Thai news

Now I have to be completely honest and say that I don't really understand all the in's and out's of the political situation here since the coup. I mentioned in one of my posts recently that their had been a referendum on a New Charter for Thailand - well, the charter was accepted by the Thai people. According to some people there was rigging going on (I know for definite that people were given money if they said they would vote yes.....to be fair they were also given money if they said they were going to say no) and according to others that is rubbish and is lies that are being spread because not everyone is happy with the new charter being accepted. Anyway.....there is going to be a general election here on the 23rd of December and there was a report in the paper that people from the EU want to come to Thailand as observers and the IFES (International Foundation for Election Systems) have expressed concern that the forthcoming elections could be marred by electoral fraud. (The Thai's have said that they have no problem with observers coming as long as they don't try and interfere). Well, I had to laugh when I read today's paper and the comment that did it was from the Election Commission's Secretary General who said that

'he would consult with parties on Sept 10th and 11th about whether they would agree to sign a pact promising not to buy votes.'

Hmmm......

Another piece of news that got my attention today was a lovely little article from New Delhi which told the story of a wild male elephant breaking through the fences of a circus and then running off with one of the female performing elephants. Apparently it was love at first sight - the female elephant completely ignored her keeper, wrapped her trunk round the leg of the male and then followed him into the jungle. Now that is what I call news......much better than stories about Victoria Beckham's latest haircut!!!

Oh My GOD.........

I THINK MY HAND IS ABOUT TO FALL OFF!! Either that or it is going to stay in 'holding a pencil' shape forever.....I may have to go for a hand massage or I will end up scaring small children with my claw like paw (Ok I know that I usually do scare small children but to be fair it's not normally my hands that do it!!)


I have only one more drawing to finish and I will have reached my target of 30 (There were times I didn't think I would make it!!). I've already got 18 framed so tomorrow I will have to hot foot it to MBK to get the rest of the prints done then go onto the framers (If they don't go in tomorrow they won't be ready in time.....yikes!!). The invitations are done (Wellie called today and told me) so I can collect them from her tomorrow and the first major marketing campaign starts today.


I feel slightly sick!! (Must try not to think about it..........)

Let's talk drawing!!

Last week I could.......This week I can't!!!

It was all going so well - I only have four more to do for my exhibition (I know can you believe it....only four more)......I don't know what's happened. Fingers have turned into bananas, legs into tree trunks and heads into some human/alien hybrid. Dear god you should have seen what I created yesterday - you know that saying people use when someone is really ugly....'they look like they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down' well that's what my girl looked like.........which, you know, would have been fine if that was the look I had been aiming for!! She looked like a cross between The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Bride of Frankenstein - Would anyone want to hang that on their wall? I don't think so!!! Well...... unless they had a particularly ugly daughter......

So I think this afternoon I might try and do something that features elephants......they DO have legs like tree trunks and DO look alien (I know they don't look like aliens but if you tried to describe them to someone who has never seen one, or even a picture of one, I bet they wouldn't believe you!!). Play to your strengths I say.......

I am scunnered

It was a holiday here yesterday for the Queen Sirikit's Birthday so Chris and I were really looking forward to having a lovely long weekend. We had made plans and everything - we were going to go to the National Museum, Khao San Road and maybe try a new restaurant or two. Sigh.....things never turn out quite like you plan do they!!

Ok - I have had two bumps on my leg which I thought were bug bites.....they have steadily got bigger and nastier so we decided that I had better go to the doctor and get them checked out. So on Saturday morning we headed to Bumrungrad (honestly I think we need to buy some shares in the place!!) where I saw a Doctor who diagnosed me with.......wait for it......Cat Scratch Disease!! Now I know that it is a genuine medical condition (I looked it up and roared with laughter when I saw the caption - Cause of Cat Scratch Disease next to a picture of a cat!! No.......Really??) but you would think that they would have come up with a slightly more credible name for it (Cat Scratch Disease sounds made up like if I had gone in having been run over by a car I would be told I had Car Crash Disease). Anyway, I was given antibiotics which 'might' make me slightly nauseous and which 'might' give me the runs (Oh great - a happy weekend ahead of us then!!). We headed home and within an hour I was feeling fine - Chris on the other hand was feeling really crappy. He said he felt a bit fluey and that his eyes felt very tired and gritty (they were a bit on the pink side) - it turns out that he has conjunctivitis.

We spent the weekend watching movies!! We watched one very odd Japanese horror Film called Imprint which was utterly baffling and a bit gross - At the end Chris and I just looked at one another and shrugged!!, we also watched a film called Homecoming which was quite funny......I'm sure you have all heard of Shaun of the Dead which was billed as a zomromcom (A Zombie Romantic Comedy which is absolutely brilliant by the way!!) well this would have been a Polzomcom (Political Zombie Comedy) - the plot is basically this......presidential election looms, then in order to boost the presidents ratings someone wishes that dead troops could come back to life to tell everyone how proud they were to serve their country and then.....yep you guessed it..... zombie war veterans come alive but rather than vote for the president they vote against him because they were sent to war for a lie. (Who think these things up?). We also went to see The Simpsons Movie and Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix at Siam Paragon (We really needed to get out the house - there is only so much bad horror one can take!!). Actually the Harry Potter movie was being shown at the IMAX - it was the fist time either of us had been and I have to say it was very cool.......the 3D effects are so much better than they used to be (although the glasses have not improved much!!)

I did managed to do another two drawings so perhaps I shouldn't complain too much - Oh and there is another long weekend next weekend. Next Sunday is when the Thai's get to vote on the new Charter which has been drawn up by the interim Government. (It will be interesting to see what happens). I'm going to stop complaining now.....

The Cat is back!!

And he's absolutely fine - Gai on the other hand has been hissing and spitting at him.....so much for things getting back to normal!! I reckon it's because Lugs had been in a cage that smelled of other cats so he doesn't smell the same as normal - hopefully they will settle down soon.....they are driving me mad at the moment!!

Trauma

I feel awful!! (To be fair Lugs probably feels worse). I've had to take him to the vet to be castrated (Poor little bugger!!). I could hear him crying when we left and we've to leave him there for two days.....





'Did someone say Vet?'










'Don't want to go to the Vets!!!'

My Birthday Meal

We had a lovely day yesterday and one of the most amazing meals I have had since being in Thailand (Oh it was great!!).

Chris had noticed that The Amazing E-san Fair 2007 was being held this weekend at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre so we decided that we would go along and see what it was all about. Moon said that she was free so we invited her to come along with us since she is from E-san. It was really interesting - there was lots of information about places you could visit (Some we already had on our history of Khmer art tour), different resort offers, Kab Bua cloth weaving and demonstrations of silk dyeing as well as music and dancing. Moon absolutely loved it!! We took part in a friendship ceremony which involved holding hands and getting string tied round our wrists (The only word I understood was Friend....but it was interesting to take part!!), we watched the crafts being made (The woven work was so intricate it was amazing to watch the women make it - I would have got lost in about three seconds!!) and the dancing was quite different to what we had seen before. It didn't finish till 8pm so we ended up leaving Moon there and we came home to get ready for going out.

Chris decided that since this was our official celebration of my birthday that we would open the REALLY GOOD bottle of wine that Tom had brought over with him in January. (Good choice Tom - It was absolutely gorgeous!!). Then we jumped into a taxi and headed to Soi 38 to The Face complex where we had booked a table at Hazara. (The Face restaurant group consists of Hazara which does Indian food, Lan Na Thai which specialises in food from Northern Thailand, a bar called The Face bar and a pastry shop called Visage and it is situated in an exquisite complex of old Thai teak houses). When you arrive you go up a wide wooden staircase lit with small lanterns where you are given the choice to either have a drink in the bar or go straight to your table. We decided to have a drink and were shown to a huge day bed with about a zillion cushions on it and a little table in the middle - Chris had a Vodka Martini and I had a Lychee Vodka Martini before heading up to our table. (If you have not been then you really must go - not only is the setting stunning the food is fantastic too!! Hazara is actually named after a tribe and a region in Afghanistan although the cuisine served is associated with northern India). We had lamb samosas as a started which we shared followed by butter chicken, Dhal Hazara (creamy black lentils simmered slowly over the tandoor for eight hours - divine!!), a lamb kebab and saffron pilau rice. Sometimes Indian food can be a bit heavy, especially when your used to eating Thai, but this wasn't at all (Which meant we both had room for desert!!).

We had a great time - the atmosphere was lovely, the décor beautiful and the food fantastic!!!

Gai is definately a boy!!!

There has been some debate recently as to whether our little Gai is in fact a little girl!! (Chris was starting to get slightly worried that we would end up with kittens). I can now say with some authority that Gai is a boy!!

Moon and I were discussing his gender and I said 'Hmmm.....he does look like a girl and when Claire was here for the meeting she thought he might be a girl too'. (Actually, if I'm being completely honest, what I said was more like 'He look same same girl and Khun Claire turn upside down and she think same same me' - I'm only going to start worrying when I find myself speaking like that to any of you!!). Anyway......Moon said she didn't agree because you could feel two little lumps (honestly - the dark winter nights go flying by in our house). Well it turns out she was right - there were two little lumps there and after she had checked and I had checked, just in case either of us were in any doubt, his little penis popped out!! Moon was so shocked she dropped him (She was sitting on the end of the bed at the time so it wasn't from a great hight - he was fine!!) and then the two of us roared with laugher as he stood in the middle of the floor looking at us as if to say 'What's all the fuss about?'

Oh my god - I aroused my cat!! Eeeuuuwww!!!

I've had a brilliant Birthday.....and am still celebrating

We normally have our BWG Committee Meetings at the British Club in Silom but since we were planning to have a farewell lunch for our Patron Gwendolin Fall at the Erawan Tearooms I offered the use of our apartment (Didn't really think that one through!!). So on the morning of my birthday I was up at the crack of dawn running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything ready for the 13 women that would be arriving at the apartment at 9am (Chris was highly amused that I was up, showered and dressed before him on my birthday.....just as well it's only once a year!!).

I actually had a lovely morning. Chris gave me an extra couple of wee gifts - A really pretty fridge magnet with a Thai Design on it, a CD which I have been hankering after for ages but I couldn't remember the name of the band and an gel aroma bottle called Inspiration to help me with my drawing, Moon bought me a necklace and candle holder, Dao (Moon's Sister) got me a little wooden dragon and Jen bought me an absolutely gorgeous ring and a shoe jewellery box to put it in (The jewellery box is very cool (it's the pink one) - I now have a little shrine to shoes on my bedside cabinet!!). I got lots of compliments on the apartment (It was the first time most people had visited), Jen brought a beautiful big cake (Even if I was completely mortified when everyone sang happy birthday to me!!) and then we had a lovely lunch at the Tearooms.

I got back home about 4ish and had not been in long when Tom called......we had a right good gossip and then both got all excited when Tom said that he was going to book his flights so will be arriving on the 11th of January - can't wait!! (I tell you......6000 miles apart does not stop us doing simultaneous happy dances!!). Then about 5pm Chris walked in the door with a bottle of Champagne which was a lovely surprise....it's so nice to get an evening with him because it really doesn't happen often!! We'd decided that we were going to stay in (He's taking me out for dinner on Saturday) so Moon cooked two of my favourite dishes and we watched Mr Bean's Holiday. Moon was in hysterics - she took one look at Rowan Atkinson then looked at Chris and said 'Ha you look same same Mr Bean!!' - She's been calling him that ever since!!

My own nominations

As you know I've been nominated for an award - The idea is that once nominated you nominate five other bloggers to show them what their blog means to you.

My five are as follows;

Inspirational Blogger Awards go to -
JJ at Tea Stains because her blog frequently makes me laugh out loud and helps me remember that I am not the only one who struggles with their creative demons (See....not just cause she nominated me!!), Amy at A Little Peek Inside - you just need to read her last post 'Who I am Makes a Difference' to know why and Peter at Peter May Live who only blogs when he is touring but was the one who uttered the words 'Bloody hell - stop moaning and start a blog!' whilst listening to me whinge about all the e-mails I was sending!!

Creative Blogger Awards go to -
Anna at Little Red Boat and Steve at Thai Blogs as they both have the ability to make me think when they are being serious and laugh myself silly when they are not!!

If you have been nominated then you need to go here to get your coveted prize and make your own nominations.

I've been nominated for an award.....

and on my birthday too!!!

The lovely JJ at Tea Stains (I love her blog so if you've not had a read please click on the link) has nominated me for a Charity Blogging Award isn't that brilliant!!

In her words

'Carol, at Only In Thailand, gets a Charity Blogging Award because although her blog doesn't go on and on about it, she does lots of good work getting volunteers into charities'.

So now I can put an award on my blog!!

Thanks Jen