Christ Myth Woman

I've had this file on my desktop for a while - the contents are something I grabbed a while back nothing that important but I thought I might follow it up sometime: That sometime is taday and basically I am going to post it and delete the file cos I want to tidy my desktop:

"Fathers  feel increasingly caught in a vacuum as ancestral habits continue to fall away, and this contributes more and more to the breakdown of masculine identity

Myths reveal to us the basic structures of history; the silence of the father and the suffering of the son have been heralded in the Christian myth.
The central myth that has guided the last two centuries of out evolution is marked to an astonishing degree by the absence of the father"

Yellow

Its 7:57 am – Fathers day – December 5^th 2012 – The Thai King’s birthday – I woke at about 5:20 and had a quick look on the internet to find Schoolshape and looked at their offering then I  finished packing and prepping for this trip. I shaved, showered and  took my tablets and went down stairs to grab the Scoopy key and pop out for breakfast

I try to make sure I get to JWaawaa for  one meal  most days – especially work days, after nearly 4 years of living in Thailand I eventually discover that to tell others I am a vegetarian all I have to do is say “Poom gin Jay”  and they understand. 

I got to the restaurant for about  for  just after 6:00 Baw was there as usual and she served me and I sat down to eat and reflect on the circumstance.  I was a little surprised at how busy the streets were at that time of day though I shouldn’t have been knowing that Thai people wake early to avoid the heat and having seen morning markets in the north on my first visits to the land of smiles, and after all Surat Thani is a market town  or city as they Thais like to call it. As I ate I reflected on how quiet it was and considered my attatchment to the food I was eating – even though It is “meant” to be seen merely as fuel to sustain the body and its pursuit of a spiritually enlightened existence.

I finished went and paid my 35 baht, trying to engage Baw in simple conversation, 1) to help improve my Thai and 2) to try and crack her veneer of detatchment, she is after all an attractive lady and I am very single at the moment.  As I left I decided to stop off at the market and buy the simple pre packed breakfasts from the market to make offerings to the monks.  I find it amusing that  a small cottage industry hasestablished itself at the market – You can pay 20฿ for a set (that may or may not contain meat – You are handed a bag and thurn around and are surrounded by monks offering their alms bowls so that you can pop their daily bread into it to then pop off your shoes kneel in front of them and receive a blessing – It works – I have given up considering the nature of the process and whether the monks should be offered meat or not – In some ways its not important , though I did wonder why these queues weren’t out side the veggie establishment I had just been to.

I hoped back on the scooter and stopped at the baton go street stand 30 yards further on and back on the main drag. Baton Go is one of my weaknesses here foodwise, Essentially they are a Thai style finger shaped  doughnut.  Lightly stuck together with water they are deep fried batter that is cooked in these pairs, lovely with sticky milk though I tend to avoid that now days for the usual health reasons , I sat on the bike and waited for my 10฿ worth of heart attack food , I noticed  the usual sideways glances usually followed by a quick grin as I purposely make eye contact and smile , I may not be the only falang in Surat but we’re certainly still a novelty  in these parts especially in the traditionally Thai public spaces, the markets and day to day meeting places.

I felt quite calm and mindful as I pulled away at a slow pace,  another 100 meters down the road and two kittens play by the side of the road caught my eye , one doing one of those poised pounces on the other as I passed – probably only three months old it flashed across my mind

Thich Nhat Hanh

 talks about a rose

talks about a rose being all the elements that were not rose – I wondered how kittens became so obviously kitten and cat like in their nature so quickly – It is an amazing experience this life that  occupies us all. 

I got back to the house and made a coffee to eat with my cholesterol  pointing out to the Burmese house keeper that I liked my coffee falang style – lots of water in a mug topped up with a bit of cold to stop being scalded and usually black. She passed this on to the other house keeper  obviously amused by my odd behavior.

I finished my breakfast and grabbed my bags to be greeted by Mel who was driving me to the airport, heading out of the town  she reminded me that it was the Kings birthday and explained this was why I had been greeted by a sea of yellow shirts. I joked about how I doubted that any one would wear red shirts on a day like today – referring to the Thai convention of associating seven colours to the days of the week and respect for  the regent being  shown by wearing a coloured shirt that represents the day he was born on. We went through the week  -  Monday  = pink, Tuesday = Yellow, Wednesday =  Green, Thursday = Orange, Friday = Blue, Satuday = Purple and Sunday = Red. My reference to red shirts wasn’t to Sunday though it was to the other political party here in Thailand the red shirts.

So I am finishing of this short  narrative of my morning on the flight, BRIGHT RED air asia  BIG BIG BIG – I arrive in BKK at 10:00 am and will finish and post on the blog when I get to an internet connection

Bing bong – seat belt sign comes on so  I try to save the document to PC the Laptop away locked keyboard, I try to save bit never mind – put it to sleep and put it away the plane is landing – And then it all starts to go “wrong”.

Some guy is pushing to get off the plane, I follow the signs to the wrong baggage belt, I get a taxi easy enough but then I cant remember the name of the building … its close to Asoke BTS -  The taxi driver is particularly friendly as we travel in he chats in his broken English and I chat in my broken Thai mostly about the Kings birthday (of  course) Then as we get to Asoke station he slows and  blap.. there it is its Supalai Plaza I’m going to

I pay the fare and tip 50฿ and get ushered straight into the lift – I don’t know which floor I’m going to… I find my phone and type in the number I’ve been given  no answer

Eventually this got resolved after phoning friends in Thailand in different places but I had started to wonder if there was some tradition in Thailand not to answer your phone on Kings Day

After Michaelangelo II

After Michael Angelo

Well I noticed these

 

Cheevit Mai - ชีวิตใหม่ --- New Life, Renaissance

ใหม่   = new  (mai)
ชีวิต    =       life

When I looked it up in Google translate I found

Renaissance

1. noun
   1. 1. renaissance
    

Interesting how Google influences things this post was going to be quite different when I started it , still never mind.

Renaissance

This is what springs to mind when you mention the renaissance to me - Michael Angelo. I have never associated myself with this statue despite having the same name, I have always seen my self in a more realistic way...

Well maybe not quite so extreme as the chap on the right but much closer to that end of the scale than him on the left. This post was originally going to be about how the last six months in Thailand have helped me not just physically but mentally too... In true Thai fashion I am being distracted so for next post some shots I found in my initial search for Angelo's David to post here. (Art related of course...)

Tock

My feet are cold

Tick

Some days i read this and think no one is looking - the modern "open" diary