Tails has many species of prolifically flowering trees. This one is in the ground of the Village temple.
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On an ad hoc bicycle tour. ..I pass my favorite coffee shop... it has a big magnet. .. the tour itinerary now includes a coffee break! Worse things can happen. ..
Preparations are under way for the Villages big party to signal the commencement of Buddhist Lent.Its drizzling rain but that doesn't impede the delicate work of micro-positioning the speakers for best hi fi output. The float is being created under a marquee, mostly by men whose creative juices are being enhanced by liberal quantities of Thai whiskey.
The cut flower market in Bangkok is considerable.
Na purchases from this stall-holder a couple of times each week, and they are used to make merit on the home al Male Coppersmith Barbet excavates a nest in a dry branch. He will use the nest to attract a mate, so must choose a good site and do a neat job. Here is the gist of a personal learning experience I had recently:
Na consulted a Fortune Teller, regarding a business decision she was grappling with. The Fortune Teller, didn't want any rewards, but told Na she should find a Chinese style temple beside the river and "presided over" by a Female Chinese icon, and make merit there as part of the "transaction". Na told me about this, and so I reminded her of a small new Chinese style pagoda we had recently noticed not far from our home...and, the predominant icon in the pagoda was Female. So we went there that very day. On the way Na asked me to stop at a market where she acquired a number of merit making things, included several superior quality imported apples and oranges for leaving as offerings to the icon. I wandered about taking pictures of the surroundings while Na made merit; then, as we were about to leave, brought her attention to the presence of 3 young, scruffy labourers who were repairing the concrete wall near the river jetty, and the fact that they had been very interested in what she was doing. Na walked over to them, spoke to them for a minute, they wai'd her and she wai'd them [wai is a respectful gesture involving putting both hands in prayer position and then bowing over it] and then she returned to me and said "Ok...let's go." I asked "What did you say to them?" Na replied "I told them the fruit is of the very best, imported quality, and they might enjoy to take it for a snack after we have left." Then she added, "Probably they have never eaten fruit that good before, and never will again." It would normally regarded as a great sin to steal offerings from an "altar", but Na gave them permission which, to her, removed the taboo. I said "You made me think of The Bishop's Candlesticks, in Les Miserables...now I understand what it was all about." Na replied "What is a Bishop?" We spent quite a long while at the local Multiplex yesterday afternoon.
The Lone Ranger has been showing for about a week, and will soon finish. I wanted to see it, as I can well recall 50-60 years ago that the serial was compelling listening on the valve radio and I still visualise the scene every time I hear the first bars of William Tell Overture. We got comfortable seats at the Digital Theatre, English track with Thai subs version. While waiting for it to start Mawin [aka The Boy] asked me "What's this movie all about, dad?", to which I replied "Think Captain Jack Sparrow in The Wild West, Son." I wasn't so far off the mark, as it turns out. On numerous occasions, while watching, I got the strong feeling the Director deferred too much to the creative inclinations of the redoubtable Johnny Depp. It wasn't a lousy movie...in fact, at times it was very entertaining in a tongue-in-cheek sort of a way. The main problem I had, though, was that it seems certain that it is actually two movies...each cut into scenes and then the whole pile merged together according to someone's whims: * One movie is a humorous adventure instalment based rather loosely on the traditional yarns of the radio serial era...the main difference being that the principal protagonist is Tonto. * The other is a re-working of some of the bits and all of the sentiments of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee...a book I read in a day, and then spent the entire following day emotionally gutted! I found the blend to be wrenching. Asia, generally, seems to have a rather relaxed attitude towards ownership of copyrighted material. I wonder if Disney is earning revenue from this motif?
Snowy is a pretty feline, and seems to like displaying herself in the vicinity of other pretty things.
Bangkok's most popular public Park is a hive of activities at the weekend.
It also has a reasonable number of comfortable bench seats for when you want a rest or your priority is to just sit and watch others doing interesting stuff. |
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