Please Close Your Shop So I can Buy Some Beer

Sounds a bit crazy, but every night I have same problem. Every night I like to drink a couple of bottles of beer, usually Chang Beer, only two no more. Being as this is a tropical climate it has to be cold, very cold. Now the nearest shop to me belongs to a lovely couple who are friends with my wife, they stocked Chang Beer because my wife told them I drink it. The problem is that she keeps it in a normal fridge so it’s not ice cold; in fact it’s barely cold at all. Now occasionally I buy it and drink with ice, which to honest I don’t really like.

So now I have to wait until she closes her shop so I can go and buy beer from the other shop. I know you all think I am mad but we live in a very small community here and I being the only foreigner don’t want to get on the wrong side of anyone.

So here I am waiting for the lovely Nu to close her shop so I can go and buy it from shop a little bit further up where they keep the beer in the icebox. Just as I wrote I think I here her closing, so bye for now, it’s time for some refreshment.

Reds Go Home

Well not much happening here in sunny Trang today so I thought I might as well give my views on recent troubles in Bangkok. By the way Reds Go Home is a statement not an order.

As my wife comes from a working class family who are very similar in many ways to a lot of the Red Shirts a part from they live in the South of Thailand, which is equally poor when compared to Bangkok, I feel I am well positioned to comment on what happened. Thaksin when he was in power saw quite cleverly that if he made policies that helped this large majority of Thais’ he would guarantee his re-election, so he came up with free health and poured money into various schemes in Isaan (north-east).

Not a Bad Dinner

Tonight I was planning a sort of tomato, seafood pasta sauce but in the end it turned out a bit different.  I went across to the market and no tomatoes, well not quite one stall had some very green ones, no good for a pasta sauce. 

The wife had already bought some squid so I had to do something. I decided on a squid and bacon creamy sauce (I know it sounds odd, but actually squid goes very well with something salty like bacon). 

So I chopped up a large onion and fried in a large frying pan, as it started to brown I added 3 rashers of bacon finely chopped, and then threw in 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped. Stirred this together for a few minutes then added the squid (cleaned and sliced), covered the pan and let it all cook together until the squid was nice and white, you don’t want to cook it too long because goes like rubber. 

Market Day Today

Well in my exciting world today is the local market day, not that it is very special, and in fact there was a market yesterday. I actually live right next to the main market, and market days are Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  As we are out in the sticks most people buy just about everything from the market, a part from a few general type stores the market is about the only place you can buy anything. Of course most of the stalls sell fresh produce, meat and vegetables, fish is also very popular. At the roadside end there are a number of people selling ready-to-eat-food such as fried chicken, various fried other stuff and drinks. In my opinion none if it is very special, one of the few things I buy is fried chicken breast coated in breadcrumbs, that not bad and at 10 baht a piece it’s also cheap.

Recently a women appeared selling Sushi, which is actually excellent and at 5 baht a piece good value.

Lazy Day Today

One of the big problems here is that everyday seems the same; it can be difficult to tell what day of the week it is. I must admit with my daughter Sarina starting nursery school this last couple of weeks at least now I know when it’s a week day. Anyway today I had to get up early because my wife was at work and I had get Sarina ready for school. Actually that’s not exactly true because I have my wife’s 11 year old daughter Ked to help; in fact she does most of it.

Not A Bad Day

Joke of the Day

A teacher was sitting in the park when I young boy came along sat on a bench and started to eat 10 chocolate bars one after the other. The teacher thought he must say something to the boy.

"Do you realise that eating 10 chocolate bars one after another is bad for your teeth, it will also make you fat and give you spots", said the teacher.

"Well my grandfather lived until he was 95", replied the boy

"and did he eat 10 chocolate bars one after the other". said the teacher

"no, he minded his own bloody business", replied the boy

Quote of the Day

“To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.”

--Philip Howard

Today's Post

Well today started off pretty rough, I had worked until the small hours getting a web site finished for the Rotherham crew and so when I woke up I had brain ache. Luckily the wife took the kids to "wicked witch of the east" the mother-in-law. So had a coffee and some pain killers and went back to sleep. The wife came back about lunchtime which was lucky because I got paid for the web site and money was in her bank account, so I got her ATM card and jumped on the motorbike and heading off to the bank. While I was I got a couple of tins of Pedegree Chum for Lotus because she is sill off her food. (Lotus the dog of course)
So paid the rent, and so me the wife and the women from next door but one, Baa Re (Baa meaning Auntie, and Re her name - Barry!!) decided to go off into the big city - Trang.

Thai Dart Champion - A night at the Fair.

Occasionally here in the sunny south of Thailand a fair appears just down the road from us in the local government offices car park. We can't fail to miss it as they play music so load we can feel it (not hear it- feel it) pumping throughout the house. Well last week it appeared I think it is to do with the Royal Ploughing Ceremony which marks the start of the rice planting season, anyway it is usually here for a couple of weeks. My daughter loves it because they always have a bouncy castle or slider in her language, so we have to go nearly every night just so she can play on the bouncy castle or "len lider" in Thai.