things that make me happy

sometimes I like to complain. but today, for a change, I thought i'd share a few happy things. and i'll put it in bullet point form because bullet points also make me happy!

• I went to Stars on Ice last week (yay!) and at the end of the show Kurt Browning shook my hand (YAY!!!). i practically knocked over the two little old ladies next to me in my eagerness. I wanted to tell him that i'd been coming to the show for 20 years, but couldn't utter a single word; i just shook his hand frantically while grinning like an idiot. but maybe that's ok, because when i went through my collection of Stars on Ice programs from over the years (obsessive nerd), i realized that this was only year 19. so next year i'll have to tell him :) yes, i get just as giddy and awestruck now as i did in 1994.
• i'd been brushing up on my French lately so that i could take a "second language evaluation" at work. i was very stressed about the 45 minute oral test. I took it 2 weeks ago, on a day i was really sick, and.... I got the marks i needed, yippee! so now I've been upgraded to a bilingual employee, which means a teensy bit more money, and hopefully more opportunities. way to go, me.
• i am in love with ataulfo mangos. they are sooooooo delicious and less than a buck each at superstore. yumyumyum!
• we finally had some nice weather and the weekend was beautiful! i sat outside in our backyard for the first time since moving in 6 months ago, drinking a beer and reading a book in the sunshine. so content!
• my 3 year old niece came for a sleepover and we had tons of fun doing arts & crafts and baking. plus, she is just too adorable when she's asleep. when she cuddled up to me and held my hand, i thought my heart was going to explode.

that's it for now. nothing over the top exciting, no jaw-dropping updates, just some simple things that make me smile.

the flu

vomirreah. that's the awful new word i've coined.

i'm sick. not as sick as yesterday, and a thousand times better than the day before, but sick nonetheless. monday at around 330, i started to feel nauseous. i thought i was just getting nervous about the oral french exam i had to take for work the next day. but after throwing up 4 times, i decided even my own delicate nerves wouldn't cause that big of a reaction. my mom picked me up from work to drive me home because i didn't think i could handle the 30 minute bus ride. as it turns out, i couldn't handle the 15 minute car ride either. we had to pull over half way so that i could throw up out the side of the car. how gross.

upon getting home i threw up several more times, then curled up under three blankets with a bucket beside my bed. the next 4 hours were pretty terrible, and i will spare you the gruesome details. i didn't leave my room until the next morning, when i somehow managed to get up and go to work to take the french test. maybe that was a bad idea as i definitely wasn't at my best, but i jst wanted to get it over with. as soon as it was done i left work and went to my mom's where i feel asleep for several hours.

things have improved. i'm no longer vomiting or any of that other gross stuff. but that's just because i haven't really been able to eat anything. a couple of bowls of chicken broth and some toast. i've dropped 8 pounds in the last two days, just because my body has purged itself of all contents! today i'm just lazing about the house with a terrible headache. i have to walk super slowly because each step causes pounding and my vision blackens.

i hope i feel like myself again soon. this sucks.

snow and stupid

ugh. today is not exactly off to an auspicious start. for one, it's snowing. AGAIN. it's april 21st, and it's snowing. come one! am i ever going to get a chance to enjoy my new backyard? afternoon drinks on our sunny deck, evenings sitting around the firepit... sigh... not to be realized anytime soon.

this morning i got up around 830, shuffled downstairs in my housecoat and slippers, and put on a pot of coffee. i plunked myself down at the table to go through the newspaper and do the crossword. my usual routine. as i was drowsily flipping pages, i heard i tinkling noise. huh. i wonder what that is, i thought, continuing to flip. tinkle tinkle drip drip. is the tap on? finally i come out of my sleepy fog enough to consider that something may not be right in the kitchen. sure enough, the coffee maker is pouring coffee straight down onto the element, cascading over the counter and onto the floor. the pot sits empty off to the side. and oh, fantastic, the drawer beneath was slightly ajar so a cups worth of coffee has also poured in all over the cutlery. oy.

yup, today definitely has the makings of a day when i should just laze on the couch, avoid the miserable weather, and not undertake any complicated tasks (like coffee-making!). but i'm off to a birthday brunch at my dad's. gotta go brush the car off. grumble grumble.

Faceless

yup, it's been just over a month since i abandoned facebook. i gave no warning, no countdown to deactivation day, no hoping people would try to convince me to stay. i just left. i'm sure a lot of people haven't even noticed. i'd been thinking about doing it for a while, and finally got around to clicking the button. i haven't gone totally crazy doing the full-on shut down, just the deactivation so that i can go back any time if i so choose. but so far i haven't gone back, and i haven't really been tempted.

my dad asked me why i left, so this is all i have to offer for an answer:

i wasn't doing anything interesting on facebook. i rarely posted my own stuff anymore, and hardly ever left comments on others' pages. but on a daily basis i would scroll through the newsfeed and scan people's updates. the majority of which didn't really matter to me that much. oh, so-and-so is watching the jets game, whatsherface ate the most delicious tacos, someoneorother thinks i should watch a funny youtube vid, it's so LOL. blah blah. i'm not saying i had anything better to write, my status updates were completely mundane. but i was hooked on checking the newsfeed. not even out of interest, just out of boredom. 10 minutes with nothing to do on the bus? i'll look at facebook. commercial break? i'll open facebook.

but worse than that, my use of facebook made me feel like i was maintaining friendships and being a part of peoples' lives, even though i totally wasn't. why don't my friends' kids recognize me? i've been around since they were born and i've seen them grow up! oh, no i haven't, i've just seen photos of them growing up. i want to talk to people again! i want to catch up over a coffee or a beer, not peek in on lives through one-line updates. if you want me to come to a social or a party, tell me about it! i'm so much more likely to go than knowing you just clicked "invite all".

my niece took her first steps not long ago. it was posted on facebook, but the first time i saw her walk wasn't on an iphone video, it was in front of my very eyes. of course i watched the video later :)

now i will have to make more of an effort to stay in touch with the people that matter, and hopefully they will do the same for me. i think there's a very good chance i'll go back to facebook down the road, but for now i want to reconnect with my friends. and to do that i had to unfriend them all.

sick thoughts (and probably a misleading title)

i'm at the stage of sick where i sort of feel drunk. do you get that? i do. i can't focus and it's like i'm way down a blurry tunnel and sort of just watching all woozily. look at those fingers typing at the keyboard. i think they're mine!

i don't really remember going home from work yesterday. i remember saying i didn't feel well. and i remember trying not to fall asleep on the bus. and i remember flopping on my bed fully clothed when i got home around 430. i vaguely recall blair asking if i was going to get up, sometime around 7pm, and me mumbling that i should, i just wanted another hour. and then when the hour was up being unable to move, and barely managing to get out of my clothes and into pjs.

all night i dreamt about being asleep and unable to wake up. i dreamt people were trying to rouse me but i was just dead weight and my body kept toppling over and crashing to the ground.

blair called in sick for me in the morning because i could barely put two words together. "work... phone". Sixteen hours after initially falling asleep, i finally got up. i'm mostly sitting or wandering around in a fog. i'm sure i talked to my mom this morning, but that memory is already hazy and dreamlike, even though it was just a few hours ago. i can't remember the details of the conversation.

and now i'm writing this blog, to make sure i'm really awake. it reminds me of a time i sat at an EasyEverything internet cafe in Edinburgh and wrote a drunken email at 2am or so. although right now i am aware enough to correct my spelling mistakes. but i don't feel right. i feel loopy. i'm using lots of will power not to talk gibberish and to keep my thoughts cohesive. otherwise i'd run off on tangents and just say the fragmented bits and pieces in my head. tangents. math class. mrs innes. splinter. david's teenage mutant ninja turtle van. my fingers are cold. i'm too sick to make that bread pudding and we don't even have the milk.

ok, i stopped typing for a long time and just stared. if i was at EasyEverything i would have had to put another couple of pounds in the machine. Do they still have EasyEverythings? And what about Yo Sushi? i liked those beer taps at the table. and what was the name of that alcopop i loved so much? it was clear and grapefruity and so yummy. Something silver. not many pubs had it. The Bank carried it. that was the same place where apparently my phone number was written on a menu. i got a few weird calls....

those fingers on the keyboard don't want to type anymore. only 3 pm, too early to go to bed. time to go stare vapidly at the tv.

for years afflicted; symptoms worsening

my birthday is in less than a week. then i will officially be too old to get a working holiday visa for ireland, france, and a bunch of other places. not that i was planning on uprooting and living abroad for any extended period of time. but now that i realize that option is forever being taken away, it makes me want it! blah blah, the whole wanting what we can't have thing. i'm sure if i could go at any time in my life, i wouldn't be one bit fussed about it. but now my mind if racing - i've only got a few days to apply for that visa or i'll never get to live in france! ARGH!

i'm never going to live in france. accept it, it'll be fine.

i know why they call it the "travel bug". it really is like a disease. so i don't know why people refer to it all cutesy like. "oh, she's got the travel bug, time for a little va-cay!" Ok, thankfully no one has used the annoying and in no way cutesy term va-cay to me. but the travel bug should not be taken lightly! once you've been bitten, you have it for life. and as far as i'm aware, there is no known cure. i contracted it early on, as a young teenager. it's highly addictive, so my condition only worsens over time. i mollify the bug with holidays whenever i can, hoping that a long weekend in vegas will placate it and allow for some restfulness and contentment at home. but the periods of respite grow shorter before withdrawal symptoms set in and i'm in need of a travel fix. i look back at last year - a couple of visits to vancouver, toronto, vegas, 2 weeks in costa rica, not to mention over 3 weeks in thailand - and i'm still jonesing for more!

withdrawal is difficult. i can't focus on anything else except where i'm gonna score my next hit. i hoard money for my next escape. i look at the lonely planet books on my shelf and get lost in flashbacks. i relentlessly explore google earth, zooming in to ogle the details of victoria falls or sigh at the beauty of a remote pacific atoll.

 

 

and like any addiction, i keep pushing for a greater high: something to top the last. come on, i need a fix. whatcha got, whatcha got? you know a little week in mexico ain't gonna do it for me, man! europe? that's for noobs! nah man, nah, i need something with a little more oomph, a little more wow-you're-going-where-awesome, ya know? africa is still my holy grail - anywhere from kenya, tanzania, zambia, botswana, nimibia.... or all of the above! but i'm open to other suggestions.

i'll take what i can get and keep chasing for more. after all, i'm a travel junkie.

The end of an era: a eulogy for our family home

this is it. this is the last night in my house.



thank you google street view :)

no. not just my house. my home. this has been my home since i was born. this is the house my parents bought almost 40 years ago. i've seen the black and white photos of my 20-something parents gutting and rebuilding this house. i've heard the stories of how they went weeks without a toilet, and months without a kitchen. how the whole place was a dusty construction zone as they slowly put together what would become the family home. i recall a photo of my mom chilling out reading the newspaper, a roomful of debris around her. she was nestled in a yet to be connected bathtub, as that was the only place to sit.

this place is rife with memories for me. i can remember the back fence being built, which happened when i was only three years old. at four, i remember sneaking a peek at my chanukah presents and then gluing the paper back together to hide my treachery. shockingly, my mom caught on. another act of rebellion at the same age was colouring with my orange crayon on the oak newel post. i really thought the colour matched so well that my artistry would go unnoticed. it didn't, and i was busted yet again.

everywhere i look in this house, i see moments from my past.

the grate at the foot of the main stairs: four year old amanda crouches down and shouts through to the basement "daddy! i'm up here! i can hear you!" hearing my dad's disembodied voice and knowing i'm equally audible yet invisible makes me feel so sneaky!

the vent to the basement, and the orange crayoned newel post (you can still see the crayon from up close)

the front deck: 6 or 7 years old, and i'm leaning over the edge and pretending i'm way high up on a mountain, the blades of grass in the lawn actually a forest miles and miles below. i dangle dangerously over the precipice, using superhuman strength to pull myself back up from the brink of death. sometimes, i used to crawl underneath the porch with our dog Rozz, listening to the rain hit the boards above, and imagining we were hiding out in a dark cave.

the front fence: a driver smashed through and totalled it. all the kids on the street have gotten together for a photo in front of the rubble. but 4 year old amanda is too shy and sits on daddy's shoulders while he takes the picture.

the living room, sometimes the dining room: age 3 and all the kids from the block have come to my birthday party where my parents have rented a projector and are showing cartoons on a big hanging sheet. oh, and this is where i was playing tea when i tripped and hit my face on the table, giving me the scar i have today. but mostly this room is filled the sounds of a roaring fire, laughter, and happy chatter. there we are - me, mom, daddy, and jennie - kneeling around the glass table, playing Fun City, eating chips and a now discontinued dill and chive dip, with the snow falling gently outside. oh, the warmth and the love is so palpable, even though this scene was 25 years ago!

moving on to the dining room, sometimes living room: eating angel food cake with whipped cream and raspberries, yum! little rachel and andrea are there, my friends at age 6, and my friends to this day. passover dinners throughout the years, a slew of friends and loved ones filling the seats around the table, eating, drinking, singing. oh, memories from all over now. all three of us kids trying to play horsey with my dad, his poor back! jennie blatantly breaking pencil crayons under the table and saying she didn't do it. a trail of dog food leading away from the dish and david noshing away on the kibbles under the table. eating "dog poo" (brownies) and "elephant toenails" (garlic bread) at my fright night party. mom is such a trooper!

angel food cake was a birthday must

the backyard: climbing on the roof of the tool shed and cloudgazing. jumping off into the giant snowdrifts after the blizzard of '86! helping my mom in the garden and wishing she didn't have to plant those yucky tomatoes. just carrots and peas and cucumbers please! yup, 30 years ago on these steps i sat and shared a cucumber with my dad, straight out of the ground. i've never tasted better.

the room i'm in now wasn't always the computer room. it was my first bedroom, back when it had pink carpet and panda bear wallpaper. there used to be a colourful translucent butterfly sticker on the window. i thought it was the most beautiful sticker ever. just behind me was my bed, and if i turn around... there i am cuddling with mom in our matching snoopy nighties. so cozy and safe and happy. a few years later and there are two single beds pushed together. now i have a matching smurfette nightie with my little sister jennie, and we both cuddle with mom at bedtime. my mind moves on and now the crib is in here, with baby david asleep as mom rocks the crib.

my parents' room: bouncing on their bed, of course! when i was very little, my dad would lay on his back with his leg in the air and i'd try to climb up it. then he'd swing it around and i'd eventually fall off. that fun game was called "tree". even though jennie and i slept in the same room with beds pushed together, we used to like to have sleepovers on the floor of my parents' room. we'd lay down pillows and duvets and it felt like camping. other times we'd just squeeze into the recliner together and sleep there. baby david had fun jolly jumping here... while we dressed him up in girlie clothes and lace babushkas.

playing dress up is fun!

i haven't even gone to the third floor yet. more rooms, more nostalgia. and these were just my childhood years! there's the last decade i haven't even touched on. backyard bonfires and drinks with friends, hours and hours of continuous rock band with my siblings. i would be writing all through the night if i tried to capture it all. family and friends have all passed through at some point, and i myself have come and gone from this house over the years. but i've always come back.

there are years of memories here - both good times and bad. and now i have to say goodbye to it all. the worst of it is that the house was sold to a condo developer who is going to tear it all down. it won't just be gone from my life, it will razed from the face of the earth. i want to hug the house - the whole thing - and cry and tell it i love it because it feels like a part of me. but i have to remember it is just a house. the stories and memories don't get torn down when the wrecking ball comes. my family will keep those alive.

our lives in a pile of boxes. where will we put it all??

this last week i've been so aware of all the "last"s. this is my last weekend in osborne village. this is the last time i'll walk to work. this is the last time i'll run across to safeway for that last minute somethingorother. this is the last morning i'll be able to walk to my boot camp. this is the last time we'll walk to our favourite burrito place. this is the last time i'll hear church bells in the morning. this is the last time i'll sleep in my room. this is it. it's over.

i'm crying again. i can't help it. i have to let go. i have to stop focusing on the end of one thing and remind myself that it's the start of something new.

i can look forward to inviting my family to dinner in my brand new house. i will enjoy summer bbqs on our lovely patio. we can have backyard bonfires and drinks with friends, once again. i will have an extra bedroom ready for sleepovers with my niece. we are strarting fresh. photos and knickknacks will go up, and it will slowly become ours.

tonight is my last night in my beloved norquay.

tomorrow will be the first night in my new home.

new adventures and memories to come....

CSI: manders' house

So our house was broken into today. The last cop just left and I'm tired.


I could tell from the street that there'd been a break in. Sixth sense? Keen intuition? Fine attention to detail? Yes, all of those. Oh, and the fact that the storm window had been removed and was now sitting next to a gaping hole in the side of the house, with only a few shards clinging to the pane where a 3' x 5' window once was.

Inside, the living room was strewn with broken glass. Nice day out, I thought, as a pleasant breeze came through the hole in the wall. I looked around and didn't see anything major missing. Our two bikes, just a few feet away, were still there. The xbox, right next to the window, also still in its place. Heavy and awkward old tube tv that no one would or could steal, yup, still there looking heavy and awkward on it's tv stand. I ran upstairs and the computer was still there, along with another heavy/awkward/old tube tv. I guess it was just vandalism. I called the cops and made a report. That was that.

I did some sleuthing about and quickly pieced together the events of the crime. An old broom that was outside was laying on the porch, the handle damaged. A large planter had been moved. I noticed scratches around the butterfly nut thingies that held the storm window. Inside, there was some sand and dirt. Clearly they used the broom handle to bash the nuts into the open position and take off the outer window. They weren't expecting such a thick plate glass on the other side, and had to smash it open with the hefty planter, getting sand inside when it broke through. Then... they must've been scared off or interrupted and ran off without coming in. Case closed!

Until I noticed a green recyclable bag sitting near the front door. Inside i saw a pile of video games, our point and shoot camera and an ipod. Huh. Neither Blair nor I put that bag there... case re-opened!

I looked around again. Going to where the green bag came from, i discovered that a bottle of rum was missing. Upstairs, my old broken Nokia flip phone (don't ask me why i hadn't just tossed it out) was gone from my bedside table. Blair told me my closet had been completely ransacked... but I had to admit that that was just my mess. Strangest of all was in the computer room, where an unknown shoe now sat atop a bookshelf. I called the cops back and they arranged to have someone come.

A very nice constable came out and dusted for fingerprints, getting one good print off of a video game. Blair and I got fingerprinted to, in order to make sure it wasn't ours, how fun!

We're still trying to figure out what all was taken, but it seems like it could have been way worse. Blair had a couple of watches stolen, as a fair chunk of change from his toonie bin. I found my broken useless phone in the bag of loot that our incompetent robber forgot at the front when he exited the back. Also a few cans of beer had been moved to the back porch but also got left behind. I have no idea where the shoe came from or why it was left on the top of our bookshelf. The constable bagged it and took it away (just to throw it out, but i like to imagine it's going to the lab to get analyzed).

We now have a very ghetto plywood window. But I suppose I should look at the bright side. At least it's not January, brrr!

P.S. I threw out our toothbrushes... I know those stories are just urban legends, but you just can't be too careful!

thailand highlights

seeing as i didn't get another chance to write while i was away, i'm just going to have to pick a few highlights, so as not to ramble on for pages. but how to choose from the plethora of wonderful options?
after leaving bangkok, we flew south and went to the swanky le meridien resort at khao lak. the pool was amazing, it went on forever! it was so big it had little islands built in it. and it was one of those cool infinity pools where the water goes right over the edge. there was another large pool with waterslides too. fun! of course there was also a beautiful beach that we strolled along.

it was sweltering during the days so we just laid by the pool, swimming now and then to refresh ourselves after getting woozy from the heat. at night we walked along the beach, crossed a small inlet of water that went up mid-calf, and found a very cute little beach reastaurant on the other side where we enjoyed some pad thai. on the way back the tide had come in, making our easy wade across the inlet a shorts-soaking endeavour. and at night the beach was crawling with crabs! it freaked us out.



crap, i'm just going chronologically, it's so hard to skip stuff! but i'd better.

favourite part of the wedding: when everyone went outside after dinner and lit lanterns that floated up and filled the night sky. so pretty!

the islands: after the wedding we went to railay beach, ko lanta, and ko phi phi. railay and ko phi phi are incredible. the karst cliffs jutting up into the sky, the emerald and turquoise waters on golden and white sand beaches, rows of longboats floating serenely on their tethers. every view a postcard! it was impossible not to feel awestruck at the beauty.

on ko phi phi we took a boat tour that included a stop at maya beach - made famous by the movie "the beach". never have i seen water as clear, or felt sand as soft and fine. my words could never capture its perfection. well, it would have been perfection if not for all those lousy tourists crowding it :) ko phi phi at night (at least the town part) is nuts. it's basically just one big drunken party for 20 somethings, with people drinking "buckets" of booze. even when i was there as a 20 something, it was too much for me, so now at 35, it really wasn't my scene. ko lanta was much more laid back. although the scenery wasn't as majestic, we had a super fun time. we rented a scooter for 24 hrs and just scooted around, exploring the island. past beaches and stores and resorts, and little shanty homes with children and chickens running around out front.

chaing mai: flew north for new scenery. although the temperature was still in the high 30s, there wasn't the unbearable humidity. stayed at Libra Guesthouse, same place i'd stayed at back in 2002. one of the women who owns the place remembered me! it was amazing, i felt so special and was immediately glad i'd decided to stay there again. given the time frame, and that we were also traveling with blair's parents, we decided on a pack-it-all-into-10-hours day trip. this included a fairly terrifying 45 minutes or so on an elephant. i've been on an elephant a few times now, so the size didn't scare me. it was the fact that the guide had jumped off and was no where to be seen, and our elephant was walking dangerously close to the edge of the trail, and there was a sheer drop just inches from its feet. we followed that with my favourite part - some fabulous hiking. we clambered over rocks, inched along fallen trees, and maneuvered along narrow and steep paths, all through absolutely gorgeous scenery. unfortunately, because i needed both hands for much of the way, i wasn't able to get photos of the most stunning views. finally, white water and bamboo rafting to finish the day.



sigh... so much for a brief entry of highlights. i think this may need to be a two parter. the remainder of our time in chaing mai was also fun. we took a thai cooking class and made delicious food, including curry paste from scratch. got lost in the endless night bazaar, where i bought a couple of t-shirts and pashminas. ate at a tiny 4 table restaurant and had possibly my favourite meal of the trip, a soup called khao soi. cocounut milk, curry, tofu, noodles, a pile of vegetables... my mouth is watering just thinking of it. yum!

and on that note, i think i will wrap up this long-winded entry. i guess it's just not possible for me to remain laconic when reminiscing about such a wonderful place. i will write about the rest of the trip later!

Bangkok - take two

Back in Bangkok, a decade after my first visit. Traveling with an actual suitcase this time around, not a backpack full of wrinkled clothes! To go along with my grownup luggage, I am also staying at a real hotel instead of a guesthouse, and eating at restaurants, not just street carts. Consequently, I have spent more money in 2 days than i did in 2 weeks as a backpacker. But don't worry, i'm not a real grown up, i'm just playing one right now. And although it definitely has some perks (air conditioning and towels in the room, but no cockroaches), it's not really me. I rarely spend $50 on a meal in Winnipeg, why on earth would i want to spend that here, when I can eat well for a tenth of that, or less?

Anyhoo, getting sidetracked.

After 30+ hours of travel, we finally landed in Bangkok. Hurrah for being off of a crowded plane!!... and into a crowded street. at least we can stretch our legs. Given that we were running off a few hours sleep and it was after 1am when we got to our hotel, i figured we'd be heading off to bed. But Bangkok had other plans for us. First we had a beer with the rest of the crew (we're here for a wedding) in the lobby of the hotel. Ok, close to 2am, definitely bed time, right? Nope, off to have some street food down the block. So a dozen of us sat on little plastic stools, crowded around little metal tables, at a makeshift restaurant on the side of the road. At night all these "restaurants" pop up. They don't exist during the day, they just wheel up carts with all their gear and set up shop on the sidewalks. Food and afterhour beers cluttered the tables. The streets teemed with people and cars like it was rushhour. At 4am, the streets still bustling, we finally made our way back to the hotel, where I gratefully collapsed in bed.

Aside: we're staying in Chinatown and it is totally bringing back memories. I keep wanting to speak Mandarin to the street vendors!

Aside #2: We have this weird 4 post bed with a railing around it and you have to crawl in through an opening at the foot of the bed. It's quite inconvenient, especially when you're disoriented and need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Oy, taking too long to write this, as usual. Will start to condense and give highlights only.

Day 1. River taxi to grand palace - just like the first time i was here. i specifically wore long shorts and a shirt with shoulders because i knew those were the rules for the temple. but apparently my mid-calf length shorts were just shy of long enough. so i was told to pull them down. "Elastic, no problem" says the security guy. so i wiggle them down until i felt like a skater kid with my Calvins showing. Luckily my shirt was long enough to keep me respectful. the palace was just as grand as i remember. the weather a bit hotter than i remember.

On to Khao San Rd. Backpacker central. cheap t-shirts and kitschy souvenirs to your heart's content. Sat and had a beer that went straight to my head in ther 36 degree heat.  We caught up with the rest of the gang at the fish pedicure place, and with a slight buzz I was convinced to immerse my feet in a tank full of hungry fishies who eagerly nibbled away at dead skin. Yes, totally gross. which is why I freaked out for the first 2 minutes. and then i got used to the tingling sensation - like my legs were asleep - and actually enjoyed it. 15 minutes later, my feet have never felt so soft!! Wandered down and watched some amazing street dancers. seriously, do they have a So You Think You Can Dance Thailand? they were flipping around and spinning on their heads, right on the pavement! Didn't buy any souvenirs yet, too early.

Dinner at fancy restaurant. Lucky we got there alive after thrilling (and surely dangerous) tuk tuk ride. Zipped through the streets at about 80 km/hr, weaving in and out of all that lame-o 4 wheeled traffic. Woohoo!!!

Ok, gotta hurry, beers waiting downstairs!

Day 2: stagette. wandered through a market full of almost dead fish and veggies and fruit and pig snouts and other goodies. Went to cooking class where, thankfully, they did most of the cooking. mango and sticky rice - YUM!!!! singing and beers and fruit carving and eating, so much fun! i carved a melon flower, and carrot and cucumber leaves. i'm proud.

Ok, those beers won't drink themselves. More Thailand updates to come!!