9 January 2013

Surviving

Bangkok to Earth! Bangkok to Earth! This is Commander Pudding contacting you from Planet Thailand. You will (hopefully) be pleased to learn that I am still alive even though I have been thwarted by a series of technical issues connected with emailing, blogging and simply just getting onto the worldwide web. These difficulties have demonstrated to me just how much the internet has become an integral part of my life - like a familar shadow.
Last time I was in Thailand
I am having to type this in the school's best computer room with speedier machines than the clunky old battleship of a machine that resides in my airconditioned classroom.

Over at my accommodation, everything's pretty good. It's a fifteen minute walk from the school passing the wacky races track into town from the northern suburbs of the city - three lanes of thundering, weaving traffic - sometimes grinding to a halt and never short of cars - even in the middle of the night. My "Serene" compound is like a little oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle. When walking to work, I pass two thirty storey accommodation blocks that were still in the processof construction when I was last here. This is very much a city that is still developing.

I see no signs of the awful floods of August and September 2011 but the little Thai lady who cleans my garden apartment told me in her faltering Englsih how awful it had been for the city's underclass. "We cry," she said.

I have a Year 8 class to teach very shortly so I can't write much more. This is Thailand's coolest month but you could have fooled me. Even at six thirty this morning the air was a sticky twenty eight degress centigrade and it will build to the mid-thirties by the afternoon. Not sleeping very well yet - still finding  a natural sleep pattern. I am so used to a solid, undisturbed seven hours.

By the way, Baby Alexa is a lovely child. I held her in my arms on Saturday though I had forgotten how tiny and floppy little babies can be.... I shall blog again before too long. Sorry for the delay....Over and out - Commander Pudding (Planet Thailand)

12 comments:

  1. Oh, hello. Who is this?

    Just joking, we hadn't forgotten you. Sorry you've been having problems with the internet etc. We knew you'd get through somehow, your will to blog is very strong...

    It must be interesting going back to the same place. 'We cry' are two very poignant words that say a great deal, and touched me.

    Hope your sleeping patterns come right soon. It's very hard to sleep in the heat. Do you have air conditioning?
    Anyway, Happy New Year mate! (You get the honorific because you're closer to us colonials now.)

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  2. KATHERINE Yes there is airconditioning in my little apartment but I try to do without it when I sleep - like a sealion on a beach - if you can picture that! I haven't been able to get to other blogs yet. I guess you have been invited to many dinners and media events since you became blogger of the year but please don't let fame go to your head...mate!

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  3. Glad to hear you are settling in and hope all is right with your world otherwise. The heat sounds yuk to me so I won't be dropping in to visit even though you are a bit closer now. It's bad enough here today with 40 degrees and thick smoke from the bushfires.

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  4. Glad you are landed and well YP....the mental images of you holding a tiny baby or navigating the busy roads like an explorer are good to hear.

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  5. HELEN In English winters we yearn for warmth but, as in Brisbane in the summer, in Bangkok people yearn for coolness. Very rarely is the city brushed by cooling breezes. Mostly the air hangs heavy and still like treacle.
    LIBBY Thanks for checking in. I shall endeavour to add more posts in the next few says. Maybe I'll make some things up. You'll never know.

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  6. I bet you are wearing some unnfeesably large shorts

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  7. Take your protein pills - and put your ruddy helmet on!

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  8. You evidently passed your medical!

    A crumpled linen suit and a panama hat would be appropriate I daresay.

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  9. EARL GRAY What are you saying? You are more porky than me!
    OWL WOODY Are you taking the pith?
    HIPPO No medical yet. Hopefully Thai bureaucracy loses this requirement in a pile of endless triplicate Thai paperwork. I like the idea of the linen suit and the Panama hat... like Ernest Hemingway or Cap'n Gowans of the Angolan Division. Cheers - like the Thai beer I'm drinking. BURRRRP!

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  10. Thank goodness we have heard from you. I was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. Even tho I don't write much, Mr. Pudding, I surely enjoy our brotherly/sisterly relationship. Your posts have become a part of my day.

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  11. MOUNTAINOUS THYME Sorry I have been unable to be as productive as usual on the blogging front. Brotherly/sisterly relationship? Thanks. That's a nice thing to say.

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  12. When I was a young 'un, my aunt once made me a fancy dress outfit as the "King of Thailand" - basically dozens of neck-ties fastened on to my jacket. Ties, Thais, get it? ;)

    Glad to hear all's well on the other side of the world!

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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