Busy couple of days....

Yesterday I got a phone call from my friend Gabrielle who is launching a new lingerie company here called Smoochie Smoochie (It's is going to be bliss to actually be able to buy a bra that fits!!!) asking if I would donate one of my pictures for a door prize at their launch - of course I said yes. I then met my friend Jen for lunch and we went and collected her drawing from the framers (She bought one of my originals!! Happy wiggle in chair) and dropped off another print to be framed. I then hot footed it over to Pandora's to collect two framed drawings that I had said I would was deliver to my friend Steph (I was seeing her on Thursday anyway so it saved her a trip) got home and did some marketing stuff for Gabrielle. It was a busy day!!

Today there was a BWG coffee morning at the Neilson Hayes Library over in Silom. The Library was founded in 1869 as a way of serving Bangkok's large English speaking community and it's the oldest non-profit in the kingdom of Thailand. I had never been before and I have to say that the building is stunning. It's got a huge dome which they use to exhibit different artists work, all the shelving inside is original and they have a wee tunnel that runs round the back of all the book shelves which serves as an old fashioned form of air-conditioning - it was fascinating. I ended up having a chat with one of the board members who is responsible for putting on the art exhibitions (It looks like I may be having another one!! So watch this space........). I grabbed some lunch with Louise and Julie, spoke with Allyson about becoming a vendor (I will now be selling my art work at the November and December BWG lunches so will have to get cracking on some new stuff), spoke to a Tailors about getting a dress made for the St. Andrews ball and then headed home to get ready to go to the Smoochie Smoochie launch.

The launch was really good (I bought a very cool necklace) and Chris was a happy camper as he got to see lots of women in their bra's and knickers.....We didn't stay long enough for me to get the chance to buy some of the lingerie but my friend Sue is going to host a party at her house at the end of the month so I will get some then!!

Ceramic Touch Programme

I've mentioned before that I am helping put together 'Touch Tours' for Bangkok's National Museum so that blind tourists (There is another working party putting something together for blind Thai's) can still appreciate the art and culture of Thailand. (You can read about it here.)

Well yesterday our working group went back to the ceramic museum to try out their learning by touch programme - The idea was that it would give us a better understanding of what we need to be considering for our tours. It was absolutely brilliant. We were taught how to identify three different types of ceramics -

Chinese - this is usually quite fine and has a glaze over the entire surface including the base (In the photo on your right you can see Chinese and Sisatchanalai)

Sukhothai - the base is very roughly cut and has no glaze on. Often you can find four or five small indents inside the dish this is because when they are being fired they are stacked one on top of the other with a little stand between them and it's the feet on the stand which make the indents. (If you look carefully you can see the dents in this one)

Sisatchanalai - the base is smooth and the glaze comes right down over the edge of it. When this type of pottery is fired it sits on top of a little chimney which forms a small circle inside the base and when you touch it you can feel the ring inside it . The other give a way is that the clay usually has some kind of design carved into it.

When we removed the blindfolds I discovered that the bowl I had was from an actual Shipwreck and was made in the 15th Century!! (OMG!!!.....put the bowl down and move slowly away from the table). We then went into their actual Museum area - it has been designed to resemble a Thai kiln so you walk through a long tunnel before getting into actual body of it......they had some beautiful pieces of pottery!!. I spoke with Dr Roxanna Brown and she has given me permission to go back to draw some of the pieces (Some of the designs were absolutely out of this world!!) - she has even said that they will open up the cases so that I can take photographs for reference. How cool is that!!

Happy Anniversary

We are officially celebrating this weekend........

One year ago today (I know.....can you believe it!!) we arrived in Thailand with two mammoth suitcases wondering what the hell we had let ourselves in for!! We both love the place and have had a fantastic first year - It is amazing how things that we used to think were really strange are now common place.

In saying that I don't think I will ever get used to seeing things like this.....

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.....