A quick note to point out that I rarely check the gmail account I set up specifically for anyone wanting to submit material for possible publication in “The Rounds,” for other e-mail. The submission e-mail address is:
squaronians[at]gmail.com
My personal e-mail address remains:
mekhongkurt[at]gmail.com
++++++++++
Nigel the Trucker has been in and out over the past few days, and sometimes, ah, “out of it” a bit — not as in “asleep,” but as in “having a senior moment.” So to speak.
He told a group of us a tale on himself the other day — which he kindly said I could share here — about a particularly festive evening he recently had. About dawn, he decided the particular premises is which he had been esconced for a happy evening that went on (and on and on and on), and announced to the few brave souls who had seen him safely through the dark and dangers of night that he was off to see George. When someone present asked which “George” he planned to grace with his early morn presence, he said, “George Pipas at the Lone Staar, of course!”
Understandably, since everyone knew George, they looked at Nigel as if he were from Pluto or some such, no doubt thinking, “He can’t be serious, can he???”
With no further ado, Nigel indeed struck out and really did hike over to the Texas Lone Staar — and it wasn’t until he saw it that he realized that it was out of business and George, sadly, is long departed.
Not that the rest of us in the ranks of the Squaronians can laugh too much, since most of us have had our own spells of being “lost in space,” as it were, when our friends will say, “Earth to Kurt! Come in, over!” Or whoever is adrift.
Everyone chuckled at Nigel’s self-deprecating tale if, perhaps, a wee bit nervously!
++++++++++
The American Thanksgiving Day is rushing right up, and this year will be next Thursday, November 24th. Around this neck of the woods, I know of three venues that will be offering traditional Thanksgiving fare. Here they are, in no particular order:
The Silver Dollar [www.dollarbangkok.com] will be offering turkey and all the trimmings for 390 baht per person. I got a list of what all will be on offer, but promptly misplaced it, and the menu isn’t up on the Silver’s website, so I can’t check there. Anyway, I think glazed ham is also on the menu for the day. The food will be available from early afternoon until it runs out, so get there early (or too bad for you! ;^)
Late edition: I got the graphic of Silver’s menu:
Next up is Bourbon Street[www.bourbonstbkk.com], which will have its Thanksgiving food available both Thanksgiving Day and the evening of Friday. On Thursday, it will be available 12:00 noon-10:00 P.M., while on Friday the hours will be 6:00 P.M.-10:00 P.M.
The price is 899++ baht for adults, and 450++ baht for children under 12.
You can see the complete Thanksgiving menu online here:
http://www.bourbonstbkk.com/thanksgiving_2011.html
Across over in Queen’s Park Plaza, the Moonshine (no website) will be offering free Thanksgiving Day food from “late afternoon” until the food runs out or closing time — 1:00 A.M. or so — comes. Further, for those who love post-Thanksgiving cold turkey sandwiches, if there’s any turkey left — and they’ve already bought several, so there well may be — they’ll offer turkey sandwiches until the turkey runs out from the day after Thanksgiving.
Note: if you do want a turkey sandwich, you better be there at 1:00 o’clock sharp come Friday afternoon, when the restaurant opens, or Burma Richard may beat you to it and gobble it all up! That man just looooooooves his turkey sandwiches!
So there you go — three of our regular haunts all offering up great food, friendly service, and plenty of beer, booze, and fun!
++++++++++
Lovisa, who wants to be Queen in her native Sweden (but decided she had to settle for something a bit less regal and become one of the rare-as-hens’-teeth-lady-Squaronians) is back in town, though so far, I’ve managed only to have a ships-passing-in-the-night sort of hail and farewell with her, as the one time I’ve seen her thus far she was busily blabbing away with some guy the other evening in the Silver Dollar.
In the pleasant 38 words or so we were able to exchange, she sounded as if she’s okay — and certainly delighted to be back in The City of Angels, the new Atlantis of the East, on the seductive banks of the Chao Phraya River, the River of Kings. And she looked fine, but that was before she decided to share a liter of vodka with another Squaronian, who shall remain unnamed to protect his reputation; after all, it’s not like he pinned her down and poured the potato juice (the fermented kind) down her throat against her will! ;^)
I suppose she’ll recover in a week or so, then perhaps we can have a proper visit.
++++++++++
If you’re not in Thailand but expecting to come anytime soon, please do check to see what the flood situation is if it’s anywhere in the affected areas, which is 50-something of Thailand’s 76 provinces, all told — including down in the Deep South, though those areas haven’t been hit as badly as has been a place like Ayutthaya, where World Heritage sites are in serious danger of structural damage.
Checking includes Bangkok, since yesterday the government announced (in yet another change in the news message emanating from the authorities) that those areas already flooded will remain so until the end of the year east of the river — and into next year on the west side (Thonburi), which is largely below sea level and has far fewer khlongs (canals) and water catchment areas than on this side of the river.
Unsurprisingly, tourism has been hard hit, as has business in public places of just about every sort. Stopped by Monet Bar last night to see Khun Noi and Khun Nok, two of my favorite Sweetie Pies, and they told me that in the past full week they each had gotten only six lady drinks — and counted themselves luckier than their colleagues, none of whom had gotten even that many. Last time I was on Soi Cowboy 2-3 weeks ago, you could have cut loose with a machine gun from either end and not harmed a soul! And I hear it’s that way, not just in the night entertainment areas, but in the fancy-dancy (and vastly overpriced) shopping malls, hotels, etc.
But if you can come — please do. The Kingdom is suffering mightily, and never mind that past governments have failed to do enough to avoid the problems: common Thais and foreign investors alike are suffering, as much of the world knows from the disruptions in vehicles from Japanese auto makers, who source a bunch of stuff from here. No, I’m not suggesting you come here to buy your next Lexus, but you’re visiting, whether for holiday or business or a mix, you’ll be staying in a hotel, eating in restaurants, and the like. Unless you decide to camp on a beach or sleep under a bridge, and buy food from a 7-Eleven or Family Mart — but even THEN, you’ll be giving business to Thai franchise owners!
Note: I DO NOT get any commission for writing this. Dadgummit all.
++++++++++
Good news from The Minnesota Mob. It’s my understanding “Chuckling” Charlie and Bubba “The Enforcer” will be here again come next March. I got that second-hand, but will be checking with the lads directly to make sure (1.) they really aren’t joking, and, (2.) to keep them on the rails so they don’t get distracted and decide to go to some Buffalo Turd Tossing Championship in North Dakota instead. (Sometimes suburban Minneapolisites have to pinch pennies these days, you know.)
I imagine the lads are getting all fired up for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. The two of them are significant consumers of the approximately 45,000,000 turkeys raised in Minnesota each year, consistently winning “Turkey King of the Year” awards each year, complete with a crown fashioned from turkey wishbones. (The crowns’ “hatbands” — they each receive one — are fashioned from a turkey’s — well, never mind; you really don’t want to know.)
In any case, Turkey Kings or not, we’ll be looking forward to their next arrival come spring turkey migration.
++++++++++
The Bangkok Post ran a nice interview with me headlined “CONFESSIONS OF AN ORDINARY CITIZEN:
A foreign nobody” conducted by a couple of Chulalakorn seniors in the Faulty of Communication Arts International Program, who tracked me down in the Square some weeks ago, which I had completely forgotten until Burma Richard called me right after reading it. And I didn’t remember it even then — until I pulled it up online.
The piece is one in a series of 12 such stories the newspaper is running.
The guys did a good job of it; unlike so many many stories about the Square, Squaronians, and expats in general — it’s not a hatchet job. (CNN retains the crown for running that kind of crap.)
Not quite sure why they changed my name to “Robert,” but never mind. I mean, it’s not as if the authorities can’t find me in about 17 seconds should they be so moved. Anyway, if you’re of a mind to read one Squaronian’s bemused musings and wandering ramblings, you can find them here:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/feature/people/266124/a-foreign-nobody
++++++++++
While I’m not the least bit interested in getting off into the cesspool that passes for American politics these days, I would like to comment about my Governor’s — presidential candidate for the Republican nomination — Rick Perry’s — “brain freeze” in a recent debate when he plumb forgot the third of three federal agencies he would eliminate the moment he took office, were he to manage to make his way to the White House.
Though I personally still have some questions for the Governor before I’m willing to endorse his request for the keys to the Oval Office, I do, and publicly have, defended him for this lapse.
I started off this column with Nigel’s own tale of his own “brain fart” — which is the more earthy way we refer to such moments in both Texas and around Washington Square. So the Guv suffered his own brain fart.
I mentioned in writing Nigel’s tale that those of us present when he spilled the beans about himself laughed — nervously. Anyone out there who hasn’t also brain-farted along somewhere back along the line also, undoubtedly, also walks on water, turns lead into gold, and the like.
Okay, I’ll ‘fess up. It did give me a certain evil satisfaction to know that a candidate leading the field in terms of the amount of campaign money raised, and therefore [presumably] well-tutored and prepped by advisers brain-farted. For the high and mighty to fall — well, okay, stumble — does give some small measure of comfort to us miserable little nobodies! ;^)
Of course, Governor Perry has a ways to go if he hopes to catch up with his competitor Michele Bachmann, she of great fame for her continuous rewriting of American history . . . which — I hope — he doesn’t hope. LOL!
++++++++++
Went to Coyote Mexican Restaurant yesterday to give it a try at lunch yesterday, the first time since I went there a couple of times immediately after it opened. I ordered a bowl of chili con carne and tortilla soup. They wer just fine, but not as good as the food I had had there before was. Considering I had nothing to drink except a (free) glass of water, I felt my bill of something over 500 baht — somewhere in the range of US$17.00 — was considerably excessive.
No, I wasn’t blindsided; the prices were on the menu. While I normally don’;t spend anywhere near that much for what was, after all, a simple meal, I decided that since it had been a couple of years and since I had loved the food previously, I would splurge.
Again — I enjoyed the food, took home half of it and got another complete meal out of it (making the high price more reasonable, two meals for the money spent) — but it’ll be awhile before I go again. That’s just a bit much.
Otherwise, the decor, atmosphere, and service are all excellent, so if your on a corporate credit account and like Mexican food, by all means, have at it. Taste-wise, you can do a helluva lot worse than to splurge on Coyote’s food.
++++++++++
I know, I KNOW — no pictures. But, hey, gimme a break — no ADS, either! About 2,100 words of “The Wit and Wisdom of Mekhong Kurt”! (Mom, would you please pipe down and stop laughing hysterically???)
++++++++++
Enough for one go
Mekhong Kurt
++++++++++
Mekhong Kurt's "The Rounds" 