Enjoy with one-stop for all your groceries

I thought friends from overseas might like to know what everyday things look like.

You all know what temples and tropical beaches look like, don't you?  So when you close your eyes and think of me in Thailand you might get a whiff of that context... palm trees, reclining Buddhas possibly the more edgy among you imagine a hot chick gyrating around a silver pole* and the ubiquitous Bangkok traffic.

Unsurprisingly my life rarely contains any of these things, however the supermarket aisles you see above are a (at least) bi-weekly feature of my life.  This is my local supermarket - Villa, a chain known for being reasonably well stocked with the more western type produce and organic fresh veg compared to the more typical Thai supermarkets like Tops. It's a decent supermarket but when I say stocked, I use the term loosely as when they run out of something they sometimes replace it with that item, and sometimes with something else.

In fact I think the one thing that I notice about Thailand is the frequency with which things completely disappear off the shelves.  Forever.  Indeed, popularity does not guarantee consistent stocking; it is like they aren't trying to make money but aiming for some other less obvious key performance indicator, like colour coordination

Manager: For fuck's sake stop ordering Tipco White Grape and Kiwi juice will ya? It totally clashes with the Pomegranate and Cranberry.
Stock supervisor: But it is our best selling item!
Manager: I don't care, it throws the whole shelf out - my soul weeps every time I go down aisle five.

Another theory is they follow me around and make notes of the items I get partcularly attached to and consign them to a branch in a far suburb called "Shh Don't Tell Tracy".   Aside from the aforementioned fruit juice this platonic supermarket of my imagination is currently stocking Hormel's Vegetarian Chilli,  the frozen hash browns in the brown box, Lipton Berry Tea (in bottles), chai tea, Fab liquid clothes detergent, Sunsilk Shampoo in the clear blue bottle and the aniseed flavoured Herbal Plax mouthwash with no alcohol.

Enjoy with one stop, my ass.

*Incidentally, from my (limited) experience - Thai go-go dancers don't gyrate like those wildly sexy  acrobatic pole dancers in the movies, they rest one hand on the pole and shuffle from one foot to another looking bored.  And occasionally they toss their hair. 

What's on your mind?

Facebook.

You know I don't really like it?  I did at first.  I played Human Pets (yeah I am weird like that) met lots of new people - bought and sold them, and I loved it.  I also played (fluff) friends (less weird, unless a forty year old feeding pixel bunnies bothers you) met lots of new people - petted their critters, and I loved it.

But now?  Not so much.  Most of the games I enjoyed died and although a few friendships have lingered, without the weirdly addictive activities to support them, they are somewhat mundane.  Which leaves me with the people I actually know and their status updates - and they are just witty ways of telling the world what you did today.  Some people are really good at status updates, and others just seem to use them as a vehicle for psychosis and neurosis.  But either way it is mostly what I did today / saw today, or sadly what my more interesting friend did today / saw today.  Nothing wrong with it, except it is real.  And real isn't always much fun.

Last weekend we rebuilt The Northlands. We had to, we had been hacked and try as we might we couldn't get rid of the malware.  Delete and restart was the only option.  The Northlands had been in a pitiful state (of course I blamed Facebook, and with good reason - most people admit the reason they have stopped posting on discussion boards is because everyone is on Facebook) but the deletion and reconstruction gave us a new lease of life and people have not only re-registered, but started posting.

We have even started RPing again a little.

Ya see on Facebook I can't RP, or I can but I might lose friends... and people would look less comfortable sitting next to me at work, especially with the type of characters I play.

I also can't be quite as silly on Facebook, or as honest, or as creative.  I have to be Public Me, which is such a tiny part of me - and a part I am reduced to most of the time anyway, like at work and on public transport.  In my free time I want more.

The Northlands is more.

I almost gave up you know?  Running a discussion board.  We can't compete with social media... but today I think maybe we can.  Maybe by offering that little bit of an escape, that dice-roll chance to be someone else, possibly someone wicked - to post poems, stories and photographs and have people love them, to use the c-word about someone you work with and have people cheer, to share nothing but the song you are listening to and still be adored, to play games, whisper prayers, swap recipes and tell secrets, and best of all to have the chance to shapeshift  into the animal of your choosing (you know, the one that deep down most expresses who you really are) and leave the human race behind for an hour... maybe that is what will keep us going.

Maybe we can compete with Facebook in a small way, with people who matter.

People who secretly have tails, fur and feathers and who always keep a knife tucked in the folds of their cloak.

If you would like to join The Northlands you will find us here: http://www.thenorthlands.net/forum/

My daily bread

My desk. We are not usually this cramped but we are undergoing a refurbishment which means we are a bit squeezed together and there is very little natural light.

I spend so much of my free time online and now in this new job my work is pretty similar, my manager is in Hong Kong, a colleague in Japan most of the team-working and discussion done by phone, email or
skype. It is a big change after 20 years of very present and embodied teaching and managing.

The devices we use to access our world become increasingly invisible until we photograph them.

Trying to claw my way back

I look back at my blog with so much pleasure and regret having stopped posting.

I has such a consistent record of life Chiang Mai style, I have no idea why that wouldn't work just a well in the rich eventful Bangkok we now live and love in.

Originally technology let me down, my blog was synched automatically through my Sony Ericsson with a particular number and when I lost the number I lost the connection. Re-syncing required a better data package, which I now have, and have had since November 2011. I also have, courtesy of my new job, a very cool Samsung Galaxy SII.

No more excuses, let's get caught up with life in Bangkok in 2012.