Pattaya Days Gone
An ordinary backup from an extraordinary website
Yesterday afternoon was spent washing our two vehicles to remove all the Songkran crap. I employed slightly different approaches as detailed below:
How to wash a BMW 220i:
- Make cooing loving noises.
- Wash off surface dirt using a power washer; being careful not to spray too close.
- Use foam soap attachment on power washer to cover car with Meguiar’s expensive car shampoo.
- Wash off using power washer.
- Put more expensive shampoo in a bucket with water and wipe entire body with sponge dedicated to the purpose.
- With a separate sponge clean the wheels.
- Wash off using power washer.
- Using Meguiar’s expensive drying cloth, dry body.
- Spray body with Meguiar’s Extreme Detailer and dry off with Meguiar’s cloth.
- Spray glass with Meguiar’s glass cleaner and dry off with Meguiar’s cloth.
- Drive car round block and apply brakes to dry off disks.
- Final inspection and dry off any water runs following drive.
- Make cooing loving noises.
Total time: about one and a half hours.
She who must be obeyed arrived home and advised me that one of her friends had brought a present for me.
“One of my friends has brought a present for you. It’s carefully formulated cleansing soap for a gentleman’s most intimate area”
“Sound exotic!”
“I’ll put it in the bathroom for you”
She did. I haven’t used it.
In town today and there was a small storm. Came home to a scene of (comparative) devastation.
First problem: no internet. Discovered that my fancy and expensive new router had been fried, as had the modem; in spite of them both being connected through a spike resistant UPS. Dragged out an old modem to discover there was no internet, and then there was, and then there wasn’t again; and so it has continued throughout the afternoon and evening. When it is working it is painfully slow. “The technician will call us back”.
The full horror horror of Songkran doesn’t hit Pattaya until this weekend, but events are creeping closer as Bangsaen had its Songkran bash today. Unlike Pattaya, which is a culture-free soak-fest fuelled by dicks with stomachs and tattoos on Beach Road, Bangsaen actually has something to offer apart from a face full of sewer water.
The main attraction is the stupa building competition on the beach, where assorted erections vie for trophies. Like so many events, I learned about it from Richard Barrow. so it was no great surprise to meet him on the beach. I informed him he was responsible for my buying a juicer and a drone; while forgetting to mention he also was responsible for my recent subscription to Thai Expat TV. I also failed to mention that he was responsible for my recent flurry of Leica purchases; mainly because he wasn’t; but he is a convenient excuse when explaining vital expenditures to my wife. He is worth a follow on Facebook/Twitter if you want to know about upcoming events in Thailand.
Songkran in Bangsaen is a two day event, but I had falsely assumed that yesterday would be fairly quiet. Needing to entertain my wife’s little sister, we headed down after lunch yesterday and found ourselves in a massive jam heading for the beach. After an hour we found a U-turn and escaped home. This morning we were back at 0830 and could enjoy the beach sculptures for a couple of hours before leaving in advance of the water bearing hordes.
Some of the stupas had been made entirely of sand, some were sand on top of a foam base, and others made no pretence of belonging on the beach at all. But with the proud constructors in attendance as the judges made their inspections, it was a pleasant place to walk for an hour.
It’s been a while since I dragged my Olympus out of the cupboard. Several weeks of playing with film, followed by a period of wet weather, general lethargy and a burning need to complete The Talos Principle (42 hours); meant that my digital camera has not been in my hands for a while. And given that Songkran is upon us and I therefore don’t intend going anywhere for the next week, the chances of anything photographic happening is remote. But then she who must be obeyed spotted this in the garden:
