Hi There (05/03/10),

 

Damn it’s hot! Thermometer is peaking at 36 degrees . Even in my air con office , the early morning sun through the shades  has me mopping my brow. Heavens to Betsy!

 

So I went to Hua hin last weekend. Very nice it was down there too! Always great to see the sea,  especially when you’ve been away from it for a while.  So what’s the verdict on Boutique hotels? I was actually very impressed. There were only another couple of guests so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. There was a small 8x 3 metre pool on the roof by the bar/bistro with a sumptuous outdoor sofa thing to spread out on. So we dipped in and out of that getting dried by the strong winds blowing off the sea and drank berry shakes and juices. The luxury villa next door (owners house) also had a pool we could use but it was so shelter and secluded there wasn’t a puff of air and the water was almost too warm to swim in. Despite it only being 100 metres away, we only got down to the beach for a quick shufti…It’s not a very nice beach in Hua Hin and doesn’t really inspire you to go and sunbathe on it.

 

Another thing I like about the seaside in seafood, especially crustaceans. When you order crab in BKK, you are invariably served assorted pieces of shell and leg you have to crack open and spend inordinate amounts your time fishing out straggly bits of flesh. Not so at the beach. Dods and dods or pre-shelled lumps of crabmeat make every crab dish a delight…... I ate a lot of crab! ;)

 

I was thinking about doing the garden thing next week , but they’ve started painting my building…how does this affect me? I hear you say. Well, I have the big balcony and sun terrace at the bottom of the building on the 3^rd floor, and they have to scrape all the bubbled/flaky whitewash/paint off 15 floors of condo before they actually paint…yep,  you can guess where it all lands?  I got 5 minutes warning as I walked past reception yesterday. I don’t really mind, but the painters as they step off the rope ladders on to my terrace are smearing paint on my windows in big streaks…grrr. The building manager has guaranteed me that they’ll clean up at the end…I’m just wondering how long exactly it’ll take for two guys on giant rickety rope ladders (yes you read right, rope ladders..no nonsense with health and safety here) to scrape and repaint the building surface area above me. I’d like to think it’d be soonish, but instinct says a couple of weeks.

 

So perhaps I’ll just join my mate Bruce down at the British club for an early game of tennis on Monday instead of gardening  and have one of their legendary full breakfasts . Haven’t been down there in a while, but always enjoy it when I do.

 

I find myself a little sad and vaguely uncontented with my lot just now. Yet, there’s really no great case to answer beyond what is obvious and apparent to me…. As the man said: “ You make your bed, you lie in it “ and so you do.

 Perhaps there’s a spring gone in my spiritual mattress, perhaps a slat broken in the spiritual base...bears investigation.

 

Back in reality I  certainly badly pulled a tendon in my neck and was in screaming agony for a day until it miraculously (via Voltarol and linament) fixed itself. Beds, pillows, supports, springs, slats are tricky things to get to work properly in unison whether they are spiritual or real. They tell me the trick is to keep turning over your “mattress” and replace the pillows when they are old!

 

 I’m missing the company of good friends, easy  and simple conversations on interesting topics, and playing  in a band very much just now. There’s this feeling I’m supposed to be doing something else with my time, but I can’t quite pin it down……

 

Not to worry. At least the sun is shining! J

 

 

 

        

 Hi There (26/02/10),

 

The last few days have seen a noticeable jump in temperature round these parts…Summer would indeed appear to be kicking in. I'll have to start doing circumventory routes through air conned buildings to get from A-B from here on in.

 

Despite my best efforts, my garden is also suffering. Though strangely not the weeds. They positively flourish. I weeded out not three weeks ago and they're all back in strength. My orange tree, despite my best efforts, appears to have karked it. I'm not sure what I did. I thought I'd watered it correctly…perhaps in was just in too much direct sunlight….Maybe I'll trim it back, remove the shriveled fruit and try and revive it somewhere shadier J.

 

What I have learnt on the gardening front, is the subtle yet fundamental difference between bedding plants, and, er, plants that seem to continue to propogate and thrive even under less that ideal palliative garden husbandry . Take our friend the pansy for example: doesn't like too much water and goes forth and multiplies on it's own quite happily. Jasmine is another plant that can take a bit of amateur gardener bashing. Now that I'm up to speed, (at least on the visuals..and no I won't be learning their latin names) with some of the hardier flora I'll have to pop up to the land of pretty little garden centres all in a row and walk around with someone saying: 5 of those, 3 or those, 4 of those. Maybe after I've redone all the weeding.

 

This weekend sees a number of events converging. The Buddhist holiday of Makha Bucha is converging with the major court case involving whether or not to give ex-PM Taksin his frozen assets back. The red shirt demos seem to have been put off for a week or so, even though to the outsider, for protest purposes during this holiday weekend, it would be an ideal time to bus down the disgruntled red garbed rentamob to cause a ruckus and a rumpus. The fact is, the populace of Bangkok are generally mightily sick of the whole thing, despite the best efforts of 'The Nation" newspaper to drum up a sense of ongoing public outrage and dissent . My journo pal tells me the editor of this broadsheet and Taksin are in fact best buddies. S'funny I thought the two English newspapers took a generally more objective view than is necessarily the case. I do however continue to applaud the Bangkok Post on constantly broaching the subjects and issues it does.

 

I'm off to da beach tomorrow with ma Boo. Gonna try something I've never tried before; A "boutique" hotel. For some reason I've always LOATHED this particular expression. To me, it conjures up some kind of insidious and bogus marketing/cultural mind manipulation, part of the torrent of wanky "newspeak" vocabulary that the new millennium generated so prodigeously in its first decade.  As an ex tourist officer for 14 years, I often attended the openings of such "boutique" hotels in Glasgow. Despite their ultra cool chic and frou frou designs, I always found them cramped, overpriced, and generally devoid of any real charm or welcome, appealing to a kind of fashion driven  cross gender pseudo Metrosexuality trendiness in people at its very worst. The kind of places that young ,successful, overpaid gay couples in expensive designer clothes, and moneyed hen night celebrating thirtysomething women come for ueber- extravagant and indulgent weekend city breaks.  But in truth, these hotels are generally just a jumped up guest house really, but with scented candles, nice Terrence Conran bath fittings, and lots of sliding black ash and faux mahogany veneer panels that cleverly conceal clothes and the tea/coffee making facilities: Perhaps even with a DVD player and ipod dock thrown in for good measure. 

Of course in Thailand things may be different. I strive to keep an open mind on such things. You pays your money, (not inconsiderable in this case, actually a birthday/Christmas present from my folks..thanks guys xx) and you takes your choice. Indeed, my mind has been sweetened by the promise of Eggs Benedict made to measure for my morning breakfast, and  one complementary dinner with wine included. So despite only having 6 rooms, yet  two pools to choose from, I may well find myself wallowing in unaccustomed luxury. There's always the Hua Hin night market to get back to reality with as an evening jaunt on the town….I like Hua Hin. It always does exactly what it says on the tin, without pomp or ceremony.

Actually, I'm also looking at going away to Bali over the Songkran holidays. Relatively cheap and not too long direct flights make the prospect of a cheeky week in Indonesia a real possibility. Seems there's a lot to do and see there. I'd like to get stuck into a different culture, in this case Hindu/Indonesian (very odd mix ) and enjoy some gentle jungle walks looking at the odd flora and fauna in the shadow of some quietly active volcano. Sure it's gonna be touristy, and doubtless I'll be staying in more upmarket accommodation, but it'd be a crying shame to squander little chunk of proper holiday time I have pottering around Bangkok getting water thrown at me. There's still so much of S.E Asia to see.

 Hi There (19/02/10),

 

It would seem there's a bit of a storm coming. The red shirts are about to descend on the city over next holiday weekend. This time there seems to be a palpable unease about their imminent arrival. People are expecting at the very least severe disruption. The pessimists are predicting a repeat of some of the more unsavoury scenes from the last big demonstration.

 

Things never seem to remain quiet here for long on the political front. You get the impression that people are scurrying about frenetically  politicking round the clock just now. I wouldn't dare to guess where it'll all end, but some kind of enormous clusterfuck is indeed most likely.

 

Talking of clusterfucks (sorry to offend but I do love that expression so..)..both the alleged 3G network coverage of Bangkok and the ostensibly working BTS link to the airport have as yet failed to materialize on any kind of comprehensive scale. This, is kinda typical on the way things seem to work here. Corruption, monopoloies, nepotism and social status/class tends to drive all business and economic decisions at every level. I mean the UK is doubtless corrupt, but at least they try and do it a little less overtly. Just how look at how long it took to defrock all those ordained denizens of society, the MP's and their expenses. Even with clear and transparent accounting corners are still cut..you can only imagine what it's like here!!!

 

I've got my booking for a weekend away next weekend. It's off to da beach. A little bit of sun and salt air will be just right, especially as it's ALMOST a month since my last trip to a tropical strand!!!

 

Oh, and I'm currently looking into Easter holidays too…As half of BKK heads out in all directions, an early booking may be the right way to go…My current choice of destination? Bali!!! Looks right lovely.

 

Think I'll leave the May holiday to bamboo raft from Chiang Kong in Thailand the 3 days down to Luang Prabang in Laos….Jon the drummer and I are thinking of having a wee bitty adventure. The northern mountain region in the rainy season ? Hmmm… Better bring a diving dry bag for my gear.

 

 

 

 Hi There (12/02/10),

 

One of the slightly more difficult things to come to terms with in living way out east is the plethora of things that are specifically designed to cause you harm or ill health.

 

Not only do all the bugs , gnats, teensy weensy fruitflys, centipedes, millipedes, and assorted colourful ants bite you in varying degrees of discomfort, (the teensy sandflies being my particular bete noir) , but the humid temperatures and irregular standards of practice on the hygiene/ food preparation front can have harmful bacilli positively fizzling with vibrant activity and thus can often add to the grief.

 

This week I have been eating mostly….. nothing! A particularly strong and nasty bout of food poisoning has left me: weak after two days of starvation and dessicated like a prune (I can't keep anything longer than 15 mins in my system). Even the eye of the proverbial needle would appear too big this week.

 

But hey, I'm an old hand at this. I've been out here for coming on 5 years.I have gyp, Montezumas revenge, jelly belly, or whatever else you might call it before. I know the signs and I know the steps. First signs straight to Ciprofloxacin..a nice big dose and the symptoms invariably head off into the sunset…..

 

Not this time though….No Siree! I musta got the superstrength nasty nasty one. The one that comes with a free 3 day 24 hour headache…Well gosh darn it..ain't I the lucky one?  As I write this with the wryest and the smallest possible mildly optimistic smile one my face, it's only because I've just downed my second cup of coffee in two hours and there appears no sign of cramps and a dash to the loo……Dare I allow myself the luxury of being hungry?

Possibly not….Think I'll leave it at a bowl of simple broth tonight, I have a weekend of management to do!

 

So Valentines day and Chinese New Year have combined to coexist on the same date this year…You can imagine how busy the city is with last minute shoppers buying everything they need (including burnt offerings….I always thought this was just a quaint expression till a friend showed me an example pack of the kind of thing they burn to send to their ancestors, including: fake credit cards, passports to Heaven and Hell and airline tickets haha!!). I fully expect about half my class not to show up tomorrow…but hey in their shoes I wouldn't either.

 

Here's another weird thing….I didn't even know about the Winter Olympics till about last week!! You can imagine that all things snowy and icey don't feature very highly in places in the world where the population thinks temperatures have plummeted to life threatening exposure levels when the thermometer reads 16 degree Centigrade! And every year up north in the mountains people do actually die of exposure at those temperatures!!!..I can't help wondering what they'd make of a light summer breeze in North East Scotland about 8pm on a late June evening!

 

My folks are heading back home tonight. I'll be sad to see them go. But I'm so glad they took the opportunity to thoroughly warm their old bones through in these tropical climes. Mum tells me she's so much more mobile after all the sunbathing and swimming. I reckon they should emigrate for 3 months every Winter..it might be a bit too far to come here, but if they ever went to Aswan or Luxor in Egypt for Christmas I'd go and see them haha!

 

Another holiday weekend coming up at the months end . I'm feeling like a bit o beach again….Better get a booking in soon I guess and beat the rush…. J

 

 

 

 Hi There (05/02/10),

 

As I pull the daily page off my "cuter than cute" kitty shots calendar 2010 (a gift may I add), I find myself wondering about just what exactly happened to January.

 

I've had a lot of family passing through this month. Next week my folks will return to BKK and I'll see them off. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week coming MUM! X) Which will probably mark the end of visitors for a while…Just as well, It's getting hot once again. The temperatures have started creeping up this last week. Pretty much anybody who lives here will acknowledge this as the onset of the hot season.

 

But before that there is course, the annual crazyfest of Valentines Day. Being a nation of all that is cutesy , superficial and image Thais embrace this annual event with the frenzy of a shoal of piranha at a stricken beast in the shallows. I happened to be in the flower market in Chinatown last night. Bear in mind this is 9 days before the actual day. The amount of themed displays around and hoards of people  working crafting flowers into various heart shaped bollox was quite staggering. Heaven knows how they shift all those flowers.

 

It goes without saying that all of us with Thai girlfriends are expected to step up and perform some overt romantic gesture of some sort on Valentines Day. It is a rare Thai girl indeed who is cynical and bright enough to see they are being manipulated by nothing more than the forces of commerce and marketing. I'm happy to say mine is one of this rare breed but that isn't gonna stop us going out somewhere LOL!

 

I'm currently in the throes of building another website for something. Gawd what a fiddly business it is! I'd forgotten that even building from a web based template is a frustrating process of editing, previewing, fiddling, editing..round and round till you get what you consider might be close to the final result….Till of course you view it on a different web browser!!! I'm really not much of a designer. I don't have any talent whatsoever in the visual creation sense. I most definitely will never consider a future career in any kind of computer based graphic design…Hell teeth I don't even know a widget from an RSS feed….and don't get me started on flash!!!

 

It's gonna be head down and getting on with all sorts of stuff pretty much all this month. The months end sees the Buddhist holiday of Makha Bucha day (know fondly round the office as slapabutcher day) seems we get the weekend off (YAY).

 

Maybe I'll head off to da beach again………………….

 

 

 Hi There (29/01/10),

 

 Last Monday, somewhere up in Bang Sue district of Bangkok, a bunch of tanks went for a small jaunt on the streets. This sparked fears of a coup taking place . indeed this was further reported in the Bangkok Post and readily dismissed as some routine manoeuvres.

 

Thing is, the stock market went into a bit of a freefall as fears of an imminent coup led investors to scurry off to their PC's and do the things they do to devalue the market.

 

Since 1971 there have been 9 coups in Thailand , to the casual observer they would appear to be about as commonplace as rigged elections in some of the dodgier African States.

 

The politics of the "Land of Smiles" is a terribly complex and difficult thing to figure. Traditional values and power structures of state clash head on with the power of wealth, corruption and individual greed. Big stick wielding or rather the potential of it, is still the most potent force around these parts. With a certain Mr Taksin, now advisor to the Cambodian state and camped out on the north eastern border and rumoured to be up to funding yet another imminent red shirt demo march upon the capital, it's probably no surprise why everybody is so twitchy. Least I understand better why the Thai stock market closes 2 hours for lunch every day!

 

So I went to Krabi to visit my folks down there. Goodness how Ao Nang has grown in the 2 years since I was last there! I gotta say not for the better. When we took the boat to Poda island I was saddened and disappointed by the amount of litter and degradation of the place. It seems like Krabi, like Phuket is slowly being turned from the paradise it once was. True the limestone stacks rising from the sea are still stunning, but the sheer volume of tourist traffic in the peak season (especially Scands!) does little to make it feel different from somewhere in the Med. I feel a small shift in my perception here. I thing I'd give up the scenery and clearer water for a more mixed Farang/Thai place like Samet or Hua Hin. The food is better and everything is a lot cheaper. When you've lived in Thailand as long as I have, you get a bit pissed off at paying top tourist rates for everything from food to taxis. At least Bangkok still represents good value for money!!

 

Still, it's always lovely to get the chance to hang out with my folks. I'm always grateful for that. Who knows if they'll be back again next year.

 

It was lovely to get all those birthday wishes and emails from my friends. Thank-you so much!!! It'll be a shame if Facebook should start charging for a listing from July. I for one will be dropping out and luring my pals over to myspace instead!

 

 

 Hi There (15/01/10),

 

Historically, gender roles in Thaland have often been blurry round the edges: Most of the world knows of the "ladyboys". Transsexual males (some with their original bits  and some post op) have been lauded and applauded as jesters and concubines for well over 3 centuries. Yet non female gendered overtly gay male couples are still emerging as slowly into societal acceptance as their counterparts in the so called more enlightened parts of the world.

 But what about women? Into this grey area steps the "Tom" and the "Dee"

At first glance you might wonder if they are taking the piss of stereotyping: A very butchly dressed plain/ugly girl (usually with some short cropped "manga" haircut) and a (usually) very pretty ueber femininely dressed "Hello Kitty" type girly girly stumbling around in over elaborate dressy clothing and high heels as their partner. After a while you find yourself thinking "Is this for real ?" Are they some kind of performance artists? Where are the normal overt normal Lesbian couples  you might see stroking each other fondly in the bars and clubs of the more bohemian areas.

I was puzzled about this. I asked a few Thai girls about gender roles (including one who is currently a Dee herself , and another who went to an all girl school). It seems that whilst Ladyboys enjoy all the benefits of a clearly defined heritage and history. Same sex couples are still struggling for a niche and a deeper acceptance in Thai society. Tom and Dee's adopt these visual roles, not because they have an overt need to demonstrate or show their sexuality, but rather than they don't quite know how else to do it. They struggle to find their own identity as part of a same sex couple. It's like to be a lesbian here, you are compelled to draw on cultural references from other places, (Japan in particular) in order to feel more comfortable in a certain way. It also also fairly safe to say whilst "Toms" are more often than not dyed-in-the-wool lesbians till they die, Dee's may take that role for as long as it takes until they find a boyfriend and get on the road to marriage. If you were to suggest to an ex-Dee she were actually bisexual. She'd most likely deny it and she'd probably be quite upset at the insinuation. Another friend suggested to me that many of these so called Tom and Dee couples were more about companionship than overtly driven sexual compulsion. Despite the seemingly open and easy attitude to sex that western people assume the Thais have, it is in fact a lot more complicated to normal Thai people who are not involved in the sex industry. "Good" Thai girls are under a lot of pressure to marry (preferably socially upwards) and have kids asap. 25 and unmarried is considered old. 30 and unmarried you're an old maid! A lack of true societal sexual emancipation is noticeable: For example there are no Ann Summers type sex shops here. If you wanted to buy a vibrator you'd have a very long search in the dingier parts of chinatown and in the end you'd probably have to ask someone to bring you one back from abroad. Thai censorship of all things intimate on TV is still extremely prevalent. Full kissing, or overt displays of affection in public are still strongly frowned upon.

As I was thinking about it , it  made more sense to me as heterosexual Thai men are extremely one dimensional in their outlook about women: They belong in the home, they should have children, they must earn considerably less that their male colleagues to make this so, and they should always know their place. To many Thai women, the values portrayed by this expectation clash directly with the emancipated western "power" women they see on the TV. It's not unusual to see an afternoon Thai soap opera where the woman gets a slap across the chops for a bit of backchat…more often than not the women sitting around the street cafes and beauty salons nod their approval at this scene!

 

Anyway, that's my take on Thai Lesbians. I'm certain I may have got one or two things wrong, but I beleive there is a certain truth in essence of what I'm getting at here. If there are any Thai lesbians out there who've read this blog with disbelief or outrage, or believe that I've somehow stereotyped them into a niche they are uncomfortable with, please feel free to leave a comment on the guestbook I promise not to amend or delete it in any way.

 

OK. So, er…New Year huh? Things starting anew. Been dead busy with stuff over the last few days . My cousin form Denmark arrived yesterday and is esconced in my flat sleeping off her jet lag. Her dad and his wife are in town tonight and we're off to eat Isan food, and then my folks arrive on Sunday to stay for 4 days!!! I've decided to throw in the towel and ask for a few days leave of absence (my first out-of-proscribed-holiday- periods request for 2 years). Next Friday sees my 44^th birthday and I'm off to a lovely resort in Krabi for 3 days to hang out with my folks as they soak up the sun. chances are I won't be blogging for about 10 days so don't go looking next Friday ok?

 

Another 3 days on the beach…it's Hell it really is….. J

 

 Hi There 08/01/10),

 

Do forgive me dear readers..as you might imagine I was kinda waylaid by beer, holidays, long nights and a tiny touch of general end-of-year apathy. I am however resolved to keep you, the dear reader , er, kept…perhaps even sporadically informed and entertained.

 

Actually I'm just back from 3 days on the beachI took to get out of town and  round off my holiday. Diamond beach on Koh Samed is only 4-5 hours from Bangkok using public transport, and, as I mentioned before perhaps the nicest beach I've been to in Thailand. Even from last year there are signs that the serious big money is moving in. Lots of fancier . newer, "designed" resorts and bungalows are starting to pop up all over. The crappy bungalow on the hill amongst the rocks right at the end of the beach with the stunning views was in just as bad a state as it was when I stayed there last year, only 200 baht more expensive. Still, the views and accessibility to the beach made it a bargain. The only thing to punctuate the noise of the sea and the trees in the wind was the occasional seed pod rattling off the roof, the scurrying of squirrels and the scratching chickens as they rooted for bugs in the leaves..naice. It was busier than last year, but still quiet enough to be an ideal place for some peace and quiet. I went down with a pal and we amused ourselves with swimming, chatting and watching the world go by.

 

Actually I got done a bit by nature again this time. My left arm  was bitten by : a bug, a spider, an ant ? whilst I was sunbathing and swoll up like a balloon (the 3^rd time this particular thing has happened since I've lived here) and my right arm met a jelly fish so I've raised welts across my upper arm and wrist that are a bitty itchy…. Still mustn't grumble.

 

The rest of Christmas was punctuated by impromptu drinks out and about and a little bit of frantic gardening and general chores to get the place looking good for the upcoming visitsfrom my family. My Christmas bonus was pretty much wiped out by the aircon repairs I made…shame that. I am gonna start some saving very soon.

 

I wish all of you my very best for the new year and the new decade. I can see the miserable weather in Britain will be doing little to raise spirits. Hope it clears soon guys!

 

I was wanting to talk about Lesbians and strange gender roles in Thailand, but you know what? I'll let you know about "Toms and Dees" next week! J

 

 

 

 

 Hi There (18/12/09),

 

The tropics have a tendency to do strange things to clothing. In the past, I've talked about how unaired leather coats start getting furry with fungus quite quickly, how leather watchstraps perish within mere months, how moths just love to find linen shirts to munch…

 

Well today I'm going to talk shoes! Yes shoes I hear you say! I'm currently going through a phase of losing my sole brother! By this I don't mean I'm losing my religion, rather that 3 pairs of shoes (to wit: 2 pair of expensive outdoor adventure boots and my Nike trainers) have had one or both soles come dramatically unstuck. This of course is easily mended by Nobby to the gap toothed wiry villager who squats on the pavement on soi Ari amid the street food stalls with a huge pile of skanky old shoes behind him and an antique Tom- and -Jerry like shoe anvil to his front. He can whip a flopping sole off in a jiffy and have it slathered back on by araldite strong glue in seconds. Indeed it was he who sourced shoelaces for me when I'd given up after the 4^th different supermarket, (They favour slip on's here as there is a big take-off-your-shoes culture indoors everywhere. You should see the office staffs ridiculous collection of jumbo "animal" cartoon slippers. I have refrained from such footwear myself. LOL.

 

So this is gonna be my last blog before Christmas. There's a whole bunch of you out there I haven't exactly been very good at keeping in contact with over the past 12 months. You know who you are. I wish you all peace, happiness and a very merry Chrismas….and of course, I wish you all that you could wish for yourselves in 2010.

 

As I'm not going away this Christmas ,and that my folks are coming in Mid January, I'm currently on a bit of a push to get a few things in order round the house: Last week I bought a sun umbrella (final a bit of shade for the roof terrace), two chairs and a giant padded deckchair thingy (which is dead comfortable…a snip at 20 quid..I'm thinking of buying another but there's a freebie from Cherry coming so I'll install that first).I've got the aircon guys to re-freon my two remaining working units in the bedrooms (no I'm not spending 600 quid on a new compressor for the living room). I've got to do up the ensuite bathroom..may need to repair the cistern as it overflows are soon as the water is switched on to fill it. And of course I've yet to get stuck into some serious replanting of the bunkers…though they are currently almost clear of weeds. I even had a candle lit meal outside with Cherry last week…but of course the mossies were fierce at sundown so I'll have to get some mosquito coils….or make more use of that "black hole" device I bought last year….you know the blue light,-co2 generating-insect-sucky  thing that sits in my bedroom..works a treat. I've even discovered an electrical powerpoint in my garden so I can play music out there too wahey!!

 

So it's the last weekend of school thank goodness. I might even get away from playing santa this year though I'm not betting on it. I must remember to keep my beard hidden and secret. Second hand beards are yucky things and I've had exclusive use of this one for the last 3 years!!

 

I thin I'm going to have a very quiet Christmas eve with a snuggley duck dinner for two and some nice movies….I've got an invite for Christmas lunch so it's off to steep myself in the company of great and dear friends.

 

I think 2010 is going to be a little different . I think there is a niff of change in the air. Let's hope it's a fair wind that blows mostly good!

 

I shall blog again soon.

 

Have a great Christmas people. Spend quality time with those you care about, and make sure to tell them you care about them. That, above all else, is what Christmas should be about.

 

xx

 

 Hi There (11/12/09),

 

This week officially heralded the start of my Christmas festive season. Yesterday we took the staff on the annual staff jolly outside town to Tong sam boon adventure park. 2 hours out of BKK in Khao Yay national park its a small adventure play resort with bb gun shooting, atv, water slides, go kart etc etc. Actually a nice day out was had by all. Naturally we combated the het with plenty of cold beer throughout the day J.

 

I've mentioned this before, but it really is quite difficult getting into a Christmas frame of mind when the sun is belting down and it's 30 + degrees. Colleagues are putting Christmas sceney wallpaper on their computers, friends on facebook are opening advent calendars and posting their corresponding cute adventy pics. Back in dark Britain, a million ovens are working overtime as the buns and all manner of edible scroggins are systematically stockpiled for the annual caloriefest. Nut importers are rubbing their hands in glee, and tangerine salesmen are calmly awaiting their December sales figures. And me? I just reflect another year is almost gone, that I'll be 44 next month, that while I remain a happy and  fancy free person something nags away at me. Like a dog worrying a bone, I know there has (or had) to be something else, something different. I think I know what it might be, but if I'm right, I'm currently frankly adrift in a creek without a paddle on that score.

 

Still, a few plans are afoot to make this a lovely festive period, even if I don't go anywhere ('cept for a planned 3 days on da beach in very early New Year with colleagues) . I've started making another go at the garden..I can't believe how quickly weeds have grown up. In this climate plants seem to be almost triffid like in their expansion and movement. I'm planning to give myself the Christmas present of some garden furniture and a lie low or 2 (along with perhaps a coffee machine) for me as well as my parents coming in the middle of next month. I kinda recently worked out why I didn't spend much of my days off on my sun terrace..SHADE. Coming from Scotland I always thought it was a bit of an urban myth about the shade being significantly cooler than the open; you kinda notice it, but not really. But here, the fact is when you're dealing with higher temperatures the difference from shade to direct sunshine seems much more dramatic perhaps by even as much as 5-10 degrees…which is why I'm also investing in a nice big sun umbrella too. At least I don't have to worry too much about getting a paddling pool, the swimming pool is on the floor below and one minute away if I need a quick dip (which believe me, after grafting in the hard packed soil of my roof garden bunkers for 2 hours I did- The garden hose wasn't quite enough!!).

 

So on the Christmas festivities go on. Managers lunch midweek next week and official inhouse party at the end of work next Sunday. Tall Paul is out for his birthday on the Monday, then I shall have 2 days of detox.  My two and a half week holiday is just over 9 days away and I still have a few things to work on at home. I shall have to commence work on the spare bathroom overflowing toilet cos the cistern is knacked), scrub it down, seal up any other holes I find, and spray every overflow for any more of those damned roaches. Probably a visit to home pro or chatchak market for some bathroom haberdashery like , er, I dunno, something to make it a more cheery ablution experience. I'm sure my folks will find my spare ensuite bedroom both functional and pleasant enough, but they do like a certain level of luxury that 4-5 star hotels have. I can probably do mine up to 2.5-3 stars for them. Hope that's enough. I'm reckoning the roof terrace and the pool will swing it. There's also a lot to be said from them being out of the terribly noisy and hectic city centre. They'll enjoy the peace of my place for sure.LOL!

 

 

 

 

 

 Hi There (04/12/09),

 

I really must resist the urge to move my word doc margins about. My website template isn't exactly the most user friendly of formats. I'm forever getting requests to change the colour, change the font, change the background of my blog etc, etc and, when I do it, it invariably all goes arse over tit.

 

I am, I must admit, a considerably useless twat when it comes to all things computer. I've messed around and experimented with various bits and pieces (Adobe Illustrator I hate you). I find even configuring bits of software like torrent downloads to torrent in the right place all just a bit of a chore. Yet I'm foreve telling my dad how simple it is do certain things when he starts humming and hawing down the phone at my explanations…Dad, for the record I couldn't make homemade birthday cards for sure.

 

I often take my students into the computer room. Lately we've been making little newspapers and magazines. They can take an A4 word page and totally funk it up with squinty pics, columns that hug the frame of the pics, natty little outlines and margins and just gubbins in less than 45 minutes.

 

Makes me feel like a technophobe……

 

I'm still confounded by people who never seem to be satisfied with what they have. I know I lack the entrepreneurial spirit and drive to ever be particularly rich. But at least I gave it a go, albeit it on a modest scale. My one attempt at having my own company showed me, that despite your best efforts, you are more often than not, at the mercy of others, of fads, of fashion. Building something up like that is soo time consuming. It takes over your life and you spend all your time sinking your time, effort, and ( very often ) hard cash into something that barely brings backs rewards other than the satisfaction you are trying to do something for yourself.

 

I recently pointed out to a friend that Thailand appeared to be a much more difficult place to stay and work than when I started. "Then tell me why are there still so many pisshead wasters here?" was his response. I countered that if they were here I didn't see them as such and couldn't differentiate them from semi-alki sextourist types anyway. Perhaps it's all about getting married to a local, or perhaps a "retirement" visa (available for the over 50's with a guaranteed monthly income from abroad). I guess it's still difficult for younger 'gap year" types to live and work in relative security. As an employer it appears increasingly hard to find people with the right mindset to thrive and develop in what I would say is a very upbeat, positive and inspiring setup.

 Makes me grateful for what I have, it really does. My job isn't always easy, there are inherent pressures and problems with it but I'll gladly take it all on because I don't feel like a wage slave anymore.

 

Oh course it's hard to think anything "wage-slave" like  in the land of smiles and sunshine. My dad tells me it's so dark the house lights are on all day just now. Gawd the memories of dark mornings, dark afternoons and eternal Winter nights….I wonder if I could ever go back to it I really do. And yet, despite all my worries and misgivings about the UK, it is after all, my mother country and the education and luxury of freedom of thought it afforded me will accompany me the rest of my days. I try not to forget that.

 

My poor 14 year old neice is going to the Christmas school dance this week. She's posted on facebook that she's terrified she'll make an arse of herself in some mortifying way…I remember it all so well. That agony of awkwardness; the big hall, girls lined up down one side, boys down the other, never the twain shall meet….apart from, of course, the obligatory solitary "going steady" couple coolly and  deeply French kissing each other out there in the middle of the room….GAWD! My sympathy goes out to her, especially as she goes to a girls school and the boys are most likely semi-strangers drafted in from some nearby boys school.

 

Perhaps things have changed, perhaps young teenage boys and girls are totally cool together nowadays with the battle of the sexes and the rigours of puberty a thing of the past…but from what I see in my classes here in Thailand I really don't think so. Add of course into the mix ALL the obligatory Scottish country dancing : "gay gordons, military two step, dashing white sergeant, strip the willow, st Bernards waltz and other such compulsory moves and you're set up for a considerably awkward and potentially disastrous gauntlet run….

 

 Yet, as I reassured my niece, you've really got to be at the alcohol swigging studenty stage to truly start making an arsehole of yourself at such mass gatherings. The lucky girl has all that still to look forward to….

 

What a great uncle I am !!! LOL J

 

 

 

 

 

         

Hi There (27/11/09)

 

I was in the Hanrahans Irish bar the other day ( having a distinctly average yet expensive mixed grill). As usual I grabbed the photocopies of the UK papers (that's how you get them here) and started looking through the usual tabloid mush.

 

And mush it indeed was! It occurred to me that people in blighty must be so bored and uninspired that they spend a huge percentage of their time talking about who is dancing with who on telly, who is eating what bugs in bush tucker trials, and who said what about whom in the "give me stardom at all costs" celebrity xfactor bigbrother jungle household…. Surely it is reaching epidemic proportions. When Marx described religion as being "the opium of the masses" , he wasn't foreseeing a world where people actively chose brain death by media manipulation.

 

I'm not for second suggesting we make all tv intellectually stimulating or educational, but surely this endless reality celebritywannabehood has got to stop. It's like some sort of ravenous monster with a gaping maw that just can't be filled. Yeah sure there are similar programmes over here, but it's the scale of what's going on over in the UK that makes it so scary…. I went to the grand final of the inter-Asia university debating societies last Monday. I was most impressed at the level of English and structure of argument. The only thing that bothered me was the complete lack of tone and intonation in almost all of their mini speeches. It was done in British parliamentary style so it would have been nice to be paced a little slower with perhaps some humour or sarcasm there. Unfortunately the main tone (especially from the women participants -sorry) was often shrill and full of faux righteous indignation….I'm sure it takes many many years of training to do it so well though. I certainly couldn't do it so well. In any case it's still nice to see people learning the art of debate and discussion. Perhaps I even saw some future Asia politicians honing their skills. Never did find out who won, I gave up waiting for the judges to decide by 10.30 pm.

 

Next weekend it is the Kings Birthday and as such we've got the weekend off wahey! I'm not planning to hit the beach (even though I'd like to) as all the resorts will be absolutely hoaching with locals. A long leisurely weekend round BKK sounds like a great thing to do instead. I may even have to start doing a bit to get my flat in order for my folks visit…time to buy some cheap garden furniture!

 

Last January I started saving the strangely elusive (and incredibly useful) 50 baht bank notes. Nominally worth about 1 pound each, it's taken me almost a full year to save up 5000 baht. I've just blown my savings on a few drinks, a lunch, and a brand new 500 gig external hard drive. Nice to have an early Christmas present from me to me. Looks like I've started a whole new 50 baht challenge club for 2010. Perhaps next year it'll be a boys  night on the tiles spending 50 bahts wherever we go at the end of next year!

 

Now we're at years end once again the weather it really at its finest. Blue skies , 28-30 degrees, cool and slightly crisp mornings (even saw fog from my office window yesterday) and a pleasant shock to find the shower is just a bit too cold in the mornings..delicious.  I wish it could stay this temperate for ever. I know there's only really a 2 month window before it gets fierce though, shame really. Still, it could be worse: I could have chosen to live in Cockermouth, or elsewhere in deepest darkest Cumbria and find myself being wholly dependent on some nearby condemned bridge.

 

I find myself getting slightly introverted and reflective towards the years end. I think of friends , family, New Year resolutions and all sorts of assorted daydreams and wishes for the future. Maybe I'll turn these mental lists into something more concrete, maybe I won't. The main thing is that, on balance , I remain content and happy with my lot and my life here. I know I'm not blazing a trail of proactivity towards future riches and security. This is probably the only small concern in an otherwise decent and quality existence.

 

          

Hi There (20/11/09),

 

Who do you think first said "Don't count your chickens" ? Presumably it was either someone for whom chickens were very very important, OR he/she had either a bad fox problem or the chick equivalent of sudden death syndrome on his/her hands.

 

After my bout of H1N1 a few months back I have been medically counting my chickens figuring that I wouldn't be smitten down any more once I had been through it once.. Wrong! I've picked up another rotten bug/virus thingy whilst I was away in Chiang Rai. Whilst it isn't anything as bad as the flu earlier this year, a nagging fever and ringing in my ears has been following me around these last few days and I'm weary of the feeling of being permanently stoned. A half opened pack of aspirins sits on the office desk in front of me and a bandanna is round my head to catch the sweat as I write this!

 

Still it could be worse, 2 of my colleagues picked up a nasty tummy bug whilst we were away. At least I avoided the 'afraid to fart" syndrome haha!

 

So, yes, Chiang Rai camp last week. It was a lot of fun but also really hard work. We had 55 students all of whom were "grade 5 or above" managers (what ever that means) and all of whom were trainers in their own jobs for the company. This meant we had a hall full of extrovert charismatic people who were boisterous, competitive,  and loud. Indeed they got in to the activities so much I thought there'd be stampede injuries at one point. On one hand it was rewarding to see how successful our activites could be, or the other hand we realized that there were about 15 students too many and that they were so hard to monitor and keep on task.

 

The resort outside town where we stayed was very nice indeed. A complex of bungalows connected by ponds, bridges, and a windy narrow tarmac road with little electric tuktuks taking the lazier guests to and from the  reception area. The brochure said 5 star (one hundred and 60 quid a night!) and for up there in the provinces it probably was, but I wouldn't have paid that much for it. Still it was nice and peaceful enough, apart from the snake I narrowly avoided stepping on coming off a little footbridge. Gawd I never knew they could move so fast, it covered about 6 metres to the cover of undergrowth in about 3 seconds. The adders and vipers I've seen in Europe up till now were always a bit kinda lazy and laconic (if you can say such a thing of a snake) in their movement. Couldn't tell you much about this one other that it was about 4-5 feet long, the colour of straw stubble in a field with darker brown lines along it's face. It didn't appear to have the cobra look and it was pretty thin perhaps the size of an old ten pence piece. Either way, I was delighted the old adage about "it being more scared of you than you of it" appeared to be true. I don't quite know how I'd have reacted if it had been up for a square go at me. As far as I know, only King Cobras and Black Mambas dinnae like us human folk and will pause to say so in their own inimitable style. First time I've encountered a snake up close and personal since I got here so I guess it was about time.

 

Which is more than I can say for cockroaches. Now the rainy season has passed they seem to be venturing out from what ever dank lair they usually abide in and now choose to go into a semi death paralysis inverted and twitching on my apartment floors with monotonous regularity. I've sealed every hole I can think of around the apartment. What was God thinking about when he designed these little monsters? They look repulsive, they can fly, they are very fast, they would survive (along with scorpions curiously enough) a nuclear holocaust, and they wallow in the nastiest diesease ridden of places spreading forth germs when they can. I hate them. I'm a little scared of them. I tell myself they are perfectly harmless but that doesn't stop me having the screaming heebie jeebies when they are wriggling about in a wad of toilet paper as I hurredly make for the bathroom and then anticipate the resultant wave of relief as I watch them ride the maelstrom of the departing toilet flush. Thing is, they really make such a mess if you splat them with a shoe so you gotta do it this way….yuk….either that, or enjoy a little game of indoor roach hockey. They slide beautifully on their backs or my polished teak floors, a couple of precise flicks with my broom and I can fire them out under the apartment door at quite a turn of speed. Ironically once they get in the inverted 'twitch" position they almost never recover enough to walk again and if they do they are slow and sluggish.

 

Anyway ,enough of such things. YUK.

 

I've got a bit of a busy social agenda coming up over the next few weeks. There are a few national holidays here and there, a staff outing, a Christmas party or two, and various other obligations and functions to attend in the coming weeks. I don't think I'll be going away for the Christmas period after all now. My folks are coming and I really should use the time to get my place in order for their visit. Besides, now they are coming I'll be going down to Ao Nang for a couple of days t see them at the beach..better save for that!

 

 

 

Hi There (13/11/09),

 

I keep cursing myself silently for my repeated stupidity. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A ONE WAY STREET IN THAILAND. I really should make this my mantra. Twice lately I've been in a so called one way street and forgotten to obviously look to the direction from which no traffic is supposed to be coming, only to almost step out in front of a weaving motorbike.

 

It's getting to epidemic proportions in Thailand. I've lost count of the number of people on bikes screaming the wrong way down the hard shoulder of the motorway. It positively freaks you out, especially at night.

 

One of my part time colleagues was recently knocked off his motorbike by another biker in precisely this manner (I covered his class till he arrived shaken and freaked out), his reward? A 1000 Baht fine/bribe from the policeman cos he was a farang in a bike accident and therefore automatically at fault….He actually has a car as well…..I think, like me, he's giving up driving a motorbike in this city.

 

Having ironed out some, if not all of the issues that plagued me last week I know find myself in itouch heaven. I bought cables for it and plugged it in to the tv in class last week and delivered a video lesson on an advertising module I was teaching!  I'm also downloading all sorts of podcasts, both in  video and spoken word format and really enjoying a lot of it whilst commuting to and from work, especially the BBC daily global news. Add a couple of cool little games and a few brilliant applications (like Google Earth (my home in Tayport looks great), a bookreader, wikipoedia, and a stand alone stargazing/constellation finder, skype (which works well), Instant Messaging, email etc etc and you've really got the coolest device with that oh-so-cool touch screen EVER. Ok OK so everyone says why didn't you just buy an iphone…4 reasons:

1)    I didn't want a contract and change my phone number paying 30 odd quid a month for the next 2 years. 2) They are still considerably thicker and just a bit too bricklike for my taste. 3) The 32 gig ones have only just come out in Thailand for approximately 3 times the price I bought my 64 gig itouch in Japan and with skype and a wifi zone I can STILL phone if I really need to. 4) my music collection is 30 gigs as it is, if I loaded it all in to a new 32 gigger I wouldn't have all the extra space for  movies, podcasts, files and the like.

 

I really gave up being gadgetboy a number of years ago. I realized how quickly electronica got improved and superceded to such an extent there really wasn't much point in stepping in and buying at all. Doubtless we'll see 64 gig iphones and 128 gig itouchs before the end of 2011, but I really don't see the point of that much more storage space. People like me expand their music library very slowly nowadays. I wouldn't call myself a musical packrat like some of my colleagues..I mean, who WANTS every national anthem in the world as part of their music collection? Sure I've been expanding a lot into Jazz and bebop/Blue Note type jazz area thanks to knowledge the influence of my colleague Nigel, and I find myself always on the hunt for  classical music that moves me, (not opera, never opera) but it's a slow process nowadays. Like most middle aged guys I like what I like and although my tastes cover a HUGE range of music (from punk, pop, ska, indie, through disco to classical guitar) my 30 gigs of music is unique to me. It's taken me a lifetime to assemble this much, I seriously doubt it will double in the second half of my lifetime, but you never know.

 

Talking of things musical: "Modern Dog" the only band in Thailand which is just a little bit gritty and innovative are playing a sponsored beer garden at the World Trade Centre at the end of the month. Theme this year by all the bands playing is to do covers by a particular artist. Modern Dog (to their eternal credit) are going to do a set by Radiohead!! They are the ONLY band in Thailand who could even begin to do them justice. So I reckon I'll mosey on down with a few of the colleagues at the months end to have a looky looky. I went to see them last year, really enjoyed it, and got really rather wee-wee'd on Tiger "Ice" beer…almost threw up in the skytrain the following morning.

 

The nicest thing about the run up to the Christmas period (and the slightly cooler weather) is the beer gardens that spring up all over the city with live bands playing local pop songs. Christmas (apart from the usual ludicrous and, unfortunately now global, commercialism) means nothing to Thais other than a time to socialize outside and catch up with friends towards the years end. Long may that continue.

 

So it's off to Chiang Rai on Monday for another PEA camp. We've just been putting the finishing touches to the curriculum. We've had to put together a slightly different one this time as we'll be having the same HR observers/assessors watching us as they did in Hua Hin. We've got to be able to demonstrate a few new activities. I think we're all agreed we could really do with a regular schedule of such camps throughout next year. I'd better even pack a long sleeved top like a jersey or something, it's likely to be a trice chilly at night up there in the mountains. The pool even might be too cold for me, oh my!  

 

I find myself hankering for a few days at the beach again. I'd like to see the stars in the sky and feel the sand between my toes. If I don't end up going away over Christmas I'll definitely be up for something like that. There are some rather cheap and basic   stand alone chalets on the point amongst the trees at the end of silver beach on Koh Samet I'd like to stay in again sometime soon.

 

 

Hi There (05/11/09),

 

As I mentioned last week, Bangkok, compared to Tokyo, comes across as a wild west frontier town underneath all the high rise buildings and commercial capitalist glamour. Cracks appear in the veneer in the most unlikely of places. This week I have ventured into the guddling morass of modern telecommunications. Not only, (much to my chagrin) have I discovered products don't quite do what they advertise, (no surprise there, happens all over the world) but even so called on site "experts " selling them seem to have little or no idea how to get them to work, not seamlessly (like advertised), just work at all. The term "hopelessly inept" springs irresistibly to mind.

 

My mission ? VERY simple actually: I just wanted to use my new 64 gig itouch to update online with all my usual stuff. I've used wifi on my laptop in various sites around the city for some time and found it occasionally frustrating , but always do-able. This time however things went, for want of better expression, tits up!

 

I would like to add before we get any further, that I am relatively au fait with how these things work. Indeed, I got it to work at an Aussi pub with free wifi with no bother at all. Whilst I'm not an expert, I understand, (mostly) how to troubleshoot problems and issues and I did do my research online about connectivity issues and problems before embarking on wasting shop staff (and more importantly) my time anywhere.

 

Step one. Download the handy little true wifi application from itunes, providing an easy one stop log in link page to the network…doesn't work, always says "networking not reachable" even when I can see elsewhere on the device the link is fine and dandy. I went to the true wifi shop (well 2 actually as the first one only sold in-shop computer time and coffee and (weirdly enough, not wifi access cards..eh? what?). So I eventually (after going to 3 different counters) in another shop found someone who would sell me a month subscription for a tenner. Great! Hmmmm, a little voice told me I should log in there and then. It didn't work. She took my device away to a huddled group of experts. Still didn't work. She came back 15 minutes later and said the network was down and I should come back tomorrow (gave me my money back.. BAD sign- a truly unheard of event in Thailand, they'd rather undergo open surgery without anaestethic than refund you for ANYTHING). Outside the shop of course the device showed the signal true and strong (true wifi—pun-geddit?).

 

So I went back on day 2. Same girl at the counter. This time she told me dead straight before I even had a chance to discuss the matter, that itouch wouldn't work with true wifi (which has a virtual monopoly on public wifi access in the city). Disappointed I went away to do more research.

 

So I went to Starbucks….good old expensive Starbucks. I went online to the KSC website prior to the visit and bought 5 hours through their KSC wifi network. Trouble was, when I went online to log in I didn't have the correct @___ username to fit with their starbucks menu so couldn't log on. I left and later emailed them the problem. They told me to try something else. It worked! Well kinda, it took me to the final stage where I had to log in personal details (for internet safety and security) where the system jammed again…Doh!

 

Thinking my mojo was well and truly lost. I went to the local Apple store to explain my problem. (Remember the itouch had worked flawlessly at a free wifi pub). I had been very very careful with capitalization and the like when logging in. I felt it was time to see Apple. Again, another hopelessly confused young person. Again, a guddle of so called experts crowding around jabbering to each other and again, no dice.

 

So for those of you considering going mobile wifi with an itouch in BKK here's a bit of advice:

1)    Don't bother with the handy true wifi login on itunes application, it stinks.

2)    Don't buy anything online with KSC wifi, go there (Starbucks) personally and  buy the cheapest access card you can before forking out for something that appears not to work (I emailed them again this morning and as they actually responded yesterday (brownie points) to my initial issue, I might yet resolve the KSC Starbucks problem.

3)    By the way, True wifi appears to own KSC wifi!

4)    True wifi and Apple staff REALLY haven't got a fucking clue about most everything they do, so don't waste your time expecting someone to appear from the back shop and do magic things to your device. You'll only get a group of youths with Manga comic haircuts taking slack mouthed turns at having a clueless stab at it.

5)    Er, don't get rattled by it, as I obviously seem to have been.

 

 

 Moving on, the band played a four song mini gig last Sunday. We cocked up the second two songs quite a bit, yet were invited to play there again anytime, which was nice ! J Paul is heading off to the UK for a long sojourn to get well, and Kirk is one the road for a very long spell of various sales missions all over Asia, so it might be New Year before we're up and running again, but hey, at least we got to play out….For some odd reason I chose Sunday night afterwards to get very drunk. I hadn't been steaming for months. I must say I really suffered for it on my day off the next day. It's true about what they say about hangovers. They do get worse as you get older. I had a crippling headache all day and was literally like a bear with a sore head. I just stayed in a darkened room and sought to keep myself to myself as much as I could. I was in no frame of mind for any sort of meaningful communication. Should have switched my phone off..ooops! Best I take it a little more easy in future drinking.

 

Those of you on Skype I'd like to try it out sometime soon. Please email me your Skype details. You'll find me under mikemalcolm. If things eventually ever do work wirelessly I should be able to use the itouch in a wifi zone as a phone via Skype. It'd be nice to chat to you guys around Christmas. I've been feeling a touch of wistfulness and homesickness lately. Not homesickness for the UK (good God no!), just missing my friends and family. If I recall correctly, I felt the same way about this time last year. It must be something to do with the run in to years end.

 

Still, a little bit of adventure in the offing this month . The Chiang Rai trip is in 10 days. Looking forward to getting out of dodge for a while . I'm still reviewing Christmas travel options too. Think I'll make some decisions after Chiang Rai. Time to plan  to have something to look forward to.

 

That always helps my mood.

 

 

 

Hi There (30/10/09),

 

HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT BIRTHDAY DAD! Love ya!

 

Flying to Japan on United Airlines was a bit of a throw back to the past. OK , a touch under 300 quid in economy for a six hour flight was a little on the cheap side, but I was expecting just a little bit more in the way of amenities. I was aghast to find no TV in the back of the seat in front of me. This meant craning to see the infrequent TV smattered round the cabin. Then of course there was the not so great service. On Emirates for example, they come around with water pretty much every 30 mins. No such luck here. But hey it was OK, though I wouldn't want to fly much longer than that. Oh, and do get me started on the uber paranoid security measures at check in (both directions) and the do-it-yourself touch screens at the main check in desk (in Tokyo). How any old dodddery computer phobes are gonna handle that one is anyone's guess.

Still the luggage arrived and as expected the efficient (if slightly pricey at 20 quid single) express train into town meant a relatively hassle free journey into town.

 

All through the holiday when I asked somebody (in my politest English) fopr help or directions ,they invariably prattled back to me in Japanese. The weird thing was I seemed to understand exactly what they were saying (a previous life as a Kamikaze pilot). At one point I wanted to pay for something, go prattled at and said aloud," OK along there to the back , on the right hand side in the corner" and (Cherry was frankly a little bamboozled by this..me too actually).

 

So to the hotel. The Peninsula Tokyo. I've stayed in my fair share of 4 star Hyatts and Sheratons in my time, but this was simply WAAAY out there the most opulent and luxurious hotel I've ever stayed in. (Thanks again for working for them Cherry!). I mean at 500 quid a night for the basic standard (I use the term standard quite reluctantly, their words not mine), it was amazing. We got a fab room on the top (23^rd) floor, complementary wine, sushi, chocolates, fruit, cakes etc etc. When you walked into the toilet cubicle the toilet seat lid (heated if you please) lifted up in welcome. The star trek control panel by the loo ensured you could complete all movements with never even rolling so much as a butt cheek off it; heated/vibrating AND oscillating seat, three different types of bidet facilities (it buzzed out on a little stick and fired any type of spray type you might need), warm air blower for afters, instant electronic deodouriser and of course different flush depending on your needs. There was even a telephone in there.

Our room came supplied with a full range of remote electronica devices, mobile phones, HUGE flat screen tV, it even had one of those stainless steel Gaggia expresso makers (I used that one a lot!). There was also a full walk in wardrobe dressing room , it even had a "dumb waiter" device to send your laundry down or get your shoes polished…Ah, how the other half lives indeed. I mean, I'd NEVER pay that sort of money for a hotel room, but those people that do they seem to me to get a whole new level of luxury and pampering for it. Personally, I'd get too fat just eating all the free cakes and chocolates they leave on little doily towers EVERY time they turn the room down in the evening. I believe we were marked in as VIP status (peninsula does indeed look after its own) but I relly couldn't imagine anyone else staying there having any less in the terms of pampering. It WAS nice however to get EVERYTHING on the menu the night we stayed in the hotel and went for the 3 course set menu (choose of 2 dishes for each course), needless to say we also make full use of the free champagne and wine. Quite pissed I was.

 

So what about Japan? Impressions ? Well, it didn't really feel like Asia at all. More like a sophisticated Western city. Everything worked (though I never saw an ATM anywhere until the airport..must be all inside). The people were very quiet and orderly. They certainly were warm and polite when you spoke to them and the general customer service was very good. If you ever wanted to live somewhere with lots of people and yet be alone with your thoughts this would be the place for you. People were very reserved and quiet, even on the underground. It made Bangkok seem like some sort of Dodge city wild west frontier town. Everybody wore suits and business clothes and we only really saw some more interesting fashion types expressing themselves at the weekend. The underground system was pretty much flawless and very clean. Indeed as it was pissing down and cold, (loved it -for about a day, Cherry handled it far better than me) we often walked underground to adjacent lines.

 

I liked the place. I loved the sushi and the food in general. I didn't like the queues for a lot of eateries, even starbucks had queues 12 deep in some places. I think after the service and space in BKK you'd get quite frustrated by this. James (my colleague who lived there for 10 years) said that if you wanted a game of tennis you'd have to book 4 months in advance!! Wow. He also said that during holidays EVERYONE goes to the same places turning favoured holiday spots into a scrum. That'd drive me nuts.

 

One of my personal highlights was a particular painting at the Bridgestone Gallery of Art. Monet's "Venice at sunset" was simply one of the most stunning paintings of his I've ever seen. I had to go back twice and just sit and marvel at it. I got quite emotional really. I've forgotten how much I missed going to Art galleries and taking in the visual wonders on display. I bought a poster to remind myself of it, but you know it's not the same, it's more like some sort of well executed facsimilie without any of the life and vibrant movement of the original. I don't think I've ever seen a painting seem so alive (in terms of movement) before.

 

My other main souvenir from my time there was a brand new 64 gig ipod itouch…They are brand new. The 32 gig itouchs in BKK cost 300 quid. I got one with twice the memory for 200 quid!! And what a STUNNING device it is. I'm always reluctant to buy electronica as it's often obsolete so quickly. But I think I got it right this time. Of course I am getting to grips with it, but it's sooo much more than just a music player. I've put my 30 gigs of music on it and have converted about a dozen of my favourite movies and concert footage (and a couple of cartoons) to play on it. Aside from that, it's a fully integrated web browser with all the usual email and internet stuff. I can even talk to it when it's in my pocket and change tracks, playlist etc etc. I've downloaded the skype application and will try that soon (when I've got the best wifi deal..Thailand is ,as you might expect, still slow to embrace 3g technology). It seems (for long distance calls anyway) I can turn it into a phone too! Wahey! I thought the small screen would be a barrier to effective movie watching, but it isn't at all really. It's simplf fantastic. I'm soo glad my old ipod 60gig went phut prior to Japan forcing me to get this new one. I'm also soo glad ipod recently released a 64 gig version or I wouldn't have had much space for anything other than my music….I'm a very happy bunny.

 

So, eh, Japan. Well I liked it a lot. I feel like I barely scratched the surface of what it's all about. Indeed, probably I'd have to go for a long time there to even start to get a handle on the people and the culture. You can do it relatively cheaply in terms for food and accommodation , but it is significantly more expensive for stuff thanthe rest of Asia. I think I'd like to go back and explore more ,but when that might be we'll have to see. The world is a big place after all. There's still so much to see in SE Asia.

 

So it's back to work and the general run up to Christmas. I've got to prep for the work trip to Chiang Rai in a couple of weeks and a couple of other projects to finish up.

 

Paul is going back to the UK for a long sojourn to try and get fully well. Good luck with that buddy! So it looks like we'll play one more time this week (probably Sunday) together before he goes. After that I'm gonna have to deputise on the singing till he gets back. It's gonna be tricky, I've gotten used to just focusing on playing the guitar and stepping up to the mic for harmonies. I don't think I even know all the words to the songs!!I suppose I'd better start practicing in the shower!

 

 

 

Hi There (16/10/09),

 

As I'm flying out to Tokyo next Friday morning in the wee hours, this'll probably be my last blog till sometime till around Tuesday 27^th.

 

The rainy season here in BKK is showing no real signs of letting up. We even had 2 consecutive days of rain this week (shock horror!), it EVEN drizzled, which is very odd when you're used to balls-to-the-wall tropical downpours! One thing I noticed about all these polished marble shopping plazas and pavements around the city centre is that they are seriously slippy when wet. Never having ice or snow, (or even slopes of any great incline) in Bangkok Thais tend to import shoes with apparently little or no grip in the wet. How many times lately have I found myself inadvertently aquaplaning as I stepped from one surface type to another in the last few weeks? It must certainly look comical to the neutral observer. One of these days I'm definitely going to face plant on hard ground if this continues:- probably when my hands are full of shopping.

 

I had a little bonus this week. On Monday morning a squad of the condo clean up team came and cleared my roof terrace bunkers of assorted trees and weeds. Whether this was cause of a complaining neighbour , or just something they do regularly to unkempt gardens is unclear. I don't appear to have been billed for it..Result hey! Now it's back under control I fully intend to look after it better, plant some nice things (when I get back), and weed more regularly. It's truly amazing how quickly things grow here! My fledgling seeds I planted about 5 weeks ago are already starting to flower..awww! I've even got a sunflower plant on the way! I wouldn't dare say I had green fingers, an idiot could grow things in this climate, keeping them alive however, is an entirely different kettle of fish. Perhaps if I splurge on some garden furniture for Christmas I'll find myself spending more time out there of an evening. People in cold countries think if they lived somewhere hot with a roof terrace and a swimming pool they'd use them everyday and worship the sun. The truth is, after a certain degree of time, your default setting is to actually avoid direct sunlight and hanging around outside unless you have a purpose to do so like playing sport , shopping and the like.

 

Either way it'll be lovely to have a weekend somewhere like Tokyo in October where temperatures will peak at 19 degrees and plummet  to about 14 in the evenings. I'm looking forward to feeling the merest nip in the air, and no I'm not being racist with that pun. Think I'll pack a couple of long sleeve shirts. Guide books have been consulted, walking routes and drinky stopovers browsed..I think I have a good idea of what will be possible to fit in without going into full on overdrive and getting exhausted. Part of the charm of visiting any new place is often to sit somewhere with a view and watch people scurry around doing their daily business.

 

I did say before I went that I wouldn't be buying into any of the overt consumerism in the mountainous cornucopeia of electronica available, but it seems my 3^rd generation ipod photo (4.5 years old) has gone phut. It was the last of the ones made with a revolving disk drive and when I put my ear to it I can hear in whirr, klick, buzz and stutter…It's clearly not at all well. Given that it's been playing in the office for 6 hours plus 5 days a week for the last 3 years I suppose it's lasted well enough. Now comes the big issue..do I get a 32 gig itouch ipod or and iphone? I'm still fond of apple products, but I think I'm falling on the side of the itouch. There are still too many pitfalls in buying an "out of contract" iphone, sure you can get them unlocked and "jailbroken" (to download apps) ,but you just know sooner or later you'll come a cropper in some way. Probably best to continue to keep my phone and my music stuff separate to a degree. I'm sure I can get an itouch cheaper in Japan than here. It's a bit of an urban myth that Thailand is cheap for electronica, it never really was. People just think a major Asian capital is bound to have cheap imports. Thing is that VAT always takes up what you think you might have saved, AND more often than not, you find yourself buying old stock that's just about to, or already been superceded . This is the major problem with buying into gadgetry and electronica, something even better is always just around the corner!!

 

On a different note I'd just like to say that I like Obama, I really do. He talks a lot of sense and is committed to what on the surface of it would appear to be a bright and healthy vision of a future USA. However, I do object that after only 145 days in office, somebody has handed him the Nobel Peace Prize. US president Jimmy Carter back in the 70's really earned his. He handled the détente and subsequent lasting cordial relations between Egypt and Israel where possibly nobody else could. But Obama? It just doesn't figure. Amercian involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq is still on the increase, (anyone remember  the ever rising numbers of military "advisers" in Viet Nam) and I haven't seen him step in and effectively end any other global conflicts with diplomacy lately. I'm sick of seeing such prestigious and historically significant accolades being devalued by eternal spin doctoring and politicizing. There must be many many other more worthy unknown and anonymous individuals out there that work tirelessly and without thanks to keep war and strife away and replace it with mutual respect and understanding where it's needed the most. It's like the Nobel Peace Prize has become some sort of pop idol or x factor celebrity acknowledgement reward scheme on a global scale. IF Obama is working tirelessly behind closed doors then at least they should publicly acknowledge the areas in which he's making a positive impact towards peace that doesn't appear to be a general vision of him just waving the biggest gun around. I KNOW he's not a sabre rattler, but he's done little to rein in the jingoistic saber rattling military complex that appears to be the real ones running American foreign policy at present….Oh and for the conspiracy theorists out there that suggest there are alien living complexes on the dark side of the moon, crashing unmanned rockets into the moon's surface isn't exactly furthering the cause of peace in galactic terms now is it?

 

Y'all have a nice day! x

 

 

 

 

 

Hi There (10/10/09),

 

Yeah I'm a bit late again this week. I was in this WWF funded mangrove swamp with a bunch of 10 year olds all day yesterday…I know:- excuses excuses ! It was, after all, a last minute fill in job to cover for their regular teacher. Interesting places mangrove swamps, but I'm not sure I'd like to hang around for too long in one, especially after dark:- all sorts of beasties better left unnoticed and undisturbed in those places believe me!

 

The heavens mercifully held off until we were on our way home before opening, (but you can imagine the sheer humidity in the swamp in the run up to it…Yes I had a bandanna on!!) this in turn meant the single worst traffic jam I have experienced in my time here. Note to self: Never plan to re-enter the city on a Friday night rush hour period in the rain. A breezy 45 minute journey took 3 hours. 3 looong hours with a bus load of loud, tired, semi-fractious children. I was expecting a bit of grief from parents on arrival, but they seemed to be resigned to the eternal tardiness of things in this city. That said, despite my casual "fill in" teacher status on this camp "away" day, I perhaps should have taken a little more control over the days events and general running. Unfortunately certain issues only came to light on the journey home that I wasn't privy to earlier which would have made my assuming certain managing responsibilities a lot easier…..oh well. Retrospect is a great thing.  ANYWAY, the kids seemed to have an ok time so the day can be listed as a qualified success…Though just as well my band practice was cancelled in advance. I'd have been mortified to arrive there 2 hours late. I'd hate to do that to the guys.

 

Work is sending me off to the mountains for a couple of days next month. I'd really like to see Chiang Rai in the winter months when the air is clear of smoke (from crop stubble burning) like it was when I last visited there. It is a very pretty part of the world. I'm not sure we'll get much time to see it, but it's always nice to have a change of work scene. The camp dream team is really keen to keep the momentum going with the Provincial Power Authority and provide them with a top notch training programme they can confidentally roll out to all their 27,000 employees! It would certainly be a great and prestigious programme to land more definitively and it'd put in us good stead for any future endeavours. As I've said before, I'd far rather do a monthly residential camp than commit to Tues/Thurs night for 3 months at a time. Let's hope for a long running contract.

 

I've been doing a little research in advance for my Tokyo trip. It really looks like we'll barely be able to scratch the surface of this interesting and compelling city. Still, viewed as a "taste of Japan" it might inspire me to explore the country further in future. Or it might turn out to be another city or country that's casually ticked off my global meanderings list. I'm often questioned by those who never go anywhere about the value of my wanderlust. I don't regard myself as much of a world traveler compared to some of my friends, but I do seem to have visited more places than your average Joe. I guess the intrinsic value of traveling is that it provides you with a more circumspect and tolerant view of the diverse cultures of the world. It's all too easy to stereotype people and creeds from the "truths" you perceive in the media. But being there, struggling for the right change, eating some foul peasant slop, lost in a warren of unclear and indecipherable street signs , asking (and often getting) assistance from a stranger: well , it all combines to make very real and indelible impressions of a place, (even if by doing so you are indeed still "stereotyping"). Even if these impressions turn out to be inaccurate, (like how I feel about Rome and people from Rome) at least you made the effort to try and find things out for yourself. My opportunities to have any kind of extended visits to such places are generally restricted to Christmas and Easter holiday periods nowadays. I felt very frustrated last year that I didn't do more with my Christmas holidays . I shall endeavour not to do the same again this year, though I think currently Sumatra has fallen off the near top of my list to somewhere mid table. I'd like to go somewhere that could be described as only mildly earthquaky! That would be nice this time round I reckon.

 

Mildly Earthquaky ? Now that I think of it, it sounds like most of Asia dunnit?

Hi There (01/10/09),

 

"The Long and Winding Road" that leads to the band playing as a foursome once more was finally walked upon last Friday. To celebrate this fact we revamped the website (2000+ hits.. oh my!) www.myspace.com/snatchbkk . This of course begs the questions as to how long we'll manage until the usual curse strikes. I'm confident we'll have a few weeks grace, just long enough to get good, have a set or two ready, and then something will go phut. I never realized how hard it was to keep a band playing regularly together…and that's for guys who like to hang out together and play together!!! As Kirk our bassist is new, I think we might try a different tack this time and throw fate a curveball…Namely go straight out from the studio to a venue or two and play half a dozen songs just for a larf!. Beats the shit outta doing lots of elaborate prep and practice just to entertain some guy and his whippet for 2 hours.

 

Pay day has come YAY! It's just as well, there are a few extra overheads this month. I'm paying my annual BUPA membership (I just learned with it you can also get BUPA treatment abroad, pay for it there and then and get reimbursed later.. so cool!). Seems to me it's kinda worth it as an additional holiday insurance I guess. So I stepped up a bracket on my cover just for peace of mind.

 

To celebrate my imminent trip to Japan I went out and bought a new mid sized "short holiday" 40 (+10) litre rucksack today. You can say what you like about the fake and knockoff market in Thailand, but I really don't see how you can fake a top notch 'Deuter' rucksack. I mean, all the materials are obviously top quality, zips, clasps, padded shoulder straps, rain cover, etc etc. It's all obviously factory made surplus. A bit of haggling (15 % off!) and I've got a rucksack that would cost 80-100 quid back home for barely 20. I'd been holding off for a while until my 30 litre Berghaus "copy" reached the end of it's lifespan. It hasn't quite , but the zips are almost gone, one shoulder strap is half off, and that pointless zigzag elasticated bootlace "take-your-jacket-off-and stow-it thing on the back (always was pointless as it turns out. Hate 'em) is all over the place. 4 hard years of hard wear and travel it's had , so it seems fair. I was looking for a midsize one anyway , it'll be handy for the weekly shop at the supermarket amongst other things!

 

Talking with taxi drivers the world over is always an interesting thing. Of course, like anything you hear from a stranger, you have to take what they say with a large pinch of salt despite their verbal provenance of having a "brother-in-law in the -----" etc . The things I heard however on Friday during a rain delayed and long taxi journey from the studio to home were really rather concerning. My driver was a very eloquent (self taught English and very good he was too) and convincing teller of stories. Not only was I furnished with a number of interesting, possibly scurrilous, and definitely scandalous facts, I was also given a very alternative vision of the state of internal political strife and factions within Thailand. If even 10% of what he said turns out to be true, I have genuine fears for how this country will begin to cope once the current and omnipresent focal point of power and influence is no more. I'm under no illusions already how difficult it's going to be, but this man gave me what he considered very real and frightening vision of the future ,and it was a well thought out and reasoned argument. Oh well….

 

I opted to accept an invitation by a few of the teachers at the Sam Yan school and go down to the "Londoner" pub to join in on one of their bi-monthly pub quizzes last Tuesday. I must say I found the whole thing vaguely unsettling. I've since been struggling to put my finger on why. Was it a pub PACKED with ex pat, Hash house harrier/merchant banking/British club/smarmy saddoes types (present company excluded of course)? I think it possibly was. I'm used to being places where of course there are tourists sitting around, being loud, and swilling beer, doing all the usual things visitors do, but this was the first time I can recall being somewhere where there were ex pat BKK residents like myself en masse in their little cliques braying and being boorish. I felt kind of isolated and inured from it all. I enjoyed the company of my table, (we did ok for the smallest team in the room, only 4 people. We came 7^th out of 21 teams) and I quite enjoyed the challenge of the 3 round quiz itself. But all the booing and answer contesting in between and the general self congratulatory smugness left me pretty cold. Think I'll choose to drink elsewhere. There are other Brit bars in BKK like the Bulls Head, Robin Hood, the Queen Vic etc , but I've never felt that vibe in them. Thanks for the invite guys, but I'll pass in future. Luckily kirk the bassist was there to meet me at the end and we got outta there pretty quickly for a quick drink elsewhere.

 

As it stands I really don't have much of a group of drinking buddies/people I can call on to go out for a beer or two anymore. Certainly the days of an extensive social circle like I had and still have back in Glasgow are long gone. Yet at the same time, it really doesn't seem that important to me anymore. We're all getting older and once you're back home in your cave after a long day it's often hard to motivate yourself to turn around and head back out on(invariably) a 25-40 minute journey to go meet some people. Nowadays I've come to realize it's the quality of people you choose to spend your social time with that makes all the difference and not the quantity.

 

Cheers to that! J

 

Hi There (25/09/09),

 

It was with some surprise I heard that the Baht is currently 48 to the pound in the UK this week. Building projects and developments are simply everywhere here in Bangkok. You got marvel either at the sheer will and balls of inward investors in these uncertain times, or the fact that the financial institutions got it right in their economic recovery after they went into meltdown in 1992. I get the feeling from the BBC that the world global financial markets aren't yet finished with turmoil. I find myself wondering just how long Thailand can ride out the storm. I mean, things aren't exactly politically stable here. The redshirts have twice lately descended upon the city to demo only to be caught up in ridiculously strong storms and rains. J . The ex- PM has just been indicted for signing a controversial document about a disputed temple between Cambodia and Thailand. Tourists are still staying away in droves and given the hotel deals being bandied around, the signs aren't good for a bumper tourist season from Christmas onwards either.

 

It could be tempting to adopt an 'I'm all right Jack" attitude, but this might be rather unwise. Yes I am indeed happy and relieved to have a contract for another year, but you just never know when things might change. I guess that is the same for workers all over the planet nowadays: the days of a job for life with all the accompanying benefits are long long gone. I'm sure I could be quite good at freelancing, but I'm sure over tie it would get me down a little. Freelance teaching round these parts involves endless cross city travel, sitting in taxis in traffic jams, and stress. I am indeed lucky to be able to pick and choose when I do this kind of work.

 

I'm looking forward to my Japan trip, though I have recently wondered if swapping one massive city for another is exactly a distressful holiday thingy to do. I have been told by ex Tokyo dwellers that it is actually quite a quiet and peaceful place despite the size. Japanese people apparently co-exist extremely well with little fuss and noise. Fter the sheer blooming racket of this town it'll be a very interesting thing to observe. 1 October sees my 4 th year completed here and whilst I'm no longer a newbie, I do see the need to make an effort to regularly get out of BKK for peace and quiet. I've said before I live in a very quiet and peaceful quarter of the city, but noise racket and stress is only 400 metres away and like everyone else I have to fight my way home through street sellers trying to avoid decapitating myself on jury rigged power cable, tripping on uneven pavements, and not stumbling into dangerously placed woks of boiling oil..you'd be amazed how often I walk close to the pavement on the side of the road instead as traffic at my back genuinely seems a safe and quicker option. This also may have to do with the rush hour " Bangkok shuffle" (see last week) getting under way.. just trying to get home quickly from amongst those street food vendors really brings it out in full. 

 

The band is back in the studio albeit it currently in bits and pieces as various members are absent. We may strike it lucky and have all 4 of us in there by 7pm tonight so we can get down to some proper rehearsal. Samll paul is heading back to the UK in november for a month and it'd be nice to have some sort of set together in the off chance that we get another invite to do Britstock again (It was postponed from May to the Kings birthday weekend in December). I'd like to think we will, especially as there aren't any all farang bands in this town at all any more. It seems most of our compatriots either can't get the work cos the tourists aren't here, or they've been so brow beaten with the lousy one-dimensional music scene that they simply don't want to play anymore.

 

Snatch fortunately,  first and foremost, play the music cos it's fun to play. If anyone actually wants to hear it is another matter! But Kirk our new bassist has a few bar manager/owner contacts about town and it seems he can get us on a few stages to play a few numbers as soon as we're ready. Benefits of being a long time resident in these parts…Great stuff say I!

 

Just for a change, I feel like getting quite drunk on the town sometime soon. It's been a long time since I went out on a fun relaxing bender with some good friends. I think I'll make a few inquirys on this front  and see if I can schedule in something aruond my days off. I got a whole Series of Dr Who to watch the next day too.. Now that's perfect hangover material!!

Hi There (17/09/09),

 

Sorry for my lateness this week…all sorts of weird server issues prevented me from posting yesterday.

 

Each week when I'm working and walking around Bangkok I see things and experience situations that I try to make a mental note of to write about in my blog. Thing is, when I come to write each week I either think that these things are too insignificant/boring to write about or I just forget what it was I wanted to say. It's too easy to forget that some of my readers are on the far side of the planet physically and metaphorically and that was now has become normal for me would still seem fundamentally strange to them.

 

It's all too easy to become some kind of supercilious sneering superior farang that exists only to point the finger at the weaknesses or inadequacies of another country. I'm not that kind of a guy. If I am critical in any way of where I live I'd like to think that it is at least balanced with a modicum of forethought and explanation. Some things of course defy explanation and only seek to antagonize, inconvenience and annoy…like how  seemingly all employees leaving a heaving public office or a bank for lunch at the SAME TIME , leaving the public, queue tickets in hand to wait en masse.…Why the heck give tickets out unless you process them? ..or at least inform those of a ticket that now might be a good time to get something to munch themselves eh? OOPS…. That was a rant! Sorry about that .I've just spent almost 5 hours today steeped in the pungent and unpleasant broth of bureaucracy. I had to get 2 specific things dome before this particular office ups sticks and moves from it's conveniently central location to the middle of "Nakhon Bloody Nowhere" making any further attempts at fulfilling my bureacratic obligations as a foreign national more time consuming and inconvenient. Oh well..I keep telling myself it's a relatively small price to pay.

 

While I am on a teensy weensy bit of a rant I have to admit the infamous "Bangkok Shuffle" has been getting me down lately. For those of you who don't know what this is it's quite simple, Here are some examples off the top of my head:

 

1)    People who stop dead in front of you to answer their phone.

 

2)    Girls, often students who hold hands or casually link arms in twos, threes, even fours, across the breadth of any available walking space so you just can't get past.

 

3)    People or groups who choose to meet each other directly at the bottom or top of escalators and stop to chat and you have to fight to get through them .

 

4)    People who actively weave in front of you with the skill of a formula one driver blocking each and every attempt to get past. 

 

5)    People who change their mind about where they are walking to and make a sudden and abrupt move in another direction without a quick peripheral scan.

 

6)    People who leave their supermarket trolleys unattended slap bang in the centre of narrow aisles and you have to gently dunt or push it to get past, often receiving a frosty look for doing so.

 

I know it's also my fault. I still walk quicker than most. I still have a sense of urgency in my gait…Though not what it used to be, but I'm still thwarted by the utter lack of inattention that people seem to have of their surroundings. Perhaps this is why people don't seem to indicate very much in cars, (or buses for that matter) when they change lanes. Maybe they don't care. Maybe they deem it as unnecessary effort…It's all food for thought anyway.

 

Another thing I learnt this week is just how awful it is when you leave the cut off stems from flowers in a bin in a warm apartment. Honestly.. the pong when I opened the front door!!! I could have sworn an entire Roman Cavalry squad had similtaneously taken a dump (along with their horses) on my living room floor. I never had this problem with rose stems before, but Gerboras it seems, are an entirely different matter!! YUK! It seems there is more to effective flower husbandry in the tropics than meets the eye..Ichiban indeed.

 

I had a wonderful dinner this week on the rooftop (55^th floor) of a new hotel overlooking the twinkling lights of this metropolis. Excellent food, delightful company (thanks Cherry!). I felt quite blessed by it all…Never had Alaskan crab before.-Very nice! It got me to thinking how enjoying such elite experiences are very much in the preserve of the privileged few. I doubt I could afford or justify a similar experience in the western world. I also wonder as society gets bigger, resources scarcer, social desires and status climbing more frenetic that this is something I may not have the chance to do later in life. The social schisms here in BKK are so much more clearly defined and differentiated than in the Western world and nobody higher up likes to give up what they feels is their, (for want of better word) birthright…This was brought home to me as I was stopped by security guard on Thursday evening at 545pm during rush hour from crossing a walkway between two shopping centres . The crowds slowly gathered at each end for 5 minutes until, looking down 4 floors below, we saw a slew of limos and security cars escorting a very compact, girly, and bijou metallic pink Honda Jazz into the multi storey carpark. I'd like to say this was a rare and unusual occurrence but this is the 3^rd time I've been stopped from going on my way in this fashion in the last 6 weeks or so. I naturally never fuss and always politely acquiesce to this, but the questions about what it all means in this "modern" age and how it bodes for true societal progress are never far from my thoughts.

 

 

               

Hi There (11/09/09),

 

Another busy week in the land of torrential rainstorms!! Yup, the infrequent rainstorms have been as vicious as I've ever seen them. I've been lucky enough to miss being caught out in them, but my long suffering laundry on the balcony has probably been wet about 4 times over!!

 

I've been away for half of the week. The team and I went down to Hua Hin for the night and transferred early next morning to the Holiday Inn Regent resort 15 miles away to deliver a 2 day English course to employees of the Provincial Electrical Authority.

 

We've gone a bit hi-tech since the last camp. We adopted more powerpoint in the teaching routine and I must say it looks pretty nifty. Of course I'm sure there is loads and loads more we can do with it. I'm gonna have to start playing a bit more with the programme myself and see what I can come up with. It certainly looks more professional and is a step up from your average teacher with a whiteboard and a marker pen. If the camp or residential teaching business side of what we do expands, we're all gonna have to be armed with an armoury of such activities and presentations.

 

The camp went really well given the dynamics of a roomful of 56 strangers and a laptop of relatively untested materials (yes we had all the hard copy originals with us). There's not too much you really can do in 24 hours. The main thing was provide them with fun learning activities that were pitched at the correct pace and level. We finished up at 900 pm at night on the first night (ok so we did have a three hour break allowing us a dip in the magnificent resort pool) and by mid afternoon the following day were lumbering back down the road to Bangkok in the Chula van. It's always nice to get out of town for a while, especially if it's work related. We may not get rich teaching such seminars, but sitting on the balcony watching the sunset glint off the sea, or admiring the huge buffet breakfast spread reminds you of all the god awful jobs and existances there are out there. As Fred (my colleague who went back to the UK to try a "proper job" for about 3 months in the early new year) reminds us all on a regular basis when we get stressed or down:- " It's not so bad, you could be driving to Blackburn". No argument there from me…

 

Version 1.5 of the band is due in the studio next Friday night… version 1.5? I hear you say. Well I was trying to work it out:

1.1 Me and paul b 1.2 Me and paul b and paul s (keyboards). 1.3 me and paul b, paul s (Bass), and jon, 1.4 me and paul b, paul s, tyson, and jon. 1.5 Me and paul b , jon and Kirk (our new Canadian bassist). Yup, version 1.5 technically I suppose. I'd better do some practicing over Monday and early Tuesday and remember the changes. As my bro says, it wouldn't do to get egg on my face..not much danger of that though. People here wouldn't care if you got it wrong anyway. The level of musicianship is pretty low in general. Anyway the main purpose is to get in there and make music and drink beer. I'm missing the company of guys in a band and all the easy uncomplicated banter of enthusiastic people doing what they love to do. I've been so preoccupied with work hassles, and the like for such a long time that my most favourite hobby has really suffered as a consequence. I feel just a  little bit fried and strung out just now and I think loud music and beer is just what my personal physician (if I had one) would order! I fully intend to test this theory.

 

 So you could say I'm looking forward to having a little more  time in the coming weeks. I need to get on and focus on some of my project work that has been piling up in various places whilst I tested it and get it prepped and completed. I'll be ready to unveil some of it in a more comprehensive state in the next couple of weeks. I'm glad to be free of the corporate gig on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll miss the money, but there's something vaguely depressing about evening classes in the workplace. The students are pretty worn out and despite your best efforts seem to have trouble retaining what they learn and practice..I'd prefer to teach earlier in the day I think. So I'll take a break from the evening classes for a while I think.

 

That's about all for this week. I could go further into tales of gossip and scandal, political chicanery, inside dope on all sorts of skullduggery and talk expansively about the itchy twitchy nervousness that seems to be creeping around a number of camps pitched close to mine…..but nah, I  really can't be arsed.

 

I'm gonna stay close to home and keep the camp fire stoked high to push the creeping shadows back to the clearing's edge. I'll also keep a couple of faggots close to hand (ooerr missus!! LOL) to brandish in the event of trouble . If there was a parapet I'd keep my head below it.

 

Never a parapet around when you need one.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi There (3/09/09),

 

Well I've been hearing and seeing the signs from a few facebook friends this week…My friends in the UK have finally capitulated and started putting the heating on…In August ? Wow!

 

No such problem here. Although the rainy season continues to slightly inconvenience and annoy (like re-soaking already dried washing you forgot to collect from the balcony, or catching you brolleyless at the end of a very quiet road) it's all generally good…In fact, the torrential rain over the weekend well and truly thwarted the red shirt pro-Taksin rally that was supposed to descend upon, and inconvenience the town ha ha ha!

 

It's also been a week for seeing a few very old faces appear magically on facebook and reestablishing contact after a number of years. I understand and acknowledge all those people who are openly critical of facebook and nervous about their privacy intrusion on social networking sites. But if you've nothing to hide, don't intend to break the law in future, are careful what you post, (which, despite my apparent exuberant openness in this blog, I'm still very much careful about) and enjoy social websites/blogs for what they are, you do see more people from your past than you'd normally not necessarily be bothered searching cyberspace for. The beauty of facebook is that once you've accepted them as a friend and said a quick hello, you aren't obliged to do much else. You can keep loosely informed of what's up in their lives without the 'empty' pleasantries (and nowadays they are often just that ,aren't they?) of saying 'how are you?' and having to make some kind of vacuous and vapid response in kind accordingly. Is this the way humanity is going? We've stopped writing letters, we're stopping sending emails. Now we just post insignificancies and frivolities on facebook and/or Twitter and those we chose as 'friends' can take it or leave it. You don't even have to customize your words in any way to suit a particular audience. It's all part of a distancing (and perhaps ultimately a new  dependency) of human social interaction into cyberspace where we all shriek out to be heard and maybe finally discover that nobody is actually listening…like a certain bunch of old Danish ladies loudly crowing and cawing round a coffee table in Odense I once saw back in the 70's (sorry Grandma, the image is indelible in my mind haha).

 

Frankly it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Not one jot. For what it's worth, I now enjoy a closer relationship with my brothers and my Danish cousins (and lately my scottish neice surprisingly) through this medium than I ever did when a UK home  phone was close to hand. Andy, By the way I enjoyed your new gamekeeping blog ( FYI: google under "Heilanloon" and you'll find it along with a superb picture of him overlooking Loch Lee on his beat in Wintertime) It almost made me a little homesick for the bare hills of Scotland bro..but not as much as the kids catching the salmon story.

 

My contract is up for renewal on the 18th and I had my annual assessment this month too. All good, seems I'll be getting a contract for another year at least! I was listening to a colleague over lunch saying he was bored with the job . I couldn't understand it really. I've been teaching for 4 years and managing for 3. Every weekend brings something new to the table. When you deal with people, especially children, the dynamics change from instant to instant. I had to get quite tough last weekend and I found it didn't bother me like it used to. I've stopped taking work based problems personally and find I operate more effectively as a result. This is what they mean by a learning curve I guess….

 

 The planned trip to Tokyo isn't too far away either and I'd better crack on with a bit of planning with that soon. I need to get with the programme and get excited about it. There's no substitute for having something special to look forward to.

 

So it's my last class tonight on the corporate front. Then its off to the holiday inn resortto Cha' Am for a two day English camp next week. (we have 3 hours off in the late afternoon..doubtless it'll be the beach or the pool for me!!) It might be a little fraught and busy getting everything done in the next few days, so apologies in advance should my blog be late next week. I only have next Friday to do the managers meeting and prep my classes for the weekend along with whatever else turns up…

 

Wouldn't have it any other way really….

 

 

  

Hi There (28/08/09),

 

Blog's a day late again. Sorry to all my regular readers once more..I was helluva busy on Thursday and Friday and just didn't have the time to get round to it.

 

So whassup? Wellllll, I have taken my first tentative baby steps into the wild world of gardening. I finally capitulated and recognized that a combination 6 months of neglect, and the ongoing rainy season had turned my somewhat barren 22 metres long windowbox and the 3 giant plant bunkers on the roof terrace into overgrown ugly eyesores. I even have what looks like a couple of sizeable trees growing out there.

 

So it was off to Big C (read Asda) for some gardening gloves (read neoprene motorcycle gloves) , trowel (with rubberized non-slip handle oooooh sexy), fertiliser pellets, a pair of all purpose cutter/shear thingies, (though it'll take a mini-saw to cut those tree branches down now), a firm bristled brush, and a giant bottle of industrial stain remover (explanation to follow), oh, and a few packets of seeds…

 

Fortuitously I was caught up in a serious rain storm on my way. As soon I was home I slipped into a pair of shorts and stepped outside in the pouring rain with my brush…what on Earth for? I hear you cry!..Well, job number one was to scrub down the tiles of the roof terrace. They had ingrained dirt and needed a good scrubbing and buffing. When better than when they're under a few centimeters of water in a tropical rainstorm thought I . And indeed it was the case, they scrubbed up very nicely indeed.

 

The rain stopped and I decided to focus my attention on the 22 metre long balcony running down the side of my flat. Two bin bags later of weeds and assorted soil and I had a "weeded" and cleared space. I did appear to have disrupted a modest sized ant nest along the way which made me nervous. Those critters were seriously pissed off. I could almost hear them screaming and running around trying to rescue their larvae from the Earthquake/landslide that descended upon them. It must have been the ants version of Armageddon or the last moments of Pompeii (without the heat!). As it was still raining, and the soil cloggy, I managed to out manoeuvre them without getting bitten, but that small section of the windowbox clearly hasn't been as thoroughly weeded as the rest of it. We're  both currently enjoying a cessation of hostilities until my forthcoming planting offensive.

 

I did decide however, to tear open the six packets of seeds and strew/plant them willy nilly around (planting instructions in Thai) my bedroom window area . I felt I had to try and raise some from scratch. If I don't forget to look after them I should have daisys, and mini sunflowers, and assorted coloured pretty thingies whose name totally escapes and indeed baffles me.

 

In the great tradition of the gardener, I took the latter half of the afternoon off to doze in aircon bliss,(with a small tinge of discomfort/pain  in my back I may add).

 

Which leaves the three whopping great plant bunkers on the roof terrace as the next target to de-weed. Great! At least I'm doing it in the rainy season when it's generally more tolerable temperature wise with overcast skies (though it has been a bit hotter than usual lately). I think it would be twice the chore in direct sunlight. I might even have to go the whole hog and wear a straw hat. I'll probably end up looking like "Bayleaf the Gardener" from that kiddies series "The Herb Garden" (oldies amongst you will recall..as for the rest of you, you don't know what you missed!).

 

Once that is complete , I shall make that final brave step into the world of the middle aged rookie gardener and go to the holy temple otherwise known as the Garden Centre. Here I shall attempt to avoid buying extraneous items such as water features, gnomes, grow-bags, and concrete sundials (though admittedly Garden furniture might be examined further) and buy up a tray or two of plantlings, seedlings, saplings, or whatever you call them. The only criteria being they must be hardy survivors able to take about as much general neglect and abuse as the six Aloe Vera Cactii I so brutally transplanted to the far end of the balcony whilst weeding.

 

Some might say why don't you get a robust villager in to plant and do the graft for you? I am tempted, I won't deny it. But if I don't do some of it for myself I'll feel I've cheated Mamma Nature in some way. Does this make any sense? Your fingers don't get "green" on their own do they?

 

OK, nuff said on Gardening.

 

 I had a pleasant evening at my friends Leigh and Donnas house this week. He gave me a really lovely red lacquer box from his Viet Nam trip (thanks dude) and we drank beer and chatted.

 

This week sees the end of my corporate class. I'll be glad when it's done. It might not seem much of a strain to the outsider but committing yourself 5-7 Tuesday and Thursday for three and a half months does get on your nerves after a while, especially when Tuesdays are technically your day off.

 

We're putting the final touches to the 2 day residential camp for PEA at Cha'am the week after. We're going a bit high tech and using laptops and powerpoint more this time. It could be the start of a whole new type of teaching. Naturally we'll have hard copy backups, you can't rely on technology, especially when it's been created by rookies like us. If something should go wrong like compatibility issues we can revert to the original stuff.

 

So it's back to Sam Yan. A new 33 week cycle began this morning. Terrfied, wide eyed six year olds are nervously stepping into classrooms. I should know, I had to step in and teach one for the first 20 minutes as a brand new teacher got a little lost on the way here. I don't know who was more scared , them or me!

 

A quiet dinner somewhere in Ari and a chill out evening watching tv with Cherry is on the cards tonight and that suits me fine after this hectic and frantic week. Keeps me off the streets eh?

 

Talking of which, the pro-Taksin redshirts are descending upon the city tomorrow in a mass demonstration, oh what joy….there has been a very noticeable lack of anyone wearing red or yellow t-shirts these past months. I even get odd looks when I wear my red t-shirt out and about but I reckon they realize I'm unlikely to know the symbolism behind it.

 

I do recognize the symbolism, but that won't stop me wearing whatever colour I like.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi There (20/08/09),

 

Happy birthday to my sis in law Louise!

 

My oldest buddy Pete (We've been pals for 38 years!!!) surprised me profoundly this week. He's resigning from a high paid computing gig and at the tender age of 43 going to University in September to do a 4 year course on Maths and Computer Science!! Pretty amazingly brave move if you ask me. To come out of full time study at 47 in these demon days and try and find a job anything close to equivalent to the salary he's giving up takes a huge amount of cojones (balls) in such an ageist environment as the UK. Good luck Pete! I hope this new experience will be stress free enough as to improve your health once and for all.

 

I asked actually what he planned to do afterwards: teach? He could come out here and get a teaching job in the sun at an international school perhaps. His response? " I couldn't handle the heat out there." He's visited 3 or 4 times.

 

This is an interesting point. It's the second time in a week I've heard somebody say it. An Australian teacher quit his job here at Go! quoting the weather as being the main reason for his departure and he's from Sydney!

 

I never thought of myself as being particularly adept at handling the heat. Though I've never been unfortunate to suffer some of the nastier effects of heat such as: heat rash, fungal infections, or terminal BO, I've always been an individual who sweats freely . This alone, in my book suggests I don't handle the heat all THAT well. But in the land of heat, surely aircon is king. I mean, for working purposes you're indoors most of the time anyway. On the odd occasion I do teach outdoors then it's totally understandable that I get sweaty. My teaching bag has always got a couple of bandanna type coloured hankerchiefs for mopping down my brow. Especially if, (as in the case of my corporate teaching) I've had a hot trip outdoors to get to class. Anyway, I've been considering this lately because the rainy season has brought Triffidland to my roof terrace. The windowbox along 22 metres of balcony is full of weeds, and the three large plant "bunkers" on the main roof terrace have miniature trees growing from them…all thanks to the rainy season. Excuse time is over, I need to get my garden in order, rainy season or not. The thing that I'm questioning is once I have tidied it up and planted nice flowers and bought some natty garden furniture, am I actually going to be spending much time out there? When you live in constant sunshine at 35 degrees heat there is more often than not ZERO incentive to spend your time outdoors in the sun sweating any more than you have to. Even after dark, unless there is a gift of a breeze, you'll still be sitting out there in the garden sweating. So? Well indeed,you tend to seal yourself into a small room and get the aircon going so you can spend quality and comfortable time lying semi-naked in a gentle artificial breeze reading and  enjoying the cool environment.

 

My mum once visited my office at work and commented at how cool it was in there. She asked me if we always had the aircon on. I said yes. "And how long does it have to be off before it gets uncomfortably hot in here?" She asked…my answer?

"About 90 seconds or so."

 

 Living in Thailand is akin to spending your life standing about 3 feet away from the open door of a wood fired stone pizza oven, either you handle it ,or you don't. The reason it's been on my mind lately is that we have the rainy season just now. No, we're not talking endless streams of water pouring out of the skies for days on end, but rather a regular downpour over the city either overnight or around sundown. The knock on effect is that it evaporates over the following day making the city far muggier and more humid than it might normally be. This is what makes a significant difference to the comfort factor.

 

Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining. I'd rather have this than the weather patterns and dark days of northern Europe from Nov-Mar any day…but I do miss being properly cold sometimes, especially just now. I think Cherry and I are particularly looking forward to late October in Tokyo for precisely this reason. The experience of a proper bit of Autumn.

 

I learnt the other day it was quite practical in most Thai households to have a second small fridge to keep cosmetics, medicines, and even perfumes in. If you think of the heat and how perfumes evaporate away in their fancy bijou and frou frou bottles this actually makes a helluva a lot of sense. I only happen to have one bottle of aftershave (which I hardly ever use) and I was wondering how I appeared to have gotten through it so quickly…..But NO..It won't be going in the fridge any time soon haha!

 

My Tues/Thurs corporate class is slowly drawing to a close in the next couple of weeks by the way. I'll be glad when it's finished actually. They've been a fun and easy class to get along with, but with their end of month accounts and them  implementing a new computer system coinciding with my teaching,  my class numbers and have been woefully small and lots of annoying latecomers an hour late. I've had to improve and adapt almost every lesson. I've had to repeat myself and go over stuff for each new set of latecomers on a frustratingly regular basis. I know this is the nature of corporate after work teaching, but it still rankles a bit if you take a pride in what you do. I think I'll take a break from it for a while. At least I've developed ideas and materials to deliver 45 hours of pre-intermediate general English/business teaching.

 

As part of my ongoing commitment to improve my home environment, I bought a microwave/grill thingy this week. It's apparently a very British trait to eat cold things out of the fridge. Not having an oven however has made heating things up understandably rather difficult these last years. I effectively haven't cooked (other than making salads) for 4 years!  Cherry likes her sushi obviously cold, but like most Thais, prefers meat warm…Fair enough say I, so now I gotta learn how to use one. I mean, I always had one in my immediate vicinity for the last 15 years in the UK, But I just never used them. I always thought the food that comes out of them tastes bland and uninteresting compared to what comes out of a pan..is this prejudice? Perhaps…Either way I'm gonna have to learn the subtle art of microwave cookery. All recipes welcome!! Remember it has a mini grill too..Think I can just about do Beans on toast effectively….Oh, and if anyone can tell me how many minutes at 750 megawatts for a baked potato I'd appreciate it!!!

 

 

Hi There (15/08/09)

 

A day late on the old blog again eh ? There's a good reason for this honest!! I've been chasing around like a blue arsed fly since last Sunday.

 

Ok, so after work last Sunday I piled down to Sriracha on the coast with Cherry to make the wedding reception of my boss. And a very nice reception it was too. Silly headgear was the order of the day..I must say my paltry effort was singularly disappointing compared to many of the titfers on show..Then again I was sick all the previous week so I didn't get shopping.

 

If I was a guessing man I'd say I indeed had swine flu. In fact there's still some small part of me that isn't fully well yet. I still find myself a little listless and lacking energy after a working day…But have multi vitamins and am making sure to eat and drink well for the next few weeks even if my weight does go up a little (92.7 by the way).

 

So Wednesday was a holiday (Thai mothers day..the queens birthday as it happens). Had a day out with Cherry and ended up seeing Harry Potter at the World Trade Center..Hmmm..What was that all about? Significantly darker and less engaging than all the previous HP films .But then again I'm not a fan..I just like big screen extravaganzas I suppose. GI Joe was actually a nice bit of mindless fun , especially compared to that shitty Transformers movie I saw a few weeks ack…I was wanting to see Public Enemy, but it doesn't appear to have had much of a run in the cinemas here. Any arthousy or niche movie is lucky if it gets more than 10 days at a multiplex here in BKK, even if Johnny Depp is in it!!

 

So the PEA (Provincial Electrical Authority ) execs gave the green light to the training camp at the holiday Inn on the beach between Cha'am and Hua Hin middle of next month. Jamie and I went up to reccy the place on Friday (hence the late blog today) and were very impressed at the setup there..The place is HUGE! The training facilities are top notch, the food was excellent and we're really really wanting to deliver a brilliant camp and get on the agenda for further ones. It'll be so much more preferable to doing after hours corporate classes round town twice a week. When I see how freelance teachers scrimp and grub around for work crisscrossing the city at all hours I feel blessed and lucky to have a job with so much diversity and possibility for extra work.

 

That's about all for now. I've enjoyed a day back at the HQ school as my own is closed until Round 6 opens again in 2 weeks…It's been fun to be back, apart from having to deal with the ISO external auditors. I had to speak German (no I won't explain) to them, despite them being Thai, and I got filmed throughout. Teachers in teachers out, where is the form for this? What protocols do you have for…? Can we see….? All this right after I got out of a cover class…I was blooming starving. I don't think they heard my teeth grinding though!!

So I'm off for a nice dinner in a part of town I don't usually go to. I'm looking forward to a couple of days off on Monday and Tuesday without much of an agenda..Except dig all the trees and weeds out of my roof terrace/Garden.

 

I'm sure my neighbours are less than impressed with my gardening husbandry to date. Better go get a trowel and some gloves…

 

This is where middleagedhood starts eh?

 

 Hi There (7/08/09),

 

One of the things that strikes you about coming to Thailand is how you're supposed to regard Doctors and medicare in general. It's not easy to get your head around a totally different way of doing things.

 

They don't have G.P's here, there are no doctors surgerys locally (in general). And the clinics you do se signs for are mostly for plastic surgery or other such specialist services.

 

If you are sick here you go to a hospital...end of story.

 

I was born into our outdated, dysfunctional, but still free (ish) good old UK National Health System. I've never had hypochondriac tendencies and have always treated a visit to the doctor as a last resort. And, as a canny Scots person , I've always  hated to bother such a scarce resource for what I might consider an insignificant complaint in the great Pantheon of chronic illnesses and the greater needs of the waiting room unfortunates. Doctors are there for the greater good aren't they?

 

Wrong attitude son. Yes, they've taken their version of the Hippocratic oath, but here in Thailand it's all about the money Dude! Of course you can go see the doc about your bunion. He's waiting for you, he's ready to charge you a goodly amount for his time AND charge for a large goody bag filled with a cornucopia of drugs (Pharma companies must have a field day out here). He can churn out 10 minute consultations at a tenner a pop and STILL get you back for a wee follow up 5 days later.

 

Perhaps I'm being harsh here. I thought I had a raging awful cold. A chest x ray, blood test, and swab later (all necessary or just ringing up the bill?) I was told I had Influenza Type A. (If I wanted to test for H1N1/swine Flu that'd be an additional 4000 Baht please.) Surely it would be in their best interest to see if I had H1N1 so they could prescribe quarantine , not charge me close to 100 quid to find out the fact!!! Either way, what was actually the point of me knowing personally what In had. Flu is flu. Tamiflu treatments are the same anyway. If I didn't improve we'd then know something was up for sure.

 

The irony was I was over the worst before I finally threw the towel in to go and see someone. I'd been suffering badly all weekend. I guess the the Tamiflu stuff (surprisingly not available over the counter at pharmacies, probably the only thing that isn't here) worked it's wonder just a little quicker for me then natures white blood cells though.

 

It's still been a week of cyclical fevers, coughs, bleeding sinuses (yuk) and all the general ghastly suffering you get with the flu.

 

Actually I'd venture to say it was as bad as I've ever had it. The flu came on soo fast and soo aggressively that I'm predisposed to think it was indeed Swine Flu. I've certainly never had my sinuses bleed before, or feel like someone has hit me across the face with a metal bar repeatedly.

 

So I quarantined myself this week. The doctor wrote me a sick note for 5 days (I haven't been off sick in 4 years) and with Peter getting married this weekend, it seemed a very good idea to stay away from the office. As it was, and still is , I feel as weak as a kitten anyway. I've spent hours and hours sleeping through the middle of the day. I've gone back to sleep 2 hours after getting up. I've been generally rough. But I am on the mend. In fact, today is the first day I've woken up feeling normal..wahey!.

 

I'm lucky to have had constant visits from Cherry during this time. When you're feeling that low and miserable it's nice to know someone cares and is trying to help you back on your feet. I think the only thing worse than being sick is being alone and sick. I remember how hard it was for me those 2 days after I broke my ribs a couple of years back. I couldn't even look after myself properly and I was alone. Not nice.

So I'm bouncing back in time for the social event of the year..The wedding! I daresay there will be lots of fun and joy at that event.

 

Now where did I put that hat?

 

    

Hi There (31/07/09),

 

I've come back from the stag trip to Patong completely shattered and sick from a bug I picked up on the plane. So I'm sitting here in the office writing whilst my head lightly spins and the aspirin I just took starts raising my body temperature to sweats in slow increments. If I didn't have a management meeting this afternoon I'd send myself home…boo hoo.

 

So Patong and the trip. What is there to say? Well I'm not going to go into any kind of detail here on these pages. Suffice it to say that there was a lot of entertainment to be had watching the world go by from various vantage points. It seemed to me to have a far darker edge than Pattaya and the other dubious districts of Bangkok. I felt a strange sense of underlying danger. Why was this? Well, for a start I think the holidaymakers there averaged out a lot younger in age  than in other places I have seen. These young bucks around town in their gangs and their muscle shirts looked suitably delinquent to encourage me to cross to the other side of the street when I was walking home alone in the wee hours.

 

Was I being over-cautious? Possibly . Was I being wise? Definitely… Another thing about Patong is the attitudes to Farangs from Thais. I know I'm generalizing here, so bear with me. But I did often detect a far more disposable "end -user" attitude of the locals I met…I mean to ask 900 Baht for a cheap pair of copy sunglasses they can buy in for 60 baht is not only  waaaay out there greedy, it's downright piss taking. I could understand if the price was pitched at 500 cos it is a holiday place, but 900?…what do these people take me for. A well heeled, careless, ignorant farang that could do with being righteously ripped off? Probably . The Boso, (thanks to Cherry for this new urban definition= "Bottom of the pit" society) element was really quite strong there. I felt that I was on occasion a little rudely treated by overtly aggressive types. Not that I care or am upset about it in the least. But this trip reinforced to me that after 2 visits I'm simply not that well disposed to Phuket as an area to hang around much in the future. Krabi as an area is a lot more attractive in so many ways.

 

Again, not going into any details . I saw goings on in Patong that hailed by to a byegone era of  Thailand's night entertainment industry, things that I don't particularly ever want to see again by the way. Let's leave it as this: This was officially my last ever stag trip/night etc etc. I am officially retired from 3 nights consecutive drinking to the very wee hours. I'm done and dusted. I'm also certain in my mind that if I were ever lucky enough to get married I won't be having one. In the long run, there's very little good that can come from these sort of trips. Even if your behaviour was exemplary, (as ours all was) the feelings of insecurity, mistrust, and discomfort left behind at home with the partner you really love means that in some small but significant way ,relationships can get broken and damaged wholly unnecessarily. So weighing up is a simple equation. If you're in a committed relationship it's really not worth it. Male bonding/drinking sessions can take place at other, far less threatening venues like golf courses and rural resort spas. I'm sure there are plenty of those out there that'd disagree with me. But I won't ever be staying in Patong again and doubt if Phuket will see me much in the future either. J

 

Change is in the air….I'm not sure of what way this will manifest itself. I don't know if I'm talking political, societal, work , or personal changes, but I have a nagging feeling there is a slow grinding impetus towards a new horizon. It's funny, we all like to think of ourselves and proactive and innovative , but I find myself a resistant to change, slow to adapt kind of person. Maybe it's because I'm too grateful and appreciative for the life I lead right here, right now. I'd never want to endanger that, but I know I'll have to float with the tide and try to adapt as best I can in the future…..we were talking about learning English as a possible Thai vogue or fashion that might be coming to an end. Many of the kids who come here don't know why they come and many of the parents don't appear to know why they send them. On top of that it's very hard to quantify success..A grammar test at the course end doesn't measure anything really. The Red Dragon of China looms high on the language lesson horizon. The switched on International Schools are now Trilingual, incorporating Chinese into their curriculi. How we go about teaching English in an effective and progressive way is central to any future success. It's not enough to churn out teaching sessions and courses following a generic TEFL model any more. ESP (English for Specific Purposes) is now the way forward. Building up and delivering and especially properly promoting such programmes is effectively like picking up fine sand with your hands. There are always a goodly number of grains left in your palm, but the majority has slipped away falling back upon the beach of mediocrity and sanguine complacency.

 

 So it's the final big push to the wedding next week. Doubtless my poor colleague will be stressed out with the endless minutae of things to sort out. I'd best keep my head down and leave no mark of any hassles, problems, or goings on. I really don't envy him in the slightest. Perhaps I'm the only person (apart from Cherry perhaps) who doesn't really see the point of such grand and bothersome exercises such as big weddings. Of course we all know it's not really for the bride and groom in Thai society, it's more of some kind of showcase exercise for the proud parents of the bride. If you're lucky enough to find yourself a good girl from a good family it's par for the course for a bog standard "nuptial hijacking" to take place in the run up to the event. Over the weekend I was hearing horror stories of other people's weddings where, for example,   40 uninvited guest showed up, sat near the kitchen, diverted all the food to their tables, (even the top table missed out!!!) and cost the hosts an extra 25,000!! Naice!

 

I cancelled my corporate class tonight. It's thefirst time I've ever done so due to sickness..oh my! I'm too dizzy and disengaged to be effective tonight. AND, as it's their end of month accounts tallying time, it'd be a big surprise if any more that 5/15 showed up like last month anyway.

 

So what was the nicest thing about my last three days away? The drinking, the pool, the laughs, the adventure?.....

 

It was coming home to the arms of my sweet and beautiful girlfriend who was waiting for me in my apartment with a bag of gifts, a big smile and an even bigger kiss. I feel truly blessed and lucky to have her in my life. I really do….

 

In fact, she even showed up unexpectedly at my apartment on friday night with a bowl of French onion soup and proceeded to nurse me for a couple of hours . What an amazing ,  kind, and selfless thing to do. I was quite overwhelmed, especially as it's a long trip back home for her.

 

Long may it continue…………… <3

 

 

 

 

Hi There (24/07/09),

 

Talk about having a low profile this week. It feels like a week has gone by and I've really done nothing of merit or note at all. This has at least been a bit more productive as I haven't had the distraction of putting together materials for either of my project classes.

I guess when you have weeks like these and have a chance to stop from the frenetic activity of the everyday you also get the time to be a little more introspective than usual. This begs certain questions.. are men hormonal? Do we suffer from some kind of monthly PMS where we dwell slightly more or the haunting bigger pictures of things. Why am I here? Where is it all going? That kinda stuff. ..I guess the point I making is that it essentially doesn't have a point to stick on such thoughts unless they are nagging and recurring and are screaming out for affirmative or remedial action.

A few of my friends and colleagues are embarking on a long programme of study for their M.A's. This is something that keeps croppingup in my head. Essentially I can see the benefits of doing something like that, but I don't really have enough of the motivation. It's not that I'm too lazy to do it. I am interested in reading and learning about new types of teaching and experimenting with my own, but it concerns me that much of what is to be learned has a limited application in the real teaching world. You could argue that you gotta know all the theory before you have the tools to choose what is correct for you.

 I sometimes wonder what my existence would be like here without such a great job and great colleagues. The world of  freelance  state school, or even university teaching is neither particularly interesting nor as diverse as all the opportunities I can garner here. I generally enjoy the managerial aspects, apart from the extremely difficult phone call this morning, and I think that I've turned out to be pretty effective and good at it. I've learnt a lot this past year and I'm learning more and more not to respond in an emotional way or to take anything personally. It's not always easy in the face of a direct onslaught but it does appear less difficult the more of such situations you might face.

 

I'm badly missing having a hobby. I think as individuals we can never unestimatethe importance of "me" time to follow our own passions and recharge spiritual batteries, especially when other things around us are at a low ebb. So it was nice of jon the drummer to ask me to sit in with him and Tyson in the studio in the next few weeks and see if we can't try putting together a little 3 man  trio/combo together. It won't be anything like Snatch..Far less ballsy and snarly. It'll be more of an eclectic mix of Nirvana, Bowie, Beatles, Foo Fighters designed to be played at lower volumes in bars where people can nod their heads and continue their convos, effectively completely ignoring us I suppose. Main thing it'll be playing music. As Jon was telling me he's had to leave sooo many bands because of the wanky attitudes of others (especially guitarists) so it's nice that he considered the idea of me sitting in. I'm not anything close to the league of his and Tyson's playing, but a carefully chosen set list, well rehearsed (and practiced by me at home) would probably turn out quite nice. I've always wanted to try and play in a combo/power trio set up, but always felt my general lack of lead skills would hold me back. But hey, I've been playing for long enough now to know music is not about soulful lead breaks, it's more about how the musicians interact as a unit and interpret the songs as a whole. Entropy=The sum being more than the individual parts. Hell I can even do backing vocals. Jon sent me the set list today. I think I'll be busy downloading a lot of tunes haha!

 

I'm off on this stag "weekend" to Phuket on Sunday night. Now that my departure to the beach is imminent I seem to find myself looking forward to getting out of BKK big style. Oh course I'm still a little wary of the concept, but not only am I going to do my very best to get with the programme, I find that I need a bit of cheering up and this kind of grand gesture/pointless exercise is probably the best way to achieve that at this present time.

 

Oh, and I'm going to Japan for a long weekend with Cherry in October. Flights are booked and the free accommodation at  the stunningly beautiful 5+ star Peninsula Hotel Tokyo (see the website wow!) are currently being arranged. So it's nice to have an adventure to look forward to.

 

There are also a couple of rumblings about another possible residential adult English training "camp" rolling around in September. It might even be at a beach resort. It'd be more than nice if we get that one in the bag The hours are long , but the money is good. The team we put together last year for the EGAT series of camps also works and plays very  well together. The "Dream Team" is assembled and ready at the drop of a hat…Or the push of a button, or from a message from John Tracey on Thunderbird 5 out there in orbit.

 

Thunderbirds are indeed GO!

 

  

Hi There (17/07/09),

 

Hope you had a brilliant birthday bro!

 

So what's new in "The Land of Smiles" ? Well I guess there are fewer smiles to be seen. This is not because everyone is suddenly unhappy, but because a larger percentage of the population at large is wearing facemasks in public areas. It makes teaching English pretty damn hard at my corporate class I can tell you. Despite the fact we know that H1N1 (or whatever this mutating virus is called) kills about 0.14 % or 1 in 1000 ,we find ourselves in a full on knee jerk media driven paranoia frenzy. And this paranoia is spreading. I started using the office disinfectant handwash when I come in from off the street. I elbow doors open and use my knuckles to push lift buttons!. So somehow this idea of plague sinks in everybodys psyche. Thailand's flu cases are higher than the rest of S.E. Asia as they put counter measures into place 2 weeks after everyone else. The bottom line is you simply cannot isolate this kind of thing is any comprehensive way. As for the masks, my understanding is that it is more contagious than an airborn viral problem. Which kinda puts the mask idea into a moot debate. Oh, and they're gonna fumigate the entire three branches of the school at 4pm today..What is the point of that? As soon as the first bona fide virus carrying kid shows up in 2 weeks time and starts touching stuff we'll be back to square one. Plastic sheeting is starting to appear over everything in advance of this. It must be pretty poisonous stuff. I'm gonna put everything away I have lying about. I don't fancy poisoning myself on Monday morning when I get in to work. I can't help wondering what else will be killed by this. Roaches, ants, rats? One dead rat in the false ceiling and the place just mings..It smells so bad. I remember the last time….

I make it sound as if the school is crawling with vermin!! It isn't. It's actually a very well cared for and clean environment, but in these tropical climes all sorts of nature and wildlife thrives everywhere. It is also the time of year for such things: the first rains have brought out all manner of beasties. My apartment, utterly quiet and devoid of such things for the past 3 months has started to bear small witness to this spring-like bloom of new life!! I could elaborate more, but I'd really rather not upset those who might be suddenly reticent to pay a visit to my apartment because of this. There really is little that can be done other than be watchful and monitor for dramatic changes.

Like I mentioned last week, the school is shut for the next two weekends. Although I have to still work on Saturdays (Keep an eye on the adult programme) it'll mean I can actually enjoy a Saturday night out for the next 2 weeks YAY. It'll be great to spend some quality time with Cherry too. It's funny when you try and go out of your way not to make any plans or arrangements and "wing it' and then you find actually that there's a bunch of "to do" stuff and sudden invites that pretty much fill up your weekend lol. Doesn't matter much . Main thing is we have some fun together.

I am gonna make my arrangements to visit Tokyo this week too. I realized apart from going home in April, (which doesn't count) I haven't been abroad since Borneo last October. It's definitely time to do something about it. I like having a trip to look forward to. I've always wanted to see something of Japan. (Even if I don't get it, get them, or like the experience). A long weekend sounds ideal.

It might come as a surprise to those who aren't up on their Asian geography just how far away Japan is, or what the flight time may be….

Well as the crow flies, and I'm sure you'd have to be a pretty mad crow to attempt it, it's 2887 miles with an apparent flight time of 6hours 10 mins..(Though as Japan is in a different time zone by 2 hours I'm not sure if this is included) . Thailand to Japan is like flying from New York to L.A….Surprised? No? Well it surprised me!! For those Britons and Europeans who've never travelled out this way before I think Asia is often perceived is quite Bijou and petite…It's really not!!

A major wedding event looms close and the pre-nuptial events are now almost imminent. Liverpool v's Thailand next Wednesday, (No Steven Gerrard apparently, he's the only one I really wanted to watch) followed by the Phuket trip from next Sunday night for three days. I'd better be a little more careful in applying sunblock than I was in Hua Hin last week. My right shoulder is peeling . I've not shed any skin for ages. I'm usually far more clever than that to risk sunburn. I'm not exactly a stranger to the sun anymore. I must be getting awfully distracted by the pretty girl on my arm.

 

 Then again, you would as well if you saw her too. J

 

 

 

 

Hi There (11/07/09),

 

The trouble with mini breaks out of the city is that they never seem to last long enough!!! Hua Hin was a brilliant getaway. The hotel did us proud this time and we had a really nice room overlooked the shady canal that linked the various pools round the garden.

 

Actually it being the rainy season the rains came pretty much at 3 pm on the dot both days, but hey, it wasn't really a big issue. I was a little pink after a morning by the pool anyway, and that was with me putting on high SPF sunblock and staying to the shadows…One forgets that once you're out of the smog protection of Bangkok there are serious rays out there to getcha. If I lived out of town permanently , I'd never leave the house without smearing sunblock on.

 

The big news for this weeks blog is that the government has decided to close all the so called "Cram" schools from next Monday for 2 weekends. So we're shutting down our Young Learners operation . You can imagine the hassle this might cause. The Adult programme that I co-ordinate is still going ahead, so I'll have to make sure they're all in class on Saturdays at Sam Yan (Terry'll do Sundays), but that can be a half day so I can still get a lie in on Mondays. There a small side benefit in that I'll be able to have a partial weekend off Cherry which will also be an unexpected treat.

 

Talking of which, I've got this plan in my head to do a long weekend in Tokyo in October. I've been wanting to go there for some time. People tell me it's really great, totally different, and exciting and vibrant. Actually, and some of you might find this quite weird, the one thing I want to REALLY visit there is the Art Gallery. It's apparently far and away the best art collection in Asia. For someone like me who really can't draw or paint to save myself, I'm surprised myself that I seem to be yearning for visual stimulation/input of this kind. I think it's something to do with  it being a medium other than the spoken or written word. I would go and see a modern dance troop like DV8, La Fura Del Baus, or Rambert in a heartbeat if they ever deigned to come here. But who am I kidding? The only stage shows to get this far are things like : Mamma Mia, Beauty and the Beast, West Side Story…I mean they all have something to give in their own way. But if you're looking for non oral stimulation in the form of freer interpretated music and movement , forget it!…that said, I don't like traditional ballet..Never have, never will.

 

This is perhaps the single biggest sacrifice you make in living out here. The concept of cultural diversity seems to have been strangled at birth. It's very difficult to find a vibrant or thriving underground scene in anything. Counter culture, however inoffensive and innocuous, is seemingly absent from the Thai psyche. I know I'm making sweeping generalizations here. This is after all a city of 10 million and I'm not privy to everything that goes on. But I have been around enough, talked to people, and seen enough "Time out" type magazines to understand that the people seem perfectly happy to be served interminably mediocre, middle of the road, conservative dross, and lap it up, taking it wholeheartedly into their cultural freetime agendas. This is also why no-one is really prepared to take chances and take a radical approach. Perhaps the current financial fear is a factor. The relative financial security and decaying " decadence" of western cultures perhaps allows for more experimentation in this respect. Or maybe it's simply down to the innate and immovable traditional values of the East. I tell ya though, if I ever won the UK lottery and had money to spend on a project here, it sure as hell wouldn't be something utterly safe and conformist. Not that I'd ever do something anti-state either, that's not my place. No it would be something to offer something a little edgy and new…From what little I see, there is a small chink of light in the form of Photography exhibitions. There seems to be quite a crowd of ex-pat photographers out here expanding ideas and exhibiting and good for them.

 

Moving on to a diametrically opposite theme, the stag night in Phuket looms tall. Actually before that we're all off to the National stadium midweek  to watch Thailand play Liverpool. Should be a nice day out..doubtless with lots of beer on site. The week after, we're leaving for Phuket on the Sunday night . This was originally to have been after school on a Sunday, but with the place closed now…well there was talk of changing the flights to an earlier date, but sod that! I mean really, what's the point? 15 drunk guys is 15 drunk guys whether it's over a weekend or not. It doesn't really matter at this stage eh?

 

My Bro Andy is up for ANOTHER birthday next week. My very best wishes bro! Gonna catch a salmon for me? I do miss a few hours of peace and contemplation by a river up there. Not that I'm much of a fisherman, there must be at least a dozen rappalas stuck in trees and under rocks from my effort (I think I've even forgotten how to tie the special rappala knot) and don't get me even started on how many of those weighty "flying condom" lures I've lost over the years haha….There are a few places here I can fish, but stocked urban reservoirs are really not my thing. I'd rather not catch anything than haul out catfish(and have them grilled before me) like that.

 

It's just not cricket.

 

 

Hi There (3/07/09),

 

I think I gave the impression last week that I was a partially paid up member of the "Malcontents Club." I'm not. I said I avoided those sort of people. I have no time, no truck for people who spend a vast amount of their energies dwelling on the negative aspects of their existence. I merely sought to point out that pessimism is like a kind of virus: a cold or flu that strikes you down for a few days until your brain or your character produces enough attitude adjusting antibodies to conquer it.

 

I can't express enough my keen desire to get out of town with Cherry for a couple of days. I think we're both needing a break from Bangkok. How she manages not to freak at the volume and the  craziness of the traffic driving around here as she does day in day out is really is a mystery to me. I'd be a gibbering mess if I had to drive here…I did for a while when I had my motorbike remember? But I spent so much time screaming at people and their stupidity inside my helmet. I'm sure the inside of the visor was spattered with spittle from time to time.

 For our carefully regulated and observed western standards of driving, peoples' general road sense and behaviour round here is, frankly, beyond shocking. Cherry tells me it's even worse on the other side of the river LOL.

 

That's not to say I won't be carefully watching the road on the way out to Hua Hin. When you get about 20-30 km out of town there is some sort of unspoken rule that NOBODY has to use indicator lights AT ALL any more. So every loaded up melon truck that passes you is equally likely to swerve in front of you, brake hard and continue to swerve left over to the nearest exit without giving a thought as to who's behind them.

 

I'm getting a little frustrated at my corporate class. I know they're all busy with the end of the month accounts, but why didn't they just cancel the class? I mean last Tuesday I got 8/15 (after an hour of only 3) and yesterday I had 6/15 for 2 hours. As a teacher supposedly teaching a special "Edutainment" kind of teaching it's frustrating making up all these activities when you keep losing a significant percentage of the class. I know I shouldn't care so much. But I'm a teacher, I take pride in what I do. I take time to prepare and structure my lessons. I don't expect 100 % attendance, but I do kinda base my activities on about 60 %. There are certain things that don't work when the class is too small. So I'm changing and adapting my lessons off the cuff all the time. It's not that the class would necessarily know I'm doing so. They are still learning and having fun. But it could be so much better and integrated. I carry extra stuff with me, different games, and activities, but I find I'm keeping my best stuff back for when there are enough people in attendance to make it work well and work properly. My experienced peers would tell me that's the nature of the corporate teaching game, that I should just deal with it, that I should just take the money and run.

 

I guess it's also a general question of having passion in what you do. We all get great classes we bond with and rough classes we struggle to make progress with. But our approach and attitude shouldn't really be all that different towards them. There's nothing sadder than seeing a teacher who you know to be great just kinda lose it, get slack, get indifferent , and start going through the motions of teaching without actually investing any of themselves into the lesson. Students , especially teenagers, can sniff this out a mile off. As a Team Leader so can I. I'm learning a lot about running a school from my Sam Yan experience. My Thai colleague tells me I'm noticeably stricter than my predecessor. I asked her if she thought I was too strict, or if this was a bad thing. She thought it was pitched about right. The place (like all satellite schools) needed and still needs a small kick up the pants. I'm a friendly and approachable guy, I take the time to get to know my team well, but if anyone thinks they can take the piss out of me or pull the wool over my eyes they've got another thing coming. I think my team realize that. But hey, they're still asking me out to lunch with them when they all go together so that can't be a bad thing.

 

You know I was saying I've been leading a quiet life lately? Well I went out on Sunday after work, had about 5 small beers quite rapidly and found myself completely bladdered and plastered. Whether this was cos of an empty stomach, a long week or work, or a general lack of practice I dunno. But I'm really gonna have to build up a little more beer stamina before the stag night at the end of the month…Taking an early bath cos I'm drunk at 730 just won't do.

 

 Note to self: Do not power drink! You can leave a partially full bottle of beer behind when moving on.

 

Roll on Hua Hin…..

 

 

 

Hi There (26/06/09),

 

People around me seem a little pessimistic of late. I often wonder why this is. Why everyone seems to jump on the band wagon at the same time. Is it some kind of mind virus that spreads from the host outwards in a series of concentric and interlocking mobius loops through his or her sphere of influence? Or is it perhaps more virulently contagious and simply spreads wherever the conditions are right for it to thrive.

 

Being a self confessed "The glass is half full" kinda guy ,I know only too well on dwelling or being enticed by the negative view. But it's all really an ill wind that really doesn't do anybody much good. As we get older there  seems to be some sort of endemic  chronic condition where our minds whisper to us, and our mouths tell each other,  that everything was better "back then" or "when I was young." This is all, of course, bullshit. You make your choices (for good or bad), you make your bed, you lie in it. Those that yearn for the apparent carelessness and abandon of their perceived fun and vibrant youth also often choose to forget about what some of it was really like back then. The freedoms we pursue right now, the things we do with our lives right now are all that really matters, and all that will ever matter.

 

Which is why I've never be a fully paid up member of the "Malcontents Club". When I hear bunches of farangs endlessly moaning about Thailand or Bangkok I invariably ask myself (silently I may add) "If it's so dreadful why on Earth continue to choose to live in this place?" The fact is of course the city, the noise, the traffic, and occasionally the people or certain attitudes can get you down. But you have to accept the rough with the smooth wherever you are. If you choose to be an unhappy participant in this particular society or corner of the planet, then really its best you move on. Really.  The worst case scenario is to find others of your mindset and then to spend an inordinate amount of time ticking off all the ways life disappoints you here like there's some kind of astral checklist for ultimate contentedness. You reap what you sow.

 

Twice this week I've been accused of being too kind, too generous of spirit.  People seem to actually want me to get tougher and less accepting or casual of certain things around me in my life. This I find a difficult thing to get my head around. Am I the only person in the world with a tendency to take things at face value and not look for darker motives in the background? I know I'm certainly gullible, too gullible. I know I'm often a little too trusting than is good for me, but I know if I start questioning or looking for the dark side in people and their underlying motives  I'll find them. And the truth is I'd really rather not…Perhaps it is the ostrich syndrome (sticking my head in the sand) to block out unpleasantness. But maybe it's more likely it'll impinge on the zest or lust for life I currently enjoy. I wouldn't like to lose that I really wouldn't.

 

There's no apparent remedy to this creeping malaise. Some people seek refuge in a beer bottle, others in the arms of a sweet smelling girl. Most however, simply gravitate towards a circle of bitchers and moaners like themselves and let rip incessantly.

 

Another potential pitfall to avoid in Expatland:  I've seen a few newcomers get in to schtook because they've fallen in with the wrong crowd and start adopting the values and mindset of this particular referent group. People forget we are all to some extent  "Chamelion-like" in the way we can adapt ourselves in some way to fit whatever social or referent group we hang out in. I remember first noting this the summer after high school when I worked on a building site.. For a few brief months I "became" a worksite labourer with all the colourful language,  rude gestures, and chauvinistic attitudes that entails. Would I have become that forever had I stayed on instead of going to Uni?

Then there was the time I spent 10 days at a travel show in Hamburg socializing every night with 10 members of various Welsh tourist authorities. I started speaking with a Welsh accent for Goodness Sake! The temptation to lose ourselves in other worlds or characters is always there. Sometimes we don't even realize we're doing it. I found this particularly true from the time I lived in Germany. I spoke Germany fluently. I dreamed in German,. My voice tone changed tone and became deeper. I kind of became someone else. Not massively outwardly different, but I know that "German" still lurks inside of me. I hear him moving around in the back of my mind late at night sometimes. He whispers alternatives and slightly different values to my own and even sometimes steps up and puts words in my mouth I didn't completely expect.

 

Gawd! Sounds like I'm sort of schizophrenic nutter! Those of you fluent in another language who've spent a goodly deal of time abroad will know what I'm meaning here.

 

Soooo,  it's all work and less play just now. Band has been shelved whilst we all sort out holidays, schedules, health and everything else. Tennis is off as my mate Bruce has got roped into some extra work early in the week. I haven't been out very much at all lately.

 

But hey! It's not all doom and gloom. I'm an optimist remember? I'm having a great time with Cherry. She really is a special girl. Which is just as well cos I'm pretty clueless on what to say or do sometimes, actually quite a lot of the time. As I mentioned before, this early stage" dating into relationship" transition period is fraught with all sorts large and small obstacles to pass, not all of them readily visible. You step on a blade of grass and discover it's a landmine!  Still, it's all part of the fun and discovery of being with someone new isn't it? This is how it builds, how it's supposed to be.

 

I wouldn't have it any other way. J

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

Hi There (19/06/09),

 

"Tempus Fugit", It really really does. I wonder if this is because I perceive present time at a much different pace than I used to, or that in the in land of no seasons you don't really have time to take stock and realize it's almost the middle of the year. Tis the season of open air musical festivals in the UK . In Scotland, some brave and hardy souls are venturing out in their fleeces after sunset to have barbecues. Now that Midsummer's Night is almost upon us, the urban streets and parks of the major cities will be filled with majestic hoards of delinquents sweeping casually though the thoroughfares drinking superlager and set on vandalizing anything that comes to mind with anything that comes to hand……Ah Britain, Britain, Britain.

 

Yeah well I say no seasons here, but I was caught in a right bitch of a storm on Monday evening. Wind and driving rain and me on the street with all my music gear trying to get to the studio. Needless to say I arrived soaked to the skin , pissed off, and more than slightly concerned that any dodgy wiring in the place and I'd soon be playing that great gig in the sky…I really got to start carrying a small circuit breaker, if only for my peace of mind.

 

Bangkok grinds to a halt when it rains like this, it really does. Traffic gets nowhere fast, entire blocks lose their power and you can watch all the lights go on and off in sequence. Even the skytrain sometimes gives up the ghost and stops for no apparent reason. I think it's to do with the sheer volume of water that pours from the skies. The drainage system just can't seem to handle it……Needles to say band rehearsal started 45 minutes late with 4 very pissed off people (albeit for different reasons) playing out…Actually I thought we played pretty well, certainly there was a new interpretation of some of the songs are we all vented our collective spleens. However, the band fight between the 2 Pauls in the last ten minutes of the session was more than surplus to requirements. I hope to God they settle their differences and make up, but I feel it might have made lasting damage to the bands standing "Magna Carta" credo: It's gotta be fun. First and foremost…and if it isn't we don't do it!…….Tall Paul has kinda left twice and come back, but I for one will be very surprised if he wants to play again, especially after the words spoken in anger by small Paul last Monday. This of course would be a great shame. We've been together for over 2 years with nary a bad word ever spoken between us. Nary a sign of egotism, nary a sign of arrogance..and then suddenly this. Makes me sad of course but as I've tried for so long to hold things down and now the 2 best friends of the band decide to pull this I'm not up to stepping in and messing. Not this time. Shame! Hope they sort it out….

 

Strangely, I'm feeling the need for a bit of a holiday again. I need to get out of this burgh for a while. The two trips I've planned in July cannot come soon enough for me. That said there are underlying currents of concern over the Swine flu at the moment. Nobody seems to be reporting it much, but schools are being shut willy nilly all over the place. We were even giving out facemasks at the weekend for those that wanted. Though how the Hell you're supposed to effectively teach someone with a big piece of gauze over their nose and gob is anybody's guess. I guess I'll be leaving any phonics/pronunciation exercises off my lesson plans for the next few weeks! It wouldn't surprise me though if we are eventually forced to skip a weekend if this continues. Cherry is currently finding she's getting in to work mega early , ( in about one third of the time it normally takes) just because the normal school traffic is off the road. There's more to all this than meets the eye in my opinion. Thai parents are anxious and precious of their kids at the best of times.  But I can't help feeling it's a bit of an overreaction. As far as I know the swine flu only kills about 1 in 1000 that get it, and even those that kark it  tend to be old, infirm, or have some sort of pre-existing complaint. Nothing wrong with exposing kids to a few germs! Makes 'em stronger I say. I remember my brother the doctor saying how these latest household anti-septic cleaning wipes designed for paranoid and over zealous housewives were creating a whole new generation of sickly children as they couldn't build up their immune systems at home effectively enough…where does this all end? Will we all be trundling around Bangkok in portable bubbles, housed in some kind of robotic palaquin apparatus, afraid of any kind of normal human contact? Virus and disease are part and parcel of the risk you take interacting with others of your species. It takes on many deadly, uncomfortable, and not so deadly forms. But as it's practically impossible to effectively avoid so what's the point of worrying? The Spanish flu of 1919 killed more people than the 1^st world war itself. It's Nature's way of adjusting to the blight of Human over population perhaps. A pandemic is statistically so overdue. In the last 2 years we've talked of Bird flu, HN51, Swine flu and all the possible and deadly mutations thereof, each one hyped in the media more than the last. This isn't doing anyone much good. Barricading tourists in hotels in Singapore, banning flights to Mexico, none of that is going to sort the problem. Thing is, I don't know what is.

 

There's been a significant absence of yellow shirt wearing lately. Normally you'd see hundreds of people wearing sun flower yellow shirts predominantly on a Monday by marking respect to the King (and that Mondays are an auspicious day for yellow). But it seems all of this red shirt/yellow shirt rioting and malarkey back in April has put people off from being associated with either camp. Whether this is a fear for their personal safety, or whether they're just sick of the whole revolution/counter revolution stuff going on remains to be seen. Certainly Thailand is feeling the impact badly in terms of tourism. Even though it's really safe as houses for foreigners to come here, the global images of rioting have made potential visitors naturally wary. As for me, Well I wore a red (pro-Taksin ..yuk!) in to work today. I usually wear it at some point every week..I can often see people eyeballing me, or pointing it out to one another, but it's my guess once they see I'm a white and almost 2 metres tall "Falang", they perceive it as highly unlikely my choice of t shirt colour is politically motivated. If I was politically motivated, I'd wear yellow but like orange , it's not really a colour that suits my complexion haha!

 

I'm glad to find myself back in a bit of a book phase. I'm still so passionate about reading. I wish this would transmogrify into a more determined approach to my own writing, but sadly it still appears to come in small disjointed, practically unrelated snippets. Reading my brother's African blog I found myself envious of his easy style and the unrestrained joy and humour of his prose. I seem to be either scared or somehow unwilling to write in that vein. Perhaps it's because I've got used to revealing a personal and thoughtful side of myself in my blog these last three and a half years. Perhaps it's because I spend too much time drifting and analyzing things that don't necessarily require such levels of inquisition (Cherry would say that of me for sure!) and so I  somehow find myself more often than not far detached from voicing the simpler joys of existing in this mortal coil… BUT I WILL try..How 'bout that?

 

The street vendor I get my iced latte from every morning enroute to the office has started up mini convos with me lately. He even complemented me profusely on my shirt this morning. If I hadn't seen his missus helping him out I'd have sworn he was hitting on me! Gawd!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi There (12/06/09),

 

Those of you who read my brief update below might have noticed a significant change in my status this week.

 

She came back! Seems she wants to be my girlfriend after all. You could have knocked me down with a feather! Yeah well of course I said yes. So we're gonna embark on a proper big adventure and let's see where it leads us. There certainly seems to be some kind of semi- perceptible change between dating and this new "going steady" phase. Hard to explain really, but there isn't a clock ticking overhead anymore, and whilst I'm far from perfect, maybe she's seems to have had the realization I might be worth persuing. So now it's time to relax, lean into it and progress….I'm very happy.

 

So you'll not be hearing  any more of my love strife and tribulations . From here on in I'm closing down that side of my confessions. It's one thing to talk about dating and unrequited love and the politics of boy meets girl etc. But now we've decided to really give us a go, I'm not about to muddy the waters and do anything stupid with a careless word in my blog. This is where it gets private. See? I do have some sense of propriety folks. I know my mum and dad will be pleased haha.

 

That's not to say I'll stop talking from the heart about stuff, but just not this. It may come as a disappointment to one or two of you, but I do hope you'll keep reading anyway. It's weird that since I started writing about dating strife my site hits (by my standards) have gone through the roof haha! Nothing like a bit of the old writing from the heart about relationships to get people living vicariously through you .

Though I'm sure I'll inadvertantly allude to it from time to time despite my best efforts.

 

I went to get a jacket made yesterday. Firstly cos I really don't want to go formal dining on Saturday night in my ratty beige linen one, and secondly as I'll not be wearing a Kilt to Peter's wedding I'd better also brush up a little..Though a loud shirt may be in order for that gig haha! It's only the second time I've had anything made to measure here, and whilst I totally like the idea, (I'm not really an "off the peg" kinda fit) I'm hopelessly lost on what I want…I'm not a vain guy but at the same time I don't want to badly screw it up with something that'll look old fashioned and tawdry in a years time. You never really know until it's made. I hope my instructions were clear.Thanks so much for the advice and the photos Cherry! But of course its still hard standing there in the shop looking at bolts of cloth and trying to visualize what a jacket made out of that material might look like. As befits the land of the lightning quick tailors I'm going down for a fitting before my corporate class and hopefully they'll deliver it to work tomorrow. I also decided on getting a nice shirt made too. Whilst I'm not a clothes horse I might just think about getting a load of shirts done. They have some really nice material down there and the last shirts they made were great. At 28 quid a pop for the best Egyptian cotton it's really quite a bargain if you think about it. It's time I got rid of some of my cheaper older shirts anyway.. There's no hiding armpit rot yuk!

 

What on Earth is going on? The boy's lost almost 10 kilos, he's buying nice clothes, eating out in nice places, and planning a 2 day trip back to the Hyatt Regency in Hua Hin early next month. The cynical amongst you would lay it all at the feet of me being in a new relationship. There's certainly some truth in that, but the thing is I want to ring in some changes too. I seem to be a little different since the start of the year. I don't quite know what it is. Perhaps I've finally got round to consider BKK as a nice enough place to settle and put roots down for the foreseeable future. Maybe the trip back to the UK highlighted to me there wasn't really a place there for me anymore, at least not in the current financial situation and I'm never gonna be a wage slave again. Maybe I'm just getting a little older..Who knows? My weight loss programme would seem the most obvious attempt at making changes. I don't want to get a beer gut! As regards updating my wardrobe a bit I've been working pretty hard and accumulating some savings. I don't want for much at all , I don't go out very often so I guess it seems to make sense to me to spend my money on something worthwhile….Maybe I've got to start considering going back to study too. I should certainly be using the spare time I have a little more constructively.

 

Talking of which, the band finally made it back in to the studio on Monday…and well ropey we were too. A couple of songs went well, but it was quite obvious we hadn't really played or practiced at home for quite some time! Still, it was the process of being with my friends, playing, laughing, and drinking a couple of beers that was equally as important. We have a lot of fun hanging out…Next Monday we're going in for another 2 hours. I hope to drag them down to Bangkok Rocks (a new and ghastly rock bar apparently) afterwards to see if we can invade the stage!!

 

Thanks to my great friends Leigh and Donna for the dinner on Sunday. Fan assisted oven or not, the roast lamb was brilliant….who needs plates, cutlery and napkins anyway?

 

We meant what we said about (gulp) babysitting for you….. J

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update: Last night (after 6 days of silence) She called me up. She wants me back. Properly this time.  No dating stuff  no arms length, no clock ticking. No trying to work anything out in her head any more… She wants to be my girlfriend proper….pure and simple………..I said YES!

Hi There (05/05/09),

 

I'm determined to get this out ON the date displayed above (for a change) so I guess I'm gonna have to start 2 days in advance.

 

My dad recently suggested to me that I shouldn't write my blog when I'm not in a good frame of mind as I come across as sad, lonely, and introverted. Those of you who know me well wouldn't describe me as much of an introvert: a drifter, a dreamer for sure, but whatever my case of personal narcissism might be, it generally spares me the worst excesses of true introversion.

 

That said, it's been emotionally pretty tough on me these last few weeks. I've been out there in the tempest of an exciting and exhilarating romance. I've ridden the rapids and plunged right over the waterfall. I've seen the rapids dissipate to a strongly undulating current and even that too I've seen become a stunning mirror clear lake reflecting and refracting a perfectly and beautifully  matching symmetry of all that I see and all that I feel.

 

Ok yeah, so I fell. You can never gauge the depth of the drop of the smitten. It's not like you can throw a stone into the abyss and count off the seconds till you hear it hit the bottom. There's no way you can even judge the length of freefall "air time" before you reach the conclusion of your journey. The relationship clock continues to countdown to decision time overhead, sometimes in radiant scarlet digits, sometimes just a blurry outline, but the sound remains the same: "tick tock, tick tock".

 

This is perhaps the tragedy of it all. I couldn't afford to ignore the clock anymore. I couldn't tell myself to just relax and lean into it…. that throwaway "Que sera sera!" attitude is fixed in the preserve of the young and carefree  youth. It's also not that I was, or am, desperately needy for a significant other to share my life. I found to my chagrin I'd been in a state of emotional lockdown for the last 4 years and didn't even know it…till pretty much right now! Christ how self-unaware is that?  God knows the search is hard enough even just to find a suitable candidate to fall for in the first place. I don't actually even know how to go about actively looking for one even if I had the unbridled enthusiasm to do so. Which I didn't have and  I really don't have now.

 

Yeah well, everyone strikes gold sometimes and I did find her. I fell. I got smitten. I accepted all the big things and all the little things that mattered to me. You know what I mean? The kind of things that one has to accept in another person in order to progress into a deeper and stronger set of commitments and bonds….A proper full on relationship. Heaven knows the bonds that already held us in these past 2 short months appear to have been made with the emotional equivalent of high tensile climbing rope. We both felt them. Which made deciding this all so difficult for both of us . We're close and intimate friends too. People often forget in the heat of breakups or disappointments that you and your partner are (and always were, or should have been) first and foremost friends. That's surely why you decided to embark on love's special journey together in the first place. I could never understand why so many people sever all links to their ex's once it was over…I mean if you part on terrible terms, like , say like infidelity, well fair enough then. But if you really part in open, honest , loving, and caring terms, surely you can still bear to see one another and effectively maintain some facets of this deep and unique friendship further down the line. So many people don't get that, and it always makes me sad for those ones I know and call friends. They carry that heavy baggage often oh so bitterly.

 

Yeah Yeah, but there is the possibility I'm too kind. Not man enough. Too much of a softy perhaps? I'd like to have an edge but y'know it's not really me. I'd only fake it, take it to entirely the wrong extremes and end up acting like an utter prick. I can act if need be, but this overtly negative attitude is way beyond the capabilities of an essentially decent person. I think it's something I can and perhaps should be proud of. To really involve yourself and to be caring and to look after and nurture someone, even if it's you who are the one who needs looked after and nurtured sometimes. It's this unconditional love attitude thing I've been banging on about to anyone who'll listen my whole bloody adult life long. I know a few people out there truly get it and practice it daily in real terms: Al & Louise, Leigh & Donna I have the greatest respect for you for this, It is a rare and precious thing. Cherish it always….oh and Donna thanks for your kind words about me….Yeah I do treat women well. Always have. Don't really know how else you're supposed to do it to be honest…but if you've any tips on retaining the ones you fall for I'd love to hear them haha.

 

  But, the simple fact remains: if you love or care for something deeply, you gotta let it go. Who wants to covet and cage such a thing? That would be a monstrous thing to do.

 

Hear that world? I'm a catch not a monster haha! :@) Maybe I'm one of those rare good guys girls always talk about in magazines. Maybe not quite as mythical as a  "manicorn", (I'm too old and not nearly handsome or sexy enough) BUT I'm probably about as good as it gets for a guy who's been round the block of love enough times by now to know what's what and is still prepared to let love retain the notion of what I originally thought it was…Yeah there are moments of doubt (who doesn't have them?), but I'd rather be alone than settle for any less. If my dad is right and I end up what he says I currently sound like: "an introspective lonely old man". Then so be it. I'm not gonna compromise. Not over this, not ever…..Sorry Paw J.

 

So it's time to take a little stock. Sift through the emotional rubble, (maybe rubble is too strong a word) from the hurricane's passing and see what I can salvage from all of this. I'm in good shape really. I've almost lost 10% of my bodyweight…1.5 more kilos to go (NO, it wasn't through love stress, I've been on a diet!). I'm keeping busy. I'm going to get the biggest pay packet I've ever earned at the end of this month. I'm back doing corporate classes at night twice a week. The band might get a chance to play together next week, AND I've got the pending promise of home made roast lamb and the company of special friends very soon. It's good to know you've got a few " go to" people when the chips are down who know that all you really need is some good and easy company, some good food, drifty conversation, and the laughter will simply always follow…it's really what I do best be optimistic…..Indeed even right now in these sad and unsettling times, my glass is still resolutely "half-full." I really couldn't have it any other way….Time will do the rest, whatever the "rest" might be. No idea!  But at least I can't hear the clock ticking down in my mind any more.  I really gotta be grateful for that. J

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi There (30/05/09),

 

What can I say ..My blog is late again. I've finally worked out why this appears to be the case..I'm getting seriously busy over the week , I scarcely have time to answer personal emails. Not that I should be doing too much of that in worktime anyway haha.

This is due to a number of things. Firstly I'm getting stuck into my teen project stuff. I'm trying to pep up the dwindling programme with some stuff and mini projects that teenagers might actually like to do. A kinda more complete approach that brings in effective English as a by product, rather than grammar and structures being the focus of the lesson..Like from a textbook. It's all still quite experimental for me. It is a source of constant disappointment that almost NOBODY we interview wants to teach teens. This is because they're moody, difficult, distant, hard to motivate, and, as a result , much more difficult to teach than the eager-to-please wee ones and the motivated older students/adults.

 

This is a shame. I'm looking for a special sort of teacher that not only has the skills, but also the will and the motivation to reach out and engage with the students on their terms. Teens can sniff bullshit a mile off. But once you get them on your side they really can be the most fun and rewarding level to teach….As a guy at a seminar recently said : It's not the teachers who care that are the best teachers, but the ones that communicate the appearance of seeming to care."…wise words I think.

 

Another thing that's keeping me busy is that I've taken on another class at Siam on Sunday afternoons..(yes another mid day transfer between schools). I needed the extra work as it turned out and this came up as a take over. Soo out with the old materials and it's off to embark on yet another experimental task based learning teaching programme. I'd better think about going back and doing traditional teaching from the book soon before I forget how to do it…

 

Actually, I've also taken on some corporate work starting next week. ACE assurance want a "handsome" (yeah right), Reliable, fun, and professional provider of "Edutainment" (A particularly wanky marketing speak-word that's buzzing around in English circles). Basically they just wanna have fun and games for a couple of hours after work…Think that's do-able. I have to get into a little more corporate teaching and keep my hand in. So Tuesdays and Thursdays 5-7pm for the next ten weeks will find me there. It's not too far from the office, and as the band is as usual a little bit up in the air (everyone is pretty busy all the time just now) AND our venue of choice has closed up shop, it's time to consolidate a little on the savings front.

 

This all means of course that I've 10 hours of lessons to prep each week plus all the management thingies and bits 'n' pieces to do. Naturally you also get waylaid quite often. Like this morning when a teacher called in sick and I had 40 mins lead in time to deliver a 3 hour lesson. I almost had to do his afternoon session too (And I have my own at the other school in the late evening), but me ole mucker Bruce stepped into the breach and it s covering that. 9 contact hours of teaching on a Saturday does not an effective manager and team leader make.

 

Plans, plans, plans. Time to make some. Looks like I'm going to go on a stag weekend in Phuket at the end of July. My oh my! 15 middle aged men meandering aimlessly around a beach resort getting incrementally stewed over three nights…..Still it'll be somewhere I haven't exactly been before….Maybe, just maybe this will be the last one I'll ever go on. I very much doubt I could ever be arsed with having one of my own, even if I was lucky enough to land a wonderful girl I'd want to spend the rest of my life with. As I was lamenting to friend recently, the trouble with blokes is that the more of them there is in a crowd, the more base the conversation becomes. Ancient re-recycled anecdotes and football suddenly reign supreme over the table. This is one aspect where women generally win hands down..they have far more interesting things to say…..Oh look, there's a cat amongst the pigeons!

 

Yeah so I've been a little out of sorts recently. This week has been much better as I'm slowly coming out of a maelstrom of conflicting or difficult issues in my professional and private life. I guess all of us in our everydays have these small phases or periods where the emotional equivalent of an electro-magnetic pulse sends shockwaves across all plains of your existence and you find it almost impossible to get the simplest of things to function properly for you. Brain included! Even a healthy heaped spoonful of personal  Realpolitik doesn't seem to reconnect the individual strands of your own severed logic. This is it, The  "Twilight Zone" of your own insecurities. A grumbling appendix that needs surgery or just a sore gut ? Well guess what? It doesn't matter. I'm snapping out of it and shaping up….just need a little more time s'all.

         

Hi there (23/05/09),

 

I don't know if it's because I seem to be getting busier or what…But yet AGAIN my blog is late this week…Oops.

 

Ok so where was I? The last couple of weeks have been fraught and frank with all manner of personal insights and issues. I'm actually feeling quite drained by it all.

 

Actually , in many ways it's been an interesting adventure exploring the depths of my patience and my good will.  It's also been kinda weird. If people (whoever they are: lovers, friends, acquaintances, strangers) constantly expect you to fail or live up to their imposed negativity  or low expectations, or personal character stereotypes in some way  then of course you ultimately will.

 

I, (quite possibly in a bout of self delusion) like to think of myself as a kind and caring sort. Perhaps even more so than your average Joe. Perhaps even  a Hell of a lot more . Yet a number of times this week I've had all manner of unkind and untrue aspersions cast upon me by others….the sad truth is that just for a change I believe I didn't merit any of this, certainly not to the extent that I've been catching it.  I've been told often enough that I'm too kind and caring in a lot of ways and maybe this is the week where I start to toughen up rather than be laid low by low grade upset and disappointment.

 

Fact is I like me. I'm comfortable in my skin. My friends like me. I'm not a shithead. I don't use people. I'm honest.  I care for those I care about and try to at least empathise with those I don't. It takes a seriously mammoth effort for me to actually hate  anybody with a sustained passion…Margaret Thatcher seems to have that spot on the bench reserved for her and her alone. So why have I been getting an inordinate amount of shit flying my way this week? Karma ?  Possibly. Clashing planets in my astrology fortunes? Maybe….   Do I feel I deserve it? Nope, I really don't think I do. Dealing with other peoples rage and ire is a strange and complex thing. What happens when I lose it…and God knows I've been close lately…. Who's there to calm me down?  To put things in perspective? The short answer? Nobody … They all seems to need a ear to hear their woes rather than vice versa.

 

So what I am getting at here? Maybe this time I'm so not sure myself. This blog might appear to be a drifting ramble this week..sorry . I'm really not in the best frame of mind to write. Aside from some  superfluous bickering with the current object of my affections, I've had two of the most difficult one-to-ones with teachers since I started work here. Perhaps I'm more upset and rawer than usual because maybe, as a manager, I might have failed one of them too.  OK, I only had him in my team for 10 weeks, but I should have done more for him when I had the chance. I  maybe got sidetracked with other stuff while his fate was slowly being sealed.  And today, in a quiet classroom looking at his glistening eyeballs and abject misery, his need for an in depth explanation of his failures that I really couldn't expand much on as I should,…well let's say it  has strengthened my resolve to not let it happen again….Not that any of this helps my current mindset any.

 

It's weird. For the first time in ages I'm feeling like sitting with a bottle of good malt and getting blootered in the comfort of my own home to a couple of Woody Allen movies or something. …Not that I'm about to..I'm not really that much of a home alone drinker, and I've got a brand new class to take over tomorrow..But sometimes, oooooh sometimes,  there's the rarest of temptations to court oblivion in a bottle. Just as long as it turns the world off in my mind for a while…

 

My, oh my. Doom and gloom is it this week? Actually no, just a rough day at work really. Mr Mike will get with the programme as soon as he's romping round a classroom at 1630 reminding himself about the good things and the fun you can have too…

 

On a lighter note I'm meeting up with a pal on Sunday I've not seen in over a year and if the rain keeps off , a great game of Tennis (like last week) with my mate bruce to look forward to.

 

Oh, and the diet is going well (says he with a burger and a can of coke at his desk)…from an all time high around Christmas of 99.1 kg , I've dropped down to 92.7. There's a lot to recommend the heady mix of only eating one big meal a day (lunch) combined with a huge dose of  torrid and relentless love turmoil. I'm surprised I haven't developed a nervous tic too!!!

Hi There (15/05/09),

 

 A big thank you to those who have persevered with my slightly erratic blog postings these last couple of weeks. A mixture of holidays, torrid relationship balancing and general distraction seeking led to this. I know there are some of you who really do try and read every week , So I will endeavour to be more timely with my posting, especially as it appears I am unable to post from my home laptop as my connection always ends up timing out.. It may have something to do with updating a page 89000 words long haha….I may soon have to delete part of last year.

 

Those of you who have been keeping up will have noticed a distinctly emotionally charged and slightly more dramatic style to my writing these past few weeks. The reasons would appear obvious. Earlier this week, after the most emotional night I've experienced these last three and a half years in Thailand, I really needed a cathartic release from the stuff in my head the following dawn. Writing about it was the only way I know how.

 

 I've had more comments on and offline about this "Adrift" passage than almost any other thing I've written in all of my blog pages….There's always a risk when you write , however dramatically , about deeply personal issues that it'll all be misconstrued as blatant narcissim or overtly mocked by cynical minds who are far too afraid to voice their own such frailty and weaknesses. Neither of which has happened so I have to assume my words did pluck a chord with my readers here and on my facebook notes where I also posted it. As I told a good journalist friend here who was interested enough to give me pointers and discuss my writing style:

 

I'm never looking for individual judgements on the state of my relationship because to actually voice the nitty gritty would be to devalue it to such an extent that it has no salient point. In making generalisations of that initial ,painful love obsession you always get when you meet someone in whom you see a deep and great potential is to try and make it so that the reader, someone,  anyone, can at least relate  in some way to. Hence the change in my third to first person perspective over the passage. It is a blog after all... There were a number of universal themes here for chasing a dream that had to be voiced I suppose.....The imagery of being lost at sea seemed the most suitable for me....Of course I try to justify my actions..I'm too close to what's going on to write with a sense of aloof hard nosed impunity. Loving for you may be be hard. You're hardwired in a different way to me...If it feels right on the odd occasions I've been lucky enough to experience it, I've never felt compelled to do anything else. It's when you need the ratification and validation of that love and effort and it may not be reciprocated to the same extent that is hard...Chai mai (innit)?

 

So after the soul searching, the abject misery of being out there in the storm last blog…where now? I'm not sure I'm ready yet to say how the story finishes. Maybe because I don't yet know myself. Perhaps I need to leave it like this for now:

 

 

                                   Adrift II.

 

 The storm has for the time being cleared. The sun is rising high in the sky, seagulls are crying and wheeling in lazy circles overhead.

 

Not too distant, shimmering lightly in the heatwave off the glassy sea, she stands on the shore shielding her eyes from the glare…. She is looking for me.

 

 I drop my face into the sandy gritty folds of the airbed and focus the last drops of my energy to kick slowly towards the shore…… 

 

 

 

Hi There (12/04/09),

 

Disclaimer: I make no apologies for the following thoughts, none at all whatsoever. It's who I am. So please spare me all your usual comments about me telling too much, or for sharing too much about my life. This is the way I choose to blog. Read no further if that doesn't suit...

 

Sorry about the small delay on my weekly blog. …I've been on holiday.

 

The Hyatt regency in Hua Hin is a fine hotel. I don't think I've ever experienced that level of luxury. The gardens were lovely and the pool (canals) connecting all the pools meandered in and out of the trees making even swimming a romantic adventure.

 

.....Needless to say it was the girl I was with made the 2 day break really special. You never know what'll unfold when you spend a couple of days away with someone, anyone you don't know really really well, but even I was surprised at how easy ,almost perfect it all was in so many ways. Three days of laughter, romance and sunshine was time well spent and memories to be truly treasured. I'd have loved to stay longer...like another week :)

However clouds are abrewing: Bear with me as I try to explain things further in the only way I know how: allusion and allegory.....

                                               ADRIFT

Of course reality (as it inevitably does) always bites. Not that I'm going into any precise details here (even if I knew all of what they were) especially as everything is for the next short while is in a kind of stasis with my world's collective breath held. But the whirlwind/hurricane has inevitably moved and tumbled on with the external isobar pressures and I now find myself in the eye of the storm, and believe me it's not nearly as calm and peaceful as I was led to believe.

Still it's all this kind of thing that reminds us we're alive isn't it? Without the peaks and troughs of emotional extremes we'd all live our lives out in the grey areas of indifference, in a drab landscape of concrete mundanity. It doesn't make the troughs any easier to ride just now knowing this, but the idea is you know you can't be stuck indeep down in one indefinitely.

The other thing is about all these peaks and troughs is that when you get older and still find yourself single despite your best efforts to the contrary, you tend to swim in waters that don't take you very far out of your depth. The waves are never very high, the shore is never far away, and one eye is always on the sky monitoring the weather.

So why go further out on a flimsy inflatable mattress?

Because you HAVE to..That's why! You meet someone truly special and unique to you and something deep inside compels you to go further, to re-explore, to re-evaluate what you thought you knew of life, of love. This isn't about a return to the wildness or impetuousness of youth, or even about trying to rekindle some perceived emotional extremes of the past. It's about following what you instinctively know to be right for you, about what you MUST do, Even if you are equipped with the knowledge that the survival chances are stacked highly against you…

Is this folly? No, emphatically NO! Is this ill advised? Probably. But as you're out there already in the open sea dragged far faster by the relentless undertow than you expected, choices become suddenly and abruptly reduced to naught.

Perhaps it's the fright of it all that is the most surprising. "How did I get out here so fast?" That and the knowledge you're somehow going to have to paddle back and find land , some solid ground, ANY solid ground soon or you'll be lost to the deep.

This sea around me is filled with the hauntingly familiar ghosts of lovelorn and tortured souls. The voices of their anguish mix with mine till a gale howls around me insistently rising and falling like a slow pulse, a wolf caught in a beartrap. When the lightning comes it illuminates pictures in my minds eye, surprisingly, they are scenes from my past, deeply personal and overwhelming scenes of sadness, regret, and turmoil. Scenes from a box I thought was locked so tightly and so safely squared away it would never again see the light of day.
All the while my mind rages on, stolidly and inexorably accompanied by a chronic lack of form, focus and depth, there's a gaping void where the pit of my stomach would normally be…I've fallen and I'm lost. I'd kick my tired legs and seek safe harbour if I only knew which way to go.

Are yet more sad and fresh memories to be committed to that box before I can finally lock it and hide it away for good this time?

Time will tell soon enough.

Hi There (01/05/09),

 

Well it's been an interesting sort of week. The whirlwind I've been reaping has been full of highs and mercifully short on lows…whirlwind? I hear you cry…well at least those who haven't been visiting these parts for a while…..What's that all about?

 

In short,  I've been up to something I don't recall doing for a goodly number of years…..I've been old fashioned dating. I guessed (mistakenly) as I embarked on this particular fairground ride that it was something I could easily take in my stride. I am, after all (as I was in fact reminded last night by the lady protagonist to this playlet) 43. Surely after all these years, all these romantic cul-de-sacs, long term  bideying-in, and long distance relationships I would have a big of a clue as to how to embark on such a course.

 

Fact is I didn't have a clue. I either never did the old fashioned dating (did I?), or it's been so long ago that I've forgotten some of the important fundamentals. And so it was in the 2009  Bangkok 100 Guineas "boy-meets-girl" novice handicap steeplechase. The going was firm for the first few furlongs with some of the trickier fences early on.

However I think I'm past the turn and the going is turning soft favouring my particular race plan…which is?

 

NOT A Scooby-Doo!… I'm really trying not to fuck up, make a complete idiot of myself, all the while also trying not to completely "fall" in what is only the closing stages of the opening race of the jump  season.

 

I find myself actively trying to stay grounded in all this (no pun intended). After all, it's very early days in, and as I am hardly anybody's idea of the perfect man, I need to be mindful of this. It is, however, nice to feel these kind of feelings again…doesn't matter how young or old you are, it's nice to feel mildly besotted and preoccupied with someone once in a while.

 

I wouldn't presume to go as far as to say ALL this is reciprocated. But there is a definitely special, strong, and robust bond developing between us even if I try to tell myself differently. I know she feels it too, she's said as much. Whatever this is  it's strong enough for us to throw caution to the wind and go off to the beach for 2 days next week. Were it not for the fact we won't have another opportunity to get away for a couple of days until next October I doubt we'd be doing this so early….Oh well , I shall continue reap the whirlwind as long as it makes me/us happy and keep my ubiquitous dark thoughts and self- doubts out of the picture. "Living for the moment" seems to be the only sensible and obvious thing to do at this juncture .Which is exactly what I intend to do….:@)

 

As this girl is known to others in my inner circle of friends here it would be really unfair to talk about her in any further detail in an open blog like this. Those of you curious enough to know more about her and some of the stuff I'm alluding towards in the above horse racing terminology can email me if you're really interested…nuff said.

 

So I started running my own school last week. Sam Yan is definitely small and quiet compared to the buzz of HQ. Not that it helped my first stint there. A teacher called in sick …I had to cover classes and rush over to HQ to do my own Sat night class… So last Saturday I taught for 9 hours solid, THEN went on a date haha! There's life in the old boy yet!…I just hope this weekend is a little better and that I can relax a little bit and get the lay of the land a bit better over there.

 

I got the air-con engineers in this week too. They've filled up the Freon in the two bedroom units and put in new starter motors…The glass bedroom can now be cooled enough to make it very comfortable. Nice to be back in there I love my new bed and I love the view!

 

Actually the temperatures dropped a few degrees the moment I got  this done and we're starting to get the first biblical rainstorms of the approaching rainy season…Now I find my balcony drains are labouring under the deluge of the downpour…doh! The one worrying factor is tha the biggest aircon unit in the living room is completely broken and needs a new compressor. It'll probably be cheaper to replace the whole thing!! As a unit of this size is in the 600 quid minimum mark I'll have to think about it a while!

 

So it's three more days of work and then I'm off for 8 days wahey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there ( 

Well is it?   

Hi there (26/04/09),

 

"Is it my imagination or is it hotter than last year ?".  Is a question that has been posed to me more than once recently and by people who've been around these parts for a long time.

 

Well is it?

 

The short answer is that I've only had access to a thermometer since I moved to my new apartment…so you can imagine my surprise when I took a look at it a couple of day backs and discovered it to be reading 42 degrees!!!!

 

Which is why the air-con engineers are coming on Monday afternoon to pump in some freon into the systems in the 2 bedrooms and to fix the big unit in my living room. It is, in short, blooming hot. My friends back in Scotland were all asking me how I usually handled the heat and I offhandly discounted it as not being an issue really…..but lately….. It's been "dementor" hot. Jon the drummer even turned up at my work midweek to get some work done in an aircon environment like our teacher's room as he couldn't sit in his house and concentrate….I do realize I'll be adding significant amounts to my leccy bill..but fuck it…If it's too hot to sleep…….! I'm currently spending all my time in the spare room as it's the only place I can get it cool enough to sleep and to function..and that's with a fan on a chair blasting out at setting 3 about 2 feet from the bed haha!. Still I'd far rather have it this way…

 

So,  back from Scotland and settling into routines again. I'm writing this from the desk at my new weekend posting: The Sam Yan school. Typically the day I first showed up 2 teachers called in sick , so I ended up covering all the days sessions (a 9 hour teaching day!!) At least I get paid 120 quid tax free for it….:)..which is not a bad thing really as we've kinda worked out a system to maximize the amount of time off for the holiday weekend in May. With a bit of jiggling around and a "make up" day later in the month I can take over a week off wahey…

 

This in turn of course leads to certain dilemmas…do I just head off to da hills?, (I'm hankering for a long weekend in Ulan Bataan in Mongolia, but I haven't made any visa arrangements) or do I stick around and see what presents itself as an opportunity round Bangkok. I could go up to Khao Yay National Park for free and hang out till the end of a summer camp (watch the final show etc etc), or I could see about what the plans are of the woman I'm dating and see how and if we can co-ordinate our time to do something a little bit more special….

 

This final option offers the biggest chance for something different, albeit perhaps less exotic than a foreign trip. It's still very early days between us , but I do feel a strong compulsion to spend some unhurried and unstressed time with her during daylight hours and see if we can hang out , or even just kick back and relax happily together. Which is not as apparent as it might seem at first.  There's always a certain pressure with sporadic evening dating in a traditional sense as you pack all the conversations, the sharing, and the ensuing, but necessary (and welcome),  ancilliary bonding into a series of small snatches of time. With our work time/free time so utterly out of synch, each date has the propensity to become "an island entire of itself." These islands rarely get drawn together and linked up with the infrastructure of relationship unless there is the time and effort put in to do so. The door here of course swings both ways. I think I'll wait with my holiday plans and see what she would like to do…as long as I make sure I do get away at October or Christmas…..there's gonna be a long spell of work now.

 

 

 

 

The short

 

 

 

Hi There (17/04/09)

 

Well it HAS been a little while since I last updated my blog, but then again I was back in the UK for Easter so most of you had the chance to catch up with me in person. If for any reason I missed somebody, or didn't correctly alert you to my imminent arrival I am sorry….You should be able to catch me around Easter 2011 haha.

 

So how was the UK for me?

 

I guess it was a little strange. I mean you kinda get used to life and routine out here in the east..and suddenly I'm yanked back into the past on a whole lot of levels. I felt a very deep sense of displacement the first few days in Glasgow. When people said "It's like you've never been gone" (and quite a few did) I wondered how to take it. Naturally I took it as a compliment, but a part of me was thinking "Oh yes, I have very much been away." For the most part I was very pleased how all my friends are moving along with the ebb and flow of life and enjoying lifes random bounties and all the attending precious little victories it offers up. But there were one or two though that I felt were deeply unhappy with their lot and that was unsettling for me. It reminded me how hard it was to sell up and move on. I doubt I could repeat that feat of bravery a second time.

 

Seeing my family though , especially my mum and my dad for pretty much a whole week was exactly what the doctor ordered for my restless mind. I enjoyed a couple of bracing walks by the seaside and in pine forests, I ate fish and chips, and I drank a whole bunch of dark ale (yum). And I simply hung out with them. All in all a very successful, if uneventful holiday back home. Thanks Mum and Dad!! xx

 

The question on most everybody's lips was "how is your love life?"

How indeed is it ? Think I as I write. I went out on a date with a girl just before I left for the UK (she was actually an old acquaintance/friend that I really didn't have designs upon but as it turns out there is a mutual attraction there despite a number of potential opposing factors… . Anyway, we found ourselves communicating on facebook whilst I was away (albeit it sometimes badly..am I the only person in the world to find Instant Messaging cumbersome and clumsy, fraught with the potential for making ghastly errors or responding incorrectly to the wrong question?)

 Of course I might just be a rookie at the whole online romantic liaison thingy and I'll have to grin and bear through some grim mistakes till I learn A) the etiquette of it all and B) how to gauge the correct reaction to some of my more (or less as has been the case) "witty" remarks…..At any rate we've reached some kind of state where we've been dating and simply enjoying each others company…… I kinda feel like I'm on a raft on a big ocean climbing up and down the peaks and troughs of the ocean swell with no real idea exactly where I'm headed and absolutely no stars in the sky to guide me. Perhaps this would normally be the ideal time to shut down some of my higher brain functions that are predisposed to endlessly over-analyse the whole thing and just live for the moment or moments as they come. That's after all what life in a Buddhist country is supposed to be about.

 But it's when you start to have feelings….or at least notice that they can sometimes be accidentally hurt with a blunt or throwaway comment from this new special someone you suddenly find yourself caring a bit about is, frankly, quite  disconcerting.  It seems to me I've been more emotionally aloof and adrift concerning the state of my heart and my romantic expectations these last few years than I've probably admitted to myself. Certainly many of my usual emotional self-protection mechanisms appear to have been miraculously disarmed by this girl. This isn't something I'm altogether comfortable with by the way……But it would be far greater folly to let such possibilities, however unlikely, to pass me by in favour of "playing it safe" and staying away.

Still it's all early days yet. I've got a tiger by the tail and the tornado is almost upon us (to mix a couple of metaphors!!!!). Maybe a bit of  emotional turmoil is just what I need….then again, maybe it isn't haha!

 

As of next weekend my job remit changes slightly. I'm going to be running the Sam Yan school/annex across the campus on my own at the weekends. I reckon it'll be good experience and thankfully it's running pretty well with probably only a little tweaking here and there required. But I reckon I'll miss the cut and thrust of the busy central office. Overseeing 7 classrooms, (as opposed to 16 that are currently on the 20^th floor at the HQ) might prove to be a little dull. At least it'll free me up to work on trying to put together various teen project packs to spice up the Teen curriculi.

 

The last holiday weekend prior to the HUGE gap in public holidays in October is almost upon us here. I'm seriously thinking about heading off to da beach for a few days…might be a good thing to do…

 

Hi there (26/03/09),

 

Perhaps one of the single most annoying things about getting older is how your body rebels in small but significant ways.

Currently I'm experiencing a bad back (yes again)..though this time it appears slightly more pelvic that tailbone, it hurts like a bastard nevertheless. I'm necking anti -inflammatories and praying for some respite before I fly out on Monday night. There's something oddly pathetic about having to sit down to put your trousers on. It does not bode well for the future. My minds eye is witness to all sorts of CSI type scenes: spine x-ray slides where I can see the bones at the base of my mind slowly turning into an amorphous mass of slipped discs, trapped nerves, muscle spasms and worn cartilidge. In darker moments I envision cancerous growths, boney spikes and cyst types carbuncles all conspiring to give me what can best be described as a chronic back issue. I'm not gonna be able to handle this kind of pain indefinitely. I think I may have to start regularly doing some yoga, or at very least make a regular trip to a masseuse and get snapped back into place.

The gig gremlin didn't strike this week and we played to a particularly empty bar at Noriegas on Wednesday. That's OK it was just as we'd hoped for: the chance to rehearse for free in a different environment.

The good news is that after my tentative enquiries we've been invited to play at the annual "Britstock" festival at the British Club on April 26^th.  It'll be a push getting a one hour set slick for the gig when we're all off on holiday from next week..but two sessions in the studio should fix that. Either way, it'll be nice to play to a captive audience for a change, and even get paid in money, food, and drink for it..Wahey!

I finished the Film and Drama summer school course on Friday and was happy not to be doing it for next week. The boys in the class are a bit feral and I think if I'd had more time I could have made a better job of updating the course.

So I'm off to UK on Moday night /Tuesday morning..so my blog may be late or suspended for a while and I'll be rushing around various places , sitting on sofas most likely with a bunch of different babies that all seem to strongly resemble Jedi Master Yoda.

"Hmmmm, fun it will be , yesssssss.

 

 

Hi there, (20/03/09)

 

The "Mango Rains" are upon us..wee spots and dribbles of hesitant showers that help out the local mangoes to flower and herald the onset of the last bit of crazy hot weather until the monsoon rains  come proper.

I must say it's been nice to see a spot of rain. I know how ridiculous this sounds, reminds me of the lyrics of an old Genesis song:

 

"Within the valley of shadowless death, they pray for thunderclouds and rain.

But for the multitudes who stand in the rain, Heaven is where the sun shines."

 

Very true! Like my brother Andy, I too am missing the smell of the sea (it doesn't smell briny here.. always too warm)..I reckon I'll be spending quite a deal of times down the "braes" in Tayport walking around..Hell I might even try some utterly pointless spinning for some sea trout.

 

That said, I've done me back in (again) ..what is that all about? Some trapped nerve on the left at the base of my spine..I should probably go for some traditional Thai massage and get it snapped back into place… But It would always appear to be a "2 man job" I can't pivot correctly on my own and stretch it out like they do..I need a thai girl to stand on my shoulder whilst shes abruptly twists my pelvis haha!!!!

 

I've just got roped into doing the kiddies Film and Drama course for the coming week in the afternoons.

I say roped but that's not strictly true. I did eventually volunteer.Anyway I've done some of it before and it's all pretty much prepped and planned for me. All I gotta do is show up and deliver it…Be a nice wee 15 hours earner before I head home to the UK..and next month will be quite a dry month as we're on holiday for 2 weekends of it so I'd best make hay while the sun shines..see? I'm talking about the weather again.

 

The band has got a gig at Noriegas next Wednesday night. Now it's confirmed this is the usual time where something goes disastrously wrong. Last time our drummer Jon fell over a kid at his Kindergarten and hurt himself….So I'm calling upon the gig jinx to stand up and make itself known in good time…..It is worrying that our singer is off for a visa run to Laos (Thank God those are thing of the past for me) and plans to return on Wednesday morning…hmmm..does anybody else get that dark brown feeling I'm getting.

Anyway, we're ready to play. We played an absolute stormer at the studio the other night…even Jon who is notoriously  hard to please thought we were just fluking playing so well until he noticed we'd done 10 songs in a row. Tall Paul in particular seems to have stepped up to the plate. He's playing louder and really giving the bass a bigger voice to the music and we're all benefitting from it. Like I said before our own sound and our own interpretations are starting to emerge..when we're on top of our game like this it's really really fun to play! Lots of new songs coming in too.

 

So it's ten more days to lift off and back to blighty…already plans within plans , wheels within wheels are turning. I am to appear at a Tourist Office reunion (Circa 1995) on Thu 2^nd April and have a whole host of people to get round when arrive on the 1^st and before I leave on the 4^th… Hey Mum And dad: Expect me home about teatime on Sat 4^th!! I'm getting really pushed to catch up with everybody that wants to see me. I can see that I'll be talking with many but communicating with only a few..it's understandable I suppose.

 

That's about all the news for now. I hope my bro gets back safe from the R of SA .

 

As I'll be going off to pick up a few bits and pieces over the next week. This is the time for people to let me know what they might need (What software dear Nieces?) and I'll see what I can do…

 

 

 

 

 

 

            

Hi there, (15/03/09)

 

Last week's rant has garnered a surprising amount of reaction. Aside from upsetting my fokls ,I should do it more often.

What seemed to piss people off the most was my last sentence. As a friend pointed out, I effectively rendered my argument valueless by placing no value on my opinion..Copping out so to speak. Point taken I shall endeavour not to do it again.

Somehow, by hook or by crook I've managed to complete all the annoying little tasks outside of work that I set myself to do. Cleaning windows on an industrial scale is not a lot of fun in the baking heat….And of course once you start doing it, you realize they're never going to be perfect no matter what you do…Was that a fresh smudge?

I also went and booked and paid for a flight back to Scotland for the Songkran holiday at the Emirates office. Can you believe even at the airlines national offices I only got an electronic ticket and no seat allocation? The only reason I went down there was to try and swing a decent emergency exit seat….

"Are you a skywards member? " enquired the formidable semi-veiled battleaxe at the reservation desk ( only after bawling at me to take a paper ticket number from the machine at the entrance BEFORE I sat down in the cavernous empty office….my ass was parked for about 2 seconds before she rung my number up at the counter… oh oh, a jobsworth…sigh).

"Actually I'm a Skywards member but I've been having terrible problems with the website and my log in…I just go round in circles." I said.

" Well we're not a service centre" came the curt reply

…..What was going on?…Had I suddenly slipped through a hole in the space time continuum to a right piece of work in some thoroughly European grumpy customer service department?...it was a stark reminder to me just why I had solemnly vowed never to deal with the tourism and travel industry EVER again.

I was faced with 2 choices:

a) To match her obtuse obstreperousness with a few moves of my own ,carefully honed from years in the biz. (could be fun…)

b) To go into saccharine sweet niceness and charm for the duration of the reservation and see what I could get out of her.

I chose option B..I mean what is the point? She'd  only have added some note to my booking to stick me at the back next to the toilet or summat. Besides it was simply to hot in town to start getting agitated over a few harsh words.

Turns out she was putty in my hands. By the time I worked out she was actually the office manager who probably had to fill in for someone she was sucking in her volumous cheeks in a coy fashion and moving her head in a most odd bird like fashion.….Not that I got much joy out of her in terms of my booking, but she did give me some good advice about what to do at check in. We'll see how that pans out.

Bruce stood me up and tennis on Tuesday. The sod was still in his scratcher when we were supposed to be playing. I could have waited for an invite from one of the local guys, but the schools are on holiday now and there's a marked increase in the number of people waiting to get on at my local court now. Still, they'll all be pretty much gone in about a month.

I also spent a part of this week going down to the Uni stadium to watch the CEC football team (the one I used to play for in the Uni championship before I bust my ribs) play in the quarter finals.

The first big surprise were that they were decked out in a Scotland strip..drat I'd have loved one!!!

The second big surprise was that they played sooooo much better than they ever did when we played with them. This is due to the fact that the 40 year old defensive unit of yesteryear didn't trust themselves to push up to the half way line and there was no way we'd have held our own in a sprint back towards our own goal in the event of a punt over the top.

The final, and perhaps the biggest surprise: Somebody in a Scotland shirt actually scored in the second minute of extra time to equalize. Think the last time I saw that was the '82 World Cup in Spain when Souness scored against Russia hahah! They lost in the semi final in the end..but well done guys!

I also decided to try out the pool at my new place last Tuesday. It was one of those mega hot days where you just couldn't get your core temperature down. I sat in the shady shallow end for at least 25 minutes reading a book followed by a wonderful afternoon day off catnap on my new bed…bliss. It's a cool pool about 15 metres at it's widest point meaning I can actually get a couple of strokes in before having to turn. If it stays this hot I think I'll be using it a lot.

Talking about losing your cool, I completely lost it with a colleague at the weekly meeting this week. I guess we're all starting to feel the strain of simply getting round all the myriad tasks we're supposed to do and still being 2 managers short. It's the first time I've experienced that level of ire since I got here 3 and a half years ago. I'd like to say it was a spleen venting, wholly cathartic exercise, but I fear it may get worse before it gets better. Just as well the holiday time is almost upon us.

 

Hi there, (06/03/09)

 

Short of getting a window cleaning blade, (actually strangely hard to find, almost as hard as shoelaces!!!) and a couple of cushions for the patio chair frames I'm just about done with the move-in, decorating and maintenance.

Actually, my new bed arrived on Tuesday. I decided on some new bedclothes and pillows too (my, now I am getting girly). It's lovely seeing a sunrise at 5 am.. hopefully not every day though: As 2 of the 4 walls are glass it does get rather hot in there from about 8am. I don't think I'll be much a slug-a-bed in there…especially as it is getting really HOT HOT HOT in Thailand just now. I think I even had one of those heat headaches on Tuesday: A nagging sort of headache that just refuses to go away all day. Actually , it only disappeared when I went out at night drinking to celebrate Brett's imminent departure to a new job in China. The less said about the sort of places we ended up in the wee hours the better…..

Every time I say the spa project is over, some new task appears. And so it was on Monday I had to spend all day from about 9-1830 in a small airless room the size of 2 telephone boxes recording all the self-study listening comprehensions. I was pretty knackered by the end of it (30 different lessons) and very glad to get out of the box and the building it was in…CEC, my Thai big bosses Headquarters….).

After some ado, the band finally met up again in the studio on Wednesday. Whilst we remain slightly rusty, it was gratifying to hear we can still play together pretty well.. By Bangkok standards we're pretty tight. I'll even venture far enough to suggest we are progressing insofar as we're starting to have our own sound!! It'll take a few more visits to the studio and a few more new songs to learn before we're likely to play live. It seems we've decided to progress by dumping a lot of our old songs. I reckon if we just played every song we've ever learnt back to back, it would probably use up the entire 3 hour rehearsal room time. I doubt we'll be able to take advantage of my mate mark's kind offer of mixing a recording though..Maybe next year!!

I've been watching the global economic crisis and wondering to myself how Thailand up to now has bucked the trend…is the Baht overvalued, or is it just that the major global currencies are doing so badly? It's certainly noticeable here that there are fewer tourists around than normal. It's quite nice actually. ….Prices have been creeping up a little here and there but it's hard to get a handle on the impact of this to the average man in the street. There still seems to be no end to new condos starting to be built. In fact I was surprised to see all the shops on one side at the Skytrain end of my road Soi Ari bulldozed down overnight and replaced with a hoarding for a condo.

The irony (if that is what you call it) is that these condo's are built with the deposit money they get for selling the apartment units in advance. Typically there is a sales office nearby with a nice scale model and an artist's impression of what it will look like. You sign up, choose your apartment and pay something like 300-500 quid a month for the duration of the actual building….about 3 years or so. On completion, you have to pay the balance of the property. Many people sell on their holding at this point for a profit instead of committing to buying. Of course, if the company is dodgy, the units unsold, or an economic crisis should occur, the building never actually gets completed and you lose your stake money. The new one in Ari says prices start at 2.9 million (58,000 pounds or so) and that'll be for a tiny 36 square metre studio….clearly somebody somewhere has money……I remain currently untempted to take the plunge, especially now as I'm enjoying so much space… It is possibly something to think about in the future though. I can't prevaricate forever on this as it will be getting steadily harder to get a mortgage of any kind in a couple of years. Fact is I'll be too old and assessed as likely to kark it before paying up the outstanding balance…. Not surprisingly, Thai life expectancy is considerably lower on average than in the western world. Food for thought.

Here's another thought:  Perhaps some kind of voluntary Euthanasia scheme is closer on the horizon than we think. Imagine if governments start paying old , teminally sick, or infirm people to go off to a nice spa/resort , have a luxury 2 week holiday with every whim pandered to, and then bump them off with a lethal injection. The surviving family members get the full inheritance ensuring some kind of continuity in the distribution of wealth (instead of these government condoned sheltered nursing home owner types who take property in exchange for care ).The burgeoning global population would kept in some kind of check, and huge amounts of medical resources would be redirected to improving the quality of life as opposed to simply extending it beyond where it is often unviable or unwanted.

I say voluntary euthanasia scheme because that's how it will probably start out. Maybe mandatory Euthanasia is the price of a secure future. I know it's a very sci-fi "Logans Run" concept but I've just been watching Al Gores "An Inconvenient Truth" again recently. It is staggering to think that in just one generation (mine actually) global population will have jumped to 8.9 billion...more than the last 10,000 generations combined. Global World Wars, disease, plagues, natural disasters and pandemics have been natures way up till now of keeping the peace but the natural order and balance seems to have well and truly gone… we keep saying that a global pandemic is due: Bird flu, SARS , AIDS have all taken their toll and continue to inexorably tick on,  threatening entire cultures. Parts of Africa and the endemic AIDS problem and stunningly greedy pharmaceutical companies being a case in point.

But  I sometimes wonder what kind of planet this will be when I'm an old geezer and whether I'd want to stick around that long anyways. I have a dear sweet old "auntie" in Scotland who's in her 90's and seems simply to be getting weary of this mortal coil as one by one her facilities (except her wit and intellect) start to malfunction and shut down. It's not about the quantity of the life we lead but surely the quality. Once that goes, the sporadic moments of serenity and simple joy that life so casually provides must seem so infrequent that they're hardly worth hanging around for, especially if you're on your own.

Oh dear, I've just read this back. Mumsy will be getting worried again. She'll think I'm dwelling on the dark side of thoughts. Maybe I am..but there's so little out there currently that makes very much sense to me. I'm not nearly motivated enough to become some sort of bleeding heart activist. I just try to lead a happy life within the bubble I create for myself. Yet I see decadence and societal decay everywhere I look. I take a gander at the BBC website everyday and chat to mates in the UK online. Everyone seems angered and puzzled about where it's all going. We denigrate clever people and intelligence,( this university challenge girl whose name escapes me recently getting pelters in the media) we celebrate and practically canonize idiots and morons (Jade Goody..though I'm sorry you're gonna Kark it and leave a young family behind). And we entertain ourselves relentlessly with programs dedicated to such low brow , and often black hearted entertainment it's practically Neanderthal. Even contemporary music: Lily Allen stand up and be counted! If you're really gonna sing about that kind of shitty attitude and lifestyle you gotta include a clear sense of irony…otherwise people will actually think you're serious….it's just more "musical fast food" attitudes to influence and poison those most easily influenced. Time was when popular music was about love, or peace, or rebellion, or raging against the machine, or freeing the spirit within, or expanding the unvocalised conscience with simple rhythms ...Now much of it seems to be  celebrating the culture of greed, selfishness, and misanthropy. I sometimes wonder why Western society is held up to be a benchmark of success for so many countries and cultures in Asia. Why is everyone  in a headlong rush to assimilate so many aspects of a clearly dysfunctional society into there own cultures?  If the Thai people really understood even 10% of the often violently misogenistic Rap shit pouring out of some of the trendier clothing boutique speakers around town they'd be really quite horrified….But hey, that's what people think they want and who am I to disagree? Rant over….

 

 

 

Hi there, (27/02/09)

 

43 years of age and I've never bought a new bed before. This may have something to do with always being the recipient of second hand beds from friends and family, or always moving to places with a bed already in place. Either way, I found myself walking around in a world of Habidashery and soft furnishings this week.

Actually, the week started out at Home Pro. Lee came with his van on Monday and we moved the last 10 or so boxes and a couple of bits of furniture into my new gaff. I decided to get cracking on painting over the HORRIBLE wall paper in the master bedroom on Monday and Tuesday .Bearing  in mind 1.5 walls are glass sliding doors and the floor is  lovely teak, how the previous owner conspired to paper the walls and ceiling so abjectly tastelessly is frankly, quite bewildering….AND then even planted some particularly evil looking cacti directly outside the window..the only plants to have survived the last year of abandonment (they are being moved down to the other end of the balcony ASAP!)….

Anyway, two trips to Home Pro and 3 cans of  white paint later, the room is looking far more respectable, though I do get the feeling that the ceiling pattern may yet poke through in the coming months forcing the purchase of a 4^th can..We'll see.

That took pretty much all of Monday and Tuesday. I found a solid wood baby high chair in a cupboard, stuck a bin bag over it and teetered around painting the walls and ceiling for the duration.

Actually, first the temple charity guys came to take away the grey ash veneer three piece bedroom suite (YUK!)..What I wasn't expecting was to see the bottom pretty much fall out of the wardrobe and the whole floor seethe with translucent termites..(DOUBLE YUK)..still the guys didn't bat and eyelid and were happy to get a wee tip for their work.

On the second trip to Home Pro I also bought some coloured silicon sealant and a applicator gun…a few of the doorframes, especially in the bathrooms were rotted at the base and stealth roaches..big ones, were coming up through the gaps to frighten me. Yes I KNOW cockroaches are harmless, and they are not nearly as scary as tarantulas, but the Scots in me can't quite get his head round how big they are.

I also made sure all the internal water drains had lids, even if it meant taking a couple of them from the balcony drains…I truly mean to minimize all bug invasions.

I also decided on buying a little housewarming present from me to me . No, not something I REALLY needed like a new iron or ironing board, but instead a DVD player that has a USB input. What an amazing invention..Pure Star Trek man!! You just copy a movie off your hard drive onto a memory stick, plug it in to your DVD and Robert is your father's brother!!! Indeed, the picture quality is really good, it far surpasses a laptop screen. The landlady left a big tv there in the "snug" part of the lounge (with practically no terrestrial signals despite an aerial cable) so that is now my chill out zone. Laptop on the walnut and black lacquer coffee table, an overstuffed semi circular sofa,  and a big TV on the shelving unit. I think I'm gonna be happy there.

Indeed there are still a few ongoing issues needing sorted: The aircon only works in both bedrooms…but that's ok cos I'm more of a fan guy. Besides, the units are pretty ancient and likely to be very costly to run. The electrics are all over the place. A plug went BOOM! in the master bedroom the other day with a puff of blue smoke and gave me a helluva fright. The giant fridge freezer just about keeps thing scold, though I do notice that if you stick a bag of ice in the freezer section it'll be water in about 4 days. But as I'm spending so much money on doing up the bedroom I'll be unlikely to buy a giant fridge too.

Ah yes, so back to the bedroom and beds….What kind of bed was I looking for in habidashers paradise (a.k.a. Index)? Well I had already been horrified at the Home Pro prices , but then someone told me they were expensive for that sort of stuff. So off to Index it was. I wandered as lonely as a clueless male  farang around a world of soft furnishings, shower curtains, kitchen unit handles and  self build flat packs.. "This,  I thought, is definitely  a woman's domain. I found a very nice girl (very pretty too)  with good English to take point and help me round the place. Actually it was a big of a laugh standing there agonizing over which bedside table to buy (1^st choice was out of stock and I really didn't want to wait 2 weeks for one to come)…"Does the table with the little door have a left and a right for each side of the bed?" was the sort of inane questions that plagued me…"Bloody Hell " I said aloud . "I'm single . Why on Earth would I need 2 bedside tables?".

 "Single?" pipes up the Index lass with a coy smile and a calculating glance…. Briefly I felt under some  scrutiny…Then I guessed she thought I was gay.

This is proving to be an underlying issue for me in Thailand. In many circles, a 43 year old heterosexual man who has never been married is assumed to have something very wrong with him, or cursed with such bad luck that any decent woman would stay well away. Once, only once (in a quite formal situation at a wedding in conversation with a relative of the bride) I even found myself saying : " I was married but my wife died…" Isn't that awful? It cut the conversation naturally dead and I didn't have to do any further justification like I usually do, you know the:  "Unlucky in love", " Never found the right person".."I'm not Gay no…" conversations that always sound a little on the desperate side.

So armed with my Index 3% discount card (like, WOW!) I spent a relatively thrifty 350 quid on a new bed , a mattress, a bedside table, and a small 4 door upright shelving unit. It arrives on Tuesday afternoon. As they won't deliver soft furnishings I'm gonna have to go back for 2 new pillows and a dinky set of colour matched bedclothes….Now I AM getting girly!!!!. That'll be three sets of bedclothes to my name. One for each bed a set in reserve for any incontinent or menstruating visitors…. I do hope I don't get many of those!!!!

As I mentioned last week I finished the spa project just in time before this moving malarkey. I did think my involvement in the project was at an end at that. But as soon as I heard about the arrangements for recording all the listening comprehensions and self study sections this coming  Monday, I decided to pitch in and offer my help as some people really don't see the potential for the whole thing turning into one  giant clusterfuck. Most of the listening comps I did involved a small series of characters and different male and female farang customers. If we use the same voice on all of them like people initially intended, it will sound awful. Some of my more deluded colleagues genuinely believe that recording the relevant parts of 60 modules will only take 4 hours or so…hahaha! If we do it all in one day I'll be surprised! I might even get a few extra bob out of it…that's if we deliver it on time…. My whole due pay from the project would actually cover the cost of a flight home. This would be no bad thing as my savings having taken a bit of a  dunt (see above) and I'm going to have to start saving all over again.

My band practice was cancelled AGAIN this week. Something to do with the bassist working like a Trojan into the wee hours to get a project finished. Apart from schlepping my gear into work I really didn't mind so much. My hands were cut, battered and aching from doing the moving and the DIY these last few days. And I haven't really had the inclination to pick up a guitar amid all that.

The weather has picked up. Levels are starting to reach the brutally hot period. I think I tend to come to work early in order to avoid sweating like a bastard. By 10am it's sweltering out in the open….One of these evenings very soon I'm going to use the pool (one floor below) in my new condo…Think I'll wait a while before I try going inot the gym. An old geezer like me is only likely to hurt himself in there. Besides, I've been hefting and carrying plenty lately..my back certainly seems to think so.

 

 

Hi there, (20/02/09)

 

I got to thinking about my lack of practical Thai language this week. I'm really going to have to sign up for lessons at AUA as soon as I'm done with the apartment stuff. It's not good enough.

 

Of course a lot of this has to do with the fact that I'm not making the opportunity to hang out and speak Thai in my time off. I know a few Thai people socially, but not many. I made a big push to get to know people when I arrived here, but once I'd made a few friends and had a bit of a comfort zone I kinda stopped.  I'm not 23 any more though and traipsing across the city to hang out in a loud bar where I can't hear very much has a limited appeal nowadays…unless of course it's me making the noise and playing with the band.

 

Why am I on this thread of thought? Well you just try moving apartments and try to sort out all sorts of things with limited Thai language:  like the local temple charity coming to pick up furniture, or tell the handyman the extension cables lose their "on" light as soon as you plug anything into them, or that you need to tell your cleaner just to start with the windows and the laundry as the aircon guy (when he comes) is likely to make an awful mess. I can drink a beer and chat small talk with people about their lives and family, but nothing effectively practical. For the first time it's frustrated me. Most everybody else I know who's Thai is as limited as mine have been made lazy by having a Thai wife to sort stuff. Me..I'm on my own. Fortunately I've had a bit of help phone call wise from the staff.

 

Yes indeed the move. I'm living in a world of dust balls, bags and cardboard boxes. I'm just about ready for the final move out. Which is just as well I can feel the dust hitting my face whilst I try to sleep!  I've been

 to-ing and fro-ing  the hundred metres to the new place all week with loads of stuff. It's really just the big boxes, TV  and items of furniture now. My mate Lee is HOPEFULLY helping me with his van on Sunday or Monday..but that's if it is fixed in time. Otherwise it'll have to be a man-in-a-van from somewhere before Tuesday..another wee hurdle to manage.

 

I'm just about ready to sleep there, but I really need the fans across first cos it's quite hot over there. There is a thermometer nailed to one of the bathroom doors that read 38 degrees two nights back. Obviously with so many windows I need to open them all up and air the place (take my bug killing machine with me first…). There's actually a pretty nice cooling breeze out on the roof terrace most nights.

 

The electrics are also a worry. All this mother of pearl inlaid fitted Chinese rosewood partitions and furniture has been stuck in at the expense of power points…I'm still trying to find a few that work. I'm glad they left a battered overstuffed sofa to hang out in. The other furniture is a bit hard to sit on for any length of time.

 

Another thing is beds! I've been looking at beds. Nothing too expensive mind as I'm chucking out the landlady's nasty grey formica flatpack bedroom suite. So I'm likely to have to leave anything I buybehind when I leave or lose the original deposit. Though the thing is I'd really like to make a home here for at least couple of years. It's a really nice place (or will be) in a great location for me. for a single guy the whole place is massive by Thai living standards. I insisted I'd have to do up the bedroom a bit …yes I'm going to have to paint on top of the nasty wallpapered walls and ceilings..don't get me even started on the light fittings. So I'm gonna need a sparks for the day VERY soon.

 

Then of course there's the balcony and the roof terrace. The balcony runs along the entire length of the flat. I paced it out at about 22 metres  AND it has a built in window box /trough full of dead plants. The balcony runs then  round the corner at the master bedroom ( half of which is glass sliding doors) straight on to the roof terrace which about 8x8 metres and has four big square plant troughs built in (also full of dead plants). There's also a big cast iron porch swing (rusty) and a wee swing bench (also rusty). I think I'm gonna call in the landscape gardeners to do it all up. I'm happy to keep it nice, water and weed etc….but initially I need someone in to plant who knows what they're doing. I also want the currently only living plants (a bunch of evil looking cacti) moved away from outside my bedroom to elsewhere. I'd much rather see flowers.

 

The bright light on the horizon is that I've finally finished the spa project. 13/15 of my lesson plans are approved and the last two will most likely require the only most modest of redrafting if my previous efforts are anything to go by. So there's a big reason to be very cheerful. It took me a lot of my spare time and worry about doing it right. The money I get for the project (in a couple of months at the very least) will probably fund most of what I need to do in the new flat so that's good. I'm glad I kept my savings pretty much intact over Christmas and didn't go away like I planned because with a flight home, and the move ,I'm likely to end up spending 1500 quid this month. Ouch!

 

I'll try to get round to posting some pictures of the place for next week's blog….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there, (13/02/09)

 

Oh my! Friday 13^th !! Hope the superstitious amongst you keep your heads down today.

 

Sooooo I had a long weekend off..What did I do? Where did I go? I decided to do something controversial and lock myself away in my apartment all weekend and only ventured out for socializing on the Monday and the Tuesday…Bit of sleep, bit of detox, bit of not working is exactly what I was needing…

 

I've got a line on a new apartment but I didn't really know how exactly the best way to persue it was. However, I got a call from the building manager who said this lady (who was 80% certain to buy my gaff) wanted to view one last time on Monday. She also hinted that my Chinese landlady was holding off on renting the other apartment she had apparently offered me for the same rent.. cos she "didn't want to see me homeless". I immediately made an arrangement to go see the new place on Monday an hour before my own place is viewed. I think I got to take it regardless…The new condo has a pool and a gym..the gaff would have to be pretty bad for me NOT to take it and I think I need to move out to allow my landlady to do my old place up for a sale anyway….. I've also had enough with people viewing my place every month or so. It also happens my rent for February falls on Monday …I'm hoping to pay up right away as 1st rent for the other place and cross my fingers she will give me a weeks grace or so to move out of the old place.

The new condo is only 100 metres away as the crow flies..just far away enough to be a hassly bunch of trips. I think she'll (landlady) be amenable to that. It's just a little tricky as I've never met her and all my dealings are through the intermediary building manager..Who's a very nice lady herself and I think has my (and the buildings) best interests at heart. I just don't know when to be pushy or how much I can make any demands in this kind of situation. Whatever my needs, I have to keep my requests relatively simple so that I can pass them on through the intermediary. I don't think my landlady has any real interest in ever meeting me and just wants her monthly rent hassle free and on time like she always does. As for me, I just want my deposit transferred and a years lease..here's hoping!

 

I've decided to stop losing sleep and worrying over the spa project. I've still 3 lessons to first draft and about 6 to rewrite, but hey that's OK..I'm still ahead of the game compared to my colleagues. We had a few people in from a variety of Bangkok spas in the school this week to beta test some of the lesson components. It was an interesting exercise. It leaves me wondering if we'll ever actually speak to, or teach any real decision making, policy forming, honest to God, spa managers (as opposed to assistants, therapists and assorted subordinates that keep showing up to possibly unintentionally thrwart us at every stage from research through to beta testing). It makes me wonder if there will ever be enough spa Managers together in a classroom to deliver the 30 hour course to. There may of course be a myriad of other political considerations that led to the need for and the creation of the course. None of which may guarantee it ever actually gets taught in a live situation. But that is no excuse not to do the best job I possibly can on it. Hell maybe the management team will be brought in to deliver the course once it is done..that'd be a nice earner…

 

There's this concept here of "Grenjai" that I'm seeing many interesting examples of lately. ..Actually Grenjai has about 5 distinctly different meanings both very positive and quite negative. The interpretation I'm finding interesting is the concept of someone doing something so very selfless, friendly, helpful, beyond the call of duty for you that you are beholden to them and they are fully aware of this and want you to feel obliged or beholden in some way. It's a kind of point scoring exercise that reinforces or establishes individual positions in hierarchical group, friend, work structures. It's significantly different from the concept of "Face" but is connected to it nontheless. I've seen examples of people doing things for other that could be considered as "Grenjai" . when somebody does something like that it's so difficult to question or criticize cos on the face of it whatever they did was a great thing to do…it's the potentially darker motives for doing so lurking the background that appear more disturbing. But such doubts can never be raised as personal motives are often impossible to prove. Either way, I'm fortunate enough just to be an observer as opposed to an unwilling participant in "Grenjai" moves.

Grenjai has also extremely positive connotations but as yet I'm a little confused as to how to explain them….It's a bit like explaining in English what a couthy canny person might be.

 

That's about it as a roundup for this week. I did get a lovely game of golf in 35 degrees heat in on Tuesday, but I seem to have hurt my back again. I think I'm going to have to either get clubs made that are long enough for me, or I'm going to have to stick with other spots that a re more fun and less likely to injure me. The boy's were talking about reviving the Sunday night 5 a side football but I'm seriously starting to think I'm past it for such a vigourous run around, tennis seems to be my game nowadays.

 

Oh and my dear brother Andy over there in Africa. I googled what a "Caracal" was. You've got one of those beasties as a housepet over there!!!? Good God! I'm sure it keeps snakes away….and people probably..the wiki says they are easily turned into pets. I'm not sure I'd even turn my back on one haha! Still, in some one way it's divine retribution for the 2 Scottish Wildcat kittens you dumped on me all those years ago and they were a lot smaller………….hahaha!

 

 

 

  

 

Hi there, (06/02/09)

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! Indeedy,  the birthday greetings come thick and fast this time of year.

 

The old dear has gone and got herself a laptop . it's funny reading complete computer novices emails. You can almost imagine them reading EVERY word and line on a new webpage as they magically appear. Heaven knows I'm not much shakes on a computer, but I think I stopped clicking on pop ups, avoiding smileys software, and set up spam guards early on. I can generally click through to what I need to find pretty quickly nowadays. The human beings' propensity to sort the online wheat from the online chaff must be pretty impressive to an alien observer of our habits. Somehow we can scan whole pages of online text in mere seconds, highlight links, or words we need ,and click on. I wonder how many pages the average person goes through in one hour of idle surfing. I'm sure most of us could not scan a magazine for that sort of information that quickly.

 

Not that so much on the net is worth an hours of idle surfing anyways..It's becoming just another way of passing time NOT watching TV. Why have I been looking at watches on ebay? Hell even I don't know….Just cos I wanted to learn bit more about Titanium as a material and what was worth looking out for? Cos I like pretty watches? Cos I don't want to read the book on the bedside table (it's been stuck on a page stasis for about a month..which is weird it's a really good book and the last one by Alasdair Reynolds I haven't read: my collection is complete). So what is this idle online idling thingy going on? I guess it's simple as something to do that is cheap, cheerful, and in some way peaceful.

 I hope my old ma is sitting comfortable and warm far from the inclement weather in her favourite chair flying around the internet as fast as her fingers can take her…. It's my dad I feel a little bit sorry for. Once she gets into holiday destination research and the like she'll haranguing him  a bit. He's got the old computer next door in the study. I can envision her BAWLING through the wall to him (he's a bit deef!) to look up something…Perhaps I should buy them walkie talkies.

 

My bro has landed safe and well in Africa with his family and is starting to do the 3 month placement as a game warden. Seems even the BBC is coming out to film (him?... I know he's doing a blog for them). Seems like the bugs and ants are getting to him slightly. I sent him this message today:

 

"It's strange living somewhere where every insect on the wing needs to eat you...it's getting hotter here now in Thailand and the bugs round my way are suddenly aggressive...To this end I bought a "black hole" for 50 quid. It works like those big industrial mossie catchers you see at fetes and the like sometimes that generate CO2 and trap them.

It sits and glows on the table opposite my bed and I've nary seen a bug fly past my laptop screen for 3 days now, let alone the tell tale welt of a furtive nibble!"

 

I've hit the wall with my spa manager's project. It's got something to do with coming to the office every day for 3 weeks. I'm going a little stir crazy. I think I'm definitely going to take some time off over the weekend. A third of my lessons are away for finalizing and design. Another third needs to be redrafted, and the final third is halfway through the first draft..I'm well ahead of the others doing it and NO WAY will they be finished by next Fridays deadline…NOT a chance. So it's time to take the foot off the gas pedal and actually enjoy the coming holiday weekend….In fact, I might even go out tonight or tomorrow night and get a bit trolleyed. I've had a rough week or two. Recently I seem to have either expressed myself wrongly, been misunderstood, or gotten into a few minor arguments with people that I normally wouldn't. I think I'm going to be a recluse for a while. It must be in my stars or summat.

 

Thailand isn't really showing any overt signs of an economic slow down. (48 Baht to the Pound!!!??) There are now 4 construction sites visible from my balcony, fortunately just far enough away for me not to be bothered too much by noise. Boy do those guys (and gals!) work long hours: 6am-11pm pretty much every day! If I lived next door I'd be going nuts…as least the foundation posts are all in now. The Skytrain extension does seem to be taking some time for completion. They reckon the cross river link will be open at the end of the year. The airport link has still a long way to go. I wish they'd extend the line in an east-west direction, the west part of the city at Chinatown is so densely populated they could do with an extra option. I like going there occasionally, but the streets are so choked, (and yes even with bikes driving through the packed market streets as well) that you can't help but get "Platzangst" as the Germans call it….not exactly claustrophobia, but more crowd-phobic in a way…..Like being at a massive open air concert 50 metres from the stage and simply dying for a pee knowing it'll take 40 minutes to get anywhere near a toilet and virtually impossible to find your mates again when you return.

 

We've just been handed the official work polo shirts for 2009. I said before that the official colour of the university is pink…but there is pink and there is PINK. This year's issue is shocking , lurid, screw-up-the-eyes, astringent,  violent PINK….with Lilac collar and trim…YUK!  Here's hoping we won't be coerced to wear it at any official functions this year. …..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there, (30/01/09)

 

A big Happy Birthday to my big bro Russ tomorrow! Dunno what it is about this time of year, but it seems LOADS of people I know have a birthday between 20 th Jan and the 15^th of Feb. Is it something to do with me hanging around with other Aquarians? Who knows?

 

I've not quite been myself these last couple of weeks. I guess this project that has me in the office on my days off is starting to get to me a bit. It's so damn time consuming . I think I've got a handle on what I'm supposed to be producing, and for whom, but every now and again when I'm tired, I seem to go totally off track and produce stuff that is ok in principle, but needs hefty redrafting and reediting to make it more spa targeted…phew. I REALLY want this Monday and Tuesday to be my last days off spent in the office, especially as we have next weekend off, (One of the few and far between public holidays in my annual calendar.) and I'm thinking of spending a couple of days down at the beach again..mebbe.

 

The band is getting back on track. Though the planned rehearsal/gig in Noriegas bar was again cancelled this week as small Paul had another outbreak of whatever is it that is causing such extensive and aggressive exfoliation. Poor guy could barely pick up a guitar at rehearsal last Monday (no pads on his fingertips) and the corteozone dosages they give him have a tendency to space him out:So song timings and cues invariably suffered. I hope we might be able to play there this Wednesday but I won't be announcing anything on Facebook just in case. Ideally we are looking to be playing twice a week in February so we can try and record 2 or 3 songs for me to take back to the UK..we'll see.

 

My appartment building manager waved me down "en passant " yesterday (She has an uncanny knack of doing this when I'm scurrying for the loo..uncanny). She told me the ongoing saga of my landlord (or landlady I think) wanting to sell my appartment. I was expecting another"When can someone view it?" enquiry,but this time she said there was someone interested and my landlady was offering me an appartment in a building one minutes walk away to move to. She seemed to be offering me a 100 square metre place (which is pretty damn massive) for the same rent. I said I was interested, but what I don't want to get into is moving somewhere without a years lease whilst they "do up" my current appartment to sell it, only to move me out of the big place when they want more rent. I've been out of a lease agreement for at least a  year or so now, but I think they're pretty happy with my co-operation, timely payments, and that I have to ask them to give me a leccy bill every 4-6 months!!… Anyway,  100 square metres is pretty tempting I must say. I said I was interested, now I have to make some sort of appointment to view it I suppose. It might even have a separate bedroom and everything!!!

 

My friends Leigh and Donna are back and are in the process of moving into a luxury appartment around Phrom pong area. It sounds like a cool place. I'm particularly looking forward to some of their barbequeued lamb on the big deck in their garden very soon. (and yes if you're reading this Leigh I'll return the Cointreau and the Bombay Sapphire you gave me from your bar when you left a year ago..I don't drink the stuff at home!!).

 

The big annual footie game is on this weekend. Slightly more gentile than Celtic v's Rangers, but much anticipated nonetheless. Yes folks,  the old rivals Chulalongkorn University V's Tammasat University at the National stadium. The city centre will be awash with people wearing Chula "strawberry" pink (yes the official colour of my university and coicidentally the colour of the logoed t shirt I'm wearing today..naice!). There will be hundreds of stunningly pretty girls walking around shouting and wobbling placards…It really is one of the strangest dates in the sporting calendar here..I guess it's the Thai equivalent of the Oxford/Cambridge boat race. I think a player EVEN got sent off last year..OOOO-ERR!

 

Talking of all things football. I see my team (Dundee united) lost 11-10 on penalties to Celtic in the league cup semi final on Wednesday. Doh! That's the one drawback of supporting the underdog..they always appear to be the perennial losers..Is that part of the charm..?

 

Still it saved me from buying the management team 90 minutes of free drink had they won the cup…mustn't grumble!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there, (25/01/09)

 

 

My 43^rd birthday has come and gone. Very nice it was too, though admittedly my plans went awry…

Jon the drummer (who works in a Kindergarten) called up lunchtime from his school saying he had effectively been beat up by a 5 year old, landing awkwardly on his back hurting himself…..and so he couldn't play the nights planned gig at Noriegas bar.

 

Naturally I was a tad disappointed. The band has been out of circulation for about 6 months and we all need a bit of gig/rehearsal adrenalin flowing. However, it was prudently decided just to postpone till next Wednesday....which is exactly what we're going to do… AND as we've decided to try and do some recording before I head back in Songkran (My mate Mark Freegard in Glasgow has said he'll mix the tracks for us for free…a kind offer, especially as his services are always in demand), I might even see if we can fit a Monday rehearsal in the studio for new stuff o practice too.

 

My birthday (or the night before as it turns out) was a typical drunken affair. Though we did eat well shoot pool and talk the usual bollocks. A perfect night out really. Just a shame that I woke up on the morning of my actual birthday with streaming cold. No prelude or anything, instantly streaming…Doh! And the streaming and sweats continue today. It 's my first kind of these colds out here and although it's still preferable to a cold in the cold as it were, it is bugging m… oh well.

 

I'd like to say my last week was brilliant and exciting, but actually all I've done is work. I've had to come in on my days off for the last 2 weeks and will have to do so for the next 2 weeks until this bloody spa project is finished…Note how I say bloody…It's interesting and challenging and immensely time consuming. Although I'm working as part of a team I'm feeling a bit isolated from the others as I've forged on ahead .I don't thrive under time pressure, and I certainly don't produce my best work that way. It does mean however a lot of my completed work has to constantly be revisited and re-edited to fit in with others ideas. I don't mind it too much, but like I said it's very time consuming. I think we under quoted ourselves when we put a bid in to do it. A one hour lesson with 3 game/activity sheets and self study and listening comprehension takes about a day to do from scratch….I've done 7/15 so far!! Boo hiss! This is also why my blog is 2 days late..apologies

 

My brother is off to South Africa at the end of a month to be a game warden for 8 weeks in a job swap programme. Sounds like he's gonna have so much fun out there in the bush. Though doubtless he's gonna have to rethink his wardrobe haha! Good luck Andy!! Have a blast.

For those of you regularly listening to Radio Scotland ,he'll be posting some kind of audio blog up when he gets back…Watch this space.

 

That's about it for this week. In town things are reaching a hiatus for Chinese New Year. Little plastic tables loaded down with  ma whole cooked chicken, plates of rice and cans of coke 9opened with a straw in them) have been set out for the "ancestors" (a.k.a.  rats, pigeons and assorted vermin) in front of many shops and domiciles.  Then there are the ubiquitous disembodied paper mache dragon heads speeding past poking out of tuk tuks and on the back of motorcycle taxis. I think we tend to forget as farang just how many of the Thai people are either descended from, or feel related to Chinese people. Most will freely admit that China is where they came from way  back in ancient times. I love the way they racially describe themselves as "mongoloids" and us as "caucaziods". A far cooler and emotive word than Caucasian eh? Makes us sound positively evil..Like a conquerinf race from another planet…which about 150 years ago we were I suppose…

 

 

 

Hi there (16/01/09),

 

Back at New Year I was at Noriegas watching a gig when Frank the owner made a fabulous offer….

He'd been asking after the band (probably the last all foreigner band still playing in BKK..maybe along with Jawa but you never know if they're actually active or not). I told Frank of our past 6 months band hassles, Pauls skin problems and Tall
Paul quitting for a while, but we'd met up and decided to give it another go and that we'd planned to rehearse in early January….so he said "Why don't you rehearse here? You can come in and play in the early part of the week just call me…."

 

So I did and we've got a slot from 8pm next Wednesday. Obviously for Frank it's a free gig..(we can after play as long as we want hahah) and for us it'll be a halfway house of playing early on in front of only a handful of people, but it'll get us sharper more quickly than staring at the 4 walls of a studio.

 

Not that studio practice will disappear. Every new song we do we have to go over and over again to get the structure and timing right, a pub is no place to stretch peoples patience like that. So it'll be nice to play at Noriegas a couple of times a month. I think we'd all prefer not to play over weekends any more. Tall Paul likes to get away to the country and I'm doing 12 hours on a Saturday. This rehearsal/gig might offer the best solution. Especially as we're thinking of recording in March (2 or 3 songs). My main worry is that we won't get the beer for half price as it is pricey in there!

 

I got a game of Tennis in on Monday afternoon (yes it's still actually cool enough to play at 330pm). Actually it's really cold at night just now. I've even switched my fans off and have to sleep in a t shirt and everything! I don't think it's ever been this cold since I got here. Plummeting to 15 degrees at night Wow!..Anyway, it panned out  1 set each at the tennis. I might be imagining things, but I think we're getting better at it. I seem to be hitting the ball a lot harder than before. It even appears to go in the direction I want it to.(mostly)

 

Next week I celebrate (is that the right word?) for 43^rd birthday (44 th year on the planet). I'm still waiting for the vapid burst of worry and introspection that usually cuts in at such times of mortal thoughts. Unlike my peers however, I don't constantly harp on about how old I am and how great and full my life used to be. In some ways as I've often said before, I lead a possibly fuller and more active life now than when I was a semi -impoverished wage slave in Glasgow. Of course, there are still a myriad of questions (probably all the wrong ones) left unanswered in my mind. It's this sense of being older yet in possession of perceived wisdom that gets me. We all love the idea of age equalling experience which in turn equates to wisdom, but it's all bollocks really. The only truly wise people are the ones who devote their lives to seeing the simple truth of things, of everything, not geezers who are roughly adept at not repeating the same mistakes over and over again. No wisdom in that, just a kind or wary streetlife manner…. So

here's the curse of Buddhism…to be reborn over and over again in human form and actually realize it!

 Even enlightened monks have to chose at some point if they'll be reborn as a human again, or be done with it, cross the Rainbow bridge leaving nothing but their hair and their fingernails. Even then many believe they haven't gained the wisdom to be free from the human rebirth cycle…Goodness! Talk about this mortal coil…

 

Oops, there I go again rabbiting on in some existentialist manner. Every time I do, people back in the UK get worried that I'm depressed, or suicidal, or that I'm talking too much from the heart and giving too much away. Let me assure you all I really don't give a monkeys. My blog, such as it is, is supposed to be a personal thing. Whilst I realize that some of my "Dear diary" outbursts , espousals, and/or confessions might make some of you uneasy, the simple solution would be not to read it. Besides, what I write here can only ever be a watered down, slightly omitted and heavily edited account of my life. I, like any of you out there have my own narcissism to deal with. Whilst my particular world view is as personal as it gets,   I do try to write as honestly as the situation calls for, especially when it is about the choices and actions I undertake in my own life.. If I'm leaving myself open to criticism as a result then so be it….I do sometimes get pelters as it is from my pals in Bangkok who read it. And I really don't care. The exercise of writing these things down sometimes makes them all the clearer. It's what good shrinks are always getting people to do..write things down, make a list and the words on the page speak a truth of their own that your thoughts often deign to utter in your head when you need them to……..Oops ..getting heavy again eh?

 

In Bangkok there is a slightly funny feeling in the air. A bit like people are holding their breath. Businesses are being extraordinarily wary about committing money to training budgets (ie English corporate classes) and a number of freelancer teachers I've been talking to are all seriously thinking about a more regular job. If they can find one that is. Personally, if I was still making a visa run to the border every 3-4 weeks I'd be thinking long and hard about staying here too. Visa runs get amazingly irritating very quickly. From what I hear, it is pandemonium up at the Thai Embassy in Vientiane (Laos) every day now.  

 

I'm going to be keeping my head down and working through to the end of this month to clear various projects. I can't say I'm too thrilled at the prospect of late nights in the office (especially as I'm usually in well before 9am), but it's gotta be done sometimes. AND, just for a change , they'll be a bit of money in it. Perhaps it would be a good idea to use it to pay the (very expensive) flight home.

 

…..and yes mum, I WILL book it very very soon OK…try and be patient! x

 

 

 

Hi there (08/01/09),

 

Sooooo , like most folks I've had to finally mosey on into work after what was a very long time off….almost 3 weeks.

 

And right needed it was too. I've managed to spend too much money (see last weeks watch hunt malarkey) and I even had 3 days on a lovely beach!!

 

Koh samet is possibly the closest island to Bangkok in terms of overland travel. There are closer beaches on the mainland. It was with a little trepidation I accepted James invite to join him and his family for a few days after Hogmanay down there.

 

The bus from ekkemai was, oooh 3 quid and took us the 3 hours down to Ban Phe in relative luxury (read leg room and free cokey cola served). Then a hundred metre walk to the pier and another quid saw us on the 25 minute ferry over to Samet. I must admit I had quite low expectations..I was expecting a beach full of rubbish and a bunch of bars churning out clubby house music whilst bar tarts shrieked for attention..But actually it waasn't like that AT ALL!! It was perhaps the nicest beach I've found on Thailand to date!! The water was Crystal clear and the beach down at the end had cool wee bunglows set back amongst the trees so I woke up every morning to either seed pods from a tree bouncing off the roof, or the clucking of rooting chickens from the private house next door. The dawn chorus of jungle birds was FAB. AND I only got mosquito bitten once on the ankle..the air-con room (with TV, though I didn't put it on, was 1000 Baht a nice). It was beautifully quiet as we'd missed the New Years mob and the day tripper left the beach on speed boats every day by four pm (lotsa russkies). A few of the beach bars put out low slung bamboo tables on matting and pillows right by the sea so you could eat horizontally like a Roman and stare up at the stars afterwards..I even had my first Hookah hubbly bubbly thingy..we shared a strawberry flavoured one!!! The food was mostly pretty good..though the service wasn't..but hey, you gotta get with the programme once you hit a beach like that..Everything slows down a few notches. I particularly enjoyed the 5pm game of 2x2 beach volleyball. They make it look so easy on telly. It was great falling flat in the sea at the end of the game and feeling the sand drift off your body.

Sand…oh yes, sand. It was very fine and white on samet. As fine and powdery as I've ever encountered. Probably gonna be digging it out of every orifice for a while.

 

So nice to get away from the city. That's one place I'll definitely be going back to.

 

 

 

 

Hey There! (03/0109),

 

Yup, I didn't post last week, so HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all. I hope that '09 is a marked improvement on the trials and tribulations that we've all experienced in '08.

Not to say last year was a bad one for myself, but I'd like to think, on a global scale ,with Bush finally out of office and a sane man in charge, things might just improve.

Here in Thailand I can only hope  

Hi there (08/01/09),

 

Sooooo , like most folks I've had to finally mosey on into work after what was a very long time off….almost 3 weeks.

 

And right needed it was too. I've managed to spend too much money (see last weeks watch hunt malarkey) and I even had 3 days on a lovely beach!!

 

Koh samet is possibly the closest island to Bangkok in terms of overland travel. There are closer beaches on the mainland. It was with a little trepidation I accepted James invite to join him and his family for a few days after Hogmanay down there.

 

The bus from ekkemai was, oooh 3 quid and took us the 3 hours down to Ban Phe in relative luxury (read leg room and free cokey cola served). Then a hundred metre walk to the pier and another quid saw us on the 25 minute ferry over to Samet. I must admit I had quite low expectations..I was expecting a beach full of rubbish and a bunch of bars churning out clubby house music whilst bar tarts shrieked for attention..But actually it waasn't like that AT ALL!! It was perhaps the nicest beach I've found on Thailand to date!! The water was Crystal clear and the beach down at the end had cool wee bunglows set back amongst the trees so I woke up every morning to either seed pods from a tree bouncing off the roof, or the clucking of rooting chickens from the private house next door. The dawn chorus of jungle birds was FAB. AND I only got mosquito bitten once on the ankle..the air-con room (with TV, though I didn't put it on, was 1000 Baht a nice). It was beautifully quiet as we'd missed the New Years mob and the day tripper left the beach on speed boats every day by four pm (lotsa russkies). A few of the beach bars put out low slung bamboo tables on matting and pillows right by the sea so you could eat horizontally like a Roman and stare up at the stars afterwards..I even had my first Hookah hubbly bubbly thingy..we shared a strawberry flavoured one!!! The food was mostly pretty good..though the service wasn't..but hey, you gotta get with the programme once you hit a beach like that..Everything slows down a few notches. I particularly enjoyed the 5pm game of 2x2 beach volleyball. They make it look so easy on telly. It was great falling flat in the sea at the end of the game and feeling the sand drift off your body.

Sand…oh yes, sand. It was very fine and white on samet. As fine and powdery as I've ever encountered. Probably gonna be digging it out of every orifice for a while.

 

So nice to get away from the city. That's one place I'll definitely be going back to.

 

 

the new guy has enough wherewithall to keep the pro-Taksin mob out of his hair and out of pressure politics. There are already rumours abound that ole "Squareface" himself may be allowed back in…the consequences of which would be bad for any kind of peaceful domestic politics here.

 

So what have I been doing over the Christmas break…."Hee Haw" as they say in Glasgow. I haven't made it to the beach (yet), and I've tons to do before we go back to work proper on Friday because of  that Spa project thingy.

 

Speaking of which , I decided to spend Christmas morning back at the spa I researched having a traditional Thai message to see if there was anything else I needed to know. Well a very nice masseuse called Looknum completely beat me up…! Honestly, it was like WWF wrestling. Lying on a mattress on the floor I quickly set up a signal of slapping the floor  and yowling like a bastard if it hurt too much..and she studiously ignored me, burying her elbows into the nerve endings at the top of my thighs causing fire up and down my legs!!!…She said "I walked too much" and had muscles in my butt where they shouldn't be!! Christonabike it hurt! I could hardly get up the next day haha!.. I don't think I'll be going back there….

 

So there I was agonising over a Christmas/birthday present from me to me after not going away anywhere and feeling like I owed myself something nice for saving so hard.. I looked at flatscreen tv's with surround sound (32 inch Samsung) for 400 quid..then I reminded myself I hardly ever watched tv and had one already!!! Then I looked at itouch ipods…but they were only 16 gigs..hardly enough space, but awfully cute and gadgety…then I looked at iphones(as my Nokia is definitely on the blink)..but they were ridiculously expensive..and as Thailand is still a "grey" market, was unlikely to have a hassle free time with a supposedly unlocked one…..concurrently my ipod shuffle's left channel seems to have gone semi-phut too!….Then this morning my 3 year old long suffering Swatch finally gave up the ghost completely…. Sooo….A new watch it was  then, no contest!!

 

After spending a long time surfing endless watch sites and pics on the net (to save myself freezing up in indecision over massive arrays of watchcases I set off on the expedition. …

 

I decided that I would spend a decent though not silly amount on one quality  watch that would be hard wearing enough to last me a looong time. But what? There are dress watches, sports watches, sailors watches, travellers watches, hikers watches, divers watches, luxury watches, fashion watches, poseurs watches: quartz, semi-automatic, automatic, mechanical, ..all manner of jewels, bezels, and gubbins…It became apparent quite early on I needed to decide on a number of issues before I even set forth…

Ok, so it had to be waterproof, not water resistant, it had to have the date (I don't care for stopwatches, time zones, GPS, radio signals from atomic clocks,  built in compasses and spirit levels (yes indeed!), lap times, air pressure and altitude readings, or even be suitable for spacewalks!)..phew..this was getting to be daunting. I wanted to be sure it wasn't a copy, so that meant going to a number of high end department stores (the sales are on). When you start poring over the display cases it became quickly apparent I had to keep the faulty shuffle on and my earphones in or I'd have been waylaid countless times by bored and overeager sales assistants desparate to start the New Year with quotas almost filled.

 

I already knew I wasn't going anywhere near Rolex, Tissot, and all the other overpriced Swiss manufacturers..though I did pause at Swiss Army..but they're really trying too hard: Officers watches, sentries watches, special forces watches, mountaineer watches..OH do me a favour! I also didn't want ANY gold or silly glitzy bits..which put the kybosh on a lot of the pretenders like Hilfiger or Armani. I ESPECIALLY didn't want one of those posey modern watches with huge faces and numbers and weird shapes that the young yuppies wear. Indeed I wanted a black or blue face with no numbers just hour posts (whew..we're getting there)..I also decided that any leather type straps were out (the climate EATS leather here).

Just for old times sake I popped into Swatch and saw my "dead" watch for sale at a touch over £100. Nice I thought..but we'd amiably parted ways. It had been a downhill slide after Swatch said before sending it away to the service centre they could replace the glass, but it could no longer be considered waterproof (which it wasn't it turned out..I stared at a foggy misted face for two weeks after trying anyway)..odd one that.

I thought of me old dad. He likes a good watch! Canny Scot that he is , one thing he never skimped on was a decent hard working watch..I thought of his brand loyalty to Seiko (the poor mans Rolex they say)..so I checked them out.

I decided I wanted a titanium case and strap and picked out a few models I liked off the net and set forth.

 

If GPS could have tracked my wayward path through the city it wouldn't have really made much sense. I must have looked in about 20 watch shops…and as many again of the windows of the high end dealers just to laugh at the utter absurdity of ostentation people will stoop to. Some of those timepieces are shockers.

 

No I couldn't find the exact one that had glowed off the computer screen at me, but I did get a good one, with 20% off too.

 

I am now the proud owner of a Seiko SBDA  titanium divers watch . (http://pages.ca.inter.net/~injac/sbda001/  for a page of pics if anyone is even remotely interested). Fully automatic (no battery change) and probably quite hard wearing if it can handle 200 metres…not that I'd even go down 20% of that to try and retrieve it..who would haha? Who actually CAN? I think you'd need a bathyscaphe with a grappler or summat… It might even handle being bashed off a wall or two..Which I am wont to do if my past watch husbandry is anything to go by.

 

At a tad under £300 I was slightly nervous I was getting a good deal. I've NEVER spent that sort of money on a watch before. As soon as I got home I checked it out on the net..they were discontinued in 2008 and yet are highly regarded by collectors for their performance and the fact that titanium ones were only ever available in Asia. I saw a couple priced at 900 dollars and 460 pounds respectively which made me feel a whole lot better. It's BIG, it's chunky, the luminosity of the dial could probably illuminate a dark cellar, or perhaps irradiate me irrepairably.(Note to self: do not keep hands folded on lap).

 Still , maybe , just maybe, the two of us will grow old together.

 

Oh, and with the 20% I saved, I popped into the Apple shop and bought a new 2 gig shuffle on the way home. The old one is good enough for the classroom and I really needed something small and handy to block out the city noise with noises of a preferable nature…if this one conks out before the end of the year I will not be best pleased….

 

I shall endeavour to stay away from the shops , but my dodgy phone is cause for concern. I like this particular model (save for the earpiece volume..but I tell myself that very little can compete with downtown BKK noise anyway), a new one is around £140…..I shall think upon it and mess around with replacement batteries, chargers first.

 

One good thing that came of Christmas was that the band tentatively agreed to kinda reform/carry on. As my one passion and hobby I've missed playing music with the guys sooo much. Even better than that, Frank, the owner of Noriegas even said we could use his pub to practice in early in the week 7-10pm…Sounds ideal..we might be able to kill two birds with one stone and build up a wee scene in there at the same time…you never know. All my guitars have been restrung and now rest in guitar stands (another small xmas gift to myself) rather than residing in their cases. I thought if they were out there I might practise more…We'll see.

 

Now about that "Subhumans" song tall Paul wants to play……

 

 

Hi there (19/12/08),

 

As this will be my last blog this side of Christmas I suppose I should start by wishing all my friends and family all the very best of Christmases and that 2009 brings everything they could reasonably wish for themselves!!

A lot of you out there will be celebrating your first Christmas with a partner and new child. I guess that's about as special as it gets…I wish you all Peace and Love Dudes!

For those of you who didn't get round to keeping in touch by way of an email in 2008 (I am guilty of this too) don't worry about it. Friends remain friends despite the years and the distance and when we finally meet up again it'll be like we've never been apart for time we have.

This is traditionally the time of year to stare out of the window into the bleak winter landscape (if you live in the grim north) and get irrepressibly introspective about the years things that have past and of things yet to come. Alvin Toffler in his seminal 70's book "Futureshock" suggests that the years seem to whizz by faster as you get older as your metabolism slows and cellular growth stops and starts decaying. Does this mean that looking back over the past year is a far more selective process as you can't quite properly assimilate it as it went by too fast? I wonder.

Either way, the curse, or the blessing of introspection is the "Gestalt" it creates..a feeling that is more than the sum of the individual memories parts together…So what are my feelings about entering into another year?

I am still grateful for the life I lead. Working with children has reminded me about living for the moment and appreciating the simple joys that abound. I am however,  wary of the future. The imminent departure of my friend and co-manager Fred back to the UK has compelled me to think about where it is all ultimately going for me. Even niceties like getting a partial-mortgage on an appartment has a limited shelf-life as soon I will be too old to qualify for one, even a 20 year. It's sad that money and possessions should always be so dominant in your or anyone's world, but I'd hate to think of myself as an old man with nothing to show for my brief lifetime, no home, no wife, no children, nothing more than a hazy fleeting memory in a few peoples minds; "What WAS that Scottish guys name again…?"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way unhappy. It's just the happiness I exist with everyday has a dimishing half life like some sort of emotional isotope. The things that bring me the simple joys now are not guaranteed to do so in the future. Three years on here and I'm feeling the need to do some more proper settling. I'm going to have to urge myself to think on how to settle more. By this I mean that if I'm gonna stay here, I'm gonna stay. I think my days of itinerantly moving around countries and living out of a suitcase are done. I'm getting too old. I don't mean this as some sort of lament, it is just so. I need to have a degree of stability and routine nowadays.

 I'm finding I'm also getting a bit old for engaging in  a multiplicity of convoluted and overly complex relationships with a more than is decent number of the fairer sex. I'm not a love rat, I strive to be utterly honest about  how I feel , where I am emotionally, What my status is , what I am doing here. But I'm kidding myself if by doing so I think I'm sparing anybody elses hurt feelings or potential broken hearts. When it comes to affairs of the heart (or equally in my case,  the libido) "What's sauce for the goose is most definitely not sauce for the Gander". Forewarning is not forearming when love comes to town. You can tell the truth till you're blue in the face, but wimmin will believe what they want to believe and see what they want to see.

 I don't like to think of myself as a philanderer. I was after all, monogamous for 16 years. I am not in denial, nor am I making up for any sense of lost time. I am simply guilty of living too much in the moment.

Guilty eh? There's a heavy word. But it IS the time of year to be remonstrating yourself the things done and undone. Is it then regression? Bangkok itself can be a playground for the terminally self-deluded. There are hundreds of examples of farang "losers" on the evening streets at any given time. 55 years+,  Fawn slacks, threadbare sneakers, 7-11 bag full of the cheapest beer you can buy, and a tattoed stringy looking ex-bar girl on their arm with a scowl like a Glaswegian parking attendant. They also sit around the cheapest bars, nursing happy hour drinks and espouse their embittered world view on how shit everything is, whilst sucking out all your life energy in a way you just can't detect….You gotta stay away from these ones. They're pure concentrated evil.

So what's undone then? Well my Thai is still pretty woeful. I've tried a bit of self study (quite successfully) but not nearly enough, AND the Thai alphabet is still a mystery to me. If I'm going to stay here, to settle here, I'm going to have to go and learn more formally and put the work in.

Ah, the work. Well my boss, (who's a natural pusher and probably wishes in a perfect world everyone was as naturally driven as he is) is very keen on personal development. He does genuinely care that the management and Thai staff team can be all they can be. Perhaps we sometimes lack his vision or get sidetracked down a labyrinthine of  personal cul-de-sacs, but not all of us have the requisite 15 years experience of living here to sort out the more obvious wheat from the chaff. I think I've learnt a lot of new things and developed new skills this year. Not all of them are readily tanglible or quantifiable, but then judging yourself as a successful teacher or manager rarely is: I'm mid way through developing my own 99 hour task based learning project courses (2) from scratch. I've run a residential summer kiddies camp. I've been part of a highly successful corporate residential training team contributing to and delivering a specialized English curriculum. I've managed (pretty well I guess) a team of teachers and a 37 room school all year. I've taken over all the admin and co-ordinating of in-house public and adult courses. I've presided over heaps of interviews and a number of teacher demonstration and routine observation lessons providing feedback and suggestions. I'm in the middle of drawing up a specialized curriculum for spa managers on behalf of a governmental department. I've run the course testing programme for 2600 kids virtually flawlessly for the last 18 months. I've put together inhouse and online trainings for staff…..I think I've done OK. But doubtless if my boss should read this he'll be telling me it's fine as far as it goes, but I could be more.

The irony is he's probably right.

So that's it for 2008 What's done and undone. Getting my personal life in some semblance of order  might seem to be the next pressing thing to do. Make long term plans and decisions and leave the short term myopia behind . Not as easy as it sounds as all our lives are affected by invisible forces and inertia pulling us from place to place. None of us as human beings are particularly good at personal sacrifice. The older we get, the more set and resistance to change we become.

I AM grateful and happy for the life I lead. I am delighted and flummoxed in equal measure by the vibrant and strange inconsistencies and traditions of the life and culture here. I enjoy the company of a very small but nonetheless good circle of dear friends. Living almost every day in sunshine is also still a wonderful and precious thing.

I've been often accused of "Thinking too much about the wrong things" since I've been here. Perhaps this is always going to be my curse and burden. Maybe it is a stellar consequence of being born on the first day of the Chinese New Year ("Fire" horse no less) in conjunction with an Aquarius/ Aquarius ascending star sign. Maybe I'm just a space cadet destined to plague myself with endless questions about the true meaning and value of an individual life.

Or perhaps I was just lucky enough to be born where I was, have the family and upbringing I had, embraced the 'taken-for-granted" freedoms I've enjoyed all my life, that all the actually remains are the buzzing of questions that are never really meant to get answered.

Maybe I'm just hankering for a home, a  wife and a family. Then you don't have time for considering  ANY of that shit….

 

Whatever!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO MY NEAREST AND DEAREST. XXXXX

 

 

 

i there (12/12/08),

 

The funny thing about heading out of Bangkok is that you rarely realize how much you needed to get out of the city until you actually go. Perhaps its the overwhelming background noise of BKK. I'm not really sure. Seems big screen ads in Siam square have been particularly loud of late. You don't realize how much endless excessive noise bothers you until you're out in the middle of it at ten in the morning to get a spot of breakfast BAWLING to your friend over some pop musiccy big screen ad for a mobile phone. It doesn't help that every lamppost in Siam square is also megaphone linked to a local radio station. But I tell ya it can drive you nuts out there.

To be honest what really drives me bonkers just now is the excessive use of Christmas music. In a Christian country I can just about accept it, (albeit resentfully) but here it's become ubiquitous AND LOUD!!!. Do studies show that Thai people will spend more over a  religious festival that actually means nothing to them if there is religious laden musical images to accompany it? Honestly I think I'd rather hear "The girl from Impanema" twenty times over than anymore of these cutesy desparately-out-of-tune-and-sync schoolkids Christmas meddly albums. OK , mebbe I'm a grouch, but I don't respond well to being force fed anything, and while the ambient noise levels here are really so loud, the apparent obvious solution would be  to play the aforesaid songs even louder..WAAaaaah!

 

The management team had it's annual two day jolly down at the beach this week. And very nice it was too. Nothing like a long promenade along a warm and  windy beachfront in a comfortable 25 degree heat after a "full breakfast". Heavens, we even had a most diverting game of crazy golf. The away trip was just what the doctor ordered, albeit slightly expensive…but then again if it's only once a year, what on Earth is the point of scrimping?

Looks like Freds (ex-?) girlfriend is gonna stay on at his appartment. Bit of a shame, I think a move down there would be good. No matter. I guess I won't know for sure until he's literally about to leave. That's how Thai girls operate here.

I doubt I'll be going away at Christmas now, but I'd say there was a good chance I might head off for a few days at New Year as it appears that Ning wants to visit Bangkok for a few days prior to that….Whatever, it's a long and winding road there!

At least the current "troubles" are over. Though it might be some time before they allow circulation of the "Economist " again.  The banned article about "you know who" hasn't even had a single mention here. Though I did get an online copy sent to my email by a friend. It makes for interesting reading. I'd say it voices the sort of real worries and fears of Thai people, though all these things would only ever be voiced behind closed doors with the most intimate of friends and family. There is certainly cause for concern in years to come , dynastys are called dynastys because they do invariably change. According to an ancient Thai prophecy this current one is apparently the last in a series of 9.

So , over the weekend there was no talking Fred out of his decision to leave Thailand for the sunny drenched slopes of Carlisle. I'll stop now as I'm sure it's getting harder and harder for him as it is

Two more weekends to Christmas and three office parties in the offing. It's gonna be a strange and frenetic time all round. I'm going to be 1st on call for Saturdays morning cover for the foreseeable future as all the full time staff are really stretched thin round here. All things considered, I'd rather not do 9 hours of teaching on a Saturday, but somehow I reckon they'll be a few people turning up and saying how they'll be leaving for holidays abroad before the last working weekend on the 20th... there always are. Then of course I'm due to be playing Santa in the activity room for a few hours at some point. I hope they've made some new beards up for this year..yuk!

I've been noticing the battering the pound has been taking on the currency markets. It's funny how I still equate my finances and salary according to a Baht-Pound conversion rate, as do many of my colleagues even though they've been here a very long time. Currently I'm pulling in a very nice wage, although there will be a bit of a slump over the holiday period. If this should stabilise at the 51/52 mark I might have to think about starting to wire money back to the UK. Still, I feel that Thailand really hasn't seen too much of the credit crunch yet. There are indications of a bit of a downturn as construction companies start delaying starting new condo projects as they feel the purchasing power of the populace may be weakening.

 

I popped down to see Jon's band (well one of them playing that night) at Noriegas last Saturday. I thought I'd feel a sad twinge about not playing myself , but as the clientele was all the same old faces (ie mates of the various bands) I instead felt a certain frustration that the local music scene wasn't just a little more vibrant. The bands on show were stupid-silly loud though!!! Really!  I was more inclined to sit and listen and watch them from the window outside, even then I felt buffeted by sonic vibrations!!! It probably didn't help that I was suffering from the ubiquitous "sneaky flu" (a flu that lasts and lasts but with no streaming nose or big temperature…just a feeling of feeling permanently tired and spaced, punctuated with a niggly cough that appears nightly for 30 mins in the wee hours when your sleep is at its deepest). Three aspirins and two beer Laos later I threw in the proverbial tower and went home to my bed..so much for my big holiday Saturday night out.

 

Whatever happened to rock 'n' roll anyway?

 

 

        

 

Hi there (03/12/08),

 

The  blog is a day early this week as I've got tomorrow free as it is the Kings birthday. As the school is out this weekend, I am likely to be spending my time gallivanting around unaccustomed to such Friday night freedoms. Actually , Jon the drummer is playing at Noriegas on Saturday night with his other band, so I'll endeavour to catch up with him.

So what's the score in the "7^th most dangerous place on the planet" ( Daily Telegraph online 29^th Nov). Well,  apart from being much more dangerous than Beirut, The Peoples Republic of Congo , Nigeria and Eritrea (idiots!!!!) I'd say that mass genocide appears to have been avoided.  The entire cabinets party was disbanded by a panel of judges on the grounds of vote rigging and all politicians of that party have been banned form public office for 5 years.. The corrupt  solution? Jump to another party and represent them instead…bloody marvelous. The latest dude earmarked to take on the premiership is ANOTHER hardliner and highly unlikely to ring in the suitable democratic changes…He did, after all, get his son off an open and shut murder case in a disco a few years back…Naice. It's a wonder to me how the Baht is remaining relatively strong..still 55 Baht to the pound..which means I have managed to save 2000 quid since July!!! I am feeling very virtuous. I can't ever remember managing to save that much. The beauty of it is that it hasn't really been a matter of tightening my belt or scrimping on essentials..I eat well , (steak every day if I wanted it) I drink beer regularly, and I had a 500 quid weeks adventure holiday to borneo in the middle of it all…

Which makes me truly ponder why my friend, office mate,  and co-manager Fred has decided to quit and move back to the UK.   He's been offered a job in his home town of Carlisle and he feels he'll be able to save more money for his retirement fund by taking up the offer. I can't see it myself. But I guess if he feels he has to ring in the changes. I suppose if I were called up with a serious job offer in the UK I'd do a bit of soul searching too..but to be honest the pros of living here really do outweigh the cons BIG TIME.

So with Lee leaving last month, and Fred leaving at the months end we are going to be 2 managers down and 3 schools to run. It's gonna be a bit tricky on the whole scheduling front for the foreseeable future. I reckon we're not going to have the time that we thought we'd have to get stuff done.

Soooo, I've been thinking about moving into Freds apartment. He lives overlooking a temple at the back of victory monument. His apartment is half the price of mine and is bright and airier.  I'm starting to feel I'm paying a bit to much for my current place. As long as this apartment is quiet…I can't bear the thought of hearing soi dogs yowling through the night. The only small drawback in that I'll have to buy his furniture, bed wardrobe, tv etc (guess where my savings might go), but then again if I'm gonna live here I'll be needing all that stuff at some point anyways.

I guess when the environment dynamically changes around you, you either have to be open to change or at least roll with it. I, despite my best intentions, would appear to be more resistant to change than I perceive myself to be. But with Lee and Fred both offski, Christmas and the years end rolling around it's probably time to make a few more longer term future plans about what I want to achieve. I don't relish the thought of turning 60 and having  25 quid in the bank. Somehow , I get the feeling that I'll never retire to the golf course, I'm always going to be working . I would however like to find a sideline to make a bit of extra money for minimal outlay. I'm thinking of one or two things….

I'm hading back to the UK in early April so by then I'll have a better idea of my needs I guess.

The boys are heading down to the beach for 2 days on Monday to idle by the peace resort pool , and I guess, herald Freds swansong trip. It's going to be strange around here when he goes. I think everyone will feel the loss quite keenly. Still, there still maybe time yet to talk him out of it…..

 

 

 

re (28/11/08),

 

I've been getting a couple of calls over the situation here in the last couple of days ,so I thought I'd start the blog with my take on what's going on.

I was however, VERY disappointed by the BBC online's sensationalist approach in its analysis section. The last few sentences were pretty incendiary, almost as if they'd like to report on a "civil war" here….

So what is it all about?

Rewind about a year and a half ago when Taksin was ousted in absentia in a wholly Bangkok based and induced bloodless coup while he addressed the U.N……

From pretty early on, Taksin realized that his Thai Rak Thai party would do well to exploit the rural vote. To this end he campaigned in the poor northern  heartlands of Isaan where he knew there was a vast amount of votes available , (approximately 33%). He "gave" parcels of land to the poorest of people, he helped them be more self-determining at local level, he set up co-ops and collectives, and he tried to overhaul the Health Care system to provide some semblance of free medical aid. So far, so good I hear you say…On the domestic front he introduced economic reforms that helped Thailand really bounce back from the economic crisis of 1997. Measures that up till now still appear to be working as Thailand hasn't been so badly affected by the current turmoil as her South East Asian neighbours….But there was a price for all this: his war on drugs and the sweeping powers he took "Disappeared" over 2500 people (think General Galtieri in Argentina) , his dealings with the Shin corporation and his selling off of the AIS cellphone network which many considered a national asset, made him one of the ten richest men in the world. Then of course there were the land deals that both he and his wife in their absence were recently convicted of (3 and 2 years respectively). There was also questions raised about the way he handled any critics of his regime. He invoked very unconstitutional measures to gag any anti government sentiment in the media, especially on TV.

But in political circles all this was a relative drop in the ocean. Bit by bit he lost the support of the Bangkok people and the slowly , very slowly emerging middle class educated people. Many of these people had been there on the front lines as students way back in the coups and unrests of the 70's and 80's.

 But even with his current living out of the country, the long shadow of his influence looms. Since August yellow shirted PAD (pro-democracy) supporters have staged a sit-in in government house. Prime Minister Samak  though elected democratically from last years general election, threw the towel in and resigned. In a measure designed specifically to send a clear message out, the ruling party put Taksin's brother -in-Law in place as P.M. a couple of months back.

So , trying the same tactic again (when the guys out of the country) the PAD have stepped up a gear and occupied (including masked men in the control towers) both Bangkok airports to stop him returning…Which he did anywya by flying to Chiang Mai by the way….

Now here's the rub….The old Asian idea of "face". It's one thing having a mob in a government compound, it's altogether different having them jam up tourism ,trade, and commerce on such a huge and demonstrable scale. The Police and the Army are collectively holding their breaths as they are not sure who to follow. I've mentioned before that both organizations seem to be self determining at a local level. The garrison "protecting" Bangkok has moved the tanks up to forward positions and the P.M. has declared emergency powers to clear up the situation at the airports. Whether that will be followed remains unclear as the PAD are trying to use that self same force to declare a coup.

In the meantime Taksin is addressing massive rallies of supporters (Red-shirted) in various places by telephone: "Do you miss me?" being his opening line to the fervent cheering. The radio stations are in Isaan are clogged with angry callers rattling their sabres and spoiling for a fight.

This is the crux of the matter. If the red shirts mobilize into some sort of mob and descend on the city there will be (more) bloodshed like the last time the two sides met, except I fear this time it will spiral out of control.

There's some semblance of a class war underlying all this. Isaan people traditionally are the butt of jokes (like the Irish), and generally have a high disregard for the uppity Bangkok citizens. Then again,  most people over the world say the citizens of their capital cities have ideas above their station. They won't forget what Taksin did for them, (brilliant political manipulation) and will never withdraw their support of him. Bangkok is seeing a whole new class, an educated chattering middle class emerge with it's own ideas of constitution and democracy. But the fact these self same PAD supporters are showing up to demonstrate with their pushchairs and their toddlers and their picnic blankets, further demonstrates how naïve they are. If and when the bullets start flying I expect they will be genuinely shocked and surprised.

That's the whole thing as I see it in a nutshell. There are all sorts of other issues and details abound, usually involving the influence and power brokering of individuals that I'd rather not go into as I'm trying to simply relay the general situation and I wouldn't want to jeopardise myself in any way with speculative slander.

I hope for all our sakes the red shirts are not compelled to come down here in numbers. They mostly live a brutally poor and hard existence, they'd have no qualms about seeing off the incumbent PAD protestors with extreme prejudice.

As for the average Thai in the street, they grow weary of the whole thing. Power Politics and chicanery has been part of their daily diet for well over 2 years now. They want an end to it and a resumption of a peaceful time.

I trust this makes the situation clearer. I hate the way some of the international media is fanning the flames…Haven't they got enough news covering the atrocities in Mumbai?

 

Me? I'm fine by the way. Keeping myself well away from areas of contention….

Oh, and I played a much better game of Tennis this week thanks.

 

 

Hi there (21/11/08),

 

So a grenade goes off at dawn amongst the PAD protesters occupying the Government House compound (as they have for about 6 weeks), one killed and 20 wounded….what , you ask yourself was the point of that? If it was an attempt by the powers that be to scare them into moving, then all it will do is strengthen their resolve. If was an inside job to remind the torpid populace that there is still a constitutional crisis going on, it's a pretty cynical move. It's no wonder that most people's eyes glaze over when domestic politics are discussed, it's definitely "Same shit different day" round this neck of the world.

 

Gawd but I was awful at tennis last Tuesday..I was so shit it was embarrassing. I'll be surprised if I get invited to play by the locals again next time I turn up haha…Still,  my back seems a little better since I turned my mattress round and got my spine snapped by Ning. Yes , she was up on a business trip over the weekend and we talked a lot through. I don't think it's wise to persue this long distance thingy any more so I guess I'll call us just friends until such a time as we might live in the same town.

 

It's a really lovely time of year here. The temperatures have dropped unseasonably early to around 30 degrees. The humidity has significantly dropped and the temperature at night (about 25 degrees)is almost low enough to switch off both the fans. I think if you ask most Thai people they'll say this is their favourite time of year even if they all start wearing jackets and getting colds. The vast majority of them wouldn't last 5 minutes in a brisk Autumn gale blowing off the North Sea!!!

 

This means of course there is talk of resurrecting the Sunday nights five a side football game. This has two fold benefits..we get a nice wee runaround, and we're usually so wrecked afterwards it puts paid to Sunday night excesses in parts of town that rely on just that kind of cavalier attitude to sustain their robust economies. Seriously though, it's probably quite unsurprising how quickly one can tire of that kind of scene. Nothing and nobody are what they seem and for too many people the wheels come flying off and they end up crashing and burning amidst the fire and brimstone.

With a long weekend coming up, there is talk of a managers pre- Christmas jolly down to the old favourite "Peace Resort" at the coast for a couple of days. Sounds like a fun thing to do, chilling by the pool for a coupla days (The beach isn't too hot), but we'll have to get cracking and get it booked soonish as it is a long weekend…

 

I am also excited at the long term prospect being mooted of a stag night in Tokyo nextyear. I'd love to go to Japan but I'd prefer to go with someone else and really share the experience. James, who lived there for 10 years would be the ideal tour guide!!

 

I read my pal Al's latest blog: www.frenchobsession.blogspot.com recently. He's developing the mind of an ex-pat whilst still actually living in the UK. He talks eruditely wistfully about politeness, customer service, general manners and courtesy all slowly disappearing from British culture. I pondered on this, especially after having read the BBC report about the "attitudes to children" survey on UK . Words like "vermin" and "wild dogs" were bandied about. The spokesman said that demonizing children led to misunderstanding and untoward antipathy…..My question is this: Who made them like that in the first place? All this PC mollycoddling has left the UK in such a babying fankle that kids no longer get the direction they need…EVEN IF that includes light corporal punishment. There has to be some sort of self regulation in every society. If we've reached a point where adults don't actually get some automatic deference or respect from children then we're on a slippery slope. Think "Lord of the flies" on a countrywide scale. Thais don't know very much about history or geography at all, but they do have a strongly ingrained sense of tradition and past (with an unhealthy obessession with ghosts and spirits too boot) that includes supreme blind faith in the absolute power the family patriarch (or matriarch) holds and they will unquestionably follow any instruction from them. Which is why you NEVER hear of gangs roaming around beating men to death in front of their kids…It just doesn't happen here. There is so much that the west has forgotten in it's striving towards modernism and ultra consumerism. Shame really….It's ultimately all about piss poor parenting skills and only 1 in 3 marriages surviving nowadays. All of my friends who have recently become new parents are going to have their own futures battles on this front.

 

Anyway , enough proseletysing, I'm sure as a non parent my observations have a biased point of view. I just hope to God that whatever appears to have gone wrong in UK society is still fixable. Even from this far away I can see the writing on the wall for a pretty grim future there. 3 million unemployed by 2010 sure ain't gonna help that.

 

Think I'll hang out here a whiles…..

 

 

 

 

Hi there (14/11/08),

 

Sitting here at my desk at midday on a Friday feeling awful,  I clearly understand why I  usually adhere to a" three pint max " rule during the working week.

Having said that, I was out with the boss last night on one of our far too infrequent benders…I'm just glad I didn't know him when I was in my 20's, that would have been a recipe for "an early bath" as Eddie Waring used to say.

So why were we out? Nothing special really, we wanted to check out the Central World Tiger beer garden in advance of the Modern Dog concert there next Thursday. That's the trouble with drinking pints as opposed to small bottles, you kinda lose track of how messed you're getting. Anyway I should look on the bright side, we got blootered ,set the world and the school to rights, and I didn't even throw up in the skytrain this morning despite a compelling urge to do so! An aspirin, an au bon pan sandwich, and 3 coffees later and I'm just about able to coherently join the human race.

 

So whassup?  I mightily enjoyed a Sunday night of free beer from my colleague Brett on account of the Phillies winning the World series Baseball title for the first time in 28 years. The pub we were in was a toilet, and Brett made us watch a 3 hour baseball game, (BORING)..but the beer and the patter made up for it. I was even home at a decent hour and able to function well the following day.

 

It was interesting to see the UK authorities showed a bit of backbone in refusing a certain Thai Ex-PM a UK visa renewal. I'm sure that must have stung him a bit. It got me thinking about all the bad guys we've harboured over the years under graceless diplomatic contingencies: General Pinochet, Idi Amin to name a couple of the more high profile ones. In a country where corruption and backhanders are rife it's nice to see there are still people out there who can't be bought. Maybe everything doesn't have a price.

 

Ning is apparently appearing in town tonight after spending a day signing legal stuff for the  company she chairs. A free flight up to BKK can't be bad. We're supposed to meet up tonight and I'm not altogether how I feel about it all. I mean it's pointless to go back to where we were and I'm not chasing any more…It feels a bit like when you go chasing after a bus only to see it pull away and you slowly falter down to a stop. I think it's really important we remain friends though. I like her a lot, but sometimes absence makes the heart grow harder as opposed to fonder. I'm officially through with long distance relationships. I'm never going to have another one..ever! It's all just too much bollocks. Doubtless Ning will end up staying tonight and possibly the weekend. I kinda wish I was feeling less hungover..I'm certainly not up for a winding introspective relationship summit talk into the wee hours tonight..equally I'm not into hurting her feelings with any brusque and indifferent displays. Hangovers can be quite debilitating when you're trying to voice or deal with personal shit…it's so easily to be misconstrued or make some throwaway comment that doesn't actually reflect what you mean. I need to be cautious.

 

Change is in the air concerning the school . Given we don't have any seasons here you might say it's gonna get a physical and metaphorical end of year "Spring Clean".  I expect to be embracing a new role and a new set of challenges in the New Year. It's not as daunting as I first thought and it technically shouldn't overly increase my workload (my learning curve for sure, but not my workload). So I mustn't grumble. I'd have been  a lot unhappier if I'd been shipped out to one of the other schools or been moved to another desk in the office. I've got my workspace set up just how I like it.

 

I've been thinking a bit about what to do with my Christmas holidays. I haven't reached any firm conclusions yet. What I need to do is go and sit in a bookshop with a bunch of travel guides and read about some of the places that interest me. By the Way "Lonely Planet" has really got shit. I don't know if it was the bbc takeover, or their research/updaters, but it really doesn't hack it anymore. The one on Laos is a disgrace. Looks like I'll be sticking to Rough Guides only from now.

 

The Kings sister is getting cremated in an elaborate Buddhist ritual over the weekend. I expect it to be quite a sad and somber occasion for the Thai people. I'll certainly be wearing somber dark clothes in the school over the weekend and wearing a black tie. Everything will be shut over the next two days. It'll probably be an ideal time to stay quietly at home with a full fridge and a good book.

 

Hi there (07/11/08),

 

CONGRATULATIONS to my dear friends Ivon and Vicki on the birth of Holly. I can only imagine how chuffed and terrified they are of their first child!! Doubtless I'll be seeing the obligatory "wrinkled prune" photos in the next few days.

 

So I was at my first ever alcohol free wedding last Sunday. A most pleasant experience it turned out to be too. It was in the "Army Club". I was expecting something quite basic as opposed to the swish, modern complex we went to. In fact there were two other weddings in this cavernous exhibition/conference type venue. It was at times hard to tell who belonged to which wedding when you left the suite. Needless to say the place was packed with lovely girls dressed up to the nines. I could scarcely believe how pretty some of the girls were who lined up to try and catch the bouquet! A complete lack of "Dutch courage"  stopped me from gliding in with a bit of the old patter..probably just as well, there's no telling what sort of serious social  'faux pas" are out there in Thai weddingland.

 

That's not to say I didn't go out after the wedding however. It was my co-manager Lee's last day on the job so there was quite a farewell in the Saxophone pub at Victory monument till the wee hours. I even ended up back at his place tanning a bottle of Baileys till 5 in the morning. Needless to say I ended up crashing. I'm sorry he's left my work, he'll be sorely missed, but at least he's still gonna be in BKK for nights out.

 

The spa managers curriculum project for the ministry of Education is slowly developing legs. I was down having a look at a rather nice spa in Ekkemai on Wednesday morning. When you think about it a two hour traditional Thai message is a serious bargain for 8 quid. A hot herbal towel wrap (2 hours for a tenner), aromatherapy two hour message (10 quid) and various other exfoliating scrubby gubbins for 5-10 quid made it look rather enticing actually. (Except facials..they appear strangely proportionally much more expensive…..a con just for ladies?)

 What I mean is, you see lots of these "hole in the wall" message places all over BKK (NO!..NOT knocking shops), but it doesn't have the wellness "vibe" like a big professional place like this. There was even a separate desk staffed by physiotherapists who do one hour sport injury messages for a fiver!!!! If a place like this existed in Ari I'm sure I'd be going often. As it is I feel I ought to go and have a go sometime soon..it might even alleviate the chronic stiffness in my lower back!

 

I went to see my friend Small Paul in hospital. Seeing the damage that "exfoliating dermatitis" wreaks left me pretty stunned. To say he looked awful would be an understatement. It looked like leprosy, or some scabby aftermath of a bout of small pox. The poor sod must have been in a lot of pain. Given the choice I wouldn't generally want to be sick like that in Thailand. Yeah I've got a small BUPA package, but being realistic, the chances are I'd have to move to one of the "National Health" places Thai taxpayers like him and I can go to. (It was still 2500 Baht a day). The drawback isn't that the palliative care isn't good, it's more about the reliance on ever present family members at the bedside to do some of the more menial nurses tasks (bedpans, washing etc). This in turn leads to all manner of discussion, gossip, and contradiction on the best way to care for individual patients as everybody chips in during doctors rounds. Paul's wife has been around to help him though , I wonder how I'd feel sick and alone in a ward like that….

Anyway, he phoned me this morning and says he's back at home with a bunch of drugs to take to improve his situation. Good news!

 

Bangkok is going to be a slightly strange place from Wednesday next week. There is going to be an official mourning period of about 5 days to mark the death of the Kings sister last year.  This has something to do with the number of days since her death and  certain Buddhist requirements. This also happens to fall on Loykrathong..the festival of light where lovers put their lanterns into the canals and seas to thank the river/rain God for all his life giving bounties. I'm not altogether sure how the two will pan out. Certainly early next week would be a good time to stock up the fridge on beer as there won't be any on sale over next weekend at all. OK so there are usually some places you can get it, but I'm pretty sure this particular mourning period will be uniformly observed. In fact I'm still half expecting to hear the school will close. I'm sure there will be a big dip in student numbers attending the school that weekend anyway.

 

My folks are off on their 50^th anniversary luxury cruise round the med.  I expect they are literally "having a ball!"..Can't see my dad enjoying the company of the stuffed shirt brigade much…..Still,  the itinery makes up for it. Have a blast guys!

 

 

 

 

  

Hey There! (31/10/09),

 

As you probably gathered my blog is a bit late this week as I'm just back from a week's holiday to Borneo, and I've had problems logging it on mr site…..

 

And a very interesting place Borneo turned out to be too! Aside from the dog leg journey via Kuala Lumpur (a rather grinding 12 hours of planes and airports) I was surprised at the juxtaposition of wild rainforest and modern KK town.

 

We found a nice 3 star hotel downtown (1200 Baht/20 quid) a night for an ensuite single room and started early the next morning to plan our itineries. Jon as it turned out, opted to spend pretty much the whole time climbing up the arduous Mount Kinabalu, a minimum 2 trek trek up a quite technical mountain, the highest in S.E. Asia. I, on the other hand chose a number of more relaxed options.

 

One thing we did do together on Tuesday was the afternoon and evening river safari down in the Kiralu wetlands 3 hours from Kota Kinabalu to see the rare and indigenous Proboscus monkeys. It was surprisingly good trip, not only did we see three different types of monkeys, but also big woodpeckers, HUGE fluorescent Kingfishers, and even a small croc!!! When it got dark, the trees down at the jetty were adorned with swarming fireflies..never seen them before!! Wow!

 

So Jon departed for the mountain the next morning and I went off on a days diving off Pulau Gaya. Really lovely coral forests and all sorts of interesting and intriguing beasties, the most impressive of which was a cuttlefish the size of a stuffed holdall changing colour as I wiggled my fingers at it!!  The afternoon was on a small wreck (my first one) and I saw some big groupers amongst the spiralling schools of batfish. Even the ever menacing triggerfish didn't seem to want to have a go. It was a daddy clownfish (of "Finding Nemo" fame ) that was squaring up to me and nipped my dive buddy!!! I met up with a few locals over the evening and went out on one of those drunken holiday randans you only do once a holiday!!! Beer and Whisky chasers (just HOW old am I?), and finishing off at a seafront nightclub to watch the semi-finals of the Ms Borneo 2008 competition!! (Very Naice..from what little I can actually recall) Just as well I had nothing booked the next day, I felt terrible! I just about managed a wander about town in the afternoon.

 

I had hoped to do the grade 4 river rafting trip, but the river was flooded and it was simply too dangerous, so I had to make do with the more gentle Kiulu river. That said there were still a goodly few rapids to get your heart racing. The one and a half hour journey up through the jungle to the interior was also well worth the trip.

On the Friday the weather really set in. I was possibly secretly hoping the dive trip I'd booked would be cancelled as even from the harbour the wind was strong and the swell looked to be imposing. This was confirmed as the boat man couldn't get the boat started (flooded engines) and we had to move everything to another boat..and of course, something was forgotten..the dive ladder!!! DOH!

 

We reached the point of entry and the boat was swirling around in 3 metre+ swells. It was immediately apparent on entry that visibility was awful. I could barely see my dive masters fins from 1 metre away and in those conditions I felt rather panicky. We went down to 22 metres and scratched about the bottom with a torch , but there was very little to see. On top of that I was having real "rookie" like problems with staying still and with my buoyancy, which only got worse as we neared the surface in the swells. Trying to get back into the dive boat in those conditions was one experience I'd choose to forget…it wasn't easy and really quite scary. The second dive in a more secluded bay was much better…a black pitted snake eel, and a blue spotted ray amongst the things we saw. Again I felt something wasn't quite right….my regulator seemed to be behaving, strangely, the diaphragm oddly buzzing in some way, my tanks weren't the full 200 psi but 175 when I went in, and despite taking on an extra kilo in weight I was struggling all the time with my buoyancy and the conditions and so was gulping away on the air like a novice.(which I suppose I am) I think I was barely down for 30 minutes instead of a more normal 40-45. You just can't fight this sort of environment, just go with it…but I had to stay close and finned hard in the currents. I had the option of taking an additional third dive after lunch as the other two booked had prepaid for 3, but I was down with the conditions, the visibility,  and  my general aquatic performance (a bad dive day?) so I opted to relax in the restaurant on the beach and watch the teeming rain and a comic volleyball match the locals were having against the Japanese. First rule of diving: It you're not having fun, feel unwell or simply tired, Don't do it! If I had gone down again I'm sure after 15 minutes I'd wished I hadn't.

It seemed from Thursday night on, the island was locked in the tail of some passing big storm. It pretty much rained incessantly all through Friday and Saturday. It might have been the start of the monsoon season proper, but my understanding was that it came in November. Either way, I'd done all the outdoor fun stuff with the exception of that last diving day in glorious sunshine, so I really didn't mind. That said, it's been a long time since I've seen constant rain for 2 days, it reminded me of the Autumnal conditions in Scotland haha!

 

Jon came back down off the mountain on Saturday barely able to walk (and he's mega fit) and we spent a pleasant Saturday night drinking beer,  eating lambchops and watching the football….Sunday afternoon and it was back off to the airport.

 

Prognosis: Borneo is a cool place to visit, it's not as expensive as you might think, and the people are really friendly and helpful all of the time with a real willingness to talk to you. Their English is generally excellent. The rainforest jungle is spectacular,  and the sea is teeming with all sorts of exotic wildlife. There are tons of really fun things to do but you need to plan a little structure in advance to get it all in. I'll most certainly go back and do an extended dive trip to the world famous Sipidan islands and explore over to the North East and Sarawak areas sometime in the future after I've explored elsewhere like Sumatra and Sulawesi. I think I went a little late on in the year weatherwise, but it was relatively quiet in terms of tourists on the plus side. I really hope Air Asia reinstates the direct flight though…a twelve hour 2 flight trip is daunting.I hate airports! I could have flown direct to Sydney in Australia for that amount of time

 

So it's back to the grind! All manner of new things to take on and possibly a shedload of work to do at home at night..In fact, I may even have to go in on my last day off tomorrow to get it the weekend tasks prepped as I've got to attend a full day training seminar on Thursday to boot…..Then again, I really should at least try and get a morning game of tennis with Bruce in first eh?

Hi there! (17/10/08),

 

Well I finally got my sleep in!  I did exactly what I said I would do and hid away in my room all day on Monday. It were bliss!!

It's kinda weird here weatherwise just now. We're supposed to be going into the last part of the rainy season, yet we haven't really had much rain lately and it's suddenly getting really hot again. November and December are allegedly the cool season, but if anything the temperatures are rising again. The week up in Kanchanaburi was also really hot with very little rain. Looks like even the tropics are suffering from odd weather patterns. I could really do with some cool and fresh nights for a change!

I did manage one set of doubles tennis on Tuesday morning. Though Bruce turned up late with Jelly belly so  I was already on court:- invited to play with some of the local Thai guys. I was naturally slightly worried about making a total dick of myself faced with a bunch of folk who could really play! As it turned out, I only served one double fault, played as good as I have in a while, and we ended winning the Tie-break to win the set 7-6. By then it was 1130 and simply too bloody hot to even consider a second set!! I'm still stiff in the lower back region..I'm really going to have to do something about it. Whether this be yoga, stretching exercises, Chiropractors, or acupuncture I'm not sure. I'll get on to it when I get back from Borneo.

Ah yes Borneo! Two days to go. Jon and I have a very similar idea of what we want out of the holiday_ which is a bit of a relief as he's usually far more gung ho for extreme physical challenges like trekking in Nepal, or mountain biking in the Atlas mountains. I think even he needs a few days beach time before it's back to the Kindergarten grind in November.

Talking of things work: I've just had my job description increase by about 50%. As of now I'm gonna be heading up the Adult programme. By this I mean all the in house courses for adult students: IELTS, TOEIC,TOEFL, Effective Writing etc etc. I'm going to do all the scheduling, find all the teachers , sort out the contracts, book the rooms, do the IELTS final oral testing, and generally co-ordinate the courses in this building and across campus at the Mahit building. It's quite a fiddly business, it requires an eye for detail and a bit of planning/scheduling. I'm sure I can do it (though I'm bound to screw up at some point), and it's certainly good solid management experience…but I feel I'm starting to reach capacity of what I can do well now. I'm not keen on going into anything on a wing and a prayer not matter what I do here. It's like a house of cards, or the beat of a butterfly's wings on the other side of the planet. I screw up, and a lot of people get affected.  The bottom line is I'm going to be busy as Hell pretty much all of the time till at least the middle of next year. I've also chosen to take on my old T4 class into T5 for another 33 weeks starting this Saturday. This presents problems in so far as they've already had me for 99 hours so my bag of teaching tricks and  games is a little on the  empty side. But since 9 of 11  students in the class renewed (for a class on a Saturday night too!!!) and really wanted me to come back and  teach them, I'd feel I was letting them down a bit if I didn't do it. They're a nice lot, a but raucous, but well meaning….. BUT I'll have to be going off book again and turning it into another task based project class like my L9's. To do it well means a lot of work and preparation which is time consuming. Then there's all the usual school Lto Teen relevelling, walk in pre-testing, and regular round  testing: Rounds 1+8 are coming up in early January. Then there's the series of  between 7 and 10 residential Egat camps we'll be doing on our days off in the first half of the  New Year, then there's the Spa project for the Ministry of Education: we're under strict time constraints to finish 60 x 1 hour lessons before the end of January, then there's the usual teaching,  observing, managing , and running my team and the school at the weekends with the 3 monthly reviews coming up and regular Teacher observations shortly. And I've got to start studying this online course when I get back! I've got my laptop in today so Lee can set it up and install all the various programmes and gubbins that will allow me to work a bit more from home. I don't think I'll ever be much cop at Adobe illustrator though. As soon as I see a bunch of micro tool windows crop up all over the screen ,my eyes glaze over and my incumbent technophobia involuntarily kicks in!

 Admittedly, some of this stuff is being done because I need the additional cash on top of my salary, but I am planning to go away for a couple of weeks over Christmas (Sumatra probably) and I need to see my family in early April…I can't see myself taking on any other commitments for a while..no extra corporate classes around town etc!  I find it all daunting when I think about it I must say, but with proper care and attention I should be able to avoid sitting in the office in the dark on a Friday night and scurrying around like a blue arsed fly throughout the weekends!! Though  it's probably time to buy a big fancy desk diary!!

As I'll be in Borneo next week I reckon it'll be unlikely that my usual Friday blog is forthcoming. I expect to post on Tuesday 28^th.

A final word on babies!!! Congratulations to my pal Dom who's wife Jenny has just had a baby girl.

And "Break a leg" to my friends Ivon and Vicky who are expecting their first sometime in the next week. I'm thinking of you.

 

     

Hi there! (11/10/08),

 

Another looong week! I'm just back from running/teaching a kiddies camp up at the Legacy River Kwai Resort in Kanchanaburi for 5 days. The theme was "History Hunters", we looked at what happened up there , Bridge on the river Kwai stuff, the death railroad, the role of Thailand during WWII. The kids age ranged from 7-15 so there was quite an age spread. I spent the mornings outside on a roofed pontoon down on the river teaching the 11-15 year olds and Lee taught the young kids in an air-con room..lucky guy!!!. The afternoons were spent doing joint activities and watching over them as they played sport. The evenings were filled with games, quizzes, movies, activities, etc etc. Needless to say,  Lee and I didn't get much rest at all. We took turns getting up to the activity room for 0730 to lead the 30 minutes aerobics/warm up session. Then it was breakfast (table manners teaching!), then 2 1.5 hour teaching sessions, then lunch, then games/activities, then sport, then shower time, then dinner, then activities/games, then diary time/milk drinking, then bedtime. And then we had to patrol and help out the teaching assistants put them all to bed. The first night, the power went out from 11pm till 4 am, the kids were all terrified (of ghosts!) so we had to move them in to bunk together with torches (they had lit candles..oooo-er!!) phew! .THEN we'd have a quick meeting to discuss any problems and plan the next day (over a beer). Then it was bed about 11pm only and up the next morning to do it all again. We also did a field trip to the bridge and the railway of death museum, herding them all safely from point to point. I really enjoyed the experience , though it was extremely hard work and very long hours, (11-13 a day!!). There were only 27 kids on the camp and they were all really pretty good and well behaved. I can't imagine the hassle with a camp twice the size with all manner of crying kids, bullying and other such problems. I was very proud of the two quality presentations my class came up with at the end of the week (one art/comic strip project telling the story of the P.O.W's, and the other one a narrated play!). To be fair though, as camp leader and programme/planner etc etc Lee had an even harder job than me. Even with radio microphones in all the rooms he was still losing his voice by the end!! It was a little difficult in so far as we had to do almost everything. The teaching assistants were fine, but all rookies to the residential camp game(like me!) and so  generally lacked any balls in the discipline or decision making front, so Lee and myself were running around like blue arsed flies like a kind of  manic tag team. One of us would wolf down food so the other could go and check on the kids who'd finished lunch/dinner early and were bouncing round the activity room. It went on like that the whole time. I honestly scarcely had time to go for a pee in 5 days haha! I went to bed at 2130 last night , woke up at 0630 this morning and am still stiff and tired!!! It looks like this Monday will be a day in lying on the bed with the curtains drawn again!!

So what's been going down in the land of dodgy politics. Images of tear gassed demonstrators headed up all the news channelas in the arly part of the week. It seems some of the PAD anti-government leaders gave themselves over to the authorities and were promptly incarcerated. By all accounts the government house "sit in" demo continued peacefully until suddenly tear gas and riot shields became the order of the day and violence ensued. I saw a particularly dramatic piece of footage where a policeman was deliberately run over by a speeding 4x4 and then it backed over him!! Nasty! Anyways things have quieted down again for the time being ,but I get the feeling this stalemate can't really continue for much longer.

What is strange is the strength of the Thai economy through all this. In a week where there are all these events in the streets of Bangkok and stocks and shares are plummeting in a worldwide crisis the Thai Baht remains strong. Indeedy it's hovering around the 57 to the pound mark..It was 70 when I first got here. I hope this freefall in thw world economy will find solid ground soon, I can't imagine the hardship some people will suffer having seen their savings effectively wiped away. One thing is certain, we're going to see a fundamental change in the way banks assess credit risk to customers and each other. The other certain thing is that the cost living is going to rise everywhere as the greed of the money men and suppliers reasserts itself. Not that understand any of this but apparently the market of "derivatives" appears to gamble on the market going down , so even while this global economy meltdown is happening, people are making a lot of money. I am glad I didn't gamble all of the little savings I had on the stock market 3 years back….Let's just hope the co-op bank doesn't go the way of the Icelandic banking system!!!

This week celebrates my 3^rd anniversary of coming here. In fact I think it's today! All in all, I reckon I made the right choice in changing my career and my life. I still miss all my friends and family from time to time, but you only get one life and you gotta strive to make it a happy and, perhaps just as importantly, a meaningful one.

 I think I maybe saw that more clearly than ever this week in the happy smile of 27 childrens' faces. Aaaw!

 

 

 

Hi there! (02/10/08),

 

Heavens to Betsy! Where did September go? I'm sure this is a sign of advancing age. When I was young it seemed like a year before a month went past, and a decade between each Christmas. Now everything is blur of half remembered details and an infrequent shocks as I wake up abruptly not even knowing what day it is, invariably thinking it's Saturday and I'm late for work haha!  At least in a land of seasons there's something to mark lifes cycle ("aye right! shite weather an 'aw"! I hear you say!).

Though I'd be the first to admit this past month it's been no wonder I'd thought it'd been rushing by. Last Monday and Tuesday were my first days off in 3 weeks , and will be my last days off for another 2 as I'm offski to the kids camp in Kanchanaburi on Monday. SO DON'T expect a blog update on Friday as I will be coming back in a bus with a bunch of hyperactive bouncing kids….(They won't be getting any sugar laden hot chocolate at night this time..not after the shenanigans that apparently went on last time. Hahah). My day off on Monday was spent in a dark room. I didn't even draw back the curtains..benefits of a land bathed  in eternal sunshine, you never feel as if you're "wasting" a sunny day. I DID mean to get to the condo pool..but..well..you know….

My other bit of news is that I'm OFF TO BORNEO!! Wahey. Indeedy, I booked the flight yesterday. Jon, ( my band drummer..though the bassist has just quit!!!) and I are off to do a bit of trekking, water safaris, and diving. It's only for a week. But with a return flight down there barely 150 quid, it seemed a great idea. We'll be heading to the Malaysian part of Sapah. The town of Kota Kinabalu is in the shadow of the highest mountain in South East Asia. It remains to be seen if I've the energy for the two day hike up that one. I'd rather mess about under the canopy and see what flora and fauna I can see. Though I am prewarned..I will not, repeat not, be overnighting anywhere wild. Travellers stories of fire ants and assorted nasties out to consume and digest any exposed parts of you in the twilight hours are not my idea of fun. Even as it is I'm gonna have to go looking for Leech socks..Yummy! Naice! The most important thing I get out of this trip is a lot of rest, relaxation and a bit of psychological peace from the quiet emotional turmoil I've been in. I could tell you what's been up, but then I'd have to kill you…AND I won't even go into being currently courted by a rich,  young,  and beautiful Mafia "princess" who seems very used to getting what she wants, especially when settling down with a nice farang man to be the substitute father of her kids seems high on her agenda…nuff said.

 I'm often torn between using this blog as a complete confessional (which is not a very good idea) or as some kind of overtly censored (for your own protection) version of my life which  hints at, but barely scratches, some of the meatier (or gossipier) realities of living in the East. Besides, then I think worrying my mum unnecessarily just ain't right. I don't tend to do many stupid things anymore…but then we all spit out the dummy, throw the toys out of the pram, and behave very oddly and out of character from time to time when crisis or frustration combine  to unleash the madness in us. I guess it's OK as long as we recognize the temporary nature of such times…  Know your demons and all that!

" What on Earth is he talking about?" I hear you all say. That's exactly my point . I can't really tell or explain in easy-to-swallow bite sized chunks. Unless you broaden your horizons and try to  assimilate different cultures and attitudes first hand, you're always gonna carry around the excess, or plain inaccurate or possibly provincial moral values and ethics of your referent group or country. It's a bit like when I was 17, I worked as a labourer for Rentokil in the school summer holidays. Over three short months I was aware of amending my accent and my polite language to fit in with a bunch of gruff carpenters, sparks, and plumbers!!! I don't pull that sort of thing nowadays, but I probably fit in better and smoother here than I would have thought possible a couple of years back… "Boys gone troppo"! I hear you say….If you only knew…..But then again I really don't give a flying squirrel what people, what anybody, thinks about me anymore, I'm past all of that. I love my job, like and enjoy my colleagues company, and feel, however misguidedly, that in some small way I maybe am making a positive difference to a few eager minds. Well at least I try and get people to express and  think for themselves even if it probably not worth the effort of scaling ingrained cultural monoliths. It can't be bad to try, even if it is slightly delusional eh? I am after all a teacher. OK , so I'm an English teacher, but surely there's an innate obligation of every teacher who cares what they do to make the world a better place...."He's got a fever and is delirious!" I hear you say.....Could well be...

 

 On reflection, probably just best the blog remains exactly the way it is.

 

Just had the briefing for the Kanchanaburi "Bridge on the River Kwai" kiddies camp next week. Looks like it'll be a hoot actually. I'm sure it'll be tiring but there are all sorts of afternoon sports and activities going on which, although I'll have to oversee, I'm sure I'll get a wee dip in the pool or a kick of the football too!! I'll have a class of 11-15 year olds to teach so they're not as young as I expected!

As regards the Egat camps I've been doing these last few months, it  Looks like they want us for most of the first half of next year to carry on the residential training programme. On top of that, I'm involved with the other guys in putting together an English training curriculum for Spa managers on behalf of the Ministry of Education. That's probably gonna compel me to give up one of my days off to come in and work on it until Christmas. It's an interesting and challenging project to be involved in. If it were to prove successful, I'd expect we'd see more  curriculi stuff to tender for floating our way from them.

I'm just below the level of biting off more than I can chew just now, and that's without embarking on the online training programme I set up for the management team just yet..That'll have to wait till after I get back from Borneo!

 

 

Hi there! (26/09/08),

 

It's been a week of changes this one. Tall Paul has finally decided to call it a day as bassist with the band. He's getting really busy at work and love seems to be in the air with a girl from way out of town. All in all it's best to leave him to his own devices and move on. We always said the band was about having fun and enjoying the process of playing music. If it becomes a chore in any way it loses its appeal very quickly. I sometimes get a bit disgruntled about carting my gear round a hot and sweaty city en route to the studio, but when I'm there I'm always glad I made the effort. Anyway, it's far better to call it a day in this line up and remain friends. The rest of us met for a pint last night, (Tall Paul had a late night biz conference call) and decided we'd go on. Now the problem will be finding a bassist though I may just have handle on that. We may have to start playing one or two more contemporary songs too. It's been a blast playing all this obscure stuff but we'll have to become just a wee bitty more accessible.

Jon the drummer and I also discussed options for the up and coming October week holiday. I think we're gonna head out somewhere for an adventure like we did in Laos. I had a few flight schedules with me to the pub and we discussed the options. We're only going to have about 7 days so I didn't want to spend loads of time trying to cram in multi- flight transfers and long bumpy bus journeys. We both agreed walking up a volcano, seeing some nature, and a bit of beach/scuba diving would be about the right criteria. At the moment Borneo is getting the nod. There is also an Urang-Utan sanctuary there you can stay at. As Jon's a ginger doubtless he'll be of considerable interest to them haha! Either way, I've got to get out of town and do something worthwhile. I've been working and saving pretty hard, and with holiday weeks so few and far between it's madness not to utilize them properly. Besides I need the distraction and a bit of cheering up. I haven't exactly had the best time of it in the emotional stakes lately. Whilst I remain realistic and philosophical about it all, I don't want to hang around staring vacantly into the bottom of a beer bottle or lie by the pool in a Thai beach resort listening to vacuous vacationers.

Talking of work, I just got back from delivering the 5^th and final EGAT camp for this year last Wednesday.  It's been a really good experience and pretty hard work (especially as they tend to fall on my days off—I'm looking forward to a lie in on Monday WAHEY!). We appear to have gone down a storm there,  and the training centre manager is lining us up for another NINE 3 day residential camps next year!!! I'm not sure how that is all going to work out, but we've got a pretty slick training operation going on now. It'll be a question of whether the current management dream team will all be able to get away from our standing work commitments. I would agree however we've really got to have these camps span our days off and do most of them early in the week. The Wed-Fri camp we did time before last was exhausting, and then immediately going back to teach and run the weekend school put a bit of a strain on all of us.  

So it's FINALLY a couple of days off on this Monday and Tuesday coming, then a full weeks work, and  then I'm straight off to work on a  5 day kiddies camp up in Kanchanaburi…. It's in a "history hunters" theme discovering the story of the bridge on the river Kwai and the plight of the POW's under Japanese run Thailand in WWII. I'm slightly nervous about volunteering to staff it as my teaching experience is solidly with older students (11 years+) and I'm sure I'll have one or two difficulties. BUT..I am here to learn and develop my career and teaching skills. Lee (my assistant manager colleague who creates and co-ordinates all these summer camps) is leaving Go-Inter at the end of October, and while I lack the expertise to create a suitable curriculum, I need to know the elements that make a camp successful and the pitfalls too.. So he'll be camp leader and group 1 teacher and I'll be the other staff teacher for group 2. We'll both have a couple of Thai Teaching Assistants to help out and marshall them about. There's only actually about 3 hours of "formal" teaching schedules each day with the rest of the time spent on trips, sports, activities and games (including a giant water fight I believe). I'm not under any illusions as to how exhausting it'll be with 30 kids for 5 days! I'm certain to be needing a holiday afterwards haha!! AND I'll probably be very hoarse from bawling over the cacophony!!

I've been co-ordinating some in-house training lately. We all had a session on adobe illustrator on Thursday. It's bamboozling and complicated computer packages like that where you seen just how generally inept and technophobic you are! Even doing simple stuff like manipulating an image and embedding it on a page had the management team umming and aahing as line upon line of accidental image overlays appeared. I'd like to practice it a bit more in the office on my PC, but installing the programme will probably shut the whole thing down in a jiffy.

 I've also now got the release codes to a whole series of online training. It's part of the Cambridge books product line. Each  successfully completed course even comes with it's own wee certificate haha! Each member of the management team is going to do a different one. I'm gonna embark on the "Introduction to task based learning "  when I get back from the Kanchanaburi camp. It'll be good to get into a little bit of study again. It's only about 3 hours a fortnight apparently. That level of commitment suits me just fine haha.

 

 

 

Hi there! (19/09/08),

 

You got to wonder what kind of a crazy world you live in sometimes. Barely has PM Samak stood down (for appearing on a cookery show on a commercial channel fir cryin' out loud), and his party has decided to replace him with ex-PM Taksins Brother-in-law, whose sister (Taksin's wife) is on the run from a three year sentence on corruption charges!!!...So  we've just had all these mass demonstrations and  government compound sit-ins by the PAD pro-democracy movement to change the government as they believed that Samak was a "puppet" of Taksin, and now the politkers put his brother-in-law in place!!!

 Well at least it sends out a pretty clear and transparent message eh? I'm really not sure what the repercussions of this latest move will be. Doubtless, there'll be a series of strong demos at some point. I only hope that the new guy uses as much restraint as his predecessor did and doesn't send in the troops and the tanks..Where the army and the police stand in all of this is unclear. As far as I can make out allegiances of the security forces seem to work on an individual basis. Apart from the few motivated ones, people in the street shrug and smile resignedly about it, they've seen it too many times to care or get really upset by it all.

 I hope this whole business gets sorted out soon, it doesn't mix well with worldwide financial crises, which, according to an expert in the field I know is just the tip of the iceberg and there will be LOTS more to come. I think a lot of people (myself included) had the wool pulled over our eyes about a new age of easy credit. Debtors jails don't exist any more, but if they did, they'd be full to the gunwhales. All these banks existed on their reputation and image .NONE of them (a couple excepting) can put their money where their mouth is in terms of hard cash reserves. It's all just electronically generated money on a computer screen. It's just a typed out invoice from the credit card company. The "cashless society"  theorists have dreamt about has led to an utter cavalier attitude by those who should have known better. Rest assured, the fat cats in the financing world will come out of this smelling of roses and also be turning a fat profit. I'm just glad I haven't put all my eggs in one basket and put all my savings into speculative shares.

 

Those of you who have been following my story so far will now that it's been tough time for me and Ning lately. We've sustained this long distance relationship for a well over 2 years now, but the time has come to find definitive closure about what to do. She's off with her work to the UK for 4 weeks next week and that will give us the time to think about what we both really want. …I can't keep drifting along in the twilight of some sort of "relationship purgatory". I find myself slightly obsessing about settling down and starting a family. It's not that I am particularly needy person, but I recognize the waste it would be if I spent my life alone and childless…… Bit of a turn around there in the last 3 years innit? Back in the UK I wanted to have kids, but couldn't really put my finger on why..it was more ambivalent…with doubts as to all the personal sacrifices to be made. Now it's far more instinctual, almost like seeing the answer to a complex maths equation on a blackboard…a "eureka"  feeling.  Maybe because I'm older. Maybe because family and children are so openly valued, loved, and prized over here. Maybe because I teach children and enjoy the unsullied and free processes of their minds. Maybe because I'm vain and want to create some sort of image or reflection of myself to live on after I die. Maybe because…Hell I don't know!…I just need to settle and start living for people other than myself. Though I must say, the thought of starting all over again and  going off in search of someone special, who coincidentally finds me special, doing the months long mating dance etc, etc etc, frankly fills me with dread. Rest assured I will not settle for less than the real thing…Getting a "baby mama" up the duff to just bear my children in a loveless environment is simply not an option. You'd be surprised how many people do it here…

 

Oh dear, I just re-read the last paragraph. That'll have my mum on the phone faster than you can say,   "Oh my poor boy!" haha.

 

My boss has been throwing down the gauntlet to me lately too. He's trying to get me focused on my future and career development. It's kind of him and I understand and appreciate his intentions, but maybe cause we're both Scottish we end up at  loggerheads, in  locked horned cul-de-sacs. I don't think I've ever met somebody who cares so much about what he does, yet hides it in such a gruff and disposable manner. You have to admire how much he tries to always move forwards even given the indifference and  inherent negative entropy of complacent Thai Higher Educational establishments. I think my lack or forward inertia disappoints him a little…Yet I feel I still have lots to do and learn in my present role. I've been setting up a series of inhouse and online trainings for staff and I'm trying to learn about task based learning as I do it with my project class. I'm also studying how to effectively incorporate technology into task based learning. That and al the other management issues every week are keeping my on my toes. I do understand his point of view though. I will have to think about changing my role at work or engage in more serious study in the coming years. Most of my colleagues are in one way or another forcing themselves to see themselves 10 or 20 years down the line. It isn't being narcisstic just practical. It may be true to say our personal lives are generating this view more than our professional ones, but at least we're thinking about it. I think once I've sorted out a few of my immediate personal issues I'll be able to focus on aims and objectives more clearly .

 

So no football and no tennis this last week..not at all good. I'll need to get some exercise in soon. We did take the staff out to a bowling/Karaoke night on Wednesday night. That was a laugh. I really don't like Karaoke much, but now that people realize I can sing a bit (let's say I can hold a tune, which is more than many of colleagues) I'm having songs chosen for me without my knowledge and the mic thrust into my hand with monotonous regularity. The irony is I have to do the final training camp down at Bang Pakong power station Mon-wed next week and we seem to have an obligatory Karaoke session with the delegates built into our curriculum now. They're a young lot so maybe I'll do some Kylie as opposed to Elvis haha.

Hi there! (14/09/08),

 

I'm a bit late with the blog this week….I've been away training electricity generating authority managers and then gone straight into the weekend teaching/managing…Soooo I'm a wee bitty tired. I always feel like this on a Sunday afternoon as the school winds down for another weekend. This one has been quite fraught as we've also had testing for round 6 (which I'm in charge of) in two different places. Fortunately I did most of the prep work last week, but there's always the odd niggly/personnel thing that comes along.

The EGAT training camp was the best of the 4 we've done so far I think. Thestudents were keen and happy go lucky. They took to all the games and activities with gusto making our teaching sessions fly by. Still my calves feel all sore and knotted from all the time pacing About on solid floors. We tried doing an "all change" activity undercover but outside late one afternoon and it ABSOLUTELY poured down. I found myself bawling and shrieking to 18 students over a tropical storm…I was sweated through by the end of it haha.

Whilst there, I got bitten by what I must guess was a type of mosquito/insect that hadn't feasted on me before, and my left upper arm and elbow have swelled up quite a bit in quite a violent reaction. The skin was burning hot for 2 days, but I've been treating it with Betnovate anti-histamine cream and now it's settling down to being just generally itchy. The actual bite itself is tiny….wonder what the bug had in its spit that caused me so much discomfort. I'll need to be care of the fauna down there, especially as we'll be going back a number of times in the future apparently.

Still I mustn't grumble. My pal Paul returned from his week trip down the coast to see if it would improve his skin complaint and has suffered a serious relapse. I still think he has to move out of the house , but it's getting really bad and making him understandably miserable. The band hasn't been playing as a consequence of course…It's all a bit sad. I just hope they can find out what's up with him.

It seems that Thailand has a new PM and the last one had to stand down because of his appearance on a cookery programme aired on a commercial channel…A bit odd that one. I think they were looking for some way he could go whilst still saving face or summat. What happens next in the whole scheme of things is anybodys guess…I'll keep you posted.

It's 5 weeks to my next wee holiday. I'm still not quite sure what to do with it. Maybe I'll head over to Sulawesi  and climb up a volcano after all. I was also thinking about going to Koh Samui to see Ning, but lately something or someone has been happening in that particular part of the world, I can't quite put my finger on it (not that I'd be likely to hear it first hand anyway) but faith in a joint future is plummeting fast and I'm too empty or something to put up much of a fight.

That's not to say I'm not currently craving the close proximity of a woman. My dreams have been most  intense and graphic on that front recently. Whoever said that celibacy was character building was clearly talking an utter load of bollocks. I do realize though, that I'm craving the closeness of a sleepy cuddle almost as much…

Outside of work, and the odd drink afterwards with colleagues, I've been living like a bit of a hermit lately. Infrequent days off, (cos of all the extra work stuff) have been spent reading books and watching independent movies that I've downloaded). I've actually enjoyed the time on my own, but occasionally I need to remind myself to try and be a little more proactive in the things I do with my free time. Aside from the tennis (again this tues..wahey) and the football I don't really do much else. I guess I don't quite have the energy levels I used to haha.

So it's back down to Egat a week on Monday for the final training camp this year…wheew. I think the whole team is starting to get affected the 'groundhog day" or deja vue of the place and the course. The food however is seemingly getting worse if such a thing were possible. They tried to feed us the same salt dried fish 3 days in a row. Next time I'm gonna mark it with a marker pen!!

My boss asked me if I wanted to go to a day long seminar by teaching guru Dr Crashen next Saturday (someone would have to do my 2 classes and I'd lose out on 4000 baht tho). But I think I'd like to go actually. Ain't nuttin' wrong wi' a bit o professionnull development innit?

Good luck to my mate Dom who'll probably be a daddy by the weeks end…..Boy or girl ? " You want what you get " he said…..Very true.

Hi there (5/9/08),

 

Another state of emergency in less than 12 months! Technically all meetings/gatherings of more than 5 people are banned!! Somehow I don't think that bit works….

So what's the score on the ground? Well, the stick wielding farmers of the north came down late last Sunday night and had a set to with the PAD squatters in the government house compound. 1 person died…. PM Samak has unequivocably said he will not stand down or resign..This inevitably leads to the issue of what to do with the civil unrest. He has got court orders allowing him to remove the protesters but so far has shown extraordinary restraint. There's a funny feeling on the streets just now. It's simply not as busy as usual; the roads re quieter, the skytrain less pack, the market stalls fewer, a few corporate classes getting cancelled. If a city can hold its breath maybe this is what we're looking at. Either way, as a farang I'm pretty much safe. I don't live in the affected  areas and I'm not about to go on a jolly with my camera to get snaps! There has been talk of 24 different unions going on strike, but apart from a few highways infrequently blocked and some train disruption most of the planned action seems to have failed to go ahead…Perhaps it will all blow over, but there seems to be a little more edge to the proceedings in comparison to the coup last year.

I've had a few friends passing through this week. Graeme came back from India and picked up the  rucksack he'd been storing with me, and Leigh, Donna, and baby have shown up for a week…They haven't got very much positive to say about life in Melbourne. They really must have gone troppo. All of it sounds so familiar: 2 weeks to see a doctor, hoards of neds sweeping majestically through the Highpoint (aka knifepoint) shopping centre, shit pizza and coke for 15 quid, and a long early commute at 6am every weekday…YUM! Apparently down there in Winter it's 3-13 degrees in Winter and summer up to 40..so the houses generally don't tend to have heating and at this time of year it's BALTIC. I sometimes miss being cold, but every day? No thanks.

Needless to say Leigh, Chris and I painted the town red on Monday night. I haven't been on the randan like that in a very long time…Tuesday was a bit of a write off , though I did manage to finally get to Pantip technology plaza and buy a portable hard drive. My laptop was full and I had to transfer files (movies mostly). I don't know what it is about these places, but I find them daunting. You go in, you know what you want, know the rough price, and SUDDENLY you're riddled with doubts as all sorts of gadgets, newer models, gubbins, doobries, bluetoothy, DDRAM, hyper-drive stuff, is flying at you. I'm not technophobic , but I genuinely don't know what half the stuff is for. It gets so bad, you wonder if what you came for is actually what you want. It's like some sort of wondrous toyshop for adults. It was amazing to see how outdated my 15 month old laptop has so quickly become. Specs ,specs, specs, it's all about the specs! I even saw Chinese copies of the apple iphone for 100 quid…I still hanker after one slightly, but keep telling myself to wait a couple of years..I'm far better off  saving . Whilst I'm not exactly a portrait of a Frugal and monk-like existence, I have been really trying to keep my spending down.

So there's another EGAT training camp next week. Another three days out of town followed by a helluva busy weekend testing . Then back for 10 days, then  one last camp for the year. After that it looks like I'll be part of a team darwing up a teaching curriculum for Spa Managers on behalf of the Department of Education. It'll probably take till Christmas. I've already made inroads to see about getting a day in a spa to get an idea of their English needs…Doubtless I'll have to endure a pedicure or mud bath or something as part of the process.  Then it'll be back to EGAT in January and February as they want the 'dream team" to teach a further 200 delegates. I'm also in the running for doing the in-house 5 day kids camp up in Kanchanaburi in early October, though I'm not sure I'll have the requisite energy!

So I guess I've a bit of a plan over Autumn. I do have a week off and may end up heading off Phisanulok,   Loei way  and the National Parks of central Thailand with the boys. A bit of hiking and photography is good for the soul….Though I'd really rather go for a jolly out of Thailand to Laos again.

On the school front, my L9 special project class is launching issue one of their  "Green Earth Gazette" this week. They've worked really hard on it for the last three weeks, I'm very proud of them. Now all we gotta do is staple a couple of hundred copies together and put the posters up. My only worry is that the parents will ALL want their kids doing project type classes. They require a degree hard work and take a lot of thought and  preparation as you don't tend to use any books at all in project based learning…Think I'll reward them will a BBC Earth special on Volcanoes in period three..What a nice guy eh?

 

Hello there (29/08/08),

 

I've had a few enquiries about what is going on in Thailand just now…Well, it seems the PAD mob (or "mop" as the Thais pronounce them) have raised the stakes a little higher……

It all started with the incredibly speedy way in which the proceedings against former PM Taksin and his wife were processed. If you recall she was found guilty but given bail to leave the country to attend the Olympics opening ceremony from where they both absconded back to the UK. The PAD (pro-democracy pressure group) capitalised on this and mounted a series of very well co-ordinated ( it was impressive!!!) activities which involved barricading roads all over Thailand, breakuing in an occupying the NBT TV station (widely recognized as Taksins mouthpiece) and climbing over the ornate gates of government house and mobbing around outside. They still view the incumbent cabinet as little more than Taksins puppets and are trying to force ANOTHER election. There have been clashes with police, though both sides are displaying a great deal of restraint. Nobody wants to see a bloodbath. For the most part, the demos have gone down peacefully. I guess it's the scale of them that has been surprising. They seem to appear out of nowhere. The majority of the demostrators are wearing the ubiquitous canary yellow t shirts and waving thai flags, the suggestion of which is that they're on the side of what is right and tacitly condoned. What ever is going on, they seem to have a degree of heavyweight financial backing from somebody (which IS worrying). A lot of them appear to be out-of-towners bussed in for the proceedings and appear to not really know what's going on!!! Arrest warrants have been issued for the leaders of the PAD..i'm not so sure that's a good idea. The PAD leaders are revered and have been active for many many years through some of the more violent times. It might a bad idea to incarcerate them.

…. Back again, I just had to do a 30 minute Reiki session on a colleague's back. It's always funny to see the expressions on these tough northern "Doubting thomases" when a Reiki session does more for them than 4 painkillers, 2 anti-inflammatories, and the back rub ministrations of a live-in girlfriend…Bottom line, as I told him, "44 year old men shouldn't be bench pressing their own bodyweight (80kg) 75 times over in a gym"…nothing wrong with a bit of toning and light weight repetition, but your own bodyweight? Nah!

My poor band mate small Paul is having a nightmare. He's developed the worst cirrosis/ alopecia (however you spell it) all over his body. He's a flaking mess. Not one part of his body has escaped this. He's been stoned on steroids and antihistamines for weeks, the moment he lowers the dosage it'sd back with a vengeance. I've told him to take the doctors advice and move out of his home for a week..Actually I told him to get out of town altogether. I think as he lives near a large canal, and his street is prone to flooding that somehow the water is getting into his house water system and he's being slowly poisoned. Either way, it's a complete nightmare for him, he looks so bad and everyone stares, for a teacher that's just the worst! We've cancelled a gig on Saturday because of this. Poor sod! I really hope he sorts this soon.

So, Kerry's cousin Graham aka. Wig is back in town from his 2 months in India. He's visiting my dentist this afternoon (didn't want an Indian one strangely enough) and then we'll have a few….Best not get too squiffy though, tomorrow is as usual the busiest day of my week.

AND Leigh and Donna hit town again on Monday.  Doubtless they'll be a boys night or two coming up this week..and I'm trying to live frugally haha….actually I'm doing OK on that front, but my laptop has just started to tell me it's getting a bit low of the disk space. I really am going to have to bite the bullet and go get me a portable hard drive from Pantip plaza. I've been going crazy downloading all last years independent films I can find. You don't see them out here at all.

That's about it for now. I need to get on and prep this weekends classes. It's pretty quiet in the office for a Friday as all the thai support staff are elsewhere in the University to see the Crown Princess do something. There's a look of "Chula pink" shirts to be seen round the campus today!!

 

Hi There,   (21/08/08)

 

So my pal Pete breezed through BKK this week. Always good to hear a fresh perspective about the general goings on in the UK. I don't know if the pejorative term "Broken Britain" refers more to the social than to the prevailing economic conditions , but it sure sounds like things are gearing up there for a serious "Winter of Discontent". Don't get me wrong, I'm not some smug self-satisfied Ex-pat who believes he's found some sort of secret of life (there are a lot about). I'm just trying to get a handle on it. I guess I'm trying to work out how the nosedive of the US housing market has had such a knock on effect. Even here in Asia..though to a slightly lesser extent at the moment. Certainly around this way, the banks are desperate for people to save and thereby give them the available readies..who knows where it'll all end? I've said it once and I'll say it again; for those countries involved in global "peacekeeping",  (for want of better expression), the costs and consequent strains on domestic economys must be simply enormous. Here's my pal Pete earning loads of money compared to me but he's not saving much at all…well the daily 2.5 hour commute each way into London does cost 3500 quid a year after all…MADNESS!!

I guess the thing that bothers me as much as slowly but inexorably losing the closest ties with my friends, or missing my family, is that I'm finding it harder to envision ever moving back. I doubt I could really afford it…I mean getting a job, finding a place to stay, settling back in there...it all seems so difficult now, more than ever…it was hard enough to even get an interview when I was IN  a job. I can scarcely see the reasons anymore. This place isn't perfect, the heat can be wearing sometimes, the city centre noisy and busy , yet my quality of life is so much better. I count myself lucky to have landed such a good job with a fun and happy working atmosphere: the ipods are never off in the office and we sing along to the tunes as we work over the week.

Questions however remain….what do I do about that time 25 years hence when I need to look after myself in old age? Should I be buying a flat here even in this financial climate? (Houses are better value for money but as Johnny Foreigner I can't own the land beneath) Am I destined to go through life childless and unmarried? Should I consider a course of study to keep trained and enhance my future job prospects? (online MA or Delta, or PGdip/PG Cert). Basically, do I have a plan ? And I don't think I do..I mean I follow through on most of the things I intend to do. I do look for possible business opportunities from time to time. If I do study, to what end? There's no point in studying towards a well paid job at an international school If I find I don't actually want to teach 20+ hours a week and get bogged down in all the minutae like many people I see. Of course the holidays are generous but staff meetings at 0700 every day.? I like the balance between mgt and teaching.. should I do HR stuff? It's all pretty expensive (in Thai terms) so I have to make sure to get some return on my outlay if I do so….Lots of I dunnos here. I guess a sense of personal happiness is where I've always gauged the success or failure of my life and I'm pretty happy here…These questions go round in a loop and epiphanies nowadays are as rare as being aware at a recognizable "crossroads" in your life. Veritable "hens teeth". Up till now I've only ever seen my life choice crossroads from the perspective of the rear view mirror inside a speeding juggernaut:

….."Next petrol station 16 years…"

I'm off on a residential camp for three days again next week…Hard work ,BAD food…I mean BAAD: the only place in Thailand I've ever experienced factory worker type canteen food. Chilli eggs, dried anchovies and stewed Kale for breakfast anyone? Still I'll be saving money, I might just get till the 28^th with my 50,000 Baht savings intact..hopefully 75,000 by the end of next month. With two more camps after this one in rapid succession I should definitely reach my 100,000 Baht "Christmas" target by the end of October..It's all new to me this saving malarkey..Not nearly so hard when all you've got to do to save money is not to get suckered into wasting money on gadgets, home improvement, clothes, … just STUFF….The kinda stuff you're not supposed to be able to live without haha.  I probably spend heaps on going out compared to a local Thai person though..there's the irony.

My friends Leigh and Donna who moved back to Melbourne with the new baby about 8 months ago are really not liking it back in Oz after 8 years of asian globetrotting round Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. They really hankering to move back. I think they're coming back for a holiday at the end of the month to make sure they're not viewing the place through rose tinted spectacles. To be honest a lot of people who leave here cos they're sick to death of the place really end up missing it like Hell. There really isn't anywhere to compare. I don't think they are looking through tinted specs. They could go both go out working , make good money AND have a live-in maid looking after the baby over the day, and STILL save a few hundred quid every month….That's the beauty of this place.

Tennis was good this week..though we still lost, Bruce and I gave them a run for their money. I caught up with my mate Chris for a long overdue eat and drink this week too so I've been pretty busy.

I've looked into another venue to play this week. They seem quite keen, but their equipment setup leaves a lot to be desired. I need a second opinion.

That's about it for this week. Oh, and congrats to my cousin Mikkel for getting married to Eda. Poor lass..you gotta feel sorry for her!!! haha

 

Hi there (15/08/08),

Things in a political aspect have calmed down a little since "you-know-who' jumped bail and flew back to the UK to chair his football club. I may be premature in saying this, but I get the distinc feeling that his political aspirations have either been quashed for good, or have taken such a dunt it might be years for him to recover from. Either way, should he set foot in Thailand again in the near future he'll more likely than not appear in the ole pokey.

I've also been hearing rather disturbing news as to how my old colleagues at the Glasgow Tourist Info office and leaving in absolute droves as the working conditions and lack of high leadership are simply too dreadful to bear. I gotta feel sorry for them. Even the ones who've been committed to the god of Customer Service up till now have had it… six resignations in six weeks!..I can imagine just how awful the queues must be at what is traditionally the busiest weekend of the year. My deepest sympathies to those of you left in the rudderless ship: Nines, Gillian, Larissa….I hope you've all got some holiday booked….Maybe you guys should get out of there too..It's really not good for the soul. VisitScotland the bastard son of the Scottish Tourist Board you've got a lot to answer for.

Football was rained off on Sunday after work, but I did get a game of tennis, and a game of golf in this week. Bruce and I stupidly agreed to play the guys beside us at doubles and paid the price of relative but thorough humiliation 6-3 6-0!! And my golf game still teeters between semi acceptable and woeful..but the ground WAS pretty waterlogged AND the clubs are a touch too small for me..sooo. Anyways, it's always nice to be out doing something vaguely sporty. However, my niggly back problem refuses to go away…Maybe it's a compressed disc, or inflamed fluid at the base of my spine..I just dunno. After any kind of running exercise it just kinda seizes up and standing up or bending down becomes a painful chore. Sometimes when I stand up I have to just wait twenty or so seconds until I can straighten my back properly and move. I'm wary of sitting on hard stools or benches and actually stand up and move around when I feel the symptoms of back lock starting. Once it goes, it can take anything from 12 hours to 3 or 4 days to resolve itself. I think quite soon I might have to go in search of a chiropractor or an acupuncturist or something similar. There don't appear to be any osteopaths here. It does leave me slightly concerned that I can't shake it….I might actually have to start a more regular regimen of yoga or something..not something I particularly want to do..but if it stops me getting gradually crippled…

A mix up in communication meant the band didn't practice last week, but we did play together last night and it was really good. It might be a little to early to tell, but I saw the first glimmerings of moving up a notch to the next skill level for about an hour last night. Errors were very few, tightness was at the fore and we all seemed to be trying to interpret the songs rather than just play them accurately. Either way there's something a little new in the air. We also played 2 brand new songs and just about nailed them both after 2 plays each. Alas the monstrously fast, frenetic and rhythmically complex "Brianstorm" by the Arctic Monkeys is still to full of space and pregnant pauses to be anywhere near performance level. One song I did manage to cock up twice has proven to me that there are certain riffy, widdly bits I have to sit down and play EVERY week for twenty minutes to keep my edge. I have also been experiencing a few technical problems with my gear. This corrosive climate is terrible for stuff like that. I think I'll have to get it looked at before I gig again anytime soon. When I see what six hours of heat, humidity,  and sweat do to guitar strings, I can only guess what it's doing to the electrical innards of things. Talking of gigs I've heard word that a farang bar on soi Rangnam at victory monument is happy to let us try out there. I'll hopefully go and see the guy soon and thrash out a date where we can get another farang band like the Fake Degrees along, make a decent gig of it and promote properly in advance. Bangkok is very very hard to create any kind of scene in. If it were any other country in SE Asia that wasn't so manipulated or brainwashed in terms of the "Arts" we'd be playing considerably bigger gigs. I'm not saying that from a point of conceit..we're not the best band in the world, but we are getting damn good at what we do. The people that do come to our shows are more often than not impressed with our sound..even if the obscure music we play is not to their taste.

I was toying with the idea of a two day trip down to Pattaya on Sunday night as some of my colleagues are doing teacher training down there on Monday and Tuesday. The main drawback is that it'll be digging a wee bitty into my savings to do so. Then again I'll be working 2 weeks through without a day off after that (another EGAT camp)….Hmm,  that lovely pool at the "Peace Resort" is starting to look definitely enticing…but do I really want to night wander round endless beer bars warding off countless tarts whilst drinking too much for a couple of days? That's the problem with Patters you can never have just a quiet time there. It just won't let you.

 

 

Hi there, (08/08/08),

 

I just spent the last hour writing out a very in depth and detailed blog about my life, Thai life etc, only to have it all fail when my computer developed a fault as someone else printed something from our shared printer!! DOH!!!

I haven't really got the time to start all over again…Suffice to say I've been very busy. I was chuffed that the special "Green Day" curriculum I put together for day 2 of the EGAT senior managers 3 day camp we did at the start of the week worked really well. Two down, three more to go…boy they are hard work but also ultimately rewarding. It's a shame the training centre food at Ban Pakong is so bad, that's the only negative! Oh, and that I showed up on day 1 with the WORST tummy bug!! Thank God for Ciprofloxacin!! I never want to go on the skytrain in Monday morning rush hour to the office in that state ever again, I was soo close to losing it, dripping in sweat, tromboning vision, the works. I consequently didn't each much down there: I got back to BKK after 3 days gagging for a decent meal haha! AT TH E RISK OF REPEATING MYSELF I"VE JUST RECOVERED THE 2 PAGE ORIGINAL BLOG DOC SO IT"S GOING HERE 

All the 8's huh! A VERY auspicious number in Asia, especially China..it means wealth allegedly. Perhaps I should have a flutter today? Then again maybe not!

So I was walking past a building site this morning near my work and all sorts of things were going on..the gates were open, the public were peering in, the workmen standing solemnly around a wee gazebo erected in the middle of all the mud, and a bunch of monks were sitting around chanting! It took me a minute to realize what was going on..They were obviously about to put in the first foundation pillar and had to ask the monks for a blessing and get the chief monk to identify which one…Weird concept isn't it? I mean we in the west all understand "ground breaking" ceremonies etc..but to ask a holy man to decide which foundation pillar goes in first is a bit of a weird one. It's also the same when private building gets knocked down or renovated…ON NO ACCOUNT can the spirit house be removed or replaced without the express blessing of a monks ceremony. In a city where real estate is at a premium, you can often see two or 3 spirit houses clogging up gardens where the space could be far better used….. I know I'm a heretic and do not honour my ancestors like I should, but then like most westerners I simply haven't been brought up to have an almost psychotic dependency on the extended family structure…. Recently I was talking to a 25 year old divorced mother of two who cannot sleep at night because alone she is afraid of the dark. It transpires she shared her parents bed till the age of 18, then when she came to BKK to study she kipped down with her brother for a further 4 years, then she got married directly after graduation!!  She tells me She spends the nights with the lights blazing, the tv on and the stereo going. This conditioning is probably something she'll never recover from.

I was also thinking of the condo building madness that is gripping the city. They are springing up everywhere along the predicted skytrain extension and along the river. People actually buy an apartment from the plans and pay a sort of monthly deposit then paying the balance when they move in (that's how they're financed. This is potentially a bit dodgy if the economy goes belly up as has happened once recently. They've all got flowery names like : "The River", "Seeding gardens", "Immolta" ….But the one that made me laugh is " The Hive"….I mean who wants to live in a hive? Who wants to feel like they're living in a hive? Thais see it as a bustling vibrant community living experience, westerners see it as a homogenized, compartmentalized ratrace existance. This perhaps more than anything shows some very fundamental differences in our thinking. We westerners all want believe we are individuals: special and unique, Thais want to conform and integrate. Certainly there are none of the crushing youth and gang problems of broken Britain here.

I've been down at Ban Pakong electricity Generating Authority of Thailand residential training centre mon-wed this week. Myself and the management team delivered an English course to Senior managers. I was a little nervous as I had put together a specific 2 hour training on raw materials, reusing, recycling, and energy. We didn't know in advance what their level of English was like and I was concerned it would flop. As it happened, it all went down very well. We worked really well together as a team each person taking his turn at a specific teaching point or session. But it was a really intense 3 day course and very hard work..I'm still feeling tired. That said we've another 3 x 3 day courses to do there before the end of September

 THE RISK OF REPEATING MYSELF I"VE JUST RECOVERED THE ORIGINAL  BLOG WORD DOC AND WILL INSERT IT HERE>>>>

Still, it's all money. I might just have saved about 700 quid over the last 2 months if I remain frugal to the months end. Like I said tho' there are so many distractions in terms of gadgets, clothes, etc here. That said, I'm still committed to keeping my life relatively clutter free..says he who just went to town spending 50 quid on a Camel Factory discount sale, mind you, that did buy me 3 shirts, a pair of trousers, and a sturdy pair of outdoor boots!!! I gotta say I really do like Camel gear, it's hard wearing and really good quality. You've just got to be careful what you buy so you don't look like you're going on safari..oh and their patterned or checked shirts make you look like an old fart!!

I've got three days off next week and looking forward to a nice break. Not that I'll be going anywhere just reading books and kicking back…my pal Pete back is back in town from the UK (off somewhere just now Koh samet I think)) with his girlfriend so hopefully he'll show up.

That's about all I have time for folks. Next week we get an extra day off for the queens birthday so doubtless I'll be having a very chilled out time.

 

 

Hi There (01/08/08),

 

My oh my! How the months seem to be speeding by, August already! Summer in the UK will be almost over, the nights turning distinctly chilly!

There's a bit of frost in the political outlook here too. Ex-PM Taksin's wife, her brother, and her maid(?) have all been sentenced to between 2 and 3 years prison for tax fraud ( and "out" on a 5 million baht bail pending appeal of course). Taksin himself will be up next on similar charges. What does this exactly mean? He is, after all the EX-PM. Well, as popular belief would have it, he's currently the power behind the present governmental setup and they haven't exactly been endearing themselves to the general populace of late. There may well be ramifications that would eventually dissolve the current parliament. Rumour is, by the way, that Taksin's wife took off for China last night as soon as she was out of custody!

There a lot of rumours bouncing around just now about the state of the economy.. If it's one thing this country is full of, it's rumours . I'd tell you some, but I'd have to shoot you! Certainly there is a squeeze on the economy as continued high fuel prices have their inevitable knock on effect. Every time I go and eat in one of my usual restaurants, everything has gone up in price by about 7p. Not a lot for someone who earns well like me, but a lot for the average citizen. Indeed, belts are being tightened, banks are trying to get more deposit account investors through mass cold calling…Figure it out!

I've been doing an awful lot of extra work here and there lately and my wages are reflecting it…If I stay frugal myself this month I might have my first substantial savings in the bank since got here!! This is the point where viral marketing gets hold of me and I start dreaming of Nicknacks like iphones, portable hard-drives, bicycles, and holidays to Hong Kong!

Actually, I'm away off to another EGAT (Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand) residential camp from Mon-Wed next week. It's the Senior Managers camp this time so we've had to change and theme the syllabus a lot more so as to differentiate from the Junior managers (the Senior's English is also apparently a lot weaker), but it's really anyone's guess how it will pan out. I'm a little nervous of the hour and a half I have designed to kick off "Green Energy Day" on Tuesday, especially as I have to deliver it in front of my Manager colleagues. They're a great bunch though and if it should die on it's feet I'm certain they'll bail me out. I'm sure the blindfold "feely" bags for the "What's it made of, What's it for?" team game will be quite amusing for all concerned.

Talking of designing stuff, I attended a TESOL conference on Sunday morning for a couple of hours and was chuffed as anything to realize I'm embarking on the right track with my L9 special project class. Task based learning is a difficult thing to deliver well, but I'm making some progress. The class Wiki I set up is getting its first few chats/threads from the class individuals coming in. Those who want to have a look it's: http://blueearthgreenplanet.wetpaint.net/ but please don't register as a user I'm trying to keep this a closed discussion group…Still not sure what direction they want to go in but it's early days, only week three this Saturday.

The band had a gig last Saturday night, but we really got messed around badly and didn't actually get on till 2330. After a 12 hour day including 6 hours teaching and a shedload of personnel issues, I was REALLY pissed off by the time we got on stage…I think we all were…Which is probably why we played so fast, so tightly aggressive, and so well !!! Shame there were only about 15-20 people to see us. We've really got to find another decent gig and soon! We didn't even get paid for the gig due to some chicanery as to who was "setting up" the 3 band night: not even expenses…not even a beer! AND I lost a favourite guitar cable…A high quality replacement is gonna cost me 30 quid! Doh! But I've got to get a good one as cheapos really don't carry the signal nearly as well (guitarists: they're all sonic purists!) and they break down easily too.

ANYWAY, I've perhaps got a line on a bar on Soi Rangnam by Victory Monument that's not far from my home. With any luck I should be talking to the boss from the middle of next week. I think the way forward is to play with another band (that we like!), promote the gig jointly, and try and get a scene going….I'm not going to play for Paul and Beady from "Mind the Gap" under any circumstances again…Shysters!

5-a-side footie on Sunday night and Tennis on Tuesday morning took their toll on my back again. Maybe it's the high impact jarring on my lower spine. I made sure to stretch and warm up too. I cut short the tennis game and spent the day in a lot of discomfort (but left the painkillers alone!). By Wednesday morning, the pain, stiffness, and spine locking up had all completely gone!!! I can't figure it out…..

 

Hi There, (20/07/08),

 

Well I just got back from Laos this morning. A short five day touring holiday of Pakse, the Bolaven Plateau, and a couple of neighbouring provinces. All told, we (Tallpaul and Jon from my band) biked the Honda Waves for almost exactly 600km. The roads weren't always kind and my ass hurts. I have a new found respect for these little step-through motorbikes, no wonder they are the workhorses of Asia! I was sure that we'd come to some sort of breakdown or grief on the really rough and rocky dirt roads (about a third of the journey was on them), but these marvellous little machines just rattled and bounced on through all weathers!! As wiry and tough as Mongolian horses they are!!

Yes the trip was something else… A real adventure up into the Laoatian wilderness with jungle treks, waterfalls, and remote villages to boot. I'll post pictures up in my GALLERY on Wednesday (POSTED!) when I have a better connection.

We flew to Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand and stayed overnight before crossing the border in Laos. An hour  or so later we were in Pakse (after the inevitable free-for-all at the border crossing. It was particular chaos here. We briefly checked in before grabbing the hire bikes and biking off to Champusak temple for the late afternoon. There was no way we could outrun the vicious storm that blew in over the escarpment, so we had to shelter in an abandoned hut until the howling wind and rain abated to such a degree we could attempt the 20 odd mile journey back. Driving a motorbike in the dark, in the pissing rain and strong winds on the right side of the road was certainly a freaky experience. Being Laos however, the roads were all extremely quiet and those that were out and about drove cautiously. A bit of a trial by fire anyways! As it turned out, the real dangers nearly always came from goats, hens, cows, and dogs that had a tendency to spring out. Needless to say we were all pretty careful (especially around villages) and survived the trip without falling off or hitting anything! Actually I fell off once (doing about 2 mph) trying to coax my bike up a muddy bank onto a pathway as the road was washed out. It certainly gave the rice workers a bit of a giggle!

The next day, up at the crack of dawn we drove on up to the Bolaven Plateau. We went straight to the giant Tad Fane falls (biggest in Southern Asia at 160 metres) and booked the last chalet overlooking the stunning display. Then it was off to explore another series of waterfalls and drive down any dirt track that took our fancy. ..It was full moon up there and we sat out in the truly deliciously cold night air (about 20 degrees..bliss) drinking Beer Laos and watching the moonlit clouds come rolling in over the canyon to the soundtrack of jungle nightlife.

Another early rise (no shower save for a dribble from the non-existant water pressure) and it was off on 160 km loop over the north of the plateau and back down. We took the whole day over this doing some jungle trekking where we found a magnificent view down over the valley floor with the Mekong in the distance . We also found some very remote villages where all the kids came running out to see us. There was a lot of photo taking as the kids really wanted to see their pictures. It rained on and off during the day so we had to take it easy on the rocky, greasy, and intermittently dusty red tracks..(I was covered in orange dust by the end of the day). The people nearly all smiled, shouted hello (Sawa dee) and waved whenever we went past. It was a most unusual experience. I guess the ones that do see tourists up there are ones that are hardly ever on bikes, just zooming past in minivans and buses to the sparse tourist sites. We really got off the beaten track a few times to real Styxland.

We made it back to Pakse for late afternoon and watched the lightning storms over the mountains in the distance sitting drinking beer by the river at sunset. Then ,  after a long beery dinner we fell into bed.

The last day Jon had to head out early as he HAD to be back in time to teach his kids on Monday morning. Paul and I took the bikes out for one last blast (about 140km as it turned out) trying to find the entrance to a 1000km square National Park…..We found it EVENTUALLY, but we had to turn round and get back to Pakse ourselves. One thing about this holiday was the scarcity of decent maps, signage, and information. The Lonely Planet guide to Laos is WOEFUL. Bad and inaccurate maps, rubbish distances and directions, and very scant information on pretty much everything. It was a complete surprise as I usually totally rely on these travellers "bibles". There were at least 3 occasions where I patted myself on the back for having the wherewithall to remember to drop a compass in my pocket. I also learnt the value of a closed collar/neckerchief on a bike as I had an ant fly down my shirt and bite me a number of times, and (I think) A wasp hit me head on slap bang  on my adams apple and appears to have stung me. I have a very sore sting-like welt there. I will also take bungees with me next tie to secure my backpack as carrying it on yer back (and it was a small one) on those bouncy tracks and roads doesn't half get uncomfortable after a while!!.Still ya live and ya learn dontcha.

We finally got back to Ubon in Thailand late last night and splashed out, oooh 30 quid, on a seriously luxury hotel. My room had everything from a bathrobe to a DVD player, and, (praise the Gods) LASHINGS of hot water. I stayed in the shower a while till the water running off wasn't orange tinted!!

All in all I've been very impressed by my trip to Laos. The government there (poor as they are) have not given in to selling out the land to developers and tourists like a lot of Thailand. There are vast tracts of national parks all over the country with perhaps the most intact rainforest flora and fauna of anywhere in South East Asia. Long may it continue. Though having seen the depth of poverty there I fear the worst. It's certainly a beautiful , raw and rugged country. If you like adventures and random experiences this is definitely a country to visit. I think I'd like to do more in the north of the country, though admittedly I doubt if I'm fit enough for some of those gruelling jungle treks, the humidity below the canopy (especially in the wet season) is something else..Still, I feel a lot more confident about a motorcycling holiday now.

So it's back in BKK and civilisation again. The boys have perversely booked the studio for three hours tonight..I can't see Jon being in a very good mood after a 12 hour overland journey back and straight to school haha! Let's hope we can keep improving on our playing.

Actually, We've been asked to play "Mind The Gap" at Noriega's on saturday night. We're playing the middle set of three bands at about 11pm!!! I'll probably get , oooh, a whole pint free!!!

One more day off (hopefully a game of tennis with Bruce tomorrow) and it's back to work. I'm still very busy with stuff , but this trip has really recharged my batteries….the next possibility for a similar adventure feels like a long way off.

 

Hi There (11/07/08),

 

I've been in a particularly busy phase at work lately. There's lots going on…and it certainly doesn't help we're getting sporadic power cuts throughout the building for causes unknown. You almost feel like saving your work after every sentence…I should look on the bright side tho', at least I haven't been trapped in the lift for half and hour haha!

It's been a difficult time of year to find teachers. I don't know if it's the prohibitly high flight prices, the overseas image of a politically unstable Thailand, or the relatively lower wages compared to say, Korea, but we're not getting the usual stream of applications coming in. Even then interviews are funny things. I've conducted so many now that I have a very good idea of what a prospective employer wants to hear , and am constantly astounded by what some of the applicants come out with, and why-oh-why do they sometimes bring their Thai girlfriends with them to sit in reception and wait?

So a new round in starting this week and with it my special project class..I have to admit to being a little nervous about it. I understand the experimental nature of introducing a task-based learning project to the school, but the preparation, planning , and expectations of the parents and the Thai Ajarn who promised me to the project has me just a wee bitty concerned. I mean I take a pride in my work. I loathe the idea of going into a class un or underprepared and I just don't know how far I'll be able to push them, or interest them in the Blue planet-Green Earth theme that'll be running the length of the course. One thing I hope to set up early on is a website that they can all log into, contribute to, and update. If that comes off I'll post a link so you can see what the wee urchins are producing.

The other thing about task-based learning is that I have to take much more of a back seat and let the students work things out for themselves. This effectively means I can't over-prepare too much in advance cos if they suddenly want to work say on the "plight of polars bears worldwide" then as the teacher, I have to encourage and facilitiate that direction. This kind of teaching is all about getting students to invest their own interest in the project and thereby be much more inclined to learn… cutting edge stuff. I'm hoping to go to a seminar on a Sunday morning in a couple of weeks about it all. This will be my first time putting together a 99 hour highly detailed curriculum as opposed to an outline..so it'll be dotting i's and crossing t's too. Others may follow my pioneering path haha!

So it's a WHOLE WEEK OFF from Sunday..Wahey!!! I'm off to Laos on Wednesday evening. I hope we can enjoy a few days of nice weather, but I'm expecting a lot of rain. I'm borrowing a colleague's rain cape just in case…Ooh yes, and lots of mozzie repellent (industrial strength) and anti-malarials. We're gonna take in the famous Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival on the way..(it's apparently quite a sight). And we are currently trying to gets luxury rooms in the ex-Laoation Royal Family residence, now a resort hotels, up in the hills of the Bolaven plateau..The price for a room per night? .about ten quid! If not, we'll end up on the floor in a village hut somewhere with bamboo logs digging into our backs. I'm hoping to travel really light and praying to always have a dry set of clothes available…Tall Paul has just had some of his photos accepted by an online photo agency, so who knows, if I can get a few shots I might try as well.

The band practiced again this week…Oooh ropey! But not completely awful (like my tennis skills were this week. Note to self:-best stick to Doubles mike!). We've made a passing attempt at the Arctic Monkeys song in the studio, but it's awfully fast and terribly difficult in terms of all the synchopation..but what the Hell it's all good fun!

The next blog will, in all likelihood, not be available till around Monday 21^st July.

 

 

 

 

Hi There (05/07/08),

 

Sorry for my slightly tardy update, I've been away at a 3 day residential English training camp for the Thai Electricity Generating Authority.

So how did it go? Very well actually…but REALLY hard work, you're "on" all the time and there's a helluva lot of walking and moving around the complex on solid stone floors. I can feel my back even more after these past three days. EGAT has a purpose built training centre out in the middle of nowhere (complete with training pylons etc). It's very well appointed with light airy meeting rooms with good acoustics and microphone systems. But it was still a very long 3 days. The fact that the canteen food there was terrible didn't help….I mean it wasn't so much terrible as REALLY Thai…I know I should have assimilated Thai food by now, but there's no way I' m eating boiled eggs in chili sauce, dried anchovies and boiled cabbage for breakfast. Let's say it was typical simple workers fare….I did find myself gagging for something that wasn't likely to burn the roof of your mouth off!!

Still, as a first experience of a "camp" I think I learned a lot about how to set one up and stage it correctly. The 35 delegates all seemed to have a good time and that was the main thing. I and my colleagues even accepted their invite to a beery Kareoke session at the back of the canteen and I minced through a Kylie Minogue number to their obvious delight!!

It look like I'll be going back to the centre in about 4 weeks time to train 25 senior managers…This is likely to be more challenging as they are likely to have much worse English ability which makes things tough in terms of suitable fun activites.

Beaten at Tennis again last Tuesday 6-4 6-3..Still it's an improvement I suppose. We were 3-1 up in the second set and tiredness and lack of concentration just set in.It's really weird how quickly your game can just fall apart!! Anyway it's all just for fun and I had a couple of cracking shots that made me overall very happy with the way we played.

I'm really looing forward to getting away for a few days adventure. It makes the 45 minutes wait in immigration for an exit Visa seem almost worth…That place has to be my least favourite place in all of Thailand….it's just so depressing. There are always hundreds of seriously dodgy looking characters there too!

I've got a lot of practice to put in before the band hits the studio next week. Two new songs apparently. I think I'll have to keep Monday free to practice, if I show up unprepared, the others will have me for breakfast!

I'm feeling very tired and flaked out just now. The camp has taken more out of me than I thought. I've just got to get through 6 hours of teaching in about half and hour and Sunday can be spent clambering up the paperwork pending file !!! What joy!…at least the teachers seem to be behaving themselves this week for a change!

I'm going to try and go on a wee bit of a diet too. Although I've lost half a kilo this past week I have been hovering a little too close to the 100 kilo mark for my comfort..I REALLY don't want to go there. Looks like beer consumption is going to be reduced!

It's funny, some of my (pretty slim) colleagues have been going for medicals and Thai doctors have been suggesting that some of them are up to 30 kilogrammes over-weight. I think they have a different height-weight-bodymass index over here!

That's about it for this week. Congratulations to my friend Kaela who's had a lovely baby girl…almost in the hospital car park (again)..nice going!

 

 

 

re (27/06/08),

 

It's been a niggly lower back week. I can't seem to be sitting too long or it just seizes up…Old age/ a worn disc? Who knows? .I am definitely not going to spend my time necking Voltarol to mask it… I have to admit it's very annoying though. I got to thinking about all those people out there that suffer some kind of low grade pain all the time, how wearing it must get. And how easy it would be too get hooked on painkillers.

I think it's because I haven't been doing a lot of active sport. I actually worked through the discomfort and played football on Sunday afternoon and Tennis on my day off on Tuesday and although it's still there, it's a lot better. At least it's not waking me up at dawn as I roll around trying to find a comfortable position like last Sunday. AND almost six months after the Uni football tournament I've still got discomfort from my ribs when I roll over to my left when I'm sleeping. Looks like that's another injury that'll be slow to heal, or permanently weakened at best…Ah , the joys of middle age. At least I've pretty much decided that I'm finished with contact sports. Our old boys game of football has become FAR less competitive (and all the more fun for it). We know we can't go chasing and barging about like teenagers (or one of us will kark it I'm sure) and the "two-touch" ball rule, (originally developed for wet conditions so we didn't slip) we play now means that it's become a different kind of Sunday workout. We've also got to take it easy for John's sake too. He was back in goal following his major cancer surgery and how great it was to see him there- long may it continue.

It was also nice to be back on the tennis court up at Ari. The local Thai guys up there are soo friendly. I met a bloke called Noy who was just leaving the court with his wife and he just walked up asked me if I wanted to play a few sets with him sometime soon. I said I wasn't very good and he said "no worries just a knock around and I'll practice my English with you during the breaks". Sounds like a deal! There's also an old boy there called Chang who always asks me to join him if I turn up alone or with Bruce (he beats me!!). It's like a wee club. The courts used to be really busy (they are free- unusually for Thailand), but when a fancy new Tennis complex opened up a couple of kilometers away, all the local "players" went there. So it's so much easier to get on the court now. I rarely have to wait. I think even Jamie at work is expressing an interest in getting into it….I think it's a game that I really could get into, especially doubles..they seem more fun (and less graft) than singles!

I find myself helluva busy suddenly. I'm off to teach the "Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand" managers (EGAT) for a three day camp at their conference and meeting centre about an hour south of Bangkok from Wed-Fri next week. 4 of the management team are going down to deliver a course that we spent yesterday afternoon outlining the curriculum. It'll be all hands to the pump over the weekend to get the materials ready AND I have to deliver a themed training day curriculum ( 6 hours: energy sources and recycling etc) for the senior managers camp in early August by this Monday!! Still we've got 3 day EGAT camps coming up regularly from now till September.. as it's residential it's a nice little earner too.Three full on days is infinitely preferable to two nights a week at a company doing corporate work. I'm looking forward to it. It would be nice if this weekend (and my 2 classes) goes peacefully so I can think about it and get stuff together. Either way I'll have to come in on my day off on Monday to do stuff. I'm not getting back till late on Friday night and the last thing I'll want to do then is prep my weekend classes. OH, and Ning is up on Sat and Sunday nights passing through on her way to see her mum. Slightly bad timing…

The band got into the studio for a two hour practice this week. It was very apparent we were dead rusty, but at least we remembered the structure of the songs. By the end of the rehearsal we were getting back into it. I really love playing. Of course it sometimes seems a hassle to drag your stuff around with a sore back in the heat, but once you're actually playing in the studio again it all makes the most perfect of sense. We will need to bring a few new songs to the table though. The boys are making noises of getting rid of a few more and they'll need replacing.

That's about all the news for now. Things have gotten quiet on the possible coup front. The Stock market is rallying slightly. The weekend demo went off relatively peacefully despite the dramatic pictures in the paper.

Next week's blog is most likely to come out on Saturday as I'll be away.

 

 

 

Hi There (20/06/08),

So a friend who teaches near Democracy Monument was told the school would be closed today because of a possible coup. For this, I read a very large and potentially threatening demonstration. While I think the country is moving slowly into coup territory, I can't quite see it happening just yet. The usual signs of increased mobility of troop movements and police on the streets isn't apparent yet. The plan is for  the protesters are to split into seven groups to try and converge on Government House which the police have firmly and publicly stated isn't gonna happen. The hike in fuel prices and associated inflation has struck hard here. Now the Trade unions are threatening to weigh into the fray. It's kinda like a no confidence vote by the people in the Prime Minister. Whether or not it's because he's viewed as Taksins puppet, or because he's presiding over an economic crisis may eventually prove to be immaterial. Fishing fleets down the coast are tied up as the price of diesel has made it uneconomical to put out to sea, a litre of petrol has gone up to about 85p from 50p, today the papers report that Thailand has lost a major rice export contract. Inflation is at about 10%, the highest it's been for 10 years, and, despite a small rise today, the stock market, and the Thai Baht in particular has been taking a hammering lately. The prognosis is a wee bitty on the bleak side here at the moment.

Of course, it's hard when you're earning comparatively so much compared to Thai workers to know how just exactly what  the impact is on a household of a 3 baht increase in the price of butter. But I'd have to reckon there are significant strains out there for the people. Certainly the huge increase in the price of fuel is going to have the biggest impact and you just know that when it goes up, it'll never go back down once the crisis is over to the price it was before. The cheapest flights down to Koh samui (first and last each day) have suddenly gone up from 2000 Baht each way to 3500, which makes a round trip of over 100 pounds now. Effectively making it no longer particularly viable for a quick and cheap 3 day beach break. It's bound to have a knock on effect on the businesses, construction, and the tourist industry down there too.

This is just the backlash as to what's happening globally. It just seems to hit harder in countries with a less robust economy I suppose. I still lead a well fed and watered life and have no need to worry myself. But what of those folk who live on 8000 Baht a month/ I can only guess. It's a troubling time for English teachers out in the state schools. All teachers have to undergo a few days course in Thai cultural awareness in order to be certified to teach. It's not cheap either. There appears to be a bit of a dearth in English teachers right across Thailand. It is a particularly tough time of year to find them too. It makes me appreciate the relative freedom and security I have in my job here, I'd have to think long and hard before moving anywhere else. All sorts of negative rumours abound out there in part-time teacher land. So much conjecture, disinformation, and down right ghost stories.. I'm just glad to have my visa and work permit.

Political intrigue aside I'm had a relatively quiet week again. The weekend was a pretty tough one, with all sorts of niggly personnel problems, but the new school at Sam Yan opened up pretty successfully.

I'm starting to get stuff together for the first in a series of Department of Energy (EGAT) camps starting early July…I'm even getting my own custom made polo shirt for it wow! Just as well, I think I'll be needing the extra money. I've been clamouring after a leccy bill for my apartment for the past two months and have worked out I haven't actually had one for about a year…oh dear!

Tallpaul, Jon, and I are all now booked to fly to Ubon Ratchetani  on the 16^th of July. We're going to hire bikes and go into Laos, specifically up to the Bolaven Plateau. Think I better buy some decent waterproofs, I think it's gonna be pretty wet. I'm really hoping to encounter some of the famous are very rare (100 left!) Irrawaddy fresh/saltwater dolphins. They are apparently pink! There's also a stunning temple complex up there too we must see. We need to get together soon and plan some stuff out. I don't know what we'll be doing for accommodation, but if I were a guessing man, I'd say we'll be sleeping on the floor of village huts for a couple of bob. Mossy repellent, expedition (and warm) clothing, and malarials will most likely be the order of the day up there, as will a very small backpack…..sounds like an adventure…

Hello again (13/06/08),

 

It's been commented that I've been in a slightly philosophical frame of mind in my recent blogs. I guess that would appear to be the case. It's not that I'm particularly unhappy, bewildered, or unsettled, it's more like I'm going through one of these phases where we try to define exactly what it is we're supposed to be about and how we choose to interface with the world around us….Goodness, there I go again, another rabid stream of consciousness. Bear with me! I'm sure it'll become clearer in the months ahead.

I'm firming up plans for a road trip up north for our long weekend next month. Looks like it'll be the sleeper train on Wednesday night up to Udon (N.E. Thailand right on the Laos border) and a flight back. Haven't really toured much round there, doubtless we'll get a car and go off into the Jungle (me Jon and tallpaul) like last time. Should be a hoot. It makes all the difference having a car in the wilds. Relying on public transport means a lot of hanging around by the roadside in the hot sun. I'm sure we'll be visiting mountain villages and hidden temples. Just as well really, Paul recently had a virus on his computer and lost almost all his photos from the past year!  Anyway we're having dinner tonight to firm up plans…wahey! It's been a long time since I've caught up with the other band members. We've all been simply too busy or ill, or getting married, to catch up even for a couple of pints these past few weeks. We might also be able to work out if we're still gonna play, or at least record some tunes before Paul is for the off. I think he wants back to the UK so he can get transferred back out, but on a UK salary as being locally hired means he earns so much less than someone else of an equivalent job who's been brought in..It would rankle me too!

I went with 84 Land Development employees down to the Kings agricultural project on Wednesday. They were having an "away day" as the focus of their 5 day presentation Skills course. Myself and 3 of the Management team had to go round with them on a fact finding mission , then co-ordinate a 2 hour workshop in the afternoon. It went pretty well. I boned up on essential presentation skills structures and vocabulary before I went and then over the aftenoon helped them put together the bare bones of the presentations they'd be giving at the end of their course. I felt a wee bit of a fraud as this was something I'd never attempted to teach before, but then again Thais sometimes seem to need help in structuring things logically. Logical, step by step reasoning thought processes don't appear to come as natural to them as they do to us Europeans. I'm not saying they are dim, not at all. You have to bear in mind Thai lives contain large amounts of structure...Even state Kindergartens don't tend to allow for free periods of time for discovery or experimentation amongst the toddlers. This has a natural lead on effect in that it helps create a nation that has been so structured and conditioned to think in most situations that original, controversial, or groundbreaking thinking is often looked down on. I think it's worse for women who have to bear the additional burden of a 2^nd class role.

My back's been giving me a degree of gyp these past two weeks. I'm trying to go easy on the Voltarol anti-inflammatories as that is definitely NOT the way to. I think it's because of the absence of a regular sport/exercise routine over these last few months…It has been particularly pretty damn mad hot over the hot season this year though. I really hope we can get enough bodies together this Sunday for a kick around. I think Bruce and I are also hoping to start up Tennis again very son. He's offered Tuesday afternoons as a regular slot, but I'd really prefer to play in the relative cool of the mornings. Everybody says Noon is the hottest time of day, but I always find 2-3 pm is where the heat reaches it's zenith…Still it only peaks at around 40 degrees..mostly!

  

Hello There (06/06/09),

 

It's been a week of early rises and I'm sooo looking forward to my Monday off. The Land Development dept teaching seemed to go pretty well all in all. It's always tricky when you're teaching a class of varying ability. Additionally, quite a few of the students were research scientists who possibly were wanting a bit more of a "sit in your chair and be lectured at" style of teaching. This was something I really wasn't prepared to do for 8 days. I also found myself doing a couple of hours of effective negotiating skills. That was a bit of a weird one. I mean I wouldn't exactly think of myself as much of a negotiator and there I was teaching people the theory and language of it. Actually it went quite well. The Agent/Tennis star contract negotiation activity turned out to be a real hoot!

I re-discovered this week the sheer joy of talking to an intelligent woman. Now this shouldn't sound as bad as it does…what I mean is that Thai women are pretty much encouraged at birth to adopt unquestioning roles and be devoid of any real opinions. The whole society colludes in a most odd way on this. It's not something you can quite put your finger on. The only Thai women I have met with a questioning nature and good intuitive conversation are ones who've spent a lot of time in the company of ,or working with Farang men. As I've lamented before, a lot of my friends have moved on recently and two great women amongst them. As a consequence, I have been in the company of men a lot. Don't get me wrong I like this too. But men seem to have a cumulative dumbing down effect on each other till conversations like sport or amusing anecdotes of the past take precedence over other more potentially interesting topics. I was telling the guys this the other day and was summarily laughed at. I did persevere however and got laughed at further for a so called "love in" with a friend who was talking about his lost love whilst the others played pool and earwigged in….you get the idea: Big boys don't cry do they? Bollox to it say I.

I have found one strange solution however, it seems when we have the occasional "pint" in a UK/Irish style pub we actually get some societal and human condition conversations going.

I've had an emotionally unsettling week. Maybe it's because I've voiced and shared thoughts and observations about myself that I usually keep to myself. It's not that it's a difficult thing for me to do. Those of you that know me well know my life has generally been an open book. By when you voice concerns, worries, doubts out loud then they take on an inertia of their own and start to swim around your brain generating unwarranted thoughts and often redundant feelings….DOES ANYBODY HAVE A CLUE WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT? I think I understand now why all these self help books have you stand in front of a mirror and say some positive reinforcement mantra ten times every morning! Well I'm not about to start doing that. I think I have need to care about things more fiercely than I did back in the UK. It's because everything here from the news, through to the time zone conspires to make you focus on just the little part of the world you abide in. I told two colleagues a couple of days back  not to take a plastic bag (with a bottle of coke inside) from the basement shop up in the lift to the 20^th floor, but to carry the bottle instead and save the plastic….More abuse!! I guess there was such an endless stream of shit coming at you in the UK you had to build up scar tissue against it. Here the information arteries are so calcified up with local issues that, whilst equally angering, kinda outside my ken as I haven't got a real sense of all the historical elementsand power struggles behind them.

The band seems to have been on an extended break. Now however I am hankering to get back into it. I'd like to think we can get something going next week, but this is dependent on Jon's other bands recoding schedule amongst other things.

As it is, I've got to do a daydown at the Kings agricultural project on Wednesday taking another group of 20 Land Development workers around and then providing a two and a half hour workshop in the afternoon to help them put a presentation together on the whole thing…Something else I haven't taught…… gulp! at least someone else is doing presentation skills for them in detail over the rest of the week.

 

Hi there (30/05/08),

Time compresses and in the land of no seasons you kinda forget how quickly it all goes by. Here we are just about to go into June (Summer in Scotland) and my only reason I notice it is because I jot down the date at the start of each blog. True, the dramatic electric storms are starting now. I got thoroughly drenched last night in walking just the 10 metres to the taxi to take me the 500 metres home from the Skytrain steps (probably shouldn't have bothered in retrospect- but it was a really violent storm last night). Indeed the sky was lit up by lightning almost every moment of a full hour…Pretty spectacular.

This of course has a knock on effect on the old plantation back up north in deepest darkest Isan. A squad of 10 workers have been hurredly brought in prior to the rainy season proper for three days clearing all the grass and weeds of the 500 Sq metre plantation and laying down fertilizer on each tree. The news is that the trees are thriving at either end of the plot, but not doing so well in the middle..this is most likely a water issue. There's not much that can be done. I've no idea what percentage of the 12,00 odd trees we're talking about. I'd say it might well be year 4 instead of year three as previously projected before we harvest. The soil quality up there isn't quite what I'd hoped..But at least the crop hasn't failed!! My my, I sound like a dustbowl farmer!!! The bad news is that the worker gang is gonna cost me, eh, oooh 80 odd quid for three days work!!!. I'll have to try and  have a frugal month. There was talk about selling the livestock to a cousin, but I'd rather they do that one by one as being sold by a job lot would seriously devalue them, especially as two of the three cows are pregnant. It's probably all just a bit of passing blustering hot-air. I've made it clear I'll not be buying any more beasties if minds get changed. Everybody wants what their neighbours  have here , it's not so much as a "keeping up with the Joneses" attitude ,but more of a "I karmically deserve it and they don't" idea. Very weird.

I'm pretty knackered this week. The whole management team has been working every morning teaching business basics to the Land Development Department (LDD). The classes consist of students from right across the government civil service spectrum from rice scientists, to animal health officials, Irrigation technicians,  to civil engineers. It's pretty hard teaching aspects of English business language to them when they have such diverse roles. The main thing is to get them speaking and being familiar with the pitfalls of say, telephone conversations etc. It's a nice little earner to tuck away but I'll be glad when it's over. A week on Monday I'm gonna spend my entire day emptying the fridge, watching DVD's and sleeping.

 

There are a few worrying indications that we might see another coup. It's all a bit to wispy to put down exactly what's currently going on, but the S.E.T. (Stock Exchange Thailand) has recently seen it's biggest fall in months. The Bangkok post business section re-surveyed the top 100 business moguls and 86% to 14% believe that there would be a coup before the end of the year. The previous survey figures a few months ago were 46% to 54%. It would appear there's been so much pfaffing about with unratified amendments to the constitution that business and the economy has been forced into a back seat. If you also take into account Taksins party won the election and he's back in town pulling strings behind the scenes allegedly..Well lets just say a lot of people are nervous. I'm sure there will be lots of political maneuvering, positioning , and generally chicanery going on over the next few weeks. I'll keep my out for unusual troop movements.

 

That's about it for this week. Good luck to my beached whale pal Kaela who's about to pop her second sprog… Actually, come to think of it, there are a few pregnancies around my friend circle in the UK at the moment..hope it's all going well for you.

 

Hello Peeps (23/05/08),

 

I'd really like to say what a worthy and good life I have led this past week. But to be honest it has been overly excessive on the booze front. Firstly, I had a number of prior commitments telescoped into this week, (before I do 18 days on the trot without a day off) and secondly, Kerry's wayward cousin Graham, (or Wiggy as he is known) started sleeping on my floor after his return from Chiang Mai. He's been on the road for 7 months and has the hedonistic attitude, the  shabby appearance and devil may care demeanour of a long term traveller. I took him and a journo mate Chris to one of my regular haunts and the manageress reported back to my colleague Jamie the following day when he was in that she didn't "Like the look " of the company I was keeping of late haha!  I guess that says it all! You know how much stock Thais put on appearance..I can't see graham pulling a Thai girl in a hurry-which is why he is preying on the young Scandinavians of the Khao San Road, he didn't come back last night. God save us from predatory Alpha-males!

 

So it's all hands to the pump next week. The whole management team is teaching the various governmental departments that make up the so-called "land Development"  Umbrella Organisation. I'll be teaching 15 pre-intermediate level students in the mornings for the next 8 weekdays. I hope they're as much fun as the bunch was last year. It gets awkward if too many from the same place or office are in the group, they start getting scared of speaking or making mistakes if their boss is watching. Office dynamics have no place in the classroom, but even if you are the best teacher in the world you still have to be aware and adaptable. If the boss' English is really hopeless you don't have him up doing presentations in front of his subordinates. It sounds  pretty , like, "duh", obvious, but you wouldn't believe the amount of culturally insensitive English teachers there are out there haha!

 

The band rehearsal had to be cancelled this week. Sickness is rife with the band members. Tall Paul is particular threw the towel in and finally spent a day in hospital. He even missed smallpauls wedding as a result (he was best man too!). It's probably a bit fortunate for me as I still haven't properly applied myself to learning the requisite new song or two so we don't keep treading over old ground. Actually, Tallpaul sent me a message saying he really flet like packing his stuff up and going home. Being unaccountably sick (they don't know why he keeps getting this recurring illness) AND losing nearly all your photos from the last 6 months is bound to seriously hack you off.

 

Ning tells me she has a business trip to Chiang Mai at the end of next week. I hope she'll be able to stop over in BKK for a couple of days even if I am working through. I'm still unsettled and sad about what has gone down between us over the last couple of months. I can't help feeling that I'm losing a little faith in our ability to sort out a future together. I try not to think about it and say to myself it's back to business as usual, but somehow it isn't. I can't work out if its because my feelings got hurt,  or if it's because I've done all the talking, gone  the extra miles and done all the  facilitiating I'm gonna do…Hell I  just dunno ! I'm vulnerable to consequences of alcohol driven rashness. ..Is this a follow on to the male menopause? I do suddenly feel every year of my 42 years. It doesn't help I've done in my lower back (again) and am necking Voltarol and rubbing in tiger balm in an attempt to stop my back seizing up if I sit for more than 20 minutes…The mental image I have of myself isn't a teenager anymore, but neither is it yet the grey haired old geezer I encounter in the mirror every morning.

 

So much to do….I even worked my extra holiday day off this week just to get through it all. I think I'll have to cash in my Lieu day from last week in June and head off to the beach for 3 days. I can see how faded my tan has become- skin whitening products definitely surplus to current requirements.

 

Greetings (16/5/08),

 

Well this morning we had the squad of monks in blessing the school! This was at the behest of the Thai staff who felt that the 7^th birthday of the school was an auspicious year and we had to get blessed. 25,000 baht later and we've exorcised all the bad vibes out of the place. There's still a silk thread at head height running round the entire two floors and down the fire escape.. I hope it's down before tomorrow as I'm sure the kids will try to tear it down otherwise.

Small paul gets married up in Khorat this weekend with all its pomp and ceremony..I'm sad not to be able to attend ,but there really is too much on at the school to warrant my disappearance, especially as we've had 2 public holidays in the past week. (We had to work one..I'm gonna take it as a lieu day next month and hopefully go to the beach).

The tropical storms are almost daily and vicious by their nature. A sudden violent squall last Monday had be sitting bolt upright from reading my book as the big tree in the garden next door snapped like a matchstick and crashed over their wall close to my balcony. Of course this is nothing compared to what's happening to those poor souls in Burma and China…In fact ,it looks like another Cyclone is currently Burma bound..let's hope nature diverts in course. We've been collecting clothes in the school for the homeless and destitute of Burma…I've no doubt they are already on their way and gratefully received. I was disappointed with the western Press suggesting the evil military junta there was directly and deliberately thwarting all aid relief. If it's one thing I learnt from my trip up north, it's just how disliked NGO's are in these areas. Like most Western mechanisms they like to steamroller over local structures and decision making insisting they know best, and in doing so generally piss people off to huge extents. Doubtless if a country donates money to a regime they want to ensure that it goes to the people..but when we're talking about food, clothing, waterproofing etc, surely it's up to those on the ground to decide where and how it goes.  I know corruption and skimming off the top is rife in many such environments, but when you've a humanitarian crisis to such an extent you've got to facilitiate not hamper. Put up and shut up!

 You can also bet your bottom dollar that the so called generous western countries are using the dangling carrot of aid for leverage in all sorts of concessions. Burma isn't exactly poor in certain raw materials especially metals and gems… it's mining them and the transport infrastructure that makes it difficult….Don't misinterpret me, I've no love for their current set up, but I've seen first hand the 'closed shop' attitude of the NGO's rattling around in massively expensive BMW terrain vehicles like they own the place. I even know a highly successful Teaching Centre Manager here who started his career here 18 years ago in a refugee camp and has additionally  recently finished off his Masters in Education. Did they even ever respond to his tentative enquiries to a senior position up in the north that they advertised?...Nah of course not!

 If it's the greatest failing of these organizations in Asia , it's a fundamental a) ignorance of ,or b) Utter indifference to the cultures and feelings of the incumbent populace.  What is probably most damaging of all is that many of these organizations actively promote a system of "moving their workers on" every two years or so they are less likely to "go native, go  troppo", or whatever you want to call it. Ah Yes, the Empire spirit is still alive and well, embodied in the attitudes of certain countries who never even had an Empire in the first place!!! Go figure!

Oh, and whilst we're on the weekly rant: USA will you kindly hurry up and vote a new leader in. The world grows weary of your bloated , self-serving and fatuous pre-election process…November 4^th is still so very far away, a whole summer of US election bullshit in front of us.By my reckoning they'll start releasing the unsavoury "scandal" material early this time perhaps around early August..

Right, back to me! I was out three days in a row for various reasons..which is why I'm on a bit of a detox this week. Smallpauls stag night was really good fun. I think he was most surprised that his core group of friends made the decision , without even any discussion, to avoid all bars where tarts roamed gleaning free drinks off the drunken populace. Indeedy we found just the sort of hole in the wall place, equipped with pool table and, (my oh my) a dart board and so we proceeded to get really quite squiffy. A great night had by all…

My pal Wig has headed off to wreak havoc in Chiang Mai for a few days before returning to BKK on the way to India. Always good company round a beer table, but a terrible alpha male habit of talking in a "Hello Honeybunny, what you doing here?" mannerto almost every western girl that passed the pavement table….Whoever coined the phrase "24 hour party people" must have been referring to him for sure.

 

 

Hello again! (09/05/08),

 

Last weekend was a holiday weekend….I had hoped to do all sorts with it, but in the end I got a visit from my sometime girlfriend Ning and we had a lovely weekend hanging out not doing much…we did make it to the very lovely flower market (She bought me a bunch of orchids..awwww!).

Yeah, so the relationship summit conference ended with a policy that was to be finally reviewed and ratified by Spring 2009…To my mind it has the potential success of the Kyoto agreement written all over it haha!

Small Paul the bands frontman is getting married next weekend…we've penciled in this Tuesday for the stag night…how many of these things have I been on? At least as you get older they become more civilized and sedate…I extremely doubt we'll be shaving any eyebrows or handcuffing him naked to some traffic island. The latest idea is to find a hole- in- the- wall cheap restaurant and stay out all night boozing….sounds fine by me…..I've got to start economizing a wee bit if I want to go away for a big jaunt at Christmas….

….Says he who's just gone out and spent 50 quid on an ipod 2 gig shuffle….Why? I hear you ask when you've already got a 60 gig ipod photo? ..Well: firstly the sound quality is exceptional compared my the third generation ipod. Secondly the ipod photo is a little bit bulky and it's main purpose was always as a backup drive for my photos and music, and thirdly the ipod shuffle is a DESIGN CLASSIC…It's bloody tiny, little more that a metal clip with a control button on it 1.5 x 1 inch big…there is actually a fourthly..Smallpaul has given me a copy of 30 x 30 min Thai lessons a la linguaphone. ...ecoutez! et repetez! as the tape used to say in my French classes. I wanted to have something to hand to listen to on the go. The ipod shuffle is perfect , takes up no space at all, and has a 12 hour battery life. I know, I know there are all the constant debates about how Apple related hardware and software ties you in to their products and how difficult it is to share and transfer libraries (actually not difficult, just fiddly and time consuming), but I tell you, as long as they keep coming up with seriously innovative and superlative products like this I really don't have a problem paying a little bit more.

Kerry's cousin Graham (Wig) showed up again in BKK this week. He's been on the road for 5 months in Indonesia and Silowesi. We had a bit of a boozy night out on Sunday while Ning was visiting her sister for the night. Looks like he's gotta stay in town for a fortnight while he gets a new passport (old one full)..apparently the UK embassies abroad no longer issue on site, but get them (the biometric ones) mailed from the UK..bit of a pain eh? So doubtless we'll have another couple of nights on before he heads on to India. I said I'd store a bunch of gear for him and his mate…but I would like to limit anybody staying on my floor to a max of say 4 nights . I suppose it can get too much with having to work and being in a small studio apartment otherwise. I mean with really close mates it's never a bother (except for the raised alcohol intake and sleep deprivation), but once you're on the road of accommodating friends of friends it can become a bind rather quickly. James my colleague has stopped doing the couchsurfing.com malarkey for this very reason.

Anyway, he's asked me if I want to go on a diving holiday to Silowesi and Banda Acheh with him next Christmas. It's quite a nice option to have, but I'm not convinced he'd make a brilliant diving buddy. His pal Max who was traveling with him just got his open water cert and Wig had him down at 40 metres getting Nitrogen Narcosis….not cool! If it's one thing you can't be cavalier about  it's scuba diving. It only takes a small series of misadventures to turn underwater into a dangerous environment. Indeed, his pal max had a faulty gauge on another dive and ran out of air and had to buddy breathe his way back up through decompression…..naice!! Still I suppose if all the bad shit that can happen, happens to you during your first 20 dives after qualifying , it reduces the chances of being caught on the hop as it were!!! So I'll think about it and leave it on the backburner as an option..but I'm not gonna get coerced into diving outside my comfort zone. Nothing is worse than feeling paranoid and uncomfortable 20 metres down. I dived once 3 minutes after eating lunch and felt pretty awful for most of the dive..You should only dive when you feel happy and comfortable..Not tired or hungover…though I'm reliably informed you can vomit quite easily with a regulator in your mouth!!!

Speak of the devil. Wig just texted and wants to drop gear off tonight!!

Yep, that's about all the news this week. I'm finally having 2 days off on Monday and Tuesday as I've made up all my flexi days. I might even lounge at the pool..Either that, or start practicing some new songs for the band. Looks like we may have to consider slightly more contemporary music to please the masses….Sad…

After next week things are gonna get busy! Testing and a 10 half day camp for the government..goodness!

 

Hi There, (02/05/08),

'Pon my soul we're into May already. Doubtless for you lot back in Scotland, it might just herald some of the nicest weather of the year. Always was my favourite time there:- May and June..Heavens,  as I think of Scottish Spring scenes in my mind's eye I'm almost getting nostalgic. Seriously though, I've had lots of reports of the long dark tunnel of this past Winter so I hope things rapidly improve.

As I mentioned last week, we've been having really spectacular electric storms over the city most evenings and nights. It's really cooled things down and cleaned up the air, a blessed relief. I'm down to just the one fan at the bottom of my bed again!

The gig at Noriegas last week went quite well. Again the pub wasn't exactly at capacity, but we did have a bunch of folk there who seemed to enjoy what we were doing. Admittedly our month long absence from the studio and consequent lack of practice showed at times…But we're still way better than 90% of the bands out there in BKK. The support came in the form of "The Fake Degrees" who were a loud boisterous feelgood band who did a set of more modern anthemic singalong songs. They played well, but boy were they LOUD compared to us!! I think our different styles of music complemented each other pretty well and I'd like to think we'd be playing together on the same bill again. I think we're possibly scheduled to do another gig on May 24^th or the 31st. That might even give us time to attempt a new song or two.

 It's been quite a quiet week these past 7 days. I did go out for the usual Sunday blowout, but ended up home quite early at 10.30pm after a good drink and laugh with the lads. Probably a good thing for a change. I spent Monday holed up in my room watching movies and empty the fridge of all things edible. It was another "make up" week insofar as I had to come in and work Tuesday. But that worked out really well as I got lots of work done! I've got to try and schedule my work this month a little carefully as loads of stuff all converges towards the end of the month. I've taken on a new class at the start of round 1 next week, I'm got round 2 testing coming up, and I'm going to be delivering a twenty hour business communication course over 8 half days for various government departments (irrigation, forestry, planning, policy, energy, etc etc) . There is also talk of 3 day residential camps in July for managers of the Department of Energy as well. I was offered a 24 hour Business Presentation skills course as well, but I felt I really didn't have the necessary experience or time to deliver it properly. I'm sure I could muddle through, but that's not the kind of teaching I'm comfortable in delivering. I'm going to having quite a few new team members in my team that I'll need to mentor as well. I'm also putting in compulsory 'reader" modules into the T5 and T6  curriculi that can get the students more familiar with 'reading between the lines" and looking at multi-part verbs and idioms.

To top all that in response to the wishes of the inhouse Thai staff to formally celebrate the schools 7^th anniversary , we're getting the monks in!

Indeedy , on May 16^th we're getting a squad in to pray and bless the place. Everybody who works here is chipping in some money and probably forgoing the bi-annual bowling night for a turn to pay for it. (Monk squads are NOT cheap). Still, I have it on good authority that this bunch, while they may not be the "Liverpool" of chanting Monks that we had bless the Sam Yam school in February, they're still very much a Premier Division outfit! So they should be at that price hahah!

Ning arrived up form Koh Samui yesterday to spend the holiday weekend with me. I think we've a lot to discuss and try and sort out. These long distance relationships are really never easy, but strangely I'd rather have something like that than start all over again looking for a girlfriend and the subsequent infernal mating dance that entails. Maybe it's the constant plaintiff remarks from my colleague James about being old, but lately things have started happening to me on that front: Hair is starting to miraculously appear "beanstalk" like from my ears and nostrils, I sometimes need another shave when I get home (I could never grow a beard in a million years), strands of my eyebrows have taken on a life of there own, conspiring to make me look like a mad Maths professor, and, most worrying of all , a very small patch on my right butt cheek has turned to "cellulitely elephant skin". All in all, I'd venture to say the signs are there of a small but significant change in my metabolism…AND I still hurt from my cracked rib when I sleep too long on my left side..at least I've retired from 11 a side football eh?

 I still feel like a 23 year old though, it's a shame the bloke staring back in the mirror isn't a true reflection of the mental image I have of myself……Still…….Mustn't grumble…..

 

Hi There (25/04/08)

So I was on the Skytrain the other day and these two guys in white shirts with little blue badges got on. My heart sank. Those little badges only meant one thing: "Mormons". Of course they embarked in the usual insidious way. The Thai people to their credit look on them as a bit nuts. It makes me angry. I mean Thailands Religious philosophy of Buddhism has to be one of the most non-invasive, peaceful, let and let live religions out there. They haven't embarked in any kind of serious war in over 300 years (when they were last invaded by Burma). The entire life philosophy centres around family and respecting elders. 8 million people live on top of each other in Bangkok in frankly a staggering amount of peace and understanding. Yet these people with their badges, uniforms, and bibles actually believe the people need enlightened by the one true religion. ..I'm not saying that some kind of missionary work isn't good. But for heavens sake, go to Somalia, or Eritrea, Rwanda or Congo where tribalism and inverted racism is a byword…go build a hospital there, set up a school, help out…By lay off the streets of Bangkok. These people don't need your brand of enlightenment. ..these guys even tried stopping me the other day and I simply waved them off with a "Don't get me started" glare. Any significant rise in Christianity in this country will have a direct and adverse effect on the troubles with the 3 Muslim provinces in the south whose fundamentalists have already embarked on a small war of attrition in targeting the killing schoolteachers.  Not something you hear much about in the news….

Rant over.

So I posted a few pics in the gallery and a few more on my Facebook site…It's a long process uploading photos..I wish they could get posted faster.I took literally hundreds, quite a few nice arty ones with nice textures (oooh.He's got a new camera innit?), but for the sake of general abuse I didn't many of them. Pictures of moss, rocks,  bugs, lizards, and flowers do after all have a limited appeal haha!

I had to do an extra day in the office to make up for my holiday. It has made the week consequently quite long. The good thing is that I've been getting more stuff done though. ..I'm in a bit of a quandry about what to do with the T5 and T6 curriculi. I feel disposed to include some compulsory reader modules so that the students learn a bit more about reading between the lines and idiomatic expressions. I've got a senior teacher on the case at the moment, he's coming up with some good stuff. Whilst we want to encourage debate and discussion about the topics, we need to be careful about the nature of the texts provided so that we don't venture into culturally taboo subjects…We all saw what happened to a bear called Mohammed over in Sudan a few months back didn't we?

I've had a relatively quiet week this week . I've been out a few times for beer but not stayed out late. Actually I found a wee bar doing special deals on Dry Blackthorn cider so we've been having a few of those in the heat. The last week has been at times brutally hot. But now fierce tropical storms are punctuating the evening and nights. There was a HUGE electrical storm over the city last night around midnight..(I keep my curtains open). I woke up and watched enormous traces of lightning fork over the entire sky as far as I could see. Even the air tasted different.. you know that faint tang of (what? Ionization) electricity you taste when you're too close to an arcing spark… Naice!

The band has a gig at Noriega's tomorrow night. We're playing the early slot from 21-2300. Suits me actually, I find that if we went on last, the crowd starts to disappate around 2330 and we'd play to an empty bar. We'll split the fee with the other band 'The Fake Degrees" who have a decent following but aren't, so I'm told, particularly good.  Anyway, it's good to play with another band if only to make contacts and perhaps start setting up our own scene down there. We're going to try and play twice a month from June and see if we can garner a bit of interest. Naturally we're gonna have to work on some new material in tandem with this. "Brainstorm" by the Arctic Monkeys seems to be first on the list. I have my doubts we can pull it off..it's sooo fast..But then again I've had my doubts about other songs in ourset before and they've been unfounded!

I've got a long weekend coming up again (why are all the public holidays in the first 7 months here eh?) after this coming one. I'd love to head off on another 5 day adventure, but I should try and saze a bit of money. Ning has also intimated she's coming up for what will probably a relationship summit conference….I really hope it's gonna be a peaceful and happy time. We are after all really fast friends when all is said and done. If logistics and distance conspires against us that's just the way it is…

 A very Happy Birthday! to my Auntie Mila this week.  I'm sure my folks will fuss over her and she'll have a lovely day.

 

 

Hi There (18/04/08), 

So I was looking at a good map of Thailand I stupidly left at home and discovered that "police check"  I underwent traveling from Mae Salong to Tha Ton seems to be because I  ventured 10km or so into Burma…Came as a bit of a surprise I can tell you. But the sacks beside me in the back of the Songthaew definitely contained cherries as I took one of a hole in the sack to check haha!!

 So I continued my trip down to Tha Ton. This is a border town right on the river kok which separates the two countries. I didn't like the vibe of the place one bit. It was so strange after all the positive happy experiences I'd had with people from the places I'd been on my trip. Maybe it's to do with the border, maybe the hustle, maybe the transient nature of the place. I spent 1500 baht to stay at the best resort hotel in the town..Nice enough views of the river, but shit service, attitude, and food. I was glad to get going in the morning. Indeed, as the Monday morning was a public holiday there weren't any public boats going down the 160 km stretch of river back to Chiang Rai I had to dig a little deep and spend 33 quid on chartering my own longtail boat. It was worth every penny!! Apart from feeling like a big white imperialist big game hunter in my own boat I had such a lovely experience of the different types of landscape and life on this river. Something very wild and romantic about river trips. It was so low that I even had to get out and push us off a silted sandbank. SEE PICTURES IN MY GALLERY of the tiver and other places.

5 hours later I was back in Chiang Rai where I got firmly caught up in the Songkran water throwing New Year festivities. It's fun the first time you see it, but getting constantly soaked through with water , especially when you've only got 2 pairs of trousers with you can be a bit of a drag. In most places they tend to stop at sunset , but not chiang Rai, it seemed to go on all night. I threw in the proverbial towel (would have been nice to have one) and found myself beseiged in the hotel room going without dinner. For the next 2 days one pair of my trousers was constantly hanging out of my six floor hotel room window to dry haha.

I enjoyed a long walk around a few temples in the town over the next day and a quiet meal before retiring early. The flight back to BKK was both on schedule and uneventful…NOTE: Nok airways can be booked online and paid for (within 48 hours) in any 7/11 convenience store..How cool is that?

So Thursday rolls around and it's back to work. Nice to get back into the stride of things . I feel really recharged and relaxed after having done some much travelling and sightseeing. It's been good to go around with local public transport and really see the harsh realities of life in the north as opposed to some air-con VIP coach, elephant trekking, Disneyland tribal village experience. It always amazes me how people can seem to be so bright, welcoming and happy in the face of crushing rural poverty. Anyway take a gander at tsome of the photos.

The band has another gig a week on Saturday at Noriega's again.  We're going to try and get a bi-monthly scene going there and see if we can get a grass roots following. You never know, stranger things have happened. The only small drawback is that Jon is playing  in Singapore with his other band this week and is then off to Japan. So we're unlikely to get a practice in before we play…Oh well, we should be good enough by now eh?

It'll be quiet in the school this week. Rounds 1 +8 are still off. I'm gonna be doing a training session on Sunday afternoon. Two teachers signed up for it so far Wahey!! Must get used to playing to an empty crowd haha!

That's everything pretty well up to date, except for the fact that last night Jamie and I discovered a place that sold draught Strongbow:  3 pints for the price of two. Needless to say after my relatively abstemious solo trip up north it got messy…Very messy. You know when you've over indulged when you're up at 3am crouched at the fridge quaffing chocolate milk….Note to self: Make any future snakebites (remember them from your student days people?) in a glass NOT in your stomach. SOO much easier to gauge their effect that way haha! I think it took a while to get sober after I woke at 0630.

hi There, (11/04/08),

Been a very strange 7 days since my last blog before I left the office. Last Friday I was saying goodbye to my Scots friends Vicki and Ivon over dinner when I got an SMS (an SMS firchrissakes) from my girlfriend Ning ostensibly breaking up. I was, I might say pretty freaked out in general. We'd been together for some time and it looked like going somewhere. Further enquiries revealed that she's freaked out and confused herself. It's not for a lack of love for me apparently, much more to do with family pressure to return to Isan and be an old maid and look after her mother. It was also to do with the nature of our long distance relationship (note to self: never again) and her need to take her lobbying/construction/project management a step further (including a possible month work sojourn in Winchester) without any perceived encumberances. I naturally had to accede to her wishes and sadly, regretfully gave her my best . She's called me for a chat everyday since..It doesn't feel like we've broken up (apart from the first two or three conversations) and now she appears to be asking me to be patient!!! Heaven knows what's going on in her head. The plantation deal etc is still on, we're still very close friends and there is no-one else (which in some perverse way would have made all this easier to handle). I think that I chose to go travelling up North instead of spending my holiday with her on Koh Samui might have brought this on…but then again she was supposed to have her entire family down over the Songkran period.

So to the road trip: Tallpaul and Jon from the band and I went up to Phisanulok/Sukothai (another old capital of Thailand) and hired a car for three days. Despite my befuddled state of mind we had a really great trip. Paul had a friend Pat up there and her friend Rose joined us in the hire car to visit Phu Hin Song Kla national park. A very interesting place. It was a Communist jungle enclave right up till 1982 till the community got routed. We walked to a waterfall in the Jungle (bloody hard work the heat just now is brutal) and we walked around the old village huts etc. We also spent time going to a series of temples, including up a dead end series of about 300 steps where Jon knocked a red ant egg nest onto his rucksack ducking under a tree…Not Pretty. Luckily we had water with us to wash them off, man were they mad!! I thought he handled it very well..I would have freaked!!

After three days the boys took the night train back to BKK and I continued in the other direction to Chiang Mai.

If Bangkok is London, then Chiang Mai , the second biggest city is about the size of Dundee!! I really liked the place. The people are very happy go lucky, and the town has a very slow pace to it. I did the sights, including Wat Phra Singh where every afternoon they have a "Monk Chat" facility. The bloke I met there Pradi was so engaging I went back the next day and talked with him again. He told me about the Buddhist take on love, life, and happiness. He is studying English literature to masters level so he can translate ancient Thai Buddhist texts appropriately. He was thrilled of my gift of a dual translated copy of the "Canterbury Tales" as he was having trouble understanding it. He told me this great story about being left alone at the top of a mountain for 3 days by his teacher (he was 11 years old) and a female Tiger and cubs appeared. He thought he was a goner……Then realised that his life to feed a tiger was a useful thing, so he meditated on the fact and waited for death. It didn't happen but he had a profound insight into mortality and life. He also said he didn't like his teacher much after that haha! We sat in the shade drinking iced tea and talked about all sorts. I guess the one thing I took away with me was that he said that loving yourself is the only way to start on the path of wisdom. And that knowledge and experience is all very well , but all true wisdom comes from within. He told me that 5 minutes before I die all the things he said to me would suddenly become apparent and that I should try to set aside 5 minutes every day to empty my mind. Sound advice methinks.

I took a three hour bus journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai ( which is a small sleepy town in the far north at the edge of the so called golden triangle) about the size of Dumfries. Again I liked the people but the town is so set up for air-con bussed tourists setting out for a Thai experience of Elephant riding and sanitised Akha, Hmong, and Karen Villages I really had to get out of dodge.

Which is where I am writing from now Mae Salong is 1300 metres up in the mountains with normally a beautiful view of the jagged Burmese peaks , but this time of year is so hazy due to the use of fire for ground clearing before the monsoon here and in neighbouring Burma..Bit of a shame.

When the Chinese communists took over China in the 50's , the ruling nationalists took whatever troops they could and skeedaddled. Half went with Kwan Kai Shek to Taiwan were they set up "Free China" shop, the other half came into Thailand and settled here. The 10,000 strong town are all descendants from that time. The people here speak and look Chinese. The general that took them here used his troops to control a slice of the opium trade for decades. He was never caught. My guest house owner is a pal of his son. Since they were an opposing force to the Burmese (who the Thais have a very tenuous relationship with..even now there are shooting skirmishes at disputed points), and the Thai army couldn't regulate such a vast jungle area, they were granted amnesty/leave of stay by the Thai government back in the 80's as a recognition of this. How the opium trade continues today is anyone's guess. The Burmese seem to refine it on site into Heroin. On the Thai side the government has encouraged the people to plant tea and other cash crops. Outside Afghanistan this area is still the second biggest producer in the world but what goes on is better not investigated. Certainly the biggest threat to Thailand is from "Yaa Baa" metaamphetamines produced in mass in Burma and smuggled into Thailand. The police were searching local buses going the other way on my way up here. So a very interesting place indeed. Tomorrow I am getting up early to take photos of the early morning market and after  8am I'm off on a 4 hour horse trek around the surrounding Akha and Karen villages . I'm told the horses are closer to Shetland pony/mule crosses, and despite assurances that I'm not too heavy, I do hope my feet don't scrape along the ground!!

After that , my plan is to take a bus over to Tha Ton, stay the night, and longtail boat it the 5 hours back to Chiang Rai on the river Kok.  I'd like to do the 2 day bamboo floaty raft thing, but I'm running out of time. Up here in the mountains watching the kids throwing water at every moving object (celebrating Songkran the Thai New Year), it's really quite magical. I had some reservations about heading out on my own, but now I'm here I feel really at peace.

UPDATE: Goodness me my ass hurts! I did a 4 hour horse trek of around 10 km early this morning after visiting the local market. REALLY great experience. I made a stop in an Akha village and was given tea and corn on the cob from an old Akha woman in her house (teeth stained black/red from Betelnut), and naturally bought a few of her trinkets…Seeing her wrist swollen up with Arthritis I couldn't not. Actually it was all VERY cheap. I practically had to insist on giving her 100 Baht for the stuff..One place where I simply  didn't have the slightest urge to bargain. When you go into these thatched roof bamboo hut compounds it really brings it home as to just how poor many people in northern Thailand are. Bangkok must seem like a an alien planet to them!!

Lei my horse was a little bigger than I expected, but naturally not really into having a fat sod like me on top over such mountainous terrain. We made a few breaks….but I'm pretty sure she was shattered by the end. Loads of kids wanted to throw water at us as part of the Songkran festival, but she was having none of it..I struggled to keep her calm when we made our way back through the main town. Not that I am much of a horseman….If horses can smile she did when I finally got off her back haha.

After such an energetic morning I opted for a siesta. Now the sun is going down and I'm drinking a couple of very large beers..though I do wish the seat was better padded haha. Tha ton tomorrow. If I can work out the minimising software I'll post a few pics on the site….S'later.

  

Hello again (29/03/08),

If I am a day late with my blog I'm sorry. My buddy Ivon arrived and we had lots to talk about way into the wee hours of Wednesday night/Thursday morning…(2 big malt whiskies to end a long night of boozing and no aspirin or water before I went to bed..OOPS! Schoolboy error)

So, part 1 of my holiday plans are now clear. Next Friday night after work, I'm going to take the night train from Hualamphong station to Pitsanulok, stay the night there, and spend a couple of days in and around the ancient capital of Sukothai. I'm actually heading off on a wee road trip with Paul (tall) and Jon of my band. Think we'll hire a car in get into places normally more inaccessible. They're around for 3 nights and then they're heading back. I'm still unclear about my next move from there…I'll most likely train it up to Chiang Mai for a looky looky. I've been put off the mountainous border region by the newspaper reports of bad air pollution due to their annual "scorched earth" ground clearing policy in time for the monsoon season.  Apparently there is nearly always a thick pall of cloud and smoke over everything at this time of year making any kind of landscape photography pretty much impossible!! I haven't ruled it out though, both Pai and Mae Hong Song are a 30 minute plane ride out of Chang Mai.

Either way I'll probably head back to Bangkok in time for Songkran itself. Ning is talking about coming up here…Given the annual water throwing madness that ensues, I'll probably barricade myself in my room with a full fridge and a bunch of movies! The first time you encounter it, it's fun and quite charming, but the novelty wears thin as you can't walk ANYWHERE outside and remain remotely dry…it's kind like a 3 day long mass snowball fight: People queue up at certain junctions and pedestrian hotspots to drench everything in site. Naturally there is a HUGE amount of drinking that goes with this annual event, and when you're throwing massive amounts of water (sometimes with icecubes in it) over anything and everything that moves from dawn till dusk accidents do happen. Actually it's a bit of a scandal really..The Bangkok post runs a totaliser of reported road-deaths over the Songkran weekend and it usually runs from about 500-700 DEAD! I'd personally like to know how many of these people were motorbike victims, as so many simply will not wear a helmet out in the Styx. You only need to fall off at 10 MPH to kill yourself!!! When you have chats with young bargirls down from the country to support their young child(ren) and grandparents the answer to where the kids papa is, is nearly always one of two: 1) " I go..he like the Thai Boxing me" or 2) "He die on motorsigh"..In fact you'll also often see a few with nasty scars on their legs or arms from some lengthy brush with a road after a fall.  

The band played in a God awful dingy club for free last night. Nursing a hangover like I did, I wasn't exactly at my best…In fact I made a right old cock up  on the second song. This was partially because I (and the rest of the band it turns out) could not hear a single thing. There were no stage monitors, the sound simply disappeared off into the big dark room and reverberated around in a most peculiar way. Standing next to my amp I could have SWORN I was playing in a different key to the rest of the band. My brain knew I was playing the songs as rehearsed, but my ears kept saying: "wrong, not right, does not compute!! I made a right old cock up with nerves trying too hard out of fright before I composed myself and got down to the business of just playing by memory and keeping my focus on the beat and what vocals I could make out. Gotta say it was a VERY unnerving experience. Whilst part of you relishes the prospect of opening up the sound levels to concert volume and really playing out, without the necessary equipment onstage, (ie wedge monitors and a competent experienced guy on the sound desk) it can and did, all quickly turn to mush onstage. Apparently it all sounded fine from out front, but that in retrospect didn't help make it a remotely enjoyable experience. I certainly saw the value of all the rehearsing we've done up to this point (though the two Pauls' stayed in the pub instead of coming to sound check which I wasn't impressed with). Had it been our first gig out of the rehearsal room, or that we hadn't been properly prepared for it, it could have been a truly awful night. As it was, Jon the drummer was headlining with his other band at midnight and they had a series of technical hitches that so overwhelmed their 23 Year old French frontman (who pfaffed around with gear and didn't take any advice) that they played a dreadful set. We were, I'm told, easily the best band on the night..Which is always nice to hear.

I'm actually playing right after work tonight at Noriega's in Silom ( paid7 quid a head and a coupla beers- woo-hoo!). We're going to do 2 x 45 minute sets to open the main band. I'm actually looking forward to this one cos it'll be nice to play a familiar place with a reasonable sound setup!

Monday may be spent in a dark room or poolside with a book. I'm getting tired!

 

 

Hello again (21/03/08),

Perhaps I inadvertently got a few people too concerned with my sad ramblings last week. I'm fine I really am, just sometimes things can get you down a bit before you bounce back. That said, I'm starting  my bounce back now. Doubtless it may be fuelled a bit by alcohol as me best mate Ivon hits town for a week this Wednesday. I won't have a lot of time to show him around, but I daresay he'll assimilate this city fairly quickly.

The last few days have really seen the onset of Summer…it's HOT….Really HOT, the sort of hot that makes you not want to go outside unnecessarily, and if you do, you plan a roundabout route to where you're going so you can walk in shadow and through air-con shopping malls. …It's the sort of heat that makes you constantly regret leaving the house so quickly without checking you have a hanky or bandanna to mop you sweat with. Three of four hundred metres walking anywhere and you can feel the pearls starting to form and run down your spine. Even carrying a guitar case and a little rucksack suddenly becomes a chore…escalators over steps every time, and a decided slowing of your usual walking pace!!!… It also tends to make you set out to work earlier rather than battle the crowds and heat of the rush hour…Weird. Maybe my intended  heading off to the mountains is the ramblings of a crazy man!! I've also heard that they do a lot of ground clearing (with fire) up there at this time of year and the air is often hazy and smoky smelling…and consequentially awful for landscape photos…Heavens! At this rate I'll decide where I'm going about 3 days before I'm due to leave.

So this week saw the high hegions of the university gather for the opening of our (CEC department) new administration and Go Inter school building at Sam Yan down the far end of the campus (1.5 km). The ceremony was timed to coincide with the last week of the outgoing University President's tenure. She seemed a very nice woman. It was great to see the school in it's finished (albeit empty of gear) state. I think it looks really quite impressive. I particularly like the Dundee United bright tangerine of the interior theme…cool for kids! It'll be a big challenge to set it up and running, (Lee's doing it whew!) especially with the Overbosses working out of the floor above haha!

Anyways the ceremonies, pomp and circumstance all went pretty smoothly. Given what my colleagues were saying about the lengthy monks blessing ceremony I was exactly looking forward to it..so you can imagine my surprise how much I enjoyed it.  Of course, as monks go we had ourselves the Thailand "A" team. The abbot (very famous) totally looked the part with a face like an old turtle, and he brought the standard 9 chanters with him. Once they'd settle in a line and connected their prayer with the symbolic piece of twine they started the Buddhist chants. Sitting in the prayer position with my palms pressed together (like everybody else) I could feel the Reiki in my hands suddenly going into overdrive and all sorts of images and thoughts entered my mind. It seemed the most natural think in the world to close my eyes and try and empty my head….Lovely it was! The monks chanting were really good (even my colleagues who've been here for years agreed), it was so lovely to hear the subtleties, nuances and phasing in and out of their chants in peace and quiet. I could swear some of them were throwing their voices/and or doing a bit of that Tibetan nose warbling or whatever it is. The only other times I've been near to a blessing there was tons of background noise. I was well impressed! The Thai office girls behind were saying I'd gone to sleep haha! It seemed like to much effort to tell them I was actually having a go at meditation, not that it appeared I had any choice. I doubt they'd have believed me!...Funny thing was as he was leaving the building, I could have sworn the old turtle faced abbot took a step back to do a double take on me…Perhaps he wasn't used to seeing Farang into Buddhist chants.

We were back in the studio this week getting ready for our club gig this coming Friday. What started put as a ropey practice ended really pretty well. I mean, we haven't had the opportunity to play very much in the last couple of months, but a couple of times I was getting goosebumps while we played..a good sign…I hope we make a few good contacts next week, cos I'm sure at 10pm they'll be sod all of an audience to see us haha!

Oh yeah, and Dundee United were robbed of the Scottish league cup last Sunday. I trawled through every bar I knew for satellite coverage, but no no avail, it simply wasn't on in Thailand. Needless to say as the result came through in spurts (extra time etc) via texts from me mate Terry (who's a serious wind up merchant when the mood takes him, but not about football he assures me!!) .  SOO I found drinking steadily from 4pm to 2 or 3 am…. Can't really recall too much, needless to say it got a bit nuts.

Monday was a "live out of the fridge"  write off, Tuesday I slept a LOT.  Think I've conclusively proven that I can't do that sort of thing too often nowadays!!!

  

Hello again (14/03/08),

 

 If my website hit stats, and guestbook comments since December are anything to go by, I guess slowly but surely the memory of me is starting to fade from my friends' and acquaintances general consciousness.  Don't get me wrong, that isn't a dig! I always knew that whatever I reported to be happening in my life would inevitably lose its appeal, especially if I wasn't exactly off on adventures all the time. For all the 'heart growing fonder" as absence allegedly induces , the departed individual is probably the last to know about it!

 Again this isn't a dig! I'll keep writing about my life here in the same broad espousing manner. I don't really care about an enraptured audience anyway. It's kinda fun to keep a general diary on a weekly basis, my memory isn't fab.

 No, more troubling is that many friends have kinda let even emailing the odd "hello" type messages off their agendas. The website and blog was originally set up to tell anybody and everybody who was remotely interested, just what life was like out here. But I didn't plan for it to all be completely one way  traffic. I for one always HATED those "one size fits all" emails that people traveling or abroad send to everyone in their address book (except for emergencies or changes in contact details), which again is where the blog  is useful. So, like many people I am stuck with a bit of a dilemma. Since Christmas there are a number of people I'd like to hear from: A general template letter sucks, and I haven't really got loads and loads of time to write specifically to all the individuals in my email address book. I do try however to acknowledge and answer EVERY personal email I get in some way. AND it's always nice for the odd good friend to pop up and chinwag on the Yahoo messenger when I'm at home. I also engage in almost daily games/moves of online chess and Scrabble on facebook with friends out here, but no takers from the old crew in Europe.

Three lots of close friends have departed from Bangkok in the last 9 months. I guess I'm losing them faster than I can make them just now…which is why I'm on this train of thought. For the first time in two and a half years I'm feeling the slightest twinge of lonliness.

Not homesickness mind I need to be clear about that! No I'm lonely just for an easygoing circle of friends you can kick back, go out for dinner, and talk about all sorts of things about. There are occasional invitations to things that I'd like to take up, but they invariably either happen at the weekends, (when I really haven't the energy after 12 hours of work, or I gotta be fresh for the morning), or they involve going to God awful hip-hop type clubs where I can't hear a word anyone is saying and I feel about 87 Years old. There IS a small scene and social life connected with the band and with the (somewhat irregular of late..it's HOT!) sports I've been playing, but I need to come up with fresh ideas. The sheer size and traffic hassles of Bangkok (like London) can make some rendezvous and subsequent trips both daunting and interminable. I think a lot of this stems from the news that my footie friend John has been diagnosed with cancer and is getting Lymph Nodes removed willy nilly. Here's a 40 year old guy leading a very successful, monogamous, and temperate "stay at home" lifestyle been struck down. The prognosis is currently fraught with follow-up surgeries and is generally uncertain, but we're all rooting for him. So what if it had been me instead? How would I take it? I haven't exactly had an exemplararily healthy lifestyle. My excesses and bad habits well documented. Have I led a full, broadening, and worthy life if it all ended tomorrow? I think I'd be pleased to say that I was brave enough to ring in the changes that needed to be changed. But doubts, (always doubts) can cloud any and every process of justification. I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. The difference is that so many of my hedonistic compatriots hide any vestiges of doubt, lonliness, insecurity, or unhappiness under a massive welter of tarts and alcohol. Excess always dampens introspection… I hope that place isn't gonna be my default setting.

Dearie me!! If it all isn't a bit 'o' dour Scots doom and gloom this week. I am, and should always remind myself that I am, very grateful for the life I lead. This wonderfully flawed, bamboozling, and exotic country should keep me delighted, flummoxed, nonplussed, frustrated and confounded for a lifetime if I so choose. You can't live your life through others, nor should you expect to. The unexplored life is simply not worth leading. So I'll quietly return to my movies and books of an evening and stop bleating liberalist bleeding heart nonsense. Nuff said….

Oh and I've changed my holiday plans again. I'm thinking about going up to Chiang Rai and doing a bit of trekking in the borderland jungles and rivers. Get out a dodge for a while..go see me some hill tribes…Roll on April.

 Hi there (07/03/08),

So I was lately espousing about the general feeling of political apathy here….then I noticed my own apathy too! All the stuff about the US elections, the escalation of violence in Gaza, the crackdown on community destroying street gangs in Britain, the  UK coastguard going on strike!!!..  All of it, well it seems so far away and utterly unconnected with me and my life. It got me thinking about the position I'm in..I earn enough to have the luxury to subscribe to UBC cable TV (which I don't), to buy foreign magazines (which I don't), to surf the net and read BBC (which I do)  and to generally find out about these things. I even have the time to discuss such issues over an easy couple of pints in a British pub of an evening . But Do I? Rarely is the answer. It's not that I care any less about mans inhumanity to man, corruption, immoral or evil deeds, or the overpowering  yoke of misinformation placed upon most of the world by the superpowers. Thailand (which lets face it has it's own set of inequalities and misdeeds to contend with on a daily basis) is kind of a like a purge for all that.  It is a genuinely a "land of smiles" , not because the people are outrageously happy all the time, but because they choose to be affected only by the things within their control. If you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back, food in your stomach, and a few friends to hang out with you're rich in so many other ways. I forget sometimes that this country is really only a couple of decades beyond a life of subsistence farming and crushing poverty. Indeed some parts of the Hinterland have scarcely changed in 30 years. It is to these places, these one horse towns in the middle of nowhere I feel I really have to travel and soon. A friends wife(who is 23 years old) lately gave up a job after a week because of the pay. She was working in a tex-mex sandwich/snack bar in a fancy shopping centre for 35 baht an hour (50p)…Once she'd taken the  bus and skytrain trips each way (80 Baht) and added the price of a babysitter for her young sister when she gets back from school (100 Baht) she was only actually making about one pound every day (2 hours pay for every 8 she worked). Uneducated and lacking a high school diploma as she does it's these kinds of crushing jobs that await her and her contemporaries. It's no wonder she'd rather stay home and place housewifie to her farang husband and expect a small slice of his paycheck. In her case he gives her 5000 a month, far more than she could actually put aside working a 48 hour week. Crazy isn't it? The situation is only likely to get worse as the population increases. The minimum wage is actually 150 Baht a day (2 pounds) for unskilled jobs, and there appears no shortage of people desperate to take them.

That's something that Farangs like me tend to forget. With an hourly pay rate approximately 20x what a shopworker earns I can live a very comfortable life here. I do try to remind myself that often, especially when I see obvious visitors/tourists taking every opportunity to scam ,haggle, and abuse the economical power they have.  All foreigners living a good life here have to at some time remind themselves to put something back; whether it's an extravagant taxi or restaurant tip, some tambon at the local temple, or by similar act of kindness…..goodness I sound like the God-squad!!  Rant over, nuff said.

The final game in the Uni footie championship was cancelled as my department couldn't raise a team. The three defeats have obviously affected the squad. (no bloody wonder—we were shite!). so I'm officially retiring from 11 a side footie…too old, too slow, too unfit, and too prone to long and painful injuries…Hey I'm not immortal anymore..go figure?

My day off on Tuesday morning this week was spent at the Toyota facility in the south of the city teaching 200 employees (in groups of 20). It was actually good fun with all the other guys. We rattled through 6 x 20 minute teaching sessions and were sitting in the pub by midday eating fish and chips..A nice little earner! I'm sure they'll have us back again some time at another of their "fairs".

I'm going to have to try and economise this month, the money I had earmarked for my Laos trip had to be spent elsewhere (things DO crop up when you least expect them). So it could mean a few weeks of thoroughly unnewsworthy blogging as I neither go out, drink beer, whoop it up , or generally DO anything. Even gigging for 5 quid would be preferable!!

Oh yeah, testing starts this weekend so I'm gonna be real busy at work too. Though I could do with a few teachers calling in sick I could do with the substitute teaching money haha!

No further news on the band front at the moment..We're taking a week off. I am however, pressing to get on with the studio project while we have a window this coming week..Jon and I will probably try and go in to the studio next week whilst small Paul is off to Laos to get a new visa  and we'll  get some basic tracks down. I hope that Noriega's calls up with a gig offer before our club collective thing at the end of the month...it seems like a long time to wait.

   

Hi there (29/02/08),

Ok girls out there, I'm open to considering marriage options for today February 29th only….Any offers? No? Oh well, guess I'll be 46 next time round.

Actually I was telling some Thai people about our tradition of the 29^th and they all though it was pretty stupid. If it's one thing that Thai girls tend to do it's ask and get sorted with dowry, marriage, and babies before they are 25! In short, they are not in the least bit shy at coming forward!!!

Talking of Brassnecks, that old rogue the ousted ex-PM ShinatwraTaksin showed up in Bangkok yesterday. In the best Papal tradition there he was outside the airport kissing the ground to the cheering (possibly paid for) crowd and 1000 on duty  police officers… Of course some connected ass kissers had even put up massive billboards on the expressway welcoming him back. Naturally he was detained by the police over the land deal corruption scandal for about, ooh, 5 minutes! He has been quoted as saying he's not coming back into politics but I do find that hard to believe: half of his old cronies are in power and are actively looking after them and theirs,  and that's all I'm going to say on this blog as I don't want to put  freedom of speech in this current "democracy" under any kind of scrutiny whatsoever for the foreseeable future….Clouds are gathering) let's just say some ministers sons' with their VERY dark backgrounds don't make ideal candidates for high office……………….What me guv? Witness? Didn't see nuffink!

The old timers in the footie team are starting to feel the strain. Lee the goalie is on crutches, I'm pretty stuffed as I'm dealing with a cracked rib, and Jamie has taken a few knocks. We lost 2-0 to an over 35's team last Tuesday…no shame this time though, we actually played OK..That said we still haven't manged to force a single corner in 270 odd minutes of football hahah! I don't mind admitting I'm looking forward to getting the final game of the tournament out of the way next Wednesday. I'm so knackered up in pain  and off the pace that I can't think why they keep playing me for the full 90 minutes..is it because I'm big and scary? Probably, nobody has scored a goal from my side of the  goal yet.  I just hope it isn't like last year and we end up qualifying for another duffers league or something!

The band were back in the studio on Wednesday and played a gig on Thursday at Pedros'. I thought after 5 weeks break we'd be very very ropey, but actually it wasn't half bad. Of course there were a couple of bits and pieces that need a bit more work, but all in all,I was pretty satisfied with the results. It was just a shame that hardly anybody turned up to watch us play!! What can you do eh? It's the same old story, the ones that did come (the strangers I mean) really got into it and wanted to know when we were playing next. Some of the usual friends just wondered why we bothered at all….But to me it was like an extra practice with pay.  Peter (who used to be heavily into the band scene in Bangkok with a band that had a bit of a fanbase and buzz) said to me that he was "To old for this !"..Not the music (he thinks we're OK), not the bar (though it is a bit seedy), but all the carting of gear around, making up flyers, hassling your friends,  and  then playing 2-3 set gigs late at night in front of nobody for not even enough money to cover your costs. Based on last night's attendance I'd say he has a point. BUT and this is a big but, it keeps ME young. If I stopped to think of the general absurdity of a 42 year old man playing punk songs with as much accuracy,  fire and gusto he can manage whilst actively trying to convey the spirit of the music produced by spunky 20 year olds from 30 years ago , I'd probably throw in the towel.  It makes me happy. I enjoy playing live. If I don't do this and maximize my life, I'd stay at home watching UK gold on UBC and feeling decrepit. The bands shelf-life is nearing it's natural conclusion and I'm not about to throw what we've achieved in a year away in a fit of self-pity and apathy…..No..I'll wait until the band becomes the victim of it's own inertia. Tall Paul is most likely to be offski first. Boston is possibly calling with an offer he'd be hard put to refuse. That said, we've got another gig lined up with 3 other bands in a club in Khao san Road at the months end. It's a Friday and we're going on first at 10pm (fine by me, Saturdays are long working days), perhaps it'll lead to some more stuff. At least we'll be making in roads with other local bands AND the American guy who runs a punk collective down the RCA every month. A tight and seamless 40 minute set with all our best tunes should turn a few heads!..That's the great irony of it all. We can play, we are actually really pretty good. I've been in enough duff bands to know the difference.

Only one day off this week; One Tuesday  I'm doing 2 hours of teaching at the Toyota Fair for 200 employees. Six of us are going down to wow them with fun and informative 20 teaching sessions. A bit of an early start , but fifty quid is fifty quid. Doubtless we'll treat ourselves to a nice lunch!

 

Hi Again (22/02/08),

To say I'm feeling my age is a bit of an understatement……I've got a big toe nail deciding whether or not to fall off, a right knee and lower leg under a lovely black "go faster" Astroturf streaked scab, and I'm having to bandage up my ribs every night so I can get a good night's sleep. (Think I've cracked them AGAIN: the left side this time!!!). In short, our continued WOEFUL performance in the university soccer championship is leaving me battered and thoroughly bruised. I wouldn't say we're crap as much as singularily AWFUL. In two games we've lost 3-1 and 4-0 and so far haven't even managed to get a corner!!! I thought it'd be an easier ride in defence, but we're so busy at the back I'm putting in easily the equivalent of a 5-7 k run every game. I'm sore and pissed off and kinda wished I hadn't volunteered this year. Not only are half my mates not playing, but without them the team is about as inadequate as a quail's egg starter at a dinner party! Nothing would make me happier than to back out gracefully if I could prior to this coming Tuesdays match, but I keep telling myself we can't get much worse (or the opposition any harder…last Friday we played the Uni champions..I think the ref stopped the second half well early out of sheer kindness!)

We were supposed to be going into the studio to record this week. As luck would have it, the studio computer systems got themselves a virus and we were cancelled.  Which is a bit of a bummer as people are getting busy with other things just now and I'm not sure when we'll get the chance of a full days crack at it again! AND of course we've a gig at Pedro's Music Bar to prepare for next Thursday. I'm hoping our only chance at a rehearsal on Wednesday will go relatively smoothly and we haven't forgotten too much after a month off. On top of that there seems to be a another gig in the offing back at the Immortal club in the Khao San Road. If you read my blog for a few weeks back, you'll notice I didn't think they could sustain the "Mind The Gap" Indie collective on Saturday nights indefinitely. There seems to be talk of a three band bill on a Friday night. I've got to insist we go on first, even if that isn't the best time. I can't do a 12 hour Saturday shift without a decent amount of sleep. Doubtless we'll get paid beer money as usual. My friends Leigh and Donna left the city for good yesterday, it was admittedly a bit sad, especially going round to their house and being encouraged to take all the stuff they were leaving behind (Thanks for re-stocking my home bar guys!). So I too, despite my best efforts, am starting to re-clutter my life with knick knacks. Hopefully none of it will be a problem for me to leave behind. That's 4 sets of friends who've left since I got here (3 in the last 9 months), and admittedly I'm not making them as fast as they are leaving. I guess I'm not going out very much either. I'm either too tired or can't be bothered to a lot of the time. This could be the start of a bad attitude, I may have to give myself a talking to very soon and make inroads  to expand my social circle or let it  wither and die! But I guess that's the nature of Ex-pats, they're a restless lot by their very nature.

The April holiday is looming on the horizon and I've got to start making a few plans soon. Laos is still very appealing.

My mum and Dad left for home last weekend. It was so great to see them, and so nice to see that neither , to my eyes, had  appeared to have aged in the year since I saw them last. Long may it continue!

Hi there, (15/02/08),

Happy "post" Valentines day to all those star crossed lovers out there! It's a bit of a weird thing out here. The Thais, never slow to miss a cool commercial trick have been cashing in on Valentines day big time. But it's not like the UK where it's about romantic love between two people, it's more of a general "give ALL your friends" chocolates and roses!! Very weird. The flower sellers were all open for business at 0730 yesterday with queues going out the doors…not that I got any!!! (boo-sniff).

I saw something VERY controversial in a beer bar this week, (apart from the clown who let off a row of firecrackers in there for Chinese New Year..I thought it was a machine gun and almost shat myself). It was the sort of thing that would normally simply disappear off the screen (either from a central location, or from the bar owner himself) It was a CNN interview with the new prime minister and  his plans for the country . But it also alluded to his involvement with the pro-democracy riots of 1976 which turned into a bloody massacre. I don't think it would be wise to cross or push this guy in any way. Speaking in English, he seemed to have a very good handle on the current political situation, but I sincerely hope for everyone's sake he rings in a lot of well overdue changes. There's nothing wrong with being old school as long as you welcome inexorable change that modern life brings. It's when you don't that the shit usually hits the fan. It was interesting to see how all the Thais in the place crowded round the screen to watch and listen. They normally strike you as apolitical to the point of apathy, then suddenly they drop everything and get on the move!!

I was practically a hermit on my days off this week. I stayed in my apartment , read books, and systematically emptied the fridge of everything till all was left was a couple of oranges…I simply couldn't be bothered going out. I would have done if the weather had improved any, but it was overcast and dull (not photo taking weather). Naturally, today, now that I've got to play left back for the CEC department in the opening game of the University Football championship at 4pm, it's a beautiful sunny day for the first time in a week. It's gonna be HOT! I haven't played any sport for about 3 weeks and fully expect we'll get hammered and I'll be shattered. Especially as 3 of my better playing farang colleagues didn't make the squad this year (a source of disappointment and consternation). We are seriously going to miss Peter, Fred, and Bruce in the team. We may all be getting old, but at least they have a few skils and more importantly the balls and will to have a go. It's going to be a trial as we desparately defend for 90 mins and watch the ball keep pinging back . I'll be surprised if we even get a corner. To make matters worse as it's the opening game there will probably even be a bit of a crown watching our humiliation. I can't understand why they'd break up a defensive back five that only let in 2 goals in the opening 3 games last year! I'm certainly going to take it easier and not take any foolish risks this year. Two bust ribs gave me pain for months last year.

My folks are in town, but thankfully they won't be coming to the stadium to watch the farce! I had a lovely dinner with them last night. They're both looking very well from their 3 weeks on the beach. Just a shame they've a dark , wet, and cold country to return to!

I went to RCA (the road full of clubs) to see Jon's other band the Tender Preys do a Valentines gig supporting local heroes Futon (whose drummer is Ex-Suede). I took my camera and practiced taking low light shots with no flash. A very tricky business, but I managed to get a dozen of so good shots. The band is pretty good I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll break though. I didn't wait around for the main band. It was 11pm, I couldn't hear a word  any of my pals was saying, and I'd already had 4 beers with todays footy on my mind. Either I'm getting to old or too deaf for the nightclub scene. Unless it's me doing the music that is!!!

As for my band, we've got a gig on the 28^th. I'm trying to start the studio recording work on the 21^st if I can. Tall Paul the bassist has emailed from the UK saying he'll be back next week, but he's been offered a job in Boston that he's officially applied for. So realistically we've maybe 2-3 more months in this line up. My original guess of maybe half a dozen more gigs suddenly seems optimistic. Oh well….

 

                                   ;      Hi There, (08/02/08)

A change of font is as good as, er,  a rest!

The weather continues to confound….This is supposed to be the sunny  run in to the mega-hot month of April . Yet it's been pretty cool, the rain has appeared for three dawns in a row, and outside it's a bit cloudy/smoggy!! Not quite sure what it's all up to!!

 Not that I'm complaining- I'm allegedly playing left back for the CEC Depts. opening game in the university championship this coming Thursday! We could use some cool weather… I say allegedly because we haven't received our strip for this year (PLEASE not England again!!!), nor have we formally handed in a signed team sheet with photocopies of our Uni ID badges…Perhaps they're using last year's. Or perhaps our  Thai colleagues have decided to play without the Farang contingent as we play to hard and committed for their tastes!! Either way I hope to God we don't get seeded on the back of last years great qualification into the Champions league (where if you remember we got subsequently gubbed as one by one the 5 man  all farang  defence got crocked (like my broken ribs) or had to bow out to work commitments….NEWSFLASH..Just had to hand in a photo to my Thai colleague for registration! So it appears they want us after all! Not that my folks will come and see me in the stadium EVEN if they are here. Can't  say that I blame them really!!

It's been quite a quiet week…partially as I've had to make it a 6 day working one because I had to make up the extra day from last week, and partly because I'm trying to economise just a wee bit! I did however have a simply LOVELY trip down to the immigration department for my 90 day report (God I hate that place!!). I was actually going to get a re-entry permit for my proposed April trip to Laos, but I really couldn't stomach hanging around for another hour in there. The golden rule is you got to get there bang on 0830 when it opens. You can then be in and out in 10-15 minutes. Leave it till 0900-0930 and you'll be lucky to get out by 10.30.And don't even think about going in the afternoon unless you have a good book and some ear plugs!!!

I've stupidly penciled in our next gig at Pedros' on a Buddhist holiday when they can't sell booze!! Whoops!! I've been calling him all week to reschedule for Thursday the 28^th instead but he's not picking up! Darn, looks like I'll have to go and see him this week. Jon's other band the Tender Preys is going great guns and have another cool gig lined up at RCA next week! Lucky blighters! I'm still hoping to get our recording process started this coming week. I've no idea how long Snatch will last, but I get the feeling we'll be lucky to have more than another half-dozen gigs before it all unravels.

 

Talking of more unraveling, my good Ozzie friend Leigh and his wife Donna are heading home to Melbourne in three weeks. Another one bites the dust: Boo sniff….Splitters!

 

I've had some pretty tricky personnel problems this week. I'm learning the subtle art of "Good Cop Bad Cop"…..not that I'm schizophrenic in any way, and not that I'm into giving people a bollocking, but when classes are in disarray and lessons are being delivered under an atmosphere of seeming indifference, you have to go in and stop the rot and quickly! Of course, some of it is about encouraging people to say what's on their mind and assist in helping them get over what they see as solvable problems and obstacles to good teaching. But sometimes it's also being held accountable as a line manager and speaking plainly. I think I'm improving at this. By "this" I mean I'd like to think that anybody I speak to in such situations comes away feeling that what I said and our joint plan of consequent action is both fair and justified. Ultimately it is for their own protection too. Someday I may be called to protect my team members from a potential assortment of "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". I can only do that if I know they are delivering solid and proper lessons backed up with a suitably  professional approach .  Politics and pitfalls are abound with the new change in University Dean and it's anybodies' guess what will happen in April. Even with my limited and somewhat blinkered view, I can't help feeling that there's an awful lot of maneuvering going on behind the scenes…The worst thing about paranoia is that they really are all out to get you haha!

 

Hi there (01/02/08),

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUSS! Hope you had a good one bro! I'm just back from three days on the beach at Krabi. My folks are holidaying down there and the trip was a birthday present ..Lucky me! Only drawback was a 2 hour delay on the way out. Air Asia is very akin to Ryanair in this respect:- Brilliant and cheap in the off season, but as soon as you're traveling in the high season they're the first to get delays etc..this is not the first time I've been delayed..I'll have to think carefully about using them again in the Dec-Mar season..I suppose it doesn't really matter if I had more time, but if I've only got a coupla days every delayed hour counts.

Krabi (Ao Nang) is a really lovely place: There are longtail boats taking folks out every 45 minutes or so to over a dozen different beaches. Like Ha Long bay in Viet Nam, the seascape is punctuated by huge limestone pinnacles rising up (remember James bond The Man With the golden gun?) and this alone makes any boat trip spectacular. The town itself is FILLED with Scands…everywhere..even the ubiquitous Germans hardly get a look in, as for the Brits, their pedestrian taste seems firmly fixed on Pattaya and Koh Samui. My mum was suffering a bit from a cold (that I allegedly gave her!) so we did a boat out to Rayleigh beach on the first day , and the second day we spent poolside at their classy resort. Ning came up from Koh Samui and joined us for the two days…as might be expected, we went to town on delicious seafood every night!

So I got back to BKK midweek (I'll have to work an extra day next week) and have been getting my head down to all the usual admin stuff. Next Tuesday it's back to Immigration again for my 90 days report!

The band (well 3 of us) is planning to go into the studio in the next couple of weeks and record three songs from our repertoire for posterity. At the moment the votes are still out (Tall Paul hasn't emailed his top 6 yet!), but it's looking like "Going Underground", and "At The Edge" are in the frame. It'll be a strange affair with everybody going in separately and recording individually..Hope it works as well as us all playing together. We'll need to be very careful that every track is recorded separately apparently in typical Thai style they tend to mix and master the tracks there and then without asking you haha! I was hoping whatever we do might get the Mark Freegard once over..(you up for a bit of mastering Mark? I'll bring you back something nice!!!). There's been some good news for Jon's other band the "Tender Preys", they're off to Singapore with another band from the "Mind The Gap" indie band collective to play three nights at an open air harbour festival in April. Sounds like a blast. A pity the organizers only insisted on English speaking bands though. It's a kind of inverted imperialism that's a real kick in the teeth for struggling Thai Indie bands methinks.

The University football championship starts for my CEC department on February 14^th apparently. Against my better judgement I've signed up for one more go! Rest assured I WILL NOT be playing quite as commitedly as I did last year..I really can't be bothered with hurting myself like I did last year. Two broken ribs is enough for a lifetime believe me! It does look however that some of my esteemed colleagues are either injured or are decidedly reluctant to agree to play. It wouldn't be so bad, but as a defender you seem to work so much harder than the midfield or attack cause they can't hold onto the ball for more than 5 seconds!

Aside from bringing me a lovely bottle of Malt, my parents also brought me a lovely gift from my "Auntie" Mila…money! This was the point where I decided to go for the major purchase I've had my eyes on for the last 3 weeks….Basically, my digital point and push shitty Sony camera (which I bought for 250 odd quid prior to coming out here and has been a constant disappointment) seems to have finally bust (the screen was going anyway!). Soo after some research I've gone out and bought a decent semi-pro digital SLR (I've really missed SLR photography)…A Canon EOS 400D ("Digital Kiss" as the Japanese model is known) with a 55-200 telephoto lens (Kit lens is apparently pretty bad according to the reviews) and a 2 gig SD card. It's got all the bells and whistles on and LOADS of different features I'm gonna have to learn about. But I've really no excuse for taking bad photos now. I'll be going out for a wander next week to put it through its paces. The whole shebang came to a shade under 400 quid, but as I saved half of my Christmas holiday money and did a lot of fill-in classes over that period it makes a nice birthday present from me to me! Hopefully this will be a lifetime purchase. Now I've got to get saving for my Easter trip up to Laos.

Hi there (25/01/08),

First off I'd like to send my sincere condolences to my best friend Ivon at his loss. Thinking of you buddy, looking forward to seeing you in March…

So, this week has been a rather strange one with all the comings and goings around the place; My cousin Cecilia showed up again for a couple of nights after her trip to Ko Lanta and Krabi, and my folks also arrived for a couple of days in the city before heading down there themselves. So it was a bit of a family get together on Monday. I can't say I was feeling very well though, I picked up a wee cold and a very sore throat (goodness young children are SO virulent!) so I was fighting a wee fever. Which as such isn't a big deal, but when you've a fever AND it's 35+ degrees in the shade you feel distinctly wabbit! At least I shared the 3 week rollover jackpot with 3 others (2100 baht= 30 quid), that means I've won over 160 quid in the last 10 weeks. For someone who previously NEVER won anything I'm getting the feeling my luck has changed.

So my 42^nd birthday came and went. Since I came out here I haven't been plagued with any of the usual introspection that comes with each advancing year. Indeed, my folks were casually asking me where I saw myself in 5 years and I really don't have a clue. Whether this is borne out of the Buddhist idea of living for today, or whether it's more indicative of me never actually ever having felt vocationally driven, (like my brothers) or simply lacking in some base ambition.

The fact is I just want to strive to be happy, have a decent and worthy job, and spend my free time having fun and maximizing my life. I did the 16 years of graft for little pay (and rising debts) back in the UK and I really don't want to return to that mental state , or that situation I'm not afraid of hard work, but it can't be at the cost of grinding you down and tiring you out so you don't have the energy for anything else.

 I see from the news in the UK that energy prices are going up 15%, Council Tax is gonna be rising 5% and it really looks like we're in for a global recession on a serious clusterfuck scale. Honestly, to have some kind of quality of life in the UK where I wouldn't be adding monthly to a credit card bill, I'd have to come back to a 30,000 pounds a year job, and I don't see myself landing one of those in a hurry! So when my folks asked me if I saw myself returning to the UK, my answer: "What for?" seemed to please them inordinantly.  What for indeed? I mean of course I miss my friends and family from time to time, but you don't build your life around them do you?

The questions still remain. I'm not getting any younger. I'll need to make a stand sometime. I guess I know when I'll get there (be it a physical or spiritual space). I'm certainly staying where I am for at least another couple years this is far and away the best job I've ever had. From what I see and hear it's around the 5 year mark that Bangkok itself seems to get on a lot of peoples nerves. I'm not a great lover of big cities but they do have their uses.

So it's off to Krabi on Sunday afternoon (leaving work a couple of hours early) for 3 nights. Sun, sand, snorkeling, and seafood..Can't wait. I think we're doing a day trip to Bamboo island off Ko Lanta , apparently some of the clearest snorkeling waters on the Andaman side short of the Similan islands. I've got to make sure I pack an extra t shirt to go snorkeling in. The number of people who end up with seriously burnt backs cause they forget that you can burn in the water too is quite staggering!!!

On the Thai political front there are still endless goings on. It's been over a month since the elections and still no sign of a fixed government or cabinet. I'm not too sure what the hold up is . Certainly big business is lobbying for real "experts" to be included in the re-shuffle (does this mean people they have in their pockets? methinks yes). Everybody is wanting a slice of the action. Taksin is sitting over in Singapore waiting for charges to be dropped on a corrupt land deal before he returns and visits his mates who are to be in power (in fact it looks like he's sending his  wifie over to face charges for her involvement the the scandal as a sort of test rabbit…Nice guy!). all this going on whilst the powers that be have extended the official mourning period for the Kings sister to 3 months (a lot of black being worn) whilst the Asian financial  markets are in partial meltdown from the aftershocks of European and American dealings….Well it's all just a bit of a stramash in a quagmire just now.

See you when I get back from da beach!

Hi Everybody, (18/01/08) 

I really got to do something about my backhand! I Lost Tennis again 6-3 6-4… It was however Singles this week AND it was simply getting too hot to try and play much more than that especially on the faster court of the two. Even with 2 litres of water to hand!!. It may not have helped of course that the weekly 5 a side footie game on Sunday was actually 4 a side due to injury, and, as a consequence, was one of the hardest we've ever played. EVERBODY (including my super fit mate Bruce) was pretty shattered after the game…in fact Bruce even fell asleep at the table in the Suan Lum night bazaar beergarden shortly afterwards, and not (for a  refreshing change) due to alcohol.

It was nice to see Ning over the weekend. She was passing through again after doing some politico/land deal work up in Chang Mai at the tail end of the week. We ate in my favourite French restaurant to celebrate her birthday (I won't see her on the 24^th) and she spent the days I was working shopping for a few bits and pieces:- Suddenly there was a new bedside lamp, a repotted plant on my balcony, a large supply of loo roll under the sink, a nice new shiny plastic toolbox with a few tools in it,  a  freshly defrosted fridge (all the sort of things that a guy on his own gets kinda remiss about and probably needs to admit to himself occasionally how nice it is to be looked after).

 Anyway, so after tennis, there I was lying on my bed enjoying a good book, (too knacked to even bother going up to the pool) I happened to look out the balcony window and BAAM! A little dove piled straight into it a high speed and bounced off landing on it's back twitching dead like. Immediately after a HUGE black crow came in and tried to settle on my balcony railing for a couple of seconds before taking a brief look down at the dove and then flying off.

This raised a number of questions in me; Are crows predatorial like raptors? I thought they only did carrion and didn't hunt. What had the wee dove done to get chased? Why living in a cityscape would it pile into my window? It was grown up enough to know the city setup and a lack of another window in the apartment would make the apartment seem quite reflective and dark. Why, within 3 seconds (really about the time it took me to react from the shock and go outside) was the poor wee dead dove ALREADY being swarmed by at least 3 big flies? ( I NEVER, or hardly ever) get any bluebottle type flies on my balcony.

Maybe cos I'm living in the land of superstition and confusion it got me thinking about potential omens and portents of witnessing such a violent scene...I still find myself thinking , that somehow, in some way, I was getting a message. Not necessarily a warning or a threat, just some kind of, …well, I just don't really know……….".Boy's gone Troppo"  I hear you say.

The band had another audition last night..I say night but it was half past midnight when we started (a 45 minute set). It was a really good bar in soi 7/1 in the heart of Nana. The place was fairly busy, we played well (even got a tip left at the front of the stage by a guy after the second song!). The crowd, two thirds of which were girls…bargirls most likely, were nodding their heads and clapping appreciatively after each song. People were actually coming in off the street to watch! We played well despite my breaking a string 3 songs in and all the resultant tuning problems. So I was surprised when the manager said it was great , how tight we were, how much he enjoyed it, but it wasn't the right sort of music for a regular slot, but maybe he could fix something up every month or so…. This bar just seems to want really shitty hip-hop bands that play along to a CD and throw the right poses…bland bland, bland! Hip hop is becoming the bane of my musical life out here .Everybody, every club. Every bar wants it, but are prepared to put up with the worst shit, I mean really the worst.. It's so f***king twee, saccharine sweet and Beyonce like:- I just wish some bar owner would be just a little bit discerning. We can see our music is good, and it's having an impact..are we ever gonna get a bigger populated venue without having to take over the whole place, pay for it,  and arrange a night for ourselves?..I just dunno…AAAAAARRRGGGH!..well Tall Paul's away to the UK for 3 weeks from the 24th ( that'll help him get over his attack of gout….yes, you heard right, gout..and he's a veggie too!).

The owner of my apartment is coming in this weekend to take photos. It's been up for sale for a number of months now, I get the feeling I'll soon be looking for another place. Hope they keep their promise about 2-3 months notice. I definitely want to stay in the Ari area though.

So, my folks are coming out on Sunday for what will probably be their last long haul holiday ever (they're too damn expensive to holiday insure). They'll be in Bangkok for my birthday…Indeedy my 42^nd along with my Danish cousin who'll be returning from Krabi. Doubtless we'll have a bit of a family knees up, eat up at a certain Thai restaurant at Democracy monument I know my mum loves! Then I'll head down to Ao Nang on the 27^th and join them on da beach for a coupla days. Naice!

 

Hi There (11/01/08)

Popstardom, or at least the Bangkok equivalent thereof, is staying fixedly away...We've been teetering on the edge of breaking up over Christmas  due to the amount of shitty venues we've been playing and some mis-communication issues .Sooo Paul and I go and get a proper club gig in Khao San Road, only for the new manager to renovate and move it all around the week  before we get there. So now the whole stage area (which was really cool) ends up being dismantled and the equipment  moved out to the balcony area (with no decent glass soundproofing seperating us from the banging club) playing between the lift shaft and the stairwell!! FUCK! (AND no fan, no second microphone, no second guitar amp. Think Paul and Paul might've blown up the one they were both going through, AND to top it all, the very worst, shittiest, drumkit our drummer has ever experienced in his 5 years gigging round Bangkok.What happened to the one he auditioned there on?!!)..At least there was the proper amount of anger in the music of our second set, I don't think I've played better...but as my ear was plastered against the head height vocal P.A.  all night due to space restrictions I've now got tinnitus in my left ear!! There was so little room, I got barged 3 or 4 times by people walking past. It was a wonder we didn't pack up and leave!!! It might have been very punk to thump someone, especially the wee dork employee who kept fiddling around with my amp as I was playing grr!!

Tonight for small Paul and me  it's back to the streets of Nana and Sukumvit to talk to a few bar owners and see if we can get a gig. Ideally before Tall Paul leaves for 3 weeks on the 25^th. That way we won't have to re-rehearse every time before. We're pretty much at the stage where we can glide through a 30 song set without too many problems. That said, I messed up a tiny bit of a solo again the other night and Jon was straight on it…why does he always highlight my mistakes I make far fewer than the other two!! Maybe cos I'm a bit louder haha!

 I also  went to a launch party of a CD of an indie music collective called "Mind The Gap" at RCA last Sunday and saw 5 bands, 2 or which were pretty good and interested in maybe doing a joint gig, that might get us the Thai audience we've been looking for. As it is We'll be doing more and more nights together with spike the American DJ, his tunes complements our music pretty well and gives us the opportunity to get out of dodge a little earlier in the morning!!

It was also back to 5-a-side football last Sunday…Got the evils of Christmas over excess! I played surprisingly well, but was so stiff the next day (half of which I spent moving Bruce into his new apartment in Ari:- oh oh there goes the neighbourhood!)

My cousin Cecilie from Denmark showed up this week for a couple of nights on her way to the beach at Krabi. She was "lucky" enough to catch our gig on Tueday night (though to be fair, the poor lass was falling off her perch by the end haha). I took her down the Suan Lum night bazaar and left her to crack on shopping whilst I had a beer. And then last night I got pretty trolleyed at Nana plaza. We pulled up a chair at Lucky Luke's open air bar right at the entrance the the plaza ( which is a 3 storey cul-de-sac) and watched the Punters, Hookers, Ladyboys, Poseurs, Perverts, Swingers, and assorted Human  deviant detritus amble in and out with their purchase for the next two hours…To top it all, two American bible wielding Evangelists were 20 yards away at the entrance taking 5 minute turns shouting their lungs out over the combined fairground noise and beats from 10 bars all around. I couldn't make out a blooming word they were saying, but for entertainment value it was great!! Why one of them didn't think to bring a megaphone escapes me.  Fortunately they left before 10 pm whilst they were still receiving cheers, wolfwhistles, and ironic claps at every changeover. Later on I'm sure somebody would have thumped them. So I'm a wee bitty hungover today. It's on the wagon for me for a few days!

Ning is staying over the weekend on her way back from a follow up business trip to Chang Mai, and my folks are coming on the 20^th for a couple of days too. Looks like I'll be a little busy out and about over the next coupla weekends AND I'm off for 3 days to the beach at Aong Nang in Krabi on the 27th….It's a dogs life so it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Again! (03/01/08)

And a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all..My best wishes for 08!. As expected I was far too busy cramming in a load of relaxation on da beach to bother with blogging last Friday!!!

So let's see….Well, I went on the office trip to Phuket which was both fun and bit of a trial in equalling amounts…I REALLY didn't like Phuket at all…We certainly did a lot of touring around, but to me it was very like being on an overdeveloped peninsula somewhere on the Mediterrean , nothing very much Thai to speak of. It was also noticeably more expensive than most other places. We saw a few temples, a cashew nut farm , a pearl factory etc…The usual lots of endless photo stops, etc…We also went to the Fantasea extravanganza….part Disneyland, part elephant show, part Thai culture and dance in a big "son et lumiere" setup…The show was actually pretty well done and fun I particularly liked some of the big magic tricks they performed during the numerous scene changes.

But I was glad to get away a day early and kick start my holiday proper with a visit to Koh Samui. How small, quaint , and less developed it appeared once you compared it to Phuket!!! So I rode my motorbike around the island for 4 days (Very carefully as the roads are in a seriously BAD way since the Autumn floods..Huge great holes everywhere..and I mean holes not potholes…The sort of things that you could easily lose your front bike wheel in up to the forks and go flying A over T. It also didn't help there  were a lot of very stupid drivers around wearing nothing but smiles and flipflops (yes I wore a full face helmet and gloves)..I had to do my first ever bike emergency stop (without using the back brake may I add) as this utter tosser in a big 4x4 made a very abrupt left turn without indicating offroad into wasteground 7 metres ahead of me JUST before a major junction that  I was turning left into.…I had to clutch in , gear down and pull right whilst braking to just avoid avoid piling into him. The person in the motorcycle lane to my left had similar problems..though she managed to turn left in a small skid into wasteground parallel with the truck..I was only doing about 25-30 MPH but it was scary enough. I was extremely careful after that, especially with other tourists on bikes and jeeps. Thais aren't great drivers at the best of times, but when you factor in high season and lots of farang tourists into the mix the situation gets significantly more dangerous. How those holidaymakers riding bikes don't think of wearing a helmet is truly beyond me.

New year in Bangkok was the same old same old..it's funny how the older you get it kinda just becomes another date in the calendar: sometimes you're up for a drink and a party, sometimes you just wanna get home , have a good sleep, and wake up on the 1^st able to do something other than lie around clutching your head and groaning. As I had flown up from Samui at 5am on the 31^st, by 0130 after the bells I hit the sack. Went round to Small Pauls for a lovely evening Barbeque on the first from 4pm-midnight, that's when I got properly pissed on red wine,  beer, and heady conversation….infinitely preferable!

 The jury is out on the band situation. It's unclear whether we'll be playing as this lineup again. The interim plan is to take advantage of  the standing  offer to play the cavernous  Bayon bar (cats piss and concrete rock/metal club) on a Monday night in the next coupla weeks and hope that the drummer agrees to play with us!!!

So it's back to work and the start of a New Year. I'd like to say that now I'm older and wiser I have lots of worthy and  healthy New Year resolutions, but they're like wishes:- If I speak them out loud they won't come true! haha…..

The extra kilo I put on over the festive period has GOT to go though.

 Hi (21/12/08)

And a very Merry Christmas to you all…My profoundest best wishes and good fortune to you all in 08.  I hope it is as good for you as 07 was for me!!

I'm going to keep the blog short this week as I've actually little to say for a change…The school is closed..I'm on holiday (been out late every night this week) and it's started to get really hot all of a sudden. Normally this is the very coldest time of year where temperatures PLUMMET to 18 degrees (or so the papers say)..But lately it's been 35 degrees plus!!! Gives me a chance to make use of the pool though!!

All manner of band difficulties are starting up..It'll be touch and go as to whether we'll stay to gether in the same format next year..It may be a matter of starting again from scratch..I always knew we were on a degree of borrowed time as two band members are desperate to leave BKK, but I thought we'd at least get Jan-Mar in. A series of mis-communications and rather snitty emails (that people really shouldn't write when they're under the weather) have left us a bit at 6's and 7's…..Maybe after we've all had a break we'll see it a bit more clearly.

I am heading down to Samui directly from Phuket as a result. I may as well enjoy 6 days on da beach instead of sitting around lamenting. It'll be nice to ride my Honda NSR again..Last time the island was so flooded I didn't even get to turn it over!!

The elections are over this weekend so I'm hoping for a calm and easy slip back into democratic government….But you know..anything can happen in these places.

I'll try and blog from Samui's sun kissed beaches next week..but I wouldn't hold your breath!!!

 

Hello Everyone, (14/12/07)

We had a blast at the 1^st of three office parties last Sunday. A little craziness ensued with the appearance of a bottle of tequila, but I only had one shot as opposed to a certain colleague who uncharacteristically made a complete tube of himself before falling into a glass shelving cabinet. No damage to himself apart from his reputation haha!!

Then it was off to Pattaya on a two day jolly. Much as I have a certain disdain for the place and the types that go there, I always end up having a really nice time. The peace resort where I stay is only a tenner a night for a nice ensuite room, has a lovely swimming pool, and is far enough away from the nonsense that you can just chill out with a book and watch the red capped hummingbirds feeding.

I had the managers Christmas "lunch "yesterday (home at 2am), and the full time staff only office party is on Sunday coming.THEN I'm going on detox for a few days.. not that it will be too hard over the weekend as there is a pre-election drink ban..By this I mean that all those people who can't make it home for the proper election day on Dec 23^rd can register their vote over this weekend instead. This unfortunately means that bars are allegedly not serving alcohol. More often than not though it means getting your beer in a coffee cup haha!..This could also prove problematic for my band this weekend as we've got a gig supporting "The Bastards" at Noriegas on Saturday night. Can't guess what sort of crowd'll turn up if its gonna be dry…Oh well mustn't grumble. By the way for those of you who haven't seen it yet, I've put a link on my home page. to the "Snippet of Snatch" VDO on you tube . There are also a few new band gig pictures on the gallery site from the same gig.. As some of you gathered we appeared to have lost that gig on Khao San road..most likely as the polis didnae like it!! I'm gonna arrange another gig at Pedro's for this coming week and then we might have to do a freebie at the Immortal club till the wee hours.

So my Christmas holidays are almost here..yippee! I think I'll be spending a lot of time just chilling with a book. I'm not sure how much playing we'll do ..It's a bit of a feeding frenzy bandwise around the tourist bars that have live music. I'm also gonna try and get a little more tennis and swimming in…I'm feeling the lack of a regular 5-a-side footie game already. It doesn't look like I'll be off to Koh Samui after the office symposium at the Metropol resort in Phuket on the 24-26 December..I can't really justify the added expense if it's only for a couple of days.

I am kind of dreading the trip a bit though. It's one of those things that probably should be Thai only..and doubtless there will be a certain pressure to take part in all the games, karaoke, and day trips even if I don't want to!!! I'm gonna have to play it by ear…or make myself very scarce somehow!!!

My blogs as a result might be a little patchy in the next couple of weeks as I will most likely have nothing much to blog about:- except how hot it is, the sunlight dappling on my swimming pool, the wonderful and delicious food I'm eating, the lovely brown legged  girls flirting with me, the ice cold beer from the roof terrace of the Jazz club, and  the thousands of adoring fans and groupies (yeah right) ….and all that other stuff that you poor sods in the UK freezing your nuts off in sleet will not be wanting to read as it adversely  affects your fledgling Seasonal Adjustment Disorder  syndromes…..  

 Oh well, I gotta go they've just finished washing and cleaning the Santa outfits for this weekend and I'd like to claim dibs on my one now (before the beard gets used by someone else…YUK). I'm scheduled both to be Santa and his elfin Gamesmaster on Saturday AND Sunday morning….The joy of it all…This year Santa doesn't have a grotto though, he's appearing from backstage in the theatre room…nothing like putting a bit of Showbiz razzamatazz into Christmas eh?...Altogether now!: ….."There's NO business like SHOWbusiness  like No business I KNOW……."

 

 

Hi There! (07/12/07)

The Christmas closure of the school is approaching RAPIDLY now! Just two more weekends of teaching (and for me the big hassle of round 6&7 testing) and then it's holiday time….

Actually it's going to start rather early….I'm off to Pattaya for two days on Monday morning…I know, I know, it's a dreadful place Hellbent on re-enacting the last days of Sodom and Gemorrah. Fact is, it's out of town, the resort is cheap with a nice pool, the bars are lively and full of incidents (people watching doesn't get any better), and it'll suit my needs for 2 nights admirably.

We're heading down right after the first of three office parties on Sunday. This first one is for everybody. AND after I go back to work on Thursday (another holiday this week for constitution day) it'll be straight out for the managers annual Christmas lunch…the problem there is I can't really booze because I'm playing down the Khao San road later at 11…We actually played there last night to a pretty empty bar…The whole road was strangely quiet…..maybe cos it had been so mobbed the day before for the Kings birthday. FOR THOSE INTERESTED: GO TO http://www.youtube.com/ AND SEARCH UNDER:  FRETWIRE1…YOU'LL FIND A 40 SECOND VIDEO SNIPPET OF US!!!We're really starting to play the tunes with grit and confidence now (apart from Tallpaul the bassist who's not played a note for 3 weeks haha). We're trying to get a few more gigs in between 16^th and the 20^th , if we get our finger out it should happen, especially as we've been turning down some desperate bar managers lately.

I got a good game of tennis in this week…I was even starting to actually play well…Maybe I'm finally getting a feel for it, or the fact that it's so pleasantly cool just now (around 25C) that it's a joy to be cavorting outdoors doing sport….Although many Thai and Farang colleagues are complaining about it being so cold and are wearing scarves and sweaters, it feels about perfect for me…I kinda wish it was like this all of the time…I know by April I'll be moving from shade to shade and detouring through air-conned shopping centres to get to where I'm going!!!

I've been making the final arrangements for my trip with work down to Phuket…They forgot to book me a single room!! OK so the supplement is 2400 Baht(35 quid)..but I don't care I'm not bunking down with anybody else!! A small price to pay when everything else is inclusive. I am arriving too late for the Similan island cruise which is a shame it was the only trip I actually wanted to go on…I'm now planning to show face at mealtimes, sing the obligatory Karaoke and disappear off as much as I can!

I've only got two more weeks of my hairy teenager round 6 class…I've taught them for 2 cycles now…a total of 64 weeks..I'm looking forward to getting another class assigned I'm kinda running out of tricks with this one. I mean they're still good and enthusiastic when I get them going, but it's like trying to kick start a very old and knackered motorbike. When it 's running it's great..but get the bloody thing started. The class has renewed for T6 but I've told them I'll be bowing out. Most of them seemed disappointed and said I should stay, but I wouldn't be as effective as a new teacher. I had a look at their feedback forms about me and they seemed pretty favourable: throwing bean bags around and brandishing a giant plastic squeaky hammer in a threatening manner seems to work.

Oh yeah I'll have to play Santa again this year ho ho ho! I keep being reminded however not to give out so many sweeties..they're probably right it's most likely not too cool to give 6-8 year old a huge  bunch of sugar and then try to teach and control them as they bounce off the classroom walls!!!

Enjoy the video!

 

 hi there (30/11/07),

Another busy weekend. Every time I think I've got some time to get personnel stuff done,  I'm back in the classroom covering for sick teachers! Not that I'm complaining it'll all help as the Christmas holidays rapidly approach.

So, my days off this week were spent up at Khao Yay National park. Ooh it was cold!!…Like a Summers day in Scotland after the sun has gone down and you have to put another layer on if you want to stay outside. It was so welcome and refreshing. It really was. I can't tell you how nice it is to be occasionally cold, though for you back in the UK in late-November I'm pretty sure you don't need to hear that!  There was even a Scottish like  blustery wind (doubtless from the Typhoon that's been clobbering Viet Nam). Temperature wise the next 4-6 weeks are just the nicest…I EVEN get a shock from how cold the water is in my shower!!! AND I have to use a blanket over a single sheet when sleeping WOW!

We went North primarily to play golf at the stunning Mission Hills golf course again…It is so beautiful, and so quiet up there. We  practically had the place to ourselves . I played pretty well, even came within 3 feet of a hole in one! Don't think it's ever gonna happen somehow. We stayed up at the famous "Cabbages and Condoms" resort. (If you wanna know why it's called that:  google it…), but even the pool was just a trice too cold for me. Instead I was busy doing Reiki on assorted middle aged necks, backs and shoulders of my colleagues. What a bunch of crocks we are…I'm not much better, after 5 a side footie I'm always so stiff in the morning I can barely walk haha!

We had to cancel this Thursday's gig as Tallpaul was away AND he's having tendon problems with his finger…A week off won't hurt I suppose. I'm still swithering on what I'm gonna do for the Christmas period. Ning , as it happens is being sent to Chang Mai for a week to sort out land deals and associated politics for her company. So I expect to see her over the next two weekends..cool…especially as next Sunday is the office party…(one of 3 three actually..this one's for everybody including P/T teachers), so she'll get a chance to meet my colleagues and their wives/girlfriends in a cool setting. I'm probably going to Pattaya  on  Monday week with the guys by way of a boozy pre-  Christmas fest. It's kinda strange but with the Kings birthday and Constitution day in consecutive weeks we're getting Mon/Tues/Wed off for the next two weeks and THEN off on holiday from 16^th Dec to 3 Jan. I'm still due to go to Phuket 23-26^th on the office junket thingy. I dunno what to do, If there are paying gigs to be had I'd be perfectly happy to stick around here. HOWEVER, if I end up twiddling my thumbs for a couple of weeks , or playing just once every 7 days I will be pissed off I didn't get out of dodge for a while. I don't really get to choose my holidays: Christmas and Easter (Songkran they call it here..nothing to do with Jesus haha) are the two main times the school shuts for a few weeks. I'm planning to tour Laos in Songkran I think. I've been hearing lots of good things about it and I've only been as far as Vientiane.

Loudspeakers are hailers all over the city are bleating out the various wonderful characters, parties, and policies in the forthcoming election. Some people are having to go a long way (in some cases all the way home) to vote. You can go to an official polling station a week or two early if you can't get back to your village, but it's a long and complicated wait to do your civic duty. Ning had to travel all the way over to the mainland and then stand in a very long queue where only one guy was on duty at the desk. But hey that's Thai style. I've learnt a long time ago never to go to a bank or any place that requires queueing during lunchtime period. There are absolutely no qualms at all by the staff or their bosses for that matter in them all just up and leaving the Customer service desks, (with a minimal single person left behind still serving IF you're lucky) whilst the rest go off and scoff ,usually somewhere tactlessly within your full view).

Sorry 'bout the site going down…nobody told me…Don't like the new template much either but what can you do eh. BTW, for those on Facebook I am now available for online games of Scrabble….bring it on!

Hi Again (23/11/07)....SORRY FOR THE DELAY.....APPARENTLY MY SITE WAS AN OLD TEMPLATE THEY SIMPLY DELETED WIHOUT TELLING ME...

Well it's been a difficult and disappointing week for Ex-pat football fans watching displays of both unlucky (Scotland) and inept (England) games in the wee small hours. I even stayed up till 2am on Saturday/Sunday to be heartbroken like most Scotland fans….At least I didn't lose both my bets haha!!

We went off to the Khao San road on Sunday walking around audtioning/whoring ourselves to any bar that'd let us play. Turns out we did really well and have landed a late night Thursday slot 11-1230am at the Sabai Bar slap on the main drag. OK so its late, and  so we're just about covering costs with what we're getting paid, but it is a regular spot and the manager has pretty much said he'll increase the pay if we start to get a following. Good place to be in the run up to Christmas…AND we can get the bigger club owners to come and see us. It's an open fronted bar onto the street (no Air-con then..HOT!) so I hope we'll get a lot of interest from passers by, especially cos a) We're foreign and b) We're not half bad. My only reservation is that we'll have to play comparatively really quietly and I don't get the same dynamics from my playing when I'm playing overly hard and struggling to sustain notes etc….Guitarists….bloody tone purists eh?

UPDATE: We played last night and rocked out to a pretty full bar. I think we played pretty well (apart from my solos) and quite a few of our "fans" (well 3 of them I recognized) showed up. Nice to have a bit of a following . I was also pleased at the sound I was getting out of my gear (though a loose connection in my FX pedal will have to be looked at), and the general dynamics of the band…I even stayed on water all night WOW! Looks like next Thursday's gig is on…He wants us back! He also wants us to play more. He said he'd give us another 1000 baht to play a third 45 minute set or even more to play through to 130 am..Goodness!!

The other bar that wanted us was a BIG Heavy Metal club that was looking to expand its rather slim market by perhaps going into Rock, Punk and Indie. It was a big barn of a place (again empty at 8 pm at night), smelling of stale beer and cat piss (smelt like a Glesga close). There was a huge miked up drum kit and a stack bigger than me (I could not get a decent sound out of it…pure middly nu-metal tones even with the treble on ten and the low and mid on 0!!!)..Still, we played 6 songs or so to a very positive reaction from all the staff and roadies that swarmed from all over the club to see what was going on. Paul sat down with the Assistant Manager to talk possible Turkey, his first question…."Do you play any covers?" HaHa. Once he was informed they were all covers he looked a bit more interested..BUT THEN he asked us to return at midnight and do a freebie 2 hour set!!! Yeah right!!! That's what auditions are for mate!!! He's got our card and knows where to find us as high season rapidly approaches. Tall Paul will probably take advantage of cheap Air Asia flights to get out of town at the weekends for the next 3 or 4 weeks, but that's OK cos I'm too busy and usually too knackered myself after a 12 hour day in school. So things are on the up with the music. It remains to be seen whether I'll stay in BKK for all of the Christmas period, or if I'll go to the beach at some point. Apparently New Year gigs are highly lucrative (200 quid a person!!!)..so we'll just see.

Election fever is growing around here. The endless placards with candidates faces and a number are starting to spring up all over the place. Nobody really has much an idea of anything that's going on: lots of finger pointing regarding the arrangements and the long delayed constitution amendments. On top of that The King is celebrating his 80^th birthday in early December so ALL the giant placards, hoardings, shrines, and displays bearing his image are being updated. There's a new Kingly anthem for the occasion and every Monday sees more people wearing the canary yellow royal crested polo shirt . Though there has been a run on both green and pink shirts, which in turn has led to, (literally overnight!) a spate of market traders selling crested pink and green shirts too. There is still speculation (on the tv AND in the broadsheets) as to what this "seasons" colour might ….It really is quite odd here sometimes.

Hi there (16/11/07),

 A nice spot of luck this week. After a three week roll over on the office English premier footie sweep (5 correct results-.not as easy as it sounds!), I ended up the sole winner of 150 quid. Wahey!!! Trouble is most of it has already gone. I had to give money back to the management fund for all the kids I've placement tested in the last month that I'd already been paid for ( 50 x 100 Baht a pop!). Oh well….. At least it's nice to win something.

Another 2 songs learnt at the studio this week….Bauhaus and The Cure if you please…God that Bauhaus stuff is dark!! But you know it really grows on you..Maybe I'll have to start wearing black and put on eyeliner haha. Frank at Noriegas is practically begging us to play there every Saturday. I think he was genuinely blown away by the reaction we got last Saturday (we certainly were). The place went nuts, people dancing and jumping all over the place. A large hen party of girls jumping on stage singing into the mikes and popping fizzy sweeties in our mouths whilst we played…..Man were they pissed but what a laugh!!! I think we did pretty well to keep playing on, especially as I had a dodgy amp in the first set that kept fading in and out.  Bangkok Sporting Club and their assorted wives and girlfriends came in just before our second set and then THEY went nuts. The club secretary came up with his business card afterwards and said they'd really like to book us for a function and it was a shame they'd already booked their Christmas band!!! A couple of them started putting messages on our site saying how much they enjoyed the gig!  Then of course there were also those  5 or 6 mysterious people who keep turning up at our gigs with Punk T-shirts on. I THINK they're from the Bangkok friends website…either way it would appear however small, we seem to be garnering a bit of a fan base.  So things are on the up….We're off to audition at the Sabaii bar at 6pm  in Khao San Rd on Sunday evening and might well end up hoboing around and doing small 40 minute stints in other bars and clubs to see if we can get some  interest from bar owners…I can't see why not, We would appear to be a pretty good band (the best I've been in anyways)… Either way it should be a laugh!…We're definitely on the up as far as gigs go. At least Frank at Noriega's was good enough to admit he wasn't paying us enough AND gave us 3 free jugs of beer during the gig. The problem is we can double our money playing Pedro's, but it's really not a great venue to play, and like I mentioned before, the wiring in there makes me a little nervous.

I've also been asked to join that mega-jinxed lounge lizard hotel foyer "killing me softly with croon tunes" band that Jon and another colleague Sarah is in. I've said I'll sit in rehearsal and maybe learn a few songs before I commit to anything . It's a trade off I suppose, if Tallpaul does go away on secondment in the early New Year, the band could effectively be mothballed and I'll not be playing live at all (He may even stay in the UK). So I guess I'd better keep my options open. Jon the drummer as far as I know will be off to either Japan or Spain by this time next year anyway…Unless of course we become fabulously rich and famous playing our punk cover tunes haha!!!

The weight is still falling off me. I'm trying to eat a little more sensibly…It's hard here not to eat at weird times. Places don't close till really late and there's always grilled chicken, duck with rice, and other such delicacies on the go. I'm going for a big lunch and try not to eat much at night. If I can lose 3 or 4 more kilos (down to 90-91) that would be nice….It's such a shame that beer is fattening.

I played a dreadful game of footie last Sunday, couldn't do a thing right..oh well. AND for the second week running, both my planned games of tennis were cancelled by my hungover deadbeat friends….I even had to go shopping instead fir goodness sake. Still I got a natty new workshirt anyways.

Lots of political wrangling over here concerning: a) the ongoing constitution reforms b) how the parties in for the election are registering. Lots of the usual shickanery and jiggery -pokery so what's new? As far as I know Dec 23rd elections are still on…but watch this space.

Hello Everybody (09/11/07),

This week I have mostly been eating……….NOTHING!..Yes indeedy I have fallen victim to a rather nasty bout of food poisoning. I think it was the Hat Yai chicken at the Suan Luam night bazaar after the game of footy on Sunday that did it……Either way , by Monday (fortunately my day off) I was being violently ill…Tennis as a result was cancelled on both days as I fought to maintain some kind of hydration/mineral balance (pretty blooming difficult). Throwing in the proverbial towel on Wednesday, I went off to get some Ciprofloxacin …You know what it's like- suddenly for the first time EVER in Thailand..EVERY pharmacy you go to has it's dispensing department closed 'cos the pharmacist is out to lunch, off sick, not about….After 3 attempts I was starting to get a bit frustrated…I wasn't exactly looking for Methodone, opiates,  uppers, downers or even round-a-bouters…all I wanted was some antibiotics!!! They'd happily sell me Viagara without a duty pharmacist but not Ciprofloxacin. I had also been recommended Lomoxacin (I think) by somebody else who said it was "good for Gonorreah, so it had to be good for upset stomachs" but strangelyenough I wasn't quite ready to ask for it lest the pretty girl at the counter got the wrong impression haha!

About the only thing I DID manage to do this week was go to rehearsal on Tuesday night…God that was a trial…I felt shaked , baked, and generally microwaved, but somehow at least mananged to retain my wits (and my hydration levels) for two and a half hours…..Can't say I played very well, or with much enthusiasm…But we did get the set squared away for this weeks Gig on Saturday night. We've got two new songs to trial..i wish they were a little more polished, but I doubt whether the meager crowds at Noriegas at midnight will give a hoot….That said, we're sharing the gig with DJ Spike who's a young American who DJ's alternative, punky, indie stuff which compliments our stuff very well….It also helps that's he's quite big into the "Thailand friends" website ring and can get a bit of a crowd down there….and yes they are still only paying us 500 Baht each, but at least this time I don't have to drag my amp down there this time…which means I can take my guitar to work, grab a bite to eat at 8pm, and take the skytrain down there without any hassle. Like I've mentioned before, from here on in we do any and every gig. The boys were up in Khao San Road on Wednesday punting for new business…looks like we've got a couple of auditions coming up.

Another busy weekend  coming up. For a change I have a few slightly tricky personnel issues to deal with so I'm sure that'll be a bunch of laughs. I am only scheduled to teach one class though..which is OK by me as last Sunday a teacher phoned in sick 5 minutes before his class and I had to do both his Sunday classes at very short notice…fortunately they were Teenagers!

I am supposed to be a good mate to my Aussie pal and go and see Linkin Park this coming Sunday…words do not do justice as to how indifferent I am about this…I am still holding out the vain hope that he has another friend to go with….I LOATHE bloomin' Nu-metal and in a huge arena type gig with miles to walk for the loo…

Latest fashion to hit the streets in Bangkok this week is loads of lassies walking around with thin single stands of tinsel woven into their hair, mostly red, green, or yellow metallic .Most of the girls wearing it have already got dyed highlights going on so it looks more striking……Actually It's like being amongst living breathing Barbie dolls or 'My Little Pony's'….Certainly a very odd look. But hey I'm glad the "fake dental brace" look is on the way out. The minister of health had to release info about the fake ones actually damaging perfectly healthy teeth!!!

Just to ensure even more wasted time on the net I joined Facebook this week and am now pissing away valuable time sending friends "virtual drinks" and writing stuff "on their walls"…..Still if you're on there and haven't hooked up with me, feel free to do so…I might even send you a virtual Margharita..

i There, (02/11/107)

News from the farm…It's a boy! " Tongdaeng"   (Red Gold cos he's red… he was artificially inseminated from a red Brazilian Brahman) was born  2 two days ago.  Those of you following my blog probably remember I was wanting a male because: a)It won't be fallen in love with , mollycoddled and treated like a pet..especially when it gets older  AND MORE IMPORTANTLY  b) When it gets fattened up in about 8-9 months we can sell it for maybe around 13-18000 Baht (depending on how "beautiful"it is) and this will pay all the running costs for the plantation for another year….Just as well as I've had to fork out 100 quid for a roof and extension to the cow shed!!!...There is talk about Mahroi getting inseminated in the New Year as she's about old enough now…I don't know…forcing "roles" on these poor adolescent animals…It's the Thai way I suppose. I guess I'll have to go up there and take a look sometime soon…as for the Eucalyptus trees, who knows...

I've had a lot of exercise this week…Football on Sunday evening after class was really good fun. The particularly mouthy and abusive opponent on the other team has been told to lighten up in no uncertain terms and it's a much better "just for fun" atmosphere as a result. A couple of us headed down to "Sin City" plaza and sat at an outside  bar  right at the entrance "catwalk" and watched all the ladyboys, hookers, punters, and drunkards coming and going whilst we watched the footie and drank beer. If you like people watching, it really doesn't get much better than this haha. You can't help feeling a little despair at the sheer magnitude and sleaziness of it all though …

 I am however sad to say I was quite woeful at Tennis on Monday. I really should go down there with a basket full of balls and practice my serving until I've got it right. The rest of my game is OK but my 60% of my serves are Woosie  dollied  second serves that my opponents have for breakfast!!!

The band was in the studio on Tuesday for a rehearsal. 2 new songs almost finished and a waiting list of  about 15 new ones to learn as long as your arm! We've now got a set well over 2 hours…Though at least three of our songs may never be played again!!! I'm still holding on to "Suffragette City" in our gig list. The band don't practice it, but it always goes down live very well….Maybe cos it's one of the few songs we play that people actually recognize haha!

The king is improving from his minor stroke but he is still in hospital….You should see the pictures of the crowds outside in constant vigil and prayer. I really can't imagine what this place would be like should he kark it. Let's hope he lives to a 100 years old. The political infrastructure here isn't nearly robust enough to deal with such a massive constitutional crisis. And yes the 23^rd December elections are still on apparently…Though they are drafting and redrafting a new constitution for ratification prior to this…The government scribes are very busy (Yes they're handwriting it…)

A friend is trying to convince me to go and see "Linkin Park" in concert…But I'm not really into Nu-Metal man. I'm holding out till he finds someone genuinely interested in going…Leigh , if you're reading this we'll discuss it at dinne rtonight…I'm sure your visiting mother-in-law won't mind….Just racking up the "I owe you one" points ain't I ? hahaha

Hey There, (27/10/07)

Rain, rain, rain and floods! That's what my holiday on Koh Samui amounted to…..Seriously downpouring tropical rain….In fact it was surprisingly like Scotland in the downpour endurance stakes. I'm used to the quick 20 minute tropical shower…so you could have knocked me down with a feather when it didn't stop for 3.5 days…(actually there was a 25 minute dry-spell). The roads were all flooded…in some cases up to about 4 feet deep..so no chance of even having a wee shot on my motorbike…..I did feel sorry for some of the poor people in shacks semi-submerged on mini flood plains. Anyway, remaining philosophical and stoiccal , I DID get out of the city. I had plenty of good books with me. It was lovely to spend some time with Ning. AND it wasn't as if I'd travelled halfway across the world with some premeditated idea of a sun kissed tropical island. I will however think more carefully about going there anytime around mid-Oct to mid-November in the future!!

Tell you a thing that's been getting on my nerves lately, and it's not just confined to Thailand…It's Asia's long standing love affair and dependency on plastic bags. Packaging here is taken to a new level. When you think that many people don't have a kitchen and buy in street food on a daily basis and that comes in plastic bags and cartons…well that's just the tip of the iceberg….even Polo mints are all individually wrapped!! Then you take in all the soups and sauces that all all wrapped in plastic (rubber bands are also a constant partner to plastic bags). It just goes on and on. I had occasion recently to pop in to a 7-11 and get some groceries including pantliners of all things (I'm an emancipated boyfriend)…and the girl smiled and positively commented on  my 21^st century male enlightenment (A Thai guy would NEVER buy such things) then she wanted to put the liners into ANOTHER plastic bag inside my groceries. I politely declined and she gave me a very strange look indeed. We westerners may have our canvas and linen bags. We may like to think that  having to buy plastic bags makes people think twice before leaving the house to go shopping without a balled up placcy bag in their pocket. But it's here in the heartland of developing Asia that the real battle to drop plastics and packaging will be really fought. The wastage here is simply staggering.

So Small Paul texted me yesterday afternoon in dread that he might have forgotten about our rehearsal session as he was on Sathip beach 3 hours drive away down the coast with his doggy!!!. To say his bandmates were pissed off would put it lightly. I decided that if I had to do fill-in singing duties in the studio I'd have a few beers to loosen up. Well knock me down with a feather if Paul didn't come barreling in 45 mins late. Our less than polite SMS's seem to have inspired him to beest back to the city. The session went very well, (though I'd taken another 3 beers in with me and was distinctly squiffy by the end)..actually it went  surprisingly well. We were all sitting outside a bar afterwards (drinking MORE beer as it happens), when Frank from Noriega's phoned Jon again…you may remember this guy from a couple blogs back where he phoned on Saturday afternoon and asked us  to play two one hour sets that night for 1500 Baht (20 quid)…..Well it might have been the drink, or it might have been a natural adjunct to our conversation about gearing up for the high season and really start playing everywhere regardless of money, but we agreed to play 10 to midnight this Saturday night for 2000 Baht  (30 quid)! My share will barely cover my taxi costs and a beer haha! AND I've got to do 6 hours of teaching on Saturday and get up at 0630 on both Saturday and Sunday. Think I'll be ready to drop by the time Sunday evening 5 a side football rolls around! Still, if the band really only has a couple of months till Tall Paul's 3 month sojourn in the UK we really have to make the best of it. Noriega's is a famouly notorious place though…bad sound, bad equipment (yes I gotta lug my amp down there again DOH!). And a more than even chance that it'll not exactly be very busy. It's right at the end of  Dead-end Soi 4 in Silom in which every other bar is a gay bar! And to add Insult to injury, anyone we do bring down will have to pay 140 Baht for a small beer (piss take expensive at least all performers only pay 70)..so it's no wonder this guy is desperate for bands to generate customers..Think we'll regard it as an extra practice for  the big Khao San Rd gig which is imminent.

Ah the roar of the greasepaint , the smell of the crowd.

Hi again (19/10/07),

First off,  Happy Birthday to my dad this Monday. Doubtless it'll be another day filled with food and laughter…

So this week my university was in the newspaper business section. The Dean was receiving a cheque from the giant mall MBK (about 600 Metres away) in lieu of a new lease deal…23 Billion Baht!!! I then find out that Chulalongkorn University also owns the land on which the giant malls Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery  are situated, and pretty much every other mall in the entire downtown area! In fact: the land  all the way from here to the river about 2 miles away .AND they're about to build a new hotel complex not far from my office for another 19 Billion. What's a Uni doing in the hotel business you might say…what indeed!  money must be a driving factor then….Which obviously begs the question why I'm writing this blog on a laughably substandard desktop computer with an old boxy monitor and a keyboard with a jamming space bar that's seen far better days….not that I haven't been pestering the computer dept on the 17^th floor for an upgrade-they only get 2^nd hand ones through government surplus sales- it's policy apparently .yet all the front desk staff have sleek flat LCD monitors… the age old concept of "face" in public spaces I suppose.  This alleged upgrade is already 3 days past due delivery day…..It was obvious I needed some clarification on the matter…The best analogy I was given was that each faculty is like (and has the budget of) a small country. And these semi-autonomous states operate pretty much independently, almost to the extent that they don't really know much about their neighbours. Deans and Directors are voted in for a tenure of a few years and then either moved on or shipped out! So they don't in many cases give much of a hoot for their department knowing they'll be most likely moving on pending a balanced budget sheet! My department CEC (Continuing Education Centre) is almost completely unknown/unheard of in University circles apparently. Perhaps that's because we deal with comers and goers more than fixed degree students but still we do occupy a 20 floor building on the shopping mall/commercial edge of the campus!…. So, if each of these faculties is like a country with something like the huge and famous Engineering faculty being the United states, then CEC doesn't even qualify at the Vatican City….more like a small downtown Mogadishu run by a tooled up warlord…Indeed "old professors never die, they just lose their faculties" haha…ANYWAY all I want is a computer with a decent CD?DVD RW and 60 gigs of disc space honest…not much to ask eh?!

Band had a great rehearsal this week. Lots of laughs, experiments and silliness amongst the review of learnt songs. Of course, the moment Jon goes off to Tokyo for a week long  holiday we get the call to play the Gazebo club in Khao San Rd on Friday night! The good news is that we should get rescheduled without too much ado…Still it would have been nice to play a big club whilst we're on a roll. I hope we'll get the chance in 10 days or so. We've also been asked to do a club gig with a DJ who came to see us. He plays a lot of our kind of music, so it could be a really good night…It'll be something like 100 Baht at the door (1^st drink free) and we'll split the profits. Another band called the Dogs wants to share the bill with us too. We were also offered Noriegas last Saturday night for twenty one quid for the whole band!! It's not the money, but playing a two hour set Saturday night gig with 6 hours notice at a nasty bar in the nastiest part of town for the original grumpy and tight bar owner tries the patience. It's not the money it's the attitude. Jon used to play there 3 times a week and listens to the guys continual moans. The only reason he'd consider doing a one-off gig there would be to stick it to him and guarantee us a spot on the bill of the annual British Embassy "Britstock" festival at the British club every year on the kings birthday (6^th Dec). So what will happen first..Hell freezing over or us playing Noriega's for 4 quid and a couple of beer vouchers….It's dead glamourous this music business………..NOT!

I'm getting away from work at 1pm on Sunday and flying down to Samui for 3 days. I feel the need for 3 days of palm trees, beach, and a couple of paperbacks. My motorbike down there should be getting serviced and fully Mike ready…It only costs a tenner or so to clean the plugs, change the oil, tighten the chain, tweak the brakes, check the cables,  do that thing where it looks like they're blowing it up to clean the piston chambers….A big bang and white smoke everywhere!! Oh, and pump up the tyres…..A tenner well spent says I!!! And yes I will still be wearing decent shoes, fingerless gloves, long trousers and a helmet….like I've mentioned so many times before those tourists riding sandy pot holed roads,  topless in trunks and flip flops half deserve a skinning for their gross stupidity!

That's about all the news this week. On a Thailand front, the King has suffered a little stroke, has some weakness in his hand and is in hospital…..Not good. Yet another English teacher paedophile (a Canadian) has been internationally identified and has recently entered Thailand. Doubtless there will be a rolling programme  of  knee jerk reactions: Impromtu visa/work permit checks at state schools and kindergartens, Mandatory police background checks for newly employed teachers,  etc..I've even heard of a so-called compulsory 3 day Thai cultural awareness course that one of the teachers here was forced to attend (and pay for!)…

  Elsewhere and everywhere the election megaphones and political TV campaign ads have started to roll out. Dec 23^rd  election still looks to be on…..The worry is that Taksin's cronies will get in and pave the way for his slow but inevitable return

 

Hi, (12/10/07)

I'm writing this from Khao Yai National park..and very lovely it is here too...Sooo nice to actually feel cold again..Weird huh? I haven't felt a windy chill for a couple of years and up here in the mountains I almost have to think of putting on something over my T-shirt.
Actually it's been raining a bit....I got a game of golf in at the beautiful Mission hills Khao Yai course, but had to give up after about the 13th cos it was teeming down..didn't play half bad either. Either way it's really cool to get out of the city for a wee break..Not that I'm completely on holiday..i've got to run a camp of over 100 kids for a couple of days...when I say run, I mean sit with the teachers and T.A's (teaching assistants) listen to their gripes and sort out anything that might need sorting...in this case a rather unkind bit of homophobic bullying going on in the dorms after dark....Those hairy teenagers won't be doing that again!
As it turns out I'm going to be working straight for 10 days now. got a bunch of cover classes to do over the weekend, THEN I have to deliver the first two days of a  Film and Drama course we do in the school over the Autumn week break.  Should be fun actually, We're going to be looking at the movie "Ratatouille" which I haven't seen yet.
My globe trotting friend Anne hit town yesterday..i'll be seeing her for dinner tonight..it's just a shame i won't really have any time to show her around.
We got a call late last Thursday evening to ask if we could play at short notice in the soi 8 bar. After 20 mins of calling, all band members announced themselves present and correct only be to be told by the bar owner it was "too short notice!" weird huh..go figure...At least our willingness has probably put us on the schedule for another gig..but i'm not exactly holding out much hope it'll be any better than Pedro's...certain bars here are pretty dead except for the high season and can seemingly exist on minimal customer numbers throughout the rest of the year...Even so, how a place like the soi 8 can afford to pay us 1500 Baht a man and still hope to make a profit seems a bit unclear.
I'm still thinking about getting away for a few days from next sunday night as it'll be the only extra day off till Dec 16th.....I might yet look at flights for a city break..but i should really just save my money for a wee while and build up some savings..with all the extras i've been doing lately I feel like treating myself. That busniess trip /seminar to Phuket over Christmas seems to be confirmed, though I'm a  little disappointed that a couple of my colleagues are dropping out . If i'm not playing, i think I'll fly to Samui from there for a few days leading up to New Year.
It also seems my ever resourceful  and very well media-connected friend Al (who secretly wants to be a radio Producer after some small project success) has pitched my "Bangkok Shocks"  site /blog to radio 4 as part of some kind of possible ex-pat abroads thoughts thingy...not really sure what he's up to, but he tells me he'll be getting an answer back from them today!!! I mean, it''s not as if i don't have things to say, but I like it here and I'd need to be very careful I don't get booted out of the country for loose, libinous, or insurrective talk.....I'm sure the're really not  gonna be that interested anyway..that's what foreign Correspondants are for isn't it?
Hey There (05/10/07)
 

I was told to expect the unexpected when playing gigs around the city, but last night was a new experience. Remember how I told you Pedro's bar is a spaghetti junction of cables and dodgy extension plugs? Well for a start once we'd finally managed to stop various amps and gear cutting out , we had to pretty much stand stock still in case we nudged anything!! On top of that, the jack input of the house Bass amp was also dodgy and we practically had to gaffa tape a cable in!! Honestly "Health and Safety" would have a FIELD DAY if they saw the state of the electrics up there….I think I'd better start looking for a anti-surge/cut off plug somewhere, I really don't fancy getting fried…..The other interesting fact about Thailand, land of   the two-prong plug is that there is no Earth….except back at the substation….NOT a good idea methinks…A trip to "Home-Pro" is on the cards….

 THEN…the bassist broke a string mid-song!!! I've been playing for years and been to tons of gigs, but I've never seen a bassist break a string before, especially the bottom E (thickest) one….I bravely soldiered on through the song whilst our flu ridden singer manfully (in the best trouper tradition) soldiered on…..Our playing itself was OK but that's the 4^th time we've played there in about 10 weeks…It's time to move to a better venue…The folk that did show up (maybe 25 or so) seemed to enjoy it…but we really need another stage, (with more than half a metre space each), a crowd of boozed up backpackers, and a bit of atmosphere to feed off….I think we also need to learn a bit of the old stagecraft , .no use playing songs well (which generally we did last night) if you can't light a bit of a fire underneath the audience.

Another sporty week this week. With wins both a five a side footie and tennis , it's been a good 'un for me….Though strangely I'd put on a Kilo at the weekly weigh-in…must be muscle eh? Or beer more likely haha

I'm amazed at the general global apathy concerning Burma, not that I'm expecting UN troops to go marching in, but even here in Thailand its muted at best (then again there is a military junta of sorts in place here). Jon our drummer went down to the Burmese embassy to protest (allegedly an international globally organised event) and 25 people showed up!!…There were more people in the combined camera crews and reporters than actually protesting! But like I said perhaps there's far more risk as a Thai national standing up and being counted in the current climate….People forget that one of the most brutal aspects of Ex-Pm Taksin's reign was his infamous "War on Drugs" campaign where roughly 2500 people were "disappeared" without trial…..There are a lot of people here still trying to keep the media issue alive and vainly searching for loved ones.

I've been looking for an opportunity to get out of the city for a couple of days  and I've been handed one on a plate! I'm going on my two days off to help out on an Autumn Break school language camp at an International School annex in the beautiful Khao Yay National park. Basically, I'm  being driven up, then I'll be  observing/ helping the rookie teachers deliver the programme and help out with any activities. A few hours work, a nice game of golf (at the stunning and dramatic Nicklaus' designed )  Forrest Hills , a comfy bungalow to sleep in, free meals, AND I get paid!!! Niiice!

I have an old friend heading in to BKK next week on a stopover on her world tour. So that'll be nice to catch up and have a few nice dinners out. I don't know howmuch I'll be able to show her as she arrives right at the start of my busy weekend! Oh well, at least we're not gigging this week.

I'm still trying to save a little bit, but I do find myself slightly tempted with a 3 night flight/accom deal to Tokyo in the middle of the month..Dunno yet….there's also hot news off the press (3 mins ago!!) that the Senior Teachers are to be (allegedly)  flown down to Phuket for 3 days over Christmas 23-26th (our Thai counter staff take the bus apparently!!!) for a CEC departmental seminar/bonding session. (For this read  fun activities ) Details are still very sketchy and it might not come off..Watch this space
>>>STOP PRESS>>>> Just had a managers meeting..trip confirmed ...entire CEC building ( 80 or so employees + their families if they want  ) are invited down to an all expenses paid 3 day trip to Phuket...A day trip to the Similan Islands is included which is exciting cos I've been thinking of a "live-aboard "diving trip down there as it is  meant to be the  best and clearest diving/snokeling waters in all of South East Asia. Although it'll be a very  Thai affair with lots of  cutesy things like: Market  trips, photo opportunities and temple stops, + the inevitable and obligatory Karaoke participation etc , It seems to be a very good  (and free) opportunity for us to integrate ourselves a little more into the University ...The nature of our business and an all-Farang management team, means more often than not  we're kinda "stand alone" relative to other departments....Think I might even head direct  to Samui for  a few days afterwards...

Hiya (28/09/07),
The news coming our of Burma, or should I say Myanmar isn't good. Those of you keeping up with the news will have seen the government raise petrol prices by 300 % and attempted to clampdown on the religious  freedoms of the Monks. This in turn has led to massive protests by the monks (most of whom probably thought their religious status  would protect them from the worst excesses of the military), there's now shooting in the streets of Yang gon (Rangoon) and the monks have started kidnapping minor government officials (whoops!). If the situation should escalate I'd expect that there will be a massive migration of the poorest citizens in neighbouring countries and yet more state sanctions after the Burmese government has "disappeared" the trouble-makers. This is not what this region needs just now...I just can't  see much of a peoples revolution actually being successful over there...The likelyhood is aneven more repressive government and international sanctions. It's funny how shockwaves and fallout spread to other countries. Thailand isn't exactly unstable, but it is currently being run by a non-elected cabinet. I sincerely hope that the elections in late December aren't affected by all this. But "knee jerk" reactions are what this part of the world is all about.....

On a happier note, I finally won a game of Tennis last week.....On a tie-break no less! Just as well, I don't think I could have manged another set..It was brutally hot!..Had to find shade and a bluberry smoothie afterwards to cool down!...There's another game planned for next Tuesday (doubles this time....much easier!!).

I had been hoping to go to the beach on Samui for 3 days (Haven't been out of town since April), but it looks like that plan has fallen through.....I may yet head up to Hua Hin or Kanchanaburi on my todd....I'll need to see..I'm still trying to save for a nice 3 week Christmas holiday somewhere...That said, we may need to step up the gigging around that time....I just heard that Paul the bassist  is probably going to go back to the UK for a 3 month placement at the start of next year....Now that is a b***h....We've now got enough songs for a 2 hour+ set and we're making overtures to start playing bigger venues....There's a gig at Pedro's this week, and then hopefullyKhao San Road (Gazebo club) on the 11th...Then there's a ten day break after which we should be doing a big Halloween gig somewhere. I'm a little crestfallen about this development as I know that Jon the drummer will be offski to Japan by late Summer next year...So we've only got a small window of opportunity  for operation shock and awe....AND we all want to record our efforts professionally so we have a momento of  the band...Damn it's so hard to keep a band together...Doesn't matter what city you're in....If everyone actually stayed I could see us doing a little bit of touring to Singapore and Hong Kong (Don't look so surprised..We are actually good enough...We've had the thumbs up from a lot of professional musicians who've come to see us)....We certainly seemed to have tapped a certain niche for which there is a call...Middle aged western geezers reliving their youth whilst young alternative Thai's weaned on nu-metal and Green Day think we're playing contemporary original songs haha!!

That's about all for this week. I've been leading quite a solitary and sedentary lifestyle over the last week. I'm trying to keep my socialising down to a couple of nights a week so I can save a bit. The band is a bit of a Godsend as it takes up quite a lot of time and effort..and of course there's free beer when we play...I know I must be getting old cos a Thai girl I'd talked to at the break with her friend (Bangkok " meetup" website members apparently) asked me last week as I was walking out the bar post-gig at midnight with my guitar and amp: " Where are you going?"
"Glap Baan (going home) , I said
"Can I come?", She said......
I smiled and said no...
Dammit , my first groupie EVER and I said no
Yup, must be getting old..... :@ )

Hi There! (21/09/07),

Not this easiest of weeks this past one. All sort of Gremlins jumping out at me  on the work side...But fortunatley they were the small and easily squished type....As opposed to the ones that push you in front of traffic and leave the fridge to defrost when you're away for the weekend.

But the next round of testing is complete and the scoresheets are all assembled and ready for the next stage...Getting teachers to write the report cards in time! We're also doing a number of interviews for new teachers. I've been drafted in more and more to do them...I must have sat in on about 50 by now....I wonder if my own performance (historically very unsuccesful) has been subliminally improved as a result. Maybe I at least have an idea of what a prospective interviewer wants to hear.....It's certainly not exactly what you'd think.  Overconfidence seems to bring a lot of problems as consequently employed teachers won't accept  constructive criticisms or suggestions for perhaps improving their performance readily.  The really keen rookies are great cos they really work hard at delvering well thought out and crafted lessons...Hmmmm

My pal Pete came back from Phi-Phi this week with his squeeze. He was paying 100 quid a night to stay in this resort hotel to watch rats run across the roof beams of his hotel room. Did he complain? No! Must be the stoic Englishman in him.....I'd have gone mental....When you think that 100 quid is outrageously expensive for a hotel room (a decent 2 star ensuite is usually 15 quid) and it's mega low season I couldn't help feeling he's got more money than sense.....You reading this Pete?

The gig went well last night.....By well I mean it was POURING down outside all night..so to get 25 people in was nothing sort of miraculous....On top of that we had a number of technical problems with the house wiring and power supplies (Health and Safety would have a field day...that's if it actually  existed here!), Paul had an awful awful rash from a bad allergic reaction to a new shirt he didn't wash before wearing, so he was out of it on anti-histamines.......and we screwed up one song (a new one) so badly I called a halt to it and started again rather than try and play catch up.. For all that, we were pretty good again, especially the second set......So despair hasn't set in yet........The venue is wearing a bit thin though...We've decided to do one more gig in 2 weeks before heading on to Gazebo in Khao San Road......Be good to get in there and try and get the Halloween gig. The band website is getting over 25 hits a day just now.

Got football and Tennis in this week....I keep forgetting that even with a cap on I still tend to get my unprotected nose sunburnt...Must try to remember.

An old friend is visiting  in a couple of weeks. She's on a world tour and needs a few days in BKK to sort out her Asian Visas...It'll be nice to catch up....Must try not to go out and booze too much.

That's about all the news this week.....Looking forward to a Gremlin free existence for a while..........Or is that just tempting fate?


Hello (14/09/09),
What is it about middle aged men playing football? I was drafted on to the mgt team side last Sunday after work (only 4 a side due to cancellations)...Admittedly I didn't play particularly well...but Jesus the hassle...Never seen so much alpha male testostrone in one place..It's only a game for crying out loud! And we were playing guys on average at LEAST 10 years younger than us....Boy do the mgt bunch hate to lose!!! The irony is that we were fitter  in terms of stamina and won the last couple of games (first to 5). Anyway, it'll be a cold day in Hell before I offer to go on their side again!!

Needless to say that afterwards i spent the next 2 days pretty much supine on my bed sleeping, reading and watching movies..I was knackered after 12 days without a break I suppose.  Still, it was nice to have a long lie in haha!

I had to go down to immigration yesterday and get my new year long visa and work permit. Despite already having signed a new contract there is always a little niggle in the back of your mind you might get refused, or that the military government had changed the rules again....I'm pleased to say it all went off without a hitch and I've now got leave to stay another year without having to do any costly visa runs up to the Laos border. I worked it out that the year visa is worth at least 1000 quid when you take into account you have to go to Laos every 60 days and the costs incurred in getting there, paying for an entry visa into Laos , overnighting and  then paying for a 60 day visa for Thailand...then there's the time spent doing all that nonsense plus the number of pages you go through in your passport with  visa stamps...it's definitely worth getting a visa/work permit and paying tax (which is negligible). I've also heard that prospective new teachers have a lot more hassle getting them now as the ministry of education appears to be insisting on a BA degree related to languages or English in some way AND a police criminal background check..(you can imagine how long it takes for something like that from Blighty..)...anyway , I'm all right Jack!

We've been getting a very positive response to our band website : www.myspace.com/snatchbkk   more and more people are sending messages, wanting to be a friend and join up and wanting to come to our next gig...Which incidentally , is next Thursday.  Pedro the pub owner was a bit peturbed we couldn't play this week (It was a saturday night and there were 5,, yes 5, people in his bar!) as we seem to be packing the place better than his shitty house band on Fridays. I may end up having a fight with the leader of that band as he has come to both our gigs and attempted to shut off his half of the house P.A. he shares with the owner to make us look bad......But as they say: TIT  - This Is Thailand. So we've got two rehearsals in the studio on monday and wednesday next week to go through the whole set and try out a couple of new ones..i think a couple of gigs more and we'll have possibly outgrown Pedro's as our regular slot and start going for the bigger places down on Koh San road...it's nice to get paid a crisp 1000 Baht note for doing something you'd probably do for fun and beer...but I'm getting the impression that fairly soon the jungle drums will be beating loudly and bar owners will have to dig a little deeper to retain our services..if you think about the fact that we've only played 2 gigs and  I already have 6 fans  (complete strangers who came to the gig and wanted to know where we were playing next))signed up to our mailing list...not bad going...it seems that our impression that Bangkok was utterly starved of this kind of music would appear to be corect. what we need now is to play places where we can reach the Thai indie /punk audience as most of them wouldn't be seen dead in Pedro's haha!

That's all for now folks. I hope all is well with my pals back in the UK. I'm still waiting for a chatty email from one or two of you I emailed a couple of weeks back...lets be hearing from you!

Hi there Peeps (07/09/07),
Strewth , September already eh? What happened to the summer (it's sunny every day here but you know what I mean). You'll all be getting the jerseys and cardies out when you find yourselves in the shade!!

I've had a helluva busy week so far. I'm doing a week long advanced language course (speaking and listening) to a bunch of government employees. They're a really good bunch, all in all it's been pretty entertaining and fun (albeit it tiring). they are all from different departments including: irrigation, agriculture, agricultural research, PR, energy, policy and strategy, education..etc, etc ,etc...Makes drawing up an  organistaional chart pretty damn nigh impossible.....i'd need a whiteboard about 15 metres long and about 5 metres deep to get even close to charting their positions haha!! It's not the easiest thing in the world designing a 5 day morning course that has all the right language points to meet all their individual needs. Needless to say they want to have fun and play games whilst doing too!!! Think I've cracked it though. Either way, come Monday morning I'll be treating myself to a looong lie -in  and a tasty breakfast....perhaps even an  afternoon by the pool with a paperback!!

Only 3 of us in the studio this week..our drummer is tired and emotional...6 day  working weeks and too many demands on his drumming skills are making him grumpy..Best thing to do is only bring him in the studio when we're close enough  with nrew songs and their structures  to need his time. We're still planning to play again on the 20th, hopefully also premier another couple of new songs (We need a pot of about 40 so we don't bore people and get overly repetitive) and we're at about 24. Still, 5 new songs were tried out last Tuesday with a whole bunch of mixed results. Paul is off to Laos on a visa run next week so we'll only have one full rehearsal before the next gig as it stands..i'd better spend some of my Monday off practicing too!!

My mate Pete is in town again between jobs...(Back to see his girlfriend.awww)...I think he's off to some beautiful resort on Phi-Phi island over the weekend..lucky sod!!! I might just have to take a couple of days down at Jomtien beach before too long myself.

Another quiet week on the politics front. More indictments and deportation orders for Taksin but i very much doubt the UK will extradite him given that he's plowing so much money into our economy!! However , it would appear the traffic cops have been out "fining" motorists and motorcyclists at the unprecedented hour of lunchtime!!! They're standing in lines of 15 at junctions in Sukumvit and flagging every other car down and inviting them to pay 100-200 Baht for their "infringement"!! Either there's a new police chief in town or someone connected  needs a lot of money fast......Aah dontcha just love the smell of corruption in the morning?

Hellooo (31/08/07)
Well we played a STORMING gig last night....It was great...A pretty packed bar and a bunch of people jumping around and cheering...a whole bunch of strangers showed up in Clash and Jam t-shirts! They were apparently from a "Bangkok friends" website that linked to ours...Also a few  repeat strangers who came to the last gig..If this wee gig (by BKK standards) is anything to go by, there is a real market gap for good quality Farang bands playing old UK punk music to middle aged foreigners. Performing and playing wise we've really stepped up a level in the past week. The individual levels are better, there's more bass coming through and the songs are becoming strident and strong with a genuine confidence in our ability. Another colleague who used to be a photojournalist took a bunch of cool photos so I'll post a bunch of them up when he makes me a disc. Even people (Thai colleagues) who've never heard a single song before were impressed and hadn't heard anything like it in Bangkok before....OOOhh it's all quite exciting..gotta say i get a real buzz from playing live..though the nature of the songs (fast and short) means that I'm usually knackered by the end of the gig. I had to lounge in a leopardskin sofa for a good 30 minutes afterwards, sipping beer before i could even think about packing up!!**** PHOTO GALLERY UPDATED******

There's a real nasty dose of Gastric flu going round Bangkok just now. My colleague Lee was struck down by it, and my bandmate Paul heroically made it through two sets last night without having to run to the loo..i'm kinda hoping the rotten cold i had last Sun/Mon/Tuesday was my dose of it.....teaching and upset guts are mutually exclusive......talking of which I won't be getting a day off next week as I have to teach a corporate class 9-12 all next week at the Uni....It's extra money i suppose, but I'm gonna have to get a lot of prep done in the next few days.

We've had the auditors in this week looking at our procedures and protocols.  The CEC department has called in independent guys to do the whole building.I'm happy to say they seem pretty satisfied by the way the school is run and the quality control measures we have in place. Naturally , like all auditors they want hard copy documentary evidence of every time we visit the bathroom but hey that's auditors jobs eh? Main thing is that they think we're doing a proper job innit!

That's about the news for this week. Politically Bangkok has had a pretty quiet week. Not much has happened and very little mud has been slung..long may it continue...

Hi  There (24/08/07)
You gotta admire ousted PM Taksin whether you love or hate the guy! ..So the new chairman of Man chester City FC puts on a major outdoor festival and concert in the city's main square (with free food would you believe ? ) and then follows this up with a great start to the season for the team..must be the 80 million he's invested in players...THEN I hear from a colleague who's just back from the UK that he's paying ex-pat  Thai nationals 100 pounds ,giving them a free T-shirt and bussing them down to London to demo outside the Thai embassy on his behalf...and it's working.!!! General opinion in the UK is that he's some sort of wronged democratically elected leader who's been knobbled by an evil military Junta....It's a shame ! The referendum on the amendment of the constitution went ahead last weekend without a hitch (they voted yes) which means elections should be held on December 23rd.  Obviously this is not a current democracy, but I'lkl stick my neck out and say there's  currently more freedom of speech and right to assembly than when Mr T was in power. He's just SOOO much better at spending his ill gotten gains and putting it into effective spin doctoring.

It's back to the grind this week. More classes to cover, more wee glitches and hassles to sort out. Still it's all good fun. I think our adult programme is right on the border of biting off more than it can chew.....I'm going to have to deliver 30 hours of adult teaching (listening and speaking) over five days the week after next....means i'll not get a day off and I'll have to spend a lot of time prepping a whole new course...At least I'm getting paid for it..i just wish it wasn't in the run up to the biggest testing weekend (600 odd kids) that I also have to co-ordinate! Still it's extra money and I have to admit I'm a bit skint.

Which is just as well we've got a gig sceduled in....Thursday 30th at Pedro's music bar...Getting paid 15 quid for 2x 45 min set....tenner an hour I suppose....They'd better throw in a few bottles of beer. As a consequence we're putting in two rehearsals a week....And last night's wasn't very good..Oh Deariedearieme!....We've got a site of sorts : www.myspace.com/snatchbkk so why not become a friend and put in your pic if you have a myspace site set  up ?

I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever be able to play tennis with of skill and conviction. It's like golf somehow....One moment you're serving and volleying majestically., sweeping over the court  like a swallow (albeit a VERY large 90 kilo middle aged swallow) and the next minute you're double faulting almost an entire service game and couldn't hit a return if it was from yer nan. Still , like I've said before..it's being out in the sunshine that's the most important factor....oh, and the lasagne set meal with the blueberry smoothie at the deli  down the road afterwards somehow always conspires to wipe away any feelings of hopelessness!.....They are far more enduring and apparent after the 5-a-side game on Sunday evenings..and it's been 6 weeks since we last played...oh dear.!.There's gonna be a lot of sore limbs on Monday!
That's about it for now...My friends Leigh and Donna are having a baby by C-section today..So I'll be going down on Monday to "coochie coochie coo" at the human prune.....and yes I do like babies (but I STILL couldn't eat a whole one!).



Hello again (17/08/07),
Well i'm back from Hanoi in Vietnam in one piece. It was certainly quite a wee adventure. I don't think I've ever been anywhere quite as humid...I mean showering and changing clothes up to three times a day is excessive even by Bangkok standards.  We (I took Ning with me) got a room in the old town of Hanoi and had an afternoons exploring before heading down to Ha Long Bay on a tour for 2 days. We got this really lovely cabin (last one anywhere) on an antique  Junk  and cruising in luxury (linentable clothes, silver service etc) for 2 days round the place...Only 97 Bucks each,...bargain! The weather was a little on the overcast side, but that really didn't detract from the stunning scenery. PHOTOS ON THE GALLERY PAGE really don't do it justice..It's like sailing through half submerged Alps or something.  We saw a lot of nomadic floating fishing villages tucked into nooks and crannies and had a hike up one of the mountains into a vast and beautiful cave complex. All in all it was an absolute Gem of a trip.

The next few days in hanoi were spent hanging around and walking back and forth through the hustle and bustle of the old town. A particular highlight was  taking a 1 hour cyclo/rickshaw night tour . what a laugh. As one might expect we also went slightly shopping crazy and i'm now the proud owner of an ornate  black silk Komono....always wanted one. really chuffed...cheap as chips. Ning got herself  a black pearl necklace and earrings and a traditional Vietnamese silk dress...

Actually, shopping aside I found Vietnam more expensive than Thailand for living basics. It certainly doesn't help having a Dollar/Dong joint currency system (like Cambodia)..i kept having to convert in my head 32,000 Dong = 2 dollars = 1 pound= 70 Baht in order to keep a handle on the price of things! And no i didn't try any roast dog..though I saw it on sale at lots of places...SEE GALLERY......A lot of the food wasn't a patch on Thai food. As one might expect, the closer to China , the more influence of their cooking is....China is only about 200 km from Hanoi....I felt there was a lot of Monosodium Glutamate in the cuisine..something I really didn't like.

But like i said, the place was fascinating. Viet TV showed endless black and white war  footage of the heroes of the Socialist Republic of  Vietnam struggle against theaggressors of  Japan, France and the USA. Even contemporary music channels would feature singers backed by dancing women soldiers gracefully sweeping balletically in the background  with their  AK47 machine guns. ...Never seen people dance with machine guns before...no guessing what the song was about then eh? People tell me Hanoi is very very different to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)..I can understand it a bit. They are inordinately proud that the revolution started here and that Hanoi never bowed to the imperialist aggressors. I found it quite unusual as this was the first time I'd ever seen evidence of a South East Asian country actively  looking back and celebrating their history. retrospection is not their forte. I admit, I bowed to the pressure from a dear old lady who was desperate for a sale and an now the proud owner of an army cap commuinst style with a big red star on the brow!!! Good for the Tennis court on a sunny day I suppose! all in all a really worthwhile and informative trip...If I were to go back I'd like to do a 3 or 4 day Motorcycyle "trek"  into the Sapa region in the northwest of the country to the hilltribes. I saw pictures and heard stories of other peoples trips and thought the landscape looked great and the people really friendly.......
 
there's a Referendum on the Constitution in Thailand this weekend. I hope it all goes smoothly and well for the Thai people...Presumably it's an important step towards the free and democratic elections that are scheduled for December....It probably won't help They're trying to extradite Manchester City Owner Taksin back here to face a corruption trial in the middle of all of it....The man is still way too powerful to have back here amidst a leadership vacuum.

Band rehearsed again last night, but as a trio as the singer is still in the UK...That meant  I had to  take over singing duties for the night...OWWWW ..(cue wolf howls!)..Still apart from that it's all sounding good...I took my new guitar down there for the first time (sounded really fab), but shock horror i broke two strings (unheard of for me!)..Guess I'm gonna have to tone down my punk thrashing a bit!!! We plan for two more dates in the studio over the next ten days and then start regular gigging from the end of August..sounds like a plan!

 

Hi There! (1/08/07),          ***NO BLOG NEXT WEEK AS i'M IN VIETNAM***
Indeed I have been remiss with updating last week. This is because i was on holiday....and fab it was too. Not that I went anywhere...That's Hanoi next week. But I did go to a lovely wedding, the cinema, and have quite a few boozy nights out. Admiitedly, it was a bit of a treat to have a Saturday night out!
My good friends Richard and Jackie have now weighed anchor and moved to the British Council offices in Jordan...Good luck to them say I...Stay away  from men with explosives strapped on them..and do go venturing too close to terrorist training camps... (But of course they don't exist in Jordan..do they?)
We've been putting a bit of extra time into the studio..This was borne out of two things..firstly Small Paul is off on holiday for his dad's 70th for two weeks in August, and secondly we've got two hours of material now and have to sharpen things up a bit before we set out on a proper gigging schedule. We're all very ken to get stuck in to the scene...I especially would like to make a little extra cash as it'll stop me having to consider corporate evening work. We're pretty sure we can make at least 1000-1500 (20 quid) each for 2 x45 minute sets. Ideally I'd like to even consider 2 gigs a week but not on Fridays or Saturdays unless it's quite early!
We made the mistake of recording ourselves in the studio via a laptop a couple of weeks back..and apart from a general sonic imbalance between instruments it demonstrated a clear need to be sharper. After the last few months experience i'd defy anyone in Bangkok to try and play old UK punk music. It is really really hard....I can't really explain why other than there's so much more to it than playing three chords and yelling into a microphone. The more you listen to the tunes, the more you realise the complexity and variety  inherent in the song structures . As we're all a little bit perfectionist on this matter we're prepared to wait till we have them perfect first time out and ready to blow everyone away. Thai musos  and house bands who stand guard over their gigs are apparently very jealous and have enormous chips on their shoulders...So all the more reason to show them how it's done haha. We've been in the studio 3 times in the past 9 days and it's starting to pay dividends...We played an absolute blinder  of a rehearsal last night. It's just a shame Paul's off to the UK for a fortnight cause we could have started gigging by mid-August otherwise. I've got a really good feeling about where this effort is going....haven't felt that way before about any band I've been in.  Not that I'm harbouring ANY ideas about massive success, but I can see us making a few waves in the city's music scene and having a wee following. It's all down to good chemistry, a willingness of all of us to learn and improve, AND foremost,  a fun ego-less environment is making it a very healthy environment to produce good product. Sooner or later we'll record the stuff we have learnt  and go about producing some of our own music I'm sure.
I saw the latest Harry potter vehicle this weekend..not overly impressed and a bit of a jaunt...Miles better than Brucey Willis' Die Hard 4.0 which was pretty much pantz.
OK, now it's time for the weekly staff meeting..So I really outta go...Watch out for news this week about Taksins possible extradition on land deals and corruption....now there's a surprise eh?
Hope it's drying out back in the UK.
x
Hi agaIn! (20/07/07),
There's something wrong with the new layout of my blog page. It keeps updating itself every 20 seconds making writing very frustrating!
Anyway, it's been another very kinda week. First off the school restarted 54 different classes over the weekend which went well apart from 4 aircon units deciding to fail similtaneously. Having to play musical classrooms with kids who were coming here for the first time was slightly chaotic, but infinitely better than having every feel sweaty and uncomfortable.
Monday and Tuesday were spent on a stag do in Pattaya. I've been asked a number of times what it is like there...My stock answer? : "Imagine a year round re-enactment of the last days of Sodom and Gemorrah!"...In short, a pretty dreadful place then...still I was out partying allnight till 5 or 6am. when i got back to BKK I thought I'd have a wee mid-afternoon power nap before I got down to rehearsing a few new numbers for the band....i slept 17 hours straight through till 7am the next day..whoops!
Back in the studio last night ...We've decided to start ditching some of the songs in favour of even more obscure ones....Seems my suggestion of "Orgasm Addict" by the Buzcocks has been left on the back burner in favour of some very dark Joy Division tunes. I'd really like to get one more gig in before small Paul heads off for his holiday to the UK in early August, but I'm not sure we can quite fulfill the requirements of a 2x 45 minute set just yet.
We're in the middle of a 2 day training programme I set up for the management team here at the school....We're learning how to become qualified Cambridge Young Learners Examiners. The irony is that everyone else will get qualified except for me as I haven't had enough experience yet (3 years reqd) despite being in charge of the testing programme for 2500 kids...Still that's apparently Cambridge's very strict requirements.
I had to go down to the Immigration Dept this week to notify them of my 90 days I'm still here thingy...It was the first time i'd gone there with my work ID still round my neck..Amazinbg to see how the name "Chulalongkorn University" can expedite things..I was told to wait at the counter instead of sitting down and the women stamped everything in a blur. Wish I could say the same of the second counter: The re-rntry permit application...Everytime I leave the country I have to get a re-entry permit of they'll cancel my visa, work permit the lot...These can be got for 1000 Baht at Immigration  or at the airport if you wana risk it. But it's all basically another scam to make you part with your money. Now I've got to make my way to the vietnamese embassy in town and get a visa to go to Hanoi next month which is probably gonna set me back another 3000 Baht or so! I tell ya, sometimes the endless bureaucracy can get to you....On top of that I'm only about six to eight weeks away from having to get a new years contract, work permit, visa etc..So I'm going to have to do it all over again!
I've been invited to a proper Thai wedding next week, but as the monks need fed early , it starts at 0545...I don't think my mate Steve'll mind if I just come to the evening reception..seen one bunch of chanting monks, seen them all...The only thing I'd like to see is him parading down the street in  his cream and gold "disco suit"  wailing and gnashing his teeth as is the requiremnent here...don't ask why as I've not got a bloody clue!
That's about all the news this week, I'm going to have to delete some of my old entries as I think they're causing a problem with my blog entering.
Tara!

Hello there! (13/07/07),

Well We really went down a storm at Pedro's the other night. Place was packed, people were both surprised and very generous in their praise....I even got drinks bought by strangers and the manager!. The manager asked us immediately after we finished if we'd play again (he'd pay us!)...........So the band prognosis is really pretty good. The boys want to step up to 2 rehearsals a week and get gigging quickly. I'd much rather do that than have to do extra corporate work during the week nights! Thoughit was SOOO sweaty in there I may have to start wearing a bandanna to keep the sweat out of my eyes good God!

Something is very  wrong with the computer or the website today, so I''m gonna be brief again. 54 classes start up this weekend and I'm off to Pattaya for Sunday and monday night on a stag do.....It's probably going to be a bit mental...A great place for people watching..The Worst of the East meets the Worst of the West..Yum!

I'll try and post some pics of the gig and update a bit more if the hassle lets up over the wekend and I get a peaceful Sunday..fat chance though we're really short of teachers...i'll doubtless get pulled in to some class or other!


Happy Birthday to my brother Andy!

Hi There (06/07/07),

It's gonna be a short blog this week as I've go to proofe read and clip art dozens of multi-level worksheets before our new system kicks in next weekend!

Another week in the sun..bliss.....I really should start taking it easy re. sports. Unbelievable as it sounds i crashed into Lee (again) and had a dead leg for 2 days for my trouble....that really didn't help me in  the Tennis game to following day I can tell you!!!

There's an undercurrent of something going down in the city just now. Some banks are inexplicably closed at weird times, soldiers are back at the barriers on wheels (they wouldn't let us park outside the tennis court  in my local park for some reason)..Maybe it's my imagination , but sometimes you start to see the wee signs of stuff going down. The largish pro-democracy rallies taking place at democracy Monument every other day still go largely unreported. Instead ,the city is gearing up to host it's group in the football Asia Cup tourny. The Aussie Socceroos are in town along with Oman and Iraq are here to duke it out over the next ten days.

I've got to go off this afternoon and try and see some weirdo bar owner and ask hin if my band can play for free in his bar next wednesday night. Jon the drummer knows him to be a bit strange and moody...but as we can guarantee at least a dozen drinkers in his otherwise quiet pub , I can't really see why he'd say no.

Indeed, the band is almost ready to put out our first performance...actually we're still a little bit ropey, but as I said last week we're going a bit studio crazy after all this time, and with changing bassist etc it's been a bit of a long haul since Novemeber when we started. The idea is go out and do a gig in front of mates, then go back to the studio and hone it down till we're getting the songs perfect first time out, THEN going up to Khao San road and get a gig. They're CRYING out for Farang bands up there. One of our unique selling points is that everyone in the band has a work permit and the police round there are really hard , especially when it comes to extorting bribes of foreigners for infractions....When we were in the studio on Wednesday a Scots guy called Alex who we'd met there the previous week came down from his practice room upstairs and gave us his card.  as well as performing, he's got a sideline  as a booking agent  and said he'd be happy to get us some gigs (for a cut obviously..but it stops us having to deal with all that nonsense). I guess he at least thinks what we're doing is good enough which is encouraging. Anyway we're not doing it for the money, Jon suggests we think about letting him do it as he himself has endless stories of  the hassle dealing with dickhead and difficult bar owners..I'm sure this guy would place our 'product" in the right places...i.e. in bars where foreigners are....Not that I'm saying Thais won't like our music..chances are (as has happened to Jon a lot), they'll be copying our set and undercutting us in a couple of weeks....Let them try I say... Contrary to what anyone might think British Punk music is VERY hard to play.

 

Hello (29/06/07),

I had to laugh when I read yesterdays headlines about the UK government asking  it'sThai counterparts what it should do with Taksins 9 Billion Baht lodged in UK banks uncovered by the money laundering department....I mean what do you think? Like they're just gonna hand it back over to Thai authorities only to see it disappear back into his various offshore accounts again......And how does this affect his new purchased Manchester City FC deal? One can only guess that it's the tip of the money iceberg the dude has squirrelled away.....

 From my 20th floor office window I watched an amazing storm front wash over the city from the north yesterday morning....The preceeding winds were really vicious, a couple of people died in the city (falling billboards etc), My balcony looked like a hurricane aftermath, I was lucky I didn't lose any clothes off the hangers! The weather up north and Issan has firmly turned to the rainy season...Which is good for my Eucalyptus trees. I really hope to see an big increase in growth over the next few months, they should have rooted deep enough by now...The pregnant cow is starting to get big and the young 'un Mahroi is still taking milk from her even though she's almost as big nowadays. Have a look at my gallery for pics.

Five-a-side football was interrupted by a rainstorm last Sunday too...despite a wee army of Thai guys coming out with squeegees and blades to clear the pitch it was still treacherous. We decided to modify the game to "two touch" football to avoid rash tackles but a couple of people still went down quite badly one momentarliy dislocating his shoulder!. I think we may have to find an indoor place in the next couple of months.

Tennis on the other hand went down very well on Monday. In fact ( My service games notwithstanding) I played really pretty well. We even won a tie break set after being 4-0 down! Now we've moved the operation over to the courts round the corner from my appartment in Ari we're never short of a fourth player to volunteer his services. The guy Chat who's joined us the last couple of weeks is really good. He's got this really lazy style that belies just how good he is...AND he goes off for a fag between sets!!!?!

The band changed studio this week.....an interesting experiment...It was good to go someplace else, but the drumkit was really really dreadful. Jon would have been better battering a sofa with drumsticks!. I guess one of the things we'll have to get used to as we move around the city is a succession of iffy equipment . The rehearsal itself was also initially very iffy..Lots of basic errors I thought we'd ironed out weeks ago....But then it did get better.  It's weird, we're doing everything almost perfectly  at the 2nd time of trying..it's just that little leap we need to make to be on the ball from the start. The fact that Small Paul was tired, drawn, and hungover probably didn't help! I reckon we're also starting to go a little "studio stir crazy" and it's time to do a live  set. SOOO it's been provisionally decided to go in one more time next Wednesday and the following week to hit Pedros the nasty girlie bar near the even nastier and infinitely busier Soi Cowboy during  their happy hour with a bunch of mates and go loopy. I'm looking forward to it, singing harmonies whilst playing is coming a little easier to me now. I'm really enjoying our rock version of "Word Up" too...By the way, it would appear that the bands name is "Snatch"......Suitably Punk wouldn't ya say?

Got a lot of fiddly admin things to do this month.: apart from getting a Thai re-entry permit (so they don't cancel my visa and work permit), I've got to do my 90 check-in at immigration AND see about getting a visa for Viet Nam at their embassy. I thought you could get a tourist one on arrival..Not a bit of it... Viet Nam would still appear to be one of the strictest post-communist socialist states there still is after possibly North Korea. I've already been told to develop a thick skin as regards touts and to watch out for opportune thievery at every turn. In fact, in the north especially they don't really like foreigners and there's a good chance I'll get stuff chucked at me......All part of the travel experience I suppose.....Can't be worse than Egypt can it?

Oh, and I've also got 2 training courses to attend, a stag weekend and  a wedding. I wonder if I'll be able to save any money this month at all!

Hi There! (22/06/07),

OOOH me back! Football followed by tennis the following day and now my lower back in twinging away...I keep having to get up and walk around every 30 mins or so to stop it locking up...what an old crock!

That said , it was a fun couple of days off ,(though admittedly I spent all of Tuesday lying down haha), I'm just glad I cancelled golf or I'd have been really up the Swanee.

Been a bit of a hot one this week. Temperatures have been soaring into the mid/high 30's....You find yourself moving from aircon to aircon haven building in shady spots and cool buildings into your route!

We got seriously mucked around at the studio this week..The sods lost my booking and we were given a pokey wee room at the back as a bunch of 20 or so schoolkids trooped into our room. Not only did we only get 2 hours practice instead of 3, but the room STANK of cat piss, AND the equipment was shit. For  Jon (our drummer) who's actually at the studio about 3 times a week with his other project, it was the final straw. He's fed up with getting treated like shit and I don't blame him. The other two talked about a place they know near Phrakanon in the south part of the city...Sooo we've decided to try there...Thing is, if it doesn't get booked we've "agreed" to do a gig in Pedros ,(just off soi Cowboy..full of "2nd division" bargirls- I'll leave it up to you to interpret what that means)...The equipment is OK, you can play loud, and the chances are nobody'll be there...Tall Paul looked distinctly worried at the prospect .But even if we did really screw up it wouldn't exactly put our name on a citywide blacklist!! Oh and they pay well.

So Thailand's Ex-PM Taksin has just bought Manchester City F.C....Oh dear they must have been desperate...I can only imagine he'll slowly bleed them dry . What's the betting next years sponsors will be Chang/Singha ,or AIS/Shincorp? Funny how despite his accounts here being frozen, he still managed to "disappear" 6 Billion Baht from them last week...Oh and he's still got a number of outstanding criminal charges filed against him over here..so he'll probably not be coming back to Thailand for a while....In fact, I wonder if the grateful UK citizens will give him a passport..If mahhamoud a--Fayed hadn't made such a fuss about his Dodi being bumped off AND the  cash for questions malarky he'd long have had his own eh?

Funny things are going on in the global stock markets I've noticed..Thailand's seem particualrly fluid.A mate of mine , who for months had been looking at an ever spiralling downwards of his several thousand quid investment (in a single Thai engineering company for goodness sake!!) suddenly found himself selling the lot for a 500 quid profit after a morning of volatile activity. The rest of us, who've various global investments (though mine are the only 100% guaranteed ethical ones- gold star for me) have been looking at our stocks losing money...not shitloads , but across the board everything seems to have gone down a few points...Makes you wonder...On one hand it's interesting (and undoubtably exciting) but you gotta remember all those numbers on a computer screen are your hard earned cash...I guess the first rule of investing/gambling is don't risk what you can't afford to lose eh?

Last week of testing this week..thank goodness, it's actually beeen taking quite a lot out of me with also doing all the other weekend stuff and teaching 6 hours it's been a little too much... That stag night in Pattaya in a couple of weeks is actually starting to appeal!

 

Hello (15/06/07),

One of the hidden scourges of life in the tropics is....conjunctivitus! ..I think it's partly to do with sleeping and living in a fan environment  where dust particles are constantly at speed, and that it's one of those things that spreads through touch like wildfire..anyways I woke up this morning with a burning left eye and have been on the eyedrops ever since....It's really irksome and annoying, especially trying to work one-eyed on a computer!

Tried a bit of an experiment this week..for the very first time ever I went and got myself a couple of shirts made to measure.....Very nice they are too : 100 % silk of the highest quality (indeed they weren't cheap)...The drawback? They're blooming hot! I'll have to wear a vest with them otherwise I'll be walking around two-tone with damp sweat patches! the other drawback? I seemed to be attracting a lot more attention from the female populace....not the "funny hahah look at him " looks, something rather more like being sized up all the time. I spoke to the Thai female staff about this and they concurred that wearing expensive smart shirts like that make you more of a target...apparently it's the sort of things movie stars and pop stars wear..I know Thai people put a huge amount of stock in personal appearance , but this adds a whole new dimension to the concept of a "pulling outfit" !

We finally found a new place to play five a side down Sathorn way. Last Sunday was our first game...Aside from wanting to throw up after 5 minutes I played rather well, scored 4 goals and FINALLY whitwashed the management team after all these months......I think Peter took umbridge at my use of the verb "gubbing" to describe our monumental success....Next week promises to be a tougher game!

Again on Tuesday our practice went well..Tall Paul is still struggling to get to grips ith his new bass and all the songs, but the progress he's made in a few short weeks has really been great.We pretty much have the structure of all the songs together and can stop and start at the same time and everything haha!...I still reckon we're on track to be gigging by the months end...Jon's kinda got this plan ,(somebody has to and he knows every music bar in the city from all his playing...) whereby we learn a 70 minute set and play it twice a night in two different bars...That'd be a really cool little earner..I'd be happy to get a little extra money gigging once a week...Thing is, I'm not into playing dead late at night or at the weekends. For me it's gonna be strictly a hobby...I think that's the only way you can regardf playing in this town unles you become one of these 3 hours a night house bands!

Rumour has it we're gonna have to lay off our Monday morning trips to play tennis at the British club....the lady (in true colonial style) in charge of the gym politely mentioned to Bruce that the three of us 'non-members" had been around a lot lately .As such He's only supposed to sign us in 3 times or something. He took this to mean that he'd better lay off signing us in lest he get hauled up before the committee...SOOOO blooming typical of certain "Little Britain" ex-pats out here....I mean, we only go on Monday mornings when we're practically THE ONLY people there, the courts are always empty (as is the cafe and the pool) AND we always spend 1000 Baht between us on food and drinks.....Stuff them, there are always other places to play tennis in the city...kinda reinforces my thoughts on joining those sort of imperialistically superior "clubs" where exclusivity is the name of the game.So scratch my comments on last weeks blog haha!

It looks like I'm not going to be able to qualify for the 'Cambridge Young Learners" examiners qualification as I haven't been teaching long enough. It's a bit of a shame. I'll still be able to do the training though which is the most important thing I suppose..but it's still a bit annoying given my specific role in the school.

I was going to go for dinner a one of my favourite places at democracy monument last night, but then I heard there were still a lot of demonstrations going on over there (not widely reported in the news here..) So I decided to try a Vietnamese/Indochinese place in Asok on the recommmendation of a colleague....FAB place (old traditional Thai house in it's own grounds) FAB food (International food awards plastered all over the place)....and great ambiance and service for what it would cost to eat in a bog-standard curry house in blighty....For those of you possibly coming it's  called "La Dalat Indochine" on Soi 23 at Asok skytrain...I'd go back in a heartbeat!

41 classes testing over the weekend..it's the big one..i've spent half the week getting all the packs together...If it all should happen to go tits up I'm gonna have to run for cover! I've got 2 classes to teach myself over the weekend...I get the distinct impression that it may turn out to be a bit of a rough weekend!

Hiya (08/06/07),

You could have knocked me down with a feather in the studio last week...We were FINALLY really starting to get it together..Looks like the boys have been practising....Just a few sessions away from playing live now....wa-hey!!!

The government did actually end up banning those two parties I was telling you about. Another surprise that nothing really happened as a consequence....Still for all concerned they'd better stick to their promise about free elections by the end of the year.

My mate Bruce was horribly late for our tennis match this week. For a change it was he who needed to be roused from his bed in a drunken stupor whilst we waited outside...and how funny it was....He was so pissed his hand eye co-ordination was all to pot and he endeavoured to make the most spectacular fresh air shots....Haven't laughed so much in ages...Least for a chang it wasn't me..

It would appear that new 5-a-side football pitches have been discovered and the management team juggernaut will play down there after work on Sunday..Oh Dear!..oxygen bankrupcy here we come! Still I've promised myslef I'm not going in hard any more..nothing like being incapacitated for 3 months or so with bust ribs to a) put the idea of freetime sports into perspective b) make you relise you're getting pretty old for that sort of malarky...Fortunately however, the option of lawn bowls  is out in these climes!!! Still it'll be a nice change not to go out and get very drunk..usually after 5 a side you only need two pints and your pissed and exhausted...It'll make life cheaper....no bad thing, especially as I have an out of town stag night coming up in a few weeks.

Gotta say I do enjoy my Mondays down the British club....Courts are great, food is fab (and yes I usually go for a full English breakfast for lunch...they've got real baked beans and Cumberland sausages and everything! Wow!). Then a dip or two in the huge pool..If the one-off membership wasn't 50,000 Baht plus 2000 a month I'd really consider joining up..but then again it's soo far away from where I live...... Anyway, by the time I get home round 3pm  I find myself enjoying a wee nap....definitely getting old!

Ning is coming to visit for a few days between  changing jobs..i think I'll be sending her off to see family nearby on Saturday night as I really have too much on my plate over weekends (especially working 12 hours or sat) and will most likely just want to flop down in front of the telly.

Aside from prepping my classes this weekend (taking over an extra one for the last 3 weeks..part of my "more money" drive),  written testing round 8 teenager students, and levelling all the walk-in students on Sundays pre-testing day  at the Witpat building, I've also got to prep a Thai staff training seesion for next Wednesday...I'm supposed to tell them what my various responsibilities are....There will be much fun and silliness in da room I can tell you!

That's about it for now....ciaow fir niaow!

Hello,( 01/06/07)

Crumbs it's June already...How time seems to be racing along.....

First off, there are a few more pix on the gallery page of "my" two cows (one of which is preggers again) and of the plantation one year on. The red-gum eucalyptus is growing slower than the Chai -Yo as it roots so much deeper, but the plants are looking healthy..realistically though it's probably going to be nearer 4 years till a harvest. I've also been offerred a line of 30 Rai (1200 x1200 metres) up near the border for a measly 8500 pounds..Reckon I'll pass on it though...Not quite ready to enter my "Farmer Giles" stage especially that:  a) Foreigners aren't technically allowed to own land so when push comes to shove I could lose the whole lot. b) It's a long way away and I'd have to spend at least another 3 thou of so planting the land. c) There is still  technically a military government in place.....

Talking of which. there's been a bit of political stramash in Bangkok this week. Basically, the government wanted to disband two political parties..one of which, the "Thai Rak Thai" won the last democratic election and put Taksin in power as PM (He's the dude who was finally ousted  after years of corruptionand is now trying to buy Manchester City FC).  ANYWAY, spurred on by the lure of free food, 500 baht (courtesy of the Thai-Rak-Thai 's VERY deep coffers), and a bus to the big city, thousands of peasants streamed down to gather at their usual place "Democracy Monument" yesterday. It could have been nasty as yesterday also coincided with  Visakha Bucha day. a very important holiday in the Buddhist calender....There was naturally a worry that things might have gotten out of hand, but all seems to have blown over quite peacefully. After the  infamous Tammasat University students rally massacre a couple of decades back (which people REALLY don't like to talk about much), the military seems to know when to stay it's hand in the face of a bit of noisy dissention. I really hope they're still on track for free elections by the years end...Banning political parties (whatever their politics or views) doesn't do the democratic process the least bit of justice....I know I know, where would that leave something  truly awful like the BNP in Britain...I'd like nothing better than to ban them , Orange walks, Fenian Marches, and a host of other organisations that spread the word of bigotry and intolerance like a disease....but that is THE price of  true democracy innit? The trick is to be intelligent enough to know when you're subject to such drivel and be sure to stand up and be counted against everything it represents eh? Nuff said.

Righto, soapbox moment over......Another fun filled week......Indeed we did our usual Sunday night drink...but instead of getting trolleyed I went home after just three beers!...the reason? Well I wanted to play my usual game of tennis at the British Club without a hangover and boozy sweat pouring out of me....As it happens, I had a pretty good match , won a few games, served a few aces, and was generally a bit lighter on my feet than a number of previous times!

Jamie and I ended up being the only two takers for a game of golf at the Muang Ake Vista golf course the next morning......WOW was it hot..It had rained all night and the bright sun turned the morning fairways into a steam bath....So glad I remembered to take my hat ,my shades, and sun block......My infrequent  visits to the course showed, between really great long  shots , nifty approach play and indifferent putting  I played, well shite! The only consolation was so did Jamie..Still it's not about playing really well, it's about a day off in the sunshine doing something fun and healthy.

Turns out the band didn't get to the studio this last week..nor did we get to a rehearsal in someones house either!!! The good news however is that Tall Paul went out and bought himself a headless bass AND a small practice amp....This means that we should progress SO much faster now he can practice at home...It also means i'm going to have to put more practice in at home and I'm taking over more and more of the guitar duties..some of the songs are just too hard to play and sing main vocals over at the same time.....I've also got to sing a few harmonies too....Cor blimey missus, stone the crows....! We'll get that gig soon enough yet!

 

Hi There, (25/05/07)

A big congratulations to my mates Pat and Julia in Norway on the birth of their baby boy!

Seems to be a recurring topic round here just now...most of my male colleagues are talking about babies, house development and general nesting! I guess Bangkok is the sort of place where you can only put off the slide into middle age for so long before you either: a) Settle down with a nice girl , or b) Keep drinking and whoring it up until you do yourself some serious damage.....I've seen both sides of it here...option B is not a pretty site! As for me, I'm still happy to take things nice and slow and try to find my place in this crazy culture.

I went to the strangest temple in Sathorn this week...It was a Chinese buddhist place..Half of the icons were animal gods (Elephant, Tiger etc) and the other half different Buddhas...There was more smoke and incence burning around than I had ever seen..Many of the people there were praying specifically for luck and money....I've generally stayed away from the Chinatown part of the city (far too crowded and busy) so I don't really know how they integrate into the community here...One thing's for sure,  ghosts and spirits occupy as much of their religion as they do with the Thais.

The hot weather has returned with a vengeance...Can't work it out really..there are loads of freebie things being handed out on streetcorners just now...a marketig blitz..shampoo, sweets, little plastic fans, tons of stuff...when it comes to advertising they really don't stint on image and design here....As I was walking thorugh the Centrepoint part of siam square the traffic was being slightly rerouted round a cordoned off steaming rock that was obviously supposed to be a meteorite..no idea what it was promoting....then there's giant roll on deodourant bottles (Nivea I think)embedded into "cracked" walls and pavements..I really should take a photo to explain. As I look out over the skytrain from my office I can see onestuck in a wall.

Everything moves os fast here...Shrek III hasn't even been released yet and they're selling copies of it down the markets, same with Die Hard 4....Having said that, I had been saving my copy of  PedroAlmadovars new film"Volver" for a rainy afternoon....Words cannot explain just how execrable the subtitles were....Everytime someone said "Bueno" as in: OK/right then , the translation would come up "beautiful boy" DOH!!...Kinda spoiled the film for me as my Spanish isn't really up to scratch enough....So they'll be no pirate foreign film copies for me from now on unless they're German!

The band rehearsal in the studio on Tuesday was very ropey again indeed...It's so hard starting again with a new bassist..w were soooo close to getting it together enough to play as well!! I think to keep the impetus going we need to take over a stage for half an hour and play the songs we do know how to play, it'd make us feel a lot better about ourselves...I shouldn't complain too much really, I was pretty bad on Tuesday myself (and that's with having done some practice at home midweek!). I'm gonna have to do extra work with Paul the singer over the week to get him up to speed. It seems like I'm doing more and more of the guitar playing while he focuses on the vocals. Doesn't leave me anywhere to hide, especially during the mega fast songs!

It didn't take me more than about 5 days to get a virus on my new laptop!!! Well pissed off....I bought a game (to test the graphics card you know) and there was something embedded on the disk...doh! At least there's quite a lot of anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware and antibad stuff software kicking around the office...I think I've pretty much cleaned it up now except for the little icon on my toolbar than keeps opening internet Explorer to an anti-spyware site I don't want to go to...I sometimes wonder if these companies put the spyware stuff in there in the first place so they can drive you nuts with plugging their products!!

I've got tennis booked on Monday and there's talk of a game of golf on Tuesday as soon as Peter (the manager) gets back from Athens...He flew all the way there to watch his team lose the European Cup poor sod....As for me I watched it from 2am to 4 am at my pal Leigh's  house..Very strange watching footie and drinking beer at that time of night..Felt a bit tired the next day.

I've got a few weeks respite before we start the next round of testing..which is just as well because I'm still not 100 % happy with the formated we debuted over the last 2 weeks...then there's the Teenager levels 1 5 and 6 syllabi.....Thin I've got to change the books and the course...the present ones are DULL DULL DULL...we're supposed to be making this language real and alive after all

 

Hello Peeps! (18/05/07),

Well I felt the earthquake that happened in Laos yesterday! (6.1). We'de just got out of our weekly meeting  on the 19th floor when the whole building started to sway!...up on the 19th floor it was pretty freaky I can tell you....A most queasy, unsettling feeling..A bit like your first cup of magic mushroom tea haha!....Anyway I heard that quite a few office blocks in the Silom area evacuated!...just glad it wasn't another Tsunami as that was my first thought when it happened. Anyway it appears that not toom uch damage was done....Does seem a bit strange though...laos has no history of Earthquakes...What are those Tectonic plates doing?

After a 3 month break I was back on the tennis court at the British club last Monday! I was pretty damn woeful i can tell you..One minute serving aces, the next double faulting twice in a row!..Still it's all good fun I suppose..just wish I was a little better.

The band returned to the studio last Tuesday with Paul our old bassist back .....We were very very ropey...I've been doing a lot of practice but it seems two of the others haven't! On top of that, the drummer mega-fit and lean from his 2 month Nepal trip was battering the hell out of the drums raising the decibel level even higher.....Now I reckon I'll have to do an extra weekly practice at Paiuls house to get him up to speed! I reckon we'll have to do an hour set on stage very soon to keep the momentum going...

The other news is that I've gone out and bought a new laptop. After 3 months of looking and trying to decide, I got a fantastic deal  (300 quid) on a fancy 15 inch Toshiba with all the bells and whistles and a 100 gig hard drive!...My old one is simply just not up to much any more and I'm getting very worried about losing all my photos and music since I don't have a backup...On top of that I justified it to myslef as I've started writing again AND I need to make more headway  with the Tenn DVD lesson plans, so I need to probably do stuff at home.

Again so much to do this week, so I'll keep it short!

Bye for now!

 

Hey there (late again! 09/05/05),

Yup you guessed it...I was late with the blog...This is because this past weekend has been a long holiday weekend and I decided not to go into work (unsurprisingly)....So what did I do with it? Absolutely "Hehaw" as they say in Glasgow. Actually it rained most of the weekend which kinda made it difficult to do very much..when it chooses to rain here it comes down in buckets.

I did go out on a bender again last Thursday night...it's so strange going out in the town centre.dodging the arms of the bargirls really isn't usually my thing..i suppose the drunker you get the less fight you put up..But they're usually still good natured and tuned in enough to know when they're onto a loser and move swiftly on to the next  latest arrival in the bar.

Did I mention the rain? It's been pissing down. It's making it very difficult to dry clothes on my balcony. The rain is sometimes so hard it  bounces and splatters back up creating a fine mist..the last lot of washing to days to finally get dry...It does seem rather early for the rainy season but i guess that's global warming for you!

There has also been a small upsurge in the number of rats I see during the daytime. From this I assume that either they're getting much much braver and are in the final stages of mobilisation for world domination, or that the water table has risen destroying their lairs or their food. Either way, compared to the ones I used to see in Glasgow from time to time they are blooming MASSIVE here! It's definitely put me off wearing anything other than full leather shoes when walking around..My pal richard got his foot bitten at by one he almost stood on..were it not for the shoes he was wearing he'd had been straight off to hospital. Either way..."I don't like it" as the bloke from Little Britain says..

I've been practising quite a lot this week on the old guitar..I brought my Flying Vee back from the UK and got it nicely set up here...I love the way they do things immediately here while you wait..none of this "leave it here and come back in ten days malarky!"..A guy worked on it for 45 mins, put a new set of strings on..and wanted 4 quid in total! Strewth and blimey! Jon is back from Nepal and my old bandmate Tall Paul has offered his services as bassist so we're back on track I hope....Got to go into the studio next week..It's been too long!

Off again tomorrow as it's national Ploughmans day :very odd..They all sit in front of a TV and watch to see if the royal cow drinks milk, eats grass,  eats seed, and generally helps the locals choose the years crop!

Blogs will be back on Fridays from next week.....tara!

Hi Again, (27/04/07),

Bangkok is VERY VERY hot just now....A quick straw pole with my colleagues would seem to suggest that it's significantly hotter than last year. Although the rainy season is still some weeks away, we have finally had a few really funky thunderstorms cooling the place down at night!

Sunday night after work was particularly excessive....I think I got home at around  3 am  slightly worse for wear..which is probably why I didn't get around to going out till 6pm the foillowing day...the night scene here in Bangkok is really quite strange..you basically seem to have 3 choices: 1) You go out to the nightclub strip at RCA and sit outside the big clubs with their awful  banging hip-hop tunes and feel about 103 as young 18-22 year old girls walk past in what looks like their nighties....Cue:  "You're not going out dressed like that young lady!"2) You end up in the tourist areas like Sukumvit or  Silom, playing pool or sitting in some girly bar whilst more young ladies of a slightly more feral bent message your shoulders (among other places) in an attempt to get you to buy them a drink, engage them in conversation, and give them the opportunity to make a sales pitch....All the while in the background hairy arsed  55+ year oldforeign holiday makers in nasty muscle shirts and beer bellies dance to an ACDC soundtrack and  are crudely pawing girls and swapping revoltingly nasty macho remarks to each other and the girls....really, I'm no prude, but if these guys knew or cared more about a lot of the girls backgrounds and  circumstances they MIGHT just be a little more respectful...It's in places like these you really want to distinguish yourself from the tourists. 3) You go to a nice wee Thai bar (which I do most of the time) , listen to cool  caribow folk music and get minkit. The only trouble with option 3 is getting enough people to go with you....Most people want to head to the madness of Soi Sukumvit.

My pal Jon is still in Nepal, so the band practice has to be drummerless for thenext two weeks. We've all got CD's to practice new songs to but it's just not the same! I'm going off some of the potential ones we had lined up...Never did like the "Jesus and Mary Chain " anyway! I'm thinking of trying to punk up a few more pop ones like Cameo's "Word Up"....I have recently writtenan all out rock song called Mama Says which I've yet to demo to the band, but I'm sure they'll bomb it out! We're a fussy lot!

Work is VERY VERY busy. I've got so much to do, especially as we're restructuring the entire testing systems and protocols...so Mr "in charge of testing" here is a little stressed......At least I think I must be...I've started making mental lists in bed at night of all the things I'm supposed to do/remember.....Just as well there's another holiday weekend next weekend.

The monks have been out demostrating..they want Buddhism adopted as the official religion of the country (which would be a  worlds  first  actually)...I mean you could have knocked me down with a feather! I thought it  already was.....I think it's a question of semantics rather than a sudden insurgence of members of the Church of  Latter Day Saints trying to gain a foothold!....If Jehovahs Witnesses show up at my door, you'll be the first to know!...Or 7th Day Adventists for that matter (& do they have extra big pieces of chocolate in their Advent Calendars every Christmas? I think we should be told!)....

I shall endeavour to update next Thursday before I go off on a wee break somewhere..Mebbe the beach...Mebbe the Jungle...Mebbe my swimming pool....Ah the myriad of choices!

 

Well Hello! (22/04/07),

So it's been almost 3 weeks since my last check in...Yep, I was back in Scotland for the Songkran holidays....what was it like?.....Well it was a funny couple of weeks...It was great to see friends and family and 2 weeks of blue skies and sunshine a most unexpected bonus (though I'll admit a freezing cold day or two would have been nice actually!!!)......But all in all the trip back home made me realise that at this stage in my life I'm exactly where i'm supposed to be! Is this a Buddhist kind of comment?..Probably....Living a positive life in the here and now, making a positive contribution to human existence (however small), and doing everything I can to enhance my life experience seems to be all part of it.

Whilst I was back I became a little obseesed at what the "true value" of things was....I mean a pint of lager for 3.10!! Bloody Hell! Cafe starters priced a 6-8 pounds...Good grief!..I mean, I know I live in a country where the staple basics of life are cheap to produce and to buy....But if people are prepared to pay 3.10 a pint and buy petrol at almost a quid a litre should they be charged as such? Is it greed on the sellers part? Is it high taxes? Is it an insidious culture of raising the price bar just for the sake of it?..Is it all of the above? I don't know..But I sure as hell know that the UK HAS to be one of the most expensive places to live in the world now. The levels of general taxation, galloping house prices and easy availability of credit lines way over what people can afford is turning the country into a frenzy of consumption....How can British kids be the unhappiest in Europe when they generally have so much compared to so many other countries?

The week in Glasgow was full of the usual observations of Neds, drunken yobbery, pavement altercations, and an overwhelming feeling of general malcontentedness I just can't put my finger on......I hope I never become one of the godawful ex-pat UK bashers, but I can't shake the feeling that something seems to have gone horribly wrong in Britain. We put all the wrong values and people on pedestals and then try to mimic and adopt them for ourselves..... I told an American colleague about the stooshie Jade Goody had caused in Britain and he started regularly searching Youtube  for some of her most ignorant unwittingly comic obsevations......I found myself begging him to stop as he was in my opinion "Feeding the monster".

Anyway...rant over! Nice to see many of my friends slipping happily in nuclear family mode with infants, babies, and toddlers all around.(see my photo gallery for a funny picture). I still hold fast to my rule of not taking a baby in my arms till it's old enough to drop!! Something freaks me out the general fragileness of tiny ones..they tell me it's different when it's your own!

I manged to rescue a few of my clothes from a fate worse than mould from my brothers barn....I think they'll be tons of stuff I'l have to chuck next time I return....I might even come in car-boot sale season! It was also particularly lovely to get an hour of fishing in on the river at the bottom of my brothers garden..It's so beautiful and peaceful up in Glenesk.

Apart from that, the other highlight has to be my friend Ivon on his stag night in Edinburgh getting stripped on stage and whipped soundly across the arse with his own belt...(you should have seen the welts the next day!!)..I almost wet myself with laughter.

The trip back was fine, albeit quite long...I can't really fault Emirates, everything ran smoothly...apart from the sod who stole my mobile phone from my rucksack..I have a new thai number now...If you want it, email me or leave a message in the guest book!

A HUGE thank-you to all my friends who put me up, put up with me,   told me how well and happy I looked, and  generally made me feel so special... So many people said how great it was to see me and that it felt like I'd only been away a few weeks....That's probably the nicest complement anybody can receive.

Hi There! (30/03/07),

Ok so what did I learn about  playing 7 a side football at the Bangkok International Soccer Sevens? Firstly, Bandages and dia-morphine tablets do not guarantee a pain free existance when suffering broken ribs! Secondly it's not immensely great fun to play  3 games in the middle of the day when it is 38 degrees centigrade. Thirdly, never show up to one of these things again without at least 3 substitutes...Especially as two of our team ended up in the hospital at the end one the weekend...One (our goalie) will be in a neck brace for the next fortnight!...just as well I drafted in a couple of ringers on the Saturday night to play one Sunday!

Despite all this, we did end up actually having a fun time and DIDN"T COME LAST in the Masters league wahey!..There are a couple of photos updated on the gallery page. We might resurrect the team again in the Autumn to play, but we've really got to get regular practice in as the standard is far higher than we expected!

So it's my last weekend before I go home. Lots to do and prepare both for my journey and at work. I'll be covering an extra class for the next 6 weeks so loads extra to prep. I'm also taking on an advanced T5 class. My colleagues are actively encouraging me to abandon the book and have a go at Topic/Project based teaching. It's quite a challenge really, but I think I should do more to prepare these kinds of students for University standard English. We'll start with one project over the first 8 weeks and see how it goes....Gotta keep learning this teaching malarky stuff myself!

The band had a storming session in the studio again last week..even though the bassist did his diappearing act again. We're now making passable attempts first time round at songs we've never tried to play before! The sign of a good band! I'm comng back to the UK with an ipod loaded with 20 odd songs I have to learn prior to our next rehearsal (which isn't for about 6 weeks due to people on holiday). most of it obscure and difficult to  play.....but I'm starting to feel far less daunted by my playing ability as we're seeking to do our own interpretation of it ,not a carbon copy.....we had a go at  a punky version of the Proclaimers "Five Hundred Miles" last week and really enjoyed it (whilst falling about laughing).....could be the perfect end of the night encore song!

Pete has headed off to sunny Phuket with his girlfriend..haven't heard a peep from him since but i expect he's getting plenty sun, sea, surf and ....well you know! He always seems to lose something of mine when he's here..last year my swimming trunks blew off the balcony railing where he precariously hung them, this year one of my shoes has mysteriously disappeared!

I was out to dinner last night at a friends house. They have this website http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/ and needed to record a new session. Soooo I played Dr Adam Macmillan shattering myths about health...then I played myself in what's going to be "Mike the Musician" chapter. It's going out in May, but you'll have to register and play 8 quid a quarter to hear it and do the accompanying worksheet!!! Another fun experience.

Today is the 6th anniversary of the school so we're all being treated to a slap up lunch at the hotel nearby...which is just as well cause I've lost a filling and have to go to the dentist right after work tonight...doubt I'll want to spend the evening chewing on my lips instead of eating dinner!

Ribs still hurting quite a lot..was wide awake ay 5am this morning...I guess all this sleeping semi-upright will put me in good stead for the flight home...Maybe I won't get jet lag...Mind you, I'll be up at 630am Sunday morning , work all day, and fly out 130 am Monday morning..ready i'll be ready to drop by the time the plane takes off. See you all soon. x

 

Hello! ((22/03/07),

Those eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the blog is coming in a day early...That's cause I've got too much to do tomorrow: I've going to a young learners training session at Schoolastic books in the morning, then a project meeting in the afternoon, then in the evening,  a Captains meeting for the Bangkok International Sevens tournament at the weekend....Am I playing? How are my bust ribs? Has anybody been reading this and can or do they possibly care? In a nutshell , I fully expect to last about 5 minutes or until the first hefty challenge. My back rib is much better, but the cracked one on the front right side is still giving me gyp. I reckon I'm gonna have to be strapped up like a Christmas turkey!

My pal Pete showed up this week.....Yes he's back for another month of sun surf and sand.....There might even be a little bit of romance in the offing, (internet chatrooms..don't cha just love 'em...?!) but he's keeping his cards fairly close to his chest! Anyway, it's always nice to have an old mate visit and get a good old blether in....

This was supposed to be a fairly busy week with me working an extra day to cover my weekend absence, but as soon as I got here on Tuesday morning I found they were painting the office. It might not surprise you to know that Thai's don't appear to have any regulations about the content or toxins contained in paint fumes. Suffice to say a few hours in my vision was becoming cloudy and I was having trouble focusing on the computer. I could also feel the start of a monster headache...So I left for a 2-3 hour lunch and sorted out Sanook Wanderers away kit (we have to have 2) with logos and numbers instead.

Tuesday night it was back in the studio for a well overdue rehearsal. It's only been three weeks since we played last but it's amazing how quickly you get rusty. Some new progress was made however in that we're actively extending our playlist....We've currently got something like 12-14 in the bag and have another 18 or so on the waiting list...I gotta say, I just LOVE the opening riff to "Suffragette City". I can hardly contain myself from jumping around throwing rock star shapes till I remember I'm supposed to be singing "Hey Man" in the microphone!!...With additional  songs to learn including such artists as: The Buzzcocks, Jesus and the Mary Chain, Stiff Little Fingers, The Kinks, T-Rex, AC/DC, The Ramones, Joy division, The Pixies, The Cure, and Dr Feelgood I'm pretty much certain we'll be confronted by a sea of uncomprehending open mouths when we play our first gig....which is exactly the reaction we're looking for! If there's one comment I have to make about the music scene here is that although Thai bands can undoubtledly copy and play (to death) well known classics like "Hotel California" pretty much note for note, it's invariably COMPLETELY devoid of any stagecraft, dynamics or simply put, plain BALLS. It's again to do with how the culture here assimilates and copies things without really having reference as to how the original music came about and evolved. Granted, if we were to put this kind of set list together in Britain everyone would think we were a bunch of saddos. But out here in this environment nobody outside older farang have heard of 90% of these  "obscure" songs. The songs  very (mostly) Britishness and in your face impact gives them a surprisingly fresh and contemporary edge. Although we've only done one small gig for 30 minutes, we could see inklings of surprise and perplexity amongst the audience (Though we did get a request for Maroon 5 "This love" written on a napkin fir Heavens sake!). So with a set list covering Glam , Punk, and New Wave we're going in with all guns blazing......I'm really getting into it. again I find myself in a band that requires me to get to grips with yet another style of playing: The songs are all pretty fast with a lot of changes, I've got to do some fairly complex rhythm guitar patterns, but above all,  it's about playing with grit,  attack and dynamics...It's like you've got to be actually present and mindful the whole song through..You could play two versions of "London Calling" by the Clash that would both be accurate and in time, but if you're playing it automatically or even slightly absent mindedly it loses ALL it's impact and atmosphere....The same thing goes for "Teenage Kicks" or "Alternative Ulster" !

Anyway, enough of me harping on about the band. You can obviously see I'm really loving doing my absolutely favourite hobby!

I think I might have a go at playing Tennis on Monday. that's if we don't win this tournament at the weekend and end up at the award ceremony  in  a dodgy disco in Nana (Bargirland) where we might just get a little squiffy! I have our team photo in my gallery (or at least 5 of us..two are standing in, bet you can tell!) and you can googlewhack Bangkok international soccer sevens for more pictures details if you are interested.

I've only got one more week at work before I head back to Scotland. I really hope the snow and blizzards will have gone by the time I get there. I really don't relish the idea of coming from 35 degrees heat to around wind-chill zeroish!! I will try my best to get round all my friends, but as you can imagine my folks are impatiently waiting for me to come back and hang out for a while.

Oh, and about my website guestbook. Mr site seems to have screwed up something and are currently trying to recover it on page. I can still read your messages through the admin section on the site. If you want to read them yourselves you have to right click and highlight over the blank space and they will appear  Taaaa-daaaa!

 

Hi there! (16/03/07),

It's been a weird sort of week. I've been learning to sleep on my back as broken ribs don't exactly lend themselves to being slept on. I'm getting quite good at it....I'm almost getting a full night's sleep!

I went to a traditional Thai wedding on Sunday night after work. Gae our librarian was getting hitched so we chartered a bus and took the office staff out of town to the farm where the reception was....Needless to say it was a very interesting experience. The management team got pretty slaughtered on beer and whisky and we all got asked to dance by Gaes relatives. .....Thai style.. live country music....I'm still learning how to move my hands gracefully in  a "Balinesse dancer" style whilst digging the beat man. You can imagine most of the Thai  wedding guests and neighbours pissed themselves laughing at all our efforts..The band also kept a medly going, one song flowing into the next...after 25 mins I had to stop...My ribs were getting very sore despite the copious amounts of alcohol!...I'll see if I can find a photo for the gallery!

On the bus journey home  I was asked if I wanted to go up on a  recce with the management team to Khao Yai  National Park on Monday and Tuesday...it turned out to be a really lovely trip (and all expenses paid too!). Khao Yai is about 90 minutes outside Bangkok going  due north. The park is about 100 square kilometers and still has wild elephants and tigers roaming around. We stayed at a lovely resort called "Cabbages and Condoms" it's a non-profit "collective" organisation with a famous restaurant in Bangkok and two other well known resorts in Pattaya and Chiang  Rai. The resort in Khao Yai is a bit of a secret and I think we were the only ones staying there...So there was plenty lounging by the pool to be had! We even went to a spectacular golf course set in a deep canyon. Designed by Jack Nicklaus, "Mission Hills"  course is really  really something. We only played 9 holes in the late afternoon, but with the heat and incessant howling/whooping/whatevering of birds and monkeys echoing off the jungly canyon walls it was just magical! Can't say I played well..I went around yelping a lot as I hit the ball...but sod it! I think there was a photo taken so I'll try and post it  up asap.

So it was back to work on Wednesday with the usual heaps of stuff to do...The good news was WE GOT A PAY RISE!...Indeed, we have had the Board approve our request to get paid for the mandatory 3 hours a week we are contractually obliged to teach. Effectively it means about 120 quid and extra a month each. As pay raises go it was a very big one. Peter the Manager was keen to point out that this was likely to be the last ever so don't come back with the begging bowl...Fair enough!! With getting paid for my bulk level testing, fill-ins for sick teachers, and assorted bits and pieces I'm just about matching what I earned at the TIC in Glasgow!!! The difference being that here my tax/insurance/leccy/water bills total about 35 quid a month! That coupled with the fact that everyday essentials are about a quarter to a third of the price of the UK I'm getting paid proportionally up to 4 times more than a Thai shop/office worker gets!! ...You may never become rich in Thailand at the English teaching game, but you can live an extremely comfortable and happy lifestyle!!!...

Oh yes one more thing..... I'm supposed to be captaining Sanook Wanderers FC at next weekends Bangkok International Soccer Sevens tournament. We've entered a team for the Masters (over 35's) section. I've insisted on an 8th man/sub as I'm not sure how much I'll be able to play with my heavily strapped ribs..Two yellow cards means a game suspension anyway, and my experience of Thai refs is that they'll give you a yellow card if you so much as sneeze in the direction of the opposition! If you want to see our team listing and crest, (FYI:  Est. 2550 is the Buddhist Calendar) googlewhack for the official website...The tournament is  being covered by a lot of international media including ESPN and  TV Asia amongst others!!! Better not make a dick of myself!!! Team strips (all logoed up) came back yesterday and the captains meeting is next Friday night....I've been instructed to take the Thailand  newbie German squad (all ex 3/4 German division players!) down to the strip bars in Soi Cowboy and leave them there....First game is 9am Saturday morning!

 

Hello and OW! (07/03/07)

You're probably wondering about my blog's tardiness....

.......Got me one, possibly two broken ribs and it hurts like HELL!...

So we go out last Monday against the University champions and for fifteen minutes it doesn't look too bad. I mean they're good, but not outclassing us except in pace, youth, and vitality!! Anyways, I'm playing centreback in the absence of Jamie and 15 mins in I have to chase  back for an over the top ball with their striker running in diagonally. He slightly obscures my view ,and, as I go steaming in, our goalie Lee comes steaming out and clears the ball....following nicely through to my ribcage "side on" under my right arm with his knee and thigh . To say I was poleaxed would be an understatement!!. I haven't been winded like that in 25 years. I was on my hands and knees bellowing with forced breathing like a buffalo apparently....My teammates thought I was joking!!!..I finally got to my feet and played about another 10 minutes before I indicated I had to come off......We kinda fell apart and lost 5-0......I could tell something wasn't right because the pain neither ebbed away nor eased off. At about 5am (scared now!) I put myself in a taxi to my local hospital..The duty guy gave me an injection of drugs (Wahey!) and I spent the wee hours in a gurney. When the big cheese came on shift he ordered further x-rays (getting on and off the table wasn't fun..I almost fainted ) and told me I had a "clear fracture" on my 5th rib on my back and a possible hairline one on my 4th rib just at the front...3000  (45 quid)Baht later  I was wheeled to the front door to a taxi and sent home with some painkillers......

The rest of the week, bluntly put, has been pretty shite. I've been in as much constant pain as I can ever recall having. The painkillers have been ok but nothing to write home about. Getting to and from chairs and the bed has been a ten minute execise in  pain contemplation before I even try it. BUT HEY NO PASS-OUTS! :@)

In a nutshell then, my week has been flat bound. a ozzie mate Wade kindly came round with the groceries and I've been taking a lot of homeopathic remedys my dear brother gave me on departure by way of a survival pack....gotta say, I'm sure the Calcium Carbonate, Arnica, and Ruta have to be the main reason why after only 4 days I'm  almost off the painkillers and actually able to go out to an Internet cafe and update my blog.UPDATE....False hope..it's three days later and i'm only slightly better.  Ning came up from Koh Samui for a long weekend visit which was nice...Amazing how beer and painkillers work together!!! Actually I've been trying to keep off the pills except when I try to sleep. I managed to get out for a bit but needed a few hours every afternoon to try and rest..

As a consequence then I've missed my band practice, at least 2 invites for dinner and eating out with friends, and my holiday weekend this weekend will have to take a diluted form in every sense. The idea of being bumped around Chatuchak Market (like I planned ) gives me the hee bee jee bees. I will have to do some shopping for those back at home tho (taking orders guys...within reason!) as I'm running out of time before I head back. I just hope I'm well enough for the International footie tourny in 3 weeks (think I'm gonna be a  perma- sub!)...one things for sure...My days of chasing after 23 year olds are definitely over...don't think I'll be able to play quite as hard and committed as I'm used to.....from  born again teenager to middle aged man in two cracked ribs...ha bloody ha!

 

Hi Again (23/02/07),

Well we finally pushed our luck! Chula Bookstore 1  CEC 0.....A real bloody shame,they were by far the worst team we'd come up against....But our bloody manager (aside from telling us at half time not to challenge the opposite team too harshly in 50/50 ball situations and be "nice"..for Pete's sake!) took off our entire midfield including our 3 best players right after we lost the goal early in the second half......REALLY pissed us off...AND he spent the most of the halftime break in the opposing dugout..... I was not a happy bunny! Worst thing is that this coming Monday we're up against last years champions "The Bulls" who also lost their opening game 3-2. On top of that, 4 of our best players have to go on a one day corporate "Toyota" camp. I think we're gonna get creamed! The only plus side is that I played a far more attacking role in the game and surprised myself by being able to run/jog for 90 mins. This political chicanery going on is not making us very happy however..I think we're going to form our own team next year for the University over 35's tournament....At least we won't have to worry about being summarily taken off for no reason.......

On a similar note, We've decided to put a team in for the Harrow Bangkok International Sevens Tournament in late March. It'll be for the "Masters" over 35 section (We all reckon we've a pretty good chance at winning!). I've been appointed Team Captain and am currently canvassing names for the Team....and indeed we will finally be getting shot of that bloody England strip..In fact I've got them all to agree to the Celtic Strip so I've got to go and get the kits sometime soon (Replicas are SOOO cheap here..you can get a full kit for about 7 quid!)....I quite like the nane "Sanook (fun/happy/cosy) Wanderers"! Anyway the tourny is is 4 weeks so I'm going to have to get a little fitter and cut out my rather hedonistic lifestyle....

......Which has been just a little bit mental this week. I played Tennis at the British club on Monday (Doubles..lost again in straight sets)....Played football on Monday night....Went out with the boys till 3am boozing afterwards..Lay around all day Tuesday reading a book..then went to the studio. We had a really fab session. The bassist showed up again and had  obviously been practicing cos he turned up his bass and went for it. We are really starting to sound like a band...When we got through "Going Underground" by the Jam almost flawlessly I knew  that in a musical sense we were getting somewhere. We're going to have to take a six week break over April/May  but I'm pretty sure after that we're going to start gigging. I've been getting text from the boys all week suggesting possible songs to do.

Wednesday I was out again for dinner and beers, but I made it home for 10 pm..Actually , I saw an amazing thing..the keyboard/guitar duo in the corner were singing along to their bass/drums sampler machine when they must have hit a particular frequency cos the plate glass sliding/patio door beside them shattered!!! The two guys just about shat themselves and the song most certainly faltered...(The whole set did.....they were chocolate boxy cutesy, smoozy  rubbish!)

Hmmm and then there's  last nights revelry which  is probably better not discussed other than to say it was a significant management team bonding exercise after a very tough work day all round AND as a consequence  I'm feeling distinctly  ropey as I write this....

Got a big weekend coming up in the school as round 6 is getting tested..I hope all the packs and stuff I've put together work flawlessly. This will be the last time we're using this particualr set of tests as we've moved on to new books. I have to say I'm looking forward to overhauling the testing system and protocols as they are in a pretty shoddy shape.

I've got the weekend after next off... I've got a friend visiting so I'm looking forward to some time off with her. I'm probably going to have to spend a part of it shopping for my imminent return to Britain. Maybe even go to Chatuchak market. There's also a farewell party for Dan our colleague and team striker who has decided to go back to Britain for a while. Glad he finally got round to telling his very pretty Thai girlfriend of 2 years...I just hope he doesn't dump her on me to entertain while he does the rounds like he did at the office Christmas party...she doesn't appear to talk to anybody else...For an ex -army Lieutenant she's surprisingly shy!

 It's getting really blooming hot every day now : 35 degrees by midday...The idea of playing another 90 mins of football at 630 on Monday night doesn't fill me with the excitement it should. Maybe it's because I know we're mssing our best players and it's going be more like defensive pinball than a closely contested match....just wish my football boots would stop giving me blisters.....

 

Hello (16/02/09),

The last few days have become seriously hot..Looks like we're now heading into the Summer cycle. I think I've finally acclimatised (in time for going back!!) as everyday I'm looking at all the damp, sweat stained visitors standing in the Skytrain whilst feeling bone dry myself....

That said, I'm not totally immune...Last Monday's singles Tennis match at the British Club turned into a 3.5 hour 4 Setter (indeed... I won one!!). We went through 2 towels each and even had to stop for some iced drinks midway through the third set...It's funny when you reach a certain point and realise you simply can't get any hotter...As long as you're properly hydrated (they have water coolers at the side of each court..blisss!) you'll be fine. From now on in I'll be using sugar free isotonic sport powder additivies when I'm playing as post match limb cramps make you realise how many salts minerals you're losing through sweat. The  post match swim/float in the pool was the absolute perfect remedy for cooling down your core temperature....I did get a bit of sunburn on my nose..when you're sweating so much, sun cream just kinda slides off..guess I'll have to wear a natty sports cap or something! Think I've got one somewhere that says "Koh Samui Tourist Police"! The rest of the afternoon was spent eating and lounging around till dusk..I think I was too knackered to do anything else.

Then it was up at 630 am on Tuesday to go and play golf at the Muang Ake Vista golf course.....Another lovely day,even a small cooling breeze. I didn't come last!..In fact I even got 3 pars over the 18...perhaps I'm getting better. then it was back to the house for a siesta and into the studio for 6pm.....

Wonder of Wonders, the legendarily absent Bassist showed up!! For a first jam as a 4 piece it went really quite well.....It's really nice to have some bottom end!!! Really gives the music a bit more depth. We tried playing "Roxanne" in the normal key but our poor singer just about had a fit trying to get the high notes!! So we tried it in a different key...and I thought it worked really quite well...The singer still wants to do "Message in a Bottle!". With a little more fleshing out and a couple of more songs and we'll just about have enough for a one hour set. The bassist said some nice things about our playing too..I think he wants to come and jam again which would be great.  I reckon in a few more months we'll offer up our services to a boozer somewhere and play a set for our pals!

So my days off were very busy and marvellously fulfilling...I really couldn't think of a better way to spend them. I am hoping to do similar this coming week but we are currently waiting for the upshot of fixture horse trading for the university football championship...It turns out we've been drawn in the worst possible draw we could have had: A four team league including the Chulalongkorn Bookshop boys (who play EVERY night) who, a few years ago, were once beating us 6-0 when the ref stopped the game early AND last years Champions! I forget their name....Think they call themselves "The Bulls"...... (oh and another team "The Rabbits!")......We call ourselves "Dad's Army".... It's a bit like Macclesfield playing Real Madrid and Juventus with Arsenal being the easy game!  The CEC department webboard is awash with comments about us going to get hammered and by how much...I responded to such comments with the constructive criticism that the team icebox should perhaps contain MORE water and LESS beer next time!..I can see I'm going to have to conduct my assertiveness training all over again...I'll be VERY surprised if one of the all Honky back five DOESN'T get sent off in the next couple of games!

Usual busy stuff at work. Got three weekends of testing coming up...means I have to sort out all the testing packs , tapes, and schedules for all the teachers..Very easy to screw up, so I'll need to focus on that. I'm now a quarter of the way through the Teen Emergency lesson plan project and should be half way through by the end of February. BUT,  I'll need to leave it for a while as I'm supposed to have made a start on the  Teen video/CD rom/Computer projects before the next meeting at the end of the month...Don't want to be caught short...Gotta have acitivites/packs/projects  together by mid-July (when Rounds 1 and 8 will start together) or we'll have Peter the Manager thumping the table at every other project meeting! Not a pretty sight!

Think I'll be ready for a 2 week holiday come early April.........

 

Hi There (09/02/07),

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Mum.....Indeed this is the time of year punctuated by a rash of family birthdays!

Got myself a streaming cold this week. It's funny they say the temperature has PLUMMETED (Thai language not mine haha!) to 18 degrees for a week and the whole populace is sniffling!! 7/11 stores have huge displays of kleenex..it's the weirdest thing. as you might imagine working in a school with about 2000 kids over the weekends means there's a lots of microrobes flying around and I was not immune! The funniest thing about a cold here is that with an air con environment and fans everywhere it drys up very quickly, but retreats to your sinuses where it gives you serious gyp! Can't say I was exactly Mr Cheerful at work last Wednesday!

The tennis suffered as well. We had to play singles due to others being sick. I wasn't exactly at my best, but that's no excuse to lose the second set with three set points in hand (2 of which I double faulted DOH!)......Still amongst the sweat, snot, and streaming eyes I really quite enjoyed it! 6-2 7-6 6-3. With a nice lunch and a dip in the pool to follow.

As I mentioned briefly at the end of last weeks blog, our first gig went quite well...No the bassist didn't show up grrr! However, considering the sort of mince that came on after us, I reckon we can be pleased  at our effort, (Heaven only knows what the Thai's thought of us, though friends in the audience said they were bobbing their heads and tapping their feet.After the first song  "psychokiller"we even got a request for "One Love" by Blue if you can believe it haha!!! Don't think they got the point of our Glam/post Punk set! Though as I mentioned briefly  before, some bam from the band after us quite rudely walked on stage whilst we were playing and started setting up his gear. He somehow managed to unplug my amp from the other side of the room (extension leads I think) and as a consequence I fell silent mid-song...I thought it was my leads or something at first and tried to not get in a flap..the problem was quickly sorted and we started the song again...think it lost a bit of impact second time round!!! (Moonage Daydream- David Bowie).

So it was back in the studio this week.....Bassist was apparently home with a big box of weed and too stoned to come on down...and that's after we'd changed our rehearsal day to accomodate his timetable!....Oh well.....We got "Teenage kicks" pretty much down during the session (but then again it's hardly a complicated song) and I'm trying to plug "Roxanne" but the singer is baulking at the high notes..may have to change the key on that one!...He wants to do "Message in a Bottle" instead but I find doing the guitar part corrrectly difficult....I mean I'd love to do The Killers "Mr Brightside" but you've got to do it right..half baked or muddled through  just won't hack it..which is why we've been doing relatively easy classics first to learn to play tight as a mouses ear!....Anyway, the main thing is it's all good fun...The moment we take the music or ourselves too seriously then it's time to knock it on the head.

Been getting on with my work projects this week.....I've got tons to do, but I think I'm scheduling my tasks a little better. There's more pre-testing over at the other building this weekend and the following week it's the start of the end of course testing for round 6 students..(teenagers written test)...so that'll be my first big challenge..to make sure it all goes smoothly and all the teachers know what to do, where to go etc...I expect I'll start putting it all together from the middle of next week. I hope to be free of the teenager emergency lessons plans before I head to Blighty on holiday as I'm supposed to have the CD rom and TV/DVD projects  (Teenagers) completed for the end of June...I hope they'll give me till Mid-July as that's when Round 1 and round 8 are due to start a new cycle.I reckon by the time I go on holiday I'll be ready for one, though I can't say i'm looking forward to Scotland's April weather..i even bought a comparatively thick top at the sales last week as my entire wardrobe is really only suitable for climates averaging over 25 degrees.....OOOh i can feel the north wind slicing though my cargo breeks from here!!!

Missed out on the weekly Ari Safari dinner this week...just felt too ropey to go out. Probably just as well..My friends wanted to go out of the area and ended up stuck in a traffic jam for an hour just to get there! Though i did go over to my friends house for dinner last Sunday. It was lovely: Margheritas to start, wine for dinner and beer for dessert! We played a couple of after dinner games though I must admit the Australian version of Trivial Persuits does lend a certain bias towards those of Antipodean origins...playing solo against two couples I still won though!!!