dead on my feet.

people, I am totally spent right now. yeah. no more energy whatsoever.

between trying to accommodate my rookie friend, luke skywalker, and going through the process of renewing my retirement visa, I am just barely able to stand on my feet right now. UGH!

here's the scoop..

luke skywalker, first time rookie. he has NEVER been here to thailand before. talk about finding sources of energy never before tapped. this guy was like superman. he didn't need any sleep. and he was chatting away sucking my mind for every bit of knowledge about the scene that he could get.

even though I rested for a few days before he arrived, I was ill prepared to take on this onslaught. thank god he moved to a hotel today.

then, there was my retirement visa. I had a window of 2 days to get this since the expiration date of the my visa was thursday, and there were 2 holidays this week where thai immigration would be closed.

to make it even more stressful, this would be the first time I would go to the new location of thai immigration to apply for the retirement visa.

yes. I got pushed to my limits. and now, here I am totally exhausted. just barely able to stand. I already told luke that I would need to rest the whole day to recuperate. he seemed to understand.

pattaya is still on the schedule for tomorrow with luke. but for now, it's back to sleep.

my experience with the new thai immigration is good enough for it's own posting on my blog. so, when I get back my energy, I will write about it.

until then, back to sleep.

bangkok in commando mode.

it's been 2 days now since my last post. sorry for not posting more. since picking up luke skywalker a couple of days ago, we've been running around bangkok like there was no tomorrow.

in total, I had only like 8 hours of sleep for the last 2 days. 2 hours for the first day. 6 hours on the second. the time showing on my clock right now is 5pm. I just finished a power nap. and luke is still sound asleep from all the running around.

what did we do since luke arrived into bangkok, you ask?

a foot massage, a 2 hour thai massage, window shopped at mbk, siam paragon, siam center, siam discovery, central world, one soapie, the royal palace, wat pho, soi cowboy, usa consulate.

I think we need to slow down a little before we get sick. ..I'm still a little tired myself. maybe go back to sleep for another hour now.

later tonight, the plan is to go hangout at the lobby, and the parking lot.

I woke up after only 4 hours of sleep.

I woke up full of energy today, and I only had like 4 hours of sleep. there I was beaming awake at 7am in the morning. I felt great! for some reason, I decided to go out and explore the chatuchak flea market some. after a quick 5 minute shower, I boarded the underground.

while in transit to chatuchak, the thought occurred to me to check out the "bang sue" underground stop for the possibility of maybe hopping on the #52 bus there to get to thai immigration next week.

so what did I think of bang sue, you ask?

bang sue is one quiet place. there's practically nothing there. 5 minutes of walking around, and it was back on the underground for the chatuchak flea market.

the #52 bus is not on my list of options to get to thai immigration now. I'm now thinking of boarding one of the vans near the chatuchak underground stop. but I have yet to figure out which van to take.

anyway, I roamed around the chatuchak flea market for about an hour. temperature wise, it was ok. but at 8am in the morning, hardly any of the stalls were open.

while shopping at the few stalls that WERE open, I found this thai style folding bed. just what I wanted to get for my rookie friend, luke skywalker, to sleep on. yeah. last minute stuff. got the bed for 500 baht. not sure if it was a good deal or not. but the way I was thinking.. what the hell! 15 bucks. I needed to get something for luke to sleep on. otherwise, it would have been the tile floor.

immediately after buying the bed, I went home. my clock is now showing 10:30am. guess I'll get back to sleep. not really tired. but I know the rest will do me good. I'll need all my energy for later tonight.

nothing else needs to be done today except picking up luke at the airport. ETA is midnight.

preparing to renew my thai retirement visa.

I had this shock come over me yesterday. when I woke up, I happen to look at my passport and realized that I have to renew my retirement visa next week. now, you are probably thinking that this is no big deal. but as it is... next week, 2 of the 5 weekdays are thai holidays.

I have a window of just 2 days to process my thai retirement visa. ..will there be lines of people next week having to go to thai immigration like me?

let's hope not.

things I did today to get prepared for getting the thai retirement visa so far include..
1) getting a haircut,
2) gather up all my paperwork needed to process the visa.
3) print out the map for reaching the location of the new thai immigration.
4) get new photos.

also put together some stuff for my rookie friend, luke, who is coming in tomorrow night. or rather later today at midnight. maps, guides, etc.

in between the above tasks, I was able to shop for some groceries, and clean up my apartment.

yes, it was one busy day for me.

I got everything done at around 5pm. on my way home, I bumped into dirk bonapare. he's off to hangout at the parking lot thereabouts.

I went home and took a 3 hour powernap.

woke up at about 10pm, called up luke skywalker who had just checked in for his flight.. (he's on the plane now.) spoke to him for maybe 5 minutes. played the role of cheerleader. got him all excited. quote, "be prepared for the time of your life." hehehe.

anyway, it's time once again for some beauty sleep.

luke skywalker will be here tomorrow night.

the minutes are ticking down. SOON, luke skywalker will be in town. his first time to bangkok. ..a ROOKIE. in preparation for his arrival, I've been resting up big time so that I can keep up with him energywise.

for sure, he will be in commando mode - search and retrieve.

anyway, all I've been doing for the past 3 days is staying home, watching tv, surfing the net, and playing my computer games. guess I'm getting old because I don't mind staying in nowadays.

the spring chicken lounge lizards are all running around spending money left and right looking for those happy memories to keep them content with life. nature at it's best.

in comparison, I've played my new computer game - Entrenchment - for like 8 hours. and watched maybe 5 old kung fu movies, some korean love stories, and a couple of agent 009 secret agent movies - from who knows where - in the last couple of days. mind you, I don't mind watching all these old asian movies. since I haven't seen them before, they are like all brand new to me.

imagine seeing 10 first run movies one after another. yeah. I'm in heaven.

to deuce bigalow.. the 60 channel cable tv came FREE with the apartment. so, I'm not sure how or where you could get this "celestial movie" channel. in answer to your question about my new apartment.. my guess is - if you don't mind the location - you will like this place. brand spanking new.

well, that's it for the latest news. got to get some beauty sleep now. my watch is showing 5:45am thereabouts. good night, everybody.

my NEW game - entrenchment.

well, after searching around a little, I found a new game to play. it's an expansion set of another game I played last year. do you remember "Sins of the Solar Empire"? yeah. I played this game for like 3 months last year. they came out with an expansion set called "Entrenchment". I bought the game online for about 10 dollars. and downloaded the son-of-a-gun. I played Entrenchment for about 2 hours today. something to keep me busy now.

another day of staying at home. another SES day (aka sleep, eat, shit).

also been watching these old asian movies on tv. over here in bangkok, they have this all-asian (as in hong kong) movie channel called "celestial movies". full of old hong kong kung fu movies from the last 40 years. also showing the old scary movies about ghosts from hong kong. ..since I haven't seen most of these old movies, it's all new to me.

I think duece bigalow would love this channel. hehehe.

other than the above, all I did was pay the rent, and do 2 loads of laundry.

I've got 1:40am showing on my clock. still full of energy. guess I'll play some more computer game. then, hit the sack.

the plan for tomorrow... have to check out where that new thai immigration place is out near the old airport. almost time to renew my retirement visa. other than that, it'll be another SES day.

in hibernation.

I'm not sure what is going on with me. I'm starting to find myself being content just staying at home doing nothing.

I finished spellforce 2 last night. and started playing this new game called galactic civilizations 2. I think I played this new game maybe 3 hours before I realized I don't like it. so, now, I'm in limbo with my computer games. need to find a new one to feed my addiction.

yeah. I didn't go to the parking lot last night. didn't go anywhere at all.

in another 3 days, my buddy, luke skywalker, will be arriving from the states. his first trip ever. I may stay indoors until then.

we'll see...