That's some serious savings!

During the floods there has been the continual worry about criminals/burglars etc... a recent case has caught the headlines here in Thailand.

Fair play the police actually caught the thieves who had burgled the house of a permanent secretary of transport, he was caught with 2m baht on him.

The thing is... the burglar confessed to actually making off with about 200mm baht (GBP5mm USD7mm) call me overly suspicious i f you want but...

1. Who keeps that amount of money at home in cash?
2. How many civil servants in the UK or US even have that much money saved away from their earnings, let alone a Thai civil servant who should be on about GBP1-2k a month.

As an aside how did the burglar get caught?

If I stole that much cash, all you'd see is my backside disappearing over the horizon never to be seen again.

More on this story below

THE NATION: NACC begins probe into Suphoth case

THE NATION: Another suspect in Suphoth case contacts police

BANGKOK POST: Suspect to surrender, with B9m

BANGKOK POST: Khao Sod Comment

Goodbye to old friends

Today the world is a darker place as two of my heroes departed me. Both tragically taken from us too soon.

Although both orbited totally different worlds they encapsulated the same for me.

Graham Dilley who's name I had not spoken or heard for years, was a hero of my youth. Tall and blonde he was taken straight from the pages of a Greek classic. I suppose it is Headingly where he first came to the fore but it is also the following summers of my youth where his sporting deeds are also etched all over.

The other Steve Jobs, the absolute opposite of a heroic figure to some; especially now that Apple bestrides the world like a behemoth.
But I remember him from when he was the little man fighting the against the odds, against the mediocrity and dullness that others were so happy with. The way we see our world has been shaped by his genius and foresight.

Seemingly polar opposites, but to me both represent the need to never give up whatever the odds.

The Deck Amorosa @ Arun Residence

Wouldn't bother, 5 star prices but 1 star service and food.

My friends were observing the vegetarian festival and ordered food accordingly, this is what happened with their order.

First out of the kitchen was a vermicelli noodle dish with a fresh river prawn on top, next out came a bamboo root salad with sausages hidden in it, after that was a replacement dish we hadn't even ordered (maybe this was a subtle signal from the chef!) lastly arrived a vegetable lasagne which should have been a rigatoni but the biggest problem with this vegetarian lasagne was the minced meat lining the layers of pasta.

So while the rest of us ate our decidedly average fair, (my signature "deck sandwich" lived up to the restaurant's standards by being a limp, tasteless serving of cold processed meats from CP in between some stale day old bread.) our friends had to wait another 40mins before their food arrived.

Thank heavens the kitchen managed to totally forget two other dishes the rest of the table had ordered saved us the added expense of paying for two more overpriced dishes, luckily the kids had had their fill of chips (about the only thing the kitchen got right.) or there might have been a mini melt-down in the restaurant.

It is not that the place is lacking for staff, there are a lot of staff there but what they do? God only knows! From what I can gather most of the staff seem to do a lot of running around doing nothing.

If you want to eat Thai food that is soulless and with all the life and vibrancy taken out of it, then this is the place for you.

If this restaurant didn't have a view of Wat Arun it would be out of business! (Be warned if you sit on the first floor you get a prime view of the backside of a fairly shabby warehouse)

Avoid!!! You'd be better off chancing your arm with some some roadside fair, god knows how this made Thailand Tatler's list of must eats in BKK for 2011, probably says more about how seriously you should take the list and the publication.

LINK TO LISTING IN THAILAND TATLER

Live out maid required

We are a family living in the Pra Nakorn, Bangkok area. We are looking for a live out maid who will mainly all that they will be required to do is a little light cleaning and dusting around the house.

We are a Thai family but there are some special requirements that we need for any potential applicants.

They must be of strong constitution and have regular bowel movements because during the working day they will not be allowed to piss at our house, they must live in close proximity to our house so if they have to they can go back to their house to use their toilet.

If this might be a problem owing to the distance from their abode our house we might be able to discuss buying them a plastic potty although if they want to use that they will have to bo outside at the back of the house.

We are willing to pay well and would provide a happy and friendly place to work!

These are not my requirements for a maid but something someone said to me who was trying to work out why they were having problems finding a maid

Flowered Up: Weekender

I just encountered a significant music VDO that dates from when I was in my mid 20's and I just had to write something quick about it.

The group was Flowered Up and the song was Weekender. It was a song that spoke about the nothingness I felt then and the ways I and my friends went about trying to forget what we felt inside.

I didn't hear anything more from Flowered Up after this song. Who cares this was their seminal moment and the VDO spoke directly to me and captured everything that was wrong in my life at the time.

I once met the main lead at a party once, Lee something, suffice to say he really didn't need to do that much acting for this VDO and Helen I still don't know how you could have just returned it without taking a bit out for all of us!

Click here for something more intellectual and deep about this VDO

11 significant events

which might be cause for Man City fans to start getting a bit worried: -

1. Pojaman Shinawatra’s (his wife) takes a fancy to a bit of land up for auction on Moss Side. Thaksin not wanting to let the little lady down uses his influence to have the council change the conditions for potential buyers a couple of days before the proposed sale forcing out all the competition.
After that he gets cancelled all holidays for council employees over New Years so that the real estate deal can be processed, coincidentally avoiding the land being reassessed for a higher and more realistic market rate

2. Thaksin decides to beef up security at the stadium and decides to buy a new baggage handling system for the stadium. Orders 26 CTX 9000s to handle the expected volume of bags even though Paris Charles De Gaulle has less than half that number. The US describes this as a "perfect case study in backhanders for government officials"

3. Thaksin sets up a two-and-three digit lottery scheme to help the local community in Moss Side because he is such a giving person. This becomes an instant success with the poor who feel good about helping others whilst also having a chance to improve their lives.
On closer inspection it turns out there wasn't a proper accounting or auditing system in place and no-one knows exactly how much money was taken or where it actually went or how it was used.

4. Forgetting he is no longer an international statesman Thaksin decides to improve Man City's relations with Myanmar (Burma to you and me) and sets up a loan to Burma.
Burma borrows £70million from Man City's accounts so that the jolly generals can purchase some Man City shirts that are being flogged by a company owned by our erstwhile ex-politico.

5. In the effort to gentrify Moss Side for the expectant celebs and glitterati that will soon be descending on City. Thaksin sets up a sapling purchase scheme with the local council to "green up" Moss Side this scheme will produce 90 million saplings over three years.
Irregularities start coming to light when residents complain about the poor quality of the trees. The £200million project is also marred by delays as 16 million trees are yet to be delivered.

6. Thaksin establishes a housing scheme for the poor in Manchester. Uses another £200 million of Man City's money to build housing for the poor on greenfield sites.
Only problem is they are shoddily built, some don't even get connected up to utilities, and are in the middle of nowhere far from any built up areas or jobs.

7. Thaksin decides that Manchester airport is too small and decides to use Man City's money to build a new airport on some marsh land. Furthermore he decides to build a new city around this area as he believes living under a flight path would be such a pleasant living environment.
Despite protests he convinces the local council to finance the plan. The council starts to look into purchasing the land and discovers that all of the land is owned by Thaksin's wife and his associates

8. Thaksin decides to do something about the drug problem on Moss Side and convinces the local police to have a shoot to kill policy on drug dealers. This results in the death of 2000 Man City fans most of the victims if not innocent are low level street dealers.
After Thaksin proclaims the success of the scheme, drugs soon start reappearing on the streets only this time sold by little Asian lookng blokes.

9. Thaksin commenting on an away match abroad that went a bit wrong after the deaths of 78 Man City fans, after police rounded them up and tied their hands behind their backs before heaping them on top of each other into the back of trucks in 40 degrees heat.

After the majority of the City fans had been found to have died from suffocation or heat related reasons, Thaksin commented that was it was their own fault as they had been on a bender and hadn't eaten properly for the last two week and so they were probably already weaker than they should have been and so were responsible for their own deaths.

10. Thaksin puts his son Phantongtae in charge of the club, nuff said.

11. Thaksin and Man Utd need I say more?

Veracity Gambit taking a chance on truth!

Check in for the latest gossip from Veracity Gambit our gal about town, who will bring you the latest comings and goings, to-ings and fro-ings, ins and outs, laughs and shouts.

Last night your gal Veracity checked in with the Bangkok Pickle Gang as they celebrated the birthday of the delightful Pab.

Things started badly for our intrepid birthday girl as she was left on her own-some nursing a glass of something warm. Sources say she might have been ordering green tea but the waitress was actually topping it up with Baileys and coffee!!! Quelle horror!!!

Could it be that the news about increased coffee imports to Thailand have some truth? It seems our favourite femme fatale has bruised her behind by falling well and truly off the wagon once again.


Later on when things moved to the Met Bar our birthday gal was seen sitting in a corner clutching a bottle of Baileys to her chest. It seems that not so long after that she was seen making an exit with Mr Right, only his name was Mr Baileys and he came in bottle, glug... glug... glug... anyone?

Hey how about that transatlantic couple? It seems not all is right in the world as their living situation is not working out as well when they are apart, sources tell us that they having problems with getting enough personal space.

Maybe they should go back to being 12 hours apart?


We were told that Danny and Chandra had an intimate dinner to try and patch things up at Chez Jak and Pu???

Last night at the Met Bar there seemed to be an argument amongst our intrepid tricksters as Chandra and Jak had some harsh words for each other across the room about some song?


Seems like those arse-twisting classes might have been more than just for practice!!! Anyone else thinking third wheel?

I suggest the dashing Doctor shouldn't waste any time with a visit to Dr Love, he needs to contact the pest control on how to move that cuckoo out of the nest.


What about the Winsome Wiyada? She seems to have resigned herself to the state of the relationship and sat in the corner eating some cake, well actually the whole cake!!!

Bless her we still love you as much as ever.

Kemika our favourite vamp turned up sporting a whole new look, this girl changes outfits faster than Superman, what can I say she pulled it off and made a stunning statement, Tres Chic Supergirl!

Also in attendance last night was our favourite Quiet American Barry Dols jetting in to see the gang before jumping on a plane on Monday to go visit his family in Washington, oops I mean New Jersey.

Sticking close by was the consummate party girl Naughty Niki who was beautifully coiffed and boy that girl can dress! She looked like she was challenging Kemika for Queen of the ball. Silly girls don't they know that Veracity is always at the top of this tree?

And Big John is now more Slim John!!! It seems that whisper about him making friends in Rangoon with some doctors especially skilled with plastic tubing could be true!


Poor old Shawn and Jason were inconsolable after King James had been usurped by the Spurs!!! It seems that the twosome were incommunicado by the end of the night too! Calling Magarita!



Our favourite "politico" 'O' was seen skulking in a corner discussing the weather with anyone who cared to listen. Anyone up for a round of coup d'etat?

Kemika and Dottie Lotte were seen cutting a rug on the dancefloor, what can I say? White girls don't dunk! but they certainly can dance!

Someone who defintely wasn't dancing last night was David W. the enigmatic playboy spied me across the room and made a quick exit to go check on some erm... papers!


Lastly we go to the sweetest couple in Bangkok Ippy and Mark who looked like "pigs in mud" as they cooed with each other in a corner.


Ippy looked particularly chic and svelte last night, could it be that the trip to the UK had been more than to visit Mark's folks? She mentioned something about the gym but I didn't know they had gyms on Harley Street!


That's all from your fave gossip gal Veracity Gambit, check in for the next time the mood takes me. Ta! Ta!


All of the above was written in jest and should be taken that way.

FOR DOMESTIC SUBSCRIBERS...

trying to see those loveable, adorable, oh so oochie coochie... ... i'll stop that now and finish off this post as quickly as possible before running off to hug Tommi.

For the locals you all know why those vdo's have disappeared, and for those foreign viewers who might not be aware in Thailand the government has banned YouTube owing to a disreputable vdo featured on the site.

i never got the chance to see it before the ban was in place, or followed all the news closely enough to be well enough informed to comment.

But i've added a link from "13.45N - 100.30E" in the "WHAT WE'RE READING" section where there is a view on this ban.

This is my roundabout way of saying stop sending me links to YouTube!

little things in life...

Life has a way of throwing of throwing you a curveball from time to time (excuse the slipping into sad cliches but it is the end of the night and i just wanted to share before going to bed) This time though the bases were loaded in the bottom of the ninth and the curveball was called a ball four. (i promise that is the last baseball reference)

Anyhow my Mom had been going on about some chocolates that were in the fridge that my Dad had been given by a friend. So i went to the fridge and there sitting on the shelf in the fridge were two square boxes, wrapped immaculately as only the japanese can do, and emblazened across the top of the box were the words Royce



Well i opened the box and laid out in the tray were neat rows of rectangle blocks covered in chocolate powder, included in the box was a neat little pick cum knife, which i used to spear one of these chocolate pieces up and slipped into my mouth.



That events was two days ago, ever since i have been walking around with a little smile on my face as i knew that at anytime i could go down to the fridge and have my choice of either "cherry marnier" or "caramel" flavoured slices of heaven.


Now like all good things they have come to an end, they are all gone but my world is brighter with the knowledge that these little scrumptious treats exist but even more than that that there is a shop in Bangkok that sells them too! Thank god! or I and mine would be spending weekends yo-yo-ing between Bangkok and Singapore coming back with a little square box tucked under our arms on the return leg.



My new slice of heaven.

I started off with baseball cliches and to provide this scribble with a bit more gravitas and depth I am going to steal the words of another to illustrate what i was trying to convey.

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living. - Soren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855)

BTW In case your wondering Tommi also discovered a bit about living!

The Devils may say…

For my day job I’m a lawyer with over 10 years in private practice (I know that’s not the best confession to make so early in the life of my blog but stick with me it will get better), I recently changed jobs about a year ago and crossed over to the other side, becoming an in-house lawyer, and came to the realisation that my 10-years working at 2 international law firms was more than enough for me.

My first international law firm experience came at a New York law firm that had Thai management. There the big boss imagined that it was his own firm with his own vision after a while I came to the realisation that his vision revolved around the words “sweat shop” and “slave labour”.

"Why are you using it all? I don't understand why people like using it all!"
This question was asked whenever a lawyer used their entire annual leave. I soon learnt that this applied to any use of annual leave or personal time. I suppose it was a business strategy for making us be more productive as there was never any time wasted making plans for after work or the weekend, even when the building was being fumigated with insect repellant we were still expected to be at our desk at 2am with our gas masks at the ready.

“It’s all about the EQ sweetie”
As well as being a strict adherent to Victorian labour relations my boss at this firm was a keen advocate of having fit and alert workers. Your EQ abilities got a really good work out as my boss just loved to bang tables and slam doors leaving us to interpret the level of anger and our reaction to this. Any one who wasn’t so in tune with their EQ would have an intensive workout as they bounced, skipped and rolled to dodge the box files that came hurtling towards them. My next job I tested for a very high EQ score but I think I should have worked more on dodging box files and I could have ended up with a more lithe and flexible body.

“Don’t trust the locals”
My last international law firm was an English one where I had a foreign boss. Although I learnt a lot from him, confidence in my EQ, IQ and even my Bar-Be-Q abilities took a battering, during that period all I was serving were burnt chicken wings.

My next boss was a perfectionist unfortunately this perfectionism manifested itself in a mistrust in the abilities of any Thai lawyers. You’d think that would be a problem considering where we are but it didn’t really become apparent until the law firm was taken over by a Thai law firm and lots and lots of Thai lawyers started turning up on Monday morning. My foreign boss reacted as any sane person would do and drew me down with him into his office which soon became more like his ‘bunker’. And like any good general he stayed far behind the lines and let me do all the fighting.

“Back from the front”
Now I’m an in-house lawyer for an international corporation, yes I know I am still a lawyer and yes I am working for a big bad multi-national but I am happy. I’ve swapped conversations about new bags or watches? Which brand? Fake or real? For people that talk about families, children and the real things in life. I don’t miss the backstabbing and the scheming. I'm happy working with colleagues that have the same intentions – to do the best for the corporation and not to get rid of each other. Plus my friends don’t make strange excuses anymore for why they can’t make it to my Bar-Be-Q’s.

P.S. This thing was written with me screaming it out LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10 things I used to have to deal with at work that I don’t have to anymore:

1. I don’t have to feign interest in the latest purchase of a luxury good
2. I don’t have to spend half the working week looking for a new job
3. I don’t spend the weekends wishing Monday wouldn’t come
4. I don’t spend the weeks waiting for Friday to arrive
5. I don’t have to remember to bring a gas mask to work every first Tuesday in a quarter
6. I don’t waste my days listening to office gossip about the faults of my colleagues
7. I can use my husband for emergency emotional support that is not related to work
8. I no longer have to be so anal about logging my time spent on work
9. I now can make plans for long weekends
10. I now serve BBQ chicken that isn’t burnt