Television, Tissues And Tasty Treats!

Reading the Bangkok Post online this morning disclosed that the news presented was local or regional as I would have expected. There were two articles, however, that stood out as outliers. One described LeBron James lifetime endorsement contract with Nike for gazillions of dollars and Trump’s ranting about registering Muslims in the US.  Of course, I thought that a few other more important world events such as the Paris climate conference or the Syrian conflict might be covered, but no, only LeBron and the Donald. Perhaps the Bangkok Post is owned by the same intellectual giants who enlighten us with FOX News! 

First time ever. We went into an upscale mall today for a brief visit. There was a doorman or concierge that saluted us as we entered the building. Either he recognized the Queen of Shopping, who was accompanying me, or it is a Thai custom. I will chose to believe the former. 

Trying to keep informed of worldly events is only possible with the Internet. We have a lovely 42 inch flat screen TV in our apartment with six scintillating channels. Channels one or two are identical news channels in Thai, channel 3 is yellow interference, channels 4 and 5 are identical children’s programming and channel 6 is black and white static. Take your pick! This hardship is actually a blessing in disguise, as it forces one to read more, walk more and even make conversation. Probably a bonus, rather than a negative. Another of the small adaptations that are required when you live overseas! The only saving grace is that we know that those of you in Canada who possess over 2,345 channels don’t have anything more interesting to watch than we do!

Generally, the Thai people are quite small in stature, with fine features. Even if you never saw a Thai person, you would know they were small whenever you went into a restaurant. When you pulled a serviette from the tissue dispenser to wipe your fingers you would be holding a 4 inch by 8 inch piece of micro thin tissue that is barely big enough to whisk off the grease of one chicken wing. By the time I finish a finger food meal I have extracted enough “paper?” tissue to wallpaper the kitchen! A Thai will use one tissue and find it sufficient. Just saying!

The Bangkok Skytrain: Every time I ride the elevated train I marvel that:

• Adults will get up and offer their seat to children. My granddaughter thinks she is royalty. Eight year old Helen will stand with the soulful expression in her eyes of an urchin returning home from the sweatshop and before you know it someone leaps up and offers her a seat. 

• You are constantly serenaded by cell phone music as everyone has a cell phone and everyones phone rings at least once on every journey. A veritable concert of eclectic music.

• That every station’s name seems to sound the same to me e.g. Flang long, Flow dong, Plith wing, Wong pot, Chit mit or some other combination of cacophonous sounds. Instead of listening for the name of the station I just learn the number. Our stop is Udom Suk or number 12.

Question of the Day: Saw a poster advertising Nancy’s Message Parlour and Bakery today. Can someone explain the correlation between a message parlour and a bakery? Possible answers: The both deal with buns! They both involve kneading! They both provide basic goods, but for a few dollars more, they can offer some exotic extras!