Plant Dying

On a more thorough inpection, it seems the plant didn't fare so well during my absence as my initial cursory glance suggested. Curse my unobservant eye.

Here are some pictures of said foliage showing the alarming white crud and brown fronds.






Any ideas, you haughty culturalists out there? No, not you Maureen.

..and please don't tell the wife. She'll kill me with a glance and a tut.

Routine

Routine - the blogger's enemy. I go the same way to work every day, at the same time, on the same train. I spend weekends sleeping, cooking, eating and hiding from the heat. I'll post some stuff based on minutiae, but as Paul has kindly pointed out, pink slippers don't push the hit-count up. It's a creeping malaise which I must fight - surely this is South-East Asia, a place so different to my home with respect to culture, climate and society that it should be impossible to run out of observations in a lifetime.

While we're on minutiae, I got a motorcycle taxi yesterday (as usual) but had trouble fitting on the seat due to the immensity of the owner. I haven't had my legs that far apart since (steady!) yoga classes. As mentioned ad infinitum elsewhere, I don't see many fat guys in Bangkok. Maybe he moonlights as a pizza delivery man, in which case I wonder if any actually get delivered.

While we're on Pizza, I had one (a pizza) in New Mills that was so awful I nearly cried. It was a thin crust jobby, but there must have been two kilos of cheese on there. Ok maybe I've been eating light food in Bkk for too long, but honestly I struggled to stand up after eating (most of) this, and not just because I was obliged to wash it down with about four litres of chardy. That wasn't helped by the life-threatening amount of salt, mostly from the trawler-full of anchovies they kindley shovelled into it. Truly disgusting, and not like me to leave food. Finished the wine though.

While we're on leaving, I came back to a living plant, thank goodness and thanks for asking. This apartment must be quite tropical when nobody's here to wind up the AC, so bit of a result there.

While we're on heat, my jet lag (get it?) has not left me enough to allow gym sessions so the old love-handles are thriving. Photos, anyone? Don't all rush to the front now. At least my calorific intake has subsided to normal levels since leaving the land of (full cream) milk and money. Back to the gym from Sunday onwards is the plan. Hold me to it.

A couple of people have asked to be contributors to the blog, and I'm considering it, but so far I've only allowed Lyn and Lucy, as they can and do provide much-needed news from New Mills. Not that news from elsewhere is unwelcome of course, but it doesn't touch my ohmsickness.

While we're on sickness, I'll be at sea in a couple of weeks for my first rig trip. Better stock up on pulp fiction and music. I wonder if I'll have web access from there. If not there will be a gap in service, sorry regulars.

In other news, I've been and gone and bought season 2 of Battlestar Galactica, which coincidentally enough follows on from the season I watched on a rig in Scotland last year. A most enjoyable show, and not just because of the gorgeous wimmin innit. Strange how Sci Fi is one of the things which divides us into two camps - those who like it (guys) and those who hate it (gals). Mostly I avoid behaviour which is too obviously laddish, preferring to listen to my feminine side (shut up Stevenson), but in this case I break my own rule. Onset of middle age, maybe (Shut up, Norton).

While we're on shutting up, I'll go now.

Be good.

Thinking about it

Odette and Lyn,

By all means communicate on my blog - public conversations are the future. Who said the internet ruins social skills? If we talk publicly there'll be no room for un-normalised behaviour...

I will blog soon, on subjects such as:

- Did the plant survive?
- Am I still jet-lagged?
- What's happened to the third contributor Lubiloo?
- My upcoming rig trips
- Battlestar Galactica (seriously)

Be good.

Abu Dhabi, last time

Here again, and knackered. My watch says virtually nothing, my feet say "go and lie down" and the airport clock is just a collection of wavy lines.

I feel like I've been folded up, ironed flat and stuffed into a drawer with some mothballs for seven hours, then taken out, shaken, given a pair of shoes three sizes too small and made to stand in a gigantic wasps nest for three hours, only to do the folding sheet trick again for five hours.

All this discomfort would be fine if I could look forward to wifey's warm embrace. But no, I just have the prospect of being ripped off ("400 Baht, sir, I pay toll, sir!") for a ride on a 300 year old Avensis to my too-hot apartment, containing nothing but a (probably dead) plant, some tea bags (thank heavens) and a set of drums which just scream "You are inadequate" at me.

More cheerful news to follow as soon as I have a proper kip.

Be good.

Abu Dhabi, by the way

Might as well post these pics, taken at heaven knows what time, in the giant psychedelic honeycomb that is the Abu Dhabi departure lounge. It probably signifies something, or commemorates something, but the meaning passed me by. Anyone know?

I suppose, since I'm going back there on Saturday, I could find out.

Sunset

Just found this photo in my archives. Here's a thing - five pounds (of potatoes) goes to the first contributor to guess where it was taken....


Most of you know I've been in lots of countries and always snap a sunset if I get the chance. If this goes on for too long I'll put up a list of likely suspects to help. There'always a clue in the question, by the way....

Another panorama

Home in New Mills, and had a cuppa on the roof. Well I needed the break, I've been working very hard indeed.

So I took the opportunity to make an all-round view from up there. I did one months ago in Bangkok (where?) as you older readers will remember.

It's a nice view and I'll miss it when I go back to Thailand on Saturday (sob).

Big help

Cheese is helping me work by keeping the monitor warm. Can't see it here but onion is laid over my feet.

Hard at work

Well here I am in New Mills, working my arse off while her nibs is at Uni. My PC is running slowly due to all the extra software I've installed. The simplest instruction sends it on holiday for minutes at a time, consequently I'm left to amuse myself by taking photos of my feet in wifey's slippers. Ho hum..

I know I said NO Tickertape....

... but really, this is too much. I've arrived in New Mills at last and there was no welcoming committee, no fanfare, no tickertape, in fact there wasn't even a wife to come home to, or even a key to my house. I had to go cap in hand to Martin to ask for the spare key. I felt like Burt Lancaster in "The Swimmer" where he finally gets home and his house is a deserted wreck with tumbleweed blowing through.
It sems wifey got a little too blase (or too pissed) during her night out wtith the girls, and missed the last train home and had to stay in Katya's house.

Yes, of course I forgive her.

Abu Dhabi

I'm half way home, just thought I'd mention that. My head says it's 03.45am, yours says it's 9.45pm and the airport clock says it's 01.45am - go figure.

Nice airport this. Full of travellers though.

Be good.

Flying tomorrow

Heheee, home in a day and a half!

Can't wait. Beehive Friday 7pm, I'm buying. Be there or be, er, elsewhere.

In other news, my holiday to Spain has been cancelled (sorry M&L) due to Ryanair's continuing inability to keep to their own arrangements after charging us to make them.

Speaking of Pizza (which I wasn't), I hope I can stick to a reasonably healthy diet whilst I'm home; the Thai food seems to have been beneficial to my health. I seem to have lost my love handles, which is careless but gratifying. I'll probably go straight to the pizza place on Friday, and eat nothing but junk for two weeks.

Speaking of junk (which I was), I have to bring home most of the tat Lyn bought while she was here. (She could have taken it home herself but she has people to do that for her...) Anyway with this in mind I bought what I thought was the world's biggest suitcase. Got it home, put the tat in it - full to the brim. I'll just about fit a couple of pairs of wagons in if I'm lucky. So you won't be seeing me in my Thai clothes I'm afraid, I'll be stuck with those parts of my (ahem) extensive wardrobe which were left at home when I came out here.

Speaking of spousal irritation (which I may or may not have been), I now find that having dragged myself across the globe to arrive in Manchester on Friday morning, I have to get the train into New Mills because wifey will be at University that day. Hmph. Well I did say no tickertape....

Wet weekend

Great day for working today, despite being a saturday. In fact I'm at my desk as we speak, being productive (if not legenday) in my lunchtime. It's pissing down and the sky is a horrible mixture of light and gunmetal grey. I can look across the city from our 17th floor office and watch the storm clouds roll in from the south. That's when I'm not too busy, of course.
I haven't been blogging lately - that's because I had nothing to say, being in the run-up to coming home and not really thinking about much else. I've still got nothing to say, but thought I'd better reassure the regulars that the blog will not be allowed to wither due to lack of quality material, no sir. If so it would have disappeared ages ago, haha.
Here's a quality item - I bought a stonking great memory card for my phone, which doubles as my mp3 player. I wanted to fit ALL of my music on there, so I bought an 8gb card. Plugged it in, no joy. Plugged it in the spare phone, no joy. Took it back, and what they said translates as "You idiot, your phone only supports 2gb". Ah well, it's a good excuse to wander round MBK Plaza, where I kid you not, there is an area of about 4 acres given over to mobile phone shops.
In other news, I reckon Ryanair have now changed my flight times to and from Spain six times to date. It's really bad to do that when people have planned their holidays. If there was an alternative airline I would have switched by now, but there isn't, so they continue to get away with it. Buggers.
In other news, Lyn went to Hayfield beer festival last night, so I hope she didn't overindulge. Actually it's very unlikely that she would drink real ale anyway, she only goes to be sociable. I wish I could be there for these events, I miss all that. Ouch, pang of homesickness. Better get back to work.

Be good.