Beach holidays are some of the easiest holidays to pack for. Really, the essentials, in my opinion, are sunscreen and a bathing suit. That's it. Two easy things to remember. So imagine my surprise when arriving on Koh Chang last week in the afternoon, excitedly opening my bag to dig out my beach stuff for the first of many swims, only to find that I had managed to pack my bathing suit top, but not the bottoms. Mortified, I quickly rationalized that it wasn't a problem, this was a beach resort, and as we drove in, I had noticed many shops selling beach essentials. And then I remembered I was in Thailand, land of the little lady.
Shopping for a bathing suit in Thailand (for me) involves the following situation, varying slightly store-to-store, but generally following a similar pattern of self-esteem deflation:
Me: Picking up a bathing suit. How much?
Clerk: 500 baht.
Me: Can you do 300 baht?
Clerk: No lady, you biggie size! More fabric!
Repeat this at least 5 times until I reach a breaking point of wanting to yell at the clerk (usually a woman) that I have already been on the beach, seen other people in their suits, and there is no way that you can call me biggie size. But, knowing the rant would just likely cause embarrassment on both our parts, and likely increase the suit to bitchy-biggie-size prices, I instead pay the clerk what she wants and under my breath hope that she someday balloons to twice her size.
In the end, the bathing suit I had to buy got a lot of use - the water and beach at Had Sai Khao were spectacular and I spent many blissful moments lazing about in the new beachwear, completely over-riding any negative experience I had in acquiring them. Also, I now have a fourth backup to the other bathing suits I already own - as long as I remember to pack them...;)
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A couple of weeks ago, Jen posted an interesting blog entry idea that had the following instructions: 3) Why do you like to knit? Really I don't, I'm just afraid of disappointing Jen because of all the time she's put in teaching me :P Just kidding, I love it! I love the tactility. I love the work-at-your-own-pace, work-anywhere nature of it. I would have taken up weaving, but it's difficult to pack a loom into many of the handbags I own. I love the surprising social nature of it. Never did I think I'd bond with an old Korean woman on the subway without speaking a lick of the language. 4) What's your favourite childhood memory? Christmas season, 1986, Goose Bay, Labrador. One evening, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, my parents sent us across the road to our neighbours, the Croteaus, to be babysat while they ran some last minute errands. The Croteaus had two children, Krista and David, who were me and my brothers ages respectively and our friends. When my parents called later that evening to have us come home, neither of us wanted to because we were caught up in playing. Mrs. Croteau gently insisted we go home, so my brother and I waddled our way across the street in our snowsuits probably grumbling the entire way. When we came through our back door and shed our outer layers, my Dad called from the living room to come talk to him for a sec, and still a little disgruntled that they had called us away from a great play date, I half-heartedly wandered into the living room. My dad was in his recliner, and pulling me to his side, I looked down and saw a little, furry, ginger coloured kitten sitting on his lap. At 7 years old, I had wanted a kitten for as long as I could remember, and now this was my first. We named her Ginger and she lived through a cross-country move to Victoria, a big bearded collie we added to our family named Barney (he liked to walk over her when she was sleeping and then collapse on top of her), another kitten named TC, and the general abundance of adoration I shed on her. 5) What is your favourite Noraebong song to sing? Oh Bla Di Oh Bla Da by the Beatles or Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. Everyone knows the tunes and most of the words, and they are some of the few songs where the melodic shouting I call singing is successfully masked as enthusiasm.
Happy 4706! Today is the first day of the Year of the Rat (brown, earth rat more specifically) according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Check out this site to see what the year holds for you! This is me, the Sheep/Goat (1979): Happy Birthday to Me! Dr. Fish Cafe The pre-washing. The soaking. Today being pay-day and also a late working day, I called up Sara and told her I didn't feel like cooking and asked if she wanted to meet for dinner. Twisting her rubber arm, she agreed to meet me at a restaurant in her building called Tudari: Skewer Food Restaurant. The pictures of Tudari's food have always looked so appetizing, and now that Sara has converted to flexitarianism, we decided to give the heavily meat influenced menu a go. Tickets have been booked.
I am a big fan of Jon Scieszka - ask me for a snappy rendition of "Viruses are Coming to Town" from his book Science Verse, and I will happily oblige. Love, love, LOVE his work - I have used it a number of times because kids are drawn to his language and sense of humor. All of his publications are fantastically clever and he started a great website called Guys Read to advance literacy among boys. A brilliant mind all-round. Roughly a year ago, Kyle posted this entry on his blog about his adventures with indoor skiing in Shanghai. The whole post is hilarious, but what will always stick out in my mind is his encounter with the people he dubs "The Glee Twins". The Glee Twins were two young girls who, in true Asian fashion, posed for a number of concept photos, the most memorable of which being the heart pose. When Sara and I read this post and saw the accompanying picture, we decided to make it our personal mission to spread the joy of the heart where ever we went. Sara and I began to break out the heart for all photo opportunities, no matter how obscure, or how terrible we may have looked. Note this picture: taken after a 4 hour 'hike' through rivers and over rocks back in October. We both look HORRIBLE, but we're hearting, so the picture is fabulous. I try to heart with Richard on multiple occasions and eventually pulled something in my back because of the height difference (Richard is almost exactly 1 foot taller than me)... ...but it was just about finding the right position, like sitting down. I became fond of hearting with married men, which caused ...who consequently was left hanging by Sara when they tried to heart, despite being held at sword-point by an evil pirate. Sara has slightly more discriminate taste when it comes to who she will heart with... ...unless it's a heart threesome. Soon, all the hearting started to cause friction in the group. Richard started giving Jeff evil looks for getting birthday hearts when he didn't... ..and marriages were put to the test when I hearted with Jeff and then later in the same day with his wife, Jen. Whoops! Who thought a little photo pose could cause so much trouble?! The Glee Twins started something terrible! Who knows where hearting will take us in the new year? I don't know how many times I've seen this video, but each and every time it makes me laugh out loud. I was having a pretty crummy day so I dug it out again and decided to share it with anyone else who also might be having a crummy day. Enjoy! And if it doesn't help with the days crumminess, keep in mind tomorrow is Saturday :) |
Recently Updated...03.25 - Two posts! About Me...Out and about in the world, teaching others and educating myself. Stuff I Like...Traveling. Cuddling a cat. New toothbrushes. Friends. Socks of the Joanne Younes variety. The smell of sun-dried laundry. Baking. Archives
March 2008
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