Expat Blues May 31, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure , add a comment
On May 31st Tik and I went to see the amateur dramatic comedy ‘Expat Blue’ at the Novotel Lotus hotel in Bangkok.
Tickets cost about 1,500 baht each and included a comprehensive buffet dinner before the show began. We’d have not known about this at all if it hadn’t been for a friend of ours spotting a mention of it in the newspaper.
It’s rare to find live plays in Bangkok and we were keen to support them. Having lived in Bangkok for nearly 7 years now and having spent pretty much all my free time with Tik for the last 4 years it’s important for us to look for different things to occupy us.
I didn’t have expecially high expectations for Expat Blue but both Tik and I were very impressed with it. Comedic aspects touch on truisms that myself and probably every expat here has comment on in frustration at times. Sketches included the farcial life of the high-society expat wives here, the Sukumvit Road tourist area that, due to vendors, elephants, touts, a completely ridiculous cycle lane that runs right through the center of the already-slim pavement is nearly impossible to walk along.
The show made both of us laugh out loud at many times. Nearly every joke hit home as something relevant to me and Tik probably fely very assured that it uisn’t jsut me who pokes fun at Thailand life.
The only thing that we really did not like was the blue transvestite character (see photo) that served at compere for the show. The character was annoying, humorless and, if you were Hindu quite insulting. It seems that the acress playing the character must have iniststed in using her trademark character as part of the play and by the erscond act I could feel my blood pressure rising when one act finished and she returned to the stage.
A newspaper preview of Expat Blue can be found here.
10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion May 30, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Thailand , add a commentI’m a proud atheist, and whilst I apologize if this article offends you, I really felt it deserved some publicity. It’s a very eloquent summary of why religion fails us.
Kudos to Steve Pavlina, the article writer. The article is perhaps a little over-confrontational but it’s refreshing to see a person with an excellent reputation risk the wrath of his religious readers on being so down-to-earth. I enjoy reading articles like this that perhaps give agnostics something to think about. It is written with some subtle sarcasm in it which might make some readers feel the article’s exaggerated but I expect controversy is going to bring a lot of publicity to his site.
I really do feel that a lot of people are beginning to question religion. Articles like this help people to gain confidence in their questioning of religion.
I was also very pleasantly surprised that, despite Steve’s forum receiving 190 posts about this one article, only a handful of these posts came from any offended religionists (I wonder if any posts got deleted though). The forum members were refreshingly open to this article.
I wonder if we’re now a part of a more analytical generation which is no longer prepared to accept doctrines for the hell of it (pun intended).
Here’s a link to Steve’s Full Article
A Quick Update May 13, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Miscellaneous , add a commentIt’s about time I updated this site a little so today I’ve upgraded Wordpress, added a flickr widget, added links to my flickr account and I’ve revised the theme a little.
The site’s not quite as pretty as I’d like but it’s not a big priority now. I do plan to add some more updates over the next few weeks though.
My First Underwater Shot May 8, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Thailand , add a comment
After destroying our old camera when we capsized our kayak in Koh Mak we splashed out (pun intended) on a waterproof version. This was the first shot I took. It wasn’t taken intentionally (I was trying to photograph Tik’s face but i didn’t have my goggles on). It reflects the hours of fun I’m going to have with this new toy though.
March Brides Party May 8, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Friends, Leisure , add a comment
Tik and I hosted our first big party at our condo.
Before we got married last year Tik got in contact with a group of Thais who were also getting married in March 07. The group were part of a Thai wedding website called Wedding Square and the participants discussed the preparations for their wedding there.
We’ve kept in touch with most of these people and have been invited to two parties in the last few months.
This time we invited everybody over to our place.
Neither Tik nor I are big drinkers, we don’t have a TV and liked the challenge of keeping a large group of people entertained without relying on beer and TV. Throughout the party there were about 6 couples.
The party was a great success, we’d hoped to have a few games of tennis here but a short spell of rain made the court too wet. Most of the time we stayed in the condominium, playing card games, eating lots of food and talking.
As only a few of our Thai friends speak confident English, it’s a great opportunity to practice my speaking and listening skills and the guests were all friendly and great fun.
We ended the day in the pool where we had the opportunity to test out our new waterproof camera.