another day, another bed
Well I don’t suppose you can have every day filled with excitement. The last couple of days I have spent quite a bit of time chugging up and down the commuter train line. Actually chugging is the wrong phrase – these trains glide along with slick speed and efficiency. Inside are quiet, orderly passengers who sit there doing their own thing or occasionally as happened today, start the inevitable conversation ( by sign language) are they all yours? 8 of them? 4 boys, 4 girls? Very good! Smiles and congratulations all round. Not a pierced eyebrow, nose or lip in sight. Not a tattoo in sight. Not even any ‘scruffs’ in sight. One gets the uneasy feeling that such personal decorations might just be agin the law in these parts.
The reason or the train travel, was to go in search of baking soda which is apparently what all thoroughbred greenies use for everything from washing your hair, cleaning your teeth and preventing ingrowing toenails to polishing the family silver. It seemed that Rach’s supplies were getting low, and so we had to find more. Our couch surf host gave us the tip-off, where to buy this stuff in mega-sized packs. The spot was three stops down the line and so off went Rob and I in search of the dreaded white powder. We had been advised to go certain super market. This we eventually found, discreetly nestling in one corner of the biggest mega-mall I am likely to see for a long time.
Of course there was no mega pack to be found, but even if we had found it, we would not have bought it. With a mini-jar of vegemite costing HK$38, I shudder to think what the giant economy size pack of soda would have cost. So we returned, more or less empty handed, apart from half the bread sections supply, for our breakfast.
But we have had some more interesting encounters: on the train a well-groomed lady (in her 50’s I imagine) insisted on giving up her seat for me (by crikey, I must be looking even more decrepit than I feared) She then proceeded to do the usual thing of counting the kids etc. Later this evening we walked into noodle shop we had visited once before, a few days ago, The proprietor was delighted to see his little blond girls again and was all over them like a rather noxious rash. The girls endured stoically and without offending the owner. It paid off handsomely! At the end of our meal, the kids then all got served hot chocolates, and then we were all plied with pomelos and oranges! Sometimes it is quite helpful to have these little angles in tow!
Finally, if you are still with me, I saw a sight the other day that immediately had me thinking of a couple of good families I know, who have an addiction to a card game named “Shanghai” Whenever they guy together with 10 mins on their hands, out come the cards. This group made me think of them, maybe in a few years time!
Oh, the title just refers to the fact that most days we seem to be waking up in a different bed, and most of them are fairly memorable – I’ll and a pic or two now and again,
Tags: Family, Observations, Oddities, Transport, Tag IndexCouch surfing Bangkok airport
kiwijoe
March 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Imagine people’s reactions if they knew you had three boys sleeping on the floor next to you!!!!!