Getting by in Bangkok

I’ve been back from vacation for quite a while now. Had a great time and have been intending to write about it. However, writing involves putting my thoughts down in coherent sentences – something that has been eluding me lately.

Instead of writing about the delicious food, amazing artwork or how we got to see Michael Angelo’s David for free, I’ll thought I’d share the photos of Firenze’s bike tragedies.

While walking around Florence (Firenze) my friend and I noticed quite a few broken bicycles. It became a running joke to take a photo whenever we came across one. Here’s the culmination of our efforts:

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Thought I’d steal a post title from Emjay while I can because a week from today begins my long awaited vacation.

A friend met me for lunch today and then kindly accompanied me for a bit of shopping. It was good that she went with me because my previous shopping attempts have ended with me empty handed for the most part. A pair of shoes were purchased last weekend, but alas, as with all other shoes I’ve bought in Bangkok, they hurt my feet after they’ve been worn a bit. Possibly I can break them in a little before I go, but I’m thinking they won’t make the trip to Europe.

We went shopping at a place called Platinum Fashion Mall. I’d never been there before, but it reminded me of shopping at Siam Square (before a lot of it was burned to the ground last year). There are many small shops with quirky merchandise and clothing designs. I didn’t buy anything quirky, though, just a few long-sleeved shirts and some jeans. There were some fun t-shirts that I wanted to buy, but they can wait until I get back. The last t-shirt I bought was from a shop in Siam Square.

I see London. I see France

So, vacation stuff – I’ll be flying on Qatar Airways and have a short layover in Doha, Qatar. I’ve read great things about the airline but horrible things about the airport in Doha. Thankfully the layover is short so it should be OK.

The last thing on the to-do list is to test uploading photos to the blog with the new phone. Maybe the cats will model for me.

I haven’t been posting or commenting in a very long while. My work schedule has always been hectic and many of my past posts have, at least, a passing mention of this. However, I’ve surpassed anything I’ve done in the past. Last Sunday was my first day off work in 40 days. I have no idea how I did it. One of our chemist quit without notice at the end of July and that was that. My thoughts have been so far removed from socializing that I began to wonder if I’m still capable of it! Maybe that is a bit over dramatization, but I will have to make an effort to get back into the habit. Otherwise, I’ll just turn into a crazy hermit lady. I did make the foray into Google+ and have met up with some fellow Voxers there.

The good news is that I am going on vacation mid-September. For the past 10 years or so, all of my vacations have been spent going back to Louisiana and Texas to visit family. I love my family, but it was time to go somewhere else for a change. One of my Austin friends will meet me in Italy where we’ll do the tourist thing and then go see another friend that lives in Switzerland. I’ve not been to Europe before, so I’m excited. I just bought a new phone (I had a lot of OT) so I need to learn how to upload photos to WordPress before I go. If anyone has traveled around northern Italy and has recommendations for places to go and things to see, let me know. Our schedule is fairly open.

Last Saturday, I was at the bus stop next to the Ari Sky-Train station. Next to the entrance of the train station a mother and son were talking to each other. The boy seemed to be in his teens, but could possibly be in his early twenties (I’m horrible at guessing a Thai person’s age). The boy leaned down and gave his mom a kiss on the cheek. His mom smiled the biggest smile and then went up to the train station. The son turned and walked down the sidewalk. It was one of the sweetest things I’ve seen in ages…like something out of a movie (or one of those tear-jerker commercials). It made me wish that I could still kiss my mom on the cheek and then go about my day.

It’s been a hectic week at work. We had a huge influx of samples recently and at the same time problems with several of the lab instruments. Murphy likes to hang out at my lab sometimes.

Tonight I was whining a bit to one of the senior chemists and he tells me this story he read on the internet:

“A man goes to the fortune teller and the fortune teller tells him that he would have ten years of suffering. The man asked the fortune teller what happens after ten years. The fortune teller tells him “after 10 years you’ll get used to it”.

This may be an old joke in the US, but it’s the first time I’ve heard it. I think this is the first time I’ve had a Thai tell me a joke in English.

I wonder how many more years until I get used to it! (not that my life is suffering…just the work part)

So this came through my FB page yesterday. I have no idea why he thought I’d have a profile or an agent! Too funny.

business look

The Thai New Year (Songkran) holiday is wrapping up. I usually spend the entire 3-day holiday hold up in the house since I don’t enjoy walking around getting soaked to the bone. This year was no exception. During the holiday, my kitchen got an exceptional cleaning and I watched a pretty good Korean drama (on-line) called Bad Guy.

I read that they had to cut the series short by 3 episodes because the lead actor got called in for his national service, but I think they wrapped it up nicely. The story was interesting/twisty and the filial duty aspect (quite prevalent in the Asian dramas I’ve watched) isn’t so over-whelming as to make it difficult for me to move past it. If you’re into dramas as a form of entertainment, I recommend it. You can watch in with English subtitles on Viki.com or Hulu.com.

So that’s how I’ve wasted my holiday. It has been very nice to relax and not go to work…a long over-due break. I think I’ll be able to go out tomorrow without fear of getting drenched. Not sure what I’ll do, but I am getting stir crazy.

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted. My entire life in the last 3-4 months has been pretty much work, eat, sleep with much emphasis on the working and not much on the eating and sleeping. Several times I contemplated just quitting and going back to the US… However, I realized that an insane number of people back home are out of work and if I couldn’t find a job in 6 months or a year (or more) I could be wishing I had my old 13 hour a day/7 day a week job that pays. Then there’s the problem of moving the kitties. Finding a place to crash for a bit becomes difficult with cats in tow.

Anyway, I stayed and it seems that things may be smoothing out for a bit. This is the first weekend in months that I haven’t felt like I was drowning in work anxiety. I went to the lab in the morning to receive some samples from Fed-Ex. I did a little data review and came home. I stopped at the grocery store and bought a bottle of wine. Things might actually be OK, but we’ll have to see. I just know I can’t take another three months like the last three months.

In a weird bit of happenstance, today when I was getting out of the elevator at work, Thai Emo guy was getting on! I’ve seen him a couple of times around the area where I work. He’s so tall and skinny! Maybe one day I’ll tell him I posted his photo on the internet.

Other than that, there’s not much to write about. I haven’t read any books. I haven’t watched any movies. I haven’t watched any TV shows. I’ve listened to a little bit of music, but very distractedly. Nothing has really caught my fancy in a while.

Right now, I’m trying to decide what I will do tomorrow. Maybe a trip to the gym is in order. I haven’t been since November, I think. I hate that because it’s like throwing money down the drain. If I don’t do that, it’s the library. I haven’t gone there since early December.

This is the end of my moan-and-groan about work. I hope to catch up with everyone. I have occasionally checked posts but haven’t been much in the frame of mind for commenting.