Mary Poppins fights Freaky Realistic

Bangkok, Thailand
Made it to Bangkok on Monday after a rather rude early start in Hanoi. At HQ BKK - Ros & Dan's house, my SE Asian home from home, all was eerily quiet on account of the absent Ros & Ruby who are back in the UK.

First priority of course was for me and Dan to sport our matching swimmers and get to work on our synchronised swimming routine. It went very well. Expect to see more of us on obscure satellite sports channels over the coming months building up to Beijing '08.

Secondly, a traditional Thai meal was needed. So we had a terrific Lebanese mezze.

Job done. Now all that remained was for us to pick up our favourite line of conversation when left to our own devices - 'Where are the band members of Freaky Realistic now and what are they up to?' In the background tunes from their wonderful only album, Frealism, were playing of course.

I get periodic updates from The Badger as to what Justin 'Liquid' Anderson is working on since the 1993 evaporation of FR.

Checking out the FR website, that's still running after all these years, there was a certain amount of initial disappointment over the fact that the Ask Aki [Omori] A Question section on their website threw back a 'Sorry, Aki cannot answer your question' message. Come on, it's only been 14 years since the band dissolved, surely Aki must still be there in cyberspace waiting to answer all the Freaky yet Realistic questions that must flood in daily.

Still, there was this good quote from Alan Anderson (Justin's brother) regarding their 1993 appearance on The Word:

"I was in the audience watching them perform on The Word. Bob Holness was dressed as a hippie for some reason. They had lent him a dog to complete the image and it bit me."

Actually you can view their entire performance on The Word from their website. Worth checking out, especially if you've just learnt you're immortal so have some spare time on your hands.


Here's a rather blurry snap of Dan doing some cyber detective work. The drink to his right is what we have named a Mary Poppins - gin (or vodka...or indeed any white spirit...in fact you could use actual white spirit if you like), guava juice, a splash of tonic and some fresh limes. The reason for the name is it lessens the pain of having to endure Ruby's obsession with and endless need to watch Mary Poppins on DVD. Obviously the two year old Ruby wasn't around but that didn't mean we shouldn't immunise ourselves (heavily) with the Mary Poppins antivenin. And we did.

And then BINGO, we struck FR pay dirt! Aki has a blog. Right here on Blogger in fact. She's now a yoga teacher living in north London. I'm not sure how far we got to tracking down the erstwhile rapper MPL, Mary Poppins had clearly given my a thorough shoeing and I had to retire.

The farewel to Bangkok
Dan was leaving Bangkok today and I'm going to Hong Kong tomorrow so we had a farewell 'bash' last night. This involved very swanky cocktails at an open air bar called Breeze on the 57th floor of the State Tower. Bangkok is a phenomenal sight from 600ft, at sunset, with a Negroni in hand. The conversation didn't swing round to Freaky Realistic this time.

Chit Lom BTS Skytrain station towards sunset.


Dan, cocktail in hand, sunsetting behind and the lights of Bangkok coming alive below. Smashing. Doesn't Dan look snap in his John Smedley top. Like Paul Weller's younger brother.


You may notice that I've had a haircut. Can't say it's the best I've ever had. My Thai haircut vocab only stretches to nit noi, which means 'a little bit'. I had clearly pronounced it incorrectly.




And of course, a couple of cocktails to the fore and all the sophistication goes out of the window and I get a chuckle out of the name of this tailor's shop. Oh dear.

Right, next stop Hong Kong, the final foreign destination on my global meanderings. See you there.

Off for a Laos-y time

Bangkok, Thailand
Hardly stuck up a post of worth regards Myanmar and it's time to hit the trail once again for what is likely to be the penultimate leg of my trip: overland around Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. It's all very much a campaign under the banner 'Failing to plan is planning an adventure.' We'll see.

Time for some thank yous. Have to say a massive, massive thanks to Ros, Dan (and Ruby) who have acted as base camp for all my SE Asian exploration. Just totted up and I have been resident at their house here in Bangkok four times over the past two months. Having just spent an hour and a half banging my head against a wall in the United Airlines office here in Bangkok trying to organise my return flights, it seems I'm going to be passing through BKK once again around the 14th Aug. That really will be the last time...promise. Here's a snap of family ColliRussell at Dolphin Bay Resort t'other weekend. It's a shame Ruby has a bent cotton bud stuck in her ear.

And news hot off the press - I can confirm that I shall be back in Blighty from the week starting 20th Aug! There is after all a certain cricket match to play in, right!

Here are some more snaps of Myanmar for those too lazy to go and look at my Flickr site! I best boost as I have a bus to catch!

Tailor made for Don Johnson

Bangkok, Thailand
Just because my administrative world has come crashing down around my ears, it doesn't mean there's not fun to be had. Never seen the point of wearing a hair shirt and birching myself into repentance. Maybe that's why I never fitted into the Catholic mold.

Dan, Jo & I went out for a jolly about Bangkok on Saturday afternoon and part of the jolly involved picking up Dan's freshly tailored dinner suit (for the British Ambassador's party, don't ya know) from a tailors - Boss Apparel (...not to be confused with Hugo Boss apparel) in Ratchadamri.

Well, Dan's trying the old whistle on in the shop and something seems to have gone seriously wrong: the trousers fit a treat, the body is perfectly figure hugging...but wait a minute, should the arms only be three-quarter length and give the Don Johnson impression? I don't think so!

The tailor is noticeably silent, perhaps thinking if he doesn't say anything, no-one will notice. But we do; it's bloody obvious. With a quizzical look he even gives the arms a small tug as if somehow he's going to miraculously expand them down the exposed five inches or so to Dan's wrists.

I suggest he could get away with it if he has a shirt made with incredibly lacy and flouncy cuffs a la Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen, but that suggestion is dismissed.

Gutted neither Jo nor I took a snap (I'm sure the Boss man wouldn't have been too chuffed but hey!). Instead here's a digital photo fit body double that took me about three hours to reconstruct:

Untangling this fine mess

Bangkok, Thailand
Well, you'll be sad to know that none of my belongings (the show-stopping ones) turned up, as was always likely to be the case. However, I did get my flip flops back. Some dizzy French woman had put them on 'accidentally' and I recognised her from the Internet cafe walking in the street. Being in no mood to act coy at this point, I challenged her on her oversized footwear.

'Oh, I am zzzorry, I didn't realizzze, I zzzzought zzzey felt a beet big'. I think that deserves the childish remark of my schoolboy youth - chinny!!

So, there was nothing else to do other than to scoot back from Pai, northern Thailand to Bangkok and quite a scoot it was. Bus, moto taxi, mini bus, (earthquake...seriously), overnight train and Skytrain finds me back at Ros & Dan's off Thong Lo and elbows deep in trying to bail out the leaky vessel that is my current situation.

So, new passport being applied for and the wheels of that procedure have been greased by a piece of pre-trip planning quite against the grain for me - I had photocopies of my passport and driving licence in my main pack. Flight tickets being re-issued altho' there's the usual hassle associated with United Airlines that I won't go into for fear of curling up into a ball and muttering incoherently to myself. Can't do a lot about the Thai visa until I get a new passport, which could take up to 10 working days. Ooops.

Also bit the bullet and bought myself a replacement camera from Bangkok's premiere electronics mall - Pantip Plaza. Love the name. Got the same one as I lost, 2GB memory card and Samsonite case (I mean for the camera, not a suitcase) for half the price I paid for mine eight months ago. Chuffed about that.

On a note of fun, high jinks and high balls: Jo Bole rocked into town en route from Kuala Lumpar to Brunei. OK, so that's a strange 'en route' but it was mighty fine to see her...again (last time in Broome, Western) and to celebrate, slightly belatedly, her birthday. Wanna see some snaps?...OK then:

Dan relaxing on JoB's arrival with a glass of fizz. Niiiiiiice.

Me looking a little startled chez DazRon and unusually wearing a yellow t-shirt.

Jo's birthday meal last night at La Villa Italian restaurant, round the corner from DazRon's. Ahhh, la dolce vita!

Ros & Dan, raising a glass of Italian brandy that the proprietor, Roberto, insisted was better than the Armagnac & Cognac we had ordered...and he didn't have anyway. Funny that.

Jo & me...seemingly avoiding low flying aircraft.

The usual silly snap that tickled me. From a convenience store. I guess if you need pressure cooker spare parts, it is pretty convenient. Sorry.