11th episode of Bangkok days and Nights
7th July 2006
Last night Adam had to take a client out to dinner and the obligatory tour of the girlie bars, so Rosalind Sheila and I had an early dinner of roast loin of pork with roasted garlic and a few other vegetables, one of which I recognised as carrot.
After dinner I settled in to watch the remainder of the Ladies Semi-Final match with Justine Henin-Hardenne playing Kim Clijsters. The score was 5-4 in the tie break second set when Sheila posed the question, “what do you think of tennis Rosalind?”
“Boring very boring” was Rosalind’s reply.
Ah well, I did want to watch the DVDs featuring the ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ drama starring Alec Guinness. Sheila and I watched five episodes in a row so that we went to bed about 2359, I think that Rosalind went to bed about 2245. We still have to watch the next five episodes to finish it off.
Rosalind was the first up, after Khun Noy of course, and I was next after drinking a cup of tea in bed Sheila had made.
Adam left for work while Sheila and I got organised for a session at the gym, Sheila with her personal trainer and me a few laps of the pool.
On the way I took the dogs a little piece of grilled fish, that they were not to keen about.
When we got to the end of the Soi I hailed a taxi and Sheila asked that I give the instructions to see if I would succeed any better.
I tried my speaking down my nose while blurring the words a bit, my patent trick for getting the Thai tonal quality correct. No my idea did not work either, but between the three of us we were delivered to the Ascot hotel in good time for Sheila’s scheduled session. We did cause the taxi driver some consternation when Sheila told him in Thai to ‘turn at number four’ rather than ‘turn left’. The Thai words for ‘four’ and ‘left’ are sort of similar, but we did have a laugh with the taxi driver scratching his head at the request to turn four rather than turn left and then him understanding when Sheila changed her request using the correct words.
Sheila had a ‘good’ work out for over an hour while I completed my sixty laps. I think that we are doing ok for a couple in their sixtieth year.
We had been told by Rosalind that Khun Boon Chuay, the driver, would be available to pick us up and he would be in the car-park when we had finished. We were told to just give him a call and he would drive down to pick us up at the exit from the hotel. I suggested to Sheila that I would just get some extra exercise and walk up the ramps until I found Khun Boon Chuay. Yes I found him ok and also achieved the extra exercise as he was parked on the top floor, five levels up.
When we got back to the apartment, Rosalind was half way through her lunch and after our exercise we also felt a trifle peckish and raided the fridge. After lunch Sheila was feeling a trifle weary and went for a siesta while I went up the soi to get a paper and a French loaf to have with some lentil soup that Sheila had made. On the way I called in the see the dogs and they all appreciated the bits of cheese that I gave them. On my return they came bounding up to me and although a couple enjoyed a bit of a head scruff they soon discovered that there was no food and wandered off.
Rosalind was out most of the afternoon at a waxing session, but I will say no more as I think it falls into the category of ‘secret women’s business’. Khun Noy was supervising an electrician who was asked to change some globes and took most of the day to change some halogen globes but about five transformers. These are replaced with alarming regularity as the plastic surrounding the output wire connectors melts. I suspect that either the transformers are duds or not rated to work with the 240 volt input. Electrical wiring generally is very haphazard, with huge loops of electrical cables draped along the roadsides.
8th July
Being a Saturday it was even more laid back than usual. Sheila decided to rest her lags after a vigorous work-out at the gym yesterday. Sheila ensconced herself by the window to do some embroidery work on her Christmas stocking, the last one for the family. Adam Rosalind and I went to the gym at 1400, I went for my usual swim while the worked out. I was pleased that I complete 76 laps which I think was just over 1500 metres, but I don’t think I am any threat to Grant Hackett, as it took me about an hour and ten minutes to complete.
After gym we went with Adam to his dental appointment where he was having his braces tightened and a couple of lose pegs replaced. I was very impressed with the dental practice, as on the ground floor they have a café which sells excellent coffee and cakes etc. It makes waiting a very civilized event. I thought that the coffee and biscuits were good enough to warrant a visit on their own merit without having any dental work. I thought it also a cunning plot, sell nice sweet stuff and you will increase the need for dental treatment. After returning to the apartment, two minutes drive, I decided to walk up the soi get a paper and also see if I could get an almond croissant for Sheila and some other Danish pastries. Success at last the last almond croissant and a couple of very yummy Danish pastries were mine.
For dinner Sheila and I had a chicken casserole, and a crème caramel that Sheila had made. After dinner Sheila and I watched the last four episodes of ‘Tinker, tailor soldier spy’, while Adam and Rosalind went out for dinner to a Japanese Restaurant that features ‘fusion food’ a compromise between Japanese and Western cuisine, though from Adams’s description of the menu think it is still heavily reliant on the Japanese. They were asked to leave at 2359 as the restaurant owners will not pay the necessary bribes to the police to remain open after midnight.
Saturday 8th July
Sheila had sore knees from a session with the personal trainer and decided that she will not continue with the weights and cardio workouts and convert the sessions into more Pilates from which she is deriving much more benefit. I did another seventy-six laps of the pool at least, I wish they would install some sort of lap counter as when I lose count I go back to the last number I remember counting, I wonder if Grant Hackett does the same sort of thing?
I don’t take my spectacles with me and when I hand over my membership card at the reception desk, in exchange for another card with a locker key, I sometimes don’t hear the girl’s quietly spoken number of the locker that is printed on the card.
If Adam is around it is not a problem as I just ask him to look at the card and tell me the number or if I am on my own I hold it at arm’s length and move it around in the light trying to decipher it. On this occasion I was on my own, but noticed an older European looking chap getting changed near where I thought my locker would be.
“Excuse me I have forgotten my glasses, would you please tell me my locker number”, I said as I pushed my locker key and card into his hand.
He quickly looked around the ‘locker-room’, and at my card as if it was some elicit contraband.
“Eighty-five”, he whispered in a North American accent, pushing the card back to me with great haste, as if he did not want to be seen handling it.
This behaviour had me puzzled, and as I was swimming the only explanation that seemed consistent with his behaviour was that I had broken one of the cardinal rules of the ‘locker-room’. ‘Don’t talk to strangers’. Maybe my “please would you tell me my locker number” is some sort of ‘gay code’ for “I fancy your body”. Mm note don’t ask any strangers to read the locker number of my card. It was also grossly insulting for me, I mean I don’t look ‘gay’ do I? He was also a large elderly American man and that does not move my passion on any counts; bigotry and bias yes passion no!
Sunday 9th July
A late rise after which I fed the dogs, I should say dog as only one of them ‘fronted –up’ I think the rest were having a Sunday lie-in in their kennel. The guard at the apartments opposite told me that the dog I was feeding was called ‘Fang’, this amused me as he was one of the fluffy ones and the least likely to suit the moniker ‘fang’.
In the afternoon gym it was a Pilates for the girls, a work out for Adam with his personal trainer and swimming for me, another with Grant Hackett but he ‘piked out’.
I wish I had I am finding that I am getting a little tired of the laps, but at the same time feel I a getting a fitness benefit.
I have been trying to write this a few days later and it has highlighted the problem for me as I can not recall much of what else we did apart from buying a paper and eating, I must resolve to keep my notes on a more regular basis.
Monday 10th July
No much on the agenda for the day except at1500 we went with Rosalind to her dentist as she was having her last wisdom tooth extracted. Sheila also enquired about the cost of an implant where she has a gap in her teeth. It would be about two thirds of the cost of getting it done in Australia, but as it is a three to six months process it is not viable anyway. We had only just sat down and a nurse came to collect Rosalind, I did not feel happy as the nurse was all masked and gowned and looked very much the part of a theatre nurse. Though on reflection that should be a reassuring sight rather than one for concern.
I had just settled back to read the paper when Rosalind reappeared and told us that it was all done and she felt fine. We were very impressed with every aspect of the dental services. When we got back to the apartment Rosalind changed into her pyjamas, and snuggled down on the sofa with an ice-pack on her jaw, to watch an old movie to take her mind off her operation.
On the way back to the apartment I had noticed a temporary market being set up on some clear ground in between what looked like two ‘housing commission’ blocks and I said that I would walk up and have a look around the market. It was very much a market for the ‘local’ people and I was the only ‘farang’ in evidence. I did get a few glances that when translated would have said something like “what the hell are you doing here?” There were about two hundred stalls half of which were devoted to selling cheap clothing and plastic ‘tat’ and the other half were food stalls. Some of the food stalls were selling fresh fish and I found my reaction interesting. On one stall in particular there was a large plastic tray in which there were about twenty large fish, all alive but gasping their last. I felt uncomfortable watching them in their death throes, but then thought how hypocritical I was that I would feel more relaxed at seeing dead fish, that would not be as fresh as long as I was not present at their death. I guess the same reason that we don’t visit abattoirs and chicken farms and are quite happy to eat, fluffy young lambs, prime beef and chooks. I did not buy anything at the market even though here were lots of obvious bargains including pork loins and some fat green wiggly worms.
Sheila had a Pilates class at 1800 and when we got a taxi at the end of he soi this one understood Sheila’s instructions very well and the traffic was so light we got to the gym in five minutes. I decided to race Grant Hackett again, but he did not turn up, yet again, mid you nor did anyone else as I spent most of my time swimming in a tropical thunderstorm. There was no-one else either in the pool or pool-side, and the rain was so heavy I was absolutely soaked. Still I managed my seventy six laps again. When I finished at 1915 I walked down to the refreshment bar area and met Adam who was just ‘finishing’ his workout. Sheila joined me and we said that we might as well wait for Adam and travel home together. Adam had miscalculated and did not finish until 2015, but we had no pressing engagements except I was feeling very hungry by then Khun Noy had prepared hamburgers and a tomato and vegetable sauce that was great, but hardly touched the sides of my throat as I wolfed it down. A couple of old episodes of Seinfeld and I was happy to go to bed and read my book
Tuesday
11th July 2006
Today is the start of Buddhist Lent and a public holiday, which is especially good for Adam as tomorrow he has to go to Jakarta until Friday on a proposition for an acquisition on behalf of one of his clients.
Sheila and I are planning a ‘vege-out’ day just sitting reading, while Rosalind went to the gym. Adam put on a DVD called ‘The Man Who Was Not There’ starring Billy Bob Thornton. Sheila and I had not heard of the film, but thought it was very good with Bill Bob Thornton proving to be an excellent actor again, (we enjoyed another of his films called ‘Sling-blade’. Khun Noy was going for her first swimming lesson today, Sheila and I were surprised that at thirty two years of age Khun Noy was just learning to swim. Adam said that he was surprised also, as he said that most Thais do not know how to swim. Mind you I can understand not wanting to swim in the Chao Phraya River, and a swimming beach is not close-by to Bangkok.
Last night Adam had to take a client out to dinner and the obligatory tour of the girlie bars, so Rosalind Sheila and I had an early dinner of roast loin of pork with roasted garlic and a few other vegetables, one of which I recognised as carrot.
After dinner I settled in to watch the remainder of the Ladies Semi-Final match with Justine Henin-Hardenne playing Kim Clijsters. The score was 5-4 in the tie break second set when Sheila posed the question, “what do you think of tennis Rosalind?”
“Boring very boring” was Rosalind’s reply.
Ah well, I did want to watch the DVDs featuring the ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ drama starring Alec Guinness. Sheila and I watched five episodes in a row so that we went to bed about 2359, I think that Rosalind went to bed about 2245. We still have to watch the next five episodes to finish it off.
Rosalind was the first up, after Khun Noy of course, and I was next after drinking a cup of tea in bed Sheila had made.
Adam left for work while Sheila and I got organised for a session at the gym, Sheila with her personal trainer and me a few laps of the pool.
On the way I took the dogs a little piece of grilled fish, that they were not to keen about.
When we got to the end of the Soi I hailed a taxi and Sheila asked that I give the instructions to see if I would succeed any better.
I tried my speaking down my nose while blurring the words a bit, my patent trick for getting the Thai tonal quality correct. No my idea did not work either, but between the three of us we were delivered to the Ascot hotel in good time for Sheila’s scheduled session. We did cause the taxi driver some consternation when Sheila told him in Thai to ‘turn at number four’ rather than ‘turn left’. The Thai words for ‘four’ and ‘left’ are sort of similar, but we did have a laugh with the taxi driver scratching his head at the request to turn four rather than turn left and then him understanding when Sheila changed her request using the correct words.
Sheila had a ‘good’ work out for over an hour while I completed my sixty laps. I think that we are doing ok for a couple in their sixtieth year.
We had been told by Rosalind that Khun Boon Chuay, the driver, would be available to pick us up and he would be in the car-park when we had finished. We were told to just give him a call and he would drive down to pick us up at the exit from the hotel. I suggested to Sheila that I would just get some extra exercise and walk up the ramps until I found Khun Boon Chuay. Yes I found him ok and also achieved the extra exercise as he was parked on the top floor, five levels up.
When we got back to the apartment, Rosalind was half way through her lunch and after our exercise we also felt a trifle peckish and raided the fridge. After lunch Sheila was feeling a trifle weary and went for a siesta while I went up the soi to get a paper and a French loaf to have with some lentil soup that Sheila had made. On the way I called in the see the dogs and they all appreciated the bits of cheese that I gave them. On my return they came bounding up to me and although a couple enjoyed a bit of a head scruff they soon discovered that there was no food and wandered off.
Rosalind was out most of the afternoon at a waxing session, but I will say no more as I think it falls into the category of ‘secret women’s business’. Khun Noy was supervising an electrician who was asked to change some globes and took most of the day to change some halogen globes but about five transformers. These are replaced with alarming regularity as the plastic surrounding the output wire connectors melts. I suspect that either the transformers are duds or not rated to work with the 240 volt input. Electrical wiring generally is very haphazard, with huge loops of electrical cables draped along the roadsides.
8th July
Being a Saturday it was even more laid back than usual. Sheila decided to rest her lags after a vigorous work-out at the gym yesterday. Sheila ensconced herself by the window to do some embroidery work on her Christmas stocking, the last one for the family. Adam Rosalind and I went to the gym at 1400, I went for my usual swim while the worked out. I was pleased that I complete 76 laps which I think was just over 1500 metres, but I don’t think I am any threat to Grant Hackett, as it took me about an hour and ten minutes to complete.
After gym we went with Adam to his dental appointment where he was having his braces tightened and a couple of lose pegs replaced. I was very impressed with the dental practice, as on the ground floor they have a café which sells excellent coffee and cakes etc. It makes waiting a very civilized event. I thought that the coffee and biscuits were good enough to warrant a visit on their own merit without having any dental work. I thought it also a cunning plot, sell nice sweet stuff and you will increase the need for dental treatment. After returning to the apartment, two minutes drive, I decided to walk up the soi get a paper and also see if I could get an almond croissant for Sheila and some other Danish pastries. Success at last the last almond croissant and a couple of very yummy Danish pastries were mine.
For dinner Sheila and I had a chicken casserole, and a crème caramel that Sheila had made. After dinner Sheila and I watched the last four episodes of ‘Tinker, tailor soldier spy’, while Adam and Rosalind went out for dinner to a Japanese Restaurant that features ‘fusion food’ a compromise between Japanese and Western cuisine, though from Adams’s description of the menu think it is still heavily reliant on the Japanese. They were asked to leave at 2359 as the restaurant owners will not pay the necessary bribes to the police to remain open after midnight.
Saturday 8th July
Sheila had sore knees from a session with the personal trainer and decided that she will not continue with the weights and cardio workouts and convert the sessions into more Pilates from which she is deriving much more benefit. I did another seventy-six laps of the pool at least, I wish they would install some sort of lap counter as when I lose count I go back to the last number I remember counting, I wonder if Grant Hackett does the same sort of thing?
I don’t take my spectacles with me and when I hand over my membership card at the reception desk, in exchange for another card with a locker key, I sometimes don’t hear the girl’s quietly spoken number of the locker that is printed on the card.
If Adam is around it is not a problem as I just ask him to look at the card and tell me the number or if I am on my own I hold it at arm’s length and move it around in the light trying to decipher it. On this occasion I was on my own, but noticed an older European looking chap getting changed near where I thought my locker would be.
“Excuse me I have forgotten my glasses, would you please tell me my locker number”, I said as I pushed my locker key and card into his hand.
He quickly looked around the ‘locker-room’, and at my card as if it was some elicit contraband.
“Eighty-five”, he whispered in a North American accent, pushing the card back to me with great haste, as if he did not want to be seen handling it.
This behaviour had me puzzled, and as I was swimming the only explanation that seemed consistent with his behaviour was that I had broken one of the cardinal rules of the ‘locker-room’. ‘Don’t talk to strangers’. Maybe my “please would you tell me my locker number” is some sort of ‘gay code’ for “I fancy your body”. Mm note don’t ask any strangers to read the locker number of my card. It was also grossly insulting for me, I mean I don’t look ‘gay’ do I? He was also a large elderly American man and that does not move my passion on any counts; bigotry and bias yes passion no!
Sunday 9th July
A late rise after which I fed the dogs, I should say dog as only one of them ‘fronted –up’ I think the rest were having a Sunday lie-in in their kennel. The guard at the apartments opposite told me that the dog I was feeding was called ‘Fang’, this amused me as he was one of the fluffy ones and the least likely to suit the moniker ‘fang’.
In the afternoon gym it was a Pilates for the girls, a work out for Adam with his personal trainer and swimming for me, another with Grant Hackett but he ‘piked out’.
I wish I had I am finding that I am getting a little tired of the laps, but at the same time feel I a getting a fitness benefit.
I have been trying to write this a few days later and it has highlighted the problem for me as I can not recall much of what else we did apart from buying a paper and eating, I must resolve to keep my notes on a more regular basis.
Monday 10th July
No much on the agenda for the day except at1500 we went with Rosalind to her dentist as she was having her last wisdom tooth extracted. Sheila also enquired about the cost of an implant where she has a gap in her teeth. It would be about two thirds of the cost of getting it done in Australia, but as it is a three to six months process it is not viable anyway. We had only just sat down and a nurse came to collect Rosalind, I did not feel happy as the nurse was all masked and gowned and looked very much the part of a theatre nurse. Though on reflection that should be a reassuring sight rather than one for concern.
I had just settled back to read the paper when Rosalind reappeared and told us that it was all done and she felt fine. We were very impressed with every aspect of the dental services. When we got back to the apartment Rosalind changed into her pyjamas, and snuggled down on the sofa with an ice-pack on her jaw, to watch an old movie to take her mind off her operation.
On the way back to the apartment I had noticed a temporary market being set up on some clear ground in between what looked like two ‘housing commission’ blocks and I said that I would walk up and have a look around the market. It was very much a market for the ‘local’ people and I was the only ‘farang’ in evidence. I did get a few glances that when translated would have said something like “what the hell are you doing here?” There were about two hundred stalls half of which were devoted to selling cheap clothing and plastic ‘tat’ and the other half were food stalls. Some of the food stalls were selling fresh fish and I found my reaction interesting. On one stall in particular there was a large plastic tray in which there were about twenty large fish, all alive but gasping their last. I felt uncomfortable watching them in their death throes, but then thought how hypocritical I was that I would feel more relaxed at seeing dead fish, that would not be as fresh as long as I was not present at their death. I guess the same reason that we don’t visit abattoirs and chicken farms and are quite happy to eat, fluffy young lambs, prime beef and chooks. I did not buy anything at the market even though here were lots of obvious bargains including pork loins and some fat green wiggly worms.
Sheila had a Pilates class at 1800 and when we got a taxi at the end of he soi this one understood Sheila’s instructions very well and the traffic was so light we got to the gym in five minutes. I decided to race Grant Hackett again, but he did not turn up, yet again, mid you nor did anyone else as I spent most of my time swimming in a tropical thunderstorm. There was no-one else either in the pool or pool-side, and the rain was so heavy I was absolutely soaked. Still I managed my seventy six laps again. When I finished at 1915 I walked down to the refreshment bar area and met Adam who was just ‘finishing’ his workout. Sheila joined me and we said that we might as well wait for Adam and travel home together. Adam had miscalculated and did not finish until 2015, but we had no pressing engagements except I was feeling very hungry by then Khun Noy had prepared hamburgers and a tomato and vegetable sauce that was great, but hardly touched the sides of my throat as I wolfed it down. A couple of old episodes of Seinfeld and I was happy to go to bed and read my book
Tuesday
11th July 2006
Today is the start of Buddhist Lent and a public holiday, which is especially good for Adam as tomorrow he has to go to Jakarta until Friday on a proposition for an acquisition on behalf of one of his clients.
Sheila and I are planning a ‘vege-out’ day just sitting reading, while Rosalind went to the gym. Adam put on a DVD called ‘The Man Who Was Not There’ starring Billy Bob Thornton. Sheila and I had not heard of the film, but thought it was very good with Bill Bob Thornton proving to be an excellent actor again, (we enjoyed another of his films called ‘Sling-blade’. Khun Noy was going for her first swimming lesson today, Sheila and I were surprised that at thirty two years of age Khun Noy was just learning to swim. Adam said that he was surprised also, as he said that most Thais do not know how to swim. Mind you I can understand not wanting to swim in the Chao Phraya River, and a swimming beach is not close-by to Bangkok.
posted by John Lunn at 8:25 PM
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