Cheat??........Me.........Never!!!!

Well maybe a wee bit!!

The BWG regularly hold evening events and on Wednesday night they were holding a pub crawl quiz called Bar Cluedo (Yep, based on the game Cluedo). We had to form teams of four so Jen, Mum, Louise and I got together and called ourselves 'The Maid Did It' (We were told we had to have a group name that was linked with Murder Mysteries and that cheesy title was the best I could come up with at short notice!!).

We had such good fun - we all met up in a pub called Hanrahans (Soi 4) where each team was given a sheet of paper which told the beginning of a story in a Sherlock Holmes stylie - Each Pub represented a room which, once visited, could be crossed off, in the body of the story were clues which would allow us to eliminate a character and a method, and then at the end of the sheet was a cryptic clue which would lead us onto the next pub. There were monitors stationed at each pub who would give you the next part of the story and were there to help you if you got stuck and the only real rules were that all members of the team had to arrive together and that at least one of the team bought a drink (Now THAT we did manage!!).

OMG - We got our 1st sheet and then spent ages trying to figure out what the hell we were doing and where we should be going. Chris, who had joined another team, strolled past very smugly making 'It's easy' comments (Harrumph). Honestly - I think we might still be sitting in the first pub trying to decipher the cryptic clue if it hadn't been for Mum......we quickly realised that we each had different talents.......Mum was good at solving the cryptic clues, Jen and I were good at finding the connections within the clues and Louise was great at spotting the clues in each pub. I do have to say that we did have a fifth team member who was completely invaluable.......her name was Berry (as in Berry of the Black variety).......I am slightly ashamed to say that we occasionally relied upon Jen's BlackBerry to answer some of the questions (Oh come on.....how many groups of women would know what Stadium is home to the New York Giants???). Anyway, (moving swiftly on) we came second and won a magnifying glass each

Yes, we cheated and STILL didn't win!!

More sightseeing and stuff

Despite the quantities of alcohol consumed at Melbourne Cup we still managed to be up and out in time to meet Jen (Teastains JJ) at 8.45am in Asok Skytrain Station (not bad eh!!). We'd both received invitations to attend a coffee morning at the Bangkok National Museum (We're both part of the NMV) so that we could view the Photography exhibition in more detail (It was difficult to see everything on the opening night because of the number of people there!!) and to attend a talk by the President of the Thai Photographic Society. I had never been to the Museum via the River Taxi before but had decided that it was probably a hell of a lot quicker than trying to get there by car (Honestly - Bangkok Traffic is really a sight to behold and I'm not even going to go into how bad it is in rush hour!!). It turned out to be a good move - we met up with Merran and Heather at the boat and it turned out that Heather had done this route before and we could actually just walk to the Museum at the other end (So we didn't have to go through the rigmarole of trying to get a taxi to take us where we wanted to go!!). We spent a really lovely morning there......we walked round the exhibition, Mum got to meet my NMV friends and then we sat under the shade of a huge tree eating cakes and listening to the speaker. Normally it's so hot here that sitting outside is not really an option but we're heading into the cool season now (which means that the temp goes down to about 28 degrees) so there was a pleasant breeze and it was just lovely!!! It was great that she got to see it in all it's glory and she managed to pick up a few copies of the book to take home with her as presents.

Jen headed off to do some writing and Mum and I went along to Kuppa on Soi 16 - If you've not been I can highly recommend it.....the roast vegetable salad is absolutely gorgeous and, this is the best bit, if you've had salad it means that you can have cake (The carrot cake is to die for!!). Mum and I met up with my friend Caroline and her friend Amanda who we discovered has a cat that weighs 12 kilos!! (2 stone......now that's a big cat!!). We had a lovely lunch then headed off to the SCAD (Soi Cat And Dog) shop where I volunteer and Mum helped me update their shop window for Diwali. (I'm not sure we did a very good job but at least we got rid of the mouldy pumpkins that had been there from Halloween!!).

I'm sorry but I just can't help myself.....
Diwali is lovely and is celebrated by Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Sikhs across the globe. It's known as 'The Festival of Light' where lights or lamps signify the victory of good over evil within every human being. The story behind Diwali varies across different regions - some believe that it's the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after a 14 year exile and that the people of Ayodhya lit oil lamps to light his path in the dark, some believe that it's a celebration commemorating the killing of an evil demon called Narakasura by Lord Krishna whilst others believe that it is the day that Lord Krishna defeated Indra who is the deity of thunder and rain but, no matter what the belief, it is celebrated with fireworks, lights, flowers and worship.

Melbourne Cup

We went to The Amari Watergate Hotel yesterday to celebrate The Melbourne Cup. It was a fantastic day......it started at 9.30am with champers (having been last year Jen (JJ) and I thought it would be a good idea to go a wee bit later) so we didn't arrive till 11am - and guess what.......we managed to completely miss the race!!! Oh well.....we only went for the alcohol anyway!!

This photo is of the venue - people get all dressed up as you can see from the people on the stage and the horse in the corner of the picture

This is Claire as one of the Carmen Mirandas

The horse turned out to be Wellie who hosted my Art Exhibition


It was a really good laugh and Mum had a ball but as you can see....it all got a bit messy!!

We went to the after show party in the Soi 8 bar.....I think we left sometime around 10pm.....and we eventually got to bed just after midnight (once we had managed to kick my friend Louise out the door!!)

I am happy to report that no-one in our household was 'Hang hang hang' today - although I think Louise was feeling slightly delicate!!!

Jim Thomson's House + MBK

We had another action packed day today!! (I'm knackered already so I have no idea how my Mum's feeling!!). We had a lovely Thai breakfast to start the day today.....Mum wasn't so sure about the Khao Dome which is coconut sticky rice in banana leaves but everything else went down well!!

Then we jumped on the Skytrain and headed along to National Stadium and headed along to Jim Thompson's House. You know something......this gets kinda hard to write about when it's the fourth time you've been. (You can read the history of the place here). Mum absolutely loved it (as I knew she would) and we had a really lovely, leisurely morning plootering about the gardens. We did some shopping and then had a gorgeous lunch - Chicken Spring Rolls, Crab Cakes and Prawn Spring Rolls followed by Thai roasted chicken with sticky rice and stir fried vegetables. Oooohhhh it was divine!! (We both got the giggles - I had just finished saying that I had never seen anyone I knew here when someone I know passed the window and waved in!!). Mum was most impressed by the Rice Wine Tea Pot that you fill from the bottom as it doesn't have a lid (Jim Thompson had one and we were shown it on the tour) so after lunch we went on a 'Hunt the teapot' expedition.....I am happy to say that we managed to find one (Go Us!!)

After JT's we went along to MBK and I think Mum was quite impressed by it.......it's very Thai (One of the floors seems to be completely dedicated to mobile phones and smelly fish substances!!) but you really can get everything you ever wanted (and probably a few things you didn't know existed). She treated herself to a stunning lamp made out of silk worm cocoons (which sounds horrible but isn't!!) and managed to pick up a few wee bits and bobs as presents (so I'm not going to say any more about the shopping!!). You know.......the best thing about having lots of guests is the excuse to take them to great places where you can buy yummy food - yep we ended up at the cake place!!! (Tell me that doesn't look great and I'll call you a liar!!)

We grabbed a cab back home (I had decided there was no way I was carrying Mum's shopping any further!!) and whilst we were stuck in traffic Chris called to say that he had just left the office. We could see him from the cab!! Much waving ensued but he declined to join us in the cab cause he reckoned he'd be quicker walking.....and he was......after another five minutes we gave up and decided to walk back too. We were just passing Time Square when Mum spotted Chris sitting at one of the tables with a beer......so guess who decided to join him!! It was really good fun - it's now into the cool season here so the tables and chairs are back outside the mall and there is live music (The same band as last year).....Moon came and joined us and we had a beer or two (or five) outside listening to the Thai rock band do ACDC cover tunes amongst others. I am ashamed to say that we got Moon drunk AGAIN and I ended up having to put her to bed!!!

Vimanmek Palace

Today we were up and out fairly early (with Moon and our downstairs neighbour Marisa in tow). Ha that was fun.....how many people can you fit in a taxi? There were four of us in the back and two in the front....poor Marisa was completely squashed but decided after about five minutes that she was absolutely fine cause she could no longer feel either of her feet so they didn't hurt anymore!!

I've visited Vimanmek Palace before (You can read about it here) so I'm not going to bore you with the history of the place again. We did go to a couple of the other buildings this time as well......we went into the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall which houses an exhibition of the Support Foundation's Thai Handicrafts - OMG some of the things they had in there were stunning and I have to say that I am completely baffled as to why they are not available in the shop at the Palace (Currently you can buy milk and washing up liquid.......odd things to sell when you get lots of tourists visiting). We did have a good laugh at Mum's expense when she uttered the words 'You can really admire the handiwork on that chicken' whilst gazing at a really hideous silver carved chicken!! (She has been teased about it ever since). We also went into the Suan Bua Residential Hall which housed some of King Bhumibol's personal collection - there were Buddha images from all over the world (Including a stunning Indian one that Marisa and I were coveting), personal photos of the current Royal Family as well as ones that were taken by past royals and a whole host of other things. We discovered the Kings collection of Volkswagen Camper Vans, as you can see, as well as his collection of Carriages....he's even got a Royal Tuk Tuk (How cool is that!!). It was fab!!








We left the Palace and headed straight for the pub to recover from our squashed taxi journey (purely for medicinal purposes you understand!!) then we went out for a curry. (After spending the day with Marisa the Indian Sniffer there was nothing else for it but to introduce Mum to the joys of a Doza)

Mum has arrived safe and sound

Chris has a mutant elbow.......it's nothing serious......there is fluid in the joint caused by a repetitive strain injury (Basically he leans on it too much when he's sitting in the office - I'm not kidding that's what's caused it!!). It's all spongy and pointy and gross - well it was before we went to Bumrungrad this morning and had it drained again (Ooooh aren't you just delighted that I chose to share that with you!!!). Anyway, we went to the hospital then to the airport to collect my Mum......Chris was bored whilst we waited so was playing with his new camera and managed to take a photo of the massive cartoon cat that the airport has got on it's floor (I have no idea why it is there but hey......) the good thing was that he had the camera at the ready when she emerged from the gate!!.

We had such a lovely day (It was fab seeing her). When we got home Moon had prepared a fantastic lunch so we tucked into spicy chicken coconut soup, deep fried fish and chicken cooked with vegetables and cashew nuts followed by some really nice fruit (Sorry - I have no idea what it's called in English but this is what it looks like). We showed her round the apartment and she got settled in before we opened a bottle of sparkling wine and swapped Birthday and Christmas presents. I made my Mum cry!!! You know that big, complicated drawing I was whinging about....well, it was for her........and she loved it (Yay. If you look closely you will see a drawing of my mum in her younger days and one of wee me......Chris told me she would cry and he was right!!) . We got some lovely things........a smashing bottle holder that looks like an artist (no comments about me being a piss artist please!!) made from metal, a brilliant towel which looks like a kilt (Sporran and all), we both got watches and she even managed to bring a bottle of wine from Perthshire from Sadie (Not too sure what that will taste like but we'll give it a go!!). After the sparkly was scoffed we headed along to Cheap Charlies for a couple of drinks and then onto Cabbages and Condoms for dinner. Honestly, the difference Chris's new camera has made is unbelievable - you can now see exactly how pretty it is there!! Mum loved it!! (and look.....she's been in the country one day and they've already got her labelled as a Jungle Banana!!)

Exciting things.....

OMG OMG OMG......I'm so excited......My Mum arrives tomorrow. (I've been running around like a loony trying to get everything I need to done before she gets here.) I can't quite believe I will see my wee daft mammy tomorrow!!

AND




I've just got conformation through that in January
Chris, Tom (He was my matron of honour at our wedding) and I will be going to.......wait for it.....

Anchor Wat!!!!

OMG OMG OMG......I think I may be about to burst!!