today’s news footage on the monks’ protest was just absolutely batshitcrazy … holy people overturning a car-sized alms bowl as a show of protest against the Constitutional Drafting Committee for not placing ‘ Buddhism as the national religion ‘ in the new constitution … one of them climbed up the overturned bowl and chanted curses on the 66 parliament members who voted against the proposal … this group of protesting monks is just a minority but they did a great job in destroying the calm and serenity that comes with Buddhism … which wat ( temple ) are they in ? …
June 30, 2007
June 28, 2007
“Tum na bon lung kwai”
here the “kwai” ( water buffalo ) will be our housekeeper … and the person who’s harvesting ( tum na ) on her back will be the money sharks …. the housekeeper borrowed 10,000bht three months ago from the ‘ khao gang ‘ woman ( whom i think sells food as a cover since her food’s not tasty at all ) … the loan was for her mom’s debt … the interest was 20% , if the borrowed amount is returned within 15 days … ( 20% here means per month … so she have to return 12,000 bht in 15 days ) … she didn’t make the full payment …. she gave the khao gang woman 2000bht to deduct from the principal and 2000bht for the interest … come the next 15 days , her interest has doubled to 40% … another 4000 gone for principal and interest … come the next 3 payments , she don’t have any money left to deduct the principal … so each 15 days , she paid the woman 1200bht int , before realising that this would never come to an end and come crying to us …
i guess things were put into perspective for her … she realises that she could lose her job for being in this kind of debt … things were also put into perspective for us … we were planning ‘ project khao mun gai ‘ ( chicken rice project ) for her … since both the kids are in school , her workload has reduced dramatically … we were planning to invest in a ‘ khao mun gai ‘ stall for her at the night market … she gets new income , her teenage daughter will have to help and hence stay within her eyesight, we can switch to hiring her by the hour , everybody wins … now the trust has dropped down several notches …
June 26, 2007
weird fish
my mom gave this to us … in thai, it’s called ‘ pla rad ‘ ( rhino fish ) … the workers here are feeding it fruits , cuz it’s albino and they believe that albino fish are vegens … the funny thing is , it actually likes eating rambutans, bananas, and papayas … it doesn’t seem interested in catching the little fishies we place inside …
the husband just gave away the carps and a redtail catfish to his brother … the catfish acts like a dog …. not that it barks , but it’s so friendly … you can hand feed it and even pet it ! … it follows us around the pond , so cute …
June 24, 2007
tv air booking sale !
there’s a 2 day sales going on at tv air booking , central chitlom … i went to get tickets for my parents and was the queue long ! … i was there at 11 am and got my booking at 1 pm … if you book tickets , you’ll have to pay a 2000 bht deposit per ticket … the lowest price for a return trip to hong kong with 2 nights accomodation is 7,350bht …
free school holidays
a prathom 1 ( grade 1 ) student caught the much feared hand-foot-mouth disease and the school announced the prathom section will be closed till july 2nd … just when my muscles have recovered from the thrice 4kms run at the gym , i get to take a long break and do it all over again …
more rain please
ah , it rained heavily again … once again on the sanam luang protestors … is this a sign for them to go home ? … for me, the mob gathering there looks staged under the fight for democracy … the feeling wasn’t like the anti-Taksin mob where you see office workers coming out of their work place to give their support …. it just doesn’t seem right to end a coup under the pretext of democracy … it would be a waste of blood …
June 21, 2007
Hand-Foot-Mouth part 2
yipes … the K-1 caught it … she’s the happiest K-1 around with a blistered tongue … she have a mild fever and few spots on her hands and feet … the school called and they are closing down the kindergarten section until July 2nd … horrors … my plans for spending the whole afternoon at Amazing Thailand sales went *poof !* …
i discovered a fault with my new printer … unlike the canon mpc190, it does not have a text screen … so if i want to copy something by reducing its size , i’ll have to turn the computer on … not very convenient …
June 20, 2007
Dr. Three Bond
I discovered Dr. Three Bond today … I let out a ‘ who-oa ! ‘ when the salesman show me an ostrich-size rock stuck on the wall with Dr. Three Bond… It’s nail glue and it could hold up to 40 kgs of weight … today’s home decorating project was gluing two hooks to hold up a dish rack, vertically, on my bathroom wall … i then added plastic containers, baskets , hooks, etc . to make a bathroom organiser …
June 19, 2007
Hands-Foot-Mouth returns
the school had nurses performing check-ups on their students this morning … it’s the return of the Hand-Foot-Mouth disease … they’ve also zoned out the sand playground areas … so bangkok parents be warned and stay away from public play areas for the time being …
June 18, 2007
bang! bang!
How do you fire a person ? … in the old days, the father-in-law hands the worker his pay and tells him to leave … that’s it, the quick and cruel way … this is the first time the husband has to fire somebody … he looks more stressed than the guy whom he has to fire …
we seem to have a penchant of hiring the most interesting of the lot … our favorite was the gay worker who giggles and simultaneously lifts 70kgs boxes off a truck …. sadly , we lost him to AIDS this chinese new year … the others are alcoholics … imagine, grown men with families but cannot handle their income … they have to be paid bi-monthly or all will be lost to Saeng Som … the climax will be the ex-convict … we found out about that a year after this person was hired … it took a few days for our nerves to settle during which each step we took, echoed ” We’ve hired an ex-drug peddler !!! For a whole year !!! ” … but then, do one judge a person on what they’ve done a decade ago or for what they are now ? …
