Thailand. House fixed. Will not Burn Down Now. Hopefully.

As I reported before my house was trying to burn down and the fuse box thing was sparking every time the fridge or air conditioner motors cut in. The other night the fuse box was very hot and smelt really bad as the small sparks were melting the plastic a little and also scorching the timber as well.
The offender has been removed

So the previous 2 night we had been using as little power as possible. Only 1 TV on, no surround sound stereo, only necessary lights on and so forth. My electrician who installed my air conditioner and also my hot water heater was meant to come the day after I first seen and smelt the problem.

Now here in Thailand people’s word should be taken with a grain of salt. I had mosquito screen doors and windows made for my house. The guy measured all the windows and for the doors and then off he went. I didn’t see him for around 6 weeks and then he just showed up one Saturday while I was teaching private students at home and proceeded to install the frames. He bashed and banged and finished the job quickly and then I asked about the screen doors and said he hadn’t made them yet. What took so long? I have no idea. So he said he would make them and return to install them. I paid him the exact money right down to a tee. Not 1 baht over. This could have been a mistake as my screen doors didn’t arrive for around 6-8 weeks again and it was just out of the blue again and late in the evening one night. That’s Thailand for you.

So anyway, I called my electrician late the next afternoon and he said that he had been held up and would come the next day. I wasn’t happy but what could I do? I hate electricity. It scares me to death. So I made an enquiry with my next door neighbour and he said he knew a guy and off he went on his motorbike. He returned about 2 minutes later and said the guy would be there early in the morning.

And true to the guys word he showed up and he would have been around 60 plus. He was carrying a tiny little bag that looked like a shower bag. It had some basic gear in it like screwdrivers and pliers and that was about it that I could see. He spoke a little English and asked what the problem was and when I said sparks he actually understood. He pulled the little trip switch thing off the wall and then informed me that it had “not enjoyed” the past few weeks or months. He showed me some burn marks and where the plastic had melted and then went off to by a new one at the local market.
My new sparky in blue.

He returned with another fuse box thing that looked exactly like the last one but this has 60 written on it and the last one had 40 on it. So this one must be bigger I think. After he put it all back together he asked me to turn on all my appliances. I turned on everything. Air, computer, 2 TV’s, 5 electric fans, every light in the house, surround sound stereo and also put the hot water kettle on for good measure and it was given the all clear. So I am happy to say I feel safe again and am not worried about waking up to an explosion or a fire.
The new black box

I am sure I am going to sleep a lot sounder tonight and look forward to having the air on for a few hours before falling off to sleep as the last few nights have been very warm.

And by the way my electrician didn’t show up and I didn’t call him to say the job has been already done. It will be interesting if he shows up in the next few days or just puts it into the too hard basket and a waste of his time. It looks like that could be the case. I hope he shows tomorrow and I will just say “Oh sorry, I forgot to call you I have been so busy.. blah blah”

The living in Far North East Thailand is tuff sometimes.

Brunty.