Daily Report: Thieves

It was a great morning of work... although I got started late. I was back to my level from a few weeks ago. I understand that I still have lags where I lose the spirit to work... but it is nice to know that they don't last as long as they used to, and aren't as severe anymore.

One thing I've noticed is how much my pay has gone down because of the exchange rate between the baht and the dollar. This particular paycheck, I worked 25% more than I used to work when I first came to Thailand 4 years ago, and even after 4 years of raises and bonuses, and the implentation of overtime, my paycheck is only 10% higher. Without those bonuses and raises, I would just have to work 25% harder for the same amount of money, as the dollar has depreciated 20% against the baht.

Afternoon work was crap, but there was a reason: Mike and Riza's house next door got broken into this afternoon. I simply cannot get used to how many break-ins there are in Pattaya. That's 4 in one year for myself and my close friends. Mike lost digital cameras, a computer monitor, 1 baht of gold; but most importantly: his mother's wedding ring. I went over and joined Mike in comiserating. I was also hoping that the news people would show up and film the whole thing like they usually do, so that I could blog about myself being on TV. (They didn't.)

According to Landlord Martin, this is the sixth daytime break-in for our housing development in 6 weeks, and he is convinced it is the security people sending in their friends when residents are out for the day. Since Martin is also the manager of the housing development I live in, he is going to replace the security guards with new people.

Anyway, after the break-in, Mike and I did the only thing we could do: We sent Maid Go to the store to pick up a case of beer, and sat down and drank. We eventually ordered some Thai BBQ delivery, and everybody sat down in the street and had dinner. We actually had a good time, all in all.