The name is Bond.......

Jane Bond (hehehehe)

Thursday was the combined women's lunch organised by The British Women's Group (I had a stall at the event so was running around trying to sort out prints, paintings and lots of piddly other things that shouldn't take long to do but seem to take forever - which is why I've not been blogging much!!). The theme of the lunch was James Bond - you may remember that JJ and I did the graphics for the event. Honestly, the amount of work that goes into the organisation of these events is phenomenal.....lunch for 320 people with shopping to start with, a charity presentation and entertainment throughout is not an easy thing to do!! The girls did us proud because it was fantastic!!! It helped that everyone that got into the James Bond spirit of things and had made a huge effort - we had girls in tuxedos, some dressed as Bond, a multitude of bond girls and even an M with lab coat and goggles!! I was told that, since I had come up with the lady for the poster, I should dress as her - hence the hair-drier!! (See.....suddenly all becomes clear!!)

It was held at the Oriental hotel by the river and the event started with a video of James Bond (it was someone's son that had been bribed with beer) coming off the skytrain, jumping on a speedboat, entering the hotel and then coming in the door of the ballroom - that was how our host entered the room. It was brilliantly done!!

Our chosen charity was Operation Smile and they showed a very touching video which highlighted the work that they do. I'm sure I mentioned them before - they are a global organisation that works with the worlds poorest families providing much needed operations to both children and adults that suffer from cleft lips and palates. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house!!! Leanne, who is the lady that I have been working with, approached me on the day and asked if I would join them on the executive committee for Thailand - I've said yes (honestly, how could I not!!)

The lunch itself was lovely....we had feta cheese salad to start with followed by chicken in a very light gravy with ribbon pasta on the side which was then followed by an apple tart with banana sorbet - the food was divine!! Oh, and there was lots of wine of course!!

During the actual lunch various clips were played of the best stunts from the Bond movies (The Golden Eye ones went down particularly well since it was actually filmed in Bangkok!!) and then between our main course and desert two men in suits appeared in the room, made their way through the tables and then they started undressing two women!! I couldn't believe it.....I honestly thought that the women had obviously had waaaay to much to drink (that says rather a lot about these events doesn't it!!) but then realised that it had been planned and they were showcasing Smoochie Smoochie underwear!! They came on stage and ended up throwing knickers into the crowd (you'll be pleased to know that they kept theirs on!!) - it was very funny.....I got a black thong with diamond bits on it!!! Then after lunch there was a fab singer and we all ended up dancing.

We were kicked out the hotel about 4 o'clock and then six taxi loads of us headed over to the Soi 8 pub where we were joined by our other half's when they finished work. It was a really good day - knackering but really good!!

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I don't know the final total of money raised but I know that it's over 120,000 baht which is just brilliant!!!

Dogs, Tony Leaving, Dogs, Trip to Pahurat and more Dogs

Ahhh too much to do and not enough time to do it in.

I have had a real mental block regarding these commission pieces and have been procrastinating desperately for a couple of weeks (I'm going to blame Khun Dao for not giving me a deadline) so on Monday I sat down and tried to draw something that vaguely resembled a dog. (I think the last time I attempted to draw a dog was when I was in nursery school and it was probably along the lines of 'D is for Dog now draw a dog'). Well, now I know why I have never experienced a burning desire to draw dogs - god almighty......the first attempt looked like a fluffy thing on matchsticks, the second - a ball with ears on matchsticks (actually they looked a little like the tribbles that were in that Star Trek episode.....I can't believe I just typed that.....aaarrrrrgggg............it's catching!!! Chris is now going to be chanting 'one of us, one of us' at me), erm....where was I.....ah yes - my truly awful first few attempts at drawing dogs (I just want to add here that they did improve) anyway, it was Mr Mad Tony's last night here so I jumped at the chance to put the dog disaster behind me and head for the pub. We had a good night and ended up going to (Actually, I don't know the name of the place) a Thai restaurant, which is in the basement of Time Square, that is open 24 hours. It was really nice - the blue light in the restaurant made everything look a bit odd (including us) but the food was good and I tried Moore hen and Bitter Gourd for the first time - both were surprisingly tasty.

Tuesday arrived and so did more dog drawing. I had a more successful day and actually ended up with something that I was happy with - the drawing actually looked like a dog!!Yippeeee - There was much rejoicing. Ok, so there wasn't really much rejoicing but I was a hell of a lot happier than I had been on Monday and was able to meet Jenny on Wednesday for a guilt free day of shopping and exploring.

We met up in the morning and headed over to the river - neither of us had eaten any breakfast so of course we were starving by the time we got there and just had to go to The Oriental and have some breakfast!! (Smoked salmon and cream cheese on a toasted onion bagel - died and gone to heaven). (The photo is of me trying to work out where the shop is). I took Jen to a shop called Lin Jewellers - it is a fantastic shop that sells really good quality silver stuff (It's not just jewellery - they have cutlery, napkin holders, cuff links, candle holders, ice buckets....all sorts of things) and she had not been before. I bought Chris a beautiful pair of silver elephant cuff links for valentines day and Jen got some really lovely things for David. After that we headed back to the river to get a boat over to China Town - I wanted to explore Pahurat, which is the Indian cloth market, as I wanted to know whether it was worth taking Sadie and Margaret there (Sadie wants to get some clothes made whilst she is here). The answer to that is not really - The cottons feel lovely but the patterns are very old fashioned and I think that a good few hours would have to be spent hunting around before finding anything decent. Whilst we were waiting for the boat Jen decided that perhaps all that coffee at breakfast hadn't been such a great idea and that she really needed to find a toilet so i suggested that she head back to the Oriental which was just along the road (Trust me.....you do not want to be caught short in China Town). When she got back she was furious.....the doorman wouldn't let her into the hotel - he had looked her up and down (She was wearing a really nice green dress over a pair of black trousers), told her there was a dress code and that she couldn't come in because she was wearing flip flops!! (I could have seen his point if she had been wearing short shorts and had her cleavage out for the world to see....but come on.....flip flops!!). She ended up having to go somewhere else - Bad move on the hotel's part!!

When I got home I actually managed to produce two decent drawings (Phew!!). We had a nice, but quiet, valentines evening. Chris had already bought me a ring (I have to admit that he hasn't actually seen it yet as it is getting re-sized but when it's ready I will produce it and say 'Here's what you bought me for Valentines Day') but came home with some chocolate hearts and a card (awww) and we both bought a little something for Moon - Chris got her a little chocolate heart and I got her a rose in a box (Her husband lives so far away we knew she wasn't going to get anything - he did call and when she told him that we had bought her a Valentines Day present he insisted on speaking to us to say thank you for looking after her (Didn't understand a word he said but I'm sure it was all very nice). When we went to bed that night we discovered that she had put a vase on either side of our bed and had put two roses in each - wasn't that sweet of her!!