Saturday, December 31, 2011

Time for action!

Time for action2Where did you come from? lol. Can’t believe it, you crept up on me like a commando who had just swallowed an invisible pill :) I just didn’t see you coming.

Oh here we go, another blog about loosing weight :) It is in deed time for action, too many late dinners, too many second helping, too many desserts, too many snacks… and too little will, lol.

Let see how it goes for the next couple of months, if it gets worst, at least I’ll have an excuse to buy a wide angle lens (just to get this same shot), :)

Friday, December 30, 2011

Do not add water…

IMG_2785This was one of our rented vehicle that failed to escape from the flood, after talking to the person in charge, this car was under water for about a month. I think the iPhone photo speaks for itself (total loss), luckily no one was hurt.

This is just one small car, just imagine all of the homes that have been under the flood for an even longer time? We were one of the fortunate ones, the flood did come but the water was only knee high and did not reach the actual house (much to our relief).

A huge part of the problem were the politicians, their failures to release the water (slowly) from the dam when they had the chance; allegedly one old time (and very powerful) politician refuses to open up the water gate to his province until all the rice farmers finish their harvest (my feeling is still mixed here, on the one hand I am glad (his) farmers got their harvest, but at the expense of other farmers in other provinces); their failures to control the situation, their failures to organise help for the people who needed the most, their failures to control deforestation/overbuilding in catchment areas/damming in diversion of natural waterways/urban sprawl (NYtimes.com); their political ping-pong and incompetence had cost over 700 lives!

Now there is a talk that it could happen again next year! If it does, perish the thought…

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Saturday’s routine

On the overpassDear Matt,

You would have thought that Saturday would be a relaxing day for you, it is a weekend after all :) Of course not :)

I usually wake you up at six, shower and shave (kidding), by six fifteen-ish you would be sitting down to breakfast, but on the weekend everything runs a little later and a bit slower.

We have to be out of the house by around nine thirty, to arrive at Chamchuree Square by ten, that is when your music lesson starts, well it used to be your piano lesson, but the new head of ‘Dek Lek’ division (a direct translation is ‘Children Small’) decided to turn the curriculum upside down, instead of teaching you piano, you are now being taught the basic understanding of music.

Anyway the class ends at ten forty five, it is then required of me to listen to the debriefing of the class for another fifteen minutes, adding the time of us messing around chasing after each other, it would be almost twelve by the time we walk through the front door and straight to having lunch.

By twelve fifty we would have to leave again, this time we walk over the long overpass footbridge to get to your Brain School class (mostly just fun and games that have some hidden values behind it, well that is what we hope anyway, more importantly, you got along very well with the teachers here (Kru Jib and Kru Pia)). The class is one hour, after which I would let you play for a little while before heading back to home.

Once home, probably around two forty-ish we would let you relax just a little before ushering you to your bedroom for your afternoon nap. We only allow you two hours for the afternoon nap, otherwise you would be running around at midnight screaming ‘I am not tired Papa’.

Once you are up (a glass of milk would be waiting), the afternoon is free time, sometimes I would take you to the park, funfair, temple or whatever that keeps you entertain, before returning home for supper, evening television/iPad and then bed… :) Doesn’t sound much, but trust me the hours just fly by when you are having fun :)

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Got a new Freezer :)

Nothing but Milk

Dear Marcella,

Got a new freezer, well, just couldn’t find room for the peas and the chickens ;) You have no idea how much your mother is determined to give you the best :)

She is up in all strange hours, mostly half asleep “pumping out”, and the result is what you see here. She is determined to b-feed you for as long as she could, so after your meal she collects the extra and stores them away, at the expense of my peas and chickens… :)

By the way, after reviewing the stock last night, I am already looking for another (huge) freezer, lol.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Got it… <3

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Dear Marcella,

Finally today I got a picture of you smiling :) believe it or not I am typing this post one handed while the other is holding you tight, you are looking somewhere to the left probably thinking when I am going to give you the bottle, lol, the answer is 15 minutes.

I carried you to City Viva this afternoon (swapped role today, me & you and Mum & Matt), needed to get some sweets for your brother’s stocking, he kept asking if Santa can come ‘tonight’ (for the past 3 nights) and was always a little frustrated that our answer have been steadfast on the 25th… (awkward now, just turned you around so I am now typing with my left hand… sod this, shall finish later).

City Viva is just a short walk away, I think I made a mistake in putting you in a bright lime green trousers, while your body suit was a very loud candy pink, luckily we weren’t arrested by the fashion Gestapo.

You had a great time, new environment did you a world of good, besides the weather was perfect, seeing you trying to turn your head this way gave me a huge smile, so happy to have a full time role with you today :) (you are fast asleep in my arm, one tiny left hand stretched out palm down & open, resting on my left shoulder, <3 <3 <3).
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

What a smile :)

DSC00537Dear Marcella,

Swimming and no afternoon nap was the perfect combination for Matt to fall asleep right in the middle of his after supper dessert (his favourite, Jack fruit of course).

That gave me the time to properly help out your mother and cradle you in my arms, after a while it felt like I was carrying a pregnant whale, my old arms were not what it used to be :) Your eyes were closed, your body was still, then suddenly you gave me not one but two huge smiles :) I wished I had caught it on camera… :)

Monday, December 19, 2011

“The Great Global Warming Swindle”

Somehow wandered into the Google statistic page for this simple blog of mine, and found out that the most visited post of all time, is a very short post named “Is Al Gore a Lier”, I had posted a link (along with some simple texts) to a youtube video of a presentation made by Christopher Monckton in which he gave a talk to quite a large audience, using a simple Powerpoint (well it could have been Keynote) to convey his message, and it was pretty convincing.

In following to finding out that post was the most visited post, I have decided to look around, to see if this anti-global warming is still going strong and came across the video below, which is (to me) quite convincing, unless someone comes out to say that these people are not the people they claim to be, I am pretty much sold on the idea.


Friday, December 16, 2011

Pixel Binning, just tell me when and where :)

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As usual I was looking around sonyalpharumors.com (I think the name describes itself fairly clearly), their latest poll was “Select your future A77 firmware upgrade must have features”.

The third most wished was the ability to ‘Pixel Binning’, I have never herd of this before but after finding out more, I was surprised that it came third.

Pixel Binning is the ability to choose  lower resolution (less Megapixel) and have the pixel join up (so to speak) to make bigger pixel, this should achieve higher (better) signal to noise ratio (I am probably messing this up), so your camera should take cleaner pictures in low light situations (less ISO required).

I’ve been to the Sony store a few times now, only to play around with the A77… only to walk away without taking out the plastic :) Now, if the next firmware have this pixel binning and it works properly… wow, just tell me when and where :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Perhaps, a couple of minutes of fame :)

Googel street View CarsWhile walking after lunch in Sukhumvit soi 24 I’d noticed due to traffic a ‘Google Street View’ car was coming to a stop literally next to where we were standing.

I didn’t even know they were mapping out Thailand, and they were using a Subaru as well, how classy :) (Subaru is not at all common in Thailand).

Of course all the images of silly street view maps with people dressing up suddenly flooded my mind, all I could do was gave it a wave and a smile, truly hoping that it will make it on to Bangkok’s street views… :) I wonder how long it will take for them to upload it?

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Gotcha :)

DSC091751Dear Matt,

In the latest batch I’d pulled out 217 images/clips from your SD card, from that very camera you are holding in your hands, of course most of it didn’t pass the censorship committee (the committee has one member, me).

You are just about three and a half now, and as each day passes you are handling the camera better and better, of course the flash is always on otherwise all of the photos would have been nothing but a Jackson Pollock painting.

At least you are capturing what you have intended and lately you are asking your live subjects to pose or even moving the props around to get the design you liked.

However, I wish you would stop dropping your camera though :) I think it may be too soon to talk about composition or exposure, so I am just going to let you have fun taking embarrassing photos of your parents for just a little while longer.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Are we being watched?

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Dear M & M,

Angry bird is still all the rage around here, Matt chose this one after his first trip to the Funfair, and your mother took this pic (probably bored out of her mind) as it was left to float on the ceiling in the living room.

I really, really like the pic though (no cropping).

So, how was it?

DSC09214Dear Marcella,

So, how was your first month? Well, you have been complaining a lot (really a lot) about the slow service, apparently we just can not serve you milk fast enough :) And you also have complained quite a bit about the sleeping arrangement, for as soon as we put you down, you simply started complaining and complaining and complaining, in fact you don’t stop complaining until we pick you up again.

At least you like the milk your mother serves, she has to do a lot of work in all hours of the night to keep you happy, but of course she does it all with a smile :) (unless it was three in the morning, lol). Welcome baby, we are just simply over the moon to have you in our arms :) really looking forward to all the months ahead, hopefully you will stop complaining soon, lol.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Strangely (very) Entertaining…

catsI was searching Youtube looking for clips of the game ‘Uncharted 3’, but somehow ended up on one of this guy’s vdo post, he goes by the name of SSOHPKC (real name being Seamus) and he is a part of the ‘Let’s Play’ community. Simply, he records his game play and post it up on Youtube in ten minutes or so chunks, the recording also includes his verbal comments which can be very ‘colourful’ (and very funny) at times (kids beware).

Strangely I find this so entertaining, just sat through ‘Uncharted 1’ (all 32 VDOs) and now making my way through ‘Uncharted 2’ (51 VDOs), with over 370,000 subscribers and over 194 million Video views it looks like I am not the only one who finds this fun :)

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Must try harder…

imageIn two days Marcella will be a month old, and to be honest this past month have been tough, especially on Gio, Marcella is, shall we say ‘sensitive’ and needed to be hold pretty much all the time, only this morning I had her sleeping in my arms (actually more like on my huge tummy) from three to six am. Truth be told I haven’t helped that much, instead concentrating on looking after Matt, and that in a way is making us living separate lives, just like a couple with one working the night shift while the other working the morning shift, simply we are trains running on separate tracks.

Mismatching of schedules means we don’t communicate as much as we used to, and that is so important for us. After a quiet reflection this morning, it looks like the ball is in my court :) lol, Gio is already pretty tired out all day long, so I’ll have to step up a gear... like how I did this morning, hope I can keep this going... :) lol.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Fun, Fun, Fun @ the Funfair :)

Dear Matt,

DSC09793Last week when I was dropping you off at school, K (mum of Otto, your closest friend) mentioned a fairground that have been set up in a huge empty lot right smacked in the centre of the city,  it turned out to be ‘Samyan Funfair’. She and others had already taken their children to this fair and thoroughly had a fantastic time, so the date was set for you to join the gang, who turned out to be your very close friends (Otto, Best and JJ).

The date was Friday, so the plan was for me to leave work a bit earlier than usual and pick you up after you have finished, being a month end Friday, for Bangkok this simply means traffic jam guaranteed :) Your mother was still nursing Marcella so it was your Auntie Tip who took you to the fair.


DSC097322When I arrived, I called Tip she said she was near the ‘Train’ ride, in actual fact you and her were in the Train! Roller-coaster style, and it was just about to pull out :) Now don’t imagine one of those loop the loop thing, although this ride was by far the fastest thing there is for kids your age. Honestly I thought you would chuck up (you didn’t).

What made me laugh was after the ride, once your feet touches the ground all of you ran off in totally different direction and imagine us running and after you :) Paad (meaning eight in Thai) was there too, he was your class mate at Noddy, I really like him :)



As I didn’t have my camera with me, all I could do was a few VDOs and a couple of pics on the BB, some of the parents told me that this was their third consecutive visit to the fair, I laughed because it was so tiring... Guess what, you and I did exactly the same thing... Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a wonderful hattrick :)

Your favourite was the ‘Fast train’, followed very closely by the ‘Motorcycles’, then the ‘Fire Engine’, each ride costs a minimum of 75 THB (3 coins), one of the ride was 20 coins (500 THB), and please don’t ask me how many rounds you did of each ride, let say I could have bought a little boat named ‘Titanic’ with the amount you’ve spent :) lol.

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

This is a test 5…

SendT said on a thread in Blogger’s help forum that the issue of URL not using the posts’ title have been solved, that is the main reason for this test 5 :)

Cheers Google, hope it works this time.

-----------------------

And it does :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Scratching our heads :)

Dear Matt,

DSC08985Since the arrival of Marcella, we have been trying hard to balance our attention between her and you, and to be very honest I think we are doing an excellent job :) Auntie Tip is now here to help out in the morning as well as in the evening, she totally adores you and often take you for a swim (which is by far your favourite activity).

However, during this past few days you begin to make this single, very specific request which is breaking our heart, because we could not give it to you. Not because we are not capable of giving it to you, but simply because we can not for our very lives $%$#@#% make sense of your request :) The request seems simple enough, you want to go to a ‘living room’ (and it is not our living room, that would have been a too simpler task :), and it comes every second of the day. “Papa I don’t want to go to school, I want to go to living room”, “Papa, can I go to the living room today, please, please Papa”.

You: Papa can you take me to the living room today?
Me: Of course, can you tell me where the living room is?
You: It is very far away (then you would point out of the window, sometimes you would answer “India”, I am still waiting for “China” to appear in our conversation.)
Wait ten minutes, repeat above.

Your mother and I are scratching our heads most nights trying to decipher what or where this elusive ‘Living Room’ could be or mean, and as of right now we are still totally blank :) Just for laugh, I am thinking of putting you in the car and just let you point the way, should be an interesting experiment, lol.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Not tired anymore :)

Dear Matt & Marcella,

Your mother just sent me this pic over the whatapps app, and it instantly recharges my battery :) still at the office now, see you both soon :)

(from Blogger App - iPhone)

This is a test 4…

It had been a couple of days, so just wanted to give it another try to see if whether the post’s title had become the post’s URL or not or does the blogger’s URL still uses the first few words from the post.

 

(Nope: still not working properly).

Thursday, November 17, 2011

This is a test 3...

Posting this from another blog client 'Blogjet' free trail version, same result as when posting via Windows Live Writer.

Kind people in the forum have escalate this to the Google Engineer, lets just wait and see :)

This is a test 2...

Posting this from within Blogger to see if it uses the post's title or the first few words of this line, :)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

This is a test…

Somehow I have noticed that the post’s url wasn’t using the title but the first few lines of the post itself, very strange and that only happened today. Not sure if it's the Windows Live Writer or Blogger that is doing this…

Guess where we are going?

MarcellaYou are only 9 days old and this is already your second ‘real’ visit to the hospital (the first visit was only for check up). Previous visit the Dr. said your tear duct was blocked in your left eye (your mother noticed there were a lot of gunk in the left eye, so that was the prompt for your first real visit).

For this second visit, we were to see an eye specialist, it was painless enough (for us, lol). The specialist only spent a few minutes with you, apparently the symptoms for blocked eye duct and an inflammatory eye are quite similar, she told us to increase the frequency of the eye drop to once every two hours instead of three times a day. The Dr. said to try this for a week then come back again next week... Fingers crossed, hopefully it will be better soon :)

Worth a Visit: Back to the Future.

Back to the Future

The photographer’s name is Irina Werning, and here is the link to her site, http://www.irinawerning.com/.

The project that I really enjoyed is “Back to the Future” (1 & 2), people recreating past photograph using the same composition, lighting, props, clothes, people and content :) love it :)

I am not a professional, most of the pictures that I have taken are for memory sake, perhaps that is why I like this project so much :) All I have to do now is to wait, perhaps twenty years until I have all the right ingredients, lol.

How on earth did they find all those such similar clothes and props? lol.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Life is wonderful (touch wood)

DSC08444

Dear Marchella,

I have totally forgotten how small you all are at the beginning, tiny and absolutely adorable :)

Your mother told me how you made her miss the time when your brother was at your age (5 days old :)

Before you left the hospital a surgeon did a tiniest of operation on your tongue that made you suckle so much better and at the same time it doesn’t hurt your mother so much. So after you got home you were crying quite a bit, but we weren’t sure if it was due to the operation or that you were hungry.

You seemed to be hungry all the time :) by the way you have been a fantastic baby so far, touch wood :)

The above photo was taken on the eighth, you were one day old, to see your brother sleeping on the couch and you sleeping in your mother’s arms is something very special to me :) However, getting your brother to go to sleep needed more cunning than one of Blackadder’s most cunning plan, but strangely he is so gentle around you and really behaves himself.

DSC08448Yesterday out of the blue he told me “Papa, I like hospital, Papa” (repeat three times)... that gave me such a smile, people around us thought that your brother and I were absolutely crazy :) While at the hospital, he loved to take all the visitors to see you in nursery, after which he would dashed back to the main room.

Your grandmother and her sister (Grand Auntie?) now come to visit you every evening, you would be totally still in your cot and the two of them would just sit next to you doing nothing but looking, I could tell they were dying to hold you but sleep is so important at this stage... Don’t worry they were more than willing to wait :)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

From three became four :)

DSC08513d

Dear Marcella,

You came home today, and I thought we were well prepared this time, lol. Found out that I had forgotten a vital part of your mother’s pump, had to get on to a motorcycle taxi and rushed to Central Chidlom...

It is now coming fast to seven in the evening, you are fast a sleep in your cot that is sitting next to me, Matt is enjoying his supper, and your mother is scoffing down my mother’s cooking... lol. My mother is working overtime preparing food for your mother (which would then be delivered across the city to us), we (Thais) have our belief that certain food help the women to produce more milk after delivery... lol.

Unfortunately your mother’s parents are now in Chiang Rai (to the North of the country), to escape from the flood, the last time your auntie was at their home, the water was just about entering the house, but that was a week ago, we are all still hoping for the best.

Having difficult time choosing which photos to post, in four days I had already counted almost 500 photos... and 450 no one on earth would find interesting apart from me and you mother, haa haa haa, lol.

Love you,


Dad.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Lost for words...

Dear Marcella,

At this very second you are behind that wall being looked after by the nurses. There are crying coming from all side, and I am sure you are an owner of one of those cry.

I only saw you briefly (but took enough photos to write 50 billion posts :), and I was completely lost for words... Another most important person in my entire universe had just arrived not more than 30 mins ago... Can not wait to hold you!

You started crying as soon as you felt the air touching your face, wow strong lungs, I'll sure wake up when you cry at night :)

Got to go just been called to come and see you........ :)

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Somehow everything leads to India :)

Dear Matt,

Back in October there was an event at Shrewsbury to celebrate the Diwali festival (Festival of lights (what a name, love it)), and all the children were asked to dress up in Indian clothes. Finding the clothes for you was a simple enough task, but getting you to put it on and keeping it on was amazingly difficult, would have been easier get a pig to grow wings and fly to Mars Pluto.

DSC08033_001rDSC08036_004We still don’t know why you were so difficult, tears were flowing like Niagara falls, somehow it felt like you grew two more pairs of arms and hands, by the time we did up your last button, your extra hands managed to undo all the rest as well as your trousers, it was like pouring water into a cup with no bottom, always remained empty, you by some means managed to always remained naked :)

Of course your mother and I won the battle in the end, but we were far from winning the war (you had a cunning plan up your sleeves although you have only t-shirts in your cupboard :) By the way I think you looked very handsome :)

So what was your cunning plan, to get to school we had to drive (obviously), but lately it was only I who took you to school (your mother needed to have more rest). The routine went like clockwork, you got into the rear seats and started reading your book and I of course was driving. On a good day the journey takes around thirty minutes, halfway through I noticed that you were rather quiet, I mean mouse quiet… Something was afoot :)

DSC08035_003gDuring a traffic jam, I turned around and just guess what I was looking at… I was looking at a very young boy at the age of around three and a half sitting with a book on his lap who had nothing on but his white cotton pants… I should have been miffed, but I found myself laughing so much that I almost had to stop the car :)

Dropping you off took more time than usual, coaxing you into your beautiful shirt and trousers took forever, and by the time we got to your class you were bawling as hard as you could, even though all of your friends were also in beautiful Indian’s dress/costume.

Later I called to see how you were, and you were as right as rain. Anyway, that day the school must have taught you something about India, because only a couple of days later you kept mentioning ‘India’ in some obscure type of Monty Python’s sketch, and afterwards you would always fall down laughing.







Matt: “Where is your office, Papa?”
Me: “In the Ladprao area”
Matt: Blank face
Matt: “Is it in India, haa haa haa haa haa, lol x 10 to the power of 100”

Matt: “Where is my pillow, Papa?”
Me: “I don’t know, why don’t you look in the bedroom”
Matt: “India? haa haa haa haa haa, lol x 10 to the power of 100”
(Replace line one and two with whatever you like, but leave the third line the same)

Obvious they must have fed you some funny mushrooms when they told you why you had to dress up in traditional Indian clothes, and I guessed they must have mentioned the country India :)

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

I have Google+ :)

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For some unknown reason Google did not permit ‘Google Apps’ users to have a ‘Google Profile’, consequently this meant that I could not have the much talked about ‘Google+’.

So (very uncharacteristic of me) instead of using the other Google account to create the ‘Google+’, I decided to wait until Google kindly enabled it for all ‘Google Apps’ users (like they said they would).

So for the past couple of days I have been living in the Google+ universe, this isn’t a review, just a penny for my thought here. Google+ is a new social network that uses ‘circles’ to group your flock, with interesting (fresh) UI, it is still a social network at the core (of course), but I think it is as (functional) dynamic as twitter and will probably will be as deep as Facebook but with cleaner and easier layout to understand. I like it, like many, we all have more than one pair of shoes, so I can live with just one more pair for now…

9 Days to go… :)

9Dear Marcella,

Nine days to go… the date and time have been set… :)

At the beginning your grandmother wanted you to be in our arms between 07:00 and 07:30, but the Dr. has another delivery, looks like 11.11.11 is quite popular. To say she was disappointed was an understatement, all of us wanted the best for you down to even the time of your birth, lol.

The Dr. gave us an option, either to get another Dr. to deliver you or delay it to the afternoon. Your mother really wanted Dr. Boonchai to deliver you, so we decided to stay with him but at his own convenience, so two thirty it will be :)

Tonight I shall assemble the cot and wash everything… Just hoping that you can hold on until 11.11.11, we don’t really mind when you come, just arrive here safely, we promise to take care of you to the best of our ability, just ask your brother he seems to have the best time of his life every single day, of course until he does something naughty (which is virtually everyday :)

Matt always thinks of you now, when he talks to your mother he always say Mama & Marcella, “Mama and Marcella stay”, “Mama and Marcella sit down”, “Mama and Marcella this, Mama and Marcella that”, wonderful :)

Loving you,


Dad.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Flood Relief Operations Command (FROC): Heartbreakingly incompetence?

Since the beginning of the flood, FROC that was set up by the Government have had more complaints and criticisms than praises, I can not confirm every criticisms but the latest act of blatant stupidity have made me so angry.

FROC’s headquarter was at Don Muang Airport, this was a large scale operation, with tv studios, press areas and other essentials that all centre of operation should have. Moreover it was also a large relief centre where the people suffering from flood in the surrounding areas were fed and put up, its other main function was a depot where a major part of the donations were stocked.

111One of the main complaint / accusation (I truly hope this is false), (with several pictures posted on FB as well as on the news) was that some politicians were packing these donations and putting their names or names of their organisation on it! I mean HOW LOW CAN YOU GET! These donations came from the kindness of normal citizens as well as from overseas (such as Japan), most weren’t billionaires or millionaires like these despicable politicians, they just wanted to help, why is Thailand being govern by these #%^$.






The sign says, Then there were the accusation of unfairness in dispersing these donations, in that only a certain politicians have the authority to release these much needed essentials. While there were requests left right and center, but these essentials still sit in the warehouse because these politicians had nothing to gain from releasing these donations to these group of suffering people, WTF!


Sod’s law, eventually the flood came to Don Muang, so what did the FROC do? They moved of course. But being with little brain and no common sense, they decided to just up and left, the people who were relying on the relief centre were still there, more importantly part of the donations were also left behind.









The news showed pictures of donations (that was left behind), whether they were clothes, make shift toilets and all other essentials (I mean really essentials) just floating in the water! What a waste! Did the flood come like a Tsunami? NO, NO, NO, it didn’t and besides they are the FROC, people go to them to find out where the flood was coming so they should know well in advance that the flood will hit Don Muang. Or didn’t they have enough resources to move all of the donations? NO, NO, NO, come on they are (again) the FROC, essentially and literally they have the whole Army, Air-force and Navy at their disposal, but no, they just decided to leave, were there any planning? Were there any preparation? I don’t know which part of their anatomy they used to make these decisions, clearly it wasn’t their brain (do they have any?).

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So far, personally I have not been affected by the flood (knock on wood), but to see these people whom we trust to guide us out of danger, are acting so foolishly is just beyond belief and heartbreakingly disappointed. I am hoping all of these information I am consuming is wrong, and that there are some really good explanations behind it, please.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

In readiness for the flooding of Bangkok 2011.

Pic from: http://www.bangkokwow.blogspot.com/We have moved into the heart of Bangkok for almost a year now, so our house on the out skirt of the city has pretty much been empty (obviously) for the same amount of time, the house sits on the very edge of a sub district named Salathammasop, which is a part of the larger district called 'Taweewattana' and that sits on the top left hand corner of Bangkok, a sneeze away from Nonthaburi Province and Nakornpathom province.

To the North of our home lay two other districts, 'Bang Bua Thong' and 'Bang Yai' (both are part of Nonthaburi Province), both have been hit hard by the flood (so my area should be next). The first floor of a colleague's house is now 50 cms under water, however if you go out onto the main road of the housing estate then the water level is chest high. How can that be that in the year of 2011 any part of Bangkok can be chest high under water! This wasn’t some freak event like a hurricane or an earthquake, I believe there were warnings, several warnings, many are saying it was just poor management by the various authorities.

Yesterday, I had to go back to the out skirt home to pick up the cot, and decided to take a short trip to the local supermarket, talking about being totally prepared, there were make shift walls, sandbags and other water stopping measures everywhere, totally putting me to shame, all I did to prepare for this flood was literally 3 extra tins of tuna, several bottled water and two dozen eggs.

This market is at least 50 to 60 cms below the road, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see this pretty hefty wall (but it was). 

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UTurnBridgePeople were selling life jackets and boats on the street; all bridges, even the expressway have turned into car parks, so was the U-Turn bridge near our home.

I am sincerely hoping that these people, who had no choice but to stay, will be safe and that the best case happens for them, that is somehow the water manages to miss them all.








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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Feeling like a Grasshopper…

Pic from: http://www.commonsense2day.com/?p=130

I must admit that I have been a bit of a ‘Grasshopper’ so far with the advent of this horrific flood, as time passes and seeing the advancement of the unrelenting flood, together with all of the everyday essentials disappearing from the shelves, is quickly turning me into an ‘Ant’.

My main concern is clean water, with a three year old and another love of my life coming in about two weeks means clean water will be absolutely essential, so I have now started stocking water. To put things into perspective, we went to a restaurant today, and they couldn’t give us any water because they didn’t have any! All they had left was fizzy water (no brand will be mentioned here, lol).
 

That really scared the %$#* out of me, whether it was through panic buying or whatever, the result is the same if the water becomes contaminated from the flood (a very strong possibility here) there is a strong possibility that I shall not be able to find clean water in the near future and this is a good enough reason for me to also start stocking the essentials, just in case...

I wish I have become an Ant sooner than this... Well better late than never... :) Family do come first :) Personally I can live on beer for the next six months, lol.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

24 hours later… :)

Matt, all these syringes were a result of about 24 hours worth of your medicine, no wonder people (literally) feel better in hospital, lol.

DSC08106_004You are now sitting in the living room, next to my feet, and having a fantastic time with Angry bird on the iPad.

You are still far from 100%, we had a bit of a fright when you came home this afternoon, your temp. climbed up to 39c with no sign of it coming down, and this was even after a dose of your med., instead of the 4 hours gap we decided to give you another dose (after two and half hours), and so far that looks like the right decision :)

Get well soon baby, love you.

Dad.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Oh what an interesting weekend this will be :)

Dear Matt,

It all started with such a great plan, Saturday we were going to take you to your first stage show, ‘Mickey Mouse Show’ at Siam Paragon and Sunday would be another trip with your grandparents, so what happened? Life threw you, your first curve ball :)

Friday morning, you woke up with a slight temperature (didn’t think too much of it at that time), to keep you busy we decided to drop you off at Brain school just for the morning. At the same time, our house keeper turned up looking like death on a stick, she was obviously very ill. So while you and your mother were out, your mother decided to call the house keeper and told her to go home.

By the time you came back your temperature was a little bit higher but nothing to cause any alarm (still in the mid 37), so after lunch you went for your afternoon nap… then everything started heading south, you woke up burning and complaining of feeling cold… It must have been faith, your aunty turned up just as you were getting ready to go to the hospital, your mother did need a helping hand to get you ready.

DSC08070_007At the hospital your temperature reached 39.3 (not again), the Dr. decided to do another test on you, and soon after it was discovered that you were suffering from Influenza A Type and that required a special medicine (Tamiflu), you were then sent home.

I arrived at around 18:45 to see you sitting on the black sofa, all wrapped up in your blanket watching Super Why on the iPad, there were no spring in your steps, it was obvious that you were very ill, your temperature was still way above 38. After dinner and a boatful of medicine I decided to carry you for a while, your stomach felt very bloated against my chest, I knew sooner or later you would be sick so decided to hold on until you did.

Call me Bangkok Nostradamus, first came a throat full of water, and I thought that was it… of course I was wrong, about thirty minutes later the full orchestra of rice, pork and vegetables :) decided to follow suit, everything came out, even the medicine… after cleaning you up, we decided it was safe to put you to bed, we were wrong. During the next hour and a half you were sick three times and these were gut wrenching, Papa help me kind of a session.

Considering the Influenza, the vomiting and very high temp. it was decided to admit you to BNH, this time there were no sense of panic just a sense of urgency, and in no time you were again on a table all wrapped up in what I think is the largest Velcro pad in the universe, of course it was needed so that the nurse could put the IV line into the back of you palm.


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All that happened last night, it is now almost noon on the Saturday, your Mickey Mouse show had already ran for about an hour, your mother is a sleep on the couch next to you, you are now sleeping on the mattress and I am writing this blog in a your darkened hospital room with a small cup of horrible coffee by my side, all contented that you are now in good hands (although your high temperature still bothers me).


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This morning after your breakfast I took you out in one of those special push car just to have a quick walk around the hospital, not wanting to waste a photo opp. I took the NEX 5 with me and promptly dropped it, lens first. Luckily the clear filter took all of the blunt and everything seems ok, of course your mother think I had dropped it on purpose (a couple of weeks back I dropped the lens cap in the river (she thought that was on purpose too)), so that I could get a new camera… of course I denied it wholeheartedly, but after a bit of time, sitting in this darkened room drinking dire coffee I am beginning to think it was my subconscious who had dropped the camera this morning… perhaps I should take this opportunity to catch an appointment with the on duty DSC08082_019psychologist :)


Love you,


Dad.