Tuesday, January 30, 2007
A Day in the Life (footloose and fancy free)
FROM RYAN'S MYSPACE BLOG - some insights into his day in Thailand...
The photo is the five travellers he mentions - at the Vancouver aiport en route to Asia - Ryan's on the left (he's not smoking, it's a piece of paper and he often holds one like that - it's not genetic...)
Friday, January 26, 2007
At Haad Tian
I wake up after having some sort of nostalgic dream, home is on my mind. I
close my eyes and dream another world. Ten minutes later I hear a young
British accent talking to Kris who's outside on the hammock,
"Is your friend awake?" she asks.
Then the door opens and Chloe, the nine year old British delinquint walks
in and jumps on my bed. I pull my sleeping bag over my mostly naked body.
"Good morning Chloe."
"Can I listen to your MP3?" she asks. Her accent reminds me of Mary
Poppins, her behaviour reminds me of Mary Poppins on bad acid.
"Yeah for a few minutes," I answer.
"Can I hear Zoey?" I put my sister's rough demo CD on my mp3 player and
since I showed a song to Chloe a few days ago, she wants to hear Zoey
everyday.
"How old is she?"
"16," Chloe gapes at my answer.
"Is she famous?"
"Not really famous, but she will be!"
Finally we convince Chloe to get out of our room after about 20 minutes of
her going through all our stuff and making crude comments that I've never
heard from a nine year old before.
We wander over to the restaurant and order breakfast. The Thai family that
runs the place comes out to say good morning, 'sawdikaup'. Me and Kris
play a game of chess while eating a nice Thai breakfast, I order a banana,
chocolate, peanut shake with brekky.
The 15 year old Thai kid Dia comes and sets up a game kinda like croquanot
(sp?) and he and Kris have a game after we finish the chess (which I
inevitably lose). Dia chain smokes cigarettes and laughs a lot. Playing
games defeats any language barrier that may exist. Cook, the very cute,
and shy 19 year old girl comes out of the kitchen - she sits with us, and
we play the same game but in teams of two. Kris and Dia, versus me and
Cook. We play five consecutive games and me and Cook lose all five.
We laugh the whole time and they teach us some Thai words while we play.
Finally I get up and go back to the bungalow for a shower. I get the
sticky, humid sweat off my body and re-dress. The four of us (Kris, Amber,
Missy, and myself) hop on two different mopeds and head up the dirt road
towards the road to Than Sala (the little town on Koh Phangan).
The wind is cool while driving and it feels great to rip around on the
mopeds. We are off to Haad Rin (the party area of the island) where we
will meet Isaac for dinner, and then all go to the big Half Moon party on
a beach somewhere nearby. After this weekend me and Kris are talking about
leaving to go back to the mainland.
This island is known for it's parties and fun, but I think what I will
miss most is relaxing at the Haad Tian resort on the beach with a group of
friendly travellers, and the incredible Thai people who run it (at least
the ones we've become friends with).
Now it is time to jump on a moped again and head out for dinner. We've
been eating more than enough for dinner at the street market in Thaan Sala
the last couple of nights. A big plate of noodles, or curry and rice, a
big banana, mango, pineapple, or whatever kind of fresh fruit shake, and
thai style chocolate, banana, pinepple pancakes, all for no more than
about 3 dollars canadian. It ain't so bad!!!
Love and Light
Ryan
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Catching up and a question for you...
I've been busy with the movement of life and all it entails (from the mundane to the profound, including snow shovelling - which is apparently both).
I'm heading to Ottawa today for Amnesty meetings - I have been told it's now minus
25 Celsius there, so I'm wondering about long johns, scarves and frostbite. Probably I'll have to solve it all with taxis... I think Ottawa is the coldest national capital city on earth - really.
From La Manzanilla, Mexico 2006
The question on my mind:
Some people seem to have a natural affinity for compassion and for feeling
the need to work in some way in their lives for the common good. These
people tend to be tolerant, open-minded and often are able to see the
world in the larger context (one place, one people). Many people don't
have a natural affinity for this - the range of perspectives is from
hateful and bigoted to apathy to fearful or to just plain too busy to
care much. There are other colours on the spectrum too...
There - I've simplified humanity so much that my blog should be closed down. (Maybe it is in China!)
Do you think people can be educated or influenced to shift towards compassion, openness and concern/passion for the common good? If so, how?
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Four quiet minutes...
If you have a few minutes and no distractions, take a deep breath or two and have a look/listen.
Thanks Callooh
Thanks Callooh
A poem across the dateline...
My son Ryan is now travelling in Asia. I asked him for a poem for my blog. Here it is (he's in Bangkok until tomorrow).
Pineapple Salad
Walked in humid heat on humming street,
So many old white men with young Thai hookers
The hookers wild eyed and laughing,
The old white men sour and sad like weeping lemon curds.
I saw a girl with eyes like fire.... face fair like soft clouds.
I ate a salad served in half a pineapple for dinner
And now my legs are like mythology;
No one remembers why Thor's hammer was so strange.
Pineapple Salad
Walked in humid heat on humming street,
So many old white men with young Thai hookers
The hookers wild eyed and laughing,
The old white men sour and sad like weeping lemon curds.
I saw a girl with eyes like fire.... face fair like soft clouds.
I ate a salad served in half a pineapple for dinner
And now my legs are like mythology;
No one remembers why Thor's hammer was so strange.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
A peaceful evening...
From Banksy, a wonderful artist in the UK (known for graffiti)...(Click to see larger - please do!)
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
The times they are a changin...
Our driveway early one morning...
I plan to keep blogging into 2007 and hope to put up things of interest here. Of course, visiting your blog now and then is also a priority. However, it promises to be a year of endings and beginnings for me - which will be time consuming, stressful ... and interesting.
In this year, we will be selling our home in The Middle Road Community and moving into Nelson. We'll be moving separately as our marriage is in transition. Both kids will be away this winter - our son is now travelling in Asia and New Zealand and our daughter is off to Spain on a student exchange soon. My term as Chair of Amnesty comes up and I'm still pondering the big decision of running again - or not. To top it off, I'm trying to change my consulting business - to work less and take only projects of compelling interest. Whew!
And of course, there's still Iraq, climate change, Darfur, defeating Stephen Harper...and eating, sleeping, shovelling snow (lots of it) and so on.
Life is interesting. I love the teachings of Epictetus - a few of the key tenets are:
- Know what you can control and what you cannot.
- Make full use of what happens to you.
- Never surpress a generous impulse.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
It's 2007!
It's soon going to be too late to wish a Happy New Year...just how long is that good for anyhow?
We had our annual Middle Road Community talent show and party on New Year's Eve. I usually take part in a skit or two, then provide the fireworks. This year we celebrated on Manitoba time so that the fireworks would be a couple of hours early, for little kids to get home to their warm beds and for the teenagers, abandoning our tame party for their wilder ones. Some of the wilder adults danced until 3:00 am (real time). I was asleep by 1:00 (in bed, not on the dance floor).
I'm still here and will post something intelligent soon (well... you can judge). In the meantime, a little winter humour.
We had our annual Middle Road Community talent show and party on New Year's Eve. I usually take part in a skit or two, then provide the fireworks. This year we celebrated on Manitoba time so that the fireworks would be a couple of hours early, for little kids to get home to their warm beds and for the teenagers, abandoning our tame party for their wilder ones. Some of the wilder adults danced until 3:00 am (real time). I was asleep by 1:00 (in bed, not on the dance floor).
I'm still here and will post something intelligent soon (well... you can judge). In the meantime, a little winter humour.
Click to view larger.
