2008 An Absolute Belter

An old friend provided the title for this review of the year in his Christmas message. Stuart, currently located in Cape Town, South Africa expressed the hope that I had “an absolute belter”. By any standards 2008 has been an absolute belter, a cracker, a great year packed with great moments and I’ll say this now, I see no reason why 2009 will not be the same.

Luna is due on or around 5th July so it hardly can get bigger than this. Sure much can go wrong but in truth my expectations are modest. This time next year for me personally I hope I can report that I am healthy, that I am meaningfully employed, that I am a happy husband and father and that my faith in God is stronger than ever ….. not necessarily in that order!

Obviously my wedding day, 18th October 2008, stands out as a particular highlight. This was a near perfect day. First up my bride, Luna, looked stunning. Many have asked what a beauty sees in a doddering old fool like myself! I can report that there are now a number of western men pursuing Filipino women in the Ratchaburi area! The service was beautiful, wonderful liturgy, fantastic music provided by Luna’s Filipino colleagues and friends, gorgeous flowers, and an array of priests on the altar led by Bishop Panya who blessed our marriage and provided such wise words. We have subsequently joked about how good the Bishop’s blessing really was because we reckon Luna conceived on her wedding night or very soon after, but most certainly not before!

We were both moved that people made such an effort to attend our wedding…. from Scotland, England, Australia and the Philippines and a fair few who travelled a distance in Thailand. We received messages of congratulations and presents from all over the world. It was a truly lovely day and as you can gather the results have been immediate!

Luna is a wonderful wife. Today as I write this, a veteran of just over two months of married life, I understand how blessed I am. Given the events in the five or so years of our courtship, how fragile the early connection was, the sheer lottery of our initial meeting, followed by physical distance between us, I have no doubt this is what God intended for us both, certainly for me! Otherwise we would never have been married.

At the beginning of 2008 I knew I was scheduled to pay a surprise visit to Luna in January. What joy to arrive in Bangkok January 17th and jump in a taxi to Ratchaburi and show up at Mai Tai restaurant where Luna’s friends had managed to bring her completely unaware that I was going to arrive. The poor girl was shaking with disbelief when she saw me. At one level it was a cruel thing to do but I had forewarned her in a round about way that 2008 was going to be full of surprises and added that some might occur more quickly than she might be expecting. And it just kicked from there…. events unfolded from my arrival right throughout the year.

As always we had a very happy few days together with weekends spent at our favourite resort, Cha-am, a few hours south of Ratchaburi on the gulf of Thailand, staying at Cha-am Beach Villa Hotel. When Luna was at work I played golf at Royal Ratchaburi, surely one of the best golf courses in S E Asia?

During this trip we decided we would try to get Luna UK entry in April/May during her school holidays. Unfortunately Luna does not simply walk in as a visitor but has to apply for an entry visa. It is the same even now we are married. The anomaly is our baby will automatically qualify for full UK citizenship through me and this could result in a situation where baby and I walk in but Luna can’t get a visa. So I’ve told Luna to be on her best behaviour!

Never having done this type of thing before I was fearful about whether Luna would get the visa, especially given my circumstances…..following the years of carnage I am not a picture of probity! We also agreed that we would attempt to get married in October in the Philippines in Luna’s home town, Bacolod City.

Back to the UK end of January for me a few more months grafting with Addison Lee. I must say I did really well with them in the build up to Christmas and the Festive Season 2007 and it was on the strength of this that I was able to make a trip to Thailand and then to contemplate bringing Luna to the UK later in the year. Back home life was fairly predictable, work through the night for Addison Lee, sleep, play golf and meeting up with friends.

My Uncle Peter passed away soon after I returned from Thailand and I was able to attend his funeral in Glasgow. I bumped into an old teacher, Dan Divers, at this mass which was a poignant moment as Mr Divers was very kind to me over the years I attended St Aloysius’ College and I had not had any contact with him since leaving back in 1975. He needed some prompting but once I told him who I was he remembered me well and commented on the amount of weight I had put on! At the same service my old primary school teacher, Mr McCabe, was also present. Nice to meet up with family again and my cousins Peter and Ron, brother to Colin, were able to make it from Australia. Uncle Peter,Big Peter, left his male nephews the sum of £500.00 so thank you very much! I think he had it in mind that we would need a little diversion away from our day to day cares.

Luna remarkably was granted UK entry with a minimum of fuss and arrived April in time to attend my sister Katherine’s wedding to John Donoghue just outside Edinburgh. Congratulations to the happy couple. Nice to see my sister Katherine paired with a man who will look after her.

It was a great pleasure to have Luna with me for a month. Luna was like a little girl in absolute wonderment as we toured London carrying out all the mandatory photo stops. By a stroke of good fortune prior to Luna’s arrival I had been elevated into the chauffeur section at Addison Lee and as she stepped off the plane I had been given a brand spanking new E class Mercedes with 12 miles on the clock and the deal with them is I keep the car when I take time off. So Luna saw London in style with the benefit of my expert knowledge and we even managed a Saturday night trip to Stratford upon Avon to see a Royal Shakespeare Company performance of The Merchant of Venice.

Then we gunned the Merc north as I took two weeks off and we visited the Holy Island, various Northumberland castles and on to Edinburgh for Kate’s wedding. Luna still talks about the spiced onions in Khushi’s restaurant which until recently was the best Indian in Scotland if not in the UK; I say recently because I believe it no longer is as it was gutted by fire prior to Christmas. Sad, and no doubt this was an accident as the Khushi’s people are decent in every sense of the word and the restaurant was a flourishing success story.

At Kate’s wedding I found myself toasting the bride (the intended speaker had been taken home somewhat the worse for wear for drink!) unexpectedly all of which Luna has recorded on video. Luan met my sisters and the extended family. We had a memorable sea food meal the day after the wedding with the newly weds at the Dakota by the Forth Road Bridge. We then headed north up the A92 to Inverness and somewhere along this road Luna saw snow for the first time in her life and after a pit stop in Inverness, at MacDonalds of all places, we crossed the great wilderness to Ullapool and dropped down over the highest road in Britain, the Bealach na Bath, to Kyle and a first ever crossing of the bridge to Skye.

We stayed in some great bed & breakfasts, real value and brilliant service and Luna developed a taste for fried breakfasts, including black pudding!

We crossed Skye , where the cloud cleared long enough at Sligachan to view the Cuillin Ridge in its majestic glory. We proceeded to board the ferry at Uig to North Uist and we dropped down from Lochmaddy to South Uist. I hadn’t been there since 1979. But I felt as if I wanted to show Luna something of my roots and I am glad I did. For the duration of the trip we were blessed with great weather and I have a distinct memory of visiting Bonnie Prince Charlie Bay on Eriskay and the skies were blue and the sun was shining, but still cold.

Our wedding plans gradually developed and we decided it would be most practical to get married in Thailand. Too many forms to complete in the Philippines left me fearful that we might have guests arriving to be told, sorry it’s been delayed a week because there is a mistake with how my name is spelt on one of the documents. So with a plan emerging I bought Luna an engagement ring from Hebridean Jewellry in Iochdar, South Uist and placed an order for her wedding ring there. Thought it would be a nice touch for the rings to come from the place my mother’s people come from and indeed Luna’s wedding band is engraved on the inside with “Gu bràth”, which some of you will know means “For ever” in Gaelic.

On either side of this tour of Britain we managed to attend a marriage guidance course at my local Catholic church, various meetings with the local parish priest in order to obtain his blessing to our union and to assemble the documentation to submit to the Archdiocese of Westminster for approval for getting married overseas. There were some difficulties, purely of a bureaucratic nature, but we managed to get the certification and off it went to Thailand. We even managed to play a little ten pin bowling with my friend Fr Cristiano Braz.

From South Uist we headed back down south via Skye and the Armadale-Mallaig ferry, down through Glenfinnan and Fort William to Oban for a few days in Glasgow. Then down south proper via Hadrian’s Wall and Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge and back to London! Quite a trip! What is known in the trade as a busman’s holiday! Sad to see Luna go when her term started in May but she went back a happy camper and I think it was a good move to let her meet my family and see how I lived in the UK.

Once more back to the grind at Addison Lee. The chauffeur job meant I could work less for more money! I continued to graft and established a rapport with the actor Jude Law who started requesting me for his bookings. This worked really well as I found him good to work for. As a result a friend phoned me up one Sunday morning in the summer and told me I was on the front page of the Sunday Mirror as they wholly misrepresented developments in his love life! Also worked for the infamous Russell Brand, a truly good guy who gave me a copy of his book signed and including a nice personal message, with my name spelt correctly. Interesting also as our biggest client was Barclays Bank and we were driving their top people about as the current financial crisis gathered…… taking bankers to private airstrips on Saturday morning for flights to Abu Dhabi….no surprise when six weeks later Barclays were announcing Gulf investment. Many other people of note sat in my motor. Great fun!

At the end of June I was back in Scotland for the wedding of my nephew Daniel and his bride, Cat. A wonderful event at my sister Christine’s farmhouse and the wider family assembled once more from the lowlands. I enjoyed a game of golf on one of the St Andrews Links’ courses with Stewart, my cousin Christine’s husband. The wedding was memorable for the food, all the meat was home reared and it certainly tasted in a different class.

July 10th was my 50th birthday and to mark this milestone I treated 15 fellow travellers to a game of golf and a slap up lunch and evening curry. We played at Aldenham in Hertfordshire, a very pleasant day out and nice to make it to 50. At 45/46 as some of you know, it wasn’t looking so good.

As our wedding preparations developed and as work slowed down in August I decided to take another quick visit to Thailand courtesy of Air France, who were offering a sub £400 return to Hong Kong and a cheap return to Bangkok via Ethiopian Airlines. There were no surprises this time for Luna; she knew I was coming and I was able to present her with her engagement ring all the way from South Uist.

During this trip I also met Fr Siripong the parish priest of the church of St John Bosco in Ratchaburi who was investigating me! He’s also the headmaster of Daruna, so is effectively Luna’s boss. As I write this I wish he would tell me when he has finished the investigation! We also met Bishop Panya who indicated it would be an honour for two foreigners to marry in his diocese and that he would be delighted to marry us. Remarkably these two clergymen took us out to dinner and paid! That was a great shock to both of us!

On my journey home I was upgraded to business class on the Hong Kong - Paris section. That was a real blessing as well as a first. I think that ticket cost me £329.00, probably the best value I have ever known. I slept in perfect comfort most of the way and was back at work the following night!

My sister Katherine & John joined me in London to say farewell as my departure loomed. That was kind and once more I did them the honours in the smart motor. Finally my friends Gaye and Maria put on a little farewell party for me in September as my time in the UK came to an end. It was nice to get such a send off and messages of good will and good luck from people.

Remarkably I managed to vacate my flat, remove all my personal effects, ship various things and hit the airport 1st October for the 2130h Eva Airways flight from Heathrow to Bangkok armed with a 12 month multiple entry non-immigrant Thai visa.

I am exhausted! What a belter of a year! Since October I have been busy trying to sort out our house….progress slow, motivation low at times! Regular trips to Hua Hin and Bangkok. We registered our wedding on 19th December 2008 after an enormous amount of coming and going and now we have a nice Thai wedding certificate.

We are ending our year in Langkawi, Malaysia. My visa requires me to leave Thailand every 90 days. So hopefully I get another 90 days when we return on 1st January 2008. I reckon Langkawi is the most disappointing place I have been to in 2008! Can’t wait to get back to the Land of the Smile and some decent food

My golf remains rubbish and the only real New Year’s resolution I have is to hit sub-90 in 2009.

God bless you all in 2009.

Malaysian Interlude

We headed from Ratchaburi to Hua Hin on Christmas Day to meet up with some friends and afterwards had a hale and hearty Christmas dinner at El'Murphys Bar & Restaurant; a traditional Christmas dinner of roast turkey, ham, chipolata sausage, roast & mash potatoes, brussel sprouts and earlier courses of lobster and soup and followed by some Christmas pudding and for me some apple crumble and custard. Luna loved it if she was a little drowned by the sheer size of what was served up, a true food mountain.

The overnight train to Butterworth,Malaysia, was about 20 minutes late so at 1845 we finally boarded and were joined by a 60 something David from Wandsworth, London, who was full of good cheer and was excellent company until our beds were made up. We got off the train at the Malaysian border on Friday morning and headed for Kualah Perlis where we boarded a boat to Langkawi. The port was really busy as Malaysians were obviously heading for a break. Felt ominous listening to Celine Dion singing the theme tune to Titanic as we waited for the boat! We made it safely and got a taxi to our hotel on arrival. It is all very nice and comfortable but it seems everything is a lot more expensive here. We have had a couple of meals and it almost feels as though we are paying western prices. It is relaxing though. More to follow. We are here and resting!

A few days on I am sorry to report that Langkawi is pretty disappointing. The food is unremarkable which is sad because the natural ingredients are abundant. Better to eat plain boiled rice because something unpleasant happens to the taste if it is fried!Lovely sea bass and crab, but something happens whey it is cooked! Not doing much, hotel comfortable but breakfast is boring......eggs, eggs and more eggs! We both look forward to getting back to Thailand!

Midnight Mass Thai Style

Those of you who know me will not be surprised to learn that when it comes to religious ceremonies I like the full monty; think Verdi's Requiem Mass, I want the church stinking of incense, I want all stops out on the organ, I want the church shaking to its foundations, I want cardinals & bishops, priests and altar boys, (would "servers" be a suitable non-sexist equivalent?!) and I want the choir of Kings College,Cambridge (note my ecumenism, as they are Anglicans!) on descant. Get the picture?!

Midnight Mass at the church of St John Bosco could not have been more different! It was actually a real pleasure! We started off at 2230h with a presentation/live show of the Creation, the Fall, the Annunciation and finally the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. My word it was well done, mainly using kids, but I really enjoyed it and I think it really conveyed the message. Remarkably the church was packed, just like they will be tonight everywhere throughout the Christian world, wherever that is these days! Well done to the priests, nuns and kids who put on the show.

After there was a rather ordinary mass but it was overall a beautiful service thanks to the earlier show.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Thai Christmas

For most people here in Thailand Christmas day will be just another day; the banks will be open and it will be business as usual. Schools and colleges will operate normally. One exception will be Daruna in Ratchaburi, a Catholic school. In fact looks as though Christmas is gonna be a huge gig there involving road closures especially tomorrow when there will be a big Christmas party for the students. There are Santas, New Year bunting, people wearing Santa hats, but it will be largely just another day. A far cry from the shutdown in the UK

We are heading south on Christmas day to Hua Hin where we will board the sleeper to Malaysia in the evening. We will hopefully end up on the island paradise of Langkawi early afternoon on the following day. I like travelling by train in general and I particularily enjoy the Thai railway service and I love travelling by second class air conditioned sleeper. If you ever visit I recommend the sleepers. I also recommend you visit one of my favourite websites Seat 61, a true gem if you are interested in travelling the world's railways.

We will start off in huge seats, Luna will hopefully be in the one opposite me. At some stage the attendant will collapse the seats into two sleeping berths one above the other facing longways; each berth has drapes and we shall hopefully have a nice kip as the train gently rambles down to the southern border with Malaysia. And I really like Malaysia though Langkawi will be a new destination.

All being well we will go to midnight mass at Daruna; this will probably be said in Thai. Have some sleep and drive down to Hua Hin in the morning and meet up with some friends there and maybe manage some turkey in one of the expat joints. Take it nice and easy.

Last year I made a lot of money working in London and I worked Christmas day. It is nice being with Luna and it will be nice for us to spend a first Christmas together.

A Geordie PM for Thailand....Howay the Lads!

One Abhisit Vejjajiva, aged 44 and born in Newcastle, England, has become the new Prime Minister of Thailand. I trust Khun Abhisit's education, Eton & Oxford University, will mean he is not likely to use language more familiar to readers of Viz though a familiarity with the patois of the NE of England may be useful. The BBC's profile rather ominously says of our new PM:"If there are any chinks in the Abhisit armour, it is perhaps that his good looks tend to outshine his sometimes rather bland political pronouncements." Oh dear, sounds abit like the kiss of death, "nice but dim"! The same article describes him disingenuously as anti-corruption, squeaky clean but also reports allegations of huge pay offs and trade offs to make Khun Abhisit's elevation possible. Well I am pleased we have a new PM and a new face and someone with a reputation for being straight. Khun Abhisit's youthful age is also important in that Thailand badly needs a younger player to come forward at this particular moment in its history.So chok dee Khun Abhisit as we say here.

We put the cat in amongst the pigeons today. Showed up at the town hall to register our marriage in Ratchaburi, all the relevant paperwork meticuloulsy translated into Thai and stamped and approved by the Thai Minstry of Foreign Affairs....to be told our marriage could only be certified by the Head Registrar and that we need to bring along two Thai citizens as witnesses. This is actually creative bureaucracy Thai style as there is no such requirement! Because we are both aliens! So back we will go on Friday with our two witnesses and see what difficulties we encounter then.....maybe a small motivator will be required, tea money it is called here! Watch this space! Fortunately the office is nearby so this next part of the process should not be too burdensome even if an amount of running around is required.

So an interesting day!

Thailand Today and Everyday

Sunday evening here in Ratchaburi. A quiet low key day. I must confess to an amount of boredom and restlessness, projecting ahead into the future and wondering what we should do if I do not find employment. Let me stress I have hardly made any effort. The thing is I really like life here and currently don't see beyond Ratchaburi. I think I would even prefer moving to the Philippines, but maybe not!

I like the general anarchy that prevails here. Yet at the same time people here are so tolerant. Two things stand out. Firstly every morning, early, saffron robed monks can be seen collecting alms from the people and in return they offer a prayer. This is done in the street, in market places, everywhere, in every part of Thailand. People have usually prepared the meals in advance. The more organised temples provide motor bike support so the alms are transported back to the temple so the monks are not overburdened and can continue. It is called "pindabaat" in Thai. I know there is a historic monastic tradition in the West but I struggle to see UK religious communities going out barefooted to collect alms or the population at large being willing to support them. It is a lovely sight in Thailand and says a lot about underlying attitudes and principles, a far cry from the seediness of the beer bar scene.

Secondly being a woman is seen as so desirable that a significant number of men dress up as women! It seems, in particular, to be an accepted part of growing up to experiment with gender and it seems most fathers accept this as opposed to beat the shit out of their sons for wearing some make up and growing their hair.I am sure most visitors notice this.

So these two facets of Thai life in particular stand out as making the place different, and suggest a high level of tolerance and acceptance. From driving around on a daily basis I notice in amongst the general chaos on the roads how rarely drivers use their horns. It is considered loss of face and therefore rude to use your horn, equivalent to shouting and being abusive, and these types of behaviour are generally frowned upon. Sure they happen, and sure you hear horns, but it is not the done thing, it is not how to get the job done!

And in the midst of this madness it seems that anything goes so long as it does not impact on anyone else. This does not amount to a perfect society by any means. But it is different and it is noticeable.

There is uncertainty about the political situation here as the various factions attempt to agree on the way forward. Our friend Thaksin is heavily involved from outside but cancelled a telephone speech proposed to an assembled 25,000 supporters last night in Bangkok. I cannot help but think the only real interest Thaksin can have in Thai politics is the recovery of his frozen assets. I struggle to see a wider or broader interest. Apparently a new PM will be elected Monday. I think Thai society needs a long holiday from Mr Thaksin.

Super Sunday how Manny Pacquiao changed my life for ever!

An indicator of my current level of sickness is my presence this morning at mass at 6.30 am in Thai. We went to this mass because there is a major boxing event this morning featuring Philippine national hero Manny Pacquiao taking on Oscar de la Hoya live from Las Vegas. Just to remind you, if not confuse you, we are in Ratchaburi, Thailand! So welcome in real terms to the global village!

Luna tells me that Pacquiao fights bring the Philippines to a standstill. He is a national icon. Filipinos say you are least likely to be a victim of crime when Manny is fighting! So we have the fight coming live this morning from Vegas and we have some more filipinos coming round for the action.

Well Manny did the business in a sensational perfomance which pleased everybody here. We had Luna, Annie, Flo & Mimi from the Philippines plus myself and Lars Olav from Sweden. It was thrilling. I know nothing about boxing but it appeared that Manny had a game plan and stuck to it ..... speed and motion.

So looks like the next match for Manny will be against Ricky Hatton, from the UK.I am for Manny!

And phonecalls and SMSs were flying between here and the Philippines.

There will be one major party today in the Philippines and why not. I understand that thing, the little fighter on whose hopes a whole nation lies. The Irish had it in Barry McGuigan. But Manny, he is the man! From what I have read La Hoya earned US$ 30 million against Manny's US$15 million. In fairness to La Hoya he went out with dignity and he handed his laurel gracefully over to Manny. I think we are going to hear a lot more about Manny in the next few years and I am really looking forward to watching his future fights. The little man from General Santos in the deep south of the Philippines, in the troubled Mindanao region.

Well congratulations to Manny and to all filipinos everywhere!

Long Live the King

Friday 5th December marked the 81st birthday of the King of Thailand, HRH Bhumibol Adulyadej, who, by the way, is the longest serving monarch in the world with 62 years on the throne. So it was a public holiday and this meant the traffic out of Bangkok on Thursday was wild. It took me almost four hours to drive home, partly due to poor route choice.

I have to say it was a very pleasant celebration. Mega pictures of the King draped over buildings, special light displays, and the locals apparently having a real nice time which they never seem to have any difficulty with. Friday proper saw marching bands and a parade followed by a firework display in the evening. Tesco's were running special promotions on cooking oil and other products. You could hardly move there were so many people in there. They were also handing out coupons to be redeemed for cash reductions on your next shop. Clearly the King's birthday is a time to give...

Unfortunately we did not hear from the monarch who had a sore throat and is a bit poorly. So for the first time ever there was no birthday address.

From the outside it seemed a pleasant laid back day. It felt like a holiday.

And of course the airport is open again, the Prime Minister has disappeared into obscurity and we await the next development on the political front. Elsewhere the economic meltdown appears to be in full flow. TV reports half a million people lost their jobs in the US in November. The pound is struggling. One pound gets just under 51 Thai baht today; six months ago it got 68 baht.All rather messy. I am very glad to be here with a few GB pounds that I exchanged for 67 and 59 baht.

There is talk of a teaching job. I went in to meet people and was advised they would get back to me this coming week. I guess I am ready for work. Watch this space.

Long live the King.And this Wednesday is Constitution Day so yes, another public holiday.

4th December A Poignant Day

4th December 2006 my mother passed away.

I had a troubled relationship with my mother and unfortunately by the time I came to my senses she was staring death in the face. I was able to make amends to my mother before she passed away. This was essentially to express my regret for not making the most of the educational opportunity she battled for on my behalf.

Poor old mum. I must have been such a huge disappointment to her and in effect I spent much of my adult life isolated in London, a long way from home.

A remarkable woman who bristled with energy, vitality,mischief and defiance. Widowed at the age of 49 when my father died suddenly in 1977. I can only say my mother's marriage must have been miserable as my father was an obstreperous, aggressive, enuretic drunk who brought whisky fuelled carnage to the house every weekend without fail. Drink must have been the underlying reason for his sudden death. She tried hard to make it appear as if she was happily married but the marital home was very angry, volatile and explosive.

My mother was a primary school teacher and by retirement had made it to head teacher. She loved teaching and she loved children. I have fond memories of going to church with her and as she got nearer she would be waving at kids and their parents, knowing everyone's name, describing kids as "wee scunner" or a "right wee poltice, just like his mother". She belonged to a generation of formidable women teachers who quite literally battered the rudiments of education, the "three Rs" of reading, writing and arithmetic, into kids who would otherwise have been forgotten. Of course there was a fourth R, this one for religion.My mother was a devout Catholic and she taught in Catholic schools and so she and her ilk battered the catechism into the kids as well!

She loved her cigarettes and whisky. Sadly the drink did for her in later life and tragically she died of lung cancer. At the end I found it shocking that my mother's sole concern about her care was determined by whether she could smoke.It was as a result of visiting her in the final year of her life and listening to her machine gun rattle of a cough, and seeing the palpable pain she was in, that triggered my latest and most successful attempt at quitting smoking.

In her earlier years my mother was the life and soul of the party and many of my peers had their first experience of intoxication at her behest, usually at house parties. I remember one neighbour being so pissed he had to be carried home and my mother organised the bearers.

She worked hard and she started the day cooking and ended the day making a dress after cooking an evening meal. In between she taught.Tireless energy.Much suffering quietly endured for a greater glory. I don't think my father was in a fit state to offer much practical assistance in the house.

I never really knew my mother's father but I heard she had a difficult relationship with him. He too was reputed to be a drunk with a controversial existence who left his ailing wife in favour of a mistress. Scandalous in post war Catholic Glasgow.

My poor mother, the men who should have been most important to her were terrible failures. The son, your writer, another bum.

So today I pray for my mother's soul. I pray that she has found eternal peace and that she is reunited with my father in heaven in perfect bliss and happiness. At her funeral I said I would try to do for her memory what I was unable to do for her in her life. I would have liked her to meet my wife, Luna; I would like her to know that I was on the verge of being a dad. Alas these things were not to be.

Freedom!

The bot has finally relented, after weeks it accepts I am a human. Reminiscent of public sector efficiency! Thank you bot and Google.

Here in Thailand the People's Alliance for Democracy has taken over Suvarnabhumi Airport and the lesser Don Muang Airport, Bangkok. This action has apparently paralysed not only flights in and out but the entire Thai tourist industry. The Prime Minister appears a lame duck, totally impotent, and surely it is only a matter of time before he resigns and the election the PAD are demanding is granted. 

It is quite clear the police and the army are not prepared to use force to clear the airports of protesters. The BBC portrays the PAD as royalist, middle class, suburban, but I think the real point is they represent people power and they are not the mob from the outer fringes of Mongolia, as it were. The PAD is a group of people that normally would obey the law of the land. A bit like the residents of Tonbridge Wells, methinks. 

Of course most commentators have failed to observe this point: it was no secret that the PAD was going to take its protest to Suvarnabhumi Airport. So without wanting to sound too glib why didn't the government put restrictions in place at the airport and prevent this occupation from occurring? I cannot see the British or the US government leaving Heathrow or JFK respectively unsecured in the event of proposed and publicised mass protest. This failure must surely lie at the door of Mr Wongsawat, the beleaguered Prime Minister. Increasingly he appears to be utterly inept giving some credibility to the PAD claim that he is proxy of our old friend, Mr Shinawatra.

I believe most visitors from first world countries will eventually recover from their ordeal. Clearly the tourist industry has been and continues to be very badly damaged and this will undoubtedly knock into many other areas of the economy.

Personally I feel grateful that there has not been significant bloodshed and it appears that the army and the police are eager to avoid it as well.

Mr Thaksin must be rejoicing with the preconditions in place for a saviour to be airlifted in. Thaksin is reported to have netted 70 billion baht (c £1.35 billion) tax free from selling his phone company about two years ago. Yup he didn't pay any tax on this gain or income and he was selling a Thai asset, located in Thailand, to a Singaporean company. Thaksin's handling of other issues while PM, drugs and the insurgency in the South of Thailand suggests he has little regard for the value of life or normal judicial process. I don't know the detail of his other misdemeanours but he has been sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment in absentia and has chosen to be a fugitive by staying away. So it is Thaksin, his criminal conviction, his corruption and his influence from outside the country that has stirred up the PAD and they must be deeply concerned about the prospect of a man of his pedigree returning.

So Thailand is in melt down with Suvarnabhumi Airport closed. 

How is this affecting ordinary lives? In Hua Hin today I heard a well known hotel chain had made 60 redundancies and its occupany is 47% compared with 85% at this time last year. No doubt this is a story that is being repeated throughout Thailand. 

So these are challenging times to put it mildly.