tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33813106387633614712024-02-07T11:44:34.405+07:00panutatiratPanu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.comBlogger370125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-26375239879998667862012-04-02T10:45:00.001+07:002012-04-03T09:53:50.506+07:00How to order Noodles in Thailand: The Foundation.<p>Saw a couple of tourists trying to order noodles and their faces were full of total puzzlement, I hope this helps. (Note: all the various pictures came from the web, none of them are mine).</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><font size="4">Introduction</font></strong></p> <p>There are several types of ‘noodles based meal’ that you’ll see on the streets of Bangkok, for example, Duck noodles, Fish dumpling noodles, Beef Noodles, Goose Noodles, Pork Noodles and so on, but the ordering process is almost the same. Hopefully it will make your life a little easier when you want to order some noodles in Thailand :)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><font size="4">First Step: The Sequence</font></strong></p> <p>There is a sequence to the ‘order’, just like Starbucks, “Grande (Size), Decaf – Latte (Drink)”, of course it isn’t wrong to say it differently but it will help to get your message across especially when one doesn’t know the language well.</p> <p>The Sequence is a simple one</p> <blockquote> <p>#1 [‘Type of Noodles’] + <br>#2 [‘Dry or Wet (no soup or in soup)’] + <br>#3 [Additional Information, such as ‘No Beansprouts’ or ‘TomYam’ (will get into this later), and etc.] + <br>#4 [‘Special’ or ‘Normal’ (meaning extra or normal portion]</p> <p>In short: Noodles Type + Soup? + additional info. + Special?</p></blockquote> <p>That is the gist of it, 4 commands in all, very simple trust me…</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><font size="4">#1 Type of Noodles</font></strong></p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Ba Mhee flat" border="0" alt="Ba Mhee flat" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCGJIp7tYYBl2s6lBdZNpWbEnDz-89m785HMpImF-Oq3qv_AFnJCev2cnKO_GGd9Jdf-8n6OEbj64v0MAkYeMeMSmZywrIl2eQeeOf0vy32TTLNeleQV3_zjDjMKunUWOSVuetLcETOUf/?imgmax=800" width="270" height="208"></p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Ba Mhee 2" border="0" alt="Ba Mhee 2" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-BLzHcazW6pA/T3kgzac1HuI/AAAAAAAACNs/WaOJ2RGbvNo/Ba-Mhee-25.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="207"></p> <p>Ba Mhee = Yellow thin round noodles (made with eggs)</p> <p>Comes in two type, most common ones are round egg noodles, the other is just flatter.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p align="left"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Sen Mhee" border="0" alt="Sen Mhee" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-R5j9e7tTsdA/T3kg0sK-W1I/AAAAAAAACN0/E7n34f4SOKY/Sen-Mhee2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="208">Sen Mhee = White thin round noodles</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><br> </p> <p align="left"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Sen Lhek" border="0" alt="Sen Lhek" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-va8_eri4fZk/T3kg1o853qI/AAAAAAAACN8/d76T4LAJWZw/Sen-Lhek1.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="208">Sen Lhek = White flat small size noodles (Lhek means small)</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><br> </p> <p align="left"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Sen Yhai" border="0" alt="Sen Yhai" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-tpFjlTidzcw/T3kg2xhzDgI/AAAAAAAACOE/rhVJFEgPxo8/Sen-Yhai11.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="208">Sen Yai = White flat ‘wider’ noodles (Yai means big)</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><br> </p> <p align="left"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Woon Sen" border="0" alt="Woon Sen" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-YTCagBv5W1I/T3kg4JI8tQI/AAAAAAAACOM/Vts8EEQvUZ4/Woon-Sen2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="208">Woon – Sen = Glass Noodles (transparent, made from green beans, no carb :) )</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><br> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Sen Mama" border="0" alt="Sen Mama" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-LeVVA3Jtee0/T3kg5PjYAnI/AAAAAAAACOU/g0IrbZ-EnAo/Sen-Mama6.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="245"></p> <p align="left">Sen Mama, plain and simple it’s one of those instant noodles’ noodles.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><br> </p> <p><strong><font size="4">#2 Hang or Nam? (No Soup or with Soup)</font></strong></p> <p>Hang means ‘dry’ and Nam means ‘liquid/water’, so after choosing your type of noodles you’ll have to choose if you want your noodles without soup or with (in) soup. Of course you can also have your noodles without soup and have your soup as a separate dish (for free, although some may charge a little).</p> <p>Let say I have chosen Ba Mhee (egg noodles)</p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Ba Mhee Hang" border="0" alt="Ba Mhee Hang" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-XUCV5-ZISyI/T3kg6NnmeAI/AAAAAAAACOc/fWADK07pv0w/Ba-Mhee-Hang5.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="193">This is Ba Mhee Hang (a direct translation is ‘Egg noodles Dry’)</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><br> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Ba Mhee Nam" border="0" alt="Ba Mhee Nam" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-hV0s-3Ia8Qw/T3kg7r2bb5I/AAAAAAAACOk/pUOOyQyHy9I/Ba-Mhee-Nam6.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="161"></p> <p>This is Ba Mhee Nam (a direct translation is ‘Egg noodles Liquid/Water’)</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><br> </p> <p><strong><font size="4">#3 Additional Information</font></strong></p> <p>After the noodles + soup/no soup it is time for #3 ‘Additional Information’, this is where you put in all your little quirks, to put it in ‘Starbuck’s language’ it would be like ‘low fat, one equal and etc.’.</p> <p>These are some of the common ‘special order’</p> <ol> <li>No Beansprouts <li>No Vegetables <li>Only round fishball dumpling <li>No Garlic <li>Not too much soup <li>Tom Yam (all the spices (hot) will be added so there is no need for you to add anything else) <li>Etc.</li></ol> <p>If you don’t have any special demands that just skip this and go straight to #4.</p> <p><br> </p> <p><strong><font size="4">#4 Pee-Ses or Tam-ma-dar (Special or Normal/Standard)</font></strong></p> <p>This final direction has to do with the portion ‘Pee-ses’ (Special) means extra portions and in general they will charge you 5 to 10 THB more, and ‘Tam-ma-da’ (Normal/Standard) means standard portion and pricing.</p> <p>Moreover, you can order ‘specific’ type of extra portion, such as extra noodles, extra duck or extra fishball dumplings and so on.</p> <p>There is no need to say ‘Tam-ma-da’ each time, your order will assume to be ‘standard’ unless you say ‘Pee-ses’</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><font size="4">Summary and Additional information</font></strong></p> <p>Examples:</p> <ul> <li>Ba Mhee + Nam + No Beansprouts</li> <li>Sen Mhee + Hang</li> <li>Sen Yai + Nam</li> <li>Woon Sen + Hang + Pi Ses</li></ul> <p>Etc… enjoy :)</p> <p>The above four steps #1 + #2 + #3 + #4 should get you what ever you want, just don’t go to a duck noodles place and order noodles with fishball dumplings, lol. All of the noodle shops will have their ingredients display in front of the shop, if you see a duck then it is a duck noodle shops no need to try to read the signs :)</p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="yen ta four" border="0" alt="yen ta four" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-_gGmZvj_cFg/T3kg9IvC7KI/AAAAAAAACOo/1pjDFIXvB8U/yen-ta-four4.jpg?imgmax=800" width="320" height="257">‘Yen-ta-four’, these are common enough for me to tell you about it, this is a ‘fish’ based noodles dish but they added red bean curd, and it comes with ‘morning glory’ vegetables and squids. So if you see red noodles dish either with or without soup it will be probably be a ‘Yen ta four’.</p> <p>Not all shops sells Yen ta four, you’ll just have to look around. To order this, your first command will have to be, ‘Yen – Ta – Four’ then follow by your #1 + #2 + #3 + #4 direction, simple enough.</p> <p>Of course there are more to it than it is written here, you’ll just need to be adventurous and don’t be shy, people will always wanting to help and because all of the ingredients are more than often, all out for you to see, you can just point and see what you get :)</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-7032978766219982082012-03-30T14:06:00.001+07:002012-03-30T14:06:07.580+07:00Driving in Bangkok :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Pic from www.igobangkok.blogspot.com/" border="0" alt="Pic from www.igobangkok.blogspot.com/" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-9E95N08Xk6o/T3VbXNzSRmI/AAAAAAAACMQ/228PaFvYmy0/picture-009%25255B8%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="282">This is mostly from personal experience so subsequently it is from a UK perspective. I learnt to drive in the UK, got my first license & car in the UK and after driving for about 5 years I came home, wow, what a learning curve :)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Getting the wrong message</strong></p> <p>Out of all the differences in driving behaviour and driving manners, the most vital thing to remember is the flashing of headlights. In the UK, if a driver started flashing the headlights at you it simply means 'I am so kind and having such a great day, so I am now giving the right of way to you, please don't forget to say thank you, :)', of course you would pull out and certainly give him/her a quick wave/nod of a heartfelt appreciation and off you go. For the same action in Thailand would simply get you killed, over here flashing headlights is a stern warning, 'if you come out I am going to ram you with all of my might and send you to hell's deepest pit, please take heed na krub'.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Iron Testi*&%s :), and 'Yes' Size does Matter</strong></p> <p>I am of course talking of the 'right of way' here, over there the right of way is far too complicated, involving what road you are on, are you coming from the left or the right, even the speed you are travelling. Over here it is just a simple matter of size, of your vehicle :), the bigger you are the more of the right of way you have :) that is unless you have balls of steel (or nerve of steel for the ladies), in that case, the right of way will always be yours :) but that does not mean the other drivers won't be pi**ed off at you, can you feel the road rage brewing?</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Road Rage</strong></p> <p>I believe Road rage is all the same globally, pure anger from the naval of your stomach suddenly erupting with such ferociousness that you loose all sense of control, then they pull out a gun and shoot you, that is road rage over here. So please if someone cuts you off, try not to return the favour unless you like eating lead for supper.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Express Way is a bit strange</strong></p> <p>For a 'right hand drive' or 'left hand traffic' countries like us, the slowest lane on the Express Way would be on the left, meaning the people who are in no hurry or trying to achieve 30 km to the litre will drive on the left hand lane.</p> <p>Just wanted to give you a head up here so that you don't get too frustrated on our Express Way. Well, the slowest driver tends to drive in the middle, I have no idea on the logic behind this, may be they are just very kind in opening up both lanes either side for overtaking, oh yes and we do, do overtake on both sides, so please be careful. Admittedly most of the overtaking will still be on the right, but now and then I have seen super fast car overtaking on the left.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Silence is Golden</strong></p> <p>Comparing with some of the other South East Asian countries we are comparatively quite quiet :) no one uses the horn unless it was really necessary or in some rare cases to vent one’s frustration. Even in very heavy traffic where people tends to push left and right trying to find a quicker way through a wall to wall of cars, often cutting people off and often very pointless. I am proud to say we are pretty chill about that, it must have been through natural selection because if one starts pumping the horn sooner or later someone will shoot you, so through natural selection the ones that are left are pretty chill when it comes to traffic jam and poor driving manners that come with it :)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Another plane of existence</strong></p> <p>Motorcycles, although you can see them and they ‘certainly’ can see you, but you’ll feel that you don’t exist. Don’t loose your nerve when you see ten or twenty motorcycles speeding down in between cars stuck in traffic, and if one is stuck next to you, either fold your side mirrors or just move your car a little so that he/she can be on her way, then you can sit back and be very envious that they are now moving and you are still stuck and going nowhere fast :)</p> <p>It is common to see motorcycles riding against the traffic, they will do their best to hug the footpath but it can be a little daunting when there is a bunch of them, there were times I had thought I was the one who was driving the wrong way down a one-way street, by the way if you hit one of them you’ll be in the wrong, see next paragraph :)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Heads they win, Tail you loose :)</strong></p> <p>Here is the food chain when it comes to an accident; if you are in a car, the results are pretty much fixed, lol. The circumstances does not matter, if you hit a pedestrian, you will always be in the wrong. If you hit a motorcyclist, you’ll always be in the wrong. If you hit someone from behind, you’ll always be in the wrong. If you are bigger than the thing you’d hit, then it is likely that you’ll be in the wrong (of course there are freak circumstances where you are in the right but it is just easier to assume that you’ll be in the wrong, always, no need to get your hope up to have it knocked down again.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Saving it for later</strong></p> <p>There are loads more (driving upcountry is so different than driving in BKK), just needed the time to get them out, by the way walking is even more complicated on Bangkok’s streets, but at least you’ll always be in the right when a car / motorcycle hits you :)</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-66259636471927395042012-03-28T12:13:00.001+07:002012-03-28T12:13:50.438+07:00I only love Marcella :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="M and M 2" border="0" alt="M and M 2" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrIKOn7lXG2ApYYfb7MlI6ptRO5CdBadH0-95tPAPUjNugqUedv96IjCiRHJ9DlwVmT8m9hbp48ViANBCHEkyEy-oZRnmAxM3Jobt7yCIKxMvUkx49T8ypxdp6ejQLJ8bzKydE8Bd-JzLL/?imgmax=800" width="520" height="353">Dear M and M,</p> <p>A couple of things this week, Matt surprised us again last Sunday, on the way to the car after Matt’s golf lesson and lunch we found ourselves debating which floor we parked the car, your mother said 3rd, and I said 5fh. </p> <p>Out of the blue Matt shouted out 4, at the same time jumped and slapped the number 4 button, landed with a thud then went silent staring at the both of us. Your mother and I looked at each other and laughed, we let the lift took us to the fourth floor. </p> <p>Let just say we were both quite embarrassed, because you ‘little monkey’ was right on the money :), your mother took a peek out of the lift and the car was right there on the fourth floor :)</p> <p>This morning we all woke up late so we had to rushed a little, no play time before shower and breakfast, after Matt was dressed in his school uniform and we were about to leave the apartment, he leant back against one of the wall and said. “I don’t love Papa anymore and I don’t love Mama anymore, I only love Marcella (huge laugh)” then put his shoes on and left the apartment with another huge laugh. He went back to apologise afterwards once your mother had threatened not to be there when he comes home after school :) (“under her thumb, both of you are, she has” it only make sense if you say it in Yoda’s voice :) ).</p> <p>From the picture above and the way Marcella behaves around Matt, I can see that he will have a lot of influence on her :) </p> <p>Father and Mother are the hit words at the moment, well, it started off with Papa and Mama, then changed briefly to Dad and Mum, now he had gone all proper on us with Father and Mother… all very strange, he loves to read and I am betting it’s from one of the gazillion books he has in his room that is having this influence.</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-25699269531049960142012-03-25T01:36:00.001+07:002012-03-25T01:36:12.352+07:00Center of Everything :)<p><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC00796e" border="0" alt="DSC00796e" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-mKAxedNmleg/T24UGRKax2I/AAAAAAAACL4/YLZBjADAUas/DSC00796e%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="462" height="313"></font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic">Dear Marcella,</font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic">You are now the center of all attention, from my extensive side of our family, as well as from your mother’s side, and you are showing your good nature self (when stomach is full, haa haa haa) by loads of smiles after smiles :)</font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic">And you are much more responsive to all of our attention now, smiling, laughing, looking around and so on. Soon you’ll be crawling, I already have a video of you rotating yourself, we were all cheering you on like a bunch of lunatics :)</font></p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-35691700670120587322012-03-25T01:23:00.001+07:002012-03-25T01:23:24.863+07:00Looking so comfortable :)<p><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Ipad 2" border="0" alt="Ipad 2" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-TQvXnmDJ0Iw/T24RGjJpx8I/AAAAAAAACLs/sInGYYKms9g/Ipad%2525202%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="462" height="314"></font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic">Dear Matt,</font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic">This was taken around the time of Chinese New Year, I remembered throwing randomly a few pillows onto the floor, and the next thing I saw, was you laying so very comfortably on those pillows and watching a video.</font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic">Your mother and I can not believe that in just about a month you’ll be four years old :) Scene like this will soon be gone, you’ll be too big, or too cool (haa haa haa) to lay down on fluffy pillows and watch a silly video on the iPad :)</font></p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-20940038482707245072012-03-20T09:49:00.001+07:002012-03-20T10:05:39.290+07:00Worth a Visit: Sergey Larenkov<p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="then-now-15" border="0" alt="then-now-15" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-o5QX0uXrWE4/T2fwG7JTJBI/AAAAAAAACLA/nnOZ7gSbcAM/then-now-15%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="236">I have always been drawn towards “Then and Now” photographs, whether it be ‘<a href="http://dearphotograph.com/" target="_blank">Dear Photograph</a>’ or ‘<a href="http://www.irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/" target="_blank">Back to the Future</a>’, but these ones from “<a href="http://sergey-larenkov.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">Sergey Larenkov</a>” are amazing (click his name to go to his site), I feel that due to the topic that he had chosen (historically so important to all of us) and his execution of putting the photographs together (merging, overlaying), it is just perfect in conveying the emotions and really does bring the past, to the future, to us. If you have time, please visit his site at <a href="http://sergey-larenkov.livejournal.com/">http://sergey-larenkov.livejournal.com/</a> you won’t be disappointed.</p> <p><br> </p> <p>I first saw his photographs on ‘The Chive’, but there were no information to where it had come from or who was the owner, so the next logical thing to do was to ask Google (using ‘then and now photos of WW2’), a few links came up, one of the link was ‘Pakistan Defence’, it had the same set of photos but this time Sergey Larenkov was watermarked on most of the photos, and that was all any needed to find his site :)</p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="tn (1)" border="0" alt="tn (1)" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-n9PI3WS2V7M/T2fwJHfcuYI/AAAAAAAACLI/oeBQcR6IuxQ/tn%252520%2525281%252529%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="259"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="0006t2cw" border="0" alt="0006t2cw" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4TBLivecgFkjZfgff8HWqN1fFKmlYSDEE4XoL62wJF3Povw0p_WA7DvCfI3-IY2Ot5NjHuH9iDpuRQW3Ii_RrATV2EdZ_ZANyH_uR2dWQ6xjodZ25SDrVxLWSsIKM3eJppQfQQdXKpziF/?imgmax=800" width="380" height="259"></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="berlin003" border="0" alt="berlin003" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Qn9Q9J8yars/T2fwMGITAlI/AAAAAAAACLY/756wpUbuGX4/berlin003%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="258"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="tn" border="0" alt="tn" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-tCZbm25sx3I/T2fwNL1Yl9I/AAAAAAAACLg/feRuE35Vw68/tn%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="259"></p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-74163919850285279802012-03-19T17:06:00.001+07:002012-03-19T17:10:12.590+07:00Now it’s Official :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="H and W" border="0" alt="H and W" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-DkPWJxORO4k/T2cFPVKKCrI/AAAAAAAACK0/7FmSUZn1R10/H%252520and%252520W%25255B8%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="220" height="317">Dear M & M,</p> <p>Today your mother and I are now officially husband and wife :) Don’t ask why we had left it so long (after two ceremonies, after two receptions, after six years and you two later, :) ) before going to the register office, I’d guess it wasn’t important for the both of us. However now that your mother has sacrificed her career to look after the both of you, registering seemed to be quite important, one prime example is the visa application, if we remained separate it would have been so difficult for her.</p> <p>We went to the district office this morning, arriving there at around eleven(ish), there were tons of people but the district office and other government offices have improved light years to what it was before, all web based application now :) Registering the marriage took less than half an hour and all we needed was our identification card, the rest of the documents was pulled from the system, such as our housing registration and your birth certificate.</p> <p>I am more than glad we did it, just to make it official and by the book as they say :) she has already started to threaten me with the “D” word… haa haa haa :)</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-71632095313442273852012-03-18T02:35:00.001+07:002012-03-18T02:41:00.866+07:00Six Days in Berlin :)<p>Dear M & M,</p> <p>Well, when I say six days, if you include the time spent travelling it was more like eight days, I’d left on Sunday night and arrived back Sunday late afternoon. This time Matt didn’t even batter an eyelid when I’d left, it was a relief not having to cope with all his tears but at the same time it was kind a strange (sad? / downer? / anticlimax? / ???), I said “bye Matt, see you in a few days”, all he said was “Bye Papa, see you soon” :) haa haa haa. Of course Marcella just gave me her usual huge smile and looked away, that was enough for me :) <p>There were two main events this time, a huge sales meeting (Sixt Rent a Car) and the ITB Berlin (super huge Travel trade show). All the flights from BKK to Berlin were full, we ended up having to fly to London then to Berlin, it was nice to be back in the UK once again after 14 years although it was only for a flight change :)</p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC03045" border="0" alt="DSC03045" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-eCs-wRX7HKU/T2TnSD_T5HI/AAAAAAAACJo/fa6isKhgVvM/DSC03045%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="660" height="446"></p> <p> </p> <p>Berlin was freezing, your mother was the best, she went out and bought all the “under garments” (eei eei) without me asking, which had literally saved my live :) Only a week before we arrived it was minus 20 :) I think the coldest it got for us was about minus 3 but with wind it felt like minus a million :)</p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC03067" border="0" alt="DSC03067" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-c35DkK66VVo/T2TnTmW_nBI/AAAAAAAACJw/QdUnnndftK8/DSC03067%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="660" height="446"></p> <p> </p> <p>Apart from the meetings, it was fortunate that the company gave me some free time to roam around. What a city! The history is of course a very big part of it, and the afternoon tour of the city (on one of those buses) was perfect just to get an overview of it all. The places we saw in Berlin was too numerous to count, ‘Check Point Charlie’ is a popular one, the wall of course, Brandenburg Gate, Victory monument and many more landmarks.</p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC03141" border="0" alt="DSC03141" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-eNJmWYQPrsg/T2TnU56ECZI/AAAAAAAACJ4/gMrVfqNWShs/DSC03141%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="546">We were lucky to also have time to go outside of Berlin, Potsdam was the area and the ultimate destination was Sanssouci (Summer Palace of Frederick the Great), another reason why Potsdam is well known is because of the ‘Potsdam conference’, and if you are wondering what this is just Google it (presumably Google still exists by the time you read this post :) </p> <p>The rest of the group left before I did, so I ended up alone for almost a day, decided to visit ‘Topography of Terror’ and ‘Museum of Photography’ before catching the flight Stuttgart then Bangkok. I was all so very interesting I didn’t even have lunch :) There were so many more museums, could have spent another two days just visiting them.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC03196_003" border="0" alt="DSC03196_003" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-2GkinOJ4B1A/T2Tn43zsrzI/AAAAAAAACKo/kSoq4Vxje00/DSC03196_003%25255B15%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="660" height="446"></p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC03194_001" border="0" alt="DSC03194_001" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-uZMz_1o0W0c/T2TnXfvFPjI/AAAAAAAACKI/BqgxhiSfRhM/DSC03194_001%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="253"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC03195_002" border="0" alt="DSC03195_002" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9fAoj84cYX3B9zcEYvuqNMGK-2-g5h3I_rphzbcu2i1Q8KwIxLj6Zw0hxuKtvO2EX5jCg3jVqTvaC956s0o3u9qo18z2TGf58P2gj_Id0Z0k94nhM5Ri8N6CkwIAxoW78893y1B2XjNMn/?imgmax=800" width="370" height="253"></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Topography of Terror just immerged you in the history of between 1932 (ish) to 1945 (ish), basically the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler. The the Museum of Photography, it isn’t about cameras! there was a permanent exhibition of Helmut Newton and the top floor was housed a changing special exhibition, when I was there it was about Japanese photographers from the end of WWII to the modern (ish) time. Just wanted to mention that the newer building are just as interesting as the older ones :)</p> <p>Then that was it, it was time to go home, managed to grab a very, very late lunch (about six pm). Would love the opportunity to visit this great city again. By the way Stuttgart’s airport is huge! Please allow plenty of time when you are thinking of making a transfer there, almost had a heart attack running from Gate Axx to Bxx, must have taken more than 20 minutes, running, and on conveyer belts most of the way :) \</p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC03205_004" border="0" alt="DSC03205_004" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-6o1jTnWm2iI/T2TnZo6GR1I/AAAAAAAACKY/xmVkOUxCk-U/DSC03205_004%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="546"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC03206_005" border="0" alt="DSC03206_005" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-wT6Lg64WziM/T2TnbbKnvsI/AAAAAAAACKg/jPLdoc3xoV8/DSC03206_005%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="546">x</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-42698451779200412252012-03-14T11:01:00.001+07:002012-03-14T11:04:38.588+07:00Must improve!<p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Pic from http://halawatulfikr.blogspot.com/2011/02/good-mood.html" border="0" alt="Pic from http://halawatulfikr.blogspot.com/2011/02/good-mood.html" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-w6HpduON9Bg/T2AYI1Tf8HI/AAAAAAAACJg/oezJ0zjBRiw/Moods%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="177" height="151"></font>Dear Matt,</font> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">You were a little bit strange yesterday, when your mother came to pick you up she was told by your class teacher that you had an altercation at the pool, apparently you wanted something from your classmate but he refuses to give it to you, because he was playing with it, and so you decided to take it and even bit him (luckily it was not hard). You were clearly in the wrong, the teacher did say that you felt sorry but nonetheless we decided to take action as this was not an acceptable behaviour from our view.</font> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">On the same day you had another episode, threw a ball at Chloe then hit Pui in the face, even your mother didn’t know why you were acting up like this. We took this very, very seriously, and we sincerely hope our actions and discussion will help you to improve. I spent most of my life in boarding schools, luckily they were good ones so bullying was minimal but whenever we noticed it we would always intervene.</font> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">We shall be keeping an even closer eye on you for the next few weeks, and sincerely hoping that this will not happen again.</font> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-14428731455393915732012-03-13T12:22:00.001+07:002012-03-14T10:02:56.185+07:00M & M: Hello Bob, Hello Marcella :)<p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">Dear M & M,</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">A couple of weeks ago it was ‘dress up as your favourite character day’ at Shrewsbury, of course judging by the last ‘dress up as your favourite animal day’ I could already tell that there would be some totally awesome costumes walking around, and I wasn’t wrong :)</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">First of all I didn’t expect it to be such a big event, as it turned out, it wasn’t just Matt’s year that got dressed up, it was the entire school (and a school parade too), including teachers, and oh, they were totally excellent! I just couldn’t stop smiling, there were a million princesses, but only a few prince, some went as character from ‘Car’, one teacher was a mummy (10 points) there were even a couple of Harry Potter in the running around. But to my knowledge there was only one ‘Bob the Builder’ and that was Matt! :) :) :)</font></p> <p> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Bob builder" border="0" alt="Bob builder" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-4eN4DCoaNuc/T17Zbcm5g6I/AAAAAAAACIs/noTc5XsWIMU/Bob%252520builder%25255B17%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="563">I didn’t know why Matt had chosen ‘Bob the Builder’ rather than ‘Handy Manny’, essentially they are the same character but on the opposite side of the Atlantic :) but Handy Manny is always on the telly and Bob wasn’t, who knows, but ‘Bob the Builder’ it was. As it turned out your mother was first class once again, my mother got you the tools while Gio found a small dungaree, it was perfect :)</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02968" border="0" alt="DSC02968" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-1opVzGqlq5o/T17ZcO2UiLI/AAAAAAAACI0/fx4dGkrV6qA/DSC02968%25255B17%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="277" height="412"></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Behind Bob" border="0" alt="Behind Bob" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-yRiHi6qMUUc/T17ZdZux5tI/AAAAAAAACI8/m1JJI4NGuSQ/Behind%252520Bob%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="290"></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">Matt’s belt kept falling off, just like a pit crew at F1 I had to dashed in, tightened up the belt several times. Ms. Rachel (head of class) was a witch (no, just her costume) and I believe her assistant was a ‘Cat’. In class seeing a princess playing with a pirate was a laugh :)</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">I am sorry but I can not post pictures of Matt’s friends simply because I have not obtained any permission from their parents yet :) but I have loads, Best and Otto were so adorable :)</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">Your mother wished she had come, the only reason she didn’t because none of us knew (even other parents) that this was such a big event.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02987_00333" border="0" alt="DSC02987_00333" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/--NOoIjUEYdM/T17ZfXdKtrI/AAAAAAAACJE/Nj2uWiUbEZM/DSC02987_00333%25255B19%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="300" height="432">I was away for the entire week last week, Berlin was freezing and I did miss you all terribly, due to the current schedule finding time to hold Marcella was a bit difficult, usually Matt and I would leave before she was up and by the time I was home she would have already been tucked up in her dream land :) So I never pass up a chance to hold her whenever I could :)</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">I hope you two get along well as you do now, Matt totally adores Marcella, and I so hope that she doesn’t give him too much trouble, lol.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02982_004" border="0" alt="DSC02982_004" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-KEjTvK-S1bQ/T17ZgM9i0UI/AAAAAAAACJM/84maj99OPro/DSC02982_004%25255B8%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="258"></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font></p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-70436125330679028672012-03-10T00:24:00.001+07:002012-03-10T01:01:09.380+07:00Four days in Vietnam :)<p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">Dear M & M,</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">Earlier in Feb. I’d visited Hanoi (the capital) and Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) on a business trip, what a wonderful couple of cities, I feel the set up is exactly like Beijing (the capital) and Shanghai, one is the administrative city while the other is the business/trade city (respectively), of course the latter is much more enticing for businesses, but one can not avoid the capital as that is where the policies that dictates the country come from.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">Geographically VN is in such a strategically important location, the coast line is 3,260 Km long (excluding islands), running the entire length of the country. To the North is China, to the East is Laos and Cambodia, and I think that was/is why VN was/is so attractive. Long coast line means easy access for both ‘trade ships’ as well as' ‘war ships’, for once VN is in your hand one can easily move east to reach Laos, Cambodia and eventually Thailand, and that is it the whole of South East Asia in a jiffy. The Chinese came by land from the North, the French came by sea from the West and the American came from above by air, you two must read up on the history of VN.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC01835_0007" border="0" alt="DSC01835_0007" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-0EQQsAX8FZg/T1o8cFxInGI/AAAAAAAACGA/bXoFiHyCDyI/DSC01835_0007%25255B12%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="720" height="486"></font></font></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC01824_0005" border="0" alt="DSC01824_0005" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-rii8g-bwP0I/T1o8dfnNd3I/AAAAAAAACGI/RGkxA41p59w/DSC01824_0005%25255B13%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="720" height="486"></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC01832_0006" border="0" alt="DSC01832_0006" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIYRK8XVeth93ujp_32pzesvilJS445JQJpKip9TBNoOOPpzUbe5WxaKaD1nIxKcwOi-jHLHAT2TfpDEXmQire5zpKqbiSEtGdu4doPEMGmAnEQpjO_L-9luSKTHTqOWIDGRxULbGaB3Nm/?imgmax=800" width="720" height="486"></font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic">Crossing the roads was fantastically fun, it’s like playing Russian Roulette with an automatic revolver. It had been some years since my previous visit and it was amazing to see all of the development! There is no doubt that soon Vietnam will (economic) become a major player at the regional level, and perhaps the world.</font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 14px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02045_0022" border="0" alt="DSC02045_0022" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6Z7MrCJ4dDY/T1o8hmBOdVI/AAAAAAAACGY/tNO9J5uTmV4/DSC02045_0022%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="561"></font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02108_0029" border="0" alt="DSC02108_0029" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Y1VVRgeRNuA/T1o8jBAO1JI/AAAAAAAACGg/s4g4T55nZTI/DSC02108_0029%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="561"></font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02053_0024" border="0" alt="DSC02053_0024" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-agXVQyZ9obg/T1o8kpVgk-I/AAAAAAAACGo/U2jTrTXBNL0/DSC02053_0024%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="720" height="486"></font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02096_0027" border="0" alt="DSC02096_0027" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-I5bJPOyp6xk/T1o8lzoMB7I/AAAAAAAACGw/n_KCf2vHEtE/DSC02096_0027%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="720" height="179"></font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 14px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02016_0017" border="0" alt="DSC02016_0017" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-oACk4Ea7noI/T1o8oJLzDtI/AAAAAAAACHA/b8kijoYjMwA/DSC02016_0017%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="560"></font></font><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC01997_0012" border="0" alt="DSC01997_0012" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-eitDiYVA9hA/T1o8m-jXeQI/AAAAAAAACG4/vqrb4O89BD4/DSC01997_0012%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="560"></font></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 14px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02106_0028" border="0" alt="DSC02106_0028" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_J-crC9Td2lI-hIi3mdZgB9sdB7ShVqzkvH-neBeSXhUEVtI9Z_MWPlxqiYUZFqvuSRqbiVN_TRZbXvjKjYW_BBzup1pqBAqjbWr6_1jCFVAUa3Yk0qLgOhQ3jGnu7wBXXzeKUzcrWTFM/?imgmax=800" width="379" height="259"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02041_0020" border="0" alt="DSC02041_0020" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-lwfKj3aJDlo/T1o8rbAP2yI/AAAAAAAACHQ/3mbdbEe9B0o/DSC02041_0020%25255B9%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="259"></font></p> <p> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"></font></font></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"></font></font></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"></font></font></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"></font></font></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"></font></font></font> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 14px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02009_0014" border="0" alt="DSC02009_0014" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-If9oqVHlb-Q/T1o_DYn-BoI/AAAAAAAACIQ/4zFHn1g4qXQ/DSC02009_0014%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="379" height="259"></font></font><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC01994_0011" border="0" alt="DSC01994_0011" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-sf6GblxwCj0/T1o8th4IgfI/AAAAAAAACHg/4OtiaG3azp4/DSC01994_0011%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="379" height="259"></font></p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"></font> </p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p></font><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">I am not going to bore you two to tears on the business side of the trip, just wanted you two to see some of the pictures that I had taken (when not in meetings). You two must read up on the history of Vietnam, it had gone through a lot of heart aches, war after war, and in the end the people did come through, victorious, one must look forward towards the future but the past should never be forgotten.</font> </p></font> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic">As I am finishing off this post, I am sitting in Berlin and have been here since Monday (5th of March 2012), this trip was for the ITB Berlin (World’s leading travel trade show), all I can say is WOW what an event… however I think I’ll leave the detail for another posting :)</font></p></font> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font face="Century Gothic"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 14px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02134_0031" border="0" alt="DSC02134_0031" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-KKw98NbdrJw/T1o_nnv5weI/AAAAAAAACIY/HJWx-g8-wGU/DSC02134_0031%25255B12%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="561"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02065_0025" border="0" alt="DSC02065_0025" align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhECey97iUEGzepwQq7NE-9inhub_EXB-HxA6-0sjt7FaPR5KD3QrkHjIxJHhbgbm8tAnN5NSgAnk04SxHv7ey1U7GgquIpIwm8yuZC9DkwKnVCJSlwk5hqIKrsR-g01cFNORJ2GqXouiDP/?imgmax=800" width="380" height="561"></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font> </p> <p><font size="2" face="Century Gothic"></font></p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-20321585328886576972012-03-02T00:32:00.000+07:002013-06-08T10:23:49.127+07:00All together in Pattaya :)<p>Dear M & M, <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02767_001" border="0" alt="DSC02767_001" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-gfnTYJttyg4/T0-n3xZdPKI/AAAAAAAACC4/D_iXK9nqB20/DSC02767_0016.jpg?imgmax=800" width="270" height="396">This past week was Matt’s half term break, so it was the right time to find something fun for the both of you to do, we were a little apprehensive at first because Marcella is so very young, even with Matt, he was at least nine months before we took our first trip to the sea. </p> <p>Your mother decided to go back to Centara Grand, Matt managed to have a fantastic time there (so many moons ago) even though he had a bit of a run on his tummy :) the water park is superb for children. <p>Your mother booked a bigger room this time, so all five of us (Pui came too) could be together. The room was fantastic, spacious with a huge balcony and an amazing view. There was a bunk bed for Matt, of course he bagsied the top bunk as soon as he saw it. <p> <p> <p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 22px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02776_003" border="0" alt="DSC02776_003" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-JOrNjj0LaTw/T0-n40ppslI/AAAAAAAACDA/nM6u9OFqR3g/DSC02776_0035.jpg?imgmax=800" width="174" height="252"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02777_004" border="0" alt="DSC02777_004" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-hlJUbFkhu2Y/T0-n6OLfcPI/AAAAAAAACDI/WK_seisqIag/DSC02777_00434.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="252"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02753_001" border="0" alt="DSC02753_001" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-1w904oMW6yI/T0-n7F-MIrI/AAAAAAAACDQ/8yUAvpVHTSs/DSC02753_0014.jpg?imgmax=800" width="174" height="252"> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 16px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02773_002" border="0" alt="DSC02773_002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4novSqLvUvpHerLEy6MBh0hzVm0Bxx858GS7Q0vKq9DsWF5Q9RhOKUjFqtUUPfZYYEoCHq7f5ypIhDx_nU3WkWpfAvos7iUjrBuI1eobNTkT18EBvOeF4j0dW_IotvLsETpT2aTc-3sYw/?imgmax=800" width="370" height="252"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02798_010" border="0" alt="DSC02798_010" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-kWCoz9aCX4U/T0-n9Jmc-QI/AAAAAAAACDc/YGlRYly-l1A/DSC02798_0104.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="252"> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> </p> <p> <img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02844_018" border="0" alt="DSC02844_018" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-sByJZqGlzW8/T0-n-eW2tdI/AAAAAAAACDo/sSxpEEeBEsU/DSC02844_01814.jpg?imgmax=800" width="750" height="234"> </p> <p>Not long after our arrival in the room, Matt disappeared behind the wardrobe’s door without my notice. By the time I heard the ‘beep beep beep beep beep, aaarrrrrrr, clunk’ it was of course too late! He had already locked up the room safe… I wanted to be cross, but from the conversation that we had I ended up laughing my $%@# off :) </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 22px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02803_012" border="0" alt="DSC02803_012" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK1ASYFgUR9kvcbtMaqiOJYMtwHDannLfDJWFaI8IFyzyBvnM-HTkDYY4b5C_MekXAs6CWL-9MYHKlV9P5LteBPaVWhTSLK9HgVaULnlPeXH9_J0k5TkgliVJp7VTK0_M5SxWWCjsfOiaM/?imgmax=800" width="174" height="252"> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02804_013" border="0" alt="DSC02804_013" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilKG6mDdqh3E_q_NDIiDtL8ppjJLnXD2pu1SFDwuVzVITA3VSu_vfgW3hQTT3m5DYIPC8P5nQX7WY2cf8GLqzsu35kVvfry30CeN_J_WxbZR7Z_JXMQ7vRXca-RKzM5GmnfhMIMdnSCyMZ/?imgmax=800" width="174" height="252"> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02805_014" border="0" alt="DSC02805_014" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-iOwZpE3mVWs/T0-oBsON0yI/AAAAAAAACEA/YYNXRtz2uCg/DSC02805_0147.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="252"> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Me: Matt can you tell me which numbers you’d pressed? (assertive voice)<br>Matt: I don’t know Papa<br>Me: Come on Matt, you must remember, what was the first number you’d pressed?<br>Matt: Zero…<br>Me: And then?<br>Matt: eight, five, two, one, three, four, fi…<br>Me: No, that is too many, let start again<br>Matt: Ok Papa, zero, eight, two, four…<br>Me: Ok, tell me again which number you’d pressed?<br>Matt: zero, eight, four, five…<br>Me: ??? tell me again ???<br>Matt: zero, two, one, three…<br>Gio: Haa, haa, haa, haa, haa (from somewhere outside the room)<br>Me: Come on Matt, let start again… (with a huge smile, which was a sign of defeat) </p> <p>I ended up pressing different set of numbers each time until the safe locked itself for fifteen minutes, of course I gave up and called the engineer, who promptly came with this huge machine, Matt was impressed :) but he promised not to touch the safe again (and he didn’t too :) <p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 16px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02801_011" border="0" alt="DSC02801_011" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-ylYBr743SgM/T0-oD2kPWAI/AAAAAAAACEQ/dzlsff2SxBs/DSC02801_0113.jpg?imgmax=800" width="369" height="252"> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02786_008" border="0" alt="DSC02786_008" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-TsZLJHqnNDA/T0-oCso20xI/AAAAAAAACEE/7zrFscHYUZQ/DSC02786_0083.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="252"></p> <p> <p> <p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>The long weekend was wonderful, Matt ate well and virtually lived in the water park, especially the tunnel water slide, he just couldn’t get enough of it, but surprisingly he wasn’t too keen on the sea though. </p> <p>We had pretty much spent all our time in the resort, so that Matt could have as much water time as possible, but after about two hours or so he would request to go back to the room, to further play in the huge bath. <p>Marcella had her first real dip for the first time, and didn’t even cry, the weather was very hot from the searing sun, but the small pool was in the shade, so it was quite cool. The water was warm, just right for Marcella, she looked absolutely adorable. <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02904_030" border="0" alt="DSC02904_030" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-gm8KUMklN-I/T0-oEwm-RCI/AAAAAAAACEY/iNMqkiz6gWU/DSC02904_030%25255B15%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="259" height="379"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02874_020" border="0" alt="DSC02874_020" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-pV2mCW6Y_FE/T0-oF4sJGFI/AAAAAAAACEg/1kOUrd7aC-w/DSC02874_020%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="259" height="379"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02807_015" border="0" alt="DSC02807_015" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-TAjqA5o9AfI/T0-oG7Klf-I/AAAAAAAACEk/UAdvErhEbSw/DSC02807_0154.jpg?imgmax=800" width="259" height="380"> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02781_005" border="0" alt="DSC02781_005" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVgwkquzIekoe9GjlVySpXVAky-I3KlGWSmN4pT2ipeQDKgoF5vrtI0V9TT7w1CkPxlQPyHjmAurWxPwIcnYan2dLdyB0o67qRz_47IHQO7DUFj6lupGI9OMPmgRfRNMiCsLN-s91wxzK/?imgmax=800" width="370" height="252"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02872_019" border="0" alt="DSC02872_019" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-JuOz9NLa-OA/T0-oI41uq_I/AAAAAAAACE4/UVj5ZIrw5bg/DSC02872_019%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="252"> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p>Unfortunately most of the photos were not of us by the pool, I had decided not to take the camera but to actually join in the fun with the two of you (the pics below was taken using your mother’s BB). <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 15px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="IMG00184-20120225-1711_027" border="0" alt="IMG00184-20120225-1711_027" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-HkwgzJX-EJU/T0-oKQs1cQI/AAAAAAAACFA/R16PVq0Slz0/IMG00184-20120225-1711_027%25255B13%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="282"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="IMG00185-20120225-1711_028" border="0" alt="IMG00185-20120225-1711_028" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-kq4XiL4FFKo/T0-oLYGM8qI/AAAAAAAACFI/G6yLJhOwyD8/IMG00185-20120225-1711_028%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="370" height="283"> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="IMG00183-20120225-1711_026" border="0" alt="IMG00183-20120225-1711_026" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-8vdgqmil6BY/T0-oMdq0sYI/AAAAAAAACFQ/b9cvAth7iwc/IMG00183-20120225-1711_026%25255B10%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="262" height="202"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="IMG00177-20120225-1710_025" border="0" alt="IMG00177-20120225-1710_025" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjvBdlAHh8ZaBY0gm3Zbp_B7RcJf1S9Vu-_ucV22RLOgKmZfenghI0WUJSVneH7Q1iW0bqh_SOF3goKly8YncbbJ-cmD2n7X9qre8gU9_rweYdpn-GWtYDBtKgZ0YJTuvpnPQcz1qJ-gj8/?imgmax=800" width="262" height="202"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="IMG00176-20120225-1709_024" border="0" alt="IMG00176-20120225-1709_024" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-Ox7I9HoJ3l8/T0-oOKJ5IYI/AAAAAAAACFc/M2cC00x_4Xg/IMG00176-20120225-1709_024%25255B12%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="262" height="202"></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>On the drive back, we stopped off at this great restaurant, ‘Moom Aroi’ (a direct translation would be ‘Corner Delicious’, well, ‘Delicious Corner’ would make more sense) (your mother’s choice again, ten stars for you, Mama), more than highly recommended. On the GPS, there were two ‘Moom Aroi’, so we picked the one by the sea and we were not disappointed, the service was fast and professional, the food was great and the most important thing for me… there were plenty of parking :) We didn’t arrive in BKK until five, of course my parents were there waiting to see you two.</p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02905_031" border="0" alt="DSC02905_031" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Zhyg-pWzuvE/T0-ydzCrxtI/AAAAAAAACFs/-rJ8OKKy5Lg/DSC02905_031%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="575" height="389"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC02906_032" border="0" alt="DSC02906_032" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-dII8uG3wKuM/T0-yfSzEojI/AAAAAAAACF0/_4aq5AvDeV4/DSC02906_032%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="575" height="389"></p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-78834161871614107482012-02-21T16:08:00.001+07:002012-02-21T16:08:34.326+07:00Interesting: We all get dressed for him :)<p>Late one afternoon, like so many afternoons before, I found myself wandering aimlessly with a mouse in one hand, staring blankly straight ahead. Click after soulless click, hopping from one numbing page to another, hoping to find gold but all I’d found were grits.</p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="bill_cunningham_newyork-960x638" border="0" alt="bill_cunningham_newyork-960x638" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-b7r2JYziXwU/T0NfAvF0OEI/AAAAAAAACCU/nZWsRfnlocE/bill_cunningham_newyork-960x6385.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="259">That was until ‘The best 50 movies of 2011’ (of course there are probably a million more sites claiming to have the same list but with totally different films). Most of the films I have never heard of, but one particular film caught my eye like a vice laced with super glue, perhaps because it was a documentary about a photographer living in New York.</p> <p>The documentary was “BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK”, if you are into documentary / biography I am sure you’ll like this one; what a life :)</p> <p>Talking about dedication to one’s trade, he is the manifestation of the word “Passion”, he literally sleeps with his work :) the art of photography may not be his main concern, he simply wanted to catalogue everything he believes is important in the world of fashion, perhaps that sounds too simplistic, but the way he goes about it and the way he thinks is so fascinating (in a very good way).</p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="" border="0" alt="" align="right" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxhA0HBm26LXrqvYE6QL8GA4gb_lWpuFiYrlUUa45LrL1iNiKp6kUqsyQ_ohVffDtABOGCWd5qHgfB4lBCNI4pSguZY7ghQw-k2OOdbHsQdFU4iLO55LEt_oCuRpeyVRPecU66ORykWAZy/?imgmax=800" width="181" height="261">With over 3 decades worth of photographs, consisting of street fashion and important social events (for the New York Times), he had seen it all, oh, did I mention that he was born in 1928/1929!. There are many memorable points of view from Mr. Cunningham, one of my favourite is “You see if you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do kid. That’s the key to the whole thing, don’t touch money, is the worst thing you could do” (Bill Cunningham New York, 18:12 – 18:23).</p> <p>I wonder what he will do, now that Kodak (sadly) is no more, only kidding, I think he uses Fuji films anyway (saw a few glimpses of green film boxes), will he ever move to digital? The way he takes a photo is like watching fencing at the Olympics; the camera starts down low just below the chest, with both hands on either side of the camera, then suddenly it comes up to his eye as fast as an alcoholic downing a shot of whiskey in a typical Hollywood cliché film, SNAP SNAP SNAP, a quick jab and it’s down again.</p> <p>After the documentary all I wanted to do was to go out, buy a blue smock, steal a bike, ride down to Siam Paragon to take pictures :)</p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="bill-cunningham-new-york-260111-11" border="0" alt="bill-cunningham-new-york-260111-11" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-L2DF6wPC_rk/T0NfDPVb5aI/AAAAAAAACCk/UYsCaWL8Opg/bill-cunningham-new-york-260111-115.jpg?imgmax=800" width="380" height="223"></p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="untitled" border="0" alt="untitled" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-pgWOoRZzSdk/T0NfEDK11dI/AAAAAAAACCs/acCt3QhPIMk/3%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="268" height="223"></p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-24761361366371261222012-02-13T23:51:00.001+07:002012-02-13T23:52:34.353+07:00Thousands of these… :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="DSC00760" border="0" alt="DSC00760" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PESYzFwE8Xw/Tzk_qSy_IhI/AAAAAAAACCI/1vaV9rJjUJ8/DSC00760%25255B24%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="470" height="334"></p> <p>Dear Marcella,</p> <p>Using a camera with a left hand, sounds easier in words than in practice, trust me I should know, I have thousands and thousands of this exact shot of just you and me :) (with different mirrors though, and I am sure there will be thousands and thousands more :)</p> <p>I was thinking of creating a Yoga class for photographers, I sure could have used it here :)</p> <p>By the way, your mother and I now know exactly when to catch you smiling. So simple, all we have to do, to be guaranteed with a beautiful huge smile, is to make sure that you are full of milk. ‘Stomach Full of Milk’ = ‘Mogwai’, ‘Stomach Void of Milk’ = ‘Gremlin’. </p> <p> </p> <p>Just got back from Vietnam, lovely place and people, and just found out today that I have to go to Singapore the day after tomorrow… so be a good girl and keep you brother in line, ok. :) Missing you already…</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-64233828917376366332012-02-06T10:40:00.001+07:002012-02-06T10:45:03.517+07:00Moment to Remember: Angie’s comment :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="New Haircut" border="0" alt="New Haircut" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-GjDiWuBoy1Y/Ty9LxExocCI/AAAAAAAACB8/oJHWmkai_C4/New%252520Haircut%25255B11%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="400" height="400">Dear Matt, <p>Your hair cut was long over due, so late Saturday evening I drove you to your usual place, but this time it was only you and I, so when the lady asked for the style, I’d said one simple word, 'Short', now if your mother was with us, her direction to the lady would have been just a page shorter than the Bible, lol. <p>Of course your face have totally changed, haa haa haa, and everyone who knew you have since rushed up to you to make all sorts of comments (of course all were favourable, at your bafflement :) ). <p>Today is Monday, the traffic was terrible as usual, by the time we arrived at your class most of your friends were already busy doing things in class. <p>Here is the moment to remember, as always you have to take your shoes and socks off before going into the class room, the only separation between you and the class is a huge pane of glass with two huge sliding glass doors. As soon as you sat down, Angie (she was in your class at Noddy, and she has always been one of my favourite, totally adorable with great manners, an absolutely beautiful little girl) came running out of the class, plonked herself next to you, all smiling and laughing! <p>In her sweetest little voice she simply said "Matt you had a hair cut", no… I got it wrong, it was like <strong>“MATT YOU HAD A HAIR CUT!!!!!!!!!!!”</strong>, with a laugh and a huge smile between each word, she was more excited than me :) you muttered some kind of an answer that only an elf could decipher, of course I was already on the floor laughing :) <p>I shall never forget today :) perhaps I should ask your mother to join us for the next trip to the barber (actually I can never imagine your mother letting me go anywhere alone with you again (ever)) :) with hind sight, going from a Korean-ish style to a Dek Wat (Temple boy) style was a bit much, haa haa haa. <p>Love you (and sorry, lol :) <p> <p>Dad :)</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-72950190919705215292012-02-03T16:43:00.001+07:002012-02-03T16:43:48.332+07:00I am a wolf, a nice wolf :)<p>Dear Matt,</p> <p>A couple of days ago it was ‘Jungle day’, so all ‘early years’ had to dress up as an animal of their choice, for the past week you felt in love with the ‘song of the week’, “Who is afraid of the big bad wolf, big bad wolf, big bad wolf…” (and kept singing over and over like a broken record), so it was so appropriate for you to go as a wolf, luckily you had a wolf hat (actually its a wolf/sheep soft hat, I can’t even remember who bought it in the first place), so on that day a wolf you will be :)</p> <p>Of course that morning you had suddenly decided you didn’t like the wolf hat after all, and absolutely refused to wear it. What could I have done, we were running late so there was no time for one of our infamous negotiations, and decided to tackle the ‘no hat’ issue at the school.</p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="IMG-20120131-00389s" border="0" alt="IMG-20120131-00389s" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-0MrtqbHMYr8/TyusTDN4X5I/AAAAAAAACBo/5UZkw0gPRuU/IMG-20120131-00389s4.jpg?imgmax=800" width="336" height="240">Well, you’d won, so instead of being a wolf, you went as an ‘activist’ (your shorts did say “Save wildlife”, it was a good enough excuse in my mind). You jumped out of a car like a young joey (baby kangaroo), all triumphant and all smile having won a hard fought battle (known as ‘Battle of no hat for me, thanks dad’, fought at Shrewsbury’s car park, on the day of 31st 2012).</p> <p>But soon after, I could tell you were changing your mind :) because as soon as we left the car, there was a tiny elephant in front of us, one of the boy from another class had dressed up like an elephant, and I don’t mean a t-shirt with an elephant hat, I mean a full grey body suit and an elephant’s mask that would have surely won the 2012 Best Costume Design at the Oscar.</p> <p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="IMG-20120131-00403d" border="0" alt="IMG-20120131-00403d" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PpKUL0d1Z2A/TyusUmdE6yI/AAAAAAAACBw/iEQMgsdUdSU/IMG-20120131-00403d5.jpg?imgmax=800" width="217" height="310">You looked at me with your soppy eyes, they were saying “holy crap, why didn’t I just wear that darn hat”, a couple of steps further we saw a wonderful zebra, and by the time we got to your class I had really thought I was in the jungle and was ready to leg it with all those wild animals roaming around.</p> <p>I just couldn’t let you be the odd one out, I knelt down next to you by the door to your class and asked if you wanted to be a wolf, you’d simply nodded with a gentle smile… After breaking the current 100 metres’ record rushing to the car and back (wolf hat in hand), you had already started your class so I had to call you out, through the large glass sliding door you came running all smiling, in a blink of an eye you had transformed into a wolf and rushed off back to your friends.</p> <p>Is was so good/funny to see you all smiling and growling at your teachers and friends, just to let them know that you were a wolf wearing a ‘save wildlife’ shorts :)</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-7191544662445518822012-01-28T00:31:00.001+07:002012-01-28T00:33:57.964+07:00What can I say :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="The faces of our Matt" border="0" alt="The faces of our Matt" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-3Cg6rgrJrzY/TyLfaMFLhgI/AAAAAAAACBc/WLGJvV1lYiM/The%252520faces%252520of%252520our%252520Matt%25255B10%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="768" height="283"></p> <p>Dear M and M,</p> <p>When you grow up, life will throw you ‘responsibilities’ whether you like it or not and it may not even be just. But however good or bad it gets, we hope it will be us who you think of first in the best and the worst of times.</p> <p>Matt, I wish you could remain this happy forever, that is all we ever wanted for you and little miss M :)</p> <p>Missing you, see you both in a couple of days.</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-44115523993586885952012-01-24T12:14:00.001+07:002012-01-24T12:14:11.128+07:00Interesting: “and then…” will f*&% you up, shared South Park creators :)<p><a href="http://www.mtvu.com/shows/stand-in/trey-parker-matt-stone-surprise-nyu-class/" target="_blank"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-pvwPTLHMm4w/Tx4-H_hSswI/AAAAAAAACBQ/ac8O8Ldw1hw/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="356" height="241"></a>Came across this short VDO through my Google+ stream that led me to ‘<a href="http://www.mentorless.com/2011/11/01/south-park-writers-share-their-writing-rule-1/" target="_blank">Mentorless</a>’ and finally ended up at ‘<a href="http://www.mtvu.com/" target="_blank">MTVu</a>’.</p> <p>The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone surprised a freshmen class of ‘Storytelling Strategies’ at NYU.</p> <p>The writing tips in this 6 and a bit minutes clip is like pure molten gold, poured while red hot into a bowl of flawless, colourless, grade 1 plus diamonds, click ---> <a href="http://www.mtvu.com/shows/stand-in/trey-parker-matt-stone-surprise-nyu-class/" target="_blank">here</a> to jump to the video :)</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-62766195632346891912012-01-20T00:29:00.001+07:002012-01-20T00:30:23.908+07:00Our M & M, one can’t stop talking and the other won’t keep still :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="M and M" border="0" alt="M and M" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-TdloPCiEf3A/TxhS92UvxvI/AAAAAAAACBE/ZmJCOeOK6hs/M%252520and%252520M%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="782" height="264"></p> <p>Dear M & M,</p> <p>Soon Little M will be 3 months old, we keep forgetting how quickly you all develop at this stage. For the past three weeks, the most noticeable thing with our Little M is that you like to have a bit of a chin-wag, nothing deep like the latest round the cabinet reshuffle (what was our first ever lady PM thinking?), in fact any topic will do as long as we make it sounds soft and gentle, Little M will always join the conversation with very insightful thoughts such as, ooohhh aaahhhhh and back to oooohhh again (by the way, if we don’t talk to you, you’ll start crying :)</p> <p>As for you Big M, last Saturday your music teacher asked me (right after your morning lesson) what I fed you for breakfast? She thought I must have given you sugar cubes (and about a ton of it too) because you were like a very bouncy bouncing ball for the whole forty minutes.</p> <p>I don’t know why all the scientists are spending so much time researching into ‘fusion’ as a new form of clean energy, all you have to do is to construct a humongous hamster wheel (link it to a generator), and chuck in just a few three year old kids, and voila, clean energy at a cost of a couple chocolate cookies and a glass of milk. Honestly, I don’t know where you get your energy from, my camera is now permanently on S (shutter speed priority) instead of the usual A (aperture priority) simply just to keep you in focus while you were dashing around :)</p> <p>Life is amazing with you all :)</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-54282838126204606462012-01-13T20:37:00.001+07:002012-01-13T20:37:05.176+07:00I curse you, Continuous Shooting… :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="I curse you continuous shooting." border="0" alt="I curse you continuous shooting." src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/--S9KVh8m7WY/TxAzf0Mr6GI/AAAAAAAACA4/A1jRh-XVwIE/I%252520curse%252520you%252520continuous%252520shooting.%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="555" height="328"></p> <p>The rational of the advice made so much sense… “set up your camera, then put it in continuous shooting, keep the finger on the trigger until the story ends, then go back and choose the best ones, that’s how the pros do it”, well thanks Sherlock :)</p> <p>But no one ever told me how mentally difficult, to darn near impossible it would be to delete a photo, even the cr#ppy ones, lol. I know hard disks are really cheap now, but it would have been more prudent & efficient to delete the bad ones, trust me I’ve tried to delete a slightly out of focus photo of both M and M. As I placed my finger on the delete button, both palms started to sweat, heart rate more than doubled, vision became blurry and the room started spinning, all I could do was just to walk away, and let it be :)</p> <p>On a serious note, continuous shooting is an absolute must for me, I would have changed my name to Frano Selak if I had managed to catch Matt or Marcella smiling at two months old on the single shot mode. So do give it a try, trying once won’t do you any harm, honest :) lol.</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-72780172095241985722012-01-13T05:06:00.001+07:002012-01-13T05:29:35.360+07:00Worth a visit: Different in Colours<p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Dorothy Counts " border="0" alt="Dorothy Counts " align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-NWmVdEzXCYM/Tw9ZV4zEnwI/AAAAAAAACA0/haEE2MI_LIA/Dorothy%252520Counts%252520%25255B10%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="336" height="441">Came across this set of photographs on <a href="http://www.thechive.com" target="_blank">Chive</a> (and yes I don’t just look at the FLBP sets, but when I do (cough, cough, every flippin day) it does make my day ‘most brilliant’). Their posts always declare the source, so I followed their link to a set of photos within <a href="http://imgur.com/a/wapUe#mYGo9" target="_blank">Imgur</a> (try it, it’s good :) (<a href="http://imgur.com/a/wapUe#mYGo9">http://imgur.com/a/wapUe#mYGo9</a>)</p> <p>“Putting colours into black and white photos” would be my simplest description, I would love to mention his/her name here but couldn’t find his/her identity, for all I know it could have been Batman or Wonder Woman.</p> <p>The best thing is that, this person doesn’t just transform historically important photos or portraits of famous people, he/she also does requests.</p> <p>There are several reasons why modern photographers choose to take photos in black and white or transform colour photos into black and white before publishing them. To give it a somber tone (imagine a clown without make up, lol), to rid it of distractions (imagine a clown with black and white makeup), to highlight the subtle effects of textures, lighting or contrasts, and probably the most frequent one of all, giving it ‘timelessness’ quality to a photograph.</p> <p>But to see these iconic photos, that most of us have seen a thousand times before, in colour, just made it more real for me, take this one (above) of ‘Dorothy Counts’ (probably was one of the bravest girl (fifteen at that time) in the entire galaxy). I don’t know, seeing it in colour just made me feel the pressure that she must have faced multiplied by about a billion (same thing for the Ann Frank’s portrait, of course it does help if you have the knowledge of who these people are).</p> <p>Of course I haven’t got a clue how the ‘Architect’ of these photos had chosen the colours for the clothes, hair, chairs, background, necktie and so on. I’d guess he/she could have made research into the colour of the eyes and hair, and may be there is a tool revealing how different greys represent different colours (or am I just dreaming here).</p> <p>None the less, this site is definitely worth a visit, please NOTE, parental warning, there are some iconic ‘graphic’ photos in the set.</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-34667932089887279952012-01-11T16:50:00.000+07:002012-01-11T17:49:24.294+07:00Slightly defeating the objective of being ignorant :)<p>Being ignorant is such a wonderful thing, I wished I could be ignorant all the flippin time when watching films. If I had known prior that Bruce Willis was a ghost, the film would have been nothing more than just a very well made horror film, or who would have thought his father was Darth Vader and the Princess was his sister! <p><a href="http://www.themoviespoiler.com" target="_blank"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Themoviespoiler" border="0" alt="Themoviespoiler" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-3ixWcldeuGQ/Tw1pMcbNZFI/AAAAAAAACAc/rShsDyF13x4/Themoviespoiler%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="400" height="367"></a>I am glad to be ignorant, well, at least for the hundred plus minutes or so; to have been lead by the director’s story telling skills, totally submerged into the characters due to the skills of the actors & actresses, to have been paced by the editors or overwhelmed by the sets and locations (sadly, mostly are now just CG). To have all those coming together, building and building, story, plots, sub plots, deceptions and finishing with a crescendo of the great reveal or ending is just so blooming fun :) <p>However, I am another victim of ‘curiosity killed the cat’ syndrome, totally my fault of course :) It all started with desire to know the plot line, Wikipedia is quite good for that, then discovered that some wiki pages were baring it all… after that it was all down hill for me :) ended up at this amazing site, <a href="http://www.themoviespoiler.com">www.themoviespoiler.com</a>. <p>The name of the site utterly explains itself, from what I have read, each spoiler was around four to five thousand words and the quality of some of the writing was so good you’d thought it was the director who wrote it, lol. <p>Just read “Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”, wow, no wonder why both got such a great reception, and of course spoiling it all for myself now… Oh why do I do it :) <p>Errrm… I wonder what should I read next? :) </p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-67434836834027148542012-01-08T01:39:00.001+07:002012-01-08T01:52:50.295+07:00Preparing for the next best thing :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="Time for upgrade" border="0" alt="Time for upgrade" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-9kz6QKLMJS0/TwiRSYFTeJI/AAAAAAAACAQ/gygJK6PIv3k/Time%252520for%252520upgrade%25255B9%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="440" height="349"></p> <p>Dear M and M,</p> <p>Your mother said I am up to my old tricks again :), I’ve been pining for a DSLR since the previous one was stolen, the Nex 5 was supposed to be just a ‘halfway house’ of a camera before moving on to yet another Nikon.</p> <p>But I never did move on to another DSLR, Sony Nex5 turned out to be a mistress I never wanted to leave, never wanting to get back to the Mrs., in fact there was one crazy moment when I thought I wanted to remain with her forever, then came along the D4.</p> <p>Totally not worth the price and just a tad over qualified for just taking a few snap shots of you two running around. But right now all forms sensibility have left the building, only remained are the hazy impetuous of pure ‘tech lust’, lol.</p> <p> </p> <p>So you both may be wondering ‘what are my old tricks’? Passing on current ‘gears’ to a family member in hoping your mother will give me the nod to get the next greatest and latest (often it doesn’t work, so I think I’ll need to change strategy here).</p> <p>As you can see here, I am literally forcing Matt to use the camera, well not quite, he came up with the camera wanting to take a picture of me, of course it was a too good of an opportunity to just let it pass, it has lots and lots of buttons and dial that all three and a half year old child could only love, perfect, I began to teach (exaggerate) how each button is so much more awesome than each of his button on his simple point and shoot. Soon he will be running up to his mother asking if he could keep the Nex5 forever… leaving the path open to the almighty D4 and then taking over the world… haa haa haa, all I need now is the ‘ka-ching’ to get the darn thing.</p> <p>(While reading through the post correcting all the mistakes (there are probably loads left), I came to wonder how on earth did I take this photo, I am sure it will come back to me soon)</p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-70527561214519912942012-01-06T14:39:00.001+07:002012-01-06T14:39:17.044+07:00Let the cravings begin :)<p><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="D4front" border="0" alt="D4front" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-pfPb7mUvUUE/TwalHX1kMEI/AAAAAAAACAE/YT6FdLRWhoA/D4front%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="400" height="400"></p> <p>Canon 1DX now has a competition worthy of its calibre, of course when destiny grants me loads and loads of dosh, there would be no other choice in my mind (come on destiny the camera comes out in February :) (why Nikon over Canon, nothing deep or complicated, I am more familiar with the Nikon’s system).</p> <p>It is going to be fun just reading the various tit for tat on the forum, and nothing but burning greedy cravings for a while :)</p> <p>If you need more info. there is no better place than <a href="http://www.dpreview.com">www.dpreview.com</a>, or more precisely <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7799914638/nikon-d4-overview/">http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7799914638/nikon-d4-overview/</a></p> Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3381310638763361471.post-68504743129594195972012-01-06T13:46:00.001+07:002012-01-06T23:24:57.061+07:00Cheaper than a Starbucks’ Venti Green Tea Cream.Klong Toey (or Klong Toei) market is probably one of the largest and busiest fresh markets in Thailand (very fresh, so fresh that most of the goods are still very much alive), there are also stores for clothes, kitchenware, hardware and so on as well. <br />
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<img align="left" alt="Vegetables" border="0" height="310" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-R0-RKE50-5Q/TwaYvjnhvbI/AAAAAAAAB_w/swfzopycN18/IMG-20120106-003351%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="Vegetables" width="300" />As the market is not too far away, Gio had decided to do here grocery shopping there instead of going to the well known supermarket, such as Villa Market, Tops Supermarket or Lotus.<br />
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This pile of vegetables could have cost us anything between 500 – 300 THB (16 - 10 USD) depending on one’s choice of Supermarket, but at Klongtoey fresh market it was 190 THB (6.1 USD) this is as much as the most expensive Starbucks’ drink in Thailand (Starbucks Venti Green Tea Cream @ 215 THB (6.9 USD)), just want to put it into prospective :) <br />
Enough goodness to feed a family for about a week, all for a price of a Starbucks’ drink, talking about an economic divide.<br />
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<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-vwWClbKKvLE/TwaYz5v3P9I/AAAAAAAAB_4/uJ4kI3rOtLU/Klongtoey%252520Market%25255B25%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img align="right" alt="Klongtoey Market" border="0" height="260" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-vwWClbKKvLE/TwaYz5v3P9I/AAAAAAAAB_4/uJ4kI3rOtLU/Klongtoey%252520Market%25255B25%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="Klongtoey Market" width="400" /></a></div>
I can wholeheartedly recommend it to all travellers who want to see a different side of Bangkok, it is a bit ‘raw’ (not a tourist destination) and extremely busy. Please be careful of your belongings… pickpocketing is rife, so please be careful, you can try searching ‘Klongtoey Market’ on <a href="http://www.images.google.com/">www.images.google.com</a>, to get an overall feeling of the place. The location is 13.718228,100.560039, have a safe trip :) Please also note that the market is close to the Klong Toey “densely populated with substandard housing and utilities area (slum)”.Panu Tatirathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05596566124889467555noreply@blogger.com0