Folk

Some music for you - and nary a drumbeat to be heard.

Alasdair Roberts - The hallucinator and the king of the silver ship of time

Mary Hampton - Island

Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress

The Unthanks - Nobody Knew She Was There

You have to sit down and relax to enjoy these. I did.

Be good.

Top tips

Got sent a link to some top tips, which I find tear-jerkingly funny. However, I'm not going to pass the link to you lot because they get less funny after five or so. Instead, I'll post a few here now and then.

To keep the freshness you should avoid finding the site for yourself and ruining the fun.

That's a top tip from me :)

Here's a selection:

• OLD telephone directories make ideal personal address books. Simply cross out the names and address of people you don't know.
• BOMB disposal experts' wives. Keep hubby on his toes by packing his lunchbox with plasticine and an old alarm clock.
• Save money on expensive personalised car number plates by simply changing your name to match your existing plate. - Mr. KVL 741Y, Stevenage.
• Save time when crossing a one-way street by only looking in the direction of oncoming traffic. - D. Rogers, Hemel Hempstead
• When crossing a one-way street always look in BOTH directions in case a large blue furniture removal lorry is reversing the wrong way up the road. - D. Rogers, Hemel Hempstead General Infirmary

More later.. taters

One Night in New Mills

Going home today, for a night and a day.

It's to pick up my mountain bike so I can start riding it over here. Trip costs same as new bike, so why not?

Laters

Nonsense Slogans

I'm going to compile a list of t-shirt slogans that I see here that are in English but make no sense. It's strange, I saw one the other day which prompted this blog, but I've forgotten it. They don't have any logical meaning so they don't stay in the mind. Hey, maybe there's a conspiracy and they contain subliminal messages. Hmm, maybe that's why I've had a strange compulsion to drink full-lard Coke, which I normally hate......

Anyway, the next one I see will appear on here, assuming it survives in my (very)short term memory long enough.

Watch this bobbbin....

In big letters across the back: "SLUR".

I'm on!

Got phone and interweb in the new apartment at last.

In other news, no motorbike. Would it make me happy? Probably not.

Might think about a pushbike though....

Want it, need it

Saw this for sale in a shack round the corner from the office (there are always shacks round the corner in Bangkok)
It's a Honda Bros, 650cc V-Twin, same engine type as my Hyosung at home. The guy started it up and it sounds luvly. It's for sale for half what I got for the D-Tracker. Hmmmmmmm.

In other news, I'm sat by the pool (using free wireless) on a wednesday morning, waiting for the telephone man to come and fix my line. I've a feeling it won't happen but the morning off is nice. Mind you, I have to stay down here on the ground floor in 35 degrees waiting for him to call my mobile, because my reception is so bad in the apartment. I'm on my fourth t-shirt so far - it's stupidly hot here. I'm too hairy for this climate. Maybe an all-over shave might help. The things that stop me trying it are:

• Uncomfortable unless done every day
• Time-consuming
• Probably ineffectual
  

In any case, if I start radiating all my heat, everyone else is going to be that much hotter.

In other news, there's now a bloke swimming lengths in the pool with a mask and snorkel on. Bit strange, there's surely nothing to see on the pool bottom, unless you're into quality grouting. Maybe he's a pool inspector. In which case I want his job. Jeez he's done six lengths of the (very long) pool already. I'm intimidated. He's slowing down now though, must be struggling, or maybe he's found some mis-matched tiles. There is a gigantic whale done in darker tiles at the far end, and a group of dolphins in the centre. I know because I use them as markers to tell how far I am from the end when I do my 4 lengths. Yes 4. It's a long pool. There are also some stone fish spitting water into the pool along one side. If you don't keep your head down as you swim past you're likely to get wet. That's a joke.
Pool, Spitting Fish, Snorkel Man - did I lie?

In other news my battery is running low, and anyway you're boring me now. Be good, and if you're cold I'm jealous.

15 Bottles of wine later

We (Plexal) had our traditional New Years party last night (yes yes it's February - we're busy ok?). It was at Buri Restaurant, on the river. Good location, might bring the missus there next time she's over. Here's sunset from before the wine came..

You wouldn't think this was in the middle of Bangkok, na?

Our General Manager had ordered 15 bottles of French red. Rude not to drink it really, so we did. Here we are much later, all rather unsteady. I'm the one hiding behind the boss's granddaughter. I should have stood up but felt a bit woozy. Hic.

A bunch of drunken bums, AKA Plexal.