Just more fuel for the fire that is my Bangkok addiction: we were stuck in gridlock today during a long cab-ride across town, only to discover that a partial reason for the hold-up was a Valentine's Day Parade wending its way down one of the city's most traffic-clogged streets.

WHY this day needed a parade replete with Thai men wearing lurid Hawaiian shirts, pom-pom thrashing, lycra-clad women and a brass band, I simply can't say.

Insanity at its best.

But then again, I AM the individual who failed to find the Taj Mahal romantic, so maybe I'm just not suitably charmed by the cupid-and-flashing-red-love-heart scene. It's all starting to make sense ...