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We’ve officially moved back into our house after the flood on August 14. Karen and Lowey returned from their Borneo / Malaysia trip on September fourth and immediately started the cleaning up and sorting out of their flood soaked and stinky stuff. I’d already cleaned up the worst of the mud, with a bit of help, but some things were still damp and muddy, and there were a few of her dresser drawers I couldn’t even get open; they’d filled up and swelled shut with the water. The mattresses had to be disposed of, they’d only gotten wet on the bottom, but seemed to sprouting poisonous mold spores. You couldn’t spend five minutes in the house without your throat burning. But luckily the wardrobe, bookshelf and entertainment center were salvaged, a bit worse for wear, but scrubbed out and usable at least.

I met Karen and Lowey on the afternoon they arrived back at the Nat House. I’d somehow ended up going out the night before to Bubble, with some other backpackers who’d been staying there. I’d actually crashed in one of the empty rooms (handy that Jane leaves the keys out) and then drove back to where I was staying the next morning for a proper nap and shower. So there Karen and Lowey and I ended up, sitting at Nat’s, travel weary and hungover, eating red curry for lunch at 4 pm. It was like we’d just stopped, and gone all the way back to the beginning, when we first all met nearly a year ago. Its moments like these that really make you think about how much you’ve changed, and what you’ve accomplished. Last October when I met these guys, I was living at the Nat House in a room down the hall from Karen, unemployed and sleeping till noon, and generally doing whatever I wanted. Which generally was being lazy along with everyone else. Now, I’m living in a house in a room next Karen, unemployed, sleeping until until 10:30, and generally doing whatever I want with my day. How things have changed!

Anyway, the house is now nearly 100% finished. Karen hired professional cleaners to come in last week and scrub everything, so excepting the second week of August when I’d scrubbed every tile in the house, it’s probably cleaner than it’s ever been. We decided to paint as well, since our stuff was all already packed up in bags and boxes out of the way. Some of Lowey’s friends came over to help, which was nice. They got to the paint before we could, though, and indiscriminately mixed it with water and proceeded to massacre the walls with it. As the saying goes, if you’re going to do a job, you might as well do it with as little patience or effort as possible. We banned them from mixing any more paint. To be fair, though, Lowey did do a pretty good job on some of the trimming. We also put blue up over the brown floor trim, which really makes it look nice. I imagine we’re the only house in the whole city with blue instead of brown trim. But it goes well with the variously-hued blue tiles. It now looks better than when we first moved in. We don’t even seem to have ants anymore.

Yesterday K and I went shopping at Tescos to refill our toiletries and whatnot that got washed away. We also purchased some new clothes. Who’d have thought either of us would one day be going to Tesco as our clothing outlet of choice? Sometimes it makes me laugh that Tesco Lotus is now my Old Navy, but my wardrobe has been restored to its pre-flood glory days, and then some. I’m also now amassing a fantastic collection of psuedo-70’s kitsch t-shirts. The latest acquisition is white, with glittery lettering in dark pink that says: “Fruitful surprises - Very Cherry! - beware of the pips“. Its fantastic, trust me. And for 99 baht, you can’t go wrong!