I often wonder if my wife had never met me she would still be alive. 

She would have never had the money to drink herself to death. 

39 is too young for anyone to die of alcohol abuse, but it happened and now she has gone. 

She had many warnings but she would always relapse. 

It was a miserable time for my daughter just 11 years old. She is 13 at the end of the month and on Friday she will have completed her first year in an English school after I flew her 6000 miles to be with me. 

We will go back to Thailand - just a matter of when.

I hate Sunday's, I don't have a routine for them which bugs me. Stores not open or they close early,no mail,everyone off work so you don't want to go anywhere, because it'll be crowded,the rigmoral of Sunday dinner,no end of phone calls, because it's a cheap day to call.Who said Church? Nobody goes to Church in England-well except for a few fogies.Anyway my wife is a Buddist the most relaxing of all religions,she can do her little prays, anywhere,anytime. It is such a cool religion,if it were global, what a lovely world this would be.
So anyway, gave me a little bit of time to get on the net and search for a few things. Wanted to find out the current interest rates in Thailand.My last recollection was 10% but that was in the days before they floated the Baht on 2 July 1997. It's about 3% now it got as low as 1%, with inflation about the same.I was going to transfer all my money to a Thai bank, but I'll be better off leaving my money in England, at least I can keep track of it on my PC.
I also looked up estate agents in Pattaya where I'll be moving to.For a decent house it will cost me about 1.3million baht (£21.6k,$32.5k)You couldn't buy garage for that in England let alone a house.They are real nice houses too, all detached,have gardens,for a little bit extra can get a pool.But my wife says they can be more trouble than they are worth.If I want to use a swimming pool I can go into any hotel in Pattaya and then there are always the lovely beaches and even Pattaya water park.So I can do without a pool.The only problem with buying a house in Pattaya Thailand is that the authorities don't like you owning the land.But if you have a Thai wife then it smooths things out a bit.But only in the understanding that you agree for the wife to be the sole owner. Got me thinking well what if things don't work out.At all times I have to think of my daughter so at least she will always have a home.Besides if my wife wanted rid of me she could go to her home town and stay in the house that we've been building for the last 3 years. It's a lovely big bungalow 21 windows in all. She did all the designing I just footed the bill.But it is nice and well planned out and it will be a nice retreat when I want to cool down and take a break from the bustle of Pattaya or Bangkok. It gets really cool in N.East Thailand you don't need any air-conditioning during the night in the winter months and there are fewer mozzies.But I miss the creature comforts of home.You can't get the Bangkok Post newspaper,no chance of getting on the internet, not just yet, anyway. Fortunately, it's only 30 mins from Sakon Nakhon airport, so it is accessible, without the 12 hour bus journey, like you need to some of the more obscure towns in Thailand.
So what else did I do today,as I said it's Sunday and I didn't do anything productive - but I'm a day nearer going to Thailand. Where Sunday is like any other day when you are on permanent holiday.

Before I can put my house up for sale, I have to make sure all those little tasks that I have been putting off for years are done.So my first task was to rub down the outside door and window frames. The paint cost me £20, it's a kind of deep reddish brown.But it's inline with all the other houses in the cul-de-sac. Should have done all this last year, so this year it's deteoriated even more.However, I've managed to make it look nice and only the bottom ledges needed a second coat.Now all I have to do is find a ladder to do the upstairs windows.Life is never easy.
Meanwhile, inside the house my wife is busy clearing away all the clutter. If you clear all the tops in the kitchen you'll make it look so much bigger.So everything (toaster,rice cooker,mixers,blenders etc etc) have been stored out of sight.Only the microwave is in sight. You don't realise how much junk you have until it's time to clear it away. As we are leaving the country it will mean selling as much stuff as we can. Hopefully, the prospective buyers will want to keep all the carpets,curtains,beds,sofas,white goods etc.That will save us having to sell them and will keep us comfortable until we actually have to move out. I guess we'll have to move in with my mother for a couple of weeks, just to finalise all the details and tie up any loose ends.
We usually fly direct to Thailand with Eva Air . We always go through Trailfinders the fare is usually £460 return. Not sure how much it will be for a one way ticket. My 3yo daughter's fare was £300 return earlier in the year. Both fare's are the same as long as you have a return date within 6 months and date must be stipulated. It will cost approx £50 for a change of return date if you change your mind. The cabin crew are excellent. Nothing is too much trouble and the little extras are something that BA and Quantas don't think they need. The smiling young faces of the Chinese and Thai Cabin crew is delightful in comparison to the bad tempered British Cabin crews that I see so often on my European holidays. Eva Air flights are good in their timekeeping. The longest delay was 40 minutes due to a late passenger. But because of the 12 hour flight to Thailand we made up the time and still landed on schedule.
I won't be able to book my flight until I am certain of a date for completion of sale of the house. I bought my house in 1998 cost me £59K I had already been living in it for three years as a tenant. When the house prices started to rise the owner asked me if I wanted to buy the house.If I did, she wouldn't need to go through an expensive estate agent. I found out much later that she had needed the money for expensive cancer treatment.So now, 4 years later, I will sell the house for a tidy profit. The house a few doors away sold for £122K and I have the added bonus of being an end house. So I'm expecting a market price of about 126-130K. After I've paid off my current mortgage and all my credit card bills, I should have a enough capital to buy a house in Thailand, put the rest in a bank and live off the interest of the remaining money, which should last me the rest of my life. My wife who is 15 years younger than myself will have a solid base to continue quite comfortably in my absence.

This will surely be a labour of love. The start of a journey that will change my life forever. If I'm successful,by early next year I will have sold my home and moved to Thailand. I will be accompanied by my wife and our three year old daughter. Was this a rash decision? Not really, I had planned to spend 6 months England, 6 Months in Thailand, when I retired anyway. The luxury with that is that I would have spent Oct-Mar in Thailand and April-Sep in England having the coolest period in Thailand and hopefully some sort of summer in the England. But moving there permanently means I will have to face the hottest and wettest periods that Thailand has to offer. At least the rain is warm,it's just that there is a lot more of it. Temperatures average about 30 degrees,but it gets pretty humid.
The decision to move now was that I recently lost my job. I won't go into the detail but I'll just say some people's dishonesty can directly affect the livelyhood of others. In this case it was my livelyhood. But I shall endeavour to turn this misfortune into my benefit.