TATSC Trip to Nakorn Rachasima

Dear friends,

Jeab, Ying, Tat, Panit, Mod, Ar, Vute, Wiwat, Surin, Sutee, Winai(and friend) and I joined the TATSC trip to Nakorn Rachasima on Sat 29 Jan. It was good to shared the trip with friends.The weather was very pleasant on that day. We all enjoyed the trip. Attached are some photos of us to share with our friends.

Best regards,

Wichit

PS: The trip was well organised by the Thai-Australian Technological Services Center (TATSC) and hosted in Korath by Chatchai & Eeed Somsiri. Other active CP members on the organising committee include Pongprapan (Dick), Manop, Ar, Sunee and Mod. We were also met by Somnuk & Piyada who travelled all the way from Khon-Khan to meet us. What a wonderful way to get together! Thank you Wichit for making it possible for us to join the trip. Vute

Yasi Aftermath

Dear friends

I sat out this ferocious cyclone for 7 hours from 11 pm till 4 in the morning buffeted and lashed by Yasi the whole period. Dee elected to sleep out instead while I kept a vigil on the situation during the night.

We (plus our sheltie, Jasper, our dog ) have just emerged from our bunker (the smallest and strongest bathroom) this morning, Thursday. Dee had her Campbell tin broth for brekkie and I reached out for my 2 minute noodle. Fortunately, we use gas for cooking, just as well, because I lost power the previous evening.

Toi rang me yesterday and this morning.... which was nice...thanks.

Let me tell you this. You would not wish this experience on anyone. IT WAS HAIR-RAISING , nail biting AND VERY DICEY. I felt so small during the ordeal and literally prayed for the divine intervention.

Our abode did not sustain any damage. The roof is still intact.

I am at the shop right now. It is a OK as expected. And , we will resume trading tomorrow and get back to normality ASAP. Electricity for commercial district is in order.

Thanks for all your thoughts , concern and prayers. I received all of the above one hundred percent. And I am grateful.

Cheers,

Dee and Jee

Yasi is threathening our friends in QLD

Jee and Sunthorn although escaped the Queensland Great Flood in Dec-Jan, they now have to brace against Cyclone Yasi, which is a lot bigger than Larry that hit Qld in 2006. Let's hope that Lucks are on their side again.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/storify.htm?id=preparations-for-cyclone-yasi

Dear friends,

Dee and I are in for a rough ride for the next 24 hrs.

Thanks for emails and all the prayers.

This imminent cyclone Yasi has just been upgraded to Super Cyclone (Category 5, highest rating) early this morning. Wind speed at 295 km/hr. It is the mother of all cyclones ever in Australia, 5 times bigger than Larry (2006)which wiped out the town Innisfail and 3 times bigger than Tracey (1974) that annihilated Darwin.

Dee and I stayed at home today battening down the hatches, bunkering down and preparing all survival essentials to sustain us for at least one week. We had been thru' Larry, hence we know the drill.

This evening (Bkk time) at 7 pm while you all settle down for dinner, Yasi will have slammed our coastline just south of Cairns and another hour to Atherton another hour to ride out the eye (35 km wide) and some 2 hours for the tail to pass. You may take a peek the weather map. It is really bigger than Ben Hur.

The worst case scenario for us will be losing the roof over our heads because the house roof was only designed for Cat 4. Perhaps, it will give us the chance to start building our house all over again.

I am not concerned about the shop as it commercially built with all steel structures.

Self-preservation is the order of the day at the moment.

Will write to you all later.

Cheers

Jee and DEE