Going Domestic

how to make a bunny melt

P5250855
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

I felt rather like these exhausted bunnies at the Chatuchak Market after a few days of whirlwind house-hunting in Bangkok. That's what I'm going to use as my excuse for not blogging a bit about it until now ...

Bangkok was a surreal experience. It felt like it had to be at least 35 degrees Celcius every single day that we were there, yet at least three-quarters of the people walking around on the street, in the sun, were wearing long pants. One of our relocation agents even wore long sleeves everyday, which led me to believe that she must have been an alien in disguise.

The homes that we looked at were surreal, definitely. Much larger than our house in Calgary (and one had marble floors and columns), but there were no Canadian-style yards to speak of. A patio, and one had a small pool, but no grass to run around in. Most had their air-conditioning units turned off because they were vacant, which kind of made me regret not choosing a home on our very first day, because two fewer days of stepping into sauna-like homes would have been a good thing.

The result of our home-search is that we'll be spending the next 3-4 years in a very large apartment that has a swimming pool and a playground. It's in a gated community where ex-pats probably out-number the Thais 3-1, and I wonder if I will be disconcerted or comforted by the level of insulation from what normal life in Bangkok is supposed to be like. If I walked for 15 minutes, I'd come to a Starbucks, not a street-side food cart. Nonetheless, this location offered the best commute for Chris to his office, and for Madeline to preschool and beyond.

One evening Chris and I took a table-service dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya, and that was a definite highlight of the trip. We didn't have a chance to see the Grand Place or any of the wats during the day (though Chris did this past weekend). I really enjoyed cruising the department stores, as well. It was really good to see what kinds of thing were available in BKK if need (pretty much everything, it turns out, and much much more).

Chris and I walked down Ratchadamri Street on our first night in Bangkok, and I had thought that the young man selling food to feed the baby elephant by his side would be the most bizarre thing that I would see during our brief trip. I was proven wrong when we came upon the pet section of the Chatachuk Market and saw over-heated bunnies wearing doll-sized dresses. I'm not sure how many baht they were going for, but I really hope that every single one of them was liberated from the market to live a new life amid air-conditioning. Same goes for the squirrels on leashes ...

Ode to a 1993 Ford Tempo GL

O Tempo

Fourteen years is a good age for a car

Especially for one manufactured on this continent, methinks

100,600 kilometers

Two provinces and many points in between

You seem angry to have been left behind

For Newfoundland

Mocking me, falling apart since my return

New battery, new brake disk, new flasher

New belt of sepentine variety

And now, a new left turn signal bulb

Are you finished exacting your revenge?

Twenty-one days

and we will go our separate ways

What else will break on you?

Dining Room - June 11

Dining Room - June 11
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

It's really happening and it's really weird ...

Hatopia

  Hatopia 
  Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

Since packing up in St. John's, all of my knitting time has been spent on quick low-commitment projects. Hats, really. I've finished four in the last two months. These are the most recent three, and I wish that I'd picked more challenging patterns for them, but I guess that I can say that I've had lots of practice with increasing and decreasing. I think that the berry hat is the most successful of the three, but hopefully each of them gets some use!

I'd still love to knit the circular shrug, but I haven't any wool for it yet, and with moving from Calgary next week, I can't say it's in my future, either. The current knitted object of my affection is a lacey shawl from No Sheep, actually.  The pattern was originally worked in Handmaiden sea silk, which goes for something like $45/hank at my LYS. Currently, the thought that my expenditures on yarn should be proportional to my knitting skill level is what's keeping me from blowing all notions of a yarn budget ...

on notice ...

Therapy for those who don't do moves well :)

Tulip Tally

I think that tulip season here is winding down, so here are the results:

• Princess Irene
• Negrita (both from the 2003 and 2005 fall planting seasons)
• Menton (very lovely pink-lemonade colour)
• Black Hero
• Blushing Girl (the pink edging on the white petals used to be more vibrant)
  
• Marie Antoinette (though I don't have any successful bouquet action going on)

Kind of sad because the buds on quite a few of my other tulip clusters shriveled up instead of blooming. That's the problem that I had in the 2005 season. I eventually concluded that I was to blame in my eagerness to chop all of the foliage after the blooms were done, but I wasn't around last summer to do anything to the plants. I wonder what happened? Still not enough nutrients for the bulbs?

where do I apply for an alternate reality?

We've been back from the house-hunting & cultural orientation trip since Wednesday night. At the time, I thought that the trip was really useful, informative, and eye-opening, but the effect of taking thirteen days off from preparing for the move from the Calgary side of things makes me wish I had those thirteen days back to accomplish things here at home instead. I don't think that Chris or I really appreciated how little time we do have left. Reality hit hard yesterday, and I would prefer to hide under a rock than be here right now. The benefit to me of this move is being able to be there for my daughter for a few more years, but I am doubting that it's the right decision for everyone's mental health. What on earth am I doing going to Bangkok for 3-4 years?

Also doubting our decision to have some renos done here at home, lovely tile aside. Maybe it was because we were away and not available to chat with the workers on a regular basis, but the siding that was applied to our garage veered from the plan. What I am even more annoyed about is that we signed the contract, for siding and one new window, near the beginning of April, with a note that all work needed to be completed before the end of May (because for awhile we thought Chris would have a June 1 start date in BKK). It's June, and the window hasn't even been ordered from the manufacturer. The owner of the company came by unannounced on Friday afternoon, all concerned about how he'd get paid for the window with us moving away, and not appearing remotely concerned that he'd screwed up in a big way.  I wish that I had been more prepared to see him so that I could have said the right things. Ugh.

I learned that life would be so much pleasanter if we could all live in the business-class cabin of a Singapore Airlines' 747.