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An Occasional Blog

Bangkok Blogs

Bangkok Pundit - politics

Bangkok Metblogs - city life

Thai-blogs.com - rather serious

2bangkok.com - not really a blog but always up to date on Bangkok news
Bangkok City Photo Guide

BKKOK.com
Thailand Voice promoting blogs from Thailand
Thailand Golf
Thai-blogs -Thailand life and culture
trythaifood.thaipulse.com/ - thai recipes

Dubai Blogs
UAE Community Blog - uniting all UAE bloggers
Dubai informer - news and events.
The Grapeshisha Blog - commentary  on a changing Dubai
One Big Construction Site - a long term expat on life in Dubai
Secret Dubai Diary - rather disillusioned expat commentary
Momentary Musings - another expat commentary

Hong Kong Blogs
A Big White Guy in Hong Kong - self explanatory
Ordinary Gweilo
Hemlock's Diary. And people think I am opinionated - try this!
SimonWorld - Hong Kong commentary and great links to other Asian blogs
EastSouthWestNorth - commentary
Glutter.org - Greater China democracy news and many great links
Hong Kong Hustle

In China

Danwei - media and advertising news from China

Shanghai Diaries - self explanatory

In Macau

My Olive Tree - Macau blog

In Singapore:

Xiaxue - self-confessed mean, bitchy, sex goddess who says "wah" a lot!

Mr Brown - colourful commentary from Singapore

Asia Travel

Circle of Asia a useful commercial site

Tales of Asia perspective and commentary on Cambodia and Thailand and other Asian travels

Visit Laos a useful guide on getting to and traveling in Laos.

Smart Travel Asia useful tips and destination guides. Maybe too  up market.

Aviation

Amadeus (airline schedules)

Airline meals - see it b4 you eat it !

Airliners - aviation forum, trip reports and pix archive
A Captain's Blog - the routine of a California based 767 captain
FA Uniforms - interesting collection of the old and new

News

The Guardian - UK

BBC World News

CNN Asia

Bangkok Post

China sites

LivinginChina.com

Bangkok info sites

thailand.com

learningthai.com

sawadee.com

bangkokmouth

thailandstories

bangkok a-z

Worthy Sites

Rconversation - from Rebecca MacKinnon, ex-TV reporter-turned-blogger.

Fun Sites

Penguin baseball

Useful Sites

World Time Clock

Technology Ideas
Loose wire

 Author

Robert Scott lives and works in Asia; born in England I have since lived in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.

I am now spending most of my time in Dubai; job hunting and personally very happy.

If you want to know more you only need to ask! ask.

Hmmm - some things are best unwritten until there is certainty.

29 October 2007

Another 12 hour day in the office - there are too many. But then no reason to rush home either - laundry is the only thing waiting for me there.

28 October 2007

Tai is in Bangkok and away until Wednesday morning. Seems like she only just came back and she has gone again. She was better last night after congee and Neurofen and a sleep.

But I am tired today and a bit distracted.

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27 October 2007

This is a very quiet weekend. Tai is not so well after her long haul to Singapore and Melbourne. Four long flights in four days - three nights sleep in five nights away. Hopefully a mix of Tylenol and Neurofen should be enough to get her onto tonight's Bangkok flight. It feels like she only just came back.

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We did get as far as Deira City Centre  yesterday afternoon for the usual tour on MNG, Zara, New Look, Forever 21 and even Debenhams! With a short detour to Krispy Kreme.

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The reason the access road was blocked to Falcon is that they have started digging another large hole. There are painted lines that show the scale of the site. Expect it to get noisy.

25 October 2007

Tai is back; and tired! But she is back and we have a weekend together before she flies again - so that is good news.

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Emirates is reported to have confirmed daily flights from Dubai to Cape Town, South Africa, for 2008. The start up date is still unclear.

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Want to know more about Dubai - try this:

http://www.dubaifaqs.com/

23 October 2007

Its Christmas in Dubai.

Last weekend our local Spinneys had Christmas chocolates on display including advent calendars that you cannot eat until December!

Now to confirm that the season to be jolly is almost here the local garden center is littered with Christmas trees and jolly Santas.

Too soon ???

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I was watching Shakespeare in Love this evening - "How will it end? - it all ends well - how does it? - I dont know - its a mystery." I feel like that sometimes. It will all end well....

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Tai just landed in Singapore. One more flight on Thursday morning and she will be home. That will cheer me up!

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I was reading another web site (yes there are others) where there was a collective rant about Terminal 1 at Dubai. At peak times it is a terrible place to be.

The summary - at peak times - horribly over-crowded; not enough seating; people sleeping on any available space on the floor; over priced duty free shops; poor, crowded and expensive coffee shops, overwhelmed toilet facilities (allow plenty of time); and crowds of frustrated people.

It is the only weak link in the Emirates big hub business model. This will hopefully all be solved when Terminal 3 is unveiled for Emirates next year.

22 October 2007

I seem to be working too hard - I guess I can while Tai is away. She will have arrived in Melbourne tonight. She is away for five nights for the Singapore, Melbourne, Singapore flight. It feels like a long week. I miss her company.....:(

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England lost the Rugby world cup final; I may be the only person of British birth in Dubai who was not watching the game.

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I was driving home last night about to turn in in darkness to the dirt track to my Falcon Tower apartment when I almost drove into the pile of mud that now blocks off access from the Business Bay sales office road to Falcon Tower. No warning signs. No note from  building management (if we have any building management I would be amazed). Access to the building is therefore by a longer way round from a very poor heavily rutted and deep sand access from Millennium Tower or from the front of the building where a dirt track carries runs by the under construction transit system. Both ideally need a 4x4 otherwise are almost undriveable. Grrrrr.

20 October 2007

It was a quite day yesterday - a little work reading and a little bit of studying and a trip to the supermarket.

We should try and get out on Friday's during the winter months. It was a lovely blue sky yesterday - no construction and no dust. Today the construction sites are all working again and the sky is not as clear.

19 October 2007

Sorry I have been quiet. Bit of a stomach bug last night. I can recommend the bathrooms at the Jumeirah Beach hotel. We had gone there for dinner with friends. I wasn't eating too much!!

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The US$ continues to plummet - where does it end? It makes those of us who are paid in US$ linked currencies truly struggle when we travel to the UK and the Euro countries of Europe and to other favourite places like Australia. Even Singapore is becoming expensive.

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It was one year ago today that Tai left Bangkok for Dubai; a momentous day in very many ways. A brave and exciting opportunity for her and a realisation that day which would change my life.

We had a farewell party for her at Centrepoint a couple of nights earlier.

The year has passed quickly. I used to be at home in BKK waiting for her to come online and tell me about her day's training.

16 October 2007

Tai is on her way to Frankfurt this morning and I am back at work.

EK has a briefing document for all its layovers detailing hotel arrangements, location and crew contact numbers. It also has a section called places of interest. The Frankfurt listing for places of interest is "None." That's a bit harsh !!

Most of what you need to know about Pai is on this site:

http://paitown.com/English/Home/Home.htm

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It is starting to get dark early in Dubai. Sunset is now before 6pm. Winter is around the corner.

15 October 2007

We are back in Dubai. And back to the building site. No sounds of birds here.

13 October 2007

Mid October and there are still heavy rains in Bangkok.

This is the evidence from a very flooded Sukhumvit Soi 39 earlier today.

11 October 2007

Heading back to Chiang Mai and onto Bangkok. As I type this we are probably only on bend 100 of 762! It is a slow ride to Chiang Mai.

A few fun pictures from Pai:

The last picture is the building site opposite our report. Rather different from the Dubai building site. Here the sound is of a hammer and hand saw. The sound competes with the early morning bird chorus and the sound of the river. Very peaceful.

10 October 2007

It has been raining the last two afternoons - yesterday started at 5pm; today is a bit earlier. And with the rains comes the power failure. This is every afternoon and into the early evening.

There is a rainbow this evening. I can see the end of the rainbow but not the pot of gold.

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I just finished reading "The Time Traveler's Wife' and it has left me with a deep sadness that I can't quite explain.

I reread the first few chapters that make much more sense now that I have finished the book.

I have this deep certainty that I am with someone who has changed my world for the best. But with that certainty always comes the greater risk of potential loss. Clare's four words in the book resonate - don't leave me....

8 October 2007

It is a long way to Pai in North West Thailand but it is worth the effort.

This small town is about half way between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son. The journey from Chiang Mai is probably 130 kilometres but it takes a good three hours around a mountain straddling switchback of a road.

Pai is like a cross between Ubud in Bali and Luang Prabang in Laos. It is hard enough to get to still that it is a backpackers destination. There are no name resorts. But there are now banks and scarily, a 7-11. '

The town in on a river surrounded by hills. The town is closed by 10pm and the only sound that I can hear is the crickets and the running water of the river outside our cottage,

To welcome us the whole town was plunged into darkness by a 45 minute power failure as night fell.

It is so green and so lush. Dubai feels like a very long way away.

There is building on the other side of the river but as you can see below it is unlikely to cause a significant disturbance!

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Had our usual busy day in Bangkok yesterday. Food and shopping. A walk in Santichaiprakarn Park by the River, near Thammasat, and a very pleasant dinner at Le Lys with this website's regular Bangkok correspondent and his lovely wife!

6 October 2007

Scary subway poster:

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5 October 2007

So nice to be back in Bangkok. It is relatively cool and there was some lovely rain this evening.

Landed at 12.30pm and met Tai at Siri Sathorn. Yes we are back staying at the first serviced apartment that I stayed in in Bangkok. I was basically here for all of 2003 before moving to Centerpoint.

We have walked to the Silom Complex and been up to Siam. Had a nice Thai dinner.

It is good to be back among the smells, markets, noises, crowds.

4 October 2007

A bit rushed the last couple of days at work and a bit tense. Sometimes that gets into my personal life as well and I was really tired last night.

We were up early so that Tai could get to the airport for her flight to Bangkok this morning. She was able to get onto the earlier flight 418 which them went technical and left about 4 and 1/2 hours late. More haste less speed.

I leave tomorrow at 3.15am. So I wont get much sleep tonight. But I am so looking forward to a week with Tai back in Thailand. It will be very good for us.

3 October 2007

Happy birthday to my baby brother!

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An early start this morning to meet EK385 coming in from Bangkok. There is something very peaceful about being up and about at 4.30am and the roads are nice and quiet.

But it really is only manageable if you have an early night and don't get woken by HSBC sending sms at 1.10am. Grrrr

The drilling of course had started by the time I was back at the apartment just after 6am.

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Went to visit a local school last night. Not one of our company's schools. My little guy probably does not know how luck he is with the facilities and quality of his school in Hong Kong. In private education you really do get what you pay for!

1 October 2007

It is Monday and the first day of a new month - lots of one year celebrations this month surrounding Tai and her anniversary in Dubai.

She is on her way from BKK to HKG and back to BKK tonight.

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Not much to say about yesterday - working on a Sunday will always be strange. Was up til quite late reading and the drilling started at 6.10 this morning. I hate that noise. Tai was in Bangkok by lunchtime and was meeting her friends for a Sunday evening feast!

It felt like a long day......

29 September 2007

Had a night at the beach over at the Meridien Hotel Al Aqah; between Dibba and Fujairah on the Indian Ocean.

The resort is always busy as it is one of few on the coast. But to be honest it is a big, rather charmless place. The swimming pool is huge. The beach is not very pleasant and there is nothing outside of the over priced hotel.

But it is a nice drive through the desert and then through the rocky hills around Masafi to Dibba. Less than 2 hours from Dubai. It was nice to wake up and see the sea and not listen to the building site. But take some of your own food - even instant noodles will do. The hotel food is over priced and not very good. There are some pictures on the our pictures page.

28 September 2007

A small victory this morning. It is Friday - the day of prayer; the holy day. The drilling starts at 6am.

I call the project manager to protest. Get up. Walk to the site.

This is the offensive machine working away. I stand there until the driver stops. I call the project manager and tell him to tell the driver to stop working. It is 8am now and still quiet.

A small triumph....

I did not get to sleep until after 1am. It has been a rough week with too many late nights at work.

It is noticeably cooler in the mornings now. But still 40C+ by the middle of the day.

Was in the office until about 11.30pm last night and here again at 9pm tonight. Outside the window is a wonderful low full moon. The rabbit on the moon is vertical at this angle.

25 September 2007

A bit out of sorts today. Did not get enough sleep. And too much to be done at work.

Tai is on her way to Paris - that's where we were supposed to go for my birthday until the plans were ruined by the French consul here in Dubai. Growl !!

I have always wanted to take her to Paris.

24 September 2007

If you are in Hong Kong - and better have a car - try this

http://www.drivein.com.hk/

I would love something similar in Dubai but in the hear and dust it simply could not work.

23 September 2007

Out of work at a sensible time for once. And went to watch a movie for the first time since arriving in Dubai. AED30 a ticket makes it double the price of a Bangkok movie.

What s depressing is the heavy handed slicing up of the movie by the local censors. There were moments in the film when a scene would end mid sentence and jump to the next scene - and you had no idea why or what had happened. And this is a comedy if a film starring two male New York firefighters pretending to be in a gay marriage to protect pension benefits is the theme for a comedy.

At the end of the film while in court the movie was originally filmed with the two guys kissing but a gay kiss between the two protagonists would earn them an R rating even in the USA, and probably no distribution at all in the Middle East so the film was made with the second ending they filmed, which is where Dan Akroyd (the fire station captain) interrupts them.

22 September 2007

Here are my two favourite people meeting up in HKG yesterday: wish I had been there.

Picked up a very tired Tai at the airport at 5.15 am this morning. We have always done well if we get her home within an hour of landing.

I am back in the office today - am starting to resent how much time I am spending here. Would be much happier spending the day with Tai - or at least being there when she wakes up later in the day.

Good job she is sleeping at Millennium as the rock breaking drill started at 6am this morning. It is a weekend - a Saturday. It is an obscene noise level for that time of the morning.

21 September 2007 day

No idea when the power came back on - I was sleeping. But at least I know my way around the apartment in the dark.

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Some of my readers might enjoy this  - one of my favourite trip reports and why flying in or out of Singapore is so enjoyable.

21 September 2007 after midnight

My late night entertainment. The 1969 Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The only film with George Lazenby as Bond. He really was better than people gave him credit for.

But the class in the film comes from Diana Rigg. Maybe the best and classiest of all the Bond girls.

The film is a bit long; and now a bit dated.

Well - I would watch the end of the movie - but it is 2am and the power just failed again. This happens rather too often.

It is also the one Bond film with a real sense of romance and vulnerability.

20 September 2007

You can now (at last) pay your Salik road tax online - www.salik.ae

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Sorry to be quiet - back again - it has been a very busy few days.

Tai is on her way to Hong Kong. Lucky girl. Her first Hong Kong layover and she will go and see my little guy tomorrow. Wish I could be with them.

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Yesterday was a work trip day-return to Jeddah. An interesting place to visit in Ramadan. No eating or drinking between dawn and dusk.

We flew again on an executive jet - the only way to get to Jeddah and back in a day. A 9 seat Bombardier Challenger. Two pilots and one very hard working flight attendant.

The Challenger is a little cramped compared to the Gulfstream G4.

But I was allowed to sit in the cockpit for approach and landing at Jeddah and Dubai. The crew were very friendly and happy to keep me informed and answer all my questions.

It was a lovely day to fly. Jeddah airport is huge. And we landed in Dubai early evening; it was dark but quiet at the airport at that time of night. We flew past the airport; turned right, in over Mirdiff onto Runway 30L.

16 September 2007

There was a tragic accident at Phuket today as OneTwo-Go's MD82 crashed while landing at 3.35pm. This may be the end for OneTwoGo and its parent Orient Thai. Unlike Nok Air (Thai Airways) and Thai Air Asia it does not have the support of a well respected parent company and there have long been allegations of excessive costs cutting at the low cost OneTwoGo.

My weird dream on Thursday morning - which was so vivid - was of a plane crash.

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Someone very dear to my heart was visiting two great Chinese icons today - The Great Wall and Carrefour! How symbolic. Beijing - a city where the ancient and modern come together on an almost unimaginable scale.

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From an email in respect of a potential business relationship....

"If not, then, well, OK, no, fine, we will fish elsewhere."

Does that make sense to anyone?

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The office (in theory) closes at 1.30pm during Ramadan. It is 3pm; the traffic outside is horrible. The early office closures just seem to move the rush hour to earlier in the day.

15 September 2007

My lovely Tai is on her way to Beijing this morning.

Weather in Beijing looks very nice - about 23C to 28C and sunny. They have a day in Beijing on Sunday; nice to be there for the weekend; less traffic and pollution - a good day for some serious sightseeing.

Meanwhile I am in the office.....

Tai has my amulet with her; I had a really weird dream before she went to Istanbul on Thursday and woke up convinced that she should take it with her. It is rare for me to dream so vividly.

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We went to the IDN Battuta mall yesterday in the late afternoon. It is amazing how quite it is for Ramadan. Everyone basically goes out later in the day after sunset.

Dinner at Thai Orchid at Dubai Marina. The Marina development was busy at night time and colourful now that more buildings are complete there.

But AED12 for a small individual bowl of steamed rice is outrageous ! I can buy 5 kilos of jasmine rice for less than AED20. All you have to do is add some water and boil the rice.

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The plant buying at the Dubai Garden Centre. Now have a large plant (6 foot plus) in my living room. Something to talk with when Tai is away ! Not cheap !

13 September 2007

This only really works if you know your English chocolate bars:

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Memories of December 2004 must have been at the forefront of many minds last night when an earthquake, measured 8.4 in magnitude on the Richter scale,  struck in the ocean off southern Sumatra.

It was felt 600km away in the capital Jakarta, where thousands fled swaying office blocks and homes, and in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. There are remarkably few casualties.

Aftershocks continue to be a concern.

12 September 2007

More Orbit nonsense. In addition to charging my credit card AED349 on August 20th (149 monthly fee and 200 refundable deposit on the decoder) they then charged my credit card a further AED200 on August 27th. Oh this was a mistake Sir. 

They take incompetence to new levels.

11 September 2007

Tai came back from Nagoya just after 4.00am. Took her straight to her Millennium apartment to sleep.

Wanted to take her bags up to her apartment for her. But decency and helpfulness count for nothing with building security and the airline's accommodation rules.

I am not allowed in the building until after 7.00am - not even to take her bag into the elevator for her and come straight down again. It is the pettiness and meanness that makes me cross.

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Traffic woes are worse by the day. The tailback from the city in the evening along Sheikh Zayeed road is all the way to the Mall of The Emirates in the evening - and has not cleared until 8.00pm the last two nights. Anyone who says Salik is working has not tried to drive along this road after 5pm. The traffic is no faster than a crawl.

In the morning I have to go to the Defence roundabout at junction 1 and do a u-turn onto Sheikh Zayeed road to head in the direction of Abu Dhabi for our office. This used to be a simple u-turn at the roundabout that was formed by two bridges over the highway.

This roundabout is now controlled by three sets of traffic lights that have to be navigated before I have made the turn onto SZ road. Inevitably the lights are always red!

And as for road access to Falcon Tower.....the building is only 2 and 1/2 years old. A rough dirt track is all we have.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.   

9 September 2007

Tai was back for a day - and after a slightly rocky start we had a nice day yesterday. She came back fully loaded with goodies from BKK. And a 27kg suitcase. No one is going to starve among her flatmates and me in the next few weeks.

She flew back on Eithad which meant a late night drive to Abu Dhabi airport on Friday night. The plane landed about 00.20am. The drive takes longer than I thought - it must be about 150kms. And it is so badly signposted.

We were home about 3.00am. Parked the car outside Falcon as close to the entrance as possible. By the time we went out on Saturday afternoon the car was splattered in cement from the next door construction site. It is pretty disgraceful. I would not be surprise to see some lasting damage or marking.

7 September 2007

How much is a life worth in Dubai; not much based upon this story in today's local media.

"Dubai - A hit and run driver who fled the scene after knocking over and killing a young student has been jailed for two months. The expat, from Eritrea in Africa, struck 20-year-old Indian Aditya Subramanium in Bur Dubai with his Nissan Pathfinder as the student crossed the road with friends.

He then sped off leaving his victim to die in the road. In court the 34-year-old defendant said: “I was afraid after the accident and I escaped immediately from the area.”
He was found by police after they discovered a small piece of his car at the scene and were able to trace his vehicle. The man was also fined dhs10,000 and ordered to pay dhs200,000 blood money to the relatives."

Two months for a hit and run manslaughter?

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Almost 2.00am and I am watching a Bond movie on TV when there is a power failure at Falcon. Computer is on battery. Better go to bed in the dark!

5 September 2007

My UK readers can put my baby brother to work by booking their weddings, corporate events, special celebrations or even dinner at  Shapwick House, an old Tudor Manor House surrounded by 7 acres of informal gardens and grounds amidst the rolling Somerset countryside. http://www.shapwick-house.com/

4 September 2007

At 2am this morning I was outside Falcon Tower in my pyjamas ranting at the cement mixers and their crews who were making a sleep denying wall of noise last night.

Its not just the machines - it is the honking horns and the shouting.

They don't care of course and I am sure they have permits for their work - but I got about two hours of bad sleep and have a headache today.

I must have looked crazy !

Maybe BKK airport has the solution to this - a report today said that "Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport is distributing sleeping pills to neighbouring residents in an effort to lull growing complaints about noise pollution, news reports said Monday. Residents living near the capital's new airport told the Bangkok Post newspaper that home-deliveries of sleeping pills were the airport's latest remedy for communal insomnia and stress caused by the constant overhead jet traffic."

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BKK airport online: includes arrivals and departure information. http://www.bangkokairportonline.com/

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Tai is on her way home this morning for a few days with the family. She has not seen her family for a couple of months so this is a great chance to get home for a few days.

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The latest on the Thomson bid for Reuters is that Reuters says that paperwork regarding the 8.7 billion pound ($17.6 billion) bid for it by Canadian electronic publisher Thomson Corp has been provided to European regulators. The share price responded positively to about gbp6.40 although there is still a gap between that and the near gbp7 purchase price.

3 September 2007

Busy day yesterday and a company dinner in the evening. Was able to join Tai and her friends for a quick hallo and coffee after dinner. She is on standby today. And she got called out for a long day trip to Bangalore and back.

But that does mean that she can go home and see her family in BKK tomorrow.

I promised some pictures.

Here is the new car - it looks like a display at the Bangkok Motor Show!!

And from our Chinese hotpot dinner at the weekend:

2 September 2007

More Chinese hotpot for dinner last night. Will see if I can borrow some pictures from Tai and Bam.

It was a strange day; and I ended up on my own last night. Seems to happen too often in the last week or two. And I don't sleep well when there is too much in my head. Someone would tell me that I think too much. Probably.

I have headache this morning.

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The Falcon Tower apartment elevators proudly display a sign that says that this elevator is fitted with an Emergency Elevator Landing System. Is that like a very large air bag ??? I don't think I really want to put it to the test and find out what it is but I am curious.....

1 September 2007

There is always quite a lot to do at the end of the month to tidy up this web site and to archive older items!

I have time this morning as Tai is back from an overnight trip to Tehran and is having a well earned sleep. A full load and short of crew it must have been a busy night.

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Meanwhile it is another normal day in Bangkok: A THAI woman is at large with her husband's penis today after discovering the man's unfaithfulness.

Pornbun Sinthusin, 35, came home in Bangkok yesterday and found her 34-year-old husband Ploeng Plaekratoke in bed with another woman, said police Lieutenant Colonel Kornwat Hunpradit.

She later gave him several beers before cutting off his penis with "a sharp object,'' Lt-Col Kornwat said.

The husband was now in intensive care.

"We suspect she took both her weapon and her husband's penis because we cannot find the penis in their apartment. We even checked a toilet but she did not dump it there,'' Lt-Col Kornwat said.

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Nice short, simple speech from Prince Harry at his mother's memorial service yesterday. Very much from the heart.

I was surprised to be rather moved by the ceremony. So much has happened to me in the last ten years. On 31 August 1997 I was about to move with my then family to Singapore. It was a move that one way or another was going to lead to separation. But you have to live your life for the present and future. The past give you memories to treasure and events and actions to learn from.