Thoughts

While I wait for wifey to find my short story - which by the way is probably going to disappoint everyone - I'll fill the pregnant pause with some thoughts.

I'm thinking that some charity work would be a good direction to go in, once I get off this gravy train and go back to blighty. Anyone else interested in some kind of sponsored event? A walk? A bike ride? I'm not volunteering to organise anything but there must be loads going on in the UK that you can join in with. Must look into it.

My new "Kindle" e-reader has now arrived at home, and Lyn has the moral dilemma of whether to bring it here next week or to make me wait for Christmas. No idea what she'll do. Amazon have now done deals with phone companies in 100 countries including the UK, so their "Whispernet" technology will work. That means if I'm in one of those countries I can download any book from their library onto my Kindle in 60 seconds, and all I pay for is the book, at less than stock price. Pretty cool in my opinion. It will hold 1500 books in memory as well. The network doesn't exist in Thailand but I can still use my Amazon account online and transfer to the Kindle via USB.

Rainy season still hasn't properly ended here yet, despite me announcing its demise several times. Rumour has it that the end of the month will be the last of it. I'm a bit tired of getting wet shoes on the way to work, and also I'll welcome the slightly cooler temperatures of the winter months (26-30 until next March). My electricity bills will fall as well. Meanwhile quite a few electrical storms have gone over during the last few nights and I've even had to close the curtains to get some sleep. Normally I like the soft light of the city but bright flashes are a bit distracting when I'm trying to have nice dreams.

Conversation with a Thai person:

Me: What's Thai for a hundred?
Thai: Loi
Me: How do you spell that?
Thai: R-O-I
Me: But that spells Roi
Thai: Yes that's it.
Me: But you said Loi
Thai: Yes
Me: That's L-O-I
Thai: No, R-O-I
Me: No, that's Roi
Thai: Yes that's it.
Me: But...

And on, and on, and on...

One of our main Thai engineers, Nin, is absent this week - he's being a monk. Seriously, young Thai people, whether optionally or mandatorily (bad word) sometimes go off to a Buddhist temple and take care not to kill anything for ten days or so. I wonder if he'll be a changed man when he returns? Maybe he'll do some wicked kung fu or something. Maybe I've seen to many movies. If he comes back with a shaved head and wearing orange robes it will be funny.

I haven't seen much in the way of devout Buddhism here - they all eat meat for a start. Mind you, they have a fairly pragmatic approach to most things, even the law. If the police are out stopping people for traffic offences, fair enough they catch a few. Next day, same bobby on a different duty, you can ride past him on a one-way street at 420kph with no hat on, sitting side-saddle with three 18-month-olds hanging onto the pillion seat and he'll give you a cheery wave. Bizarre. This goes right through all walks of life. If there's a way to do something, no matter what rule it breaks, why wouldn't you do it? We westerners stare aghast and splutter about "rules being rules", but it just confuses them. Culture shock. In our canteen area at work there's a dart board on the wall. Someone pointed out that the place where you would stand to throw the darts is not visible as you walk past the board. Potential dart-in-lug-hole disaster, so a notice was put on the board "Out of service", until such time as they find a more suitable location. Anyway a week later the board is still there, and the Thais regularly take down the notice, have a few games, and replace the notice when finished. Seems odd to us, and to safety-conscious type it would be scary, but you'd be met with blank stares and incomprehension if you complained about it.

Let's see now, what else can I blather on about? Ah, music. I've bought several new albums this week and I can tell you the following:

The album "Checkmate Savage" by a Scottish band called "The Phantom Band" is well worth a listen. "Thorwing Bones", the obvious single, is a proper classic driving track. Phantom band - Throwing Bones
Just as Scottish are the band "Money Can't Buy Music", who have an album called "The Universe for Beginners" which I'm currently listening to with some pleasure. I've never heard Keppler's laws in a song lyric before. Here's my fave track... MCBM - beautifulgirlssunnyledges (That's how it's written on the sleeve, honestly)
Um, what else? I just bought some French Gypsy music but I'll give that a good listen before recommending it here. Also an American folk singer called Alela Diane caught my ear this week, news on that to follow. I'm currently trying to work out how to assail you with different music each time you log in, but it's beyond me at present.

Be good.