14th episode of Bangkok Days and Nights

Dinner was chicken breasts with herbs and mozzarella cheese on porcini mushrooms accompanied by broccoli and asparagus spears.
Before I forget I must recount our recent equivalent of the ‘Caine Mutiny’ the film starring Henry Fonda and James Cagney. The issue in the film was the ‘strawberries’, in our case it was the ‘Listerine’. Sheila had bought a bottle of ‘Listerine’, to use as a mouth wash. I noticed it in a drawer one day while I was shaving and thought “what a good idea, I have some of that”. Next day when I went to the drawer it was missing, but a quick search revealed that it was on a shelf in the cupboard under the sink. “No worries” I thought, “so it has been moved, no big deal, I was still able to find it”. I gave no thought to why it may have been moved.
Next day it had been moved again, it was on a different shelf, towards the back of the cupboard. Still I did not have to be Sherlock Homes to find it. The following day it had been moved again, this time behind a stack of towels. I found this little game of hide and seek an amusing diversion each morning, but did not begin to fathom its purpose. I should add that I was always careful to replace the bottle exactly as I found it ensuring that not only the location was precise, but also that the label was facing the same way as when I found it.
Then the fatal error, over breakfast I casually asked Sheila, “do you know why the Listerine bottle keeps being moved?”
A deathly hush descended on the kitchen, one of those ‘horror movie moments’ when all actions and conversation stop as the full extent of the terror is absorbed.
The lull before the storm broke: “you’ve not been using my ‘Listerine’ have you?”
The Sheila inquisition commenced with moral and inquisitorial support from Rosalind.
“Yes, why not” I replied in as confident a manner as I could as I felt the rack was about to be cranked up a bit.
“Backwash, backwash”, the sisters of the revolution shrilled as they threw me on the tumbril.
“What do mean backwash, I pour some in the cap and throw it into my mouth” my defence lay before the court.
“No no, backwash backwash” was the mantra; “I will get another bottle today and you can have the rest of the bottle to yourself.”
“But if it is an antiseptic, what would it matter even if there were backwash,” I tried to introduce some logic into the conversation.
“Oh yuk, backwash, backwash;” there was no way that logic was going to compete with female mumbo jumbo. I am now using my own bottle of ‘Listerine’, and sadly no-one is playing hide and seek with it.
Tuesday 18th July
Adam stayed home form work and is spent the day in bed trying to get over his ‘bug’.
I went for my usual walk, feeding the dogs on the way. Well only feeding Fang, as he is the only one that will eat the chicken flavoured dog biscuits that I bought. I think that he does not like them either, but has taken pity on me and eats them to make me feel ok.
I also took a burnt out light with me, one of the ‘Phillips’ long-life globes that have a small fluorescent tubes instead of an incandescent globe. I was not confident that I would be able to buy a replacement without having a sample with me. The first shop I went into was the same one from which I had bought some tubing for my kite.
They had a selection of lights, but not the same as the one I wanted. I asked/mimed if there would be any other shops that might have the lights and was directed to a shop nearly opposite that looked like it had similar stock. I offered my sample and the young lady nodded, disappearing to the back of the shop for a minute, then reappearing with my sample and another boxed light. I put my glasses on and extracted the new light from its box and started to compare the numbers on the lights even though they looked the same fitting. The numbers were different and as I started to point this out the young lady put the new light back in its box and thrust it into my hand, “same same” she declared forcefully.
“Ok how much?” I conceded, perhaps the different numbers did not mean much and maybe it was just they were from different batches. The light was about eight Australian dollars so not all that cheap.
I bought my paper and went into the video store to see if I could hire the “Da Vinci Code”, but the “no can do” reply surprised and disappointed me. My walk back through the market made me think that I should have taken my camera again to take some more photographs of the various people and their stalls.
When I got back I put the new light into the socket, yes the numbers did have some significance, and the new light gave out a white light while all of the others gave out a yellow light. I used a Thai English phrase book to try and explain my annoyance to Khun Noy. First of all Khun Noy’s response was “mai pen rai” (no worries), but the she used the phrase book to explain that the yellow light meant that they were antiques, ‘mai pen rai’ was the most appropriate conclusion.
The other thing I did yesterday was to construct a cardboard cube from a biscuit box. It was in recognition of our ‘philosophical’ debate over dinner a few nights before.
I have named it ‘The Philosophers cube’, which also caused me to think about things mathematical: “two squared equals four and a square has four sides; so how many sides does a cube have?” Its ok I think that the heat has got to me and I have gone a little ‘troppo’.
Back to the Philosophers cube on each of the six sides is a different statement and based on the statements all you have to do is decide which statements are ‘true’ and which are ‘false’, the statements are as follows:
Rosalind’s cube
Sheila’s cube
The statement on the ‘other’ side is true
There is not a God
The statement on the ‘other’ side is false
There is a God
I have included pictures of The Philosophers cube, because I was pleased with my efforts in making one out of a biscuit box, and so that you may make your own using it as a pattern.
If this seems nonsense don’t think about it and don’t worry normal service will resume as soon as sanity prevails.
Adam got up for a short time to make himself some lunch, while Sheila went to Pilates, Rosalind followed Sheila, I think they had back-to-back private classes and then came home together.