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January 2001 |
Monday 1st - Wednesday 3rd
Happy New Year! From Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
Sawasdee Bee Mai
Tip of the month:....
.... no, not "don't eat too much at Christmas like this fat geyza" ...
... but " If you ever have to change planes at Singapore airport and have an hour or two to kill, pack your swimming gear in your carry-on bag as this swimming pool and Jacuzzi is available on the roof of Singapore airport!"
Thursday 4th
Back to the real world. After a great Christmas and New Year holiday it's back into school today to begin preparing for the new term.
Friday 5th
Met our new Maths teacher today, Michael Lyons (remember Blood Brothers?). His first impressions of Thailand are the pavements here which are used for everything apart from walking along!... True
Hello Bee and Gita in the office who are having a peep at this diary.... Get back to work!
Saturday 6th
Bought a new book listing Bangkok's 50 best restaurants. Plan to visit them all this year... in alphabetical order! The first in the book is Aioli, a French/Mediterranean restaurant.
Dinner for two cost 1470 baht (with 10% discount for possessing the book). My rating:
Food 7 ... Drink 5 ... Service 9
Sunday 7th
Started work on some ideas for Thai cultural activities for the UK "Join in Jamboree" program. Trying to think of activities that youngsters in the UK could do which would link to Thai traditions. You can see my first efforts here.
Can you help me dream up an activity that would use the traditional Thai triangular cushion?
Monday 8th
Saw the film "Unbreakable" with Bruce Willis. ... that is he was in the film ... I didn't travel to the cinema with him or anything like that.
The film was by the same director as "Sixth Sense" which I enjoyed very much... this film was good but not quite a classic. Story was a little on the thin side though there was an unexpected ending. Seven out of ten.
Tuesday 9th
There must have been some block in the post between the UK and here. It cleared today, I receive a pile of Christmas cards, thanks everybody.
I usually get a letter from home (Mom) every week, three arrived today ... The week before Christmas, Christmas week and New Year week. What a lot of snow you must have had!
Wednesday 10th
Please join me in complaining to the BBC. This news story can't be true ... can it?
Pupils around the world see maths teachers as badly-dressed and unpopular, say researchers.
Researchers at Plymouth University talked to school children in Europe and the United States about their perceptions of maths teachers - and found that the results were overwhelmingly negative.
Mathematicians have no friends, except other mathematicians, they're not married or seeing anyone, usually fat, very unstylish, wrinkles in their forehead from thinking so hard, no social life whatsoever, 30 years old and a very short temper.
Among the unflattering stereotypes of maths teachers recorded by researchers were of bad-tempered, overweight, scruffy and friendless men (and they were almost always seen as men).
Thursday 11th
Panic, the plan for pupils in the top Maths group to sing "If I were not so good at Maths" in assembly doesn't seem such a good idea. The assembly is tomorrow and they're all over the place with the, what are meant to be, synchronized actions.
Friday 12th
Ah, it all comes together at last, they do a wonderful job and make me very proud. Thanks JP for reminding me of the words!
Saturday 13th
Children's parties everywhere causing worse than usual traffic in the City of Angels. Today is Children's day in Thailand. The airport's full of kids, along with the zoo, parks, shopping centres and swimming pools. Many companies and public services have opened their doors for open days and balloons are the order of the day, they're everywhere.
Talking of children, I remember years ago listening to Junior Choice (or something like that) on the radio Saturday mornings with Ed (Stewpot) Stewart. The have a similar radio program here on 98.5FM. The talk is in Thai but the music is western. This morning as I was eating my breakfast I found myself singing along, at the top of my voice, to "Feed the birds (twopence a bag)"',"Let's go fly a kite" and "Quay serra, serra, whatever will be, will be."
Still talking of children, it wont be long before every child's favourite Uncles descend on Happyland. Yes, Nick and Greeny have booked their flights:
"Now, don't laugh! We have searched high and low for the best deals for a flight. We finally came up with two. These were considerably cheaper than the others. The first was a none starter. That was with...........wait for it.........."Uzbekistan Air". Now when you've picked yourself up from laughing and imagining all those terrorists, I know! However, the one we've gone with, against my better judgement, but still a lot cheaper, is Aeroflot, via Moscow!!!!"
Sunday 14th
Had to stay in all day as workmen were fixing the roof, repairing an air conditioner, replacing two cracked toilet seats and replacing the water pump. Ten minutes after they'd left the new water pump stopped working. Had shower in back garden under hose!
Saw "Meet the parents", quite funny. There is one scene where the Robert De Niro character is making a supposedly secret phone call in another language. You are not supposed to know what he is saying until it is revealed later on in the film, however, that other language is Thai! No one here was the least bit surprised when the subject of the telephone call is revealed at the end of the film.
Monday 15th
Around the public areas of the local hospitals here are free refreshment areas. Tables full of glasses of a particular cold drink. The unfortunate thing is that this cold drink is a pale yellow colour. Would you drink a yellow liquid from a receptacle in a hospital?
Tuesday 16th
Have you been trying to send me an email that hasn't got through? Was it addressed to jct@bigfoot.com ? I've just heard from my Mom by phone that my sister gets her emails to me bounced back. I think this is the reason:
Earlier this month, in an effort to improve the quality of service that we provide, Bigfoot added another layer of Spam protection to the Bigfoot for Life service. We are now blocking even more Spam than ever! Some of you may have noticed that some mail is not reaching you. Click here for a letter explains the new service and how it works.
...or you could send your email to my school account jotr@patana.ac.th .....
Keep in touch!
Wednesday 17th
Continuing through the book of Bangkok's 50 best restaurants ... The Brauhaus has now changed to Marché which is a pity. The Brauhaus had a great atmosphere, live band and often a queue to get in. The Marché is made to look like a fresh market which you wonder round selecting ingredients which are cooked up for you by their plentiful staff. They still brew beer on the premises. Very good but a little bright to feel you've had a good night out (they didn't accept our Brauhaus 10% voucher either!)
Thursday 18th
Perfected the screensaver program. I’ve been working on recently. It gives a slide show of the photos stored on your computer’s hard drive superimposed with an analogue clock and reminder of the day. Email me if you’d like a copy … and test it for me.
Friday 19th
Squash results… me six games … my opponent (who will remain anonymous to avoid embarrassment) one game.
Stuck in horrible traffic going into the city at 7pm.
Didn’t in the end meet up with Steve Peck as I was expecting. Dined at Anna’s Café. Good Thai food and the fastest restaurant service in Bangkok.
Saturday 20th
So I sat down to eat my Saturday morning brunch, gentle music playing as the neighbours cats frolicked in the back yard. Two young children wheyed (hands together as if preying and heads bowed) at me seeking permission to retrieve their ball that had inadvertently landed in the front garden.
The temperature was perfect and there was a sweet, fresh smell in the air. All was right with the world.
I opened the Bangkok Post to the international news page:
"London - A sex shop owner has fallen foul of British trading laws after customers complained his so-called hard-core pornography videos were far too tame"
Sunday 21st
I received an email with the subject line "A blast from the past".
Went to the annual Tamarack gathering in Rutherford this year, it had only been ten years since attended one. Next day I get your web site info sent to me......wonder who did that. I must admit I didn't jump right in but after an extremely bad day yesterday, I closed my office door and went
on-line to find you.
Thanks for the smile, I really needed it.
I have a daughter, she turned two last Tuesday. Time is flying by, seems like just last week I saw you at George's for dinner. How long ago was that?
Hope all is well. I will continue to check-in from time to time.I've no idea who it is from as there's no name at the end.
Monday 22nd
Hey I found the Guiness Book of Records Online ... and they have the restaurant round the corner from here listed as the Largest restaurant in the world
The Royal Dragon (Mang Gorn Luang) restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, opened in October, 1991, and can seat 5,000 customers, served by 1,200 staff.
Tuesday 23rd
Had an email from Nancy ... woops I mean NC ... or Nick
Plans for the trip are coming along. Did you get the travel arrangements
from Dave? I'm going for my jabs on monday. The doc reckons I also need
malaria tablets!!! Do I really? I hope all these restaurants that you are
checking out will mean that we will know the very best ones.
The big thing I'm looking forward to is not really seeing Thailand, or
seeing you, but taking over that diary page. After AQ bored for England with
his broadsheet writing, Shep was more like the higher quality tabloids, well
look out. Sunday Sport here we come. All the REAL sordid details rather than
the nicey, nicey stuff. Diary writing gets raunchy!!*!
Speak soon
ncWednesday 24th
All those long lost friends are going to come out of the woodwork because ... I've won the lottery! Well to be honest I'm not the top winner, I didn't get six numbers ... just three. So I'm the princely sum of ten pounds richer.
Thursday 25th
You'll thank me for this! You know how you're always stressed having to think of the right gift for me? Christmas, birthdays and surprise occasions, you'd like to buy me something but aren't exactly sure what. Well I've now discovered the delights of Amazon.com which allows you to create a "Wish list". A list of books and CDs that I want and you can safely buy for me knowing I wont be disappointed. They've even composed an email for me to send to my friends ... but to save bandwidth I'll paste it here:
John Tranter has created a Wish List at Amazon.com. A Wish List is just what you'd think--a list of items John Tranter chose and would love to receive as gifts. John Tranter has asked that we send you this message:
----
Hello. Remember Wish Lists? As kids, we sweated bullets over filling our lists with stuff we might actually have some hope of receiving, and stuff our friends and family
would never buy us. Well, I was visiting the Amazon.com site, and started my own Wish List. Check it out and then create one for yourself if you haven't already!
Best Wishes,
John TranterTo view John's Wish List, click on the link below
Friday 26th
Hmmm I've now discovered that there's a British version: Amazon.co.uk. I've started a wish list there too:
John has created a Wish List at Amazon.co.uk. (A Wish List is just
what you'd think--a list of items John chose and would love to
receive as gifts.) John asked that we send you this message to
let you know:
-----
Hi. I've set up my Wish List at Amazon.co.uk. If you're ever feeling generous and fancy splashing out on a present for me, here's where to go to find something you know I'll love.
Love John
PS Have I told you lately how much I admire and respect you? Seems like a good time to do that. ;-)
-----
To view John's Wish List, click on the link belowSaturday 27th
Bought myself a CD writer/rewriter. I'm now in business cutting CDs. Brilliant
Beautiful starry evening. Barbeque on roof, Sak did us proud with a fantastic Thai/western meal. What a great day.
Sunday 28th
Just like a kid with a new toy... yes you guessed it, I spent the morning playing with my new gadget.
37 years ago I learned to read with Janet and John:
KIDS' long-time favourites Janet and John bounced back yesterday in a bid to boost children's reading.
But the storybook duo of the fifties, sixties and early seventies have been given a new image to woo today's youngsters.
Gone are the sensible shoes and smart shirts and dresses. Now Janet and John wear trainers, T-shirts, go to discos, car boot sales - and even squabble.Monday 29th
Here's a little something for Nick and Greeny to practice on before they come out here to visit.
Tuesday 30th
Well I must admit, the clever programming that produced the Snake Shooter game above and the new "JT in Thailand" front page (do you like it?) is not all my own work. What looks like hours and hours of work took less than half an hour adapting someone else's Flash code. I admit it ... I'm a Flash Pirate!
Wednesday 31st
And finally this month a word from Shep:
Like the new front page ... and scored 675 on the game (on about the 12th attempt!)
Can you beat him?
STOP PRESS Nick claims to have scored 1275
Diary:
