A Daily Dose of Words

It's time...

2005-08-04T19:34:00.000+07:00

... for a change

I'm moving to a new location, coz I'm getting fed up of bubble head "oh I'm drowning" on the right there ---> and I fancied me some pinkness in my life.

So, go ahead fill your heads with my nonsense right here, and do a little finger gymnastics on your keyboards and change my link ;)

Apparently...

2005-08-04T12:25:00.000+07:00

... this chick here will rate/critique your blog if you're brave enough. I'm not.

My printer broke down...

2005-08-03T14:59:00.000+07:00

... and it costs so much to repair it that I was looking into the prices of a new one. Data IT is a big computer shop here in Thailand. I found a link to their website and got this:

Thai companies often have a special way with words when they do anything in English ;)

Today...

2005-08-02T21:53:00.000+07:00

... was no ordinary day.

my iPod died on me in the morning, oh the calamity of it all
a monster cockroach invaded our kitchen, thank god I live with a man who knows how to operate the cockroach killer spray and remove the remains. Apparently it hissed... *shudders*
I went to a new part of Bangkok I'd never been to before, beyond Krungton Bridge
I had a taxi driver talk at me for 40 minutes in Thai despite the fact I couldn't understand a word. I did pick up "Rotit" every 20 seconds which means traffic jam. And the traffic was pretty jammed. We both agreed on that.
I had another taxi driver offer me a Halls articial raspberry flavoured sweet
my iPod miraculously started working again after we left the battery to run out... praise the gods of iPod
I actually... uhm... watched 'Desperate Housewives'. The shame of it. Next I'll be on Oprah's Prime Time show audience screaming at Tom Cruise.

Busy like a bee

2005-08-01T15:38:00.000+07:00

It's been an action packed weekend... I went to bed last night feeling like I hadn't stopped for a second. But it was good action.

On Saturday Ben I went to listen to the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (BSO)at the Thai National Theatre, a bit of Brahms and a bit of Sibelius (Symphony No. 2 which is one of my favourites). Some people think that classical music is for old people and boring people or for pretencious people. I just find some of it beautiful and I just enjoy it - that's it... simple. So, technically I'm boring... a right fuddy duddy and I wear comfortable shoes (ok, I don't, but I should do). Ha!

Anyway, first of all I'm used to going to the Proms in London at the Royal Albert Hall or going to the Royal Festival Hall or Wigmore Hall on Welbeck Street. What I'm trying to say is that I'm a spoilt brat when it comes to classical music. Therefore my BSO experience was a little disappointing. I was expecting grandeur, class and... uhm good music. Instead I got something a little lacklustre, a few off keys and doormen with loud walkie talkies. The lack of umph by the musicians (apart from the over enthusiastic brass section) and the tacky BSO name up on the wall in royal blue in one of those horrendous fonts (blackletter if I'm not wrong) were kind of deflating of the whole experience.

But these are small things and I enjoyed it and the music was OK, I just shouldn't have held my expectations up there in the sky.

Then yesterday I just didn't STOP. It was one major shopping day and after the great idea to sell my brand new (coz the last one broke and the warranty gave me a new one!) super duper ZEN Touch 20 Gig MP3 player (it's too big for what I need) to get myself a cute little iPod mini, coz I'm a slave to all things cool and cliched. So, yesterday was spent just hunting out there for a pink one. Check it out... I lurrrrve it.

Beautiful, huh? I even got special iPod socks for it. Oh, my Apple obsessed brother would be SO proud of his little sister right now.

So, I got home and then I had to fill it with music. Back at Christmas I did a late 70's compilation. Now, I'm working on an 80's compilation and boy is that nostalgic or what. I was on allofmp3 listening to samples of stuff I hadn't heard in like 17 years! Rendez Vous by Jean Michel Jarre, Loaded by Deacon Blue and many others. But those two in particular really took me back. It was a weird but very nice feeling. I downloaded 40 tracks and tonight I'm organising myself some very cool playlists.

Can't believe...

2005-07-29T19:48:00.000+07:00

... I haven't written since Monday.

This week has just flown by and it was finished off with a trip to the cinema to see Crash... about relationships between people and mainly focussing on racial prejudices and paranoias amongst the people of LA... and showing at the same time that these people who can be incredible racist aren't necessarily bad people, and also shows what hypocrites others can be. I'm not sure what to make of it, it kept my attention, despite the big fat guy next to me who farted continually throughout the film. Ugh... I tell you, it was smelly and after fart number 3 I just wanted to scream at him. But I'm not brave enough.

Meanwhile, this week we've started planning for our holiday to New Zealand. I've got to go to Australia and New Zealand on a work trip (I just hate my job... ;p)at the end of September. It will be one helluva a rush getting around four cities in a week - Perth, Sydney, Auckland and Christchurch. So, we decided that Mr Him will join me for part of the trip where he will be doing his own thing while I work, and occasionally joining me but at the end of the trip I'll take some time off and we may hire a car and just travel around the South Island for a week. YAY! I can't wait as I've always wanted to visit New Zealand. I've now only one continent left to visit - Antarctica. Maybe one day I'll go check out the penguins there.

I won't, before anyone else mentions it, be partaking in any kind or form of bungy jumping as I don't believe in entrusting my life to a piece of elastic. Not to mention my over irrational fear of heights. I once had to walk over one of those swing bridges (you know, like in Indiana Jones films, except no one was shooting at me) over some jungle and half way along I thought my heart was going to explode I was so scared. The only reason I gained enough courage to walk the other half of it was only because I realised that I couldn't spend the rest of my life gripping that bridge. Had I not been so panic stricken and thought of helicopters I would've demanded an airlift...

...I may, however, throw myself down a steep hill inside a huge sort of bubble wrap plastic ball like so called Zorbing. Fun!

Literary worm

2005-07-25T14:42:00.000+07:00

I finally managed to finish a book... Isabel Allende's City of Beasts. A bit of a fable set in the Amazon rainforest, and written for kids/teens apparently... still quite enjoyable. And it feels like I've finally reached one helluva milestone and should have a party to celebrate this grand event. I go through phases of reading a lot and then I hit these dry book spells when I just can't get into it. It takes getting through (more like plodding/stumbling through) a book to get me back into it.

Now that I'm all revved up I have a list of books I'm dying to read, but they're all still out in hardback and most of them haven't yet set foot in Thailand including:

Ian McEwan's Saturday
Nick Hornby - A long way down
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never let me go

I haven't even mentioned Harry Potter... that'll be because I haven't even managed to finish the last one yet. I seem to be suffering from Harry Potter reader's block. I must be a freak of nature. I was hoping to find the audio version and listen to it at the gym instead as I've less chance of falling asleep there than I do at the moment coz everytime I pick up the book it seems to send me off into a kind of vegetative state which often results in me waking up drooling. Quite disturbing.

Anyway, I can't wait to get my hands on all them books...

Meaow

2005-07-24T16:37:00.000+07:00

I like cats - they take no crap from anyone and if I didn't live in a no-pet apartment or travel so much I'd have a couple. They're fun, cuddly, manic and they have this comical evil side to them. This afternoon I came across this website "My cat hates you" where people upload photo's of their evil cats with some sometimes funny captions... this one being my favourite.

O sole help me

2005-07-22T12:00:00.000+07:00

Long weekend ahead... lovely jubbly and I'm on my way to have dinner with a friend at an Italian that I've never been to. I'm not used to eating so late, so I'm ravenous and feel like eating a horse. Anyway, the place is La Buca on Sukhumvit Soi 1. A soi with not the best reputation in the world - basically where the Russian prostitutes hang out.

Talking of Russian prostitutes, every now and then we find ourselves on a visa run to Penang to find that we're accompanied by a Svetlana or an Elena who barely speaks English and they always look a little on the rough side. It's bizzare... you wouldn't think there would be demand for that kind of thing here, but there is - it's the guys from the Middle East who hang out on Soi 1, 3 and 3/1. They have a thing for blondes, so this is a bit of a niche market.

after dinner...

La Buca was good... the Italian guy who runs it has a different menu every week and if you're a regular he'll email it to you. The place looks like a cosy type trattoria, nothing fancy. But, the food was possibly the best Italian food I've had, although a little pricey. The cheapest main course was 270 Baht - which is only US$6.75, but for round 'ere that's considered pricey. But in compensation, as a bonus you get to to endure him singing along to a recording of O Sole Mio at the top of his voice, using the pepper grinder as his faulty microphone, because when he doesn't hit the high notes, he pretends his microphone isn't working. Apparently he does this every night. Corny beyond belief.

Meanwhile, down the same Soi there was a restaurant called "Russian Forest"... say no more.

The sound of silence

2005-07-20T17:21:00.000+07:00

One thing that struck me in Penang is the quietness of it all. At night, our room was eerily quiet, no loud air conditioning, no traffic noise, no tuk tuk's zooming by, hardly any dogs barking. And it was nice. The other thing I really enjoy is being by the 'sea' (technically it's not the sea). There's nothing like staring out onto the sea - it's very calming and for a lot of my life I did live by the sea.

Coincidently, I came across an article in the BBC website today stating that "The sight of the sea is the quickest and most effective way to reduce high stress levels for many people" - 42% infact. This is followed by:

A walk in the park: 33%
Hearing bird song: 14%
The smell of cut grass: 10%

In Bangkok, there is no sea to stare out at, I don't go for walks in the park because it's too hot and I'm not a 'wake up at the crack of dawn' type person to catch reasonable temperatures. I certainly don't hear birds tweeting and no one mows the lawn around here either. I'm, therefore, one huge stressball according to this.

In addition, they state that scaryling on average city dwellers can expect to spend 73 days without more than five minutes of silence at a time. That's just crazy. Apparently in London 1/4 of Londoners haven't experienced silence in over 6 months. If that's London, Bangkok has got to be worse with all the motorbikes, tuk tuks etc... And me, I'm all for silence.

It's time for an island holiday me thinks...

Travels...

2005-07-18T20:34:00.000+07:00

Selamat datang from Penang, Malaysia. It's always nice to be here and it certainly doesn't feel like we were here 7 months ago. It's been a little on the disappointing side because there had been certain things we'd been really looking forward to. One was to eat at our favourite Hong Kong restaurant which we found closed for renovations. I'd been dreaming of my fish and rice claypot for weeks. Secondly, we always stock up on Dvd's here but the shopping centre has been raided by the police so for the next few days NO Dvd's. Then we go down to Guerny Plaza and the good bookshops have closed down. I tell you... we're jinxed.

Tonight we had dinner at Nando's a Portuguese style restaurant chain which originated in South Africa by a couple of friends one of them being Portuguese. Anyway, interestingly at the restaurant they have several posters explaining the history of Piri Piri (how the Portuguese call chili, which actually is derived from the African word Pili Pili) saying it was the Portuguese who discovered it in Africa. But after reading up on it, it seems that this is wrong. Many people believe chili to originate in Asia, but actually it's origins are from South America and it was the likes of Christopher Colombus, the Portuguese traders aswell as Arabic, Javanese and Chinese traders who spread chili to Africa and Asia.

But, just imagine, if we hadn't these zealous traders, we almost could've had a chili free Thailand ;) And imagine an Indian curry with no chili?

Saturday drivel

2005-07-16T22:48:00.000+07:00

Two bad things happened today. Number one: I had to work. That's always bad when it involves a Saturday. Number two: I went to the dentist. Although just to get my teeth cleaned, I still hate it. I mean, who likes that saliva sucking machine?! Your mouth just aint meant to be dry. But, apparently I take good care of them.

And then one GREAT thing happened today. The first episode of Battlestar Galatica Series 2 was available for download this morning. ALELUIAAAAAAA *does a little dance round the room*. This one over here is a happy geek today.

But like I said before... at least I don't dress up like a Klingon. Or was it Deanna Troi?

Meanwhile, tonight we watched a British film called "Millions". Cute. About a kid who finds £300,000 and thinks it was sent to him by God. He's got this obsession with saints and knows all about them. Sees them too. Anyway, a lot of it is to do with how he and his brother decide to spend the money before the changeover to the EURO (like that's ever going to happen in the UK). The kid wants to give it to the poor, his big brother wants to buy property. It gets complicated and in the end you feel like the film is just full of unsubtle messages about giving money to Africans so that they can get fresh water. Still, it was cute. Not to mention a good piss take on the Mormons.

Anyway my cherubs, that's all from me today. Goodnight y'all and don't forget to floss your teeth. Otherwise your teeth will fall out. And if that won't do it, scurvy will. So, drink plenty of orange juice. Or Berocca.

?

The Longest Yard...

2005-07-15T20:19:00.000+07:00

... or the biggest rack?

The Longest Yard had good reviews, and Adam Sandler, I like him. The film had it's moments, got silly and then a little long winded. But the most remarkable thing about the film is Courteney Cox's chest (described in one review as "an alarming cleavage"). Suddenly out of the blue it's HUGE. I mean dramatically huge compared to before to the point of making me feel claustrophobic sitting in the cinema with those monsters pratically in my face.

Anyway, enough about boobs, but I wasn't the only one to notice. Check it out.

Magic strips

2005-07-14T16:32:00.000+07:00

Have you ever tried those Biore strips that you put on your nose and then 15 minutes later you pull it off along with all your blackheads?! A cosmetic miracle. I'm trying one right now.

There is much debate on whether they work or not, or if there is actually any benefit in using them. I have tried them before YEARS ago, and it did indeed pull 'stuff' out, although not all of it.

Way back when, I also managed to convince a friend of mine to try it out too and later she told me she cried when she pulled it off because it hurt so much. She also cried when she tried leg waxing after I recommended it to her. I think she's either a wuss, or has extra sensitive nerve endings (it happens, apparently). We don't talk much anymore.

I'm now trying to get 'him' to give it a go, but he doesn't look particularly enthused by the idea. It would've been fun. Sigh.

It crossed my mind to give you all photographic evidence, but decided against it, as it's a little distasteful. I was merely going to do it in the name of scientific research, but came to the conclusion this not the place for such like.

I think it's time to pull the goddamn thing off...

... and yep, it's truly wonderful stuff.

Hail fellow Thetans

2005-07-13T20:47:00.000+07:00

All this Tom Cruise talk made me decide to find out more about Scientology... I always had an idea it was screwy, but not this screwy.

Apparently all humans have invisible alien spirits attached to them and they are the cause of human problems. Something to do with the past having billions of surplus beings from other planets who were herded to earth and slaughtered by an evil alien called Xenu. These dead beings are supposed to haunt us and are the cause of all our damnations.

Then I got a bit confused. Although we're human beings, we are also in fact immortal aliens called Thetans and the whole point of our human existence is to become “clear” (ie to free the Thetan within you from the influence of evil Engrams). They say that the only way to rid ourselves of Engrams is to submit to the control of the Church of Scientology and use a lie-detector-like thing called an E-Meter regularly.

?!

Like I said it's screwy.

Bleurgh

2005-07-13T16:12:00.000+07:00

About a year ago, I whinged and moaned about spreadsheets, budgets and so on. Well, here I am again. I've been sitting here since 9.00am looking at bleedin' spreadsheets planning my entire spending for the next year. IT'S SO BORING working out how much the cost of printer cartridges for the next 12 months will be, not to mention forecasting all kinds of unpredictabilities. I need a magic 8 ball. It's now the end of the day and I can't take it any longer so I've decided to call it quits. Days like this make me feel like I've been skulking under a dark rock all day like some fetid worm.

Gossip, gossip, gossip

2005-07-13T08:52:00.000+07:00

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to meeeee... it's my blog's one year anniversary and this is where it all started. Time certainly zooms on by and my inspiration for writing these days seems to have dwindled. Apart from when I have the likes of Tom Cruise to talk about ;)

So, it seems that Katie has been sucked in by the evil clutches of Scientology... can you believe it that everywhere she goes she has a Scientology minder with her, even at interviews?! Weird. This tells you all about it. And to get an idea of what I was going on about in my previous post about the interview with Oprah here are some good photo's that illustrate what I meant about his delirium and the whole going down one knee thing, not to mention jumping up and down on the sofa. Apparently he's been doing it at other interviews too. He's lost it.

Fanaticism

2005-07-11T09:32:00.000+07:00

My first exposure to Tom Cruise was when my friend Kirsty and I went to see Top Gun at the cinema. Possibly the first time I'd been to the cinema without my parents. Since then I've always had a weak spot for him, although his whole Scientology thing is a little strange.

Last night they showed Oprah Winfrey's interview with Tom Cruise from last month and oh my god, what was wrong with him?! This was before he'd proposed to Katie Holmes and he was completely lovestruck.

He was standing on the couch next to Oprah and punching the air triumphantly, I don't know how many times he did his thing of getting down on one knee and banging his fist twice on the floor - that was weird... annoying, actually. But yeah, he was out of control, with stars in his eyes and little yellow birds flying round his head with delirium. Meanwhile, the women in the audience just shrieked for an hour. Why do women shriek? It's horrible. Sure he's cute, but come on... you're letting the side down with all the screaming.

Oprah asked if he'd ever felt like this before, and he said no. Poor Nicole Kidman. That's gotta be tough to hear. It's not like us regular people get to view our ex's on Oprah boasting about their new great love. So, yes, this is one helluva happy man. Then they literally drag on the poor Katie with no make up, big spot above her lip, dishevelled hair... the girl was horribly embarrassed. Apparently they'd been up all night eating cheesy popcorn, pizza and fudge ice-cream. And it's true you only eat this kind of crap when you're in love. The question is will it last all this bamboozled love?

?

2005-07-07T23:57:00.000+07:00

I remember after 9/11 that walking around London felt a little intimidating. The police were everywhere and quite often you'd see one, two, three policecars racing by. Everyone was talking about possible attacks in the underground and for a few weeks it just didn't feel comfortable commuting to work. But everything bounced back and London was once again it's lively self. And yesterday watching the news seeing London so happy to have been voted for the 2012 Olympics it reminded me of what it's like to live there. The contrast with today's events, however, has been drastic. From people drinking out of champagne bottles in Trafalger Square to scenes of commuters looking shocked coming out of the underground stations. It's taken 4 years but everyone knew that sooner or later there was going to be a terror attack in London. I'm glad that I wasn't there to be part of it. I'm glad that the people I know in London are all OK. I'm glad that my closest friends don't live in London, some of them having moved away in the past two years, and I'm sorry for everyone that had to go through this today.

But like Tony Blair said in his speech from 10 Downing Street we've just got to keep on living our lives as before, otherwise they win. The bastards.

The voicemail phobia

2005-07-06T16:07:00.000+07:00

I've got this problem... every now and then I get emails from clients saying that they've called all week but I never answer the phone. Truth is I'm out a lot. It's the nature of my work. That's why I have an answering machine and a mobile phone. This way people can leave messages so that I can call them as soon as I come back into the office, or they can call me on my mobile, you know it avoids them having to wait a week to get hold of me. Thing is I'm often in meetings and unable to answer my mobile too, but oh the miracle of the voicemail is also available. But oh nooooo, oh no, no, no... my Thai clients have an unnatural fear of leaving messages. They simply don't leave messages. Instead I get irritated emails. So, I'm supposed to have these supernatural powers of knowing who has called?

ARGH!

Its a constant source of frustration for me.

Musings

2005-07-05T12:01:00.000+07:00

Don't know about you lot, but I'm itching for the new ipod flea. "Him" emailed me this little beauty (he finds the coolest things, oh wait a minute, he didn't find it, it was his friend... ok, she finds the coolest things). My brother, the apple devotee (fanatic, more like), would love this. He loves apple so much he probably sleeps in apple pyjamas. And if he were religious he'd make a great preacher, because his aim in life is to convert the PC masses. My parents are already almost brain washed. And he'd kill me if he read this. I love you, my sweet, adorable brother.

But apple aside, I'm having a frustrating time with my local postoffice. I don't know what's up with everyone, but for the past two days everyone and their mothers are mailing stuff, paying for stuff, coming with bags with a million packages to send. They should have express queues like in the supermarket where you can only post 1 letter for the likes of me.

Meanwhile, talking of supermarkets, our local supermarket has started selling Waitrose stuff (an upmarket UK supermarket chain). Beautifully packaged spices, pasta in opaque plastic bags, flour ground by the hands of a fair maiden in Cornwall and so on. Not to mention Wotsits (cheesy puffs that Cartman, my South Park hero, adores). All to lure the cravings of the lone expat. We don't fall for it though, because we don't earn expat salaries. We just look longingly.

Amazing...

2005-07-01T16:25:00.000+07:00

but embarrassing.

I've noticed that when I go to a class at California Fitness the classes are always given in English by the Thai instructors. I always wondered if it was for the benefit of the foreigners in the class, because you can't assume every Thai in the class can understand English well.

But today it was confirmed for sure. I walked in late to my class and the instructor was speaking in Thai, but as soon as I walked half across the room and he saw me, he switched to English.

It's great... for me. But there's one of me, and there's 8 Thai who might now struggle with what he's saying (and this is often the case... foreigners are always the great minority). It somehow doesn't seem right to me. If I wereThai this kind of thing would really irritate me. I'd curse everytime a foreigner walked into my class ;)

Ho hum.

Soup Geek

2005-06-30T15:36:00.000+07:00

*warning this post contains War of the World spoilers - read at your peril*

This time last week I was on my way home from the airport and already it feels like an eternity ago. It's amazing how quickly life goes back to it's normal routine. Although now a pizzaless and icecreamless routine. A routine I've become quite nazi about... "Shall we have some icecream?"... "GODDAMIT NO", "Pi...", "NO". These days it's homemade vegetable soup for me.

Sigh.

So, this evening we went to see War of the Worlds... the only film I've been looking forward to ALL year. And boy it was worth it, I spent two hours on the edge of my seat petrified. It reminded me a bit of the fear I felt in Signs with Mel Gibson, but this was much, MUCH better. Although there are questions like why did they bury those tripods to come out millions of years later, why not just invade when there was no one around and save all the hassle of killing everyone? And why didn't they die then (you know when they were burying those tripods) of our evil bacteria and viruses? Hm, hm?!

I've always had a thing about sci fi films and I blame my two older brothers who had control of what we watched on TV. It all started with Space 1999 at the age of 6. It used to terrify me with all those horrible alien monsters. I seem to have this illogical desire to feel scared... in the safety of my living room, of course. Then my brother took me to see Encounters of the Third Kind and this was followed by Empire Strikes Back, Battlestar Galactica and so on. Not necessarily in that order. Eventually I read a book of short stories by H G Wells which included War of the Worlds and I'd never read such bizarre stories in my life. And me, I like bizarre.

I am, however, relieved to announce that I don't speak Klingon and don't dress like Deanna Troi to go to Star Trek movies.

There are sales tools and then...

2005-06-28T19:36:00.000+07:00

... there are SALES TOOLS.

Picture the scenario with Air Asia this morning. They discover to their horror that they've once again over booked their flights from Bangkok to Penang at 7.10 am. But hey, they've got tonnes of seats left in the evening flight at 10.20 pm. This is my theory, anyway.

We booked our morning flights to Penang more than a month ago, and today I receive the following text message from Air Asia:

From AirAsia: Urgent!
FD5116 from Bangkok to Penang on 11, 13,16, 18, 20, 23, 25, 27 and 30 Jul 05 Cancelled! Move to FD5119 New Departure 10.20pm

So, I call. As you can probably imagine, I certainly don't suffer fools as they say and I like to argue my case. Our trip was carefully planned for us to apply for our visa. We basically need two full days and that week Thursday and Friday are public holidays. So, it's not like we can move our dates. AirAsia try to convince me to changing the dates, but I explain the impossibility. How about going a day early they suggest, but of course when I demand that they pay for my extra night, I'm put on hold once again whilst she discusses this with her 'supervisor'. Goddamn supervisors! Then they offer me a refund to use with another airline, I'm like what so I can pay double? No.

When I ask why the flights have been cancelled... "Oh, I don't know the reason". So, after much discussion and MORE holding to horrendously loud music they ask for my phone number and they'll get back to me within an hour.

Five minutes later I get a call - apparently it had been a mistake and those flights aren't cancelled and we will fly as scheduled.

Hm. All a little bit strange, if you ask me. Bananas infact.

The shoeless executive

2005-06-26T16:27:00.000+07:00

This afternoon I had to trek on down to the Sacred Heart Convent School to do a presentation to the school board, parent association and teachers. My mission, I was told, was to impress them.

I doll myself up in my suit plus my very nice high heel shoes and turn up, laptop hanging off my shoulder outside the meeting room, to find myself surrounded by shoes. It's normal in Thai schools that kids leave their shoes outside the classroom. I know, because I've had the pleasure of walking into a classroom smelling of 40 pairs of sweaty feet. And outside Bangkok, it's normal to leave your shoes outside before entering a shop.

But I'm in Bangkok and I'm no school kid. I ask tentatively, "Do I have to take my shoes off?", hoping they'll let me off. Now there's nothing more disconcerting than walking into a room full of people trying to look professional barefoot. IT DOESN'T WORK. So, I walk up to the podium to start my powerpoint presentation feeling completely ridiculous in my barefeet.

Despite the lack of shoes I did manage to complete my mission, so I was told. We'll move ahead to the next conference in August when I shall once again be talking barefoot to a crowd of 200. I'll make sure to go for a good pedicure the day before.

Some Photos...

2005-06-25T14:41:00.000+07:00

... from my trip.

During my trip I went to visit the company I did my internship with 15 years ago. They're developing golf courses in a rural part of Portugal and as a bit of a hobby they've also been breeding horses and now have 16 Lusitano horses. The Lusitano horse is a Portuguese breed, famous for the typical Portuguese bullfighting and dressage.

Here's one of these guys...

And this one is a prize winner, because he's blonde, he looks kind of cockey too...

Then when these two fine ladies turned up all the boys in the stables went crazy... typical

Meanwhile, this is the view from my parent's place, when some NATO ships were going past...

And here's a bit of Lisbon...

And most importantly this was the birthday cake for my dad and I... the pink candles are mine and you can imagine who the blue ones were for ;)

I'm like a yo-yo...

2005-06-24T21:09:00.000+07:00

... I seem to be constantly coming back to Bangkok lately.

Leaving home was it's usual gut wrenching torture. I've always found it hard to tear myself away, and yet I haven't lived at home since I was 19. You'd think I'd get used to it. But it was so nice to be home and to spend time with my parents and it was comforting to be somewhere so familiar to me.

But of course being back to my home in Bangkok is a good feeling too. Back to my things and my life, not to mention a certain 'him', ahem. Unfortunately since I've arrived it's like I've been bitten by the Tse tse fly. Sit me down anywhere and I'll be doing z's for the next hour. And if it happens to be dark too... then not a chance. Apparently I 'watched' a movie today at the cinema. Jeeez, I can't remember suffering this badly from jet lag before.

The flight back was tediously long again and this time the flight was full. Full of Thai people living in Europe and going back to Thailand for holidays, full of scary looking 50 year old Austrian men going to Thailand for their annual injection of nookie, and then full of the regular tourists and businessmen, and erm, me.

I now need to get my life back into gear, work feels like it's all over the place and we've decided here at home that we're going to start watching less TV and I'm planning on obliterating the words 'ice cream' and 'pizza' from our vocabulary. Wish us luck.

Vienna, Austria

2005-06-13T23:48:00.000+07:00

And there I was 5.00am this morning. Ten degrees celcius. Fog. I hadn't felt or seen that in a while.

Austrian Airlines were particularly bad... I'd ordered vegetarian because it's usually nicer and I got a plate of vegetables and fruit. Apparently I'm a vegan too. For breakfast, I was STARVING and I got a plate of overripe fruit and then four slices of wrapped up pomelo... had the flight been any longer I would've been knawing on the smelly blanket. Oh and we got a pesky choice of 3 crap films.

Vienna airport is small and with five hours to spare, I roamed around in a circle for a while (I'm getting good at roaming around airports these days) looking at the shops that were closed. Curiously, amongst all the Bally, Mont Blanc and Burberry shops there was also a sex shop. Quite unusual, I thought to myself in a rather understated way.

This time, however, I was no fool and I'd brought my laptop along with me. I wasn't going to have a repeat Singapore experience. So, after searching high and low for a socket next to the toilets I was up and away with endless episodes of Roswell to while the hours away.

But the thing that struck me most of being back in this end of the world were the people. There's a lot of variety in shapes, sizes, hair colour, clothes etc... and most importantly I got to see many arses bigger than mine. I don't feel quite the freak anymore ;)

Otherwise, this all feels very surreal. More tomorrow!

Artistic?

2005-06-07T14:41:00.000+07:00

Me? Not a single bone with flair in me. But many in my family are, however, the gene definitely didn't pass down in this general direction. It seems my drawing never developed beyond my 7th birthday. I must be the milkman's daughter ;)

But one of my artistic uncles has just had the break he needed in the UK and a gallery in Liverpool has accepted to exhibit some of his work... I'm so proud check him out! On some of his paintings he seems to have gone all 'Fauve' with his style - not that I'm arty farty (although I do enjoy it) or anything but once I saw a Fauve exhibition in London and it stuck in my head. All the paintings were very bright and colourful and I really liked them very much.

Anyway, here's wishing my uncle lots of luck and success!

Wake up, wake up

2005-06-03T15:26:00.000+07:00

This morning I woke up and wondered what time it was. I lifted my head up to see the alarm clock... 11.35am... what, WHAT? How did we sleep in so late? That never happens. Wait a second, am I awake? Am I? I'm asleep? Ugh? I'm asleep.

Ok, so now I can check the real time. So, I lift my head up to see the time.... 12.00am... OH MY GOD how the hell did we manage that?! It's so late, 'him' wake up, wake up. Hold on, something's not right. I'm still asleep, right? Goddammit I'm asleep.

This time... OPEN YOUR EYES before looking. I open my eyes, it's 8.24am. I do a bit of double checking and yes, I'm awake this time. Or am I? Has this whole day been a dream and I'm going to wake up soon?

OoooooooOOOOoooo...

Infectious people

2005-06-03T09:54:00.000+07:00

Yesterday I had a lunch appointment at the Landmark Hotel. The guy wants the company I work for to do a lot for his tiny, insignificant company, so this was his idea of impressing me with a buffet lunch. If he had any clue... impressing me would've been to take me for lunch at the Oriental Hotel... afterall I'm just what you call 'classy'... *rolls around laughing*

Anyway, as he arrives he shakes my hand. Then proceeds to tell me about his REALLY bad cold he's had for two weeks and this is followed by 1.5 hours of wiping his nose with the hand I shook. Lovely. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there hoping my white blood cells are alert and at the ready for the onslaught of this man's evil virus.

I get paranoid these days of catching a cold, but that's only because it's been over a year since I've had a full on cold, and that for me is record. I used to catch 4 or 5 colds a year.

I do, however, feel pretty shit this morning. Ugh.

From the city of angels to the lion city

2005-06-01T17:04:00.000+07:00

My trip to Singapore was incredibly tedious and getting up at 4.40am nothing short of VERY GRUELLING. Once in Singapore I had 3 hours to kill before I could check in again. I should've gone into the city on the MRTA had I realised there was an MRTA station at the airport in time to be able to do it. Doh. Next time.

So, what to do for 3 hours in an airport:

I looked at every single shop in terminal one (about 5 shops in total) - 20 minutes

I took the skytrain to terminal two - 5 minutes

I looked at every single shop in terminal two (about 6 shops in total) - 20 minutes

I bought some conditioner and some dark chocolate peanut m&m's for 'him' - 5 minutes

I had a cup of tea at a coffee shop - 10 minutes

I took the skytrain back to terminal one - 5 minutes

I went to look at the planes land and take off (what desperation does to you) - 30 minutes

I looked at all the restaurant menus and decided I wasn't hungry - 10 minutes

I sat infront of the check in desks reading a book until they opened - 1 hour

Meanwhile, whilst waiting for the check in desk to open I was forced to talk to a loon despite having earphones on AND with a look of complete concentration on my book. Loons do that, they have no regard for what you're doing and can't read a person who's sending out every kind of signal intimating that if they dare talk to you, you'll kill 'em.

Then once checked in I had 1.5 hours which just flew by because there's so much to do once you've gone through passport control.

Finally, I got home at 6.00pm - my head was fuzzy and when I went to sleep I slept like a log, even with the raucous cacophony of frogs outside ;)

Its that time of the year again...

2005-05-30T16:47:00.000+07:00

This time last year I was grumbling about budgets... well, it's here again. Umpf. This week I've sales volumes to prepare. Just spending one hour on it has already left me with a headache.

Tomorrow I've the joyous opportunity to fly to and from Singapore for the day with AirAsia (lucky me... hopefully they'll land straight this time). BRIGHT AND EARLY. As in leaving the house at 5.00am *bangs head on desk, repeatedly* Grmpf. Not out of choice, but out of necessity... something to do with my passport and visas, y'a know what I mean. The only positive aspect to this is that I may find some English magazines at reasonable prices, and perhaps a book or two. But generally a lot of sitting around will be involved. Sigh.

Meanwhile, the winds are howling. Ominous grey skies are looming and it's bound to rain soon. When it rains here it gets very noisy. It seems all the frogs decide to come alive after a good rainfall. Not only do they come alive they also want to make you bloody sure of it too. Like living in a jungle it is, but without the foliage.

And finally, I've decided to post a weekly pet peeve. This week's peeve - the online Guardian Newspaper haven't updated their online Weekend Magazine, it's still last week's articles. Grumble, grumble.

Crossed lines

2005-05-26T16:11:00.000+07:00

This afternoon I had three meetings scheduled. During the first meeting I received a cryptic text message which seemed to indicate that possibly my second meeting was cancelled.

So, I called them to doublecheck this. I called them on the number I always call them. The text message I'd just received had come from this number. I get this woman on the line who seems to have trouble hearing me. Little did I know, it wasn't a hearing problem but more of a 'who the hell are you and what do you want' problem. So, I ask for my colleague Pang, and the woman replies that Pang is at the hospital. Ok, so that could be why she cancelled. So, I ask to speak to Dao, Pang's boss, and apparently Dao is also at the hospital. Weird. So, I ask if this is company so and so, and the woman replies yes. Then she asks who I am and where I'm calling from. She has no clue what company I'm talking about. I find that incredible considering they're one of our biggest clients here in Thailand. At this point we're almost shouting at each other because she starts demanding what number I've called and I'm like "THE ONE STORED IN MY MOBILE FOR YOUR OFFICE", "THE ONE YOU JUST TEXTED ME FROM"... YOU ORANGUTAN, I felt like saying.

At this point I figure something isn't right, and I just say goodbye and hang up.

Turns out that there have been some network problems because Pang also got some people calling her at the office thinking she was someone else. Phew... But it doesn't answer why she seemed to know who these people were and that yes she was at company so and so.

Anyway, Pang was never at the hospital and neither was Dao.

Very twilight zone if you ask me.

Conversations

2005-05-23T19:20:00.000+07:00

Today I got to talk to nephew number 2. This is a talkative one. If you're not careful he'll bankrupt you on just the phonebill. So, what kind of conversations do you have with a 10 year old?

We talked about our favourite school subjects... and you know he's won 3 prizes for his Maths. He's so smart. We also talked about his favourite teacher who is SO COOL, I didn't, however, quite get why. Nephew number 2 talks in mysteriously convoluted ways which often loose me.

We talked about Advance Wars 2 for the gameboy and how his brother is the BEST in the village and beats all the other boys, only because of his strategy of I'm not quite sure because he lost me on that one too. Something to do with not building an army, or was it do with building an army?

We talked about Eoin Colfer's latest book "The Opal Deception", I'm supposed to be sending that one over.

We talked about the weather... I was asked is it summer or winter. Neither - it's the rainy season, rains almost every day and big storms... "oh poor Baba in all that rain"... I quickly added, that infact it was a welcome change.

We talked about Songkran and how he wants to come next year because back at his village when he accidently squirts the wrong person with his foot and a half long water pistol they just scream at him. Goddamn uptight adults, I tell you.

We talked about Star Wars which he's going to see next week when he's back home... "is it true that you get to see Padame getting killed?". When I replied "yes, you see her die" I got a rather disappointed "oh". Ick. Should've kept my mouth shut.

And then almost an hour had gone by and I had to stop him midflow otherwise I was going to miss my dinner.

Awwww... my sweet, sweet nephew number 2. I could talk to him for hours. Not the case three/four years ago, because he'd spend an hour just describing a football game, a film he'd seen or one joke. That was hard going even for a cute, adorable nephew.

Where did the little boys go?

2005-05-21T18:52:00.000+07:00

One thing that's not so great about living in Thailand, is being far from my family and not seeing them as often as I'd like to, and some I don't even get to see.

The last time I spoke to my 10 year old nephew on the phone was last December - it's always fun talking to my nephews - the conversation is always a little crazy. But today I called my parents who have my nephews staying with them for two weeks. So, all of a sudden there was this boy on the phone saying hello. A voice I didn't recognise and even though I knew who it was it felt like I wasn't talking to my cute little nephew. His little boy voice in just six months... GONE! He now sounds like a boy, as in BOY! Nothing little about him anymore. And it made me sad, because I realise that I'm not around often enough to not notice the difference. And it makes me even sadder that maybe next time I get to see these two BOYS they'll feel a bit like strangers but yet they are my two cute little boys that I adore so much.

Oh boo hoo... this aunt is feeling over emotional right now. Excuse me for a minute while I go and drown my pillow.

(nothing like overdramatisation)

Crap wars

2005-05-20T11:19:00.000+07:00

Unfortunately the latest Star Wars film didn't quite cut it for me. The attempts at light humour at the beginning were crap and the acting was even crappier, particulary Ewan and Hayden. It was, however, interesting to see how the story tied up and the transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader. Also liked how they used James Earl Jones' voice again for Darth Vader. But of all the star wars films for me nothing beats Empire Strikes Back.

This Guardian review of the film really sums up what I thought of it too!

The dark side

2005-05-19T11:39:00.000+07:00

The past couple of nights we've had huge storms that have kept us awake. As a kid I used to always count the distance between the lightening strike and the thunder clap. I found myself doing that last night, except there was nothing to count. Maybe one second, which means the lightening was striking right above us and the thunder claps were so loud they actually made our window rattle. These are real storms... not like the quiet wimpy storms in the UK. No, like a man who is very macho, these are very MANLY storms with lots of pizazz and umpf. These storms work out everyday and are built like bricks ;)

Anyhoo, it's almost lunch time and the skies are dark and the thunder is rolling once again. This afternoon I'm finishing work early and we're off to see the new Star Wars film in the luxury of EGV's Gold Class cinema. Reclining seats, blankets, socks and all, not to mention waitress service. As it should be, too!

In the meantime, I really ought to focus on that fact that I DO have a job and that I DO have some work to do.

Roll on 3.00pm!

Goddamn hogging chit chats

2005-05-17T20:02:00.000+07:00

One good thing of having life back to normal is being able to work out again on a regular basis. It's amazing how much fitness you loose after two weeks of only sporadic training, especially now that I'm not quite the spring chicken anymore *she sobs hysterically into her arms*

Anyway, in the mornings the gym is especially popular with our local Indian community and amongst the women many know each other. So, it's not unusual to find a couple of them standing around their friend sitting at one of the machines chit chatting. Actually it often sounds more like they're discussing about something unjust which has happened to one them with arms flailing and raised indignant voices. But infact they're only talking about gym regimes and the benefits of having a personal trainer. The thing is they'll hog that one machine for ages without actually using it. And of course it's always the machine I need and I hate interrupting, but I do. It's that or my butt goes without it's very much needed exercise to keep it pert and trim *she laughs hysterically tossing her head back*

So, I interrupt and they promptly apologise politely and perch themselves on the next available machine, change the weight settings and proceed to discuss more fitness and diet plans as opposed to actually flexing their muscles and most importantly they hog yet another machine that I need to use. Grrrr. Suffering from a low threshold of patience, this is just a LITTLE bit irritating. Makes me want to put up a sign infront of them for Starbucks with an arrow pointing down the road. Instead, I interrupt yet again in my quiet little voice "I'm sorry, are you also not using this machine?" in the politest tone I can muster up, you know, trying very hard to not sound my usual sarcastic self. Oh and I smile... sweetly. Potentially very phoney, but I do mean it. Ok, 80% of me means it ;)

But I have to say they DO work hard these Indian ladies when not chit chatting and are possibly the friendliest bunch at the gym and the only ones to actually attempt making conversation with strangers like me. Eight points to them. Minus 5 points for hogging machines without using them ;)

Don't look back, never look back ...

2005-05-16T13:44:00.000+07:00

Oh Jungleland
They call you home sweet home
You make me feel so sad, to leave here all alone
But there is a kid called Hope
And he's holding out his hand
He sees the Northern Lights
above this highrise land

This is the kind of song makes me feel like an adolescent again and which gets me jumping around the flat, if only I were alone ;)

Meanwhile, the sky is rumbling loudly, the clouds dark... how I love the rainy season in Thailand. I don't love it, however, when I happen to be outside and the sky decides to empty itself on me, or when I have to wade my way through the flooded roads. So, like the Gauls who were invincible except for their fear of the sky falling on their heads. I too have a fear of the skies opening up onto my head.

I did, I did...

2005-05-13T20:24:00.000+07:00

... I saw Jack Osbourne this evening sitting at a table near ours in Siam Discovery Centre. At least I think I did ;) If it was him, it was a much thinner version but apparently he's been in Thailand on some drug/alcohol detox program and he also did a one month intensive muay thai boxing course to loose some weight. Anyway, he was with a bunch of hippy looking friends obviously on their way to an island or maybe even from an island.

I never see famous people. Only sometimes. I saw Rupert Everet in London once in a tracksuit, and Dot from Eastenders. Wow.

Holy plasters!

2005-05-11T19:14:00.000+07:00

My foot, my blister, my Batman plaster...

... the envy of the neighbourhood.

Absurdities

2005-05-10T22:57:00.001+07:00

Today I saw a ten year old girl with a t-shirt saying the following:

"All I want is my willa wonka in your chocolate factory"

*raises eyebrows*

Work, work, work AND MORE WORK

2005-05-09T18:43:00.000+07:00

It seems that for the past four weeks I've just had one visitor after another here in Bangkok. The work visitor variety not the friend variety which is far more enjoyable and, of course, welcome. Having my colleagues here in Bangkok means spending endless days visiting business partners. Which means I get really behind my work. Which means I get really tired and stressed out trying to catch up with my work in the mornings and evenings.

So, I have one last visitor here and she's off on Wednesday. I like her very much, but I'll be glad to have this place to myself again and back to my normal peaceful routine where I know when I'm coming and when I'm going as opposed to not knowing whether I'm coming or going.

Away with you all, I say!

Halong paradise

2005-05-06T17:13:00.000+07:00

Strange to think that this time last week I was sitting in a beautiful Junk in Halong Bay working my way through a plate full of fresh crab.

Arriving in Hanoi was a tedious ordeal. I've never encountered airport officials that ponder so long on each passport it took over an hour to get through immigratation and as a result we didn't get to spend much time in Hanoi just an hour, but enough to have a walk around the opera house and down to the lake. I really liked this part of Hanoi, a very well kept french colonial area and if it weren't for the unbearable heat and the thousands of motorbikes you'd almost feel like you're walking along a tree lined avenue in France.

Otherwise Hanoi and surrounding areas are covered in skinny wedding cake style buildings, rice paddy fields and again lots of motorbikes. Apparently ten years ago these were all bicycles. That's progress for you.

The drive to Halong was long - just over 3 hours. But worth it just to get to where we were going. As we arrived, the sun was going down and here was our first glimpse of our boat:

Definitely one of the more upmarket boats cruising the bay. My room was nice but also inhabitated by baby cockroaches which I kind of ended up accepting. Some of us even managed to bring some back home with us. Thankfully not me.

We headed out to the bay in time for our dinner. Our meals were always extravagant five or six course dinners and lunches with plates piled high with incredibly fresh crab that we had to break and crack our way through for what seemed like hours, king prawns, giant clams, squid and it was all very delicious.

Work was intermingled with trips to caves, islands and a floating fishing village. It almost felt like we weren't working sitting out feeling the cool breeze whilst discussing budgets. Mostly it was easy to focus but occasionally I'd find myself staring out at the islands.

The nights were so quiet, no tuk tuks and screaming Soi Cowboy girls. And you could see stars in the sky! But the best part was in the mornings opening the bedroom door to be greeted with the still sea and the first boats coming to sell their shells and pearls.

The kids were the funniest and what salesmen! Shouting out "Abalam, abalam, abalam" which we assumed was some mysterious sales pitch of theirs. Occasionally they'd also board us.

Our evenings were pretty low key, everyone was so exhausted not so much from the work but also being out in the fresh air and sun. And coming from Bangkok, I wasn't used to so much oxygen ;) One evening our boatcrew taught us how to fish squid but unfortunately we were crap at it and after two hours our water filled bowl only had four squid and a lot of ink which the vegetarian in the group set free when no one was looking. Saboteur!

And before we knew it was Monday and we had to head back to Hanoi.

For more pictures you can click here.

Sidelines

2005-05-05T13:14:00.000+07:00

Ufff.... boss is gone. Time to breathe and take a step back. Vietnam was pretty damn cool considering it was a work trip, but more about that later. Still sifting through my billions of photographs.

Meanwhile, today coming back from my final meeting with the big boss, I was walking through Soi Cowboy as I do every day and for the first time ever, a guy (western, of course) came up to me and seriously asked me 'you come with me?'. I 'pffffffed' and raised my eyes like 'yeah, buddy you're not on this planet are you?' and then he continued 'yeah?', but by then I was a mere dot in his horizon such was the speed of my retreat.

So, either I look Thai and therefore a cheap whore, NOT because I think Thai women are all cheap whores, BUT because 90% of Thai women on Soi Cowboy ARE cheap whores. Or, he's taking the piss, but he looked too blank for that. Or, he's one of these that has the view point that you don't know until you ask.

Hm.

Ships a'hoy

2005-04-28T20:31:00.000+07:00

So, everything packed and ready. So much for a small and light back pack. It's more like overstuffed and heavy.

It hasn't, however, completely sunk in that tomorrow I have to wake up at 5.00am, which I might add I find completely vile, and that by this time tomorrow I'll be aboard our junk enjoying delicious vietnamese food (that's me being hopeful on the delicious part). I'm not, however, going to enjoy explaining why my costs are above budget in a major kind of way the next day. Ahem.

Meanwhile, today at the gym we were greeted by a disturbing sight on a treadmill as we were going in bleary eyed from having just gotten up. All I could see was a guy's bouncing butt in very small grey underwear with part of his butt cheeks peeping out at the bottom. It's not normal, is it? If the rear end was that scary, we dreaded to think what the front view might offer us. Unfortunately we got to see that too and if I'd been a young child I would've been scarred for life.

Finally, I hope that tomorrow morning won't be as stormy as it was this morning which kept me up from 4.00am.

And now for another frustrating but intriguing episode of Lost.

Hasta la vista!

Time to pack up our bags....

2005-04-26T18:06:00.000+07:00

According to an article in the Guardian, scientists have come up with 10 reasons why the end might be nigh as follows:

1: Climate Change

So, by the end of this century... it'll be 2C hotter because we can't control ourselves with our greenhouse gases. The Earth hasn't been this hot in the last 1.5 million years.

Chance of temperatures rising more than 2C (the level considered to be dangerous by the European Union) in the next 70 years: High

Danger score: 6

2: Telomere erosion

Apparently we're going to start having old age related diseases earlier leading to our extinction.

Chances of a human population crash due to telomere erosion during the next 70 years: Low

Danger score: 8

3: Viral Pandemic

Bird flu is going to kill us all.

Chance of a viral pandemic in the next 70 years: Very high

Danger score: 3

4: Terrorism

And if it's not bird flu, it'll be anthrax or small pox.

Chances of a major terrorist attack in the next 70 years: Very high

Danger score: 2

5: Nuclear war

That crazy guy in North Korea is the most likely to nuke some of us by accident.

Chance of a global nuclear war in the next 70 years: Low

Danger score: 8

6: Meteorite impact

Armageddon is nigh. As likely to happen as the risk of dying in a plane. Cockroaches and humans, however, are likely to survive such an impact. Lucky us.

Chance of the Earth being hit by a large asteroid in the next 70 years: Medium

Danger score: 5

7: Robots taking over

They reckon in 50 years robots will have "humanlike mental power". You'd think we'd learnt our lesson through the Terminator and Matrix films, eh?

Chance of super-intelligent robots in the next 70 years: High

Danger score: 8

8: Cosmic ray blast from exploding star

If a star decides to explode near us (happens every 150 million years) we could enter a new ice page. Possibly an ice age too ;)

Chance of encountering a supernova in the next 70 years: Low

Danger score: 4

9: Super-volcanos

So, every 50,000 years our planet experiences a SUPER VOLCANO! Night skies 24 hours a day and pretty much not good all round. But we lived through the last one 74,000 years ago although it was freezing in the tropics. Thais will be able to finally wear those scarves and gloves they sell in the winter here.

Chance of a super-volcano in the next 70 years: Very high

Danger score: 7

10: Earth swallowed by a black hole

I didn't get this one. My powers of deduction failed me. I'm not entirely sure how we'd get swallowed up by a black hole, but apparently it can happen. How is a mystery to me.

Chance of Earth being gobbled up by a black hole in the next 70 years: Exceedingly low

Danger score: 10

For more details on the above click and try to not dispair here

However, we can run away from all this! Apparently if we boil space as in big bang kind of boil, bubbles like looking glasses will appear and we'll be able to travel through them to parallel universes and save our skin. You know just like Alice through the looking glass.I heard that on the BBC World news some Japanese physicist was going on about it. Ok, so who knows how to boil space... hands up!

Oooops...

2005-04-26T08:57:00.000+07:00

...overslept. It's gone past 9.00am.

If I worked in a real office I'd be panicking, flapping around the apartment trying to get ready lightening speed and stressing out about walking into the office so late.

But I don't work in a real office, my office is my home so HA!

Meanwhile, I decided to check out the wardrobe situation yesterday for my trip to Vietnam this Friday and I've nothing, NOTHING suitable for a boat and beach trip. A bit late to realise this. So, I've got to go frantically shop for some shorts and a t-shirt.

Anyway, check out the itinerary for our sales meeting on a Junk cruising Halong Bay:

Friday evening: Arrive and dinner on boat

Saturday: Work, work, work followed by: a cruise in Ha Long bay, visit Dinh Huong island, Ga Choi island, Dog island, Sail island, visit Sung Sot cave and a swim at Titov beach.

Sunday: Breakfast and a dip in the ocean followed by cruise to Tortoise island, Man’s head island, visit Luon cave by a small bamboo boat. Then work, work, work and dinner.

Monday: back to Hanoi

Jammy, jammy, jammy... tra laa laaaaaa :)

Arts and rivers

2005-04-24T21:29:00.000+07:00

I spent Thursday and Friday trapsing around the city with a colleague from New Zealand promoting our Art & Design College and with it's links with Silpakorn University here in Thailand we did pretty well. Design is part of the current migration skills set in NZ making it very attractive for the artistically minded wanting to move to the land of the long white cloud.

Yesterday we had one last appointment by Silpakorn University which is in a building that used to be a palace located next to the Grand Palace. This is part of the campus:

The university itself was first established as a school of fine arts by an Italian Corrado Feroci I think sometime in the early forties and he was given the Thai name of Silpa which means 'art' hence the name of the university too. It's now the top university for fine arts here in Thailand. Although now they're not strictly just art and design as they've now also set up a medical school. A little strange, no?

I always like going to that part of the city by the river as it's the most historic and most beautiful part of the city. On the way back we decided to take the boat down the river to Sathorn as we were very near a pier. Beats a taxi ride and it's cooler on the river and given the current hell temperatures it was no debate whether to take the boat or not.

On the way down the river to our stop I noticed that many of the old colonial style buildings had been restored and I wish I'd had my camera with me, because they were gleaming white in the sun and they looked just stunning next to the river :)

Tick tock...

2005-04-21T16:54:00.000+07:00

Check out this crazy clock

Letters

2005-04-19T13:46:00.000+07:00

With my job I get many enquiries from individual students, particularly from Pakistan. I always enjoy reading them as the language used is always so embelished. Today I got one that was a little on the disturbing side - the second paragraph being of particular interest, not to mention the creative punctuation:

Dear sir of English deportment . for diploma.or attach English
programs.

With a great respect that I’m very interesting in English learning .Please
told me what is your requirements with this base . How I
can apply fort his purpose. Basically I want to received that high standered
education which expectable for all growing country.

Now today is the duration of English has to equal him with bombing countries. Dear sir that
required you welding position. Please kindly request to &
accepted my humble advice . I’m waiting for your
answer. If you accepted my humble request I, wll be remember you that good
kindness. Ok, I will be sent to you my CV.

For purposes of anonimity I haven't included his signoff.

Seems the guy likes to live dangerously. And I wonder how he proposes we weld our positions and really not sure we can offer him bombing countries - Iraq not being an English speaking country. Not yet, anyway. He never did send his CV... which was disappointing... I'm sure the hobbies/interests section would've been interesting to read.

Belated Christmas presents...

2005-04-18T16:08:00.000+07:00

The other day I received a wonderful package from a friend... in it was a bathing suit that FITS and which doesn't make me look like an old granny and her copies of the Slimming World's booklets. At first it was all mind boggling. I couldn't make heads or tails of it. It's about combining foods and so on and not going hungry. I like that bit, because I'm ALWAYS hungry. But after I sat down with a pen and paper and simplified it all, it all makes sense and it's actually very straightforward. The bit that helps the most is keeping a diary of what you eat. I used to always raise my eyes at that idea, but actually it makes you realise how much you do eat of the wrong stuff.

So there are green days when you get to eat as much rice, pasta (preferably wholemeal), vegetables, fruit, beans and pulses, eggs, low fat dairy stuff and so on, but then you've got to go easy on meat, wholemeal bread and full fat dairy stuff. You can have 3 or 4 of these choices a day (the list is huge). Then you're allowed up to 15 points of extra stuff... the BAD stuff.

The original days are when you can eat as much meat and fish as you want, aswell as most veggies (not potatoes), eggs, low fat dairy and fruit. But then go easy on on the rice and pasta, beans and pulses. Same principal as the green day with your 3 or 4 choices. And again you can have up to 15 points of the bad stuff.

This is of course, one helluva summary of that entire booklet. But it just shows that it's not overly complicated. You can choose to have a green or original day depending on what you fancy. I'm more of a green day girl especially in Thailand with all the noodle and rice dishes.

So the bad stuff... check this out... oh and ideally you should be aiming for average of 10 points:

Bagels: 10 points (shock horror)
1 medium pancake: 15 points (and I had like a million of them the other night)
Nachos and sauce: 25 points (NEVER again)
Peking duck with pancakes: 52 points (you don't eat for two days after this one)
Baguette: 25 points (ick)
Papaya: 0 points (that's more like it)

The list is endless and scary. Here's to loosing some fat.

Back once again to normal life...

2005-04-17T12:11:00.000+07:00

And Songkran is over for another year. Although the government had aimed at a death toll below 60, there have been up to now 351 dead mainly from the 1,714 road accidents so far. Apparently fewer than last year. Also reportedly the Songkran festivities were so out of control this year that next year they're going to organise 'strict zoning' areas for water throwing. It had all looked so innocent.

So to sum up my 3 house bound days this is what I achieved... close to nothing:

1. Watched endless episodes of 24
2. Watched Shutter - a Thai horror film about photo's with spirits in them. But the horrible bit was the explanation as to why this guy who had treated this girl badly and who had subsequently died, had such a sore neck. HORRIBLE.
3. Took lots of photos of the pandemonium outside our building
4. Cleaned the floor (a hateful experience)
5. Slept in every morning
6. Didn't read a thing

I'm glad it's over and I'm looking forward to normal life again. Since normal life has returned I've achieved almost close to nothing:

1. Dyed my hair (currently sitting here with cling film round my head)
2. Went to the cinema to see Sahara, which I enjoyed despite the guy sitting next to us chomping through what seemed like a whole chicken and which seemed to last an eternity to eat. Followed by jumbo popcorn which he chewed on quite noisily.
3. Went to the gym and felt completely sick and dizzy
4. Went to the gym again and felt fine and was greeted by a stranger who apparently knew me. Rather disconcerting if you ask me.
5. Had dinner out at the Robin Hood our local pub, although I wanted to order Toad in the Hole, I ordered Chicken with basil and chili instead. I do that kind of thing ALL the time.
6. Read the weekend Financial Times (the FT dahrling) - great article about bolster pillows and how they're typical of SE Asia, but becoming a trend in the West after being introduced in some top notch hotels. And I want one. Stocks and shares, however, aren't my thing.
7. Read Style magazine from the USA which I bought at the 2nd hand bookstore for 100 baht and it was shit.
8. Finished watching the first series of 24... thank god.

Songkran - Day 2

2005-04-14T09:41:00.000+07:00

It was surprisingly quiet last night and festivities definitely haven't started yet this morning. It's almost tempting to step outside. Here are a few more pictures from yesterday.

Groups stand by the road and throw water at passing motorbikers... and the motorbikers actually slow down for it:

and on the other side of the street:

Attacking unsuspecting victims:

Then there are the highly organised groups carrying their own ammunition on their backs:

And others that have bodyguard protection:

Today, however, they've barricaded Soi Cowboy so no pick up trucks, just small boys and their bikes:

This is why...

2005-04-13T14:41:00.000+07:00

... I don't step outside during Songkran ;)

and here are the ellusive hordes that were missing earlier...

As you can see the rain stopped...

But this foodstall vendor wisely continues to cover her food with a plastic sheet

And lastly... I'll show you my gun if you show me yours ;)

As if there wasn't going to be enough water around...

2005-04-13T12:16:00.000+07:00

First day under house arrest, but compared to last year it's quiet. There's no drumming, there's no screaming and there aren't hordes of people outside armed with bazookas and large buckets of water. It's raining...

It's also certain person's birthday but due to his stomach flu I won't be baking him a chocolate cake, or cooking Chicken Kerala. It leaves me with a certain feeling of unfulfillment. It's my firm belief that you can't have a birthday unless you blow some candles. It's just one of those rules. Sigh.

Soothsayers, fortune tellers, pyschics and so on...

2005-04-12T18:59:00.000+07:00

... are they full of ****?

It's been another unpleasantly hot day in Bangkok. Almost makes you want to join the Songkran festivities just to cool down!

Today I met with my Japanese friend for lunch and while waiting for her at the bottom of Phrong Phom Station with sweat pouring down my back and face I decided that I should remember to never arrange to meet someone outdoors during the summer.

Meanwhile, two Indian men walked past, one looked at me and stopped. Strangely the other continued. The one that stopped started off with "hello my sister, I read foreheads...". I'd never heard of that one before.

Apparently he is this yogi from India and also a qualified Astrologer. So, he tells me all this stuff about me, and reads my cheekbones too. I can't remember what it meant. Something to do with being 'too straightforward'. I'm standing there wondering why this kind of stuff only happens to me and whilst it's kind of interesting, I also know that all he is saying is reading off my reactions and body language.

THEN he says that there are two people in my life that are jealous of me and will do anything to stop me climbing my way up in life. One is a man, and the other is a woman and did I want to know their names.

My interest peaks, of course, I mean imagine if he gives me two names of people I know, now that would be something. So, I'm like 'YEAH, give me those names'. But he starts off on this other spiel, and eventually goes back to the two people and how I should avoid them in my life. By then my friend has showed up and is standing there now also with sweat pouring down her face. Mr Yogi asks if I have 15 minutes.

Ai, ai, ai, I think, he's going to want to charge me money next and this is all a scam and if I sweat anymore I'll shrivel up. So, I make my excuses and walk off.

I can't nevertheless wonder about it and a part of me is deadly curious. WHO ARE THOSE TWO PEOPLE?!?!

He gave me his business card. But I won't call him, I won't. I promise.

Dum di dum.

The other filing cabinet...

2005-04-12T12:18:00.000+07:00

My uncle sent me this link... so if you're REALLY bored at work... try this little game. You've got to get the screwed up piece of paper in the bin and take the wind factor into account.

Crepe review

2005-04-11T20:44:00.000+07:00

Hmmm... they were good. A little spongey, but that could be because there were still bubbles. And I could've done with a smaller pan. My pancakes were all kinds of odd shapes. Otherwise, 8/10.

Now, I need to lie down, because I don't think one person is supposed to eat that many pancakes.

Food, wonderful food...

2005-04-11T20:15:00.000+07:00

Starting to prepare for the 3 day house arrest that we're going to endure this week ;) Tomorrow, we're going to stock up on the last few things, water, milk, bread, washing up liquid, toilet paper... I mean you don't want to run out of that, and a bunch of other essential food items to keep us going for this Songkran stint. It's like going on an expedition, but we're not going anywhere. It might actually be fun staying at home for 3 days and super relaxing. That's what I'm planning on. Lots of face masks and sleeping, reading (I might actually finish reading the Order of the Phoenix), cooking and baking, as it also happens to be a certain person's birthday.

Meanwhile, I got this hankering for some pancakes tonight and decided to try this recipe out. It's so easy, it had never crossed my mind to just stick everything in a blender and just... uhm, blend. I'd always gone for the bowl and wooden spoon and accepted that in life, pancake mixture was always going to be lumpy. But alas, no!

I'm just waiting for the bubbles to go down before I start cooking them... yum. I shall report shortly. I seem to, however, be missing an essential component called the non-stick crepe pan. Instead I shall attempt my pancake making expedition with a regular huge frying pan. Doesn't bode well. I shan't be flippin' them, that's for sure.

Beware of gusts of wind.

2005-04-08T18:22:00.000+07:00

I was walking to Villa this evening, and infront of me was a young trendy couple holding hands. The girl was holding a bunch of flowers in her other hand, and every now and then they'd look at each other very lovingly. Then there was a gust of wind and up went her skirt revealing her naked butt to the world. She didn't even notice.

Talking of gripes....

2005-04-08T11:15:00.000+07:00

... one of my current pet peeves is how some Thai people perceive foreigners. They see us as if we're out to get them. Yes, I complain about stuff mainly to do with getting frustrated with the general slowness of it all, but is it any wonder having come from living in London?! It's not like I've come from a particularly normal environment. And why am I in Bangkok? Because after being away from London for a year I couldn't cope with the lifestyle anymore when I went back.

It's never going to be a smooth ride though, we're very different and we're bound to find stuff odd about each other. But that's what makes it interesting. Here we are a bunch of human beings and yet we can be so different.

I remember once talking to a Thai colleague who was trying to explain to me about how strange it is in the West that we don't seem to care for our parents. Our values seemed to be so different. That we leave home so young at 18 and just go and confront the world without a care, so to speak. I had to point out to her that this might be the image she gets from the USA or the UK, but for example in many European countries this isn't normal. Like in Portugal or Spain people generally don't leave home until they get married and family life is very important too.

So both sides are full of generalisations. And there is such a strong them and us thing going on here. The amount of times I walk past a group of Thai people and here the word 'farang' is unbelievable.

But it's human nature right, we don't feel comfortable with those that aren't like us. Hence all the wars in this world.

Humanity, eh? Isn't it also in our nature to complain? We love to complain. Particularly true of southern Europeans ;)

I've got to say though, that I really enjoy working here with the Thai people. They are kind and they are funny. Sure, you don't always know where you stand with them, but it's always fun. If I didn't like it I wouldn't be living here.

The house of sickness

2005-04-07T13:10:00.000+07:00

Today I've a very sick person at home with flu. Poor baby. His eyes are red, his face is red and he feels red hot. The pharmacist across the road gave me some bright pink pills that I've been feeding him and which will hopefully bring him back to life.

It's another scorcher here in Bangkok at 38 C and 64% humidity and next Monday it's due to be 40 C. That's hot. Does one need fireproof suits for that?

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it's been the slowest and most inert week of the year so far and my life has revolved around going to the gym and attending various classes, dealing with cretins at the gym, and pretending to work.

I did make it to the cinema yesterday to see Hitch and laughed my head off for two hours. It's always predictable with Will Smith, nothing high brow, but it works and I ain't complainin'. Otherwise, it's been a bit of a drought here movie wise for a few weeks. There's just been crap and more crap at the cinemas. I can't wait for the War of the Worlds. When I was 12 or so I read a lot of H G Wells, I loved the stories. I was always a bit of a sci fi chick. A couple of years later I got hooked on John Wyndham, my favourite being The Chrysalids. Then it progressed to Ian Banks, Arthur C Clarke and some other stuff I can't remember. I hardly ever read sci fi now. Nothing to do with 'growing out of it', just don't know anymore what's worth reading.

Ho hum.

Unexpected holidays

2005-04-06T10:26:00.000+07:00

I've been running on slow motion this week. Seems like everyone is... must be something to do with the approach of Songkran (the Thai new year)next week. This year we're going to be under house arrest again for 3 days, but we will be better prepared than the year before. Plenty of food stocked up, reading material, films etc... I am not, I repeat, I am NOT getting wet this year. No, no, no.

Then yesterday I found out that today is infact a holiday. I love it when these surprises are sprung on me. I only found out because the local bank had a notice on it's door saying that today is Chakri day. So, April 6 marks the anniversary of the founding of the present Chakri Dynasty of which the present ruling monarch, King Bhumibol the Great, is the ninth king. I seem to recall I went through this exact same process last year. I've the memory of a goldfish.

Mustn't grumble... or?

2005-04-05T10:34:00.000+07:00

Today I scrambled off to the gym for my 30 min run before my class started. All prepared, headphones at the ready, and the last chapters of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe to listen to.

Now, my 30 minute run is sacred and mustn't be a minute shorter. I do an interval training programme that builds up during these 30 minutes. It's not to be interrupted. This is imperative information!

So at California Wow, there must be something like 40 treadmills, 35 of which were free when I was there. I'm at the one on the end, then there's an empty one and on the one next to that is another foreigner pounding away with NO headphones.

After about 6 or 7 minutes, I notice this woman step onto the treadmill between us, but I'm concentrating on my interval running programme and book I'm listening to. And it's pretty obvious I am because I'm wearing these funky Japanese Sony headphones that you can't miss.

Then during one of my steep uphill sections I start to get the feeling that this woman is trying to get my attention, but first I think it's rude to interrupt someone clearly struggling and listening to something and she can always ask the other woman, or EVEN a member of staff. But oh no, OH NOOOOOOOO... it has to be me. I continue ignoring... well I could've been listening very loudly to something like Marilyn Manson and not have heard her ;)

But she's determined and she starts flailing her arms infront of my face. She's crazy. I could've gotten the fright of my life and gone flying off the end of the treadmill. So, she's got my attention and I decide that OK, I'll be kind and be the good samaritan. She points at her treadmill 'console'... and puts her arms up in the air. Being the local treadmill technician (apparently) I look at it and discover the problem immediately. Her emergency stop button is hanging off and needs to be put back in it's little allotted space. I explain this pointing at mine as an example. She doesn't get it. I explain again. She doesn't get it. I remove mine and put it back for purposes of demonstration, WITHOUT THINKING THAT THIS WILL STOP MY TREADMILL. Now I'm pissed off. Not only has she ruined my programme but I've missed a chunk of the book. Anyway, I take the time to put her little emergency button back in it's place. And SHE STILL DOESN'T GET IT. But at this point I'm too busy trying to reset my treadmill and by the time I look up she's gone.

I've NO sympathy. There are a billion and one other treadmills RIGHT NEXT TO HER, that she could've moved onto. But no, she's got to ruin my work out.

GRRRRRRRRR.

Over and out

Baba the grouch.

Pomp and circumstance, or?

2005-04-01T16:27:00.000+07:00

Seems that one of the Brit's favourite pass times is making fun of the Royal family. Well, it's hard not to.

During an obligatory photoshoot whilst skiing in Klosters, Prince Charles hadn't realised that there were microphones infront of him and his sons on the ground. So, all his little irritated comments were picked up including how he thoroughly disliked the BBC Royal correspondent who was asking them questions at the time. How embarrassing, but quite an amusing little story...

Dreams, dreams, dreams

2005-04-01T08:59:00.000+07:00

Last night I dreamt we had this huge aquarium at home, and I mean big... floor to ceiling and we had such pretty little fish in it, as well as two dolphins and one shark. At night when the dolphins went to sleep they had to sleep outside of the tank or they'd drown and they snored and everything. Bill Murray was in that dream too and I haven't even seen Life Aquatic yet.

Strange.

Shaken or stirred?

2005-03-30T13:02:00.000+07:00

... that was a question put to me by a friend after the latest earthquake in Indonesia. The answer would be neither. I was fast asleep... and as far as I know the effects weren't felt here in Bangkok. Although, apparently in KL and Singapore they felt it quite strongly. I know that here in Thailand they evacuated people from the coastal areas when they first thought there might be another tsunami. So, at least people now do take these kind of warnings seriously... well, it's no wonder.

Otherwise today I feel like a deflated balloon. This morning has been non stop with work, and now I'm going to put myself through a torturous Burn & Tone class at the gym. I'm a born masochist.

Yummy food in my tummy

2005-03-28T19:06:00.000+07:00

I'm sick of what we eat every day so this weekend I spent an hour or so looking for recipes. Tonight is the first night of our new repetoire and I'm waiting for the potatoes to finish cooking in this Chicken Kerala.

Of course, it hasn't taken the 15 minutes the recipe says to cook the potatoes, and one person here who is about to keel over with hunger is trying to conserve as much energy as possible by staying very still.

*shakes head*

Kids and their guns

2005-03-28T14:25:00.000+07:00

Today at the supermarket I got fired at by a small Japanese boy with his inflatable machine gun. And it wasn't just me, it was a whole bunch of us innocently browsing in the same breakfast cereal aisle. The good thing is that it wasn't Montana, but Bangkok and the kid didn't have a neo nazi propaganda fixation.

:p

A severe lack of Easter bunnies round 'ere

2005-03-25T17:42:00.000+07:00

So, it's Easter is it? Possibly one of the Christian holidays not celebrated here (unlike all the rest). No Easter eggs, no fluffy bunnies, no nothing. Not that Easter eggs have anything to do with JC dying on the cross and resurrecting or whatever it was he did and so on. No, it's all about celebrating fertility and the coming of Spring, hence all the frisky bunnies. Which I find funny how two totally separate events ended up being celebrated together, not to mention one of them is pagan... and isn't that heathen in the eyes of Christians? Not that it makes much difference to my life. 'Apparently' I'm already destined for hell not being baptised and according to Dante's hell I'll be somewhere round the top (best views, apparently). It's no wonder when I walk into churches I sizzle and steam.

Sneeze
SNEEZE
SNEEZE

Ugh. That wore me out.

Anyway, HAPPY EASTER!

Thai style

2005-03-24T17:28:00.000+07:00

A Japanese colleague of mine recently moved to Bangkok from the USA. A move imposed on her by our company and which was not of her choice, but as her husband happens to be Thai they thought it was better than no job.

Although they've been married now for about almost a year, it's only now in Thailand that the 'Thai style' of life is hitting her, and hitting her hard.

Today I met her and we chatted for a long time, and although she's always extremely tactful and never complains things slip out. I could tell she's not having an easy time of it. One of the things she finds hard to understand is why all these people come to stay over at their place, weeks at a time sometimes, without her ever being warned. And apparently she's not supposed to ask why they are there. It's just the way it is. Thai style and this is what she's told. The other thing is as she's employed by a foreign company she's seen to be 'rich', so everyone expects her to pay for everything. So the other day when four of them went out for dinner on her, when the bill came she ended up paying for an extra 8 people that just happened to be at the restaurant and know her husband . Although she may be slightly better off than them, she's still not THAT well off. But apparently it's Thai style and my colleague just bites her tongue and goes along with it. But is it really, or are they just taking advantage of her being naive?

I don't know how she does it. I'd have gone crazy by now.

I miss the tube...

2005-03-23T16:05:00.000+07:00

... I miss London.

However, I used to whinge and complain about the tube on a constant basis when I lived in London. Sometimes it would be so jam packed during morning rush hour that I could just lay my head against some stranger's back and snooze for a few minutes without anyone noticing. Btw... I would only lay my head on nice, soft, clean sweaters and not on stinking suits that had last visited a dry cleaners during the Mesozoic period.

In the mornings the carriages in the tube are mainly silent. Everyone's too grumpy and half asleep. But every now and then two friends will be travelling together to work and that's when you hear some of the best tid bits. Infact there is now a website dedicated to it. Here are some of my favourite overheard gossip lines from the London tube.

Luke actually says "LOL" when he thinks something is funny... freak.

Yoda es fuertissimo. El puede vencer a Count Dooku. Pero Jesus es aun mas fuerte. El tiene muchos poderes

Last night I had an epiphany. I realised that life is essentially awful

Did you hear that? I can't believe they'd talk about discharge on the tube

In Russia they celebrate Christmas by setting fire to a tiger

Eventually, everyone in Asia will get adopted by Angelina Jolie

He sneezed and got snot all over her. It's not a great way to start a date

Becca worked in a hospital. She said she saw stuff there that put her off being a lesbian for life

Lisa's cousin let one off in my face and it burnt my face

You tie the goat to the van, and then you drive the van very slowly uphill

Thankfully there's no level crossings on the tube.

It's all subs and doms and pigs and stuff

In the past, Britain was full of white people. Now it's full of foreigners

But I love photocopiers.

What is the post in Kazakhstan like?

Nah... it's strictly for guys who can't get a girlfriend.

Toto was the dog. Dorothy was the girl.

He has headlice... but not on his head.

You're not ugly, you just have a funny bone structure

Seriously, I am never waxing again.

I have a list of new identities I want you to create for me...

Nah. I wash my hair on a Friday. I've still got 2 days before I need to wash it again.

What language do they speak in Portugal?

That girl in the leather coat has an Adam's apple.

Oh and there are so many more...

BIG DADDY NEEDS YOU!

2005-03-23T11:20:00.000+07:00

On November 19th, 2004 we finally went live with the Bangkok Metblog and everyone was gung ho and full of enthusiasm and it was great fun contributing to it. There was a definite energy about it and we even got described as being 'subversive' by the Thai media.

I don't know what happened to it in the past couple of months but all the enthusiasm seems to have drained away from it. It's no longer fun posting to it as I only do it because hardly anyone seems to. Plus we lost our city captain, so even more drive has gone from it. But we're currently trying to address that.

If anyone Thai, based in Bangkok is reading this and who enjoys blogging, WE NEED YOU! We would really welcome new contributors to the Bangkok Metblog. And you don't need to write in English, it can be in Thai.

End of recruitment speech.

Pay week tunes

2005-03-21T16:17:00.000+07:00

There's always a nice feeling looking forward to the last Friday of the month... pay day. Yippee do.

Yesterday I had a very satisfying session of downloading MP3's, including some stuff I hadn't heard in a long time such as Fiona Apple's "Sullen" which makes you feel like you're slowly drowning in the sea, in a very melodramatic/dreamy kind of fashion. I also downloaded Tanita Tikaram's "Cathedral Song" which has always made me feel sick to the pit of my stomach. Not in a vomit kind of way, but in a kind of it reaches right inside me type sick.

Otherwise, I downloaded the Garden State soundtrack which is all mellow and really you should be cruising through the prairies across the USA in a convertible cadillac. As I clearly can't be whiling away my life traipsing across the USA right now, I'm instead listening to it in the 'office'.

Not that I don't wish I was whiling my life away. I'd be extremely GOOD at living my life idly. But then couldn't we all. I wouldn't so much sit idly, but I'd just travel every other year to a different continent. I always thought it would be interesting to drive across India. I remember watching an interview with this hippy looking family and their camper van and they just travelled around the world and they'd just been two years in India. I remember feeling slightly envious.

See, getting itchy feet. Goddamit. NO! I must've been a Saharan desert nomad in my previous life. Oh blessed curse.

The ants are in the frosties...

2005-03-17T19:29:00.001+07:00

... and other domestic issues seem to rule my life.

Since we 'lost' the cleaning lady, my obsession with dust is growing on a daily basis. There's so much sweeping and dusting you can do before you get incredibly sick of it. So, now I just look at it and shake my head. What is it with this city that you wipe the surfaces and within a day there is a new 'black' film of dust on everything. And then after three days you forget that you used to be able to see through the glass shelves in the hallway.

Meanwhile, I'm eagerly awaiting for this to arrive in the post. Oh yes, Duran Duran's Sing Blue Silver Tour in 1984. I couldn't believe I'd found it. And then even better luck his' friend offered to send us a copy. Result!

Back as a teenager I vehemently HATED Duran Duran. It just wasn't cool. But that was just a front. Secretly I was a fan, not to mention fancying the pants off John Taylor. My best friend SJ had the same thing going on, but thankfully we had different tastes in men, and Andy Taylor technically rocked her world. So when SJ's little sister turned up with a TV video copy of Duran Duran's Sing Blue Silver Tour, much to our apparent 'disgust' "Oh my God, can't believe you're watching that", it was with great anticipation that we awaited for nightfall and for everyone in the house to fall into their deep slumbers before we quietly slipped in the video tape, volume on minimum and watched it. Possibly in the course of a couple of years, we watched it about 10 times unbeknownst to anyone else in the universe.

I look forward to watching it again almost 20 years later (crikey that sounds lengthy, am I that old already?) and actually being able to hear it at last!

:)

Another typical working day...

2005-03-16T17:26:00.000+07:00

Today after a hard class of Body Balance, I gorged myself on sushi in a rather 80's looking Japanese restaurant in the basement of the InterContinental Hotel. I don't recall the name. It wasn't memorable. Anyway, I'd invited one of my business clients for lunch and this was her suggestion. I think it was called Nippon Tei. That's it. Yes. Very expensive too, but lots of Japanese eating there. Which figures that only they can afford it. Har.

I then went onto my next meeting with this guy from the USA who had such a narrow face he reminded me of a squashed cartoon face. I hate distractions like that, they put me off being professional. Anyway, I focussed on this narrowily set eyes and away we went with discussions of future 'synergies'. Has anyone seen "In Good Company"? If you have, you'll know that I was cringing at every mention of the word 'synergy'.

Meanwhile my skirt split, but thankfully it was only the lining. Much to my relief as I reached my hand round to the rear side to check the damage. My bottom is apparently too big for the skirt. Sigh. SHALL I JUST MOVE INTO THE GYM AND STARVE MYSELF?

I wish I was man.

The bloggie awards

2005-03-15T21:10:00.000+07:00

For you bloggers out there... the bloggie awards were announced today check it out.

Personally, I should've won.

Idleness is truly an art

2005-03-15T15:05:00.000+07:00

Sitting idly in my office with nowt to do. Well, that's not strictly true. There's ALWAYS something to do if you're p-r-o-a-c-t-i-v-e.

Today, I don't fancy it. Being proactive that is. Instead, I'll continue to sit idly on my arse and spout on about my inane life. I'm also currently slowly poisoning myself in here as I don't know what's going on in my stomach and general digestive system, but it's not healthy. Erm. Toilet talk is often deemed as inappropriate. But...

I d o n ' t c a r e

If it's ok to talk about headaches and toe fungus then it's also ok to talk about 'wind'. End of story.

It'll soon be the end of my story too at this rate *opens window*

Meanwhile, I've been listening to the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy radio show on my MP3 player whilst sweating my guts out on the treadmill. I'd read all the books back when I was 15, mainly during my double Chemistry class. I'd sit with my forehead resting on the edge of the desk and the book in my lap. It's no wonder I failed Chemistry O Level. What with a teacher that never told me off for reading during class. Where's the discipline I ask you? Not to mention that the old guy suffered from Parkinson's and we all sat on the edge of our seats whenever he tried to 'carefully' pour hydrochloric acid into small test tubes.

Oh the memories. I've a lot of those.

Anyway, I've got an email, time to be r-e-a-c-t-i-v-e

Homosexual necrophiliac mallard ducks...

2005-03-14T20:39:00.000+07:00

... for real.

It's all in the name of research and education, you see. Check it out.

A story of a persistent and rather frisky gay duck with morbid tendencies. And I used to think they were so cute...

My weekend

2005-03-13T22:52:00.000+07:00

It's been a quietish three days... on Friday after a work out at the gym we had lunch at Inter in Siam Square which we hadn't been to in months and it used to be one of our favourites. After a delicious chicken and green chili stir fry with a side order of mixed vegetables we sky trained down to Prong Pong and bought tickets for Lemony Snicket's - A series of unfortunate events and checked out the Dusa Book Shop before the film started. The film was twisted, dark and humourous. My favourite character = Sunny (btw... did you know that twins played that one character?!), followed by Meryl Streep's eccentric Aunt Josephine. The book shop was a little disappointing. So much for 10,000 books. If you're into 'Chick Lit' you'll love it. If you're into chocolate fudge cake and cappucinos, you'll love it too. Unfortunately, I don't do chocolate fudge cake anymore. Well, I never did anyway. I'm more of a 'scone' chick.

Saturday was,hmmm, uneventful. Woke up and scoured the Guardian... this one story made me chuckle. Nothing like having a phone conversation in a bath tub and consequently freezing to death. There was also an interesting article about Jennifer Jason Leigh and as I'd just watched "The Machinest" on Friday night I was curious to read more about her. I've always thought of her as being a little bit of a 'weird' chick, so it was refreshing to read that actually she is pretty damn normal compared to most 'stars' and possibly considered to be a bit of a 'dull' chick.

And today my other half woke up crippled and I spent the day ferrying to and from Boots with various remedies for his lower back which seemed to be causing him extreme pain (for the purposes of clarification it was the lower back causing him pain, not my remedies). Nothing like going on the web and self prescribing, I tell you. It seems that perhaps the non-steriod anti-inflammatory pill may have helped a bit. If you're a hypochondriac you'll love this.

Finally, it's late and it's time for bed as another week of responsibilities begins. Sigh.

Is it me or has the world gone bananas (again)?

2005-03-11T11:34:00.001+07:00

Did anyone watch the news this morning about Michael Jackson turning up an hour late to his trial wearing hospital issue pyjamas?! It's truly beyond me, but you'd at least put on some pants wouldn't you? I mean, how ridiculous is that? Apparently he tripped over while getting dressed. Ahem. All on the day that the boy accusing MJ was going to testify. Next he'll be throwing himself down stairs. Just like when he used to say that his skin had turned white because of a 'disease'. Yeah, a disease called bleach. The guy is a loon.

Then there's Iraq... EVERY day there's a suicide bomb. They're pretty persistent. Not to mention that I wouldn't want to be a judge, lawyer, policeman or anything to do with politics because you're bound to get shot dead. Soon, there will be no one left in Iraq and then no one will have to ever worry about it again. I guess it's one way to go about it. It all seems rather fatalistic though.

Meanwhile, I'm trying this new remedy on my diseased toenail. Apparently if you put Vicks VapoRub on it every night it cures it. Or, so I read here. Last time I had an encounter with Vicks VapoRub was a long time ago at the age of four when I decided it was really pretty and went ahead and used it as eye shadow. This was quickly followed with running up to my mum in a panicked state.

*shakes head*

Yourself Fitness - Day 5...

2005-03-08T20:48:00.000+07:00

... just kidding. But it was a great leg work out ;)

Is it only Tuesday? Feels like Thursday already, it's been so packed for the last couple of days. But this week I'm taking Friday off. It will be my first weekend not working in ABSOLUTE ages. Hurrah. So, looking foward to it. We're planning on checking out this second hand English bookshop between Soi 24 and Soi 26 on Sukhumvit called "Dasa Book Cafe". I have a thing for bookshops you see. I love them. I blame my dad for that, because as a kid I was constantly being dragged to bookshops, and the great thing was that I was always allowed to buy a book, no matter how often we went. Deemed being educational and all that. It didn't, however, happen the same way with toy shops. So, being an astute 9 year old, I knew not to waste my bookshop priviledges and took full advantage of it. I read a lot. Anyway, apparently this bookshop opened last year and they claim to stock about 10,000 books. It's also got a very nice looking cafe. Definitely checking it out and will report on it later on Bangkok Metblog.

Otherwise, I want to read, watch films, and generally lelax as they say here. BRING IT ON FRIDAY...

Yourself Fitness - Day 4

2005-03-06T19:50:00.000+07:00

I promise... this is the last time I talk about this. Saturday's are my day off and by this morning I was again able to move like a normal person. So, today's work out was basically focussing on the stomach area. I'm sure tomorrow I'll be complaining everytime I cough or laugh ;p

But in the meantime, we joined a new gym today just a minute from our flat. Getting our membership, however, was a trial in itself. We had to literally bargain for it and they literally bullied us into it. If it hadn't been for the fact that it was just next door, we would've just walked out, because I can't stand that kind of aggressive sales tactics. I mean, we weren't even allowed to have time to think... even when I asked for one hour!! Unbelievable. But I give as good as I get and although we left pissed off, we were also triumphant in our bargaining. Read more about the ordeal here!

Cutlery

2005-03-04T20:00:00.000+07:00

Inspired by Ben, I decided to give this silly test a go and voila, I am but a fork. A shiny one at that.

You are a Fork
You are special, unique... and shiny.... but you just don't know it. Many admire you for your outward appearance, but you haven't truly expressed all of the great stuff inside of you. You have the potential to do great things and help others, and this will help you in the future. When you hold a grudge at someone, however, this can be dangerous. Despite your calmness that most people perceive about you, you keep a lot of feelings bottled up inside that one day can make you explode and stab something. Instead of resorting to that, you can say, "Go Fork Yourself!"

Most compatible with: Knife, and Sock.

Click here -- What Random Object Represents Your Inner Self?

Yourself Fitness - Day 3

2005-03-04T19:34:00.000+07:00

Today I've continued to walk around like I was born with one leg shorter than the other ;) but after long day in the 'office' I decided to do an hour of the flexibility work out... lots of stretching and yoga poses that I embarrassingly just couldn't keep. You try to keep your balance on a 'half moon'pose, I'm as ungainly as an African hippopotamus on a high wire.

But anyway, I'm so impressed with this fitness program! Already certain things are getting slightly harder like the crunches and so on. And although it's a stupid playstation game, and my instructor isn't 'real', I still find her really motivating ;p

I also did away with the tins of beans, and got myself some hand weights at lunch time. Next I'll be getting one of those big balls and a step thingy. Oh yeah, baby... rock and roll. Today muscle ache, tomorrow fitness goddess.

Ahem.

Your Fitness - Day 2

2005-03-03T12:24:00.000+07:00

10.38

Stiff... very stiff. It's not a good sign when you wake up and have trouble turning over.

Deliberating whether to have a second work out today. Possibly just do a flexibility work out.

15.01

Ability to get up from chair decreasing as day goes by. Walking has turned into hobbling.

17.15

I decide to do my second work out with Your Fitness and it chose that I should do an upper body workout. I thought about changing that for something easier. But there is something about that game that just makes you want to do it properly. So, I did it and didn't die. That'll be because I didn't have any hand weights. I used a tin of chickpeas and a jar of pasta sauce instead. At least tomorrow I will be able to lift my cup of tea to my mouth without wincing.

20.38

Walking down stairs has proved to be a crippling experience this evening.

Dead tired...

2005-03-02T16:55:00.000+07:00

... can playing on the playstation physically wear you out? Apparently it can.

Our gym membership runs out this weekend and we're deliberating whether to join again or not, whether to change gyms etc.. Meanwhile, I got myself "Yourself Fitness"... a playstation II fitness program. Setting my profile almost killed me as the 'game' tries to establish your level of fitness. My legs felt like lead after just two minutes of jumping jacks!! It's really clever how you get to completely personalise your fitness program according to your main goal. Eager to start I decided to do my first work out. I never thought I could get this worn out in my own flat let alone with the playstation! The good thing is that it asks you how you feel and if it's something you can't do it'll adjust your profile for your next workout. There are many different objectives and types of workouts as well as workout lengths. This first one was very much an aerobic work out with some body strengthening at the end. There's also a relaxation work out that you can add at the end for 20 minutes which is basically yoga streches.

I'm going to give it a go for a week and decide whether I like it or not. I know for sure that tomorrow I will be in agony. Kind of makes you wonder what I've been doing at the gym all this time ;)

Anyway, I found the official website and it was really cool to read all these women talk about their 'yourself fitness' routines and what they think of it. It's quite motivating actually!

Back in the city of angels

2005-03-02T11:31:00.000+07:00

By Sunday evening I was ready to go back home and sick of living out of my suitcase and in a hotel room.

After a 40 minute check out of the hotel (charging me for gin and tonics I never had and laundry I never had and so on) I managed to not miss my flight and arriving in Bangkok was a nice relief after a solid hard working 10 days. It was a relief to have my first day since I'd left not in a suit. But as we were queuing up for a taxi I started getting stomach cramps and by the time we were almost getting home I thought my insides were going to explode. Hmm, such pleasant imagery. It seemed that during my trip I was constantly meeting people with flu and stomach viruses. It was bound to eventually 'rub off'. Thankfully it wasn't serious and today I'm feel almost normal again.

Meanwhile, I'm taking two days off to relax and enjoy lazing about. I've finished watching the new Battlestar Galactica. Now THAT was a good. I still find the 'machine' Cylon's scary. It's a shame we'll have to wait SO LONG for the 2nd series. I remember being 8 or 9 and going to see the movie with my brothers. There was one scene that terrified me... when these weird creatures are putting humans insides these cocoons. Even now it makes my stomach feel weird remembering that scene.

Anyway, next they'll be remaking Buck Rogers... bidibidibidi :P

The Rene phenomena

2005-02-26T21:30:00.000+07:00

Ever since Jerry Maguire was released I've been plagued with this curse. I don't know how many times people have said that I look like Rene Zellewegger. Must be the fat cheeks. Then with Bridgit Jones, I always got 'you know what... you look so much like Bridgit Jones'. At that point I'm not sure whether to take it as a compliment or insult. She's rather dumpy and silly looking in that. So, this week, I've been told this now four times by completely seperate people. Hmpf.

Anyway, I look nothing like her. Just wait till I go blonde, then...

It's not fair

2005-02-25T21:44:00.000+07:00

Two days to go. This week has felt like an eternity. A more productive trip than last time and I've learn't more about Indonesia. Sometimes I forget that Indonesia is the world's biggest muslim country, not to mention the 5th largest in the world. Yet, I'd never really paid it much attention before I took it on for work. The closest I'd gotten to it was when the massacre in Timor took place and Portugal and Indonesia cut diplomatic relations until only recently.

On Wednesday I chatted with one of my business partners for hours - Sari is his name and he's a christian Indonesian now in his mid seventies and his ancestors are Chinese like so many businessmen here. He was telling me that the first Chinese to come here were actually muslim from the North of China. It was after this that the Chinese started coming in from the South of China.

Last time I was here I wrote about the conflicts between the muslims, christians and the ethnic chinese. And Sari was telling me how at university his daughter studied medicine and when it came to choose her specialisation they first check what her ancestory is. If she has Chinese ancestors she is only allowed to take certain specialisations. Basically not the money making ones. Talk about descrimination. His son on the other hand chose to study in Holland and is now a Dutch citizen as he wanted to be treated as an equal which he wouldn't be here in Indonesia.

In contrast the Chinese were integrated extremely successfully in Thailand and this could have a lot to do with the Buddhist culture. But despite the descrimination in Indonesia, when you drive around the city, you can guarantee that all the super expensive houses belong to the Chinese Indonesians. You should see some of these houses... miniature palaces, and the preferred style seems to be the french rococo period, complete with ceiling paintings of angels. All rather too ostentacious for my liking.

Meanwhile, I've been picking up some Indonesian whilst stuck in monstrous traffic jams with my taxi drivers. Traffic jam is majak. But majak total means a complete and utter traffic jam. The word for no, and I love this one, is didah. Sounds like baby talk.

Then I've been noticing that all our words ending in tion exist here but instead they end with asi. So, it's informasi, and komunikasi, and aplikasi and so on. I'll be fluent by Monday.

Where can I get some semtex?

2005-02-23T07:23:00.000+07:00

Yesterday I checked out of my hotel in Surabaya at 9.00am and checked into my hotel in Jakarta at 9.00pm. One helluva a long day and this morning was going to be a semi lie in for me. I'm staying in the Meridien... really nice hotel, the nicest I've been in for ages. But this morning the hotel room alarm woke me up at 6.00am. I hadn't set it. Anyway, I fell asleep again. But just now I woke up because my room started playing REALLY LOUD MUSIC. It's 7.25am. Can you imagine, you're asleep and suddenly you wake up with music in your room. Of course I call reception and apparently it's because there was a black out and this comes on automatically. WHY?! I mean it's loud and horrible. Unbelievable. I'm so bloody tired too.

Hot, Hot, HOT

2005-02-21T16:22:00.000+07:00

... that reminds me of an old Cure song.

Anyway, it's damn hot. I'm in Surabaya on the east end of Java and it's unbelievably hot and humid. Makes Bangkok seem pleasant in comparison. Java is currently in it's monsoon season which lasts 6 months and last night there was this huge storm that woke me up. Thunder claps that almost hurt your ears. I love storms like that. Just makes you respect nature when you see how powerful it can be.

Anyway, it's been a long few days since I left our flat in Bangkok on Friday morning. It's been all about flying and airports and talking to students. Many students. If I could have a 'play' button on my forehead it would make my life easier. I don't know how many times I had to repeat myself.

I like being in Indonesia. When I arrived in Jakarta and driving to the hotel I felt a nice sense of being. Jakarta is a big, big city but it feels good. It's modern and orderly. Compared to Bangkok that is ;) The traffic, however, is murderous. But the Indonesians are great and so damn helpful. I like very much!

Surabaya is smaller but the second largest city in Indonesia. There aren't many high rise buildings here and it's not as organised but it retains a lot of charm. There are many nice old colonial style buildings and the residential areas are full of nice looking houses. However, there is also a huge contrast between the middle class and the poor people who live in slums alongside the 'nice' areas. You don't see that so much in Jakarta.

Otherwise, it's a lot of motorbikes (typical of SE Asia) and many rickshaws on the roads! Not to mention the constant calls to prayer by the muslims. In my hotel room I even have a prayer rug hanging in the wardrobe should I feel inclined to face Mecca.

And that's that. I finally have some free time since I got here and I'm going to go and check out the biggest mall in Asia (so they say... I'm not so convinced) and have my dinner there.

Arrivedeci amigos!

Brochure & boil update

2005-02-17T15:11:00.000+07:00

Since I got the tracking numbers for my brochures going to Indonesia I've been obsessively checking the online DHL tracking system. Apparently they're in Kowloon, Hong Kong right now. Oh the stress.

Meanwhile, my boiling polenta accident has left me with a horrendous looking postule under my nose. Perfect. Just what I need. Of course. Mine will be the emptiest booth at the exhibition.

And just now I had a phone call from this woman needing some info which I gave her and then everytime I suggested she contact my colleague directly in Sydney if she had any more queries while I was away (this is for her own benefit... you know I could care less) she giggled. Whenever I said that tomorrow I'd be unable to get more information to her because I'd be travelling she giggled and to that I irritatingly said "well, I've got to get there somehow"... I shouldn't have said that, but Christ she was doing my head in. Sometimes I feel these people are attached to me by umbilical chords.

I seem to rant and rave a lot on my blog. If I were to be a 'native american' cartoon character I'd be the one with a little rain cloud over my head with a lightening bolt striking.

It's not all about ranting and raving in my life though, there is plenty good. Infact there is more good than bad, which in itself is a good thing. But there's nothing like having a good whinge. I often laugh at myself whilst doing it because I see how grouchy I am ;)

Grrrr.

Volcanic breakfasts

2005-02-16T19:43:00.000+07:00

Today I decided to have a variation of polenta for breakfast... something typical from where I come from. I've made it many times, but today whilst cooking it a small bit of it randomly splattered on my face from the erupting mass in the pan. So, now I'm sporting an attractive red patch and blister just below my nose. Truly wonderful.

Meanwhile, the surly assistant did indeed forget to send my brochures to Indonesia (even though I reminded her twice) which you know was kind of crucial for me. Unfortunately, I was unable to pull her hair out as she's on holiday. Not to mention the fact that she lives in China. I now have to rely on the miracles of DHL. Please let them get there on Friday, please, please... puhleeeaase.

And so my life continues to comprise of a series of mishaps. Next my luggage will go on the wrong flight and end up in inner Mongolia. You'll see.

The polyester clad pseudo jet setter

2005-02-15T20:02:00.000+07:00

Today I seem to have spent the majority of the day out sweating buckets and not acheiving much. Never buy a polyester suit when you live in a tropical country. The stuff doesn't breathe. It's like wearing those 70's plastic trousers women used to wear in fitness classes to sweat more in the belief they were going to loose weight.

So, Friday I'm off to Jakarta earlier than I'd planned after Garuda cancelled their direct evening flight - I curse thee, oh mighty Garuda. Now, I'll just waste a whole day getting to Jakarta via Singapore. I'll devour my Harry Potter book.

The part I hate about going on business trips is the few days leading up to it making sure you're all prepared for it, from drycleaning your suits and getting travel size shower gel to making sure your hundreds of brochures have been already sent by the surly assistant and that all the promotions have been approved by the boss. Uffff.

Otherwise, today I managed to leave dinner behind at the supermarket after paying for it and everything. I couldn't, however, face going back for it after the day I had today. If I were to sweat more I'd have disappeared.

Meanwhile, I owe many people emails... S O R R Y... I'll catch up soon!

It's all Chinese to me...

2005-02-10T21:08:00.000+07:00

Today I'm feeling weary... you know feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. But I got given a fortune cookie for the Chinese New Year and this was my fortune:

I've no idea what it says. Something good I hope.

Meanwhile this afternoon I finished work early and we went to see Finding Neverland. The story about J M Barrie and how he came to get the idea to write Peter Pan. It's had great reviews but it took a while for me to get into it, however, by the end I was snivelling away to it. Actually it was more like sobbing - the end was heart wrenching. Johnny Depp is always brilliant and the kid that played Peter was excellent, his face was like he was already a grown man, but yet still so young.

Tomorrow it's a hectic day for me... I hope I get rid of my headache by then.

Book worm

2005-02-09T15:49:00.000+07:00

It must be over 6 months ago that I got myself a copy of the latest Harry Potter book, but it was only the other day that I felt in the right kind of mood to read it and I'm once again hooked. Put it this way, I haven't played bejewelled for a few days now and that just says it all ;)

I was the same with the first few books... everyone was going on about them when they first came out, but it took me 4 years to actually submit myself to reading them. And of course I loved them and they entertained many a tube journey on my long commute to work in London.

I haven't, however, enjoyed the film versions. To me the actors are irritating and I find it misses all the magic from the books - which is basically what's in my imagination and how I saw it in my head. And this is what's spoiling it a tad for me reading Harry Potter this time round - I no longer visualise my own characters, now its Snapes as Alan Rickman, and so on. And that sucks. Not that I don't like Alan Rickman ;) But Hermione and Ron just bug me now.

I also see that we don't have long to wait for the next Harry Potter either... excellent!

Meanwhile, I've been shouting in my sleep, infact I've been doing it a lot recently. Which I find kind of disturbing. For this sales meeting that we're having aboard a boat in Vietnam we've got to share rooms and three of my colleagues have already asked to share with me. It worries me, however, that I'll embarrass myself shouting in the middle of the night and keeping them up. They'll certainly regret having requested to share with me. Should I warn them? Then I'll end up having to share with the freakier of my colleagues. Dilemas and morality all rolled in one. Maybe I should just knock myself out with sleeping pills for two nights.

PS. HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! The year of the Rooster is supposed to be a happy one for us all. Apparently.

As Garfield famously said...

2005-02-07T10:44:00.000+07:00

... I hate Mondays.

Today I found out that our cleaning lady resigned. No doubt it was my little chat on Friday about how I pay her for 3 hours and we started figuring out that infact she was only staying 1.5 hours, so from now on I was going to pay her the correct hourly rate. Plus I forgot to buy her the mop I'd promised the week before. Sigh.

Meanwhile, I've been sitting here for almost an hour waiting for my work email to download because some clown has emailed me something the size of a small country which is now blocking all my other email from coming through. Apparently it's going to take 775 minutes to download... that's like a year. February 2006 they find an emaciated Baba sitting infront of her computer still waiting for her email to download.

Finally, yesterday Taksin was voted in again for his second term as Prime Minister after winning an overwehlming majority, to the point that there's hardly an opposition left. The BBC news stated this morning that the election had been corrupt at many levels and that there had been extensive vote buying. It's now feared that he may increase his authoritarian style of ruling in Thailand, particularly when it comes to human rights. Lovely jubbly. I hate politics.

Meanwhile, on the good side my sales are 5 times higher than they were this time last year. Wooooo hoooooooooo. But like I tried to tell my Dad last time, I'm not going to start counting my chickens before I get the eggs or whatever that expression is.