MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

I took today off work because it's Christmas. Although it's not widely celebrated in Thailand, but I like to keep that tradition alive. No christmas presents under the tree this year. Living alone does that to you. No santa down the chimney either... that's because I dont have a damn chimney!!! haha

Anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

is it REALLY christmas??

Since it's almost Christmas, I thought that I should start spreading the joy. So.. I'll start that by showing pictures of Christmas trees on display in Thailand. Well.. I'll be showing only 3 or 4 trees cuz I didnt get around to the other ones.

The following trees are displayed in the shopping center area. And I only chose to take pictures of the weird trees. And I took the liberty of naming the trees myself. So here goes....

Title: The Angel That Got Killed By Credit Cards

Can you see the credit cards stuck to the angel's body at the bottom??? This tree is located in front of a high class department store, I'm thinking it's a sign. Shop there during this time and you'll be killed by credit cards just like that angel! And what's with the shape of the angel tree?? Looks more like a dude on stilts about to topple over.

Title: Caged Pink Army Man

Ok, so this picture is tilted... that's because I couldn't fit the tree in the viewfinder and I can't move backwards anymore. haha. I wonder if this tree has anything to do with the new military school movie that just came out. But either way it looks bad.

Title: In The Mind Of A Teenager

This tree is in a shopping center popular amongst teenagers. See how complicated the graphics on the tree is? And that girl with black hair on the tree? I swear my face was permanently like that when I was a teenager. Maybe my face is still like that now. One day I'll move beyond that phrase in life.

Title: Reused Crystals

Last year there was a big buzz about the cost and the design of this tree. It's located next to one of the biggest department store that house LOTS of brand name products. It was rumored that this tree was over 10 million baht (or maybe less... i forget things like that after a year. but it was in the millions)!!!! I guess they want to get their money's worth by using the same tree again this year. I wouldn't be surprised if they use it again next year. And HEY, if they can reuse the tree, I can reuse the picture. (this picture was taken last year, by the way)

Anyway, that's it.

These trees are located in shopping areas. I wonder why the trees in front of hotels are so pretty and perfect. But I guess they wouldn't want to drive away people, or scare them when they come back to the hotel during the night. Trees in Thailand are not all bad. There are many beautiful trees. There's this one tree that was supposed to be a big buzz this year. It's located in front of the newly renovated department store. It's rumored to be the biggest tree in South East Asia!!! Although, I think it would look better if the background wasn't construction workers and debris.

"It Started When My Wife Cooks"

I am no man. And I definitely do not have a wife. The blog title is the unofficial title that I gave to the story my brother wrote for creative writing class. He had his own title but I refuse to use it. So... I was lying in bed last night debating with myself whether I should include an excerpt from his story, or shorten it so that the ending can be read.

I decided to include an excerpt instead... just to be mean.

She had never cooked for him – not once - in their four years of marriage.
"Um…what are you doing?" Stan asked, confused.
"What does it look like, darl? I'm making you breakfast."
Stan stood there at the doorway. Was this the same person he'd been living with for the past four years?
He remembered her telling him once, how she'd rather divorce him than to become a housewife. And although the idea of divorcing seemed tempting at times, he didn't think putting 'does not cook' would look good on official forms. Plus, it didn't matter to him at the end of the day – when night fell. She was a master of the arts.
"There you go. A meal made from love." She placed the array of dishes in front of him, eagerly waiting for his response.
Did she just say…'love'? Recently, it seemed as if the matter was a taboo in normal conversations, and was to be immediately replaced by such topic as 'tax returns' and 'retirement funds'. They both agreed sweet words were to be used sparingly and definitely not during the day - it wouldn't be special during the night. And although he didn't like the idea, there wasn't much room to accommodate for his thoughts. He stared at her.
"What?"
"Nothing. Just that…I love you." He smiled.
"You haven't even tasted the food yet, darling."
He looked down at the food. "What's that?"
"Madeleines."
"You can cook…um…"
"It's French."
"I was going to say 'since when?'."
"You're thinking too much. And I'm still waiting for you to taste it. Maybe you could pack some for work."
He took a bite from the golden pastry. "Oh my god. It's delicious!"
"You think so?" She grinned.
"Yeah! You should cook more often!"
"Well, if you like it this much now, can't wait to see how much fun we can have with them tonight." She gave a suggestive wink.
He took another glorious bite. It was as if his marriage had become more meaningful all of a sudden. As much as he wanted to know how it came to be, experience had told him not to interfere with his wife's train of thought. Especially now that everything was almost perfect.
She turned to him, smiling.
Almost.
Stan knew he wasn't depressive or antisocial, but when people smiled constantly at him, it was just annoying – to the point he would have convulsions. All the doctors he visited concluded that it was nothing out of the ordinary, and he never took it more seriously than just that. Nothing bad ever came from it.
Maybe that was the reason he was attracted to her in the first place. It was true their mutual craving for sexual pleasure also made them compatible, but he knew there were other solutions - three hundred dollars wasn't a bad price for a night with one of the Swedish girls down at the red light district.
But her smile – or to be more precise – the lack of it.
When he was dating her, she would only occasionally slip a discrete smile after their wild night. It made him feel special. And even though she never smiled during the day, the look on her face at nightfall reassured his ego.
She was still smiling.
Stan tried to divert his attention away, but every time he caught a glimpse of her, she would be looking at him with that grin on her face. He started feeling suffocated. He looked at the clock.
Only 7 minutes left.
He closed his eyes. The thoughts of his dead-end job and incompetent co-workers came to mind. He could already see himself at his office, slaving away in his tiny cubicle until he retired. He chuckled at how ridiculously miserable he was. It calmed him down a bit.
He opened his eyes. She was now sitting across from him – her face unchanged.
"What's wrong, hun?" she asked.
He turned to the clock.
6 minutes left.
He stared at the second hand crawling around the white platter. Looking from the corner of his eyes, she was like a wax model – unmoving, unchanging, just smiling. He was no longer sure whether she was looking at him or not, not that it mattered. He started feeling his neck pulsating.
20 seconds passed.
He started fidgeting with his tie. His palms, moist from his sweat, took out the car keys, holding them intently. His muscles became tense.
"What's wrong, hun?" she repeated herself.
He walked out of the house.

Driving to work with Michael Bublé on the radio, he regained control of his head. He laughed at himself, at how he almost lost his head to his wife, someone who he never thought could provoke him in that way. 'Maybe I'm imagining things.'

The END!!! NOT!!! but that's it for now. If anyone wants to read more then leave me a msg or smth and I'll email and whatnot. I gotta ask the writer first (aka. my brother).

Elephant's Foot

Every morning when I'm getting dressed, I will turn on the TV to have the news broadcast in the background. Today, the newscaster picked up an article from the newspaper that sounds very interesting.

In Thailand, there's a saying that goes "ผู้ชายเป็นช้างเท้าหน้า ผู้หญิงเป็นช้างเท้าหลัง" which means men are like an elephant's front legs while women are like an elephant's hind legs. Normally the interpretation would be - men are the leaders and women are followers -, correcto??
WRONG!!!! Apparently, this saying started during erm.... long time ago... and according to the laws at that time, women have more power than men... BUT i'm not gonna get into the laws and rules and stuff. boring.
This is what's interesting. In reality, when an elephant walks, their hind leg moves before their front leg! True story! The person who wrote this article actually consulted with an official from the ... erm... animal reserves(?), and a researcher, and they actually spent days looking at the way elephants walk and observed that the hind legs actually lead the front legs. (i used the word 'actually' alot haven't i??)

So you see, not everything is as it seems!! This just goes to show that no matter how wrongly you interpret something, in the end, the truth always prevails. WOMEN RULES!