A Trip To The Temple May 25, 2008

Oh, I know, twice in one day, I am spoiling you, just like that ambassador and his chocolates.  It’s late Sunday nite here and I am blogging to a) keep up to date and b) kill time as flickr processes the 9 million photos I took today.

After I updated earlier, I decided to go to Wat Arun aka Temple of the Dawn, which is on the other side of the river.  So I hopped on the subway and then the BTS and got on the boat to Tha Tien.  From there, a cross river ferry takes you from the main pier to the War Arun pier for the princely sum of 5 pence.  It was absolutely scorching hot and I think the camera was not too pleased about the heat, see below:

It seemed to forget we were at a Buddhist temple and thought it was on an acid trip back in 69, man.  It behaved itself after a while, but I think the 35 degree direct sunlight was not much good for either of us, especially as I made the mistake of not eating anything before going out.  I did drink lots of water though, mum.

I did have a very nice time apart from that though.  I had a wander round the temple compound, saw lots of Germans, followed an Italian woman up the very steep stairs, had a chat in Thai to a random lady (ok, I say chat, we exchanged hello how are yous) and had a quick chat with this guy:

I hope he was listening.  After that I climbed some very steep steps to find … nothing!

But it was nice to sit higher up and enjoy the breeze.  It was very peaceful if roasting hot.  I managed to take a wrong turn somewhere and got lost in the maze of back alleys round the back of the temple compound, but got to see some good every day sights that I am sure not many people see:

Then I was really hot and hungry and thirsty, so I decided to get the boat back across and maybe go to Wat Po.  But it was pretty choppy and I felt a bit seasick, so I just got the boat back to Sathorn and then the train to Siam and then walked along to Central World to get some aida cloth for more sewing and some real Monster Munch (crisps) only I forgot about the Monster Munch.  Then I walked back along to the sky train and went along to Phrom Phong and to Emporium Mall to have some food finally (Indian butter chicken – delicious) and to go to the cinema.

Yes – the cinema!  Three times in the past week!  I actually got there tonite and realised that I had seen everything that was on.  So I saw Iron Man again and it was just as funny as the first time – if you haven’t seen it, you should do.  Then I came home and went for a nice refreshing swim and now I am battling Flickr to get my photos uploaded (it’s not playing).

What to do tomorrow!  How exciting.

Sunday Catching Up May 25, 2008

Sorry! Another week has passed and I have been remiss in my updating – perhaps if I only aimed to update this weekly I would maybe exceed it?  Anyway, I’m here now, so pipe down!

What have I been up to, I hear you ask?  Well, a whole heap of nothing!  But I’ve been enjoying doing it.  Here are some “high” lights:

Enjoying the decadence of having a service wash at the laundry place and regretting it as it meant I somehow ended up sitting in a sweaty room for 1.5 hours watching the rain lashing down and the lizards clinging to the windows as a tiny Thai lady ironed my voluminous trousers.  I will go back to doing my own, it was far less hassle (and far cheaper – still was only £2 for 2 lots of washing to be washed, dried and ironed!).

Saying goodbye to the Lizinator and Rob who left for home on Tuesday.  We had a nice meal and a hearty farewell and it is now strange not to have them around!  Bet they are having fun at home eating real sausages and everything.

Being, yes, you’ve guessed it, BORED with work.  It’s been pretty quiet again this week, but thanks to my moaning on my previous post about having seen all there is to see on the internet, Derek introduced me to the wonders of Stumble Upon meaning I have discovered all sorts of great things this week – hurrah!

Eating Indian food in the form of butter chicken and garlic naan bread and it being really tasty.  Then seeing a movie – What Happens In Vegas, which looked awful but was actually pretty funny.

Going back to the cinema the next day (yes, TWO DAYS IN A ROW!) to see Indiana Jones 4, which was actually really entertaining!  Eating chicken pie, like what you get at home, and mashed potatoes after Jamie randomly found a pie shop in the same mall as the cinema – result!

Aquaplaning. A lot.  The rain has been torrential.  Last nite it was really heavy and I went in the kitchen to put something in the bin and there was a lizard sat by the sink.  He must have climbed up all 7 storeys to get in out the rain!  I wisely retreated – I’ve not been back in since … I hope he’s gone!

Watched the rest of Numbers, season 2.  It was rubbish.  Don’t bother with it, it’s the same episode 24 times over.  Bah.

Yesterday I didn’t do much at all except sew and watch TV and look out the window and have a nice long lie in.  I REALLY enjoyed it!  I got 2 new designs designed and sewn, so I will post those up later.  It’s Sunday morning and I am deciding what to do today – maybe go and see something.  I’m not sure what.  My bank card trouble has been resolved by getting the PIN number eventually which turns out not to be at all what I thought it was, but then perhaps they just sent a whole new one.  Anyway, hurrah it’s solved!

Right, I am off to get dressed and hit the streets in search of some action!  Adios!

Weekend Wanderings May 19, 2008

I am getting really bad at keeping this up to date – sorry! I’d like to say that it’s because I have been out doing realllly exciting things, but it’s not.  But I have had a nice weekend, which went a little something like this:

Saturday was a pretty uneventful day at home and in the evening I went to meet Liz and we went to the cinema.  I have been to the cinema THREE times since I got here now – a record for me.  We saw Deception with Ewan McGregor in it which was pretty good.  My favourite bit about going to the cinema here is not the price of just around £2 for a ticket, not even the frozen Coke for 75p … the national anthem gets me every time.  After the adverts and trailers, before the movie starts, the national anthem is played accompanied by a video of inspirational shots from Thailand.  It is mandatory to stand for this – failure to stand up can lead to arrest and imprisonment!  I, inexplicably, find the whole thing oddly moving and it makes me feel a bit patriotic, even though I am not even from here.  I am not actually sure if it’s the national anthem of the king’s anthem – I think it’s the king’s.  Anyway, I like this bit which is a little strange as I certainly wouldn’t bother standing up at home if they reinstated this tradition for our own royal family.

So, aside from that, the cinemas are huge and swanky and the seats are big and comfy, lots of leg room and you can even hire reclining seats up the back for 2, which I hear have blankets and cushions for the ultimate in cinematic comfort.  Oh, and the 63 flavours of popcorn – sweet, cheese, barbecue, salmon … ugh.

So, after the cinema, we had a stroll around Paragon, which is a pretty fancy mall I think I mentioned before.  It has a Lamborghini showroom amongst other fancy car dealerships, you can pick up any designer clothes you might need – Chloe, Balenciaga, Jimmy Choo, etc etc – as well as eating something from just about every cuisine you could think of.  We found a great shop called Shanghai Tang which has some really beautiful stuff but VERY expensive and then we had some food at Ootoya, a Japanese place I have been to before.

Homeward bounds after that and it was raining so hard it was stoating off the pavement when we got outside – thankfully there is a link to the train directly from the mall though.  So, I headed home, played the guess who’s going to the happy finish massage place game (I was right again) and then faffed about and went to bed.

Yesterday being Sunday of course I didn’t get up in time to go to Ko Kred as usual, so spent the morning tidying up, thinking about doing laundry (but didn’t), contemplating a swim (didn’t) and doing some sewing.  Then in the afternoon, headed for the river to get the boat to Banglamphu and meet the Lizzle for a last jaunt as she heads back to England for good on Tuesday (booo!).  I don’t think I will ever tire of the boat, it’s so much fun.  Given my no nail biting success, we decided to go for a manicure, which I had been looking forwards to.

It was fun, but I managed to get the Sweeny Todd of the nail care world and she drew blood at least 4 times round my cuticles which really stung.  But my nails are looking very nice now, if short again, I suppose she had to file them right back to get them in shape.  She told me my nails are very thin and then started going on about how swollen my feet were – no kidding sherlock, it is 30 degrees out there and I’ve walked at least a mile or two already today!  But she is right, I could do with a foot massage – once my last horrible scary mosquito bite heals I am so there.

After manicures, we wandered round to the crazy Chinese shop as I am sure it is officially called – it is basically a huge tat emporium which you (and by you I mean probably me, Jo and mar-c) could spend hours rummaging through to find the gems amongst the rubbish.  It is brimming with cheap, gaudy chapping cats, decorations, those nail things that you could put your hand behind and make an imprint that were inexpilcably popular about 10 years ago, 2007 calendars with Jesus on, teapots, alarm clocks with the king on, windchimes … you name it, they probably have it here on the shopfloor or at least out the back.  It was fun to have a good chuckle over all the hideous goods there.

After that we were clearly in need of some sustenance at a nice cafe nearby where I had some very tasty spring rolls with sweet plum sauce and a big glass of fresh lime juice- yum!  Then some more wandering round, seeing some shops and convincing Liz to buy a beautiful embroidered velvet coat (she better go back for it today or I’ll have to push her off the boat) and then meeting up with Rob who’d been incommunicado since the night before having been kidnapped for his stag nite.  We then had a drink in a really cool outdoor bar type place which had a pool in the middle that we were secretly praying for someone to fall into, but we were sorely disappointed. I headed home about 8 ish and ended up staying up til 3am watching House and wailing when the last 3 discs of season 3 refused to work in the player or my laptop – BAHHHH.

Today I got up reasonably early for having been up til 3 am and spent an hour and a bit in the pool working on my aqua aerobic laps and just generally relaxing.  Now I am debating what to do as I still have not bought a mop and I know I can trot down to Daiso and get one but then my hair will get all sweaty and I am going out for a last hurrah to say goodbye to Liz and Rob over dinner.  Oh, the laundry too – I better get my skates on and get out!

Bored In Bangkok May 15, 2008

In an unprecedented new level of boredom, I had finished my tasks by 10am today.  As a result, I have been mentally flicking through my internet rolodex, trying to think of a website that I haven’t visited yet.  I think over my 14 years of using the internet, I must now have seen every site there is.  Or that is how it feels at any rate.

Anyway, the past few days have been pretty dull as I am slumping into a work-boredom-induced decline and it’s wearing me out.  It’s also been very rainy and generally miserable, like the earthquake brought some sadness and left it hovering over the city in a cloud, or so it feels to me.  The news coming out of China is just awful and it makes me feel both grateful to be here and a bit stupid for worrying about getting in a lift – I wasn’t trapped under a building or crushed by my own school.

Last nite on the way home it was raining so hard I thought I almost thought I was back home.  It was cold for here, enough to make me shiver a little and wish I had a cardigan at least, and the rain was bouncing off the pavement (or sidewalk depending on where you are – actually it was bouncing off the pavement too if you’re a sidewalker) – like Glasgow but with far more efficient public transport.  I was soaked to the very knickers by the time I even got to the train station, so it is fair to say that like the skies over Bangkok, my mood was very dark.  I had forgotten to get my umbrella from Liz after we got caught in a rainstorm on Sunday, so I had no protection from the elements at all.

So, I got on and off my trains and was aquaplaning down the road and was generally railing against the world, slow walkers in Bangkok, motorbike taxis on pavements, leaves that look like cockroaches, the rain soaking my new shoes, etc when I reached the hotel nearest my turning off and had an epiphany – I am living the dream! I am here, living abroad if only for a while, seeing new places, things, people which is exactly what I wanted to do.  I’m eating all the sticky rice I could dream off, I’m not buried under a pile of rubble as I could have been on Monday – I am very lucky.

And as I came to this conclusion, I heard a voice behind me and looked round, wiping the rivers of rainwater from my face, and there was a man standing there with a white umbrella.  He said “do you want to use my umbrella?”.  He just came up and offered me his umbrella, even though he would have got wet too.  I could have wept at the kindness of a stranger just when I was so cheesed off with everything.  I declined, telling him I was soaked through anyway and to save himself (he may have been a good samaritan but he was dressed in very rain-unfriendly light coloured jeans) but THANK YOU SO MUCH and off he trotted, overtaking me and heading on up the road.

The most pleasing part about this story is to come though – who in a city of 75 gazillion people would have stopped and offered to shelter me – A SCOTTISH MAN. Ha!  Say what you want about us (football thugs will probably be the first thing that comes to mind this morning), but we are, as I can now attest, the friendliest nation in the world – FACT.

It was so wet even the swimming pool was shut last nite, I can only assume because it was overflowing.  So my plan of having a bumper swim to make up for not doing so since Saturday was scuppered and instead I had to content myself with some sewing (at a more leisurely pace now since I  posted about 5 billion emobroideries to Jo yesterday), making french toast in my sandwich toaster (tasty!) and watching more of Season 2 of House on DVD.

Jamie and I were due to go out for dinner last nite, but he had another match in the pool tournament that never ends, much to our mutual annoyance – his because he is fed up with pool, mine because we were supposed to go eat curry.  Speaking of postage (I did a few sentences ago, keep up), I posted 2 parcels yesterday at a grand total of roughly 45 of your British earth pounds.  I was aghast.  I am now officially conserving funds for the rest of the month, not least because I have forgotten the PIN number for my UK bank card and the bank has now blocked my card as I had too many failed attempts at punching it in with my sausage fingers yesterday.  BAH.

This weekend is THE weekend I will finally make it to Ko Kred (hopefully).  Liz and I are going to go and check it out on Sunday.  I have a hankering for some culture and hopefully it won’t rain and we can go and wander round and see some.  It has also just been arranged that after that we will go have a manicure, something I have never had before because I have bitten my nails since Noah was in short pants.  But I stopped about 2 weeks ago and they are pretty long now and I am very proud of myself.  If only I had the same willpower to stop eating lard.

Oh, one other thing from the weekend – I had been thinking for a while that I really needed to go to a chemist and find out how I could go about getting some more Metformin, the medication I have to take, as I was running pretty low.  This is a prescription medicine in the UK, with the prescription charge costing a shade under 7 GBP last time I got any.  So imagine my delight in walking into a random chemist, asking for Metformin and him saying sure, how many do you want and reaching into a box the size of a suitcase.  I took 20 to get on with and almost fell over when not only did I not need a prescription or even a note from my mum, but they were 29 bats for 10 – roughly 45p!  I could simply not believe it, thought I had maybe missed a 0 off the end.  But no – less than a pound for 20 tablets.  The NHS is having a laugh with us.

Today I had really quite a hideous lunch experience – chicken in cucumber sauce.  I thought it sounded like it might be interesting, but it was really rather revolting.  I ate some of it with the sauce scraped off and then pushed it round a bit and then came back and went and sat down and felt green about the gills at the thought of it for a while.

I’m home now, having written this over the course of the day.  It’s gotten hotter as the day went on and perversely I only broke a sweat when I was getting on the train.  This is a PB for me (that’s short for personal best, like they say in athletics circles) as usually I am so overheated by the time I step out of the elevator in the morning that I look like a drowned rat.  But today I maintained a modicum of composure throughout the day.  It’s been a funny day – partly wishing I could go to sleep on the desk, partly regaining excitement of being here.  Also partly being very frustrated over my bank card woes as I am CONVINCED I have the right number, but I will just have to bite the bullet on that one and get a new one I think.

On the way home, it occurred to me that there is quite a lot of mileage in the short walk from the station to the apartment complex, largely due to it’s situation in the red light district (let’s get that out there once and for all – there’s hos in them there “entertainment complexes”).  Why just tonite I was standing on the escalator behind a short, stout Indian man dressed in what can only be described as “Man At C&A” circa 1987.  The saddest thing about it was that he had Man VPL and also a horrible bumffle where he’d tucked his lemon coloured shirt in to his tan slacks and a dirty mark right on his right ass cheek – it was right in my line of vision all the way up the escalator.  I wanted to boak right there and then on the moving stairs.

Anyway, the point in telling you that is that he looked reasonably respectable, if ill-attired, but then he got to the top of the stairs and looked about him like he didn’t know where to go which, I am quickly learning, is the signal that they are searching out the establishment that they have been recommended.  And sure enough he trotted ahead of me, met his 2 similarly attired friends and off they popped into Caesar’s Palace, presumably for a drop of port and a game of backgammon.

I am trying to remember but no, I don’t think there has ever been a time when I have come out the station and didn’t see at least one man looking dodgily around to check that there is no one watching him as he slopes into Emmanuelle’s or Nataree or Claudia’s to relieve the stresses of the day.  I have devised a game to amuse myself on boring journeys – guess which of them will get off at my stop, who will go to Emmanuelle’s etc.  It keeps me occupied on the train when I’ve forgotten or finished my book, like today.  Having said all that though, they are pretty low key on the main part and it’s mostly across the road, so you know – mum, pipe down, it’s really very safe – much safer than Glasgow!

Right, House is a-calling me, so I am off to eat some noodles and watch him be sarcastic again.

Earthquake! May 12, 2008

Well, I never thought I’d say this having had first hand experience – but earthquakes are scary.

This afternoon around 1.30pm I was sitting quietly at my desk, contemplating how much longer I could put off asking a colleague what on earth his customer was talking about when I noticed a strange, rhythmic creaking noise in the office.  I looked around and no one else seemed particularly bothered, so I thought nothing of it and went back to studying my fingernails.  Then I thought I felt a bit busy as the room seemed to be moving a bit.  And that’s when everyone else looked up and started to look a bit pensive.

No one actually got out of their chair except the boss, who went to look out the window.  There was a strange sense of calmness amongst everyone.  I had not twigged what was going on yet, but the boss said “yep, it’s an earthquake”.  I thought he was joking initially, but then the building started to sway and it felt like being on a rowing boat in a storm.  I stood up and staggered back a wee bit, and we all gathered up our bags and congregated in the hall outside.

What do you do when you are on the 24th floor of a swaying building in an earthquake?  I would not immediately have said get in the elevator myself, but that is what we did.  I have to say that is when I started to panic slightly.  There were about 15 people squeezed in and it shuddered and shook all the way down as the building swayed.  The building management had not yet sounded the alarm for evacuation, but as our boss had noticed what was happening, we were a step ahead of the crowds.  I wondered where we would go as there are nothing but giant tower blocks all around.  There is no safe haven in downtown Bangkok, it seems.  So we trekked outside and along the road a bit to stand outside a different very tall building and discussed what to do – at which point all the fire alarms in the surrounding buildings went off and people started pouring out onto the street.

It was pretty scary I must admit.  Even though it seemed clear that we were not in any immediate great danger, we didn’t know what was happening, where the earthquake was (China, if you have not seen the news) or if there were more tremors to come.  It was not an experience I’d like to repeat in a hurry, but somehow I feel almost priveleged to have gone through it, not sure why.  It’s so strange being here near the action, instead of watching on the news at home and feeling disconnected from it.  Here I literally felt the effect of it.  Makes you think.

The only option for me to get home was to get the Sky Train and then the subway – I wasn’t even sure that the subway would even be open, but I got there and it was, altho very quiet.  No wonder – my choice was to walk home (no idea where I was going) or risk the subway.  I quietened down my inner panicked voice by telling myself it wouldn’t be open if it wasn’t safe.  So I got on and it was fine and I was relieved to get out the other end and the street was not just burning rubble.

Anyway, aside from that, work has been dull.  Lee’s mum was taken ill on Friday and admitted to hospital which was very worrying for all concerned.  She is out today hopefully, so fingers crossed she is on the mend.  I felt very helpless being here and waiting for updates and not being able to help even just by being around.

Yesterday I ventured out to meet Liz and go and explore Little India, which is a little enclave of China Town area.  It was a very fun day despite the extreme humidity – it was very sweaty and it rained a bit which only made it worse.  But we had some amazing food:

Who knew there was a god of motorcycle helmets!  I would love to have worn this deer wedding headdress at my wedding, just to see what people would have said … oh dear, hello dear, etc.  The food was fantastic, the wee cakey thing was great but SO sweet.  I saved a bit of it for later and it’s still in my bag.  It’s probably formed a paste in the heat and welded itself to my ipod by now.

After our lunch fit for the king himself, we moseyed down the lane a bit and found a great fabric shop.  I bought some for an as-yet-undecided project, mostly just because I liked the colour and they were little more than a pound a go.  Then we got lost in the warren of clothes and fabric stands in what turned out to be a wholesale market and had a pleasant time exclaiming over Indian ceremonial wear, amazing fabrics, gaudy jewellery, incense, spices and all sorts.  We also spent at least 10 minutes in a posh wedding shop giggling over the names printed on the pretend inviations (kink, ping, pong, etc) like Beavis and Butthead – I think the sugar and heat had gotten to us.

After our stroll round, we headed back to the pier and got the boat back to Sathorn and then on the BTS to Siam where we found that Winnie the stationery goddess was not only back, but had a whole load of new stuff, hurrah!  I tried to restrain myself, but got some cool stickers and some teeny cute sewing kits to send to Hamish.  After that we had a look around Siam Square, I had some hideous lemon soda which tasted like 1 part engine oil, one part salt, one part water.  It made me ridiculously thirsty, I was not pleased.  Then the rain started and we headed for Paragon and to the amazing food hall there and wandered around exclaiming over the cheap Kettle Chips, buying sanrio-themed Japanese foods for friends and being appalled by the “monster munch” which are not monster munch at all – bah.

Then back across to the Siam Centre to the proper shoe shop which had an up to 70% off sale on and so I could not stop buying a pair of shoes which promise to be very comfortable once broken in, hurrah!  And then back across to Paragon for some dinner at Piri Piri chicken place which was very yum.  Sadly after that we were both pretty exhuasted, Liz carrying a passenger and all, so it was time to head home and I didn’t get in til past 9pm and then it was time to open the parcels of joy which had arrived!

Thanks to Lee I am now reacquainted with my swimming costume, you  know the one that didn’t cost a million dollars and some other clothes, Mum sent 2 new tops (one of which I am wearing as we type) and Jo sent some breeks which are magical and some shoes which were much needed – I am going through shoes at a rate of knots such is the amount of walking being down!  My “new” Rocket Dogs I am sorry to say have worn away to reveal a hole in the sole already!  I am most cheesed as I L-O-V-E them – they are stripey and they are so comfy but they do smell rancid now.  I will wear them until they walk off by themselves into the sunset tho.

This unexpected half day holiday is great!  I am eating an ice lolly and writing this and contemplating what to do for the afternoon.  Altho it is now 6pm, so it has kinda crept away from me.  I stupidly did not think to pick up my bag with sewing stuff in when the office was evacuated so I am feeling a bit lost, despite there being loads of other things I could be doing.  Not sure if the shops and cinemas will be open again yet as everything was evacuated earlier and apparently it would take a few hours before people are allowed back inside.  So I will probably just read, finish this and maybe make a few non-sewing related items.  Now I am just going to check that there are no other natural disasters looming on the horizon …

Sweating May 8, 2008

Imagine, if you will, your commute to work.  For some of you I know it is nothing more than a walk downstairs (or in at least one case, reaching for your laptop from your bed) and for others a short drive or bus ride into town.  My commute to work usually takes one hour of walking in the searing heat, on one train and on another, etc.

Today it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to work.  I know as I timed it.  It started off badly when I got downstairs and there was no post.  So I was already in a bad mood – but it only increased as I trotted along the road to the subway and was met with a scene of sheer chaos.  Usually there are a number of small queues neatly arranged along the platform to board the busy trains – but today there was just a mass of people everywhere and queued back up the stairs.  A woman was telling me something, which I took to be don’t even think about it love.  Aahhhh!  The rate that they were letting people on the train was approximately 1 per carriage so I would have had to wait at least an hour before I got near the front of the queue.

So my only option was to go outside and flag down a taxi, which proved to be harder than it sounds – usually the city is awash with taxis who often, when they see me walking along, slow down and glance hopefully at me until I wave them away, such is their abundance.  But today, in the 34 degree heat it was murder – barely any taxis and the ones that did stop refused to take me the distance I wanted to go, so I had to scale back my plan to go to work and instead go to the train station where the subway and the sky train interchange.  That took an hour and a half.  I wanted to kill myself but was armed only with a biro and hairbrush and was too sweaty to rig anything up with the seatbelt.  I eventually got out and walked in what I thought was the direction of the station only to find that I was going in the wrong direction and heading towards home.  I only realised this after 10 minutes trudging up the street, so I stopped and got my bearings and a drink and trudged back and found the station.  The only good thing about this was that on the way I found the 24 hour mexican restaurant, so if I ever need some tacos in the middle of the nite, I know where to go.

By now it is fair to say that I was peeved to the point of homicide.  I got on the skytrain and then realised that I had to change on to a different line so it took forever and then when I got off I had to trudge up and down the steep steps and did not have time to get a lime smoothie as I was already an hour and a bit late for work.  I am lucky my boss is understanding – I texted him from the taxi and he very kindly said not to worry.  So I stayed in over lunch to catch up with my work but now of course have finished it all and have nothing left to do this afternoon.

Gahhh! I am glad to have got that out.  It’s otherwise been a pretty quiet week, so nothing much to write home about (literally).  Have been doing a lot of sewing and watching House on DVD which is so far very entertaining although I find it hard to take Hugh Laurie seriously as an American, as I can only hear him in my head as being terribly posh with Stephen Fry.

I have zero plans for the rest of the week/weekend, but this weekend may be the one where I finally get my ass in gear and get on this tour to Ko Kred.  In other news, some guy from America wants to buy a whole bunch of stuff from the Thai Kawaii shop wholesale, so I will get that organised this weekend and sent off along with a parcel for Hamish to take to the Made In The Shade event that Jo is taking him to at the Lighthouse later this month.  Lots of new emobroideries will be making their debut there hopefully.

Now – back to looking busy and waiting for Glasgow to wake up

Saturday In Pyjamas May 3, 2008

Hello!  I am not dead.  It is, I realise, almost a week again since I updated this.  I would like to say I’ve been busy, but I haven’t really.  Monday I was off work on my scheduled day off and was going to go meet Liz for some retail therapy, but she was spending her time much more sensibly packing to move back to England, so I went into work, collected my work permit (woo) and headed to the bank.  It is quite the saga and I don’t have the energy to even begin to recount it now, but suffice to say it took 5 people over an hour and a half to open a bank account and transfer money to the UK (and even then they had to call me twice after I left to make sure they had it right).

So, that’s sorted.  But it turns out that Thai banks charge you to do anything – pay a bill, pay money in, take money out (over the counter), transfer money abroad … I had to pay 200 bhat just to apply for an ATM card.  They really make their money where they can, that is fo sho.  But I was impressed with their speed – my money arrived in the UK less than 24 hours later, so that is a relief.

Tuesday was back to work, which was pretty dull.  Wednesday too, only brightened up by going to meet Liz and Rob for tea afterwards.  We had some very tasty chicken and I saw their flat after dinner which was lovely and they gifted me lots of their things they don’t need anymore (kettle, toaster, cheese grater, etc).  It was great chat and I got home about midnight laden with boxes and bags.  Thursday was yet another public holiday here, labour day this time.  To celebrate the non-labour of the day, me and Jamie went to see Iron Man at the cinema which was great.  Very funny, even if it did have Gwyneth Paltrow in it.  We also had lunch at a mexican place at Paragon centre beforehand and I had a reaaaaally good burrito, I will defo go back there one day.

Yesterday – back to work.  Bah.  Who’s idea was that to earn money? There has to be a more fun way, surely.  It’s been a pretty dull week in reality.  But a fun dull week, if that makes any sense.  Today I have not even gotten out of my pyjamas, such is my sloth.  I had to work today, but from home, so I stayed up til about 2am watching DVDs on my new-to-me mini DVD player.  I watched the first half of the first series of Numbers, which was ok – just ok.  Like CSI but a lot duller and centred around maths.  Today I have watched (or tried to watch) No Country For Old Men and Smokin Aces – both of which I am sure are passable movies, but either the DVD player or the DVDs themselves (or possibly both) did not enjoy them.  NCFOM in particular I got the first 15 minutes of before it started skipping every second scene, so I have no idea what happened at the end, or if that really was Kelly McDonald (answers on a postcard please).

Apart from that I have been working on some new emo-broidery designs, which I have photographed but the photos turned out rubbish as it was dark, so I will post them up tomorrow.    Today I have just realised was supposed to be day in the life day, but I think everyone has forgotten, so that may be rescheduled (I hope so, otherwise mine will be full of eating biscuits and sitting around in my pants).

Sunday tomorrow – hurrah!  I may actually leave the house.  Not decided what to do yet, but it may involve a trip to the book shop to stock up on new books and take some of my others back for a mega discount and lunch in the nice place from last week and maybe buying bread to feed my toastie addiction.  Photos tomorrow.  Now, move along, nothing more to see here.