I think Thailand is slowly poisoning me. A few years ago I began to get eye infections, and it turns out that my diet was too blame. More importantly sugar was the enemy. Back then the only sugar I consumed was chocolate and as a reformed chocaholic this was disastrous news. However I gave up chocolate and only dabbled in the smallest of amounts and when I did, no more eye infections and I just felt better.

Last week I had an iced tea with carnation milk and almost immediately my stomach rebelled. Two days of an unpredictable stomach made getting around a bit scary. I fixed this issue by having bread, banana, yoghurt and muesli until things settled.

I returned to eating Thai food and I had a couple of beers, but now my eye infection has returned and it feels gritty and sore. It could also be due to the high levels of pollution too mind you. But I think it’s because there must be too much sugar being added in the food, this is something I never use in cooking. I usually only eat raw vegetables too and most places apart from a Korean place I went to seem to have them cooked too much.

So I’m kinda looking forward to getting home and getting back to normal which is a bit sad.

Tomorrow I fly to Surat Thani, pastures new and maybe the food there might not be so catered to the western palate. Chiang Mai is full of western tourists and guess that have to give them what makes them happy, although because my guts had played up before I’m a bit apprehensive of going native.

I went to the Sunday street market looking for my shirts and anything else that took my fancy. They close off one of the main streets that begins opposite the Phae Gate.

There is food of every description and clothes, trinkets and just about anything you can think of and do you know the most annoying thing? Fuckin’ Bloggers!

It’s busy enough without these fuckwits  strolling around filming everything and getting under your feet. The world revolves around their narcissism apparently. Grabbing the camera and crushing it onto the ground would be of great pleasure and I’m sure they would get many likes and comments 🤗

Longtime favourite place of mine. I’m staying in an Airbnb in the middle of the old town on a narrow Soi. It’s a small bedsit, comfortable and a bit compact I may add. You can sit outside, however the mosquitoes would eat you alive, and usually I’m the last one that they go for.

It’s been very lazy so far. Caught up with my old friend Ann, I’ve known her for many years and with her husband they run a bar in town. They have four ladyboys and three girls working there. It seems that the lady boys are very popular, apparently men from all over like to come here and dabble. At least two of them were sort of attractive, the others looked like navvies in drag.

Haven’t seen Ann in six years and I’m glad that she’s still has the business, although it’s been tough for her. Closed for two years because of Covid and more recently the flooding last year. She’ll hopefully be able to return to her farm near Roi Et soon. It’s in a small village in the middle of nowhere, well it used to be. I spent a few weeks there many moons ago.

Last night went to the street market and picked up me shirts. Made in Chiang Mai and difficult to find anywhere else. I bought four. Still looking for my UV sleeves that look like tatts. The Sunday market is on tomorrow, another reason I am here at this time. I’ve bought many things from there over the years.

Just had an oil massage for an hour, $25. Then followed by dinner. Penang curry and the best beer in the world, Lao Dark. It’s been donkeys since the last time I supped one of these masterpieces.

It’s just after 6:30 in the evening, it’s spitting and the breeze is getting up and it’s marvelous after the heat of the day. Although compared to Bangkok during the day it’s still a bit cooler.

Contemplating a second beer and then home for an early evening. I found my USB with the movies that I thought I’d forgotten, so I might just sit like a vegetable for a few hours. Don’t really want to do much after dinner and the massage.

I thought that five days in Bangkok would be too long, I hadn’t been here for maybe six years. As it turned out, it was just enough time to catch up with friends and to do a bit of exploration on my own.

First time to stay near Victory Monument and I would definitely recommend this area. It has easy access to the BTS skytrain and airport link. My hotel was in a quiet Soi, so it was great. The hotel was nice and cheap and comfortable. I was on the 8th floor and so it was fairly quiet. Just the usual inconsiderate numpties that you get on every walk of life. At this hotel it was no surprise to find that the Chinese were the biggest culprits.

I got back to the hotel the other night and there was a wee fat guy waiting for the lift, it was on the 8th floor. This lift was on no hurry so we stood there for some time waiting for it to arrive. When it finally landed, fat boy entered and pressed the second floor. No wonder he was a wee fat bastard, or maybe he just didn’t want to spill his oversized milkshake.

From wandering over canals on dodgy rail tracks, to flying down a klong at a high rate of knots and of course getting to the Andaman sea south of Bangkok to see the wildlife in the form of Mudskippers and gulls.

The long awaited flight to Bangkok has come and gone and I am currently in my hotel near Victory Monument. When I arrived at Brisbane Airport the whole process was very different to anything I had experienced before and so was the flight. There was so much turbulence on the way over this time. The plane was comfortable and I had a good seat by the window, plenty of room. It felt as if we were going down a dirt track road with the washboard effect. It’s possible that the cyclone on the North East coast of Australia was to blame.

I got through immigration quickly, got some cash exchanged, fired up me E-sim and then my bag appeared on the carousel and I was oot. My friend Tung was coming to pick me up, however she was running quite late due to the Bangkok traffic. You really do need the patience of a saint to drive here and believe it or not I have done that on more than one occasion.

It took around 40 mins to get to the hotel and even although I was early they allowed me to check in which was great. We then headed off the nearest shopping mall to find some Lunch/Breakfast. We haven’t caught up with each other for over ten years and it was great to see her and we just seemed to catch up where we left off.

A while later I headed back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep. I was feeling exhausted. I’ll meet Tung tomorrow at Chatuchak Weekend market.

Late afternoon after a shower and a snooze I headed out to explore and realised I was not to far from the MBK Centre, one of the go to places for tourists. You can buy anything here, me? well I was just wanting food and I know that the food hall here has many excellent choices at very reasonable prices.

On the way back to me hotel I stopped to get a foot massage and nearly fell asleep. It’s been years since I’ve had one and my feet were screaming out. $15 for a one hour massage, I will be going back. This is one of the many things that you need to do when you come to Thailand. It’s not all Ladyboys and Bar Girls, oh no not at all. Massages and Food are my priorities on this trip. And if a bar girl crosses my way, well I might just say hello 🙂

First time I’ve checked in for a flight and done everything myself. At the Singapore Airlines check in counters you first of all scan your passport and then print your boarding pass and tag for your luggage.

Then you proceed to the bag drop, where you once more scan your passport, place your bag on the conveyor and let it be checked by a scanner before it just disappears.

You’re then down to security. Put your cabin bag on the rollers so that it turn can be checked by XRay. If no problems you then proceed to passport control. Again all automated and you’re through to duty free. A very quick process and I never spoke to a soul. My kind of check in.

Not I’m up in the lounge for a snack, wine and coffee and not necessarily in that order.

“Puppet on a String” was a huge 1967 hit and a historic song because it gave the UK its first Eurovision victory and became one of the best-known pop songs of the decade.

Surprisingly, Sandie Shaw actually disliked the song and later said she hated it from the first note because she thought it sounded old-fashioned.

She performed it barefoot, which became one of her trademarks during the 1960s and as a young kid at the time I just loved watching her on Top of the Pops.

But in 2026 this song title takes on a darker story. This is a story of a broken man, another criminal and conman that his friends call “Bibi” and his puppet is in control of the biggest and most dangerous arsenal in the world and he does not seem to understand the contents of the box of Pandora that he has just opened up. Nor the ramifications of his actions. He is just too fucking thick. In many ways the scene from the Simpsons sums him up.

Homer is walking down the street when there is a crisis at the nuclear plant and he’s worried and then he sees a “Dog with a Fluffy Tail” and runs after it, shouting, “There’s a dog with a Fluffy Tail!” Just as the puppet gets distracted by anything shiny.

This conflict will not just be limited to countries most people couldn’t find on a map, oh no…. There are about 350 million or so in the west that are quite ignorant about this. This unfortunately will have consequences and I feel many are about to get a geography lesson.

Summer was back with a vengeance last week, the bus was running hot. A couple of times going up the hills the temp gauge was in the red, although only briefly.

The air-conditioning was just managing to keep me cool. The problem is that when I do my afternoon run I’m heading west most of the time directly facing the fire in the sky and last week the temps were back to 35C.

The bus has a retarder, which is really necessary when the bus is loaded because you just can’t rely only on the brakes. A couple of weeks ago the brakes got a bit hot and there was some smoke, however last week as I was sitting at a red light a cloud of smoke came passed the bus heading in front of me. The rear nearside wheel was smoking badly.

I pulled over as soon as I could. Stopped and got out to check and the blue smoke was billowing out, although no flames. One of the other bus drivers pulled up behind me and grabbed his fire extinguisher and blasted the rear wheels and I went and got some water.

We called the mechanic and he arrived some time later and assessed that the brakes were cool enough now to drive the 4km back to the depot. Because of the retarder you don’t really need the brakes for such a short distance anyway.

It turns out that the wheel bearing had been incorrectly fitted and since it had been fitted in October last year it had begun to break down and the oil and grease ignited due to the high temperature and of course the heat from the brakes.

The previous mechanic had made a right arse of the repair done in October and it turns out that a few of the other buses have had other problems caused by him. To be honest this does not surprise me in the least because he was such and arrogant bastard that could do no wrong, who thought his shit did not stink and if it did then it would be the smell of strawberry.

Fucking wanker!! We, the drivers, are the ones who’s life’s are being put at risk first and foremost and of course everyone that gets on the bus. And what about other road users? And meanwhile this prick is strutting around without a care in the world with his conscience clear 😠

My long time friend and partner in crime, sometimes, left the corporate lifestyle a few years ago to pursue a career in movies. So far he’s has been lucky to play in some of the biggest grossing movies and now he has produced and directed in partnership with others his first short movie where he obviously plays the lead role.

We met years ago, I think about 2006 or there abouts when we worked together in the Outback department at Stratco. We looked after all sales for the Outback Patios and carports etc. We designed and processed the orders for production, including a bill of materials for all components even down to the last rivet. Along with Janine, we were a very efficient team and we really did work like a well oiled machine.

We both enjoyed travelling and we did a couple of trips together. Our first trip was to Shanghai with a stopover in KL. We got so drunk on the plane on the way over and our flight to Shanghai the next day was just dreadful. It was one hell of a hangover. After Shanghai we went our separate ways travelling through south east Asia.

A few years later we met up in Cambodia, of course this is where Peter is from. We met up in Phnom Penh and caught up with his cousins. They organised a car for us to travel to Battambang, where the rest of the family were paying their respects to his Late Grandfather, on Ancestors’ Day. I felt very privileged to be here at such an emotional time. However we did have time to enjoy and celebrate our time together and his Grandfathers life. We could learn a few things in the West from these ancient traditions.

We both left Stratco and moved onto other things. Peter ended up in the Corporate world flying here and there and travelling way too much at times, me? well I had a midlife crisis and went travelling. Ended up in China for a number of years and had a great time.

So Peter left the high life to pursue his passion, which is acting. It does not surprise me in the least that he excels at this. He has always been a very outgoing person with way too much energy sometimes and I think this is the only career that can really satisfy his zest for life.

20 years on, we catch up when we can and usually go to a Vietnamese restaurant to have Phở and I’m very proud to call Peter Phan my friend 🙂

If you want to see a bit more about Peter, then you can go to the IMBD site and see his BIO here,

Peter Phan IMBD

Summer has had a resurgence this week, humidity is through the roof and we are heading for a high of 37C by Thursday and then hopefully a wee bit of rain to follow, which I hope cools it all down. Mind you I have awoken in the middle of the night to cover me self because me bum wus freezing.

I’m back at work, unfortunately. Yesterday had a bit of excitement, not that I needed any, but when I pulled up at the stop before the school there was blue smoke coming from the rear nearside wheel and the strong smell of rubber. Not a good look. I opened up all the side panels and the boot, where the engine is, and could not see anything out of the ordinary. After sitting for about 15mins everything seemed to be back to normal and the only thing I can think of is that when they washed the bus earlier in the day I think that they must have hosed the wheels for a fair amount of time and it’s just oil and residue burning off from the heat of the brakes which I had to hit fairly hard coming off the motorway minutes before. There were no dramas on the way home thankfully.

When I was in the garden the other day, I heard something clatter to the ground. When I popped into the park behind the shed, I found a very large Bunya Pinecone which had fallen from the Bunya Pine Tree which lives in the corner of the park.

For weeks the Corellas and Cockatoo’s have been making a hell of racket in its canopy. They have very strong beaks and claws and they can easily rip open one of these massive pinecones, you really have to see it to believe it. You just don’t want to be anywhere near it when gravity kicks in or you will be pan breed. By the way the post it is sitting on is 200mm wide, that’s 8″ in the old money!

Haven’t been up to much the past two weeks, although I am enjoying Stuart MacBride’s book called “The House of Burning Bones” So much better than the last two books of his I read, well tried to read.

This one is back to great banter, good story lines with a bit of gore and plenty of drama. I’m just over half way through it and I have two more weeks before I have to return it. I think I’ll be ok. Not much to do this week, so when I get home after the morning run, I head out onto the deck, pull up a comfy chair and with book in hand sit and enjoy the moment until it gets too hot and then I retire to the Aircon.