We learned last night that our baby is a boy. To be honest I am delighted at the prospect of the baby regardless of gender. But the male line of the Bretts will continue and what an awesome responsibility will fall on our son to continue that. For me it is much more important to know that baby and mother are well. I would be equally delighted to hear Luna was going to give us a little girl.
I cannot describe to you the happiness I felt watching baby in mummy’s tummy via the ultrasound. The technician clicked on a part and said “Look, phallus, it’s a boy”, “Look the heart”….the kidney, the brain and so on. To all intents and purposes the fetus is fully formed and the little baby looks to be very happy. He is due into this world on or around 11th July 2009, the day after my 51st birthday. Mummy continues to look a picture of health and well being too.
One slight concern is Luna has low lying placenta but I understand this is not uncommon at this stage in pregnancy and usually this goes. Probably a precautionary scan in another 10 weeks or so as I understand this can be a problem if present at the time of birth.
So I am really happy and I know Luna is too.
I think Benedict would make a lovely name, allowing for Ben and Benny, it’s also the name of a great saint and it is the name of the current Roman pontiff. However there is the distinct possibility the little blighter might start his schooling in Thailand so maybe it would be better to give him a Thai name and lessen the likelihood of hime being ridiculed. Hey what a high class problem!
Anyhow from what I understand our baby’s gender and name has been the subject already of considerable speculation among the teachers and pupils of the school. Apparently most people thought Luna was carrying a girl because her belly was not pointing out! I hope nobody falls out over this!
Now we have to choose the boy’s name and that will have to be a saint’s name; it is Filipino tradition to include the mother’s family name so Baradero goes in and I would also like to include the Thai name, Panya, after Bishop Panya who blessed our union and of course because this baby is Made in Thailand! Panya means wisdom.
Of course gender seems to be a fairly dead issue here, no one seems to get particularily bothered about it. I have said on a number of occasions that being a woman here is seen as such a good thing that a lot of men want to be women.... a sizeable number of men dress as women and some even get the chop. Apparently Bangkok is the world centre for transgender surgery. Hardly a surprise.
It seems to be a perfectly acceptable rite of passage to dress as a woman. I can't recall reading news about fathers beating their sons to death because they discovered them wearing make up.....I am thinking of my birthplace, Glasgow, and how your average parent would react to such a discovery. Maybe I have been away too long! What would I do if little Benedict Panya Baradero told me he wanted to be a girl?!!! At least he is probably going to be in sympathetic culture!
As I say we are delighted. I hope we can be worthy of this wonderful gift. Keep us in your prayers.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
The Holy City of Pattaya
Pattaya City's raison d'être is illusion and escape from reality with the exception of the Royal British Legion. As I walked about Saturday morning at about 8.00 am I saw a proper painted sign advertising a Legion clubhouse the very presence of which in Pattaya surprised me. However the sign advertised one of the Legion's attractions as: "Top quality bull shit" with the usual wares of "cold beer" and "live football". How refreshingly honest, I thought! The Royal British Legion is a quasi-welfare agency for ex-service personnel best known for running Legions which sell cheap drink.
This is in stark contrast to the little shack "bar beer" called "Love Forever". It didn't have a board indicating that the girls working there were actually prostitutes and could be hired short ( a quickie) or long time (an overnighter)! I laughed when I saw a pretty young Thai woman wearing a T-shirt bearing the message "VIRGIN INSIDE"! Kinda cute and funny.
Pattaya was kicking over the weekend and to be honest I wasn't as repulsed by it as I feared I would be. There is an abundance of "bar beers" and clubs all over the place. Probably some pretty good sea food restaurants too. The main action is on Walking Street but bars everywhere appear to be full of "woman"; a number of these women are or were men! I think I read somewhere that Pattaya supports a population of about 12,000 prostitutes and this number increases to about 15,000 when the US Navy Pacific Fleet comes to town.
I was immediately struck not by this emphasis on "country matters" (Shakespeare, Hamlet....! NB put the emphasis on the first syllable of country!) but rather by the Russian influence on the holy city. Many of the premises are dressed with slogans in cyrillic script and a brief trip to the TOPS food court (a major Thai supermarket) Friday showed not only all the menus in Russian but a large number of middle aged Russian couples eating fish, bought and cooked in the main supermarket, along with rice and beer bought from the usual outlets.
On Walking Street a number of the premises were advertising "European girls only" and from this signage, clearly a number of the establishments were geared up for Russian men, whatever their particular needs may be. There also seemed to be quite a number of US high school age kids on the tear so to speak. Lots of neon lights and dancing girls trying to lure in the punters. We simply had a stroll late Saturday and we didn't actually go into any of the places. I am sorry to say to you I have little interest in watching the lesbian mènage à trois in the soapy jacuzzi or naked women do things with bananas and ping pong balls. I heard some of my fellow conventioneers talking about what they saw! But Walking Street was kicking and it seemed to be good natured.
A strange sight was the western men who work as security guards and police volunteers on Walking Street and some of the other establishments in the city. I am sure they provide a useful service particularily as intermediaries when things go wrong but I am not sure what the deal is here. I don't think I will be volunteering! I am sure it can get pretty scary at times. I mean it is pretty full on. The Hard Rock Hotel takes honours for its admonition to its punters: "Drugs and nuclear weapons not allowed on the premises"!
I have to say the Montien Hotel, where the convention took place, really impressed me. You could escape from all that sex stuff there. Great location, great facilities, great food and really pleasant atmosphere. Recommended if you want to have a peaceful stay in Pattaya.
So that is Pattaya City, a strange place, a sad place really, perfect for you if you want to pay to get laid, hit the juice and take a lot of drugs! If you are seeking quality bullshit then head for the British Legion! Just watch out for retired special forces who might not be in the best sort of mental health due to overuse of chemicals!
This is in stark contrast to the little shack "bar beer" called "Love Forever". It didn't have a board indicating that the girls working there were actually prostitutes and could be hired short ( a quickie) or long time (an overnighter)! I laughed when I saw a pretty young Thai woman wearing a T-shirt bearing the message "VIRGIN INSIDE"! Kinda cute and funny.
Pattaya was kicking over the weekend and to be honest I wasn't as repulsed by it as I feared I would be. There is an abundance of "bar beers" and clubs all over the place. Probably some pretty good sea food restaurants too. The main action is on Walking Street but bars everywhere appear to be full of "woman"; a number of these women are or were men! I think I read somewhere that Pattaya supports a population of about 12,000 prostitutes and this number increases to about 15,000 when the US Navy Pacific Fleet comes to town.
I was immediately struck not by this emphasis on "country matters" (Shakespeare, Hamlet....! NB put the emphasis on the first syllable of country!) but rather by the Russian influence on the holy city. Many of the premises are dressed with slogans in cyrillic script and a brief trip to the TOPS food court (a major Thai supermarket) Friday showed not only all the menus in Russian but a large number of middle aged Russian couples eating fish, bought and cooked in the main supermarket, along with rice and beer bought from the usual outlets.
On Walking Street a number of the premises were advertising "European girls only" and from this signage, clearly a number of the establishments were geared up for Russian men, whatever their particular needs may be. There also seemed to be quite a number of US high school age kids on the tear so to speak. Lots of neon lights and dancing girls trying to lure in the punters. We simply had a stroll late Saturday and we didn't actually go into any of the places. I am sorry to say to you I have little interest in watching the lesbian mènage à trois in the soapy jacuzzi or naked women do things with bananas and ping pong balls. I heard some of my fellow conventioneers talking about what they saw! But Walking Street was kicking and it seemed to be good natured.
A strange sight was the western men who work as security guards and police volunteers on Walking Street and some of the other establishments in the city. I am sure they provide a useful service particularily as intermediaries when things go wrong but I am not sure what the deal is here. I don't think I will be volunteering! I am sure it can get pretty scary at times. I mean it is pretty full on. The Hard Rock Hotel takes honours for its admonition to its punters: "Drugs and nuclear weapons not allowed on the premises"!
I have to say the Montien Hotel, where the convention took place, really impressed me. You could escape from all that sex stuff there. Great location, great facilities, great food and really pleasant atmosphere. Recommended if you want to have a peaceful stay in Pattaya.
So that is Pattaya City, a strange place, a sad place really, perfect for you if you want to pay to get laid, hit the juice and take a lot of drugs! If you are seeking quality bullshit then head for the British Legion! Just watch out for retired special forces who might not be in the best sort of mental health due to overuse of chemicals!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
More about Golf
In the last 10 days I have played Lake View (Hua Hin), Royal Ratchaburi (twice) & Dragon Hills. Thanks to a member's concession I only (!) payed 1500 baht at Lake View as opposed to 2,500 on a pay and play basis. Royal was 750 and Dragon Hills 650. Now you'll agree there is a huge difference between the Golfer's Paradise green fee and those in Ratchaburi. Add a minimum 200 baht tip for the caddy and you can calculate the cost of the round. In addition to being the cheapest Dragon Hills also has the cheapest drinks, basically half what you pay at the other courses... a bottle of water costs 10 baht, a coke 15 baht and so on. Now here is the controversial bit, Lake View is a nice course but it is not a golfing experience or challenge in the way Royal and Dragon Hills are and it is certainly not in better condition or better maintained.
So is there any surprise I met Greg from Nova Scotia, Canada at Royal a few weeks ago? Guess where Greg lives? Golfer's Paradise, aka Hua Hin Cha am. He and his partner winter here and have taken a stance against the exorbitant prices charged in Golfer's Paradise. They have calculated they can save money by driving up to Ratchaburi, staying overnight in a hotel and playing two rounds of golf. Not only is the golf cheaper even if you add the additional expense of a hotel, everything is cheaper and the locals are a lot friendlier and Ratchaburi, while not exactly kicking by night, is very relaxed and easy going. You can sit out and eat nice food and have a few drinks and watch the world go by and nobody is going to growl at you or try to flog you anything. More and more people are doing this. Golfer's Paradise? Golfer's Heist more like.
Right now I have to say Dragon Hills comes out just ahead of Royal. It is in good condition despite the dry conditions and because it is higher up it gets less precipitation in any event. I think in the past Dragon Hills has not been well looked after or well run hence some adverse comments. I can assure you that right now it is a treat all round and the people involved in running it are generally helpful and friendly, appear to understand golfers and actually seem to like golfers. When the rains come later in the year I think Dragon Hills might be an amazing experience.
Now that I mention Nova Scotia, New Scotland in Latin,did you know that it has more Scots Gaelic speakers than Scotland itself?! I guess we have to thank the English for that when they moved the people out of the Highland and Islands and replaced them with sheep! Nova Scotia was one of the key destinations in this Scottish diaspora. The people were transported from the north to Greenock, near Glasgow where they boarded ships for North America.
So is there any surprise I met Greg from Nova Scotia, Canada at Royal a few weeks ago? Guess where Greg lives? Golfer's Paradise, aka Hua Hin Cha am. He and his partner winter here and have taken a stance against the exorbitant prices charged in Golfer's Paradise. They have calculated they can save money by driving up to Ratchaburi, staying overnight in a hotel and playing two rounds of golf. Not only is the golf cheaper even if you add the additional expense of a hotel, everything is cheaper and the locals are a lot friendlier and Ratchaburi, while not exactly kicking by night, is very relaxed and easy going. You can sit out and eat nice food and have a few drinks and watch the world go by and nobody is going to growl at you or try to flog you anything. More and more people are doing this. Golfer's Paradise? Golfer's Heist more like.
Right now I have to say Dragon Hills comes out just ahead of Royal. It is in good condition despite the dry conditions and because it is higher up it gets less precipitation in any event. I think in the past Dragon Hills has not been well looked after or well run hence some adverse comments. I can assure you that right now it is a treat all round and the people involved in running it are generally helpful and friendly, appear to understand golfers and actually seem to like golfers. When the rains come later in the year I think Dragon Hills might be an amazing experience.
Now that I mention Nova Scotia, New Scotland in Latin,did you know that it has more Scots Gaelic speakers than Scotland itself?! I guess we have to thank the English for that when they moved the people out of the Highland and Islands and replaced them with sheep! Nova Scotia was one of the key destinations in this Scottish diaspora. The people were transported from the north to Greenock, near Glasgow where they boarded ships for North America.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
14th Asean Summit,Thailand and other stuff
Well folks the 14th Association of South East Asian Nations Summit is coming nearby next week. The summit is scheduled to take place in Hua Hin/Cha am from 27th February for a long weekend so I guess it is going to be pretty lively down there and security is going to be very pronounced and the traffic will be horrendous. Maybe this is why my car was so thoroughly checked before parking it in the Hilton Hotel today, mirrors under the body and a boot check.
The welcome signs and parking restriction notices are being erected. In Hua Hin and the surrounding area it appeared as if a major cleaning operation was taking place: they were hosing down the over head wires and there were people using what looked like angle grinders to polish/clean the kerbs. I seem to recall Thailand hosting a similar event a few years ago in Bangkok and there was much consternation at our dear friend Khun Thaksin's attempts to hide the riverside slums of the city by erecting huge white screens.
I am sure the Summit will provide a much needed boost to local hotels and tourism in general.
I was thinking about the Glasgow nonsense arising out of Celtic playing Rangers on Sunday and the historic and indeed continuing sectarianism in that part of the world. As a student in the mid 1970s I worked in a bar in the south side of Glasgow, The Titwood, and this was a popular match day watering hole for football fans going to Hampden Park. Outside of these events it was a Hun shop, but I think everybody that worked there was a Catholic so there was an amazing banter across the bar, some of which was utterly objectionable and some which was very funny and witty.
I remember one Cup Final Saturday when Celtic were playing Rangers. The regular Huns were in, excited about their pre-match prospects, plus a fair number of visiting fans with loyalties to both Celtic and Rangers. The pub had a strict no colours policy so you never really knew who was what! I don't recall there ever being any trouble. Anyhow a wee guy, a visitor, is standing on his own at the bar and having a good drink for a Saturday morning, beers and whisky chasers. Perhaps his ears were burning because of the banter between the bar staff and the regulars but he calls me over and says something like: "Son what's your name?", "Gerry" I tell him and he looks at me and I may have explained to him this was short for Gerard. He then asks me an extraordinary question:"Do you know someone called Gerard Majella?" This is the saint I am called after! He beamed when I confirmed this and said something like: "You need to know who you are talking to in places like this....."
I am pleased to say I am a thousand miles from all this stuff, both mentally and physically. Thank God, how pernicious it really is. Interestingly Wikipedia tells me St Gerard Majella is the saint ".....whose intercession is requested for children (and unborn children in particular), childbirth, mothers (and expectant mothers in particular), motherhood, falsely accused people, good confessions, lay brothers and Muro Lucano, Italy". There you are! I better let my pregnant wife know about this!
The welcome signs and parking restriction notices are being erected. In Hua Hin and the surrounding area it appeared as if a major cleaning operation was taking place: they were hosing down the over head wires and there were people using what looked like angle grinders to polish/clean the kerbs. I seem to recall Thailand hosting a similar event a few years ago in Bangkok and there was much consternation at our dear friend Khun Thaksin's attempts to hide the riverside slums of the city by erecting huge white screens.
I am sure the Summit will provide a much needed boost to local hotels and tourism in general.
I was thinking about the Glasgow nonsense arising out of Celtic playing Rangers on Sunday and the historic and indeed continuing sectarianism in that part of the world. As a student in the mid 1970s I worked in a bar in the south side of Glasgow, The Titwood, and this was a popular match day watering hole for football fans going to Hampden Park. Outside of these events it was a Hun shop, but I think everybody that worked there was a Catholic so there was an amazing banter across the bar, some of which was utterly objectionable and some which was very funny and witty.
I remember one Cup Final Saturday when Celtic were playing Rangers. The regular Huns were in, excited about their pre-match prospects, plus a fair number of visiting fans with loyalties to both Celtic and Rangers. The pub had a strict no colours policy so you never really knew who was what! I don't recall there ever being any trouble. Anyhow a wee guy, a visitor, is standing on his own at the bar and having a good drink for a Saturday morning, beers and whisky chasers. Perhaps his ears were burning because of the banter between the bar staff and the regulars but he calls me over and says something like: "Son what's your name?", "Gerry" I tell him and he looks at me and I may have explained to him this was short for Gerard. He then asks me an extraordinary question:"Do you know someone called Gerard Majella?" This is the saint I am called after! He beamed when I confirmed this and said something like: "You need to know who you are talking to in places like this....."
I am pleased to say I am a thousand miles from all this stuff, both mentally and physically. Thank God, how pernicious it really is. Interestingly Wikipedia tells me St Gerard Majella is the saint ".....whose intercession is requested for children (and unborn children in particular), childbirth, mothers (and expectant mothers in particular), motherhood, falsely accused people, good confessions, lay brothers and Muro Lucano, Italy". There you are! I better let my pregnant wife know about this!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Celtic v Rangers
Sitting here at home in Ratchaburi watching Celtic -v- Rangers live from Glasgow. As we approach half time it is 0-0 and that is about right. My wife Luna, a devout Catholic, is rooting for Rangers, or rather The Huns. To give you an idea of her devotion Luna will not read The Da Vinci Code as she heard a priest denounce it in a sermon! My mother, God bless her soul, would approve but would take an extremely dim view about anything to do with supporting the Huns.
Funny thing is the other half are just the same! I remember being in The Dolphin Bar in Dunbar,East Lothian. My then brother-in-law, Norman, liked the crack in there. It was a true blue shop as they say and I remember being introduced to somebody called Davy, the archetypical Hun, who had followed Rangers everywhere and may well have been involved in the desecration of Catholic churches in Barcelona when the Huns had their great European adventure in the early 1970s. Davy revelled in telling me his wife only made one mistake in their married life. She wore a green suit when they were about to go on their honeymoon. Davy was proud of the fact that his wife duly obliged when he ordered her to get the green clothing off; he told me he wouldn't even eat garden peas.
This reminds me of meeting George at the Thai Food Festival in London a few years ago. George is a crane driver, a hulking brute of a man, in many respects typical south east London white,working class: raucous, gobby,prejudiced and a major piss head. What surprised me was his membership of the Orange Order! He married a Thai woman and they have two kids, Billy & Liz, called after monarchs because George and his wife ".....love the royal family." George called Billy over, a nice kid then of about 11 years, and told the boy to tell me where he had spent his holidays. This kid replied:"Drumcree" which you may recall was the scene of a protracted stand off about marching rights in Ulster. George then told Billy to tell me what he had learned and Billy replied: "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right". I can only describe this as a seriously surreal encounter! I learned as the beer flowed that George's dad was a Liverpool hair dresser who moved down to London and it was a tradition in the family for the men to join the Orange Order.
In my late teens I got heavily into Irish republicanism and it was a given with my Catholic Glasgow antecedents that I would be a Celtic fan.Personally I feel a serious amount of shame and regret about this period. It took me to the brink of psychosis by fanning my ample anger and hatred. Add in drink and drugs....say no more.
I'll never like Rangers but today I don't like sectarianism. All a load of rubbish. The match is nearly over, still 0-0. Luna has asked me to get her a Celtic top when I visit Glasgow next month!
Funny thing is the other half are just the same! I remember being in The Dolphin Bar in Dunbar,East Lothian. My then brother-in-law, Norman, liked the crack in there. It was a true blue shop as they say and I remember being introduced to somebody called Davy, the archetypical Hun, who had followed Rangers everywhere and may well have been involved in the desecration of Catholic churches in Barcelona when the Huns had their great European adventure in the early 1970s. Davy revelled in telling me his wife only made one mistake in their married life. She wore a green suit when they were about to go on their honeymoon. Davy was proud of the fact that his wife duly obliged when he ordered her to get the green clothing off; he told me he wouldn't even eat garden peas.
This reminds me of meeting George at the Thai Food Festival in London a few years ago. George is a crane driver, a hulking brute of a man, in many respects typical south east London white,working class: raucous, gobby,prejudiced and a major piss head. What surprised me was his membership of the Orange Order! He married a Thai woman and they have two kids, Billy & Liz, called after monarchs because George and his wife ".....love the royal family." George called Billy over, a nice kid then of about 11 years, and told the boy to tell me where he had spent his holidays. This kid replied:"Drumcree" which you may recall was the scene of a protracted stand off about marching rights in Ulster. George then told Billy to tell me what he had learned and Billy replied: "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right". I can only describe this as a seriously surreal encounter! I learned as the beer flowed that George's dad was a Liverpool hair dresser who moved down to London and it was a tradition in the family for the men to join the Orange Order.
In my late teens I got heavily into Irish republicanism and it was a given with my Catholic Glasgow antecedents that I would be a Celtic fan.Personally I feel a serious amount of shame and regret about this period. It took me to the brink of psychosis by fanning my ample anger and hatred. Add in drink and drugs....say no more.
I'll never like Rangers but today I don't like sectarianism. All a load of rubbish. The match is nearly over, still 0-0. Luna has asked me to get her a Celtic top when I visit Glasgow next month!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
In search of Spoon-billed Sandpiper
I have had a fascinating week and have been able to look at a lot of birds with my humble Bressner 8 x 32 glasses. I have a certain attachment to these glasses as I bought them at Ascot Racecourse some years ago when I experienced the illusion of a winning day. The last thing I had in mind at the time was bird watching and particularily to be doing so in Thailand! There is a problem with the left glass which doesn’t focus brilliantly. But I am pleased to say the glasses are no longer getting me into trouble!
I live near an area where there have been regular sightings of spoon billed sandpipers. The species is listed as critically endangered. Unfortunately for me I have missed the spoon billed sandpipers. I think not having a spotting telescope is in fact a major disadvantage. These fellows are small, about 16 cm according to the field guide. So my Bressners are quite inadequate unless sandpipers do me a favour and pop up under my nose and wave their spoonbills about in the air!
More to the point there are so many different species of shorebirds in the salt pans and mudflats that I am not sure that I would be able to recognise any species other than the black winged stint. The latter is ubiquitous and beautiful with its very elegant, indeed sexy to my mind, pink legs. Talking of sexy looking birds, I think the little egret is straight out of design school, perfectly shaped and coloured.
I have a lot of work to do if I am going to be able to identify the plovers, sandpipers, ruff, greenshanks, tattlers, redshanks, knots, turnstones, dowitchers, godwits not to mention little stints, red necked stints, Temminck’s stints and long toed stints! Please note I haven’t mentioned sea gulls or terns!
The good news is I am expecting to take delivery of a turbo nutter Kowa spotting scope when my good friend Tony arrives in a couple of weeks. The bad news is I am likely to start full time work in May, become a father in July, and might not have the time for golf and birds. But in truth the bad news is wonderful….I am so happy about the prospect of being a father for the first time and the job means a degree of financial security and it means I can probably stay on in Thailand.
Back to the birds. Yesterday afternoon I was crawling about in the Pak Thale salt pans in pursuit of spoon billed sandpiper. What I did see was a pile of green shanks, plovers, egrets and the famous feral greater flamingo. When I saw it with my naked eye I thought it was a swan but when I got the Bressners on it I could see the groovy pink legs. This fellow has escaped from captivity and hangs out down here and seems to be in pretty good shape. Today I borrowed a small plastic boat with paddle and got in amongst the ruff near Wat Khao Takhroa. I must go back there and use that boat for a longer period of time; there are many interconnected fish ponds and with some protection from the sun and some cold drinks I imagine a very productive few hours could be whiled away.
Highlights would have to be: booted eagle wearing a fine pair of yellow boots and the ruff today.
I live near an area where there have been regular sightings of spoon billed sandpipers. The species is listed as critically endangered. Unfortunately for me I have missed the spoon billed sandpipers. I think not having a spotting telescope is in fact a major disadvantage. These fellows are small, about 16 cm according to the field guide. So my Bressners are quite inadequate unless sandpipers do me a favour and pop up under my nose and wave their spoonbills about in the air!
More to the point there are so many different species of shorebirds in the salt pans and mudflats that I am not sure that I would be able to recognise any species other than the black winged stint. The latter is ubiquitous and beautiful with its very elegant, indeed sexy to my mind, pink legs. Talking of sexy looking birds, I think the little egret is straight out of design school, perfectly shaped and coloured.
I have a lot of work to do if I am going to be able to identify the plovers, sandpipers, ruff, greenshanks, tattlers, redshanks, knots, turnstones, dowitchers, godwits not to mention little stints, red necked stints, Temminck’s stints and long toed stints! Please note I haven’t mentioned sea gulls or terns!
The good news is I am expecting to take delivery of a turbo nutter Kowa spotting scope when my good friend Tony arrives in a couple of weeks. The bad news is I am likely to start full time work in May, become a father in July, and might not have the time for golf and birds. But in truth the bad news is wonderful….I am so happy about the prospect of being a father for the first time and the job means a degree of financial security and it means I can probably stay on in Thailand.
Back to the birds. Yesterday afternoon I was crawling about in the Pak Thale salt pans in pursuit of spoon billed sandpiper. What I did see was a pile of green shanks, plovers, egrets and the famous feral greater flamingo. When I saw it with my naked eye I thought it was a swan but when I got the Bressners on it I could see the groovy pink legs. This fellow has escaped from captivity and hangs out down here and seems to be in pretty good shape. Today I borrowed a small plastic boat with paddle and got in amongst the ruff near Wat Khao Takhroa. I must go back there and use that boat for a longer period of time; there are many interconnected fish ponds and with some protection from the sun and some cold drinks I imagine a very productive few hours could be whiled away.
Highlights would have to be: booted eagle wearing a fine pair of yellow boots and the ruff today.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Sunday in Ratchaburi
It is noticeably hotter. High 90s and warm all evening. The Thai winter lasted about 5 weeks, two of which could best be described as cool. But it is hot during the day and we took an afternoon nap with the air conditioning on today. What extravagance.
We have done very little today. Monday,tomorrow, is a public holiday, Mhaka Bucha Day, essentially to commemorate the Buddha. So given the heat just a day of taking it very easy. No birding, no painting, just a little bit of shopping and an Italian meal for lunch after mass. We are going to collect a second hand coffee table from Bagna in Bangkok tomorrow.
Thailand is peaceful and quiet at the moment. Mr Abhisit, the new PM, seems to have made a very auspicious start; he is reported to have secured a 64 billion baht loan from the Japanese to finance the construction of a new railway line from Rangsit, north east of Bangkok, to Samut Sakhorn, on the western side of the Chao Phaya estuary. With such developments Bangkok and the greater Bangkok area will take another leap forward.
Mr Abhisit did receive some very adverse publicity concerning the plight of the Rohingya refugees from Burma, specifically relating to the savage treatment dealt to them by the Thai authorities. I think, however, this treatment is more a Thai army issue as opposed to policy emanating from the new PM. Now that the world's media and Hollywood has had their say Mr Abhisit will take great care, no doubt, to ensure the situation is managed more humanely.
I must confess I am not a great news watcher. I'll watch BBC World and am reasonably up to speed with the world situation.....I am not missing the snow back home! As a general rule I don't watch Thai language TV though what I have seen leaves little for the imagination.... we are not spared corpses and maimed human beings . But as for local news I couldn't tell you if there have been any murders or stabbings in the Ratchaburi area. From www.thaivisa.com I learned of the brutal murder in Chiang Mai of a retired Brit. This does not appear to have been an indiscriminate act of violence on a visitor so I am not going to worry too much about it other than to say what a tragedy. I heard 4 motor bikes were stolen from Chinatown Ratchaburi during the Chinese New Year Celebrations!
it is really quite nice not really knowing what is going on around me. I could be better informed, of course, if I made more effort to read the papers and watch TV but to be honest I am not really too concerned. I feel very comfortable here. Few concerns for our personal safety and security. Sometimes I think I am too lax about house security and will come home one day to find that everything has been nicked. Car crime does not appear to exist, but clearly watch you motor bike!
Maybe I am imminently due for a rude awakening but I feel at ease here. I must stress I didn't live a life of fear in London or anywhere else but you know, in London, if you accidentally leave your mobile in your car then if the wrong person sees it they are likely to smash a a window and grab it.
So a pleasant relaxed lifestyle, and very much so today. Just watched Arsenal -v- Tottenham live, now watching West Ham -v- Man U and switching channels every few minutes to get an update on the rugby, Scotland -v- Wales, where the Welsh appear to be eating us alive. Right now I cannot say I am missing very much about the UK.
We have done very little today. Monday,tomorrow, is a public holiday, Mhaka Bucha Day, essentially to commemorate the Buddha. So given the heat just a day of taking it very easy. No birding, no painting, just a little bit of shopping and an Italian meal for lunch after mass. We are going to collect a second hand coffee table from Bagna in Bangkok tomorrow.
Thailand is peaceful and quiet at the moment. Mr Abhisit, the new PM, seems to have made a very auspicious start; he is reported to have secured a 64 billion baht loan from the Japanese to finance the construction of a new railway line from Rangsit, north east of Bangkok, to Samut Sakhorn, on the western side of the Chao Phaya estuary. With such developments Bangkok and the greater Bangkok area will take another leap forward.
Mr Abhisit did receive some very adverse publicity concerning the plight of the Rohingya refugees from Burma, specifically relating to the savage treatment dealt to them by the Thai authorities. I think, however, this treatment is more a Thai army issue as opposed to policy emanating from the new PM. Now that the world's media and Hollywood has had their say Mr Abhisit will take great care, no doubt, to ensure the situation is managed more humanely.
I must confess I am not a great news watcher. I'll watch BBC World and am reasonably up to speed with the world situation.....I am not missing the snow back home! As a general rule I don't watch Thai language TV though what I have seen leaves little for the imagination.... we are not spared corpses and maimed human beings . But as for local news I couldn't tell you if there have been any murders or stabbings in the Ratchaburi area. From www.thaivisa.com I learned of the brutal murder in Chiang Mai of a retired Brit. This does not appear to have been an indiscriminate act of violence on a visitor so I am not going to worry too much about it other than to say what a tragedy. I heard 4 motor bikes were stolen from Chinatown Ratchaburi during the Chinese New Year Celebrations!
it is really quite nice not really knowing what is going on around me. I could be better informed, of course, if I made more effort to read the papers and watch TV but to be honest I am not really too concerned. I feel very comfortable here. Few concerns for our personal safety and security. Sometimes I think I am too lax about house security and will come home one day to find that everything has been nicked. Car crime does not appear to exist, but clearly watch you motor bike!
Maybe I am imminently due for a rude awakening but I feel at ease here. I must stress I didn't live a life of fear in London or anywhere else but you know, in London, if you accidentally leave your mobile in your car then if the wrong person sees it they are likely to smash a a window and grab it.
So a pleasant relaxed lifestyle, and very much so today. Just watched Arsenal -v- Tottenham live, now watching West Ham -v- Man U and switching channels every few minutes to get an update on the rugby, Scotland -v- Wales, where the Welsh appear to be eating us alive. Right now I cannot say I am missing very much about the UK.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thai Birds
You'll be very disappointed with this if you are expecting an insight into Thailand's seedy underbelly. All I will say on the subject is you'll not have to look very hard for it in any of the major tourist centres! No I am talking about the avian world, the winged creatures, real birds. Thailand is considered to be one of the best places in the world for watching birds and from October to April sees many migratory birds, including rareties, who like their human counterparts, like to stop off and take in the rays and have a bit of a party on their passage.
I am not a a birder by trade but my closest mate, Tony, is and when we meet up, usually in Scotland, we often go "doon the water", as they say, to Troon and check out the birds on the Firth of the Clyde; we have also done the same on the east coast in the Gullane/Aberlady area to the south of Edinburgh. Any golfers reading this blog will recognise, or rather, should recognise those names! Tony arrives here with telescopes at the end of this month and we are going to give it large so to speak.
At this point I need to acknowledge a professional birder called Nick Upton who runs the Thai Birding website. This site is a classic example of how effective the internet can be and it is thanks to this site that I have discovered the wealth of birds that can be spotted within about an hours drive from home. In fact to be honest I don't really need to leave home to spot brids: my house faces a line of trees and pylons behind which is a golf driving range; first thing in the morning hundreds of egret can be seen in the range grounds. On the trees there are brown shrike, kingfisher, sooty headed bulbuls, mynas, drongos, eaurasian house sparrows, red collared doves....
Even before you get to the recommended locations the range of birds that can be seen from your car is phenomenal......asian openbills, black kites, brahminy kites, Indian rollers, herons of all kinds, 4 varieties of kingfisher, pied fantails, green bee-eaters, coucals, black winged stint and on the list goes.
There are various salt pans near Petchaburi which are popular with migratory birds. This is shorebird territory and you can get out onto the flats of the gulf of Thailand and there are thousands of birds there but most are a distance away and can't really be seen close up. A telescope is needed and I have been restricted to some extent with glasses. So hurry up Tony! Close by is the Kaeng Krachan National park which extends to the Myanmar border and this is full of hornbills and other exotic birds. I'll take Tony there.
Near the salt pans is The Kings Project which is a sewage recycling unit with mangroves. This however provides the ultimate drive by birding experience. Luna and I sat there one Sunday afternoon in the car our mouths agog as we took in the wonders of a pied harrier, perched in the mangrove basking in the late afternoon sun. This fellow, well lassie actually, was resplendent, she looked as if she had stepped out of a Savile Row tailors. Everything about her was perfect, bright orange eyes with black irises and lurid green legs blending into the vertical striped belly. We knew we were looking at something quite magnificent and we were only 30 yards away! Unfortunately the camera batteries were flat so we were not able to photograph it but copious study of the guidebooks and a review of published bird lists for this area leave me in little doubt that it was a pied harrier.
So we have the binoculars out on a very regular basis and two of Luna's friends join us on our little trips. These really get us to some parts we would not otherwise reach so grateful thanks to Nick Upton. Boy do we have fun!
My two favourite golf courses, Dragon Hills and Royal Ratchaburi abound with birds....bee eaters, hoopoes, coucals, kingfisher, hawks, kites.... I played Royal yesterday and heard a woodpecker but could not spot it.
I have also learned that the greater Bangkok area has bird life like no other major conurbation courtesy of Philip Round's Birds of the Bangkok Area( White Lotus Press,2008, ISBN 978-974-480-109-8). This surely is one of the great birding books, an astonishing labour of love, brimming with carefully researched information and interesting comment and opinion.
You might be surprised to learn that Lumphini Park right in the centre of Bangkok periodically has some quite rare birds stopping by.
So for sure you can have a lot of fun with the birds in Thailand!
I am not a a birder by trade but my closest mate, Tony, is and when we meet up, usually in Scotland, we often go "doon the water", as they say, to Troon and check out the birds on the Firth of the Clyde; we have also done the same on the east coast in the Gullane/Aberlady area to the south of Edinburgh. Any golfers reading this blog will recognise, or rather, should recognise those names! Tony arrives here with telescopes at the end of this month and we are going to give it large so to speak.
At this point I need to acknowledge a professional birder called Nick Upton who runs the Thai Birding website. This site is a classic example of how effective the internet can be and it is thanks to this site that I have discovered the wealth of birds that can be spotted within about an hours drive from home. In fact to be honest I don't really need to leave home to spot brids: my house faces a line of trees and pylons behind which is a golf driving range; first thing in the morning hundreds of egret can be seen in the range grounds. On the trees there are brown shrike, kingfisher, sooty headed bulbuls, mynas, drongos, eaurasian house sparrows, red collared doves....
Even before you get to the recommended locations the range of birds that can be seen from your car is phenomenal......asian openbills, black kites, brahminy kites, Indian rollers, herons of all kinds, 4 varieties of kingfisher, pied fantails, green bee-eaters, coucals, black winged stint and on the list goes.
There are various salt pans near Petchaburi which are popular with migratory birds. This is shorebird territory and you can get out onto the flats of the gulf of Thailand and there are thousands of birds there but most are a distance away and can't really be seen close up. A telescope is needed and I have been restricted to some extent with glasses. So hurry up Tony! Close by is the Kaeng Krachan National park which extends to the Myanmar border and this is full of hornbills and other exotic birds. I'll take Tony there.
Near the salt pans is The Kings Project which is a sewage recycling unit with mangroves. This however provides the ultimate drive by birding experience. Luna and I sat there one Sunday afternoon in the car our mouths agog as we took in the wonders of a pied harrier, perched in the mangrove basking in the late afternoon sun. This fellow, well lassie actually, was resplendent, she looked as if she had stepped out of a Savile Row tailors. Everything about her was perfect, bright orange eyes with black irises and lurid green legs blending into the vertical striped belly. We knew we were looking at something quite magnificent and we were only 30 yards away! Unfortunately the camera batteries were flat so we were not able to photograph it but copious study of the guidebooks and a review of published bird lists for this area leave me in little doubt that it was a pied harrier.
So we have the binoculars out on a very regular basis and two of Luna's friends join us on our little trips. These really get us to some parts we would not otherwise reach so grateful thanks to Nick Upton. Boy do we have fun!
My two favourite golf courses, Dragon Hills and Royal Ratchaburi abound with birds....bee eaters, hoopoes, coucals, kingfisher, hawks, kites.... I played Royal yesterday and heard a woodpecker but could not spot it.
I have also learned that the greater Bangkok area has bird life like no other major conurbation courtesy of Philip Round's Birds of the Bangkok Area( White Lotus Press,2008, ISBN 978-974-480-109-8). This surely is one of the great birding books, an astonishing labour of love, brimming with carefully researched information and interesting comment and opinion.
You might be surprised to learn that Lumphini Park right in the centre of Bangkok periodically has some quite rare birds stopping by.
So for sure you can have a lot of fun with the birds in Thailand!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A Prayer Answered Updated
I have been toying with removing the previous entry because I have been rather premature in proclaiming this as prayers answered. The update is I called the college and they do not think my first degree enables me to meet the entry requirements. I know the first degree isn't worth the paper it is written on although it looks mighty grand, parchment, Latin script and a real red seal. As I write this I am calm and have virtually accepted that at this stage there is no point pursuing this. My gut reaction is my current qualifications will enable me to work here as an English teacher of some description and I am confident I will get a start in May when the new school year begins.
Now I will keep the posting up just to show how wrong I can be! Maybe it will serve as a reminder to desist from such hubris in the future! But it would be kind of wrong to pull it down simply because it makes me appear a bit of a chump!
The episode concerning my degree was constructive if a little painful, bringing me back all those years. Aged 17 I was a dangerous mess, seething with rage and resentment and I don't think I really ever had much respite from this state of affairs until my mid-forties. There is still some of that stuff lingering but I do feel a long way from it. For that I am truly grateful to God. Enough said.
Now I will keep the posting up just to show how wrong I can be! Maybe it will serve as a reminder to desist from such hubris in the future! But it would be kind of wrong to pull it down simply because it makes me appear a bit of a chump!
The episode concerning my degree was constructive if a little painful, bringing me back all those years. Aged 17 I was a dangerous mess, seething with rage and resentment and I don't think I really ever had much respite from this state of affairs until my mid-forties. There is still some of that stuff lingering but I do feel a long way from it. For that I am truly grateful to God. Enough said.
Monday, February 2, 2009
A Prayer Answered
I feel uncomfortable writing about this stuff. It is decidedly unsexy but let me take you through some stuff from Sunday.
Luna and I not long after getting up were chatting about what we should do with our day. We thought it might be good to drive down to Hua Hin for the day and so Luna invited her chums to join us. They told Luna there was a meeting of the FIlipino community in Ratchaburi after mass to discuss teacher licensing in Thailand and they wanted to attend. So we decided we should attend as Luna is a teacher and there is a distinct possibility that I may join her in the not too distant future.
Now this mention of licensing set me off, panic, fear, anxiety. In particular the issue concerns me because if it is actually implemented as proposed it may well prevent me from getting a teacher's license and that would prevent me from teaching and from earning a crust here. That would mean having to move on from Thailand and possibly back to the UK because I do not yet have the funds to secure our future. And as you know I like life here. I am enjoying a quality of life hitherto unknown to me.
So in typical fashion my incorrectly wired up washing machine head starts to spin before I know anything substantive! In short I am going to have leave Thailand, this is coming in for the start of the new academic year and my prospects of teaching are now over. I am thinking that maybe I might have to invent teaching experience or ask the school for some assistance, like offer me a job now so I can apply for a work permit immediately but not pay me until the new academic year!
From experience of this type of mental maelstrom I know what is required and I do it. I get on my knees and start praying. I ask to be relieved from the rubbish in my head, to have the power to accept things as they are restored and to go with them and to be able to act on faith alone, that is to believe that God will look after me and mine regardless. I didn't tell Luna I was doing this or engage her in any real discussion about my fears. I just quietly got on with it in my bed room on a tiled concrete floor, naked! I said a few other prayers and that conditioned me, the spinning ceased if you like. On the way to mass I might have made some dramatic pronouncement like: "This means we will probably have to leave Thailand"!
After mass I was told the meeting wasn't about licensing but a presentation from a college in Bangkok who provide continuing education for post graduate students. The presentation was pitched by filipinos for filipinos and was actually hysterical. A fascinating insight into how to sell to filipinos! However I learned this college runs a Graduate Diploma in Teaching which is approved by the Ministry of Education and runs over 9 months with the tuition on Saturdays and Sundays. The next course starts early March.
Problem solved. Prayer answered. God truly works in mysterious ways. Or is this just coincidence?! Someone said:"Coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous!" I am taking some soundings about the course/college this week and have told Luna to have a think about implications. Shall take a decision at the weekend. I said to Luna if I heard Amazing Grace then I would know this was definitely God's will for me!
So this ticket would secure me a teacher's license
Luna and I not long after getting up were chatting about what we should do with our day. We thought it might be good to drive down to Hua Hin for the day and so Luna invited her chums to join us. They told Luna there was a meeting of the FIlipino community in Ratchaburi after mass to discuss teacher licensing in Thailand and they wanted to attend. So we decided we should attend as Luna is a teacher and there is a distinct possibility that I may join her in the not too distant future.
Now this mention of licensing set me off, panic, fear, anxiety. In particular the issue concerns me because if it is actually implemented as proposed it may well prevent me from getting a teacher's license and that would prevent me from teaching and from earning a crust here. That would mean having to move on from Thailand and possibly back to the UK because I do not yet have the funds to secure our future. And as you know I like life here. I am enjoying a quality of life hitherto unknown to me.
So in typical fashion my incorrectly wired up washing machine head starts to spin before I know anything substantive! In short I am going to have leave Thailand, this is coming in for the start of the new academic year and my prospects of teaching are now over. I am thinking that maybe I might have to invent teaching experience or ask the school for some assistance, like offer me a job now so I can apply for a work permit immediately but not pay me until the new academic year!
From experience of this type of mental maelstrom I know what is required and I do it. I get on my knees and start praying. I ask to be relieved from the rubbish in my head, to have the power to accept things as they are restored and to go with them and to be able to act on faith alone, that is to believe that God will look after me and mine regardless. I didn't tell Luna I was doing this or engage her in any real discussion about my fears. I just quietly got on with it in my bed room on a tiled concrete floor, naked! I said a few other prayers and that conditioned me, the spinning ceased if you like. On the way to mass I might have made some dramatic pronouncement like: "This means we will probably have to leave Thailand"!
After mass I was told the meeting wasn't about licensing but a presentation from a college in Bangkok who provide continuing education for post graduate students. The presentation was pitched by filipinos for filipinos and was actually hysterical. A fascinating insight into how to sell to filipinos! However I learned this college runs a Graduate Diploma in Teaching which is approved by the Ministry of Education and runs over 9 months with the tuition on Saturdays and Sundays. The next course starts early March.
Problem solved. Prayer answered. God truly works in mysterious ways. Or is this just coincidence?! Someone said:"Coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous!" I am taking some soundings about the course/college this week and have told Luna to have a think about implications. Shall take a decision at the weekend. I said to Luna if I heard Amazing Grace then I would know this was definitely God's will for me!
So this ticket would secure me a teacher's license
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