spooky weekend

Just a quick blog.

This is Halloween weekend.  Bangkok is  not a place to find tons of Halloween celebrations all over town, but most bars and pubs that earn their living from western customers will make an attempt to celebrate.

I thought I’d tell you about the few places I know any details for and invite others to give details of other parties in the comments section.

The Farang Are Coming 4.11 & 4.12 — the Americans

I had a long workday on Monday. I was fairly wiped out, but when NurseRon – my pal from Southern California — called and suggested dinner at Livingstones I thought I could manage a quiet dinner near my home, so I said okay.

Improving your spoken Thai

About a year or so back my friend the Dude recommended to me that I should invest into a book called THAI REFERENCE GRAMMAR – The Structure of Spoken Thai.

He told me that it was the most useful way he had found to improve his understanding of spoken Thai; both for listening to Thai people speak, and for speaking himself.

I have to say that the idea of buying any book with a title like THAI REFERENCE GRAMMAR sounded about as appealing as having my fingernails and toenails pulled out one by one.

The Farang Are Coming 5.0, J-food and The Ugly Truth

Saturday was a different kind of day.

I woke up at 5 a.m. in Pattaya, stark naked and cuddled up against my naked ex-girfriend.

By 6 am I was on the bus to Bangkok.

By 11 am I was at work.

His Majesty

I was in Pattaya last night with the remote control in my hands flicking rapidly through the channels when I stopped and went back to the one that had passed by in the blink of an eye — I’d seen something very interesting.

It was His Majesty King Bhumibol being pushed in a wheelchair, obviously at the hospital. Adoring Thais were seen everywhere in the background of the news footage.

I watched the news report to its conclusion. It was good to see His Majesty up and around, though the 81 year old monarch looked very weak after a month in the hospital, with a pillow propped behind his head in the wheelchair.

surprising tears

Last week, when I made arrangements to visit Pattaya I explained to my ex-girlfriend that I had to work this weekend. Somehow, when I said I had to work “Saturday and Sunday” she heard only “Sunday”.

So it was that on Friday night around 9 p.m. she said something about wanting to watch a Thai TV show at ten o’clock and I said “That’s alright, I’m leaving soon anyway.”

She got a fairly shocked look on her face and asked me what I was talking about.  I reminded her that I had to be at work at 11 a.m. and that I would be hopping a late bus back to Bangkok tonight.

She explained that she had been expecting me to stay another day; she thought I was leaving Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Nope.

She had been playing a game on my computer, but suddenly put the computer aside, lay down, and I saw her lips swell up, her eyes get puffy, then I saw tears start streaming.

not being Thai

It started raining long before sunrise this morning, and through those long hours of half-sleep that I suffer when I spend too much time in bed I could hear the constant pounding of rain (fon tok) and the rumble of thunder (faa rawng).  When I finally roused myself around eleven o’clock I found myself huddled under a blanket next to my naked not-so-crazy ex-girlfriend trying to stay warm, and looking out at grey overcast skies.

I slipped out of the bed and into the bathroom for a shower.  One of the features of some Thai rooms (and this is one of them) is that you have to walk outside onto the balcony in order to reach the toilet/shower room.  My not-so-crazy ex-girlfriend wraps up in a towel each time she makes a toilet run, since her balcony is cearly visible from the street and from several other buildings.

not the beach & bruno

Me and my not-so-crazy ex-girlfriend left her room early this afternoon heading for lunch and the beach. I was dressed in what I perceived to be the Pattaya farang uniform: sleeveless tee shirt, flowered bathing suit and flip flops.

For her part my not-so-crazy ex-girlfriend was dressed rather sedately in a pair of shorts and tube top that were appropriate for a day at the beach.

We ordered lunch which turned out to be a rather poor effort at Khao Phat Moo Kai Dow — an oily and largely tasteless concoction that shouldn’t even be found in Thailand. The cook should have been shot.