When in Rome

There's something strange I noticed the other day...in Thailand there are lots of hazards to look out for every day - it's just an inherently unsafe place...when you put a plug into the wall there's a big spark and when you plug your camera into the computer at the internet cafe you get an electric shock(!)...the roads are definitely the dodgiest place to be though - people don't really seem to have any appreciation for how dangerous it is for them to drive like idiots - when you add to that the fact that there are no seatbelts in the backs of cars and people on mopeds don't wear helmets you would imagine that there are a lot of fatalities (thankfully people here tend to drive pretty slowly, otherwise it would be an awful lot worse)...Someone told me before I came that mopeds were seen as a mode of family transport over here, I thought that he might have been exaggerating...but no, it's true - on my first day here I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a woman (with 3 kids!) flagging down a motorcycle taxi to give them a lift! Women just perch on the back (sidesaddle) not holding onto anything...well actually that's not strictly true I have seen some of them holding onto babies!

But all of that isn't what I find strange...what I have been surprised by is my reaction to it...it really doesn't take long before you see all of these things and just shrug your shoulders (if there's a reason why people in Thailand tend to be more relaxed it's because if you weren't you'd die of the stress! Maybe it's an evolutionary thing...survival of the most relaxed or something)...but more than this - what is probably the most ridiculous thing is that you find yourself doing what they do...the other night I found myself riding a bike back from the footy in the dark (with no lights) on the wrong side of the road(!)...and on another last week there was a trip to the park for some of the babies and the girls (not us) at the orphanage and they rode in a van designed for 5 people...there were 17 of them!

It's weird - it doesn't seem to make any rational sense. If anything I should be more cautious here not less. To be honest though, just in case anyone's worried about me (unlikely I know) you shouldn't be - I'm generally pretty cautious...

Right then, due to the (not so) unprecedented reaction to my disclosure about the male-female ratio over here...I thought I should just let you know that you shouldn't hold your breaths with regards to any "developments"...Afterall, I'm not here for the women, I'm here for the children...you can insert your own Gary Glitter joke here...

Btw - remember I said that there had been some developments with regards to my PGCE application? Well, apparently there was what, in the business, they call a complete cock-up...I was actually offered a place on the course in January. Unfortunately, they didn't send a letter to say so, nor did they send me an email, nor did they update the online "tracking" service on the website! And so, because I'm not a clairvoyant and hence didn't respond to the offer within 7 days, that was counted as a decline on my part! Anyway, luckily everything is sorted now, and even though the course was full they have allowed me to join it...I only found all of this out through a stroke of luck and the fact that my brother Mark was kind enough to make a couple of phonecalls for me - so thanks very much to you Marko!

Also, with regards to the anonymous poster...you were definitely on my shortlist of candidates - but I have to say that I was ruling you out on the basis that some of what you said seemed a bit too girly to be you - what's got into you man?!

Day tripping

Well, we went to the zoo on Thursday and had a really nice time. It would have been slightly better if one of the guys hadn't been sick all over the bus about 10 minutes before we arrived...I could see what he'd had for breakfast and to be honest I would have been sick too - it looked horrible!

Anyway, Bangkok zoo was really nice as zoos go...it wasn't the most wheelchair friendly place in the sense that there were quite a lot of things that the guys couldn't see because the walls were too high, but I would have thought that most zoos are like that...there was also quite a strange reaction to us from some of the other visitors - I think they thought that we were one of the exhibits - they just stared and stared...Not everyone was like that though...the guard let us in for free (which was cool - as the money can go towards some other stuff now) and some guy came up and gave us some money and asked about how he might volunteer for the charity.

Here are a couple of pictures (although I think you'd probably guess that without me telling you)...the guy in the second picture is called Samuud and is probably the smiliest person I have ever met...I get the feeling that he loves coming to the day care centre. Apparently he's only just started coming since I've been here (we are able to do more when we have more volunteers) so it must all be great for him.




Today, Henrik (another volunteer from Denmark) and I went to buy some paints for the guys...since I've been here, they've been doing a lot of the same things and I'd say they're probably getting bored of some of them by now...so anyway, we've been trying to come up with some new stuff and we've got some cool ideas...the first one is painting...over the course of the next few weeks we're hopefully going to get the guys to build up to doing a proper piece of artwork - then we can have an exhibition and maybe an auction with the proceeds going to the artists...we'll see how it goes but I think it might be quite cool to show them some masterpieces for inspiration - maybe some of them would like to do their own version of a Da Vinci or a Van Gogh or something...

As for the comments on the previous post...I wondered who'd be the first to mention that! It's really cool here to be living and working with so many women...makes a nice change after being in computers for 7 years...on our course at uni there were about 150 people...1 girl...still, she had everything a guy could want - sideburns, moustache...

No room at the Inn

This weekend we went to Koh Samet which is and island to the South East of Bangkok...we set off at 5:45 in the morning as we didn't have any accommodation and we couldn't book anywhere (everywhere we phoned said they were full!). When we got there, we walked around - and each place basically told us "it's a holiday weekend, we're full, everyone's full!"...actually that's not exactly what they said...what they said was in Thai...I've got to that stage now where I can ask people questions - but if they answer in Thai and it's not one of the 3 words I know I'm a bit stumped! So after the first few places I started asking in English...Anyway here's a picture that I took from a restaurant we ate in on Sunday afternoon.


I went with four other volunteers (see picture below - sorry for the poor quality btw), they are (from left to right) Frida (Sweden), Megan (UK), Lena (Sweden) and Elli (Sweden)...it was a really nice weekend and we all had a cool relaxing time...well that is until the last day - when we all got food poisoning! We had to wait something like 5 or 6 hours for the bus back to Bangkok and during that time we ate at a place across the road from the bus station - which unlike most of the places we eat in Thailand was actually a proper restaurant...still we're pretty sure that's where we all caught something - some got it worse than others, I wasn't too bad...I wasn't sick, I just...well, actually, you don't want to know what I just had - but whatever it was, I'm OK now and so is everyone else thankfully...to be honest I'm quite surprised that it's taken this long for anyone to be ill - hopefully it won't happen again too soon as it wasn't particularly pleasant for everyone involved.

I thought I should let you guys know that I have been doing loads of other stuff while I've been out here but I haven't had time to put it all on the blog...just as an example, a couple of weeks ago we went to Wat Pra Kaeo, which is the main tourist attraction in Bangkok (also called The Grand Palace)...it was pretty impressive, and definitely one of the things that you should do if you are in Bangkok but I have to be honest that by the end of it I felt like I'd OT'd...that's Over Templed btw...

Tomorrow we're going to take some of the guys (at the orphanage) out to the zoo...which will be really cool for them I think...Jeff and I suggested it, and Jeff is going to pay for it out of some of the sponsorship money he raised before coming out...I'll let you know how it goes and try to take a few pictures as well.

Also, while I'm on...some of you will know that there has been an update on the situation with my PGCE course - I won't give the full details now as I'm going to wait until everything's confirmed but let's just say that things are looking a little better than they were a couple of weeks ago!

Take care.

Another day, another Dollar

On Sunday Jeff and I took a couple of the guys out for the day. I don't think they get out very much (only when someone is willing to take them) so I think they really appreciated it. I can only imagine what it must be like for them to see the world outside of the ward - I guess it's good for them to know that it's not the only world there is. I think we're going to try and take people out more often - a different pair each time...we can only really take 2 - their wheelchairs didn't fit in the boot as it was.

They requested to go to KFC for lunch...it's amazing how far the McDonaldsisation of the world has reached...I didn't get any decent pictures from the day but here they are in the back of the cab - I think they were a bit over-awed by all of the sites outside the windows...Bangkok's a manic enough place for anyone, even for someone who is used to it.

Below is a picture of the street at the end of our road...we have to walk along it to get to work in the morning. You will notice that it looks a bit different to most roads in Bangkok...apparently they've built it just recently as a member of the royal family is due to visit some time this year (I guess it's the same as the Queen thinking that the world smells of paint) - it's amazing what can get done when royalty are coming...I don't quite know how they're going to get onto that road without seeing all of the other roads - maybe they're going to be dropped in by helicopter or something...

Anyway, as you can see in the picture, the road is a dual carriageway...and as they drive on the left in Thailand there shouldn't be any problems for us getting across it, right? Well, that's the theory, but the Thais have a pretty relaxed attitude to traffic regulations...we don't just have to look both ways when we're crossing each carriageway - we have to look both ways when we're crossing the pavement!

Right then, one more picture for you today...remember the picture I took out of the back of the bus? Well, here's what those buses look like from the outside.

We have a bank holiday here on Monday - so me and a few of the guys are going to go down to Koh Samet to see if we can do a bit of relaxing on the beaches...unfortunately it's not possible to book accommodation in advance so we're going to have to try and find somewhere when we get there - so let's hope it's as relaxing a weekend as planned.

Easy! Easy!

So here I am in Thailand. A unique country with a unique culture and a unique heritage. The areas of outstanding natural beauty are too numerous to mention and there are so many interesting places to visit and things to do. I know what you're all thinking...you're thinking "Paul, how come you haven't been to watch WWE SMACKDOWN LIVE?!". Well fear not cos last night we were there!

We took 5 coach loads of kids from the orphanage. It was all thanks to sponsorship from Isuzu D-Max Super Commonrail (whatever the hell that is) and I'm sure they'll be really glad of this plug on my blog.

Unfortunately Randy Orton couldn't be there but I don't think anyone cared as no-one had ever heard of him. I personally was very disappointed not to see Kendo Nagasaki...I was also a little put out that not once did the rest of the stadium join in with the chants we tried to start...


Since I've been here I've been trying to find somewhere that I can get a regular game of footy...a couple of weeks ago I wandered into a school (I didn't know it was) cos I had seen some people coming out dressed in football kits a few days earlier - I got a few strange looks...luckily the guy with "Army" written on the back of his jacket wasn't packing a pistol...Anyway - the other day I found out that some staff from the orphanage (and some other people) play every night at 6 O'clock...I played on Wednesday and I'm planning to play tonight as well...the game's a bit different here - the surface isn't the best and they generally play at a slower pace - I found out after 10 minutes why!

After the game one of the guys came up to me and said "Celtic...Roy Keane"...I wasn't sure whether he was referring to the shirt I was wearing or the overall quality of my play...I'm thinking it was the latter.

Btw - I just found out today that I got rejected for the PGCE course next year...I'm not too surprised as the interview didn't go that well, and in a way not too disappointed cos I wasn't too impressed with UWE but I have to be honest that I'm pretty pissed off that it took them this long to decide - cos now the course is full for my other choice!

Also, I haven't worked out who the anonymous commenter was on the last post...you'll have to give me another clue...the heat here affects your brain.