Ninjas STILL can't catch you if you're on fire

...where does the freaking time go, ughhhhh. A lot has happened since I last posted, and that wasn't even a "real post". Don't really feel much up to a detailed recap so here are random bullet points.

-work still enjoyable, semi-quiet lulls interspersed with STRESS STRESS I AM ANNOYED BY THE DESIGNER TEAM THEY VEX ME AUGHHHH STRESS
-house dry now, water's been gone for 2-3 weeks and Dad and Sue have been speedy in getting everything in somewhat fighting shape again. Tentative moving back date sometime in Jan, though of course the entire ground level is gutted and will be empty for a while. We even had new ceilings put in, hopefully the mold won't return. Might be pretty hardy, since the house was under 2-3m of water for 2 straight months.
-Ma's one year anniversary came and went without me breaking down into a useless gibbering heap too badly-- Dad was thoughtful enough to take me out to dinner that night so that I got back to the hotel room late and tired, and the next day I went and made merit with my aunt and uncle and spent some time at their house, where I got to see my grandma and the cat. Khun Yai still skinny, cat still FAT lol. Ex-stepdad didn't post anything about the date on FB, but he "liked" my status about it. WOW.
-speaking of moods, I have been up and down and all around these past few weeks but it's in times like these when friends and your remaining family can be so wonderful and lovely. I would go into more whine and cheese about how I seem to have gotten more anxious about a worrying amount of things when I have the time to think about them but I can't be bothered at the moment, hah!
-christmas eve was spent at a friend's party with my int'l school people. On paper it sounded like a kids party (but with tequila and baileys) but in reality it was awesome. Christmas day was spent making my other friend feed me (muslim friend & hotel kid brat unite in not really seeing this holiday as a family thing lol), watching the Swedish Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and being introduced to the amazing world of REVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENGE. Awesome. Eps 1-4 down, now gimme moaaar.
-in Europe I always thought I was too Thai to really fit in there. Now at work I realize that I am not broadly Thai enough to really fit in w/ my colleagues-- though this is different when I'm with my international school friends, who are themselves either Thai or half-halfs. Specialized identity it is then! Also then I will just own the fact that people don't expect me to own the sometimes unnecessary nuanced conversations in the office lol and here I thought I was passive-aggressive by European standards. This isn't to say that I am not enjoying my office and colleagues though, this is just something I've been trying to articulate to myself.
-SO MANY PEOPLE IN BANGKOK UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH CROWDS WHYY.
-should probably look into mirroring to DW soon but this is something I will ignore until I have constant net at home again. I miss comment subject lines though! UGH

...anyone have any decent end of year memes to pass around? I haven't had the time to really look.

ATLANTIS, VERSION TWO: COMMENCE.

Thailand is currently experiencing its most intense flooding in recent history. It's all but reaching catastrophic levels, in terms of scope at the very least. As of today, SIXTY of 77 provinces have been affected in some manner, with 12 severly affected (water above 3 meters and counting) and 17 critically affected. Over 2.3 million people are currently affected, with over 252 dead. Most of our dams are operating at peak or more capacity, which means that along with the flooding caused by rains alone, you also have the water that needs to be systematically released downstream to deal with.

I've been tweeting intermittenly about this since the flooding situation has really started getting worse here and is now kind of affecting me directly (always makes a thing different, doesn't it), but it has actually been ongoing since about July and I've mostly just discussed it with local friends and my family before. But the last few weeks and most importantly DAYS have shown that these are not the usual floods that are a yearly occurence in Thailand. Quite frankly, and what many are saying is that it's never been flooding THIS much before. People are used to a certain amount of hardship because of the floods, but it seems that now we have a perfect storm of the recent string of tropical depressions hitting SE Asia back to back, the monsoon rains from the rainy season and just not enough planning for effective waterways and deforestation over the years all culiminating into the epic shitshow that is going on here. We're not a country used to natural catastrophes-- now (military-backed) coups, on the other hand....--, so people aren't trained to make the "right" decisions, to evacuate instead of stubbornly staying in their houses with their possessions (again, also understandable) and this makes all the rescue and relief efforts all the more difficult.


(flood footage starts after ca 40 seconds. The aerial shot is just stupendous)
The water is UP TO FOUR METERS HIGH in parts of Ayutthaya. 80% of that province is under water, and Lopburi, Singhburi and other low-lying provinces like Ang Thong are equally hard hit. At first one worried about the Northern provinces and they had had some pretty nasty floods earlier in the year, flash floods from the mountain rivers, some mudslides, but now it's Central and pretty much the rest of Thailand's turn. Only time will tell how long it'll take us to collectively drag ourselves out of this mess, and I can only hope our politicians get their heads out of their useless, corrupt asses to tackle this matter effectively. The military at least seems to be acquitting itself well in dispensing aid to people, I must admit. But what Thailand really needs to wake-up to after this is the fact that you fucking have to think of the enviromental factors when you plan/build things, especially in a country with our soil make-up, with our history of flooding. Our ancestors got it right, but of course greed makes you do other things instead. We're all so very short-sighted when it comes to this kind of planning and it is so, so completely frustrating to hope that this will change soon. Ugh.

But just to reassure everyone, we're fine here. Our province, being one of the surrounding ones between BKK and Ayutthaya is flooded, although the worst has thankfully still left our mooban and house untouched. The communities near the klongs and river are a whole 'nother matter though, and the flooding on the roads around those areas meant that I am inadvertantly stranded this weekend, as my tiny car wouldn't have been able to make it through the wall of water. Luckily Dad's Ford can still hack it, otherwise getting to work on Monday and the following week will sure be very interesting for all three of us. The next doomsdate that people are fearing is the 11th, when we're expecting the next amount of water to come down from one of the big dams. We shall see. Now that the waters are starting to rise in BKK, people there are suddenly panicking and emptying all the supermarkets etc of food and stockpiling. Everyone was counting on BKK to stay unscathed and now they're all rattled out of their "well it's upcountry. Not affecting me, tch" mentality. I mean, to give credit, people have really been donating a helluva lot and helping with the relief efforts but the last heavy flood that BKK had was over a DECADE ago. Bangkokians never expect to have to deal with such things.

The worries about the dams and if we can drain enough of the water through the dykes into the sea kind of feels like the BKK of The Wind-Up Girl now, I have to say XD.

A grab-bag, as again I find myself unable to do these things in a timely manner.

BOOKS!
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire + Mockingjay
It's been nearly more than a month since I finished both these books and of course since I didn't take any notes I have only the vaguest of recollections.
( STILL, cutting for spoilers for both (but mostly for Mockingjay) )

Feed by Mira Grant
THIS BOOK. Wow. I had heard that it was good, but I did not expect to be so involved and caught up with the plot and the characters the way I was.
( ZOMBIES AND BLOGGERS OH MY )

MOVIES!
Chua Fah Din Salai
( OH THIS MOVIE )

RED
( YEAHHHH )

Kick-Ass
( I still can't get over how stupid I find his outfit. Which I assume is the point, but still. )

I can has a sad that these precious days of being slob are again numbered. I had all these plans of Facial! Massage! Go to the gym to make up for missing Friday (DAMMIT but my PT wasn't there anyways and I am so lax on my own, ahh I BLAME THE SURPRISE EARLY SHIFT CHANGE)! What did I end up doing? Spending way too much time online of course, though I got some delightful phone calls with RL friends here and skyping with Carmen and others in. Carmen is now basically the one of us living up the 20-something life. She goes out occasionally! There are Hot Dudes of Interest vying for her affection! And I am basically on the edge of my seat going TELL ME MOAAAAR as we skype XDD. I am just so super pleased for her, and it is high time that dudes finally recognize the hot slice of fabulous my dear BFF is ♥

Did get some quality mother-daughter time with Ma too, delish Dimsum lunch at the Dhara Dhevi (CASTLE IN THE SKYYYY) Oriental, followed by raiding their cake shop for sweet noms. I had cherry sherbet, bought some berry cake, a chocolate scone and a mini box of macaroons (olive! pistachio! banana passion!), as well as an intriguing Tom Kha Gai(!!!) praline.

But to fill this entry with more than just RL yammering, here are
Things on the Internet That Have Made Me Happy:
"Alex Wong from Ballet to Hip-hop" ...SYTYCD is by far one of my favorite reality shows and it almost makes me want to take dance lessons, but I still always feel to uncoordinated and am still at the phase where I dislike looking at my sweaty, red-faced self in mirrors. ALEX IS THE BEST THOUGH, oh my god I love male ballet dancers so fucking much. And that hip-hop routine in the end! BRILLIANT and those bits where he was doing the ballet moves in that street gear? *swoooooons*
Alex Wong and Billy Bell on SYTYCD ...seriously, Alex Wong would've won this fucking season, aughhh it still is so horrible that he got injured. And he just looks smoking hot here, guh. More bonus points for that particular version of "This Bitter Earth/On the Nature of Daylight" unfff that song. SHIVERING RN.
"Kombat Dancers gone haywire" ...seriously, I MEAN LOOK AT THIS DUDE. The fact that they're dancing this in such full regalia penguin suits makes everything even more extra special XDD
EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAS TO DO WITH THE NEW OLD SPICE ADS ...SO GENIUS, THE END. The way Isiah Mustafa says HELLO LADIES (and well, everything tbqh) will never stop to crack me up <333333333. And ladypolitik made genius icons and animated gifs HERE!
Touhou Vid set to "Bad Apple" ...b&w and trippy as all get out. SO HYPNOTIC and just amazingly well made. It helps that I am also mildly obsessed with the song, but I know barely diddlysquat about Touhou and have already rewatched this a few times, ahh.
STAR TREK + GODGA FANART ...why didn't I realize that bits of the Alejandro are basically VULCAN PON-FARR as well sjakfhjafs ahahaha oh man I will never look at those bowl-cuts the same way again. Spock looks adorable, to boot ♥

And last but certainly not least,
25 Lives tongari's submission to SSBB defies description in how gorgeous, moving and brilliant it is. I have had this open in a tab for AGES, and I still don't get sick of coming back and just staring at it again and again. The second panel is one of my favorites, though all the scenarios are just. AHHH ♥ Highly recommended!

BECAUSE IT IS HOT AS HELL HERE. Ahh, you know you're back in (South-East) Asia when leaving the airport, even at half past 5 in the morning feels like walking into a SOLID WALL OF HUMID HEAT. Either I will acclimatize again soon, or start counting "taking cold showers" as one of my new hobbies. This entry will be shorter than I want, because I actually should be in bed right now, for another 5AM wake-up to go into town with Dad looms and of course I am still awake now. FOR TOMORROW I FLY TO ~*SINGAPORE*~ and will be hopefully getting that internship interview aced, see cool things and have a fab time with Mother dearest and our two neighbors who're tagging along aaaaaaaaaand meet the wonderful hemlocke. I AM EXCITE ALREADY <33

AUSTRIA, packing:
- Utterly and completely failed at this mysterious thing called ~TIME MANAGEMENT~
- Freaked the fuck out about my luggage weight, made last minute package that I dropped off at the post (11kgs lol), threw away a few things that I really shouldn't have (Carmen's naked man calender gift! sobsobsobbbb) BECAUSE MY ACTUAL LUGGAGE ENDED UP WEIGHING 15 FUCKING KILOS *headdesks foreverrr*
- Sabrina gave me the greatest gift ever by not being home on Saturday, so I didn't go through with my plan of sticking a big ol' grand FU note on her door. I was so pressed for time that I wouldn't have had the time anyways, but I am choosing to believe that this will help my karma lol. I pity the poor fool that moves in after me though...

AUSTRIA, airport/flight:
- Clemens totally saved my ass with helping me run and haul my luggage from the bus stop to the S-bahn station, making me safe from just about missing my train. I was telling him that my farewell gift was showing him all the shitty sides of my personality though lol(procrastination leading to epic missing of things and general tardiness). He was a tremendous help, and I admit that I felt a bit bad for thinking badly about him before (well, okay he IS actually a selfish dick most of the time. Which makes his actions now even nicer, I guess?)
- Flight was actually awesome-- great food (seriously!), I sat near the toilets and a nice old auntie who turned out to be a really famous Thai author?? A fact that made me kind of retroactively wish I engaged in smarter chit-chat, but I seem to have amused her either way? (She was gently mocking of the way I cracked up and generally fidgeted when I was watching the inflight entertainment, lol whoops). Hardly slept during the flight due to the movies I was watching: Avatar (admittedly pretty visuals but oh the faiiiil, how it burned), It's Complicated (more fun than expected, and god the food in this flick looked delish) and The Young Victoria (more interesting and engrossing than expected. Kept thinking about that hilarious Kate Beaton comic though, which possibly added to my enjoyment <33)

THAILAND, homecoming:
- Dad actually picked me up, which was wonderful and I totally annoyed him in like ten minutes flat because I was keyed up as hell from my flight and he had just dragged himself out of bed at 4AM to come get me <33
- Doggies freaked the fuck out when they saw me, which is always super gratifying. Nero looks older and older every time I see him but he at least seems fit. Ace is a GIANT DOOFUS, the end.
- Khun Yai MADE A GIANT BATCH OF MY ULTIMATE FAVORITE BANANA CHIPS. Just because she knew I was coming! AHHHH BLISS *noms* Also, I have already had fresh ripe mangoes from our gardens and from the farm and more fruit to come~. And in food news, Dad snagged me a pot of Foie Gras spread, and has been making the most delicious things as per my whims. He has an invitation to attend a Chef's Dinner at the Oriental hotel this Thursday that features a TWELVE COURSE PASTA MENU, along with the accompanying wine and I am just horrendously jealous.

I must say that I am glad to have people in my life who shove my resisting self into the blinding rays of ~*TRUTH*~, as I am always happy to sail my good ship Let's Not Think About It Too Hard on the winding river of Denial. Kind of silly, but still true case in point:

(early this week)
KAZ: MAN EATING THE GIANT BAG OF GRADE-A WALNUTS THAT DAD GAVE ME IS FANTASTIC. BEST SNACK EVER, AND EVEN BETTER WITH ALL THE MÜSLI I EAT *munches throughout the day*
(later in the week)
KAZ: MAN I AM SOMETIMES GETTING A WEIRD FEELING IN MY CHEST. SURELY IT CAN'T BE FROM ALL THE WALNUTS, RIGHT? SHOULD I GOOGLE "WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I EAT TOO MANY NUTS IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME"? NAWWW SOMETHING THIS DELICIOUS COULD NEVER BE BAD *drizzles more honey on them, munches*
(today)
KAZ: HEY cheshire_tabby, IT'S NOT A BAD THING, RIGHT?? I MEAN, THERE IS STILL A THIRD LEFT IN MY BAG...
OLGA: ...actually, it isn't the best idea. At all. You should probably stop.
KAZ: .........DAMMIT.

Especially now that I checked and it actually was a 1 kg bag. Maaaan, I had this nice delusion going that it was less. And now I have to buy new snack food to mix things up a bit, even though I was trying to nom my way through the mass I already have. I still have two more 1kg bags of almonds and pine nuts, as well as a 250g pack of salted macadamias...

In other less blatantly ridiculous news, ( (cut for blather) )

TL;DR: I cannot eat anything in moderation and am a total unfun reverse-vampire senior citizen (credit goes to laliandra for that term <33)

Bits of 2009, the Nearly Done Now Edition:
...first off, I gotta say that I have given up the idea of posting any pics of Copenhagen or assorted summer things I meant to do, so uh. ADD ME ON FACEBOOK if you haven't already, it's all nice and sorted with ~genius~ commentary, even. OR APPROVE MY FRIEND REQUEST AHEM AHEM YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE ;DD lol j/k take your time, dude ♥

That said, here be a commentated ~~List of Viennese restaurants~~ that Carmen and I (with assorted guest stars and other friends adding to our numbers randomly, of course) visited last year. I was talking to her about how things were waaaay back in the first semester when we weren't that close yet, and remembered that our friendship was basically built on lunch dates. Which we had weekly at the Coffee Day near the uni. Lolol oh how we've improved, to say the least!

( VIENNESE NOMS 2009. Tried to add the restaurant links if possible for future refs and all that. )

AND IF YOU READ THROUGH ALL THAT, you now know why I hardly ever go clubbing: I spend all my money on food and eating out :Db And I DO NOT REGRET A THING ♥

...wow coding and typing this up took ages. THREE AM AGAIN, DAMN YOUUUUU.

It is amazing how I can suddenly realize that I haven't been online since at least a few days and have not much more than the vague feelings of guilt at not getting back to some people as negative reactions. The last few days have been filled with pretty happening things, so I guess that explains it.

First off: INTERNSHIP: SUCCESS! Hello, nice shiny formulaic confirmation letter that will hopefully be a bit of needed polish to my still quite average CV! All in all, and considering all my bitchery along the way, I remain confident that this internship was the right thing to do. Sure, it would have been nice to have actually been in the ad department like I wanted to in the first place, but I learned a lot in the PR department regardless, and it's not like knowing my stuff in this area will hurt my prospects. It's good to know that it's an area I could be good in, even if it might not be The One Job to rule them all. And the lessons in "Don't fucking underestimate the menial work.... oh you did, did you? Damn, that was stupid" smarted a bit, but ultimately? Were worth gold.

This didn't stop the fact of my last actual day being pretty lamesauce, because THEY FUCKING FORGOT IT WAS MY LAST DAY laaaaaaaaaaaaaawl and here I thought I was being pretty damn obnoxious in mentioning how often I was gonna be gone soon but uh, apparently not! So I ended up eating deliciously lunch all on my lonesome after waiting a bit for the lunch invite that never came ahahaha oh man, the "out of sight, out of mind" adage really was true, wrt to me not being at the PR floor anymore. They all seemed a bit ashamed after they found out though, and I got a chocolate "gold medal" from one of the staff, and multiple invitations for lunch the last week I am back in BKK. The unofficial feedback I got from the P' who supervised my weekly bank advertisement analysis of being "pretty much the best intern we've had so far who was doing this" was a welcome ego-boost, ngl.

AND NOW I AM IN CHIANG MAI, and it is awesomeness concentrated. I love being in Ma's gorgeous and airy house, our days are filled with joy and fun and I feel like a happier, prettier and all-round better person when I spend time here. I mean, I also get an added kick of slight self-loathing when I actually see myself in the nice lighting here, but it is at least the type of ".......jesus christ, I actually look like THIS??" that gets you out and about to do something about it, not the "I will lock myself in my room and binge-eat now :((" unproductive kind. Tomorrow we will be spending the day at the fitness studio, and I will have my first Pilates class! Man, I will be so screwed :D Good thing today was ~*SPA DAY*~ though, Andy bought Ma a hardcore birthday pampering session that we managed to whittle down a bit, because seriously? FIVE HOURS AT THE SPA? Seems a bit too much. We ended up doing a steam session, followed by a herbal scrub (tamarind and some herbal salt), an oil massage (some kind of floral oil.. Ylang-ylang), a Thai massage session AND a hair spa (kaffir lime treatment oh yes).

MMMMMMMMH DECADENCE ♥

Not much left in the actual day here, but it still needs to be said:

HAPPY (THAI) MOTHER'S DAY!!



In case you don't know, the birthdays of their Royal Highness's the King and Queen are also simultaneously Father and Mother's Day in Thailand (5th of December and the 12th of August). I watched the royal news yesterday and a bit of the Queen's yearly speech-- the entire royal family barring the King (EDIT: he was there too! Yay!) was present, and everyone was wearing outfits in this lovely shade of light blue (the Queen's color and the designated color of Friday, her day of birth), so adorable! She's 77 years old now, and still extremely awesome with a wonderful sense of fashion-- check out this fabulous hat, hello :DD


I also called Ma and Khun Yai today like the good daughter/grandchild I am, will only be seeing Ma again sometime next week though, which at least gives me time to cough up some jasmine-related product (=garlands or other forms of jasmine flowers being the traditional Mother's Day gift) ...am still looking for her birthday present-- she's turning 49 years old on the NINTH of the NINTH MONTH in 2009, lol we sure as hell need to buy some lottery tickets that day!

SO HAVE YOU SHOWN YOUR MOTHERS SOME LOVE TODAY?? Tell them it's an extra-bonus day ;DD

PS I so needed this day off nnnnnnnnnnng sleep <33