TWA

Yesterday (20^th April 2008) marked two important events in my life. The first is that I turned 23 yesterday and it’s the last day ever for the class, I repeat, last ever class in my whole life. Since I set my foot on the Australian soil two weeks ago, there have been so many things happening and I reckon that it’s time to vent it out before turning mad to death.

Last night, ten past ten to be precise, I was enjoying the Little Britain show when all of a sudden,  the bleeding fire alarm went off. Knowing full well that the chance of being “actual” fire in this hotel is far more remote than bringing back Elvis Presley from his death, I solemnly switched off the laptop (the whole dissertation and all valuable documents which probably worth more than a jewelry shop in Yaowarat were in the laptop) gathered passport and wallet then take a quest down the flights of stairs down to the curbside. A couple of minutes later, two mighty fire engines pulled over and the firemen then went on to their procedure which involved checking switches and have a chat with the bystanders. Finally the lead fireman declared the building safe and it’s false alarm and life goes on. It would be perfectly okay and I shouldn’t be bragging about this, but mind you, it’s the second time that the bloody alarm went off with in the space of one week. It was the very same alarm that went off last week which of course I grew sick of it. The fire things has gone crazy and trust me, I can count no less than 6 fire engines rushing pass my window every day and I dare say that there more fire engines on the road than Mercedes.

To somebody who has perfect eyesight, one might ask how hard it is to get a spectacle when one needs one. It’s very easy to get one in Thailand, in a savvy and timely manner. Now imagine breaking the eyeglasses two nights before a trip to Perth in Australia? That’s a whole lot different. It was Saturday night when I was reading a novel and thanks to my clumsiness, I broke the leg of my spectacle rendering it an absolute trash. I made a mental note to drop into the eyewear shop first thing in the morning. I went into a couple of stores and I was stunned when I learnt that it takes at least a week to get a pair of eye-glasses (and you call this a developed country???? In Thailand which is being insulted by the western world as a developing country, we get a spectacle within a day or two, good lord). Worst is still to come, unbeknownst to me, I didn’t realise that I need to get a presicription for eyeglasses and contact lenses, I asked the sale clerk for a pair of contact lens in which point she refused to sell the bloody thing to me until I get the paper from the doctor. I ended up having to make an appointment with the eye doctor (opto…gist something, I never quite catch on with the medical terminology), and the eye-sight test costs 100 dollars!!!!!! If I happened to walk into Top Charoen and fancy having an eye sight test, it would have cost me nothing, yes no fucking thing at all. All in all, I lost a fortune in the spectacle “adventure” which duly arrived a week later,long after I completed my trip to Perth, what a waste of time, energy, and money!

 Another thing worth bitching about is the flight across the Kangaroo land, A flight from Perth to Brisbane takes 5 hours and 30 minutes which mostly an overland flight flying over vast inhibited nothingness. Four of five hours was nothing but the red earth, beautiful though, haha! THe problem is the flight itself, It was Qantas Airways which I was flying on the (supposedly) luxurious business class. Things went downhill the moment my boarding pass was issued. Start with the Qantas Club which was their business class lounge, I’d rather change it to be Sardine Club where it was like having half of the Brisbane population placed in the lounge. The refreshment bar, I found a shocking sign that reads “Children Under 18 are not allowed to approach the Bar” The thing is, all of the beverage, be it liquor, milk, water or soda pop are all there and it’s the only place where you can get something to drink in the lounge. How can children get themselves a glass of water????????????? Stupid indeed, mind bogglingly stupid! Shortly thereafter, I stepped aboard the Boeing 767 jet taking me to Perth. To my horror, the seat was old  and tired (I’d name it the Samak Sundaravej Seat, given the age and how ugly and useless the seat is) with manual adjusting system. No personal screen and in-flight magazine. I wouldn’t complain so much if it’s cheap but considering each was paying an equivalent of 80,000 baht for a round trip ticket on 5 hours flight, we deserved something better. Once we airborne, the breakfast was served. In fact breakfast is the reason why I kept writing about this, it consisted of a pork pie, a heaven know-day old sausage and that was it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Five hours and thirty minute????????????????????????????????????????? I ain’t kidding, it’s a pie (around 10 cm in diameter and equally long sausage). I suggest Qantas to print a BYO (Bring-Your-Own) sign on their aircraft fuselage so that passengers then get themselves a food on board. Before landing we get a piece of cookie and a glass of orange juice. I believe that if they were to start serving nonstop flight from Kangaroo Land to Europe, it will be the first airline to let passenger to cannibalise themselves on board to kept them from starving to death. I can imagine a crew come with a tray and the utensil asking “We have salad for the first course and that’s all, what would you like for main course? A fat bloke in 5A or a skinny lady in 34F?” Come on, be sensible on what you serve on a long flight!

That’s pretty much it for bitching, going back to the motherland on this Friday, really love to go back! And by the way, the internet access here costs55 cents a minute (around 15 baht), it would deplete the whole Fiji’s treasury if I kept on using the internet here

 

The Buddhist teaching goes “The uncertainty is certain”, and the so-called “uncertainty” is out there in an attempt to get me, hahaha!

First thing first, I’m leaving my motherland for the last semester in Brisbane from 2^nd to 25^th April, again, with stops both ways in Singapore. Initially, I was supposed to be back by 20^th, my 23th birthday. There was a change in class timing and I have to stay till 25^th April.

Early in the week, I got a phone call around 6 o’clock in the evening and I was surprised to learn that Pari is coming back to the kingdom  and I shall have a lunch with her tomorrow at Siam Paragon, also this week I will go to the reunion party for my SW2 school. Due to some obscuring reasons, I didn’t attend the last year’s reunion.

My dissertation is going at a snail’s pace and at this rate I should be finishing it by the end of the 25^th century, every time I place my fingers on the keyboard in a futile attempt to type something down on my paper, there must be something preventing me from writing. It’s time to get start and finish this thing before it’s too bloody late…..

Politically speaking, the last few weeks have been rather eventful for the political scenes around the world. Start off with the declaration of independence of Kosovo followed by the riots in Tibet protesting the Chinese government. Taiwanese are getting into polling stations casting their ballots on Chinese issue. Halfway across the world lies Zimbabwe where the disgusting Robert Mogabe is running the country in such a disgraced manner. Not to mention our beloved Prime Minister who was on an official visit to the Union of Myanmar (I’d rather say Union of Military Bastards) and made a rather distasteful remark on its government that the world should learn the story from two sides and produce a rather sympathetic gesture to the regime in Myanmar. What a shame!!!!

Given the number of population, vast amount of natural resources along with the developing economy, China has been a juicy delicious platter to the eyes of businessperson around the world. I dare say that if the stupid red party continue to have a grip on the power and fool its people like this, a glorious country with proud history could be catapulted into the trashcan in no time. I question not the legitimacy of the governing Chinese Communist party but I question the sanity of its policy, and we shall see! Suffice to say that the bully government will still be bullish on Tibet and Taiwan and there’s no end insight, just hope for the best.

As aviation enthusiast, allow me to shed you some lights on the Aviation industry in china. They recently rolled out a new jetliner called ARJ21. The event sparks media craze and wild speculation on the future of Chinese aviation industry and overall technological industry in China. If you have a closer look on this jet you will notice that it bear a stark resemblance of Mcdonell Douglas MD-80 jets produced by the United States, gotcha! Yes, the word “Chinese Copy” does indeed exist for a reason! The witty Chinese designer decided to use the fuselage of the MD jets for the ARJ21 and wings designed by Russian, get a picture???? So much for the revolution in the Chinese Aviation industry, let alone the economy giant of the world. I still wait and hope to see the day when they actually produce something from scrap!

That’s it for this entry, too long, but simply fucked up with the Chinese things

 

After a fairly long absence, it’s now time to come back and make some remarks on recent events.

Firstly, on the national front, we got a new cabinet filled with bone-head, absent-minded and in loony ministers everywhere and I am raged with anger by the way this disgraceful cabinet is formed not to mentioned our far-right Prime Minister who had a major in the bloody October 30 years ago. He is the same one that propagate the news over the radio encouraging people to attack the innocent students in Thammasat University. Scores of innocent students and citizens who were protesting dictatorship of the military at the time were killed and injured. An uncle of mine was one of the students who fled to the jungle where my grandparents presumed that he was dead. Fortunately, he wasn’t. Till this day, I still not sure why a man associated with inflammatory gesture that often aggravate public sentiment was so darn lucky to get this job. I would rather see him in a court for charge on crime against humanity. Blimey!

I will be away during 20-23 Feb to Singapore Air Show which is of course, as the name suggests, being held in Singapore. I know this prison-like city state like a back of my hands as I’ve been there countless times. This trip will be fairly interesting as Ong, one of my best friends is joining and we planned to make a brief visit to Malaysia and Indonesia, each roughly take 30 minutes to cross the border. My goal there is simply to go there and see the planes and the delicious Hainanese Chicken Rice. I got some more things to deal with my thesis and should be in Brisbane from 1-20 April for a short course and then head home again in preparation for final examination. When I come to think of it, it’s now time to start the proposal for Ph.D dissertation, oh heckkkkkk. I hated this so much. I wanted to study not writing research. Anyway that’s another story.

As a result of discussions with Kwan and Ong today, I have come to realised how foolish I am and I felt compelled to issue the following statement

 

To the one whose name shall remain concealed

 

I do regret for what I have done and say, or rather for what I had' FAILED to do or say. I bear a deep mark in my mind for months.

It's time to say sorry. The course of action that I took, I can assure that it's for the best of your interest, I have no intention whatsoever to cause alarm or discomfort to you. It's been a pleasure and a delightful circumstance that my humble existance is so fortunate to cross-path with you. I regret to this day for what I havn't said and I know full well that I should.

 

Again, the circumstances and my action did go against the dictate of my own will. This is not a place nor time to recourse and grevience but,

I do regret for what I have done

I do regret for what I havn't done

I do regret for what I havn't said

I do regret for what has turned out

I do regret for acting against the dictate of my own will

I, of course, regret for having place myself into such a deplorable circumstances

 

and let me repeat this again, I do regret for what I haven't said

 

Saying sorry will not change the way things are, but that is what I want to do

 

Thank you and Good Bye

 

P.S. I wish to dedicate this beautiful song to the one I wanna say sorry. It's Luna or the Moon in English.

 

 

This year we, the whole family, went to the long-delayed foreign trip for new year celebration in Hanoi Vietnam

 

It was our second trip to this socialist country where political and economic commentators have long been saying (or rather bitching) that its spuring economy might surpass Thailand someday. As our Air France Boeing 747-400 descended throught the last layer of clouds in preparation for landing in Hanoi, things become clear to me, the country is improving, growing, but surpassing THailand is next to impossible. I dare say that those economic professor sitting with thier figure on the table should come here and see the reality. Having said that, I by no mean imply that Vietnam is a bad country, it's a good one. Very colourful, friendly, energetic and hectic (worse than my beloved Bangkok) and best of all is food, the vietnamese cuisine is jolly good, I do not understand why people are so crazy about the tasteless orange-looking Korean food. It's one of the worsts in the whole wide world, trust me. Driving or strolling along the Hanoi's buzzling streets and you will find yourself like the blast from the past. Buildings, the way of living and literally everything. All of the goverment buildings are painted in the hedious yellow and red colours along with the large communist party propaganda poster literally all over the main street.

 

I was lucky to spent the nights in the highly luxurious hotel in Hanoi where the price is way above Vietnamese's monthly income per night. It is bad, very bad, the hotel is flooded with deep-pocket tourists mostly from the Western origin. Bangkok itself is following this trend as the major hotels in the city is now costing around 4-5 thousands baht a night, oh heck.

 

There's one thing particularly interesting about this trip, I went to the Ho Chi Mihn museum where there's a picture of North Vietnamese Tank crashing through the gate of South Vietnamese Presidential palace. The reason why I said so is that, the caption under the picture was reading "North Vietnam Army liberated the South Vietnamese People and unified Vietnam as it is today". I remember reading American's version of this picture, it was saying something like "North Vietnam Army tank ATTACK the south veitnamese presidential palace". This is the way people seeing the very same situation from the different angle of perspective, a very fine example.

 

The fancy hotel that I stayed with equipped with satellite where 2 Thai free TVs chanels where intercepted (channel 3 and 9). On 2nd Jan, as I was switching the remote to Channel 3 after a long day treking in hectic Hanoi, I learned the the departure of our Princess who succumbed to the cancer, that's the end of a great chapter of one's life. As a loyal subject to the King of THailand and his royal family, I hereby extend my heart-warmed condolence and may her soul rest in peace. As the offical mourning period is obsered in Thailand for the time being, I suspects that Things, particularly the political, will ground to a hault for a while

 

As we are now entering a new year, there're things that I have to carry on and things that I should stop doing. Last year I have some regrets that I haven't shared with a friend of mine. I regret for the thing that I hadn't said and this shall bear the mark for the rest of my life. I do hope that this year will be a good one.

 

I know that there's clouds looming in the skies ahead and I'd better be prepared for it.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was sometime around noon on 23^rd December  when I casted my ballot at an overcrowded polling station. I knew full well how will this election turn to be, and my suspect was confirmed shortly before midnight when the preliminary result by the electoral committee was released. The public has spoken and we can expect the return of one of the greatest traitors that Thailand has ever produced, Mr. Thanksin Shinnawatra. His lieutenant , Mr Samak Sundaravej, the extreme right wing dictator (I think it’s fair to call him a fascist) is now poised to become the next prime minister, what a disgrace.

So much for the politics, we are heading to Hanoi for new year celebration this year for 5 days with Air France, my most favorite airline. The plan is to do the sightseeing in Hanoi for 2 days and another 2 cruising in the Halongbay. This will be the first time that I spend a night on a boat. Due to some obscuring reasons, the boat is called Junk Boat. I hope that it’s not literally a junk haha.

Last night, I decided to book a return trip ticket to Singapore for my connecting flight to Brisbane for my second semester there. I have come to realise how expensive is the business class ticket on such a short sector. It costs almost 17K for two hours hop and that’s the cheapest. Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines are selling at the staggering price of 30K, this is preposterous and outrageous. So I ended up paying 17K for Swiss International Air Lines in which I have to stay overnight before connecting on another flight to Brisbane with Etihad Airways.

I believe that this is the last entry for the year B.E. 2550 or 2007 for Christian. It was a pleasant year and I do hope that next year things might be better than this. Happy New Year to you all.

 This week clip I wish to present you with the Top Secret Drum Corp from Basel, Switzerland. The clip was from Edinburgh’s International Military Tattoo 2006. And I wish to dedicate this clip to those of you who are pursuing academic degree in the UK, I hope to go there and see you (still have to keep my bloody finger crossed, as I’m not really sure if I would be able to do so). This Drup Corps is one of the best I’ve ever seen.

 

 

 

The Pervert One

One has only one chance to build one’s own reputation and once tarnished, one shall bare the mark for the rest of one’s life, particularly a pervert one.

One shall also bear in mind that it’s one’s duty to be considerate when pursuing a course of action that pose an effect to another one’s mind whereby such mind shall be treated as if it were one’s own. When one opts to neglect the mental state of one another within the interest of one’s intimate relationship with another, such one is considered as the one who is a pervert one.

And that’s for someone whose everyone’s mind reckon fairly well. One shall be denounced for the irresponsibly and childish, if not, devilish act of one’s own.

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I felt compelled to write something and that’s what I had to say, not let’s get back to the normal “human” language. It is obvious that the explicit wording would inflict the rage and anger from some affected parties. Better be discrete about this, hahaha

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Those of you who has watched or read “The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy”, you might understand what is my feeling, I felt like being “Marvin” the perpetually depressed robot. Those who have not, I suggest you watch or read one. It’s one of the best comedy novels/movies that a human kind has ever produced. I think I have to stop beating by the bush now, otherwise I might get to nowhere by the end of this entry, hahaha

I actually, for months, have been thinking of one thing in particular, I have been weighting it for sometimes whether to press on with silence or to act otherwise. I have something that I want to say, but for fucksake, I don’t have the gut to do that yet. Considering the circumstances, I should remain in silence for the time being and maybe, just maybe, I might got the gut someday. The time is running out and the chance is running away.

This week I wish to introduce you to the world of flying. The video clip featuring TAP Air Portugal Airbus A310 doing a low fly by at an astounding speed. A true work of airmanship, Bravo!