Rasseru

Bad news. The gathering at Tuskers this Friday is cancelled. Blinky can't make it. He says it has nothing to do with his having found, as recently reported on another topic, the pussy he had been so desperately seeking, but you may wish to draw your own conclusions.

Thanks, VIBE and in the sky. Would you had been here with your suggestions a year and a half ago, when I asked my question.

You have quite an ability to draw conclusions, sassienie, from a single experience two years in the past. It may well be that most of the time you draw correct ones, but I can assure you from experience, which while albeit limited is not nearly as limited as yours and is much more recent, that in this case you are quite and utterly wrong.

I'd like to post on the club's forum web site, but it requires administrator approval. So if anyone knows an administrator, tell them to check for recent signups and approve them.

There was recently some trouble with a bunch of Russians taking over the host of the web site for apparently nefarious purposes, which was still having the effect, last I heard, of preventing some functions on the web site from being performed. This could be one of them.

Kitanee will be off for the neutering asap.

Good. That'll teach her.

Excellent!

Since you spoke of a 'loaf' of bread, uptoyoumyfriend, this may be different from what you are seeking, but Buonissimo makes (and sells) a superbly delicious foccacia that is an excellent companion for cheese, salami and other such items.

I can see clearly now the smoke is gone

Yep, and it looks like today too is gonna be a bright, bright, bright, bright sunshiny day.

Today that particular translucence continued into the early evening. In this view to the north, one can see even the mountains of Chiangdao, off to the left side.

Given the particularly translucent air today, I was able to see Doi Inthanon this clearly from my balcony this morning.

Hello? Hello? Is there something about the word 'particularly' that makes it hard to read?

I hope the good weather continues for you good folk back in CM and look forward to being home soon.

Actually, the weather today is better and thus, in a way, worse. It is a very blue sky day, with far fewer of the clouds that have been capturing my fancy recently. An unalloyed good feature is that the air seems very clean and fresh and particularly translucent.

We look forward to welcoming you home soon. Keep us posted.

To the rescue, here he is! Thanks for that, M Hulot!

Bummer, Blinky. I think eek's idea is a good one. Even if it does not get Kitanee back home, I think the two of you being busy working on it together would be a good thing.

Since I was rude by going off topic previously perhaps this will help make up for it. Taken just a few minutes ago from my back yard.

You were no such thing, Tywais, but the pictures are great, so it more than doesn't make up for anything.

Forgive me, it won't last long, but if I might just slip discreetly back on topic for a moment, I've been thinking again today that the 'rainy season', which like so many labels captures a truth at the expense of hiding many others, is actually one of my favourite times in Chiangmai. The light is just amazing, don't you think? I started this topic talking about the clouds and light, but I'm back to them, because I think they define this season and are so beautiful but I've never heard anyone speak of them as constituting a magical part of Chiangmai at this time of year. Just a little while ago, I was looking at the sky to the north of town, and there was a great dark, really dark, patch of cloud and, from it to the ground below, the same darkness. That is, of course, it was raining all get out there or, to borrow an image suggested by the poem I quoted earlier, it was raining cats and dogs. Anyway, there was that, but then at the same time just off to the left (from the angle I was watching, I mean, but geographically at a point much further south) Doi Suthep was partially wrapped and covered in clouds too, but these were much lighter, and positively white where the sunlight was piling on to the other side of them, with gaps through which the uninterrupted sunlight spilled through quite intensely, erupting vegetal greens and other colours on the mountainside. What a contrast! I think it's marvelous. And that's what I mean by some of the truth that is denied by a term like 'rainy season', which, to me anyway, evokes only the rain and hints at none of the rest of this amazing stuff.

Btw, did anyone notice the tag for this thread?

That squirrel gave his life that we might meet with the good fortune that has been ours (except for the star-crossed kangeroo, poor lad) these last couple of days. I think he deserves all the recognition he's getting.

And Al Pacino's nose knows cappuccinos.....

As a small child, did you find entertaining the question, 'What noise annoys an oyster?'

Is 'Trouble' your middle name, Ulysses G.?

Many thanks, o:37, for that great story. Hey, maybe that little gecko shat himself when he fell in the soy-milk, based on having had similar stories told to him in his youth, and the resulting introduction into the soy-milk of the non-soy material caused a chemical reaction of some kind? Anyway, you are a kind orang.

Unlike Guillaume le Conquérant, who came and saw and . . . yes, conquered,

Actually it's Caesar who came, saw and conquered. . . .

I'll let you in on a not-very-well kept secret: Guillaume le Conquérant did too.

[Note questionable use of hyphens.]

Yessir, the one and only Guillaume le Clignotant. Unlike Guillaume le Conquérant, who came and saw and . . . yes, conquered, this is the one who came and saw and . . . blinked. Still, we love him. Or pretend we do, as long he's the big man picking up the tab and all.

But I digress!

To help us celebrate and revel in the return of Mr Blinky Bill to our shores, for however brief a time, he has condescended to appear before and with, and consume vast quantities of alcoholic beverages with, any who wish to reciprocate at a local establishment known and loved by most of us, namely, Tuskers, on the evening of Friday, July the 17th.

No formal word on the start time just yet, but I suggest that any who wish to join be thinking about gathering at 7-ish. This may change as the date approaches.

Oh, and no need whatsoever to pretend to love the man this time, as he will not be playing the big man and will not be picking up the tab.

I read with awe his request to me to explain to all that 'dickheads may attend' -- the sheer brazen effrontery and presumption take one's breath away, do they not? I mean, as if! Who else would dream of showing up, after all? I'll be there, naturally, and I join Guillaume in looking forward to your company.

the homeof Capachino

Do you mean "the home of Al Pacino"?

By the way, I wonder whether Al and his siblings, in other words Al et al, are all Pacini...

Should that not be, all Pacinoes?

It happens that I do not agree with much of what you say, Ulysses G., but I appreciate your comments, which I think are open and honest and heartfelt.

Ah, golden oldies time on TV Forum! This so great.