Forward!

September 7, 2007 |

In my home town there is a street called Tore Hunds Gate. This is quite odd, since most towns in Norway may have a street or a square or something named after his opponent, St. Olaf, Norways infamous King who turned Norway into a Christian country. Well, he did it by slaughtering everyone who did not agree with him. So one day Tore Hund and some like minded people had enough of this tyrant and ran a spear trough his guts at the battle of Stiklestad in the year 1030.

So why am I blabbering about kings of Norway and battles fought a thousand years ago? Well, you see the Christian army who lost had a fairly elaborate battle cry. Something like “Onward Kings Men, Christs Men!” The battle cry of the Heathen army was simply “Forward!”

I have now been in in La-la land for 18 months. When I came here I had a beard, and about 1 millimeter of hair, I was listening to Green Day’s “American Idiot” on my iPOD, I dressed in whatever was on top of the pile of clean clothes. This attire usually consist of a t-shirt, with our without something written on them, worn jeans and a pair of worn out sneakers.

Now I am married with a beutiful lady from Isaan in Thailand, I have two step kids, and a home in frigging Northeast Thailand! As I sit in my office at work writing my handover report while listening to Tai Oratai singing “Sai Gub Ta Lay”. I don’t understand a word she is singing but that voice just gets to me.

My hair, well, it’s a bit longer, and another change is am now sporting a tatoo on my left arm. My T-Shirt says “Hot Tuna” on it, and my jeans, well I think it’s the same pair I had on when I shuffled into this office 18 months ago. But I am now wearing sandals. Somebody gave me a lecture on my shoes one of the first days I was here, so I binned them, and have been wearing a pair of cheap plastic sandals ever since. Without socks mind you.

My boss did try to get me dress up for work once. I happily obliged, by wearing a nice pair of pants, and a white shirt with a tie. The first thing I did after the morning meeting that day was to dive into the engine compartment of one of our LandCruisers to install some comms gear. I came out of there with grease up to the elbows of my shirt, and gritty dirt smeared all over me… he took one look at me and sort of saw the reason for my scruffy appearance. Smart dude.

On Saturday I am beating the tree huggers I work with to it, and throw my own farewell party. They have this thing about going to nice restaurants. These places are so nice that you have to wait for ages to even see the menu. Then it’s listening to them talk shop and tree hugging matters for the duration. Basically it’s so boring I would rather have a an electric cheese grinder attached to my ears. So I am executing a pre-emptive strike and invited them all to my place to finish off my booze before I head out of here. I’ll make sure I am well and truely plastered before they arrive.

On Sunday I’m going to the airport to pick up my replacement. Outstanding feller, we worked together in the Sudan. Then it’s the handover stuff for a few days, and then that last ride to the airport to fly back to Thailand. I don’t have a return ticket. Well, I did purchase the cheapest ticket to anywhere-not-Thailand I could find to make immigration happy if they should ask for an onward ticket.