:o(

My flowers are dead

pigs fat, forced feedings, motorbikes and near death experiences...

not all at once i might add.

there is this american guy working at the school i'm working at, we're 2 of the 4 people in the district who speak english(a bit of an exageration), so obviously we talk a lot. brian lives with a thai family, and while he is grateful for their generosity, he also can't stand teh constant force feeding.

whenever he is still for more than 10 mins, some food offering is made to him, which he HAS to eat. he tells me about this forced feeding a lot, and i never quite understood it until i was invited round for a meal yesterday.

i wasn't actually force fed myself - but i did get a glimpse at the way he lives at the moment. he lives with a grandmother and grandfather; i think they are typical grandparents, just eager to ensure that yuou are well fed and are ok, but all thais do this anyway. so they are thai grandparents - grandparents with added assertion.

there was some kind of party happening on sunday anyway, i got there early - just as the grandmother was still cooking. already there were about 20 different dishes on the table, and another 10 or so were to come. so i sat in the kitchen, pretending to understandmost things, while brian helped her out (i was gonna help - but in the end it was just too much hassel trying to ask, by the time she would have understood me, it would all be finished anyway).

...... i just left the blog for a few hours, and in the meantime was taken by the arm by the grandmother to their house, and fed chicken, papaya salad, rice and mangosteen.it was all delicious, but the only problem was that i enquired as to whether they grew their own mangosteen. i later regretted this, as i was taken around their substaintial garden and forced to eat every mangosteen in sight.

mangosteen were my favourite fruit.

back to the party....

... so as she was cooking, she was gettig brian to taste everything make sure its ok, -this is a guy who has been cooked for his whole life, and has asked me of all people to teach him to cook. anyway, i was sitting there soaking up the hectic thai kitchen skills on hand, when she puts a huge bowl of what i presumed were onions in front of brian and asked him to try. as he took a big mouthful he said to me"its pigs fat". i was sure it was just raw onions, but i guess i was wrong, he ate about 5 huge table spoons - no joke. she kept adding a dash of lime juice, or another tablespoon of salt, and getting him to try every new addiition. i don't know how he did it. so it was mixed with a bit of chilli, lime, coconut and coriander, but that doesn't change the fact that it was a bowl of instant heart attack.

so that was last sunday, tuesday was much more exciting. in the morning i bought a motor bike! and in the afternoon i went to kuri buri to see my friend ben for his birthday.

my motor bike is sitting next to me in my living room, because for some reason my neighbours think its a good idea. i went out on it the other day with shoo, and rode round and round in circles down by the beach. i only swerved off the road and down a bank once, which i think is pretty good going?

kuri buri was lots of fun, and it made me appriciate my version of civilisation a whole lot more. ben literally lives in the jungle, with the monkeys and other animals, and the town he works in is one road of shops (all the same shop i might add), and while i don't actually like shopping, knowing that i have options is always quite nice.

it was in the middle of no where, where this near death experience happened. basically, boys being boys decided it was fun to jump in this dam in the pitch black in the middle of the night. sensible sam knew this was crazy, so stayed on dry land. one of the boys got caught up in the currant and was finding it difficult to stay afloat, ben had to go and keep him above water, but then also got caught in the currant. somehow they managed to avoid damaging themselves on the concrete pillars dividing the 2 sections of the dam and clung on. meanwhile anotehr guy goes to help them - resulting in 3 stranded boys in the middle of a dam in the middle of the night. sam and another guy go to get thai help. thai help, and laugh lots at stupid farang.

apart from that part, it was lots of fun being out of khao lak, it makes me appreciate it a lot. having said that, khao lak is growing on me lots now, especially with my house and motor bike (which i can't ride), its slowly starting to feel like i live here.

whether my neighbours will ever stop staring at the strange curly phenomenon that is me, is a different matter.

computer is taking ages so there are loads of spelling mistakes i haven't changed - i'll blame it on the comp anyway.

these last few blogs aren't in order so might not make sense, but i don't have time now to change anything.

just wanted to add i went to 2 funerals this week- quite an achievement i think seeing as i don't know anyone in thailand. they seem to happen every day here, unless i am actually going to the same one each day? everything is a social occasion, (and an eating occasion - 5 meals a day is the norm i think) and they seem to like having farags (foreigners) around - even if it is just so that they can stare at us, and when i say "us" i mean me, as i am frequently the only farang in town. i have never been looked at so much in my life: i have come to believe that it is because of my great beauty and nothing else, and that it does actually happen where ever i go in the world, it is only now that i am noticing.

but my most exciting news of my time in thailand is the elephant crossing the road. apart from telling mum and kate, no one has got as excited as me about this. no - it wasn't wild, it was someones transport or something - but that doesn't change the fact that it is amazingly exciting to see elephants right there on the road.

my most exciting animal viewing ever.

but i would like to see them in the wild now.

am i being a bit over excited about this?

i don't care.

i'm gonna go eat some more curry now, its been almost 6 hours since i've eaten anything; i think that this would be a national disaster if anyone knew.

gin kaow!

Above is my living room, with my japanese bamboo furniture and orchid...we'll see how long it lasts yeah?
The picture on the left is the view out my back door, and top right is a better view from out my back door.

ha ha

just had to say that.

so i didn't buy a motor bike, i want a few more lessons before i do, else i'll be tempted to get on it and go 'cruising' when i can't even turn around on it properly yet. the one i will buy is automatic, which is much much better for me....the times i nearly fell off were when i was trying to change down a gear. the english teacher from the school was teaching me - i'm actually surprised she is up for another round, seeing as a couple of times we nearly fell down the concrete ditch next to the road. she did admitt she was scared, and i'm not surprised. don't worry mum - i wont go out on it until i'm 100% ok with it, and i will definetley wear a helmut - i promise!

i have to say i wish they had a vespa manufacturers here in khao lak, i loved riding on paddy's vespa, its very friendly looking and not too big. i'm sure my brand new honda-whatever-it-is will do just fine though.

hee hee - i've always wanted to have a motor bike!!

I thought seeing as I had a relatively free day i would put some pickes up of my house.

when i say relatively free, that is aside from the buddhist ordination i went to this morning at 7am - i haven't seen that time of day in years, and the motor bike viewing.

The ordination was unlike any religious festival i've ever been too - bear in mind i have only been to catholic and c of e ceremonies, maybe the odd jewish one too. All it seemed to be to me was lots of people meeting for breakfast (which consisted of rice and fried pork - it was delicious - even at 7 in the morning. In thailand when people say lets go eat, they say "gin Kaow", which literally translates as 'eat rice'. I am so thankful for my taosted sandwich maker - don't get me wrong - i love rice, but obviously not as much as i should). while the eating is going on hap hazardly, the boy who is being ordained gets his hair cut off, everyone takes it in turns to cut a peice off. it was reassuring to see that even in generous thailand, there is still that impatiant little old lady who will push her way to the front to get her turn first. but to be honest i couldn't tell you too much of what goes on at these ceremonies cosi was in and out in 20 mins (that includes eating, saying hello to people, cutting of hair and guided tour of the temple area...not bad eh?). after that we went to the motor bike shop!

by the way this is my house.

Busy busy busy

i'm working at the school, and have just got back from lunch at a funeral - except i did not know that was what it was and no one spoke english for me to ask.

at the beginning of lunch i was just ushered onto the back of a motorbike, which i thought was a little extreme seeing as the lunch place thing is only 100 metres from where i work. but i thouight, 'what the hell?". only to discover that i was being taken far far away, into deepest thai thailand. when we got to our destination (it wasn't really that far, past the temple and round the corner really), i thought that maybe we were at thai WI. it was packed with women shelling shrimps, and thats all they were doing, aside for staring at the strange foreigner entering their shrip fest. we sat down and food was brought over, then the senior teachers came along - so i wondered if it was a special event. all the time i was waiting for my english speaking friends to come along to ask what was going on. they never did.

only when i got back and saw 'oo' (the english teacher) and could ask her where i'd been - "oh, you went to the funeral!"

ok.

it was a very strange experience and made me even more keen to learn thai - but it is so so difficult!

anyway, this weekened i moved into my new house, a house that is for me, it is mine (well rented), and it is dawning on me that i might be appraoching adulthood. boo.

I am still so excited! i have 2 bedrooms (so come and visit me, yeah?), a shower room, kitchen and living room. but no furniture to start with except a fridge, sink and bed stand. so at the weekend my friend ben, who lives a couple of hours north, came to visit me, and lucky old him got to spend the whole weekend driving around shopping for furniture.

i managed to buy a lot and now my lovely house is furnished, and i feel even older....being the proud owner of all this 'stuff'.

there is one problem with the house though, there are lots of frogs...especailly when it rains - which is often. anyone who knows my irrational fear of frogs will be very proud of the way i am dealing with this (appart from my moment of maddness when i blocked the bottom of my back door so that no frogs could get in - i felt a little bit like joe form eastenders). the tiny frog by the fridge is very welcome, as long as he stays where he is, and the one in the shower room i don't see that often, so pretend he isn't there. but when i got up the other morning and saw that 2 crafty frogs had gotten in somewhow, despite my door blockage, i wasn't too impressed, so somehow i got rid of them.

i realise i have taken a long time talking about frogs, but i really don't like them, especailly when i can just see them climbing up the outside of my window in the rain - this is my version of anthony perkins in a wig on.

work is busy, the buildings are nearly completed and there is a lot to sort out. being the only member of staff is difficult - especially seeing as i don't speak Thai. but it is a good challenge too, and as much as it is scary i am really excited about it.

i'm off to phuket tomorrow for yet more furniture shopping - only this time its not for me :o(

and thats about all the news i have really, i'm starting thai lessons this evening, i have a toasted sandwich maker (this is exciting stuff), i'm off to the temple on saturday morning for someones brothers ordination or something (i didn't really understand - just nodded) which i'm looking forward to, - never having been to a buddhist ceremony. i did go on a buddhist course one day, after a very heavy night out, but thats another story. hopefully the events that took place then wont re-occur.

it looks like some kids out side have found a snake to play with. i'm going to get back to work now, see ya!