Sunday, October 23, 2011

Still Dry

We are so incredibly fortunate in that we continue to escape the flood waters.  There is flooding immediately North, East and West of us and and "they" are saying downtown Bangkok, just South of us, will begin to see some flooding soon.  Somehow, Nichada has remained a dry "island" in all of this water.  Knock on wood.  

Late Friday morning, we had a bit of a scare as Nichada management warned us to expect the flood waters to enter Nichada about midnight. They assured us the water would be slow moving but we needed to be prepared.  Immediately after that warning, the kids, our neighbor (and her three little ones) and I went for a drive to see exactly what was happening and where.  As Kevin had reported, there were cars stacked parked three deep on all of the raised bridges and overpasses, leaving one very narrow lane for moving vehicles.  We didn't get near enough to the Chao Phraya river (West of Nichada) to see any flooding but did drive just East of Nichada to the edge of the Khlong Prapa, a canal that had been reported (correctly) to be overflowing its banks and flooding the street.  It was a little scary as this was only my second time driving outside of Nichada and we were driving on dry road and then, all of a sudden, the water was right up to the bottom of the car.  Thankfully, I was able to make a very illegal U turn and we went back home.    No more "investigating" for me!

We have given up trying to figure out where all of the most recent breaches of flood barriers and reports of flooding are in relation to Nichada.  Since we are so unfamiliar with Bangkok and the surrounds, it is confusing to find the roads, landmarks, etc. on a map (especially when the names can be spelled two or three different ways!).  Add that to the fact that I will receive emails or visit two or three different websites and get two or three different (and often conflicting) reports or information about the flooding . Also, a few of the websites do not provide any coverage or updates for VERY long periods of time.  For those of you that are in the U.S., as sensational and overblown as it may be, please appreciate the fact that crisis/disaster news coverage is pretty much accurate and always current.  

We are supposed to leave on Thursday for our trip to Chiang Rai in northern part of Thailand and I think we are going to wait as long as we can before making a decision to cancel.  Preparations for the flooding first began October 7th and we have yet to see any water so it seems kind of silly to cancel; however, there is still a very real possibility it could still flood.  

In preparation for the flooding, Kevin put the grill together last weekend and we had the propane tank installed this week.  Since the grill was all ready to go, he grilled pork chops for our dinner this evening and I steamed broccoli and made baked potatoes.  I also made homemade focaccia which I topped with olive oil, sea salt and rosemary.
 
 
 
It was delicious and it felt so good to bake something!  Usually, I use my bread maker to make the dough but, today, after I got all of the ingredients measured and ready to go, the paddle wouldn't agitate the dough properly and then the machine just died.  Oh well, I had it for over fifteen years and used it all of the time so it just might be time for a new one!

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

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