I know I've said it before but the weeks here just drift by nicely and it's only Walking Street that punctuates the time. Each Thursday, Mae Nam comes alive with all sorts of stalls and people, otherwise it's just, as one local described it, a "bit like Beirut", empty! But each Thursday it's good to wander into the Firestation bar and be greeted by the expats and have a why why and a chat.
But on the subject of why why there have been a couple of abject lessons on the demon drink in the last couple of days. I was quite happily sitting in Jordan's Sports Bar last night (I know, but their wiffy is fast...) catching up with Dragon's Den Xmas Special and tucking into bbq ribs when an altercation broke out. A very drunk Austrian or German lady had taken exception to the guy running the French restaurant across the street, (WW2 revisited...), following which a physical fight broke out. Interestingly, the insults being traded were all in their second language, English... All in all, not a pretty sight.... And then today, one of the waiters who was here last time I stayed here had been absent for a while and re appeared today, proudly showing off the huge scar on his leg. He had had an altercation with the road after coming off his motorbike after driving home on New Year's Eve after the party here and a few too many Singha's. Bad anywhere but in the absence of anything resembling sick pay here, he has had to take the time off as his holidays. With the new minimum wage of only £6 a day, even one day off must be hard to manage.
So with these two examples I was ready to sign the pledge. But off course Carole is now on her way, and so far has taunted me with texts about drinking champagne in the BA lounge. That will be a distant memory when she arrives, but the least I can do is to steer her in the direction of the odd why why, so my signing of the pledge will just have to wait...
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