Trouble predicted in Bangkok...

Well, what's happening in Thailand. Is democracy about to take another hit? All sources seem to be pointing toward Wednesday as being a day of chaos and possibly violence. So much so that the government are drafting in 13,000 soldiers and police to keep things calm. Hmm, surely such a vast number will only have the opposite effect.

Oddly enough the "PM" is out of the country, despite warning about this date last week. So presumably in his absence responsibility for quelling any protests that turn violent (or ones that are forced into violence) will be at the door of the military. Worrying. For anyone who isn't familiar with the Thai way of quelling protests check out this video below (apologies to readers in Thailand as the great Thai nanny deems youtube.com unsuitable for your eyes). Watch it all and keep your eyes on the screen, it's shocking, really shocking.

With any luck the whole thing will pass without so much as a stone being thrown, but it seems that might be unlikely.

Trouble predicted in Bangkok...

Single dad and nothing to write..

Being a single dad (temp) is taking its toll. Doing more work now and managing to balance fatherly duties with work - just about.

Surprisingly easy to slip back into life here in the UK. Apart from the fact it has rained for three days solid it's quite nice. Oddly enough even though everything here is stupidly expensive things somehow seem cheaper here, consumer goods and food at least.

Despite us Brits having a reputation for terrible food I really think the food here and the choice of food here is excellent. Certainly from the daughter's point of view things are better. The daughter has got her appetite back and eats much more than she ever did in Thailand. It's much easier to buy good quality food here and organic food is plentiful too. On top of that it's much easier for me as a vegetarian here.

Seems more difficult to find something to write about here. There are plenty of things that are every bit as shocking or interesting as there are in Thailand but somehow it seems less worthy of blog column inches. Or maybe it's just that I simply don't get as much free time to sit down and write whilst I'm here. Should eventually get more time to write as we get more settled here.

Single dad and nothing to write..

Long time no post..

Seems like a lifetime since my last post. Slowly getting back into things here. Daughter in school and enjoying it. Normally 8am to 3.30pm but this week she's been staying on until 6pm, and enjoying it. I feel cruel making her stay so long but it's only temporary.

Now I'm completely a single parent (temporarily) the reality of it is sinking in. There's no problem but everything is a struggle. We're living quite a distance away from her school so I have lots of driving to do, something that will change when we find a new house. Balancing work and parenting is tricky. Even though the wife was only around for a few hours each day in Bangkok there were always some periods when I could take a backseat and relax. Now the pressure is all on me. Every time I try to do something for myself I'm wondering if I'm ignoring her and should I be spending more time with her to compensate for the lack of one parent?

Oddly enough I don't seem to be missing Thailand. We've been back here for two weeks now, I think, and I can't say there are any withdrawal symptoms. Enjoying not sweating all the time and not getting eaten by mozzies (and of course I can look at youtube here!!).

Here's something stupid from dear old nanny state UK. There's a law in place that bans smoking in the workplace. However a van used for commercial purpose, or a lorry, is seen as a workplace. So, you guessed it, someone in their own lorry or van who lights up a cigarette is actually breaking the law. Bonkers! And today a young child of about eight was arrested for throwing a piece of cucumber at a vehicle. The police said that they have a quota for the number of arrests they make so they are now having to target such cucumber throwing minors in order to reach that target. Ho-hum!

Long time no post..

Thoughts for the day...

Should anyone be interested I've now added an email subscription link on the side. I must change the header at some point too if I'm going to continue blogging from here in England. I guess Life Out East is no longer completely accurate, maybe Life Back West or something like that.

First day at school seems to have gone reasonably well, I'm sure I was more nervous than the daughter. Horrible memories flooding back and flashbacks of early school days (shivers). She trotted off into her class to meet her new friends and seemed totally at ease. I guess I'm going to hear all about it later, and probably several times over knowing my daughter. Fingers crossed.

Now I find myself with some time on my hands - oh what luxury! I've got a shed load of things that need doing and at last I have a quiet environment in which to do them. Already clearing a backlog of work and still hours to go.

Now with my new found single parent status, albeit temporary, I have got to try and start earning an income and balance my role as a parent at the same time. It's early days but already I have a great deal of respect for single parents the world over. It's nice to be able to hand the reins over occasionally and close down for some rest. Can't imagine what it would be like with three kids!!

I've just had a work related conversation with someone in Thailand over the internet using Skype. Sound quality was lacking but it was completely free, don't you just love the internet? We have regular chats with the wife using the webcam too, so the daughter can chat on and on about The Little Mermaid or some Dr. Seuss character whilst I quietly wander into another room. I remember being impressed as a kid when I saw my first digital watch and then my first calculator watch but the daughter chats away on Skype whilst making faces at her mummy, all for free, from a distance of six and a half thousand miles and takes it all for granted. I feel old saying this but it really is a different world.

Thoughts for the day...

English weather, daughter in school and Macau blog competition...

Weather here has been glorious since we got back, warm, dry and continual sunshine. However, normal English weather has resumed now and the drizzle has returned, along with grey sky and general feeling of depression. Hopefully just a blip.

The daughter starts her new school tomorrow. She's very excited about it and seemed to take to it well when she spent some time there last week. It's a girls school but they have a few boys for the first few years. She seemed quite happy about going to an all girls school. I wonder if opinion will change in a few years.

With daughter in school I will have more time to try and start earning money to pay for her education and all the other over-priced expenses that you get in "rip-off Britain". There was an article in the papers last week about how we Brits get charged way higher than our European counterparts and people in the US for services and products. Food came in as the only bonus for living here, food here is considered among the cheapest amongst comparable countries. Things like PS2 and Wii and all those other things I know very little about are about a few hundred pounds more expensive here. I guess when Gordon Brown takes the reins at No.10 we can expect prices to go even higher.

The ban on smoking in Pubs is coming in soon. I've had mixed feelings about this, reasoning that people should be allowed to make their own choices and maybe the government should try to act less like a nanny. However, on Saturday night I was in a busy pub with crap ventilation and it really was hard to breathe. Even some of the smokers I was with were complaining about the atmosphere. So maybe it's not a bad thing after all.

I've been contacted by a new blog from Macau, have a look here. They also run this blog competition on the link below.

English weather, daughter in school and Macau blog competition...

Found this in my indox..

FEMALE GEOGRAPHY

- Between 18 and 20, a woman is like Afrca : wild, naturally beautiful and full of mysterious, fertile deltas.

- Between 21 and 30 ans, a woman is like America : well-developed and open for trade, especially for those with stacks of money.

- Between 31 and 35, a woman is like India : sensual, relaxed, in full bloom, aware of her beauty.

- Between 36 and 40, a woman is like France : deliciously mature, still a pleasant destination to visit.

- Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Yugoslavia : a lost war, haunted by the mistakes of the past. Major reconstruction work is the only answer.

- Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Russia : vast, with undefined frontier. The cold climate puts off any potential visitors.

- Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Mongolia : a glorious past, great conquests, but without a future.

- After 70, a woman is like Afghanistan : many know its whereabouts, but no-one dares to venture there…

MALE GEOGRAPHY

- Between 15 and 70, a man is like the USA : ruled by a dick…

Found this in my indox..

Costs and how green was the trip..

The staff at www.climatecare.org have very kindly calculated the carbon emissions for our trip. Had we gone by plane we would have contributed 0.55 tonnes of pollution whereas our route and mode of transport totalled up to 0.1 tonnes, a saving of 0.4 tonnes of CO2. I feel good!

To be honest it was a great deal more pleasurable than sitting cramped inside an aircraft even if it did take several days as opposed to several hours and cost a little bit more. We had some spare time and the result was that we got to see the countries rather than flying over them. If needed it would be possible to do the whole journey in a little over two days and much cheaper. We were quoted some excellent rates for coach travel and there are almost direct links between London and Istanbul, and many of the other countries in the region, and coach tends to be a fraction of the cost of rail.

Total cost of the transport for our trip was just over GBP£400 which is about the same as both of us flying back with BA. Obviously there's three night's accommodation to factor in and various other costs which notch the total bill up above the cost of flying but we got a lot more from the journey than we would have had we flown.

Check out this shop below. I noticed this in Istanbul, the guy clearly isn't confident about the quality of the food he sells.


Costs and how green was the trip..

Meme time, MUSIC...

OK, so I've been tagged with one of these so now my turn to have a go. Having completed a short overland trip I found time, when the daughter was sleeping, to kick back and plug into the iPod. This got me thinking about music and travel. About music that you associate with journeys, music that is a must for a long journey, and generally, well, music. Here goes.

5 - You're going on a long journey, what five albums MUST you take with you? Albums that you need to listen to regularly.

4 - What four albums/songs do you most associate with a journey or travel experience? You know, the ones you listen to that instantly transport you back to a place and time.

3 - Your three favourite songs of all time?

2 - Two feel good songs, the ones that are guaranteed to lift the blues and put a smile on your face.

1 - Absolute, overall, undoubtedly the best album of all time, in your opinion.


5 - You're going on a long journey, what five albums MUST you take with you? Albums that you need to listen to regularly.

The Dreaming, Kate Bush
Protection, Massive Attack
Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones
Tears for Fears Greatest Hits
Led Zeppelin 1 by Led Zeppelin

4 - What four albums/songs do you most associate with a journey or travel experience? You know, the ones you listen to that instantly transport you back to a place and time.

Give out but don't give up, Primal Scream - Working in Hong Kong early nineties, late nights walking home from Lan Kwai Fon (spelling) full of beer, happy and with this CD played real loud through the headphones.

Greatest Hits, Sade - Also early nineties but this time Samet Island, Thailand and being in love (sorry about this) and alfresco sex on an almost empty beach. Happy days!

This used to be my Playground, Madonna - At the end of my first backpacking journey I was on a plane to London from Hong Kong back in the days when planes were usually half empty and you could smoke. I remember being in a blissful drunken haze and drifting in and out of sleep listening to the in-flight music selection. For some reason everytime I drifted into conciousness this song seemed to be playing, must have heard it a dozen times. As a result whenever I hear it it takes me back to that moment. Again, happy days.

Angie, The Rolling Stones - Picture the scene: late at night in the dimly lit communal lounge of a backpacker hostel in Hong Kong 1992. Half a dozen or so strangers gathered around and high as kites on various substances. One guy, a slightly morose heroin addict starts telling his tale. The love of his life was in Taiwan. They had been together for many years and were deeply in love, they both had good jobs and life was sweet. But the relationship was a secret. Being Chinese she couldn't tell her father that she was hoping to marry her foreign boyfriend. Then he finds out. Our young hero is thrown on a plane by his girlfriend and flies to Hong Kong to excape possible death at the hands of the girl's father. He's waiting for her but she hasn't come. She isn't going to. He's given up work, started shooting heroin and his life is in a mess. The only thing he cares about is his distant girlfriend and his guitar. With tears in his eyes he starts playing and singing this classic Stones song on his guitar. It was a surreal moment and I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. A moment that will stay with me forever and this song will always remind me of that night.

3 - Your three favourite songs of all time?

Didn't realise just how hard this one would be.

Thank You, Led Zeppelin
Gimme Shelter, The Rolling Stones
Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd

2 - Two feel good songs, the ones that are guaranteed to lift the blues and put a smile on your face.

Let me Entertain You, Robbie Williams
Lola, The Kinks

1 - Absolute, overall, undoubtedly the best album of all time, in your opinion.

In reality it would be a joint fist place with many others but if one album then:

Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan


Tags:

The Lost Boy - Interesting to see how he copes with this one, will dance music feature highly?
Lisa at Something Something - I enjoy her weekly eighties feature so it will be interesting to see what she comes up with here, sure to be good.
Sensei-Katana - I'm thinking heavy rock here as he heads for Afghanistan.
Escape England - No idea but look forward to seeing.
Lillian at My Thailand Diary - Mum of three, Swiss and living in Chiang Mai, I have no idea what to expect.

Meme time, MUSIC...

Vienna to home, via Paris..

We had just enough time for a shower at the train station (3 euros) and some breakfast before the train out. We managed to get a train to Paris with one change at Munich first and a 2130hrs arrival in Paris.

This being our first daytime journey I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of more than twelve hours on the train. As it happened it all went very well. The train had an excellent restaurant carriage and we had enough books and coloured pens to entertain the daughter throughout the journey.

Just before we crossed the border into France a group of French school children in their teens joined us and suddenly the carriage was alive with shouting and kids running around and smoking, despite it being a no smoking carriage. Their teachers did nothing to stop them and eventually one of the train guards came and suggested we move in order to get more peace.


Stupidly we had nowhere to stay in Paris as I hadn't managed to find anywhere online. The one place I did find sounded excellent but when I finally remembered to call and book they were full. For the first time during the journey I resorted to the Lonely Planet Europe guide to find somewhere to stay. I'd been using it for finding where to go and things to see but wanted to try to arrange all accommodation and transport via the internet.

Off we trotted to the Nevers Hotel on Malta Street having called and booked a room. Half an hour later we managed to find the place only to find they'd decided to let someone else have the room, which was their last. Utterly pissed off and trying to explain it to the daughter who was tired and making every question begin with "why", we wandered down the road and managed to get the last room available at Hotel Notra Dame.

It was the smallest room we'd been in so far and had a window on to a small internal square with windows to about thirty other rooms on about seven floors, all with their windows open. This internal void acted as a echo chamber and meant we could listen to several conversations, most noticeably a couple of English girls fresh in from a night out who wanted to go over their entire evening of fun again.

Paris was mecca for my daughter. She's a huge fan of all things French and wants to learn French, possibly inspired by her art teacher in Bangkok who is French. From the moment we sat down for breakfast at 0700hrs she began saying "Bonjour" to everyone and practicing her small French vocabulary. And she made the most of her new found passion for croissants.


We were only going to be in Paris for the day so we walked around a bit and then headed for the Eiffel Tower. Having bought her a pink "Paris, France" sweatshirt we bought our tickets and headed up to the top. I thought she'd be terrified but she wandered around the top without a care in the world and looked out on to Paris enthralled and kept saying that she could see "all of Paris from here."

We did more mooching and then had lunch and tried to find our way back to the UK. Reluctantly I decided to go for the Eurostar under the tunnel. Ferry would have been cheaper but with getting to the port and then getting up to London too it would have taken so much longer. So, we had our first trip on the tunnel which is excellent but pricey.

Two and a half hours after leaving Paris we were in Waterloo station in London and then got an underground connection to Paddington for our train back home. Having come all the way from Istanbul by train and bus and covering nearly two thousand miles without putting a foot wrong we managed to get on the wrong train and headed off down to Somerset rather than the West Midlands. In my defense we got the right platform but there were two trains on the same platform and of course I chose the wrong train. Arghhh!.

Vienna to home, via Paris..