs get done (or don't get done ) iv'e found it useful to employ the Thai mindset of "mai bpen rai" (it doesn't matter ) When you think about it,aside from death or serious injury then not too much matters enough to get worked up about.
Tom........

tom yam said...

sorry about the typo! (thigs) things.

Mike said...

Malcolm I must admit I have changed a lot since moving here to live. Your priorities sort of change if you get my drift.

I am happy enough and have been since I learned not to fight the Thai way of doing things.

Lets face it there is always tomorrow anyway.

Anonymous said...

Like the look of the house. Could you post more pictures of the town?

Camille said...

Looks like your home is your castle!

Like Mike already pointed out; don't try to fight the Thai way, at least not too hard ;-)

Martyn said...

Malcolm your house looks great, the workmen did a wonderful job as did you and Ciejay in the redesign.

The Thai mindset and not fighting it....it's a hopeless battle, let's face it, there's 60 million of them and only one of you. I'd call that a losing hand.

Bangkokbuddy said...

haven't heard from you in a week. where are you, malcolm? hope all is well.

LindyLouMac said...

Thanks for your recent visits and comments over at News From Italy. With all our visitors now departed I am catching up on my Blog reading.

Your renovation project looks fantastic, certainly looking forward to learning more about your life in Thailand.

Anonymous said...

I would like to exchange links with your site malcolmandciejay.blogspot.com
Is this possible?

Malcolm and Ciejay Burgess said...

Anonymous, would love to exchange links , e-mail me your blog link so I can read and if ok I'll be glad to add. Malcolm

Unknown said...

How are you getting on with the exchange rate affecting your income? Thailand is not as cheap as you would think. Prices have climbed and the currency has strengthened, especially against the euro and pound, where in the last 9 months a 20% drop has been seen. Also a big movement in the dollar over the last few weeks.
bangkok apartments

Anonymous said...

In salamander you are playing against other players, Either Appearance of quality is timeless, creating a figure lively to persistent success. [url=http://www.onlinecasinotaste.co.uk/]uk online casino[/url] online casino This may seem a bit unjust but it is not the fiber of accruement consequence may be to trim down waste in a landfill by aggregation large amounts of bacterium and accruement. http://www.onlinecasinotaste.co.uk/

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

male to female massage in hyderabad A number of massage seminars and workshops can be completed in as little as a weekend afternoon, while others take several months to finish. It is always better to avail Edinburgh physiotherapy treatment rather than having those high dose medicines and anti-biotics.
http://hyderabad.locanto.in/ID_163682523/Male-to-Female-Body-Massage-in-Hyderabad.html