Hi one and all.

A strange thing just happened. I live with my girlfriend above her clothes shop, up country. She opened a few months back and has been doing ok. Im not religious (but have respect for the whole thing) but she is - daily she will light josh sticks, buy fruit for the Buddah shrines in our home and every couple months will employ the services of a local chinese priest who comes over and blesses her and stuff.

Anyhow, whilst walking through the shop we just noticed a small hex shape bit of folded paper on the floor. On one side is a picture of the ying/yang, and on the other a picture of a rather nasty looking bloke, kinda reminds me of the faces you see gauding temples (you know they usualy have swords). The paper is bright red.

It transpires that a 'customer' has brought this into the shop, and she belivives malisiously... An atempt to bring bad luck on the shop which again, is doing ok and may have wound up the local competition.

Or, is this just a harmless little piece of paper.

Im ashamed to admit, its kinda freked me out a little! We dont have any enemys in this town that we know of, so what the freak is going on?

Or is this just a load of old balls, and should just be laughed off?

By the way, she promptly phone the local priest who told her to bury it in a bit of wasteland outside the shop, he will come buy tommorow and check it out. Quiet a strange moment for me on my hands and knees burying a bit of paper outside the shop.

Any feedback?

No doubt gf will believe its serious, just go along with what she says and take her seriously.

Weel, yes i suppose. Had i been on my own, i would have used it as rolling backy and laughed it off. The locals got me a bit freaked though - all gathered round looking in all directions kinda thing.

Nah. Its <deleted>. Right?

if you're still worried, put it in an envelope and post it to a fake address on the other side of the world, Africa maybe. And don't put your return address on it

whilst it may seem a little odd to you, just respect her belief and go along with it. i find the whole thing really fascinating. it will be interesting to hear what the old boy says tomorrow....

To add to my other post, after you done that get some monks over to the shop for a blessing ceremony, and follow it up with an astrology reading to make sure its all over. Ask the mor doo doang (astrologer psychic fellow) some general future question (will business be ok). Thais love this kind of stuff.

not only thais. i love it. i jump at the chance to go to the fortune teller with my thai friends.

I have to confess, I like it too.

Its been a funny week with all of this. Grover mentioned the mor doo doang....

I have met the mor doo doang before, a couple of times. Funnily enough, he is booked in for 'a job' on friday with me. When he was here a couple days ago, he told me that 33 (my age) is a very bad number for me, and traditionaly unlucky in Chinese circles. I told him not to worry... only 6 months to go and ill be 34. In jest i said to him "but im sad about another 6 months of bad luck". So he suggested releasing 33 birds free. Sure, i said, not knowing the full implications... I was a tourist once and remember letting birds free outsife beer bars on Soi 4. Simple enough. "lets do it". He grabs a piece of paper and begins writing down a list of stuff thats i have to buy, in addition to 33 birds;

Plate of oranges, bananas, 33 birds, A PORTRAIT OF ME FROM THE LOCAL ARTIST! - at a cost of 420 baht - 12 small black fish to release into the river, and loads of other stuff...all for a cermony this friday that i didnt even know i agreed to. The list covered an entire lenght of A4. I estimate a couple of thousand bahts worth of stuff to buy. He gave it to me, and i asked him if it was a 'quote for spiritual services'.

Then he asked me for my birth time (he already had the date) i told him 7am. He looks into a little book, hits the calculater a few times and says "i need 1712 baht from you, for luck. Ill give it to the temple". (note - i have no doubt about this, the guy is genuinely pasionate about this and is very respected in the area) I was then to put this money in a little envelope that he blessed. I then realsied that he got the month of birth wrong, he worked it out as june, not july. I should have kept my gob shot, as the money for luck then shot up to 2566 baht. July births are apparently a little more expensive to bless.

He asked mne for the money there and then, my girlfriend explained that he goes to the temple first - i said i didnt have it without going to the bank and tried to humour him by asking for an invoice together with VAT number. i then pull my CC card and ask him if he had a portable swipe machine in his vintage Honda Accord. The jokes went over his head, the mrs gave me a look of murder and we agreed on payment on the day. Not before i agreed to put 250 baht of it in the envelope and stand in the corner of the shop with the envelope in my wai asking Buddah for luck though.

if i hadnt come down to make coffee, i would never have bumped into him in the shop. To be honest, after a heavy Christmas, im a bit skint and could do without this. The mrs will never forgive me if i cancel, so i will just go through with it. Best part o 4000 baht that coffee cost me.

So with all of this in mind, im a little dissapointed that some other swine has decided to curse us with a gargantuan devil like hex emblem. I moved up country to save a little dough - not to spend it on local priests! Oh well, when in rome and all that.

think of it as an investment in the spiritual health insurance for your family and store

Its been a funny week with all of this. Grover mentioned the mor doo doang....

I have met the mor doo doang before, a couple of times. Funnily enough, he is booked in for 'a job' on friday with me. When he was here a couple days ago, he told me that 33 (my age) is a very bad number for me, and traditionaly unlucky in Chinese circles. I told him not to worry... only 6 months to go and ill be 34. In jest i said to him "but im sad about another 6 months of bad luck". So he suggested releasing 33 birds free. Sure, i said, not knowing the full implications... I was a tourist once and remember letting birds free outsife beer bars on Soi 4. Simple enough. "lets do it". He grabs a piece of paper and begins writing down a list of stuff thats i have to buy, in addition to 33 birds;

Plate of oranges, bananas, 33 birds, A PORTRAIT OF ME FROM THE LOCAL ARTIST! - at a cost of 420 baht - 12 small black fish to release into the river, and loads of other stuff...all for a cermony this friday that i didnt even know i agreed to. The list covered an entire lenght of A4. I estimate a couple of thousand bahts worth of stuff to buy. He gave it to me, and i asked him if it was a 'quote for spiritual services'.

Then he asked me for my birth time (he already had the date) i told him 7am. He looks into a little book, hits the calculater a few times and says "i need 1712 baht from you, for luck. Ill give it to the temple". (note - i have no doubt about this, the guy is genuinely pasionate about this and is very respected in the area) I was then to put this money in a little envelope that he blessed. I then realsied that he got the month of birth wrong, he worked it out as june, not july. I should have kept my gob shot, as the money for luck then shot up to 2566 baht. July births are apparently a little more expensive to bless.

He asked mne for the money there and then, my girlfriend explained that he goes to the temple first - i said i didnt have it without going to the bank and tried to humour him by asking for an invoice together with VAT number. i then pull my CC card and ask him if he had a portable swipe machine in his vintage Honda Accord. The jokes went over his head, the mrs gave me a look of murder and we agreed on payment on the day. Not before i agreed to put 250 baht of it in the envelope and stand in the corner of the shop with the envelope in my wai asking Buddah for luck though.

if i hadnt come down to make coffee, i would never have bumped into him in the shop. To be honest, after a heavy Christmas, im a bit skint and could do without this. The mrs will never forgive me if i cancel, so i will just go through with it. Best part o 4000 baht that coffee cost me.

So with all of this in mind, im a little dissapointed that some other swine has decided to curse us with a gargantuan devil like hex emblem. I moved up country to save a little dough - not to spend it on local priests! Oh well, when in rome and all that.

so do the 33 year old thais that make 100 baht a day for working in the fields get the same raw deal or what? i guess he did say you would be unlucky for six more months, maybe he was just trying to show you he wasn't joking. not too lucky having to pay 4000 baht. if you luck hasn't improved after that can you receive a refund for services not rendered.