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March 2000 |
MARCH
Wednesday 1st
The latest news on the parent front (for sister Julie and Nephew James) is that I have just telephoned Ko Samui and spoken to Mom. She's very happy now because the weather has taken a turn for the better and they've actually been swimming today. She's a third of the way through reading "The Beach" and they're both really enjoying the relaxation.
Stay tuned to this diary page for the latest in world news. See last month's diary for the full background on this story. It doesn't get much more interesting than this you know!
Thursday 2nd
The folks are now back here in Bangkok having had a great time on the island. This evening we went out to a Laos restaurant for Isaan food and entertainment.
Friday 3rd
Folks off to see the Bridge over the river Kwai.
Meanwhile ... strange techniques used to teach Maths:
Saturday 4th
Alarms set for 5:30am and by 6am we were in a taxi heading for Lumpini park. Thousands of people were there doing their early morning exercises, jogging, weight training and Tai Che.
Wait!... who is that English woman dancing round her handbag?
Traditional Sunday Lunch cooked by Mom. Roast beef, Yorkshire Pudding etc.
Sunday lunch, and it's only Saturday; but they're off to Japan on the red eye tonight.
Sunday 5th
Ron left me with his artistic interpretation of Mom's performance in Lumpini park:
Monday 6th
A traveling fair has set up on the market ground near here. It reminds me of the fair that used to appear occasionally on St Georges' playing field in Wednesfield when I was a kid. Big wheel, dodgem cars, shooting range and Wizard's "See my Baby Jive" blasting out of huge speakers. Well replace the music with Thai music and that's exactly what they've got here.
I thought I'd seen all possible sideshows but this was a new one on me. You pay 2 baht to bet on one of the numbered holes around the outside of this circular ring. When enough people have betted the can in the middle is lifted using the rope and pulley system. A bewildered rat, who'd been minding his own business sitting under the can, looks around for a couple of seconds then makes a bolt for one of the holes. If you've bet on that hole you win a giant teddy.
Tuesday 7th
It's good to receive emails from people I don't know:
Mr. John
I am Nobby and I am sennding this mail from Japan.
Ron and Irene are very fine and enjoyed Japan very much. The will leave Japan tomorrow morning for New Jealand by way of Singapore.
My wife, Haruko, was the classmate at the class of flower arrangement in UK.
We took Ron and Irene to almost all the tourist spot in Tokyo/Yokohama. Moreover, they learned some Japanese language and Chinese characters. Today we visited the National Museum, Imperial Palace, Ginza street, Tokyo tower, etc.etc.
We, Nobby and Haruko, were very impressed with their energy for catching and studying foreign culture very aggressively.
I hope if we will be such a energitic person as your parent at 60-70 years olds.
Nobby Iwao
Wednesday 8th
Not only was there a fair on the market patch but a show of Firecracker proportions. It was Soi La Salle meets The Moulin Rouge (Thanks Nick)
Thursday 9th
Just got an email from the Folks who are now in New Zealand. The latest stop on their journey around the world.
Also got a virus alert from Sam. She works for Walsall MBC:
There is a new virus going around, called "work". If you receive any sort of "work" at all, whether via email, internet or simply handed to you by a colleague...DO NOT OPEN IT.
Work has been circulating around our building for months and those who have been tempted to open "work" or even look at "work" have found that their social life is deleted and their brain ceases to function properly.
If you do encounter "work" via email or are faced with any "Work" at all, then to purge the virus, send an email to your boss with the words "Sorry .... I'm off to the pub". The "work" should automatically be deleted from your brain.
If you receive "work" in paper-document form, simply lift the document and drag the "work" to your garbage can. Put on your coat and skip to the nearest bar with two friends and order three pints of beer. After repeating this action 14 times, you will find that "work" will no longer be of any relevance to you.
Send this message to everyone in your address book. If you do not have anyone in your address book, then I'm afraid the "work" virus has already corrupted your life.
Weekend 10th - 12th
So I was sitting on the deck chair on the rear deck of the ferry as we left Ko Chang, the location of the mystery trip this weekend. I was reflecting on the success of the weekend's trip, the snorkeling, hiking, sleeping, eating and drinking. This had been my second time on the island, the previous time was during my first ever visit to Thailand.
It was Sunday afternoon. I was on the 3pm ferry getting me back to the mainland in plenty of time for the 6pm bus back to Bangkok. I was drinking that red wine cooler stuff and somehow got into conversation with two Thai blokes who were going to drive back to Bangkok after first collecting something from the Cambodian border. The next thing I know, two of us had accepted the kind offer of a lift, a decision I was to regret for the next nine hours.
To cut a long story short (because I can't be bothered to type it all out at the moment) we spent an hour and a half driving away from Bangkok to the Cambodian border. Here one of the guys took a suitcase (full of money we think) into a shop and came out with some mystery packages (more than duty free I feel). We then took till one O'clock the next morning driving back to Bangkok. The vehicle was one of those goods trucks with two tiny excuses for seats behind the driver and first passenger. We drove through four police check points and stopped numerous times for visits to dirty toilets and for disgusting food.
What a nightmare of a journey after such a great weekend on Ko Chang.
Monday 13th
Oh I almost forgot to tell you about my conversation with room-service in the Hotel on Ko Chang. In order to understand this you will need to read it out loud to yourself.
ROOM SERVICE: "Morny. Ruin sorbees"
ME: "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service"
ROOM SERVICE: "Rye..Ruin sorbees..morny! Djewish to odor sunteen??"
ME: "Uh..yes..I'd like some bacon and eggs"
ROOM SERVICE: "Ow July den?"
ME: "What??"
ROOM SERVICE: "Ow July den?...pry, boy, pooch?"
ME: "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please."
ROOM SERVICE: "Ow July dee bayhcem...crease?"
ME: "Crisp will be fine."
ROOM SERVICE: "Hokay. An San tos?"
ME: "What?"
ROOM SERVICE:"San tos. July San tos?"
ME: "I don't think so"
ROOM SERVICE: "No? Judo one toes??"
ME: "I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what 'judo one toes' means."
ROOM SERVICE: "Toes! toes!...why djew Don Juan toes? Ow bow inglish mopping we bother?"
ME: "English muffin!! I've got it! You were saying 'Toast.' Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine.
ROOM SERVICE: "We bother?"
ME: "No...just put the bother on the side."
ROOM SERVICE: "Wad?"
ME: "I mean butter...just put it on the side."
ROOM SERVICE: "Copy?"
ME: "Sorry?"
ROOM SERVICE: "Copy...tea...mill?"
ME: "Yes. Coffee please, and that's all."
ROOM SERVICE: "One Minnie. Ass ruin torino fee, strangle ache, crease baychem, tossy singlish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy....rye??"
ME: "Whatever you say"
ROOM SERVICE: "Tendjewberrymud"
ME: "You're welcome"Tuesday 14th
Amazing Thailand
Off to see The Beach this evening. Has anyone seen it yet? What did you think of it?
Wednesday 15th
I saw The Beach at the Gold Star cinema at the top of the Discovery Centre. It costs three times as much for a ticket as a normal cinema but what luxury! Only 32 seats in the cinema and each one a fully reclining "Lazy Boy" type chair (like Joey and Chandler have in Friends). Can't really decide whether it was a good film or not because I was so excited at seeing the location which I was so familiar with having been there a few months ago.
Charles and I went to see the beach last night - what a complete load of old @#@# (Ed). It shows how beautiful Thailand can be although all the Thai's who speak English have American accents and there is no semblance of a story line
www.SimonFoley.com (Thailand)
I've just been to see 'The Beach'.
I enjoyed it but was glad that I'd read the book first. I never like it when they change bits of the story though. I thought the photography was superb.
Shep (UK)
Saw the Beach last week - have been watching you web-site and been hearing about it from you. The film got bad reviews in the US and is not in many theatres any more - I found it interesting and a bit wierd - certainly not the Thailand that I had visited several years ago - yet still worth a viewing. (Loved the iMacs at the end!)
George (USA)
Dear Johnny "the mule" Tranter
How was your smuggling weekend?
Me and the boys at the firm would like to thank you for all your help in the Ko Chang operation.
Don NC
Thursday 16th
Long day again today. Yr 13 after school revision class followed swiftly by Yr 8 Parents Evening.
Friday 17th
A little snap entitled "Meditation" ... I'm quite proud of it really:
Saturday 18th
As I was doing school work at home this morning I had a Thai radio station playing in the background. The programme was being frequently interrupted with news flashes, none of which I could understand but by the excitement in the newsreaders voice I knew it was something out of the ordinary. I could also tell by the place names being mentioned that it was local, very local, infact just round the corner from my house.
I turned on the TV. All the Thai stations were showing pictures of rioting. I took this snap of my TV
I later found out that:
Hundreds of inmates at Ban Karuna juvenile detention centre fought a running battle with police on Sanpavuth road in Bangna, after breaking out of the centre yesterday morning.
The youngsters, mostly teenage boys between the ages of 15-18, were armed with sticks and stones, which they threw at police.
Riot police drove them back into the centre using teargas and water cannon after several hours of rioting on the street and inside the centre.This Ban Karuna place is apparently just down the road from here.
Here's how the full story appeared in the English press; interesting to see the differences in the reporting and to read about Thailand's solution to the problem.
Sunday 19th
Spent from 1pm to 7pm on my bike. It's amazing how the scenery changes just as you get to the other sides of the six lane super highways that surround us here. Discovered a beautiful park not too far from here which must rank amongst one of the best kept parks in the world.
Learnt how to chop open a coconut to drink its milk too!
Monday 20th
"More than 400 boys at Ban Metta Remand Home yesterday followed the example of their counterparts at Ban Karuna and broke out of their detention centre on Chaeng Wattana road in Bang Khen
Ta, a 17-year-old boy who was re-arrested by police yesterday after breaking out from Ban Metta, said the idea to escape started after some boys watched television coverage of the Ban Karuna riot. They thought that even if they were not successful they would not be punished and might even get to go home for five days, he said."
Tuesday 21st
Parents touch down at noon UK time (7pm Thai time) after their round the world jaunt having gained a day. Does that make them one day older or just deeper in debt?
Wednesday 22nd
Twenty years ago I worked during the summer at Camp Tamarack in New Jersey USA. Mark McCabe and I shared a wooden cabin at the camp which we named "Hotel California". It was hot and we drank plenty of six packs of beer. We kept all the tops from the bottles in a little brown paper bag and Mark kept that bag after camp closed as a memento of a fun summer. I've just received this email from him:
St. Patty's day is in full swing here and I'm cleaning out my garage. Did you hoist a couple as preventive snakebite medicine? I'm enjoying the Irish national drink (although anything else with alcohol can qualify) as I write.
I found a bag of beer-bottle caps in my stuff. They're in a bag marked "BOTTLE CAP DEPOSITORY 1980" and, if I recall correctly, it has about 580 caps in it. Not bad for 8 weeks worth of drinking. I thought that someday I might put them on a bar countertop or something but probably won't happen any time soon. I thought that before I throw them away I should consult with you since you can probably claim at least half of them - AT LEAST.
Hope all is well.
Camp's Cool
MarkI replied saying he could finally throw them away if he first sent me a photo of them. To my surprise the digital photo promptly arrived:
I couldn't get all 580+ caps on the scanner so these will have to do.
Thursday 23rd
Attended an in-service training course today on the use of the graphic calculator. Apart from Martin (Hungry Horrace), all the other participants on the course were Thai teachers from Bangkok schools. The second half of the practical presentation was in Thai ... kept us on our toes!
Friday 24th
Email from Peter Barker:
Dear all!
Feeling in a particularly charitable mood then visit the following site... www.thehungersite.com. Click on the button and 2.5 cups of food will be donated to the United Nations food programme by the sponsors of the site to help the starving nations.
Go on - pay it a visit - you know it makes sense!
Cheers.
PeterSaturday 25th
The weather's fine again today. Yesterday it rained the mother of all rains which I thought marked the end of the dry season. Gave the streets a good swill I suppose.
Bought a new desk and spent the morning rearranging my office at home. I need to sort out the garden too..... ah, the exciting life of an ex-pat!
Sunday 26th
Cycled to Bangkok University along the back roads next to the river. Used their library, quite good. Cycled back along the main Sukhumvit road ... very bad idea.. dangerous and fumey. (spell checker has no idea what fumey means.. then again what does a spell checker know. Try showbiz in your spell checker!.... Thanks Nick).
Saw "American Beauty". Interesting but not as good as "Sixth Sense". I think "Sixth Sense" will win the Oscar for best film.
Monday 27th
Curses, lost a bet with Rachel about the Oscars. "American Beauty" won best film. By losing the bet I have to make a cake (how on earth does one do that) for her and the Tutor group. Can anyone lend me cake making tools?
Tuesday 28th
Hey, hey, hey. Just booked flights for my Easter holiday:
Java is 661 miles (1,064 km) long from east to west and ranges in width from about 60 miles (100 km) at its centre to more than 100 miles (160 km) near each end. A longitudinal mountain chain, surmounted by many volcanoes, runs east to west along the island's spine and is flanked by limestone ridges and lowlands. Java is highly volcanic, yet...
... I'm traveling from the west to the east of the island, ending up catching a ferry to the famous island of Bali for a couple of days on the beach there. he he he he he;
Wednesday 29th
So now the travel agent tells me I'm only wait listed for the return trip rather than confirmed..
Thursday 30th
Met one of the two new additions to the Maths Faculty at school come September. He's from New York though born in the UK. He is also a professional cabaret singer and his farther was a professional footballer (Ray King I think he said, used to play for Port Vale and his autobiography has just come out).
Friday 31st
Flight back from Bali has been confirmed at last!
This month concludes with International day at school. An early morning parade of nations, Entertainment from a number of countries then the most incredible selection of International deserts.
Here's my tutor group at the beginning of the day wearing their own national costumes.
Diary:
