Passing the first weekend of the New Year

The first weekend has passed, without much fanfare.

My new friend had asked me to join him at a disco in Ramkamheng area called iCK. I do not really know where exactly that is but I call had called bus route information hotline, 184 (very useful to remember), for bus route suggestion earlier and I got the bus numbers. When it's time to go, 21:00 already, the buses became scarce. I took one to The Mall, Bang kapi and wait for the second bus. To make the long story short, I got a bit lost and have to take taxi.

The entrance fee was quite cheap, only 20 baht, but no drink coupon. It was typical disco, with mindless fast tempo music, people smoking and so on. And the water cost 25 baht per bottle :p The music change to Hip-Hop style around 23:20 which is nicer but not still not quite what I like. I finally left around 23:35, after having enough of the cigarette smoke.

After waiting for the bus that I could ride to come by, I finally settle for taxi to go back home...

My Aussie friend (the one I mention in my new year post) had sent me SMS saying that he wants to try the Japanese restaurant I told him about, Kuroda, this Sunday. I can't wait to see him again. Eventhough it will be just a dinner date due to time constraint it still nice. My only complain is that I will go after my long day at work.

Oh well... better than nothing I guess.

The Second Chill, again

It getting rather chilly here this morning. Quite chilly in fact, that I have to use another bathroom this morning because mine is quite breezy.

I mention this to my colleague, and one of them mention that the the cold front came down from China and it will stay for weeks. She said it make the north and the northeastern region of Thailand really cold. It was so cold that she have to buy jacket there.

It is nice to sleep in this weather. I find that I feel more rested in cold weather. It was cold for about two weeks before New Year. I am interested to see how long this cold will stay.

The Year in Reflection

Last year was a real turning point in my life... Thanks to my boss' decision to end my contract, now I have got a day job with another reputable establishment with generous amount of annual leave days. Not to mention a nice amount of severance pay. Although it began in a not so good terms, it ended really really well.

I had a Very Very good time on New Year's Eve, of which I do not wants to blog about in great details as I want to maintain some notion of my innocent here :P I also ran into my friend from Australia, the same one whom I ran into a couple of years ago at the same place mentioned too :P I finally get into his pant this times :P

It was, again, a Very Very Good New Year's Eve for me. Couple with the long weekend from my job and etc., it make me feel lucky to be alive. Which is a refreshing feeling after a tiring feeling compare to the same time last year.

I hope next New Year's Eve will be comparable to this one :)

New friends were made

I had achieved something I hardly achieve on gay.com which is to made new friends. But I had done it ;)

The first guy is an Australia born Greeks. He is quite a conversationist and I am glad that I will finally have someone to talk to :) He is, however, not quite adept in computer. So I offer my services to him, including being a photographer and computer buying adviser ;) Although he mentioned that he would buy digital camera before contemplating on buying notebook. He is also quite addicted to SMS :p Something I never quite gotten into... We will meet again soon as we schedule for his photo shoot :)

The second guy is a high school Math teacher from US, who about to made his first trip to BKK. I had given him a few important tips regarding the local taxis and how to get to weekend market. I hope we will have time to meet :)

Right now I am looking forward to the New Year's Eve as I will be at one of the best place to hang out with other gay people :)

Can't Hardly Wait!!

The Red Hot Day

Today was not quite a fun day for me for several reasons.

I planned to go in early for my second tetanus shot, so whatever happen will comes to pass come New Year's Eve. It was a bit late than I expected since I wants to finish the package shipping for a friend.

I finally reach the hospital and got the shot. It seems to hurt more than the first one which, in retrospect, it could be because I had a stitches wound on my forehead :p

I saw the discount outlet store called 'Dress Smart' on the bus going to the hospital. I had bought some stuff from that store which I like so I walked to it after I finish at the hospital (thanks to my insurance card I do not have to pay anything). I ended up buying three t-shirts :P All of which I will be wearing soon.

I eventually walk to MajorCineplex. I was slightly hungry, even though I must have ate a couple of hours earlier. After walking around for a while deciding on which restaurant to eat, I finally choose Yaoi, to have hot plate tonkutsu with miso sauce :) However, about half way through my meal, I heard an announcement from the mall. I did not heard it quite clearly from where I was sitting but I notice that the crowd looks slightly alarmed. After a few more announcement I heard it more clearly that there was a fire on the first floor and we should evacuate. I quickly tried to stuff down the rest of my food and give my money to the waitress to pay for my meal. Eventually I have to put the last two pieces of tokutsu on paper napkin and leave the building :P

I took the nearest exits, which is on the side of the building. When I came out I saw pillar of black smoke coming from the front side of the building, with small red/orange colour of fire. I did not really see what happen as I wants to go home. So I cross the road on the crossover and notice that the firetruck still spraying the second floor on another side of the building.

The traffic on my road gonna be hell tonight.

Food Reflection

How did I began the second day of my long holiday? Well it began when I woke up around 7:45 in the morning.

I felt restless, as the weather became the usual hot lately, so I decided to get up. I took a leak and began surfing the net. Around 8:05 my mom called, asking me whether today is really my day off. I said yes and she said her back pain still not getting better and that she would like me to accompanied her to do errands in the morning. Like a good son that I am, perhaps I should stress that because I am a good *gay* son, I agreed to go with her (if I am not gay, perhaps I would already be married and moved out already).

Anyhow, the errands finished around 11:30, thus I decided to check out the midnight sales at Central World (it used to be called World Trade Center), an upscale shopping mall in BKK near Oriental Hotel.

The first thing I notice once I got near the building is the sign about Japanese food sampling on the 5th floor. Right then and there, I forgot about the midnight sales and head straight to that floor :P The area was smaller than I thought but it was packed with goodies. Few of the booths' presentation reminded me of the small market in front of the garden in Osaka castle in Japan. They have a lot of seafoods products as well as some instant noodles, rice, gyoza, and okonomiyaki. The best part is that most of the booths offer sample :P I graze around the area trying this and that. Then I came to a station which sell scallop stir fried with butter. I tried the sample and I just LOVE it. They use *real* scallop, with tendon muscle and all, and there were virtually no fishy smell either. After some serious contemplation, I finally caved and pay 85 baht for the small package :dd. It was very good, although pretty soon I wish I would have some rice with it too :P

After the scallops, I began walking around the supermarket area on the 7th floor looking at different restaurants. I began to think about the different kind of foods that I like. Although I generally like Japanese and Italian foods, I came to realize that if I would have to choose one type of food to eat everyday, I would really prefer Japanese food. Maybe because I am Asian as I find that Italian can be too oily and plain for me. Unlike Japanese food, which can be tasty without too much condiments. Or maybe it just because I like their soyu sauce :P I will definitely go back for that and this times I will think about where can I find good rice to eat with the scallops :d

The Last of Office Christmas Party

It finally happen last night, at a near by restaurant/pub. It seems fortunate that we postponed it to last night because it was their five years anniversary and they have complimentary foods (Yeah for me) and boozes (Yeah for the teachers :P).

Some of the foods were quite alright, although I think they were less generous with the rice in the bowl. I wants to leave around 22:30 but was met with some light-hearted taunt from the manager whether he should call my mom to tell her I am being out late :p But I was finally able to leave around midnight. It was a nice time except for the smokings and the bad seat that seems to cause me back ache. The maid is also there, I don't mind her being there, but she basically complaining to me how the guards are not helpful and a bunch of lazy asses type. She also told me to be more assertive to them, to basically act more like a boss toward them. I guess she made some valid point, after all I do have the authorities to order them around.

Anyhow I am looking forward to my long holiday :D Eventhough it will not be as long as Torn's five weeks off but it still be a long eleven days off, starting today :D Officially anyway... because my line-manager had made an appointment to talk to me today at 2pm. Plus the new access point still need to be configured and the tech from the supplier still working on it for the pass couple of days. Hopefully it will works today... So I will not have to go again tomorrow...

Delayed Christmas Parties report

I was planning to do a post about my Three Christmas parties. But the last parties we were going to have has to be postponed till Wednesday. Due to the pre-election on the weekend, which forbid the selling of alchohol products. The Thais staff have no objection to that but the teachers want to drink :p, hence the postponement. So I will just post about my Two Christmas parties I had attended so far :)

The first one was organized by the staff, with raffle, prize and game. I ended up going alone since all Thais staff other than me find the location too far for them. It was quite nice, a chance to meet people from other branches and make connections. The food were rather so so... Plain to taste and not quite meaty. The prize were quite numeral but I didn't won any :p Just my typical luck...

The second party, held at British embassy, I was a bit more excited to attend this one. Apart from the fact that it held inside the embassy, it is also a chance to somewhat shown my face to the embassy staff and make myself acquaintance. For the grand plan, of visiting London next year :p The food were better, as they came from the embassy kitchen. There were also turkey, potatoes, gravy and salad apart from Thai foods. I tried the turkey, most part of it was quite dry and rather... tasteless... If it's not for the butter and the gravy, I would not go for second plate :P The potatoes were charred on one side and it taste nice, even though they were a bit cold from being left outside for sometime. I also have a chance to taste the mince pie and the fruitcake (which I believe have alcohol in it).

Overall, I would say that the food at the embassy is better... Although I enjoy both parties and I am looking forward to the third one, which will be the one organize by our branch.

Broken Promises

Today I have a bit of recollection of how I have grown to learn not to emotionally invested in people's promises.

When I began meeting people from Internet, I was still quite naive about people, about Men in particular. In time, I learned that when men said they are going to call, it just a saying in general (or in my case, Typing) not a promise or the foretold of action to be made in the future. They also tend to disregard other people's (namely me) convenient, plans, and feeling when they are on vacation (perhaps rightly so).

I used to get upset when this happen but not so much anymore. I have learned not to thing that men meant what they said, especially on the net. Quite a few do keep their words and I still kept them as friend.

Along the way I learn to not expect much from men. Now I can lean back and let things either happen or not. I guess people never realize that other people's time is as important as theirs.

I am wondering though... How will I behave in a relationship (if and when it happen)? Will I hold him accountable for his every words and action? Or will I stay like this and let things slide... I guess time will tell.

Hopefully the real test will not be far ahead.

Progess on my head and The Truth Reader

My wound has closed and seems to heal up nicely. I apply the scar care gel that my doctor had prescribed a few times a day in addition I also use Vitamin E oil as well.

Although I was the doctor mention that the stitches did not look beautiful enough it seems to be healing nicely.

I went to see The Golden Compass recently. It was quite a good movie eventhough it was a bit on the short side. The story was interesting enough. The main protagonist was establish, soon after the movie beings, that she has silver tongue and a good head on her shoulder. I have read that some catholic figures were protesting against the movie, since the villain portrayed in the book.

As quoted from Wiki 'Several key themes of the novels, the rejection of organized religion and the abuse of power in a fictionalized Catholic Church, were diluted in the adaptation. Director Weitz said "in the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots"'

What I find interesting about this, is that the protesters' behavior seems to goes along with what the villain in the movie, as those who would try do anything to stop people from thinking for themselves in order to maintain their power. At least the movie is able to show that people should not just blindly trusted the authorities despite how it diluted the anti-religion idea from the book. I guess money is everything :p

The visual were nice to look at but not on the 'spectacular' scale as Lord of the Rings. I would put it as on the same level as Narnia. Pretty but nothing epic (I guess Lord of the Rings really set the bar real high).

Also the weather in Bangkok started to warm up again. I guess I will go back to wear tank top to bed again.

Pleonchit Fair

I was excited about going to Pleonchit Fair this year since I lost track of it a few years back and completely forgot about it. My main reason is to get my hands on some fish and chips :P

I arrived there via a shuttle boat from the pier near Sapantaksin BTS station. Once I arrived at the school where the fair is, I paid for my ticket and began searching for the F&C. However, this year they have meat pie and mash, baked potatoes with cheese, and other foods instead. No fish and chips though :((. I settled for some nice looking Duit Thani buffet but it just only eatable.

My main attraction became thsis grand sales by Boots. When I arrived they were selling good stuff in 2 for 100 baht, 3 for 100 baht and 5 for 100 baht price. After an hour or so it became 3 for 200 baht and eventually 5 for 100 baht.

I think I ended up spending 800 baht in total there buying facial creams, lotions and soaps :pp I was able to score some nice day and night cream as well.

I also spend a bit of money on chocolate fountain fruit dip as seen below. The chocolate was quite delicious :dd

Update on my Head

I went to another hospital today to have my stitches clean for the second times. The wound was said to be inflamed and was a bit wet.

But when the doc ask the nurse whether there is any puss in the wipe, the nurse said it just look reddish. The doctor prescribe do more anti-biotic for me. When I look at the stitches on the mirror I saw whitish substance forming on the wound. I think it is the skin forming up.

No matter what, I think I will be happier once the stitches were removed. MusicMan also told me to get Vitamin E oil to apply on the wound o reducing the scaring. I remembered seeing this on Nip/Tuck once that the wife use Vitamin E oil on q-tip to apply on the slash wound on the face of the husband.

I will go ask around tomorrow

Cracking Forehead

Today is not a good day for me... As I have a minor accident of walking into the roll-up steel door on my way out to work and cut my forehead (a bit above my hairline)

It wasn't Too bad, though I bled quite a lot as these forehead cut usually do... I did, however, have to visit the hospital and have it stitches. So now I cannot wash my hair for several days and will have to go to a hospital or clinic everyday wound cleaning until the time to remove the tread which is Monday. I had bought a plastic shower cap on my way home so I can shower without wetting the stitches.

I also got tetanus shot :(((, And I am scheduled for TWO more... Although it would covered me for 10 years. The area where I got injected still throb even now (1:25 am the next day).

For anyone who are interested to see how my stitches are you can click Here. I choose not to upload the photo so you can choose whether you want to see it or not.

Addition: I must say I really like my new health insurance card. It covered the whole cost at the hospital, which altogether were about 2,300s baht.

Mr. American Is Alive!

Today I finally get a hold on my long lost friend, Mr. American. I tried calling his mobile phone number, as I tried from time to time wondering how it never seems to be off but the battery never died yet no one answering it. He answered it today, at long last.

We only talk briefly because he was not in a good mood, and I can hear it his voice. He said that his business is not going well and that he will go back to USA this Friday and make a final decision to whether close his business and cut his loss or keep on going. Right now it costing his saving to keep it going and it is not a big saving either. He said he certainly would not be able find a job at his age and he is worried that he will go broke if he kept going. I do feel bad for him, he is one of the nicest guy I know, a long time friend to boot...

He said he will be back in a couple of week. Hopefully we will have time for dinner so we can really talk and catch up.

I wish things would work out for him.

Reduced Scale

I had weight myself yesterday and Woo Hoo to me because I weight 72.5kgs :DD

After two months or so on Herbalife protein shake my weight is more or less back on track. My goal is to back around 65kgs or so. However, now that my mom has moved out, this complicate my dinner time... As she is not here to cook for me :pp

I am wondering though of how much weight I would lost if I kept using it long term (6 months or so) Afterall, it is much easier this way for breakfast.

Hopefully I will lost a few more kilos before New Year's Eve bash :)

XKCD

I found this wonderful webcomic from an article on cnet.com about geeky webcomics :P I like it quite a lot, the site also have "random" button which will randomly show you the strip. This one is one of my favorite.

Collecting Double-Takes

Although I think this might gain a knowing looks or interesting glance, if you do it in West Hollywood or San Francisco :P

And this one hit pretty close to home :P

Insomnia

My room at night resemble the above strip, except that I do not use digital alarm clock. I just utilize the alarm function on my mobile phone ;)

And this one just crack me up XD

Fight

I hope you will visit the comics page, hit random buttons and have a good laugh. ;D

PS: If you can't read any of the comics please click on the strip or the name below to see it in full size.

Hellgate: London and Viva Pinata

So... I know I have been slacking off on blogging a bit. My reasons are these two games.

Hellgate: London

I am glad to had upgraded my graphic card (along with my computer as a whole) otherwise I would have motion sickness playing this. For me, this game is simply on a so so level... I think mainly because I am not that into FPS style of game anymore. It also employ the random item generator, just like Diablo. I do not really like this method because it make really good stuff hard to come by. Even when I use trainer to get lots of money to upgrade my gears. Graphically it is to be expected of new game, also with my choice of class, Summoner, it means I do not go upclose to the monster. The weirdest part of this game are the speech. The NPCs all have only greeting lines but not for the dialogs. I find this slightly odd but maybe because it is meant to play MMORPG as well. Personally I just play it when I want a bit of from Viva Pinata or a change of pace.

Viva Pinata

The process of *acquiring* this game was quite stressful for me. It look me a fair few days to get it. I am glad that I finally got to install and play it on Monday morning before I went to work. I was a bit anxious about playing the game because quite a few people post on gamespot.com forum that they experience crash and glitch. Luckily, that never happens to me.

So, what I can say about this game? It bright, vibrant, colorful, cute, fun, and a breath of fresh air that have not really been gracing the PC world since... maybe ever. The game shows a vibrant green garden, colorful and stylish designs in all the visual aspect of the game. While this game excel in both visual and audio it fail quite miserably in control. With the game being directly ported from Xbox360, therefore game's control is quite clunky and inconvenient. The zoom function work in short distant, no mini map to help track your garden, to sell things in your garden required a few odd select and click process. Overall I agreed that they should have do a better job of making patch and bug cleaning before releasing the game. So far I found a couple of glitch namely stuck camera and missing menu bar (which actually stop you from doing things in the game).

The final verdict? This one game that Worth playing regardless. It is fun to play even just to observe your garden grow and thriving.

Quest Complete and now Viva la Pinata

I spend yesterday touring the city (somewhat) from Silom area to MBK. It was Fun :)

I had found the brief I was looking for in a shopping mall in Silom, I also bought a pillow case for my body pillow as well. I could not resist cause of the garden pattern with butterfly on white color. It was a nice design except that the pattern only shown on one side and about one third of the front. It was rather smart really... Make it as little as possible and still able to sell it.

I was also having a good time eating stir fried chicken noodle in Silom and chicken pita roll (Egyptian food) in MBK. Two of the meal that I like but rarely have the chance to eat them because I rarely went there.

I have been reading about how much fun Viva Pinata is from... I guess from Ursula Vernon's blog. I did not think much of it because it was a Xbox game but I am way excited when I found out that it is going to be release in PC format :DDDDD.

I spent the few days searching for it on the web and finally in the process of acquiring it. It is going to take me a few days to get it. I will see if I wants to use my leave day to stay home and play this game :P After all, I still have 4 days left that needs to be use before Christmas.

The Winter Quest for the Slippery Underwear

The weather in Bangkok began to get a little chilly at night as Winter start to slowly creeping to the city.

I have changed my sleeping attires from tank top and shorts to pajamas pants and light summer t-shirt. Which is quite alright, I do like to sleep under blanket in Winter time :) I do fine that I sleep more soundly in winter.

I recently bought new underwear, it has 91% Polyamide and 9% Spandex and it felt great on my skin :) It felt sexy :P I only bought one because I wants to see if it will fit me, which it did and it felt great. But when I went back the next day to buy another it was sold out. So now I am planning to go to another shopping mall to buy this. Hopefully it will still be available else where.

Anoter ComMart Affairs

This will be the last ComMart event this year. I planned to go anyway and did not expect much, after all, I did not need to upgrade my computer for a couple of years at least.

However, I ended up buying something anyway :PP.

First thing first, I finally have my hands on iPod Touch. It looks and feel REAL cool!!



Here are the photos :)

It felt real cool to use, a real eye catcher that for sure. However, the darn thing is huge compare to other players. This is understandable because the screen is also huge in comparison. I think it will be too big for me to carry around that's for sure.

I also saw Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard with the price tag of 990 baht. I caved and bought it :PP It was quite a good deal, eventhough I realize that the reason it is quite cheap is because these seems to be those that did not pass the QC with minor scratches (I found two on mine, darn it). But it was not that noticeable, so I will let it pass :p.

Below is the photo of the keyboard on my computer desk :).