Ours at Dusk

This is what we do...

The Yang of the Yin and Yang

Oh sunshine, shone brightly through my window today,
Could have tripped out quite easy but I decided to stay
Donavan, Happy Mondays

This was an email I sent to someone in Thailand when I was in England in Spring 2006, when I came back I had the last line quoted to me:

Can you package the following; excellent weather, blue sky, the feeling of sun on skin, beautiful sunsets, beautiful women, bizarre nonsensical conversations, cheap good food, pad thai, some annoying woman dressed in hill tribe dress but really from Pathum Thani trying to sell a wooden frog or pipe, cheap poor beer, a sense of overall well being and satisfaction, occasional conversation with some of the most intelligent well travelled consuming people of the world, a tuk tuk, more beautiful women, knowledge one can always just go to the beach, the thrill of a visa run, wrong directions, a smile, happiness, ESPN, Beerlao, a bowl of noodle soup, a classroom, loads of daft kids to teach, some sticky rice, somtam, a litany of left wing literature otherwise unobtainable, a Buddha, some flip flops, a university uniform, a feeling that your life is worth living, a cheap and obtainable dentist appointment, a game of football with a plastic coconut, a death defying motorbike taxi journey, a feeling of reallly belonging, hope?

All I have to remind me of all this is two pots of Tiger Balm, 700 Baht and my memories.

Blog On

Burnley tearing Sheffield Wednesday apart the other night. I have a feeling Bamboo's year is going to be Burnley's.

Absolute Beginners

I've nothing much to offer
There's nothing much to take
I'm an absolute beginner
And I'm absolutely sane
As long as we're together
The rest can go to hell
I absolutely love you
But we're absolute beginners
With eyes completely open
But nervous all the same

Absolute Beginners, David Bowie

When I said my 'wife' is Laotion the Director looked askance, I may well have handed him a plate of dog dejecta judging from his facial reaction. "Krai Dee," he said, "(do) you know?" I didn't think I wanted to. There's nothing so much as disappointing as learning Thai, the deeper you delve the harder you bang your head against its shallow cultured bottom.

"Krai dee it mean well known," I felt like replying not as well known as the Thai whore ping pong show just down the road, but it was my first day, they're offering me a work permit and you really shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you especially when it hangs so limply from a metaphorical arm as neurotic and unpredictable as the natives of Siam. In any event I have little choice and given half the chance I certainly wouldn't have it any other way.

Welcome to my new blog I gave up the last one, searching back through old blogs became a chore and it started to look untidy. As you may see I've been meaning to kick start this for some time now.

The profile picture is of my girlfriend Dtock praying, she's probably praying for the health and well being of our first unborn child, we know he's a boy and his name will be Bamboo Booth, a lot can happen in a year.

All the other stuff posted so far is concerned with world politics, I'm trying to convey a picture of what was happening as we prepared to bring Bamboo into the world. As we look back to our parents who must have been terrified they were bringing their child into a world of recoil, violence and confusion it seems the mechanisms of control including those that hold us (Me, Dtock and Bamboo) here in Thailand have changed little from cold 'war' to this so called 'war' on terror.

And all we wonder is who gave people the right to play God?

Blog on for hopefully less bitter tirades, the blog starts here.

The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein