I Love Today In Chiangmai

[Rasseru]

What a beautiful day it is today in Chiangmai. The sky is full of clouds, ranging from white to deep grey, with very occasional breaks through to the blue beyond. It's bright, cool, fresh and quiet. Quite delightful.

Or at least, so I think.

What do you all think about it?

[Ulysses G.]

I agree. I had pretty good company while I was opening my shop this morning too.

[daoyai]

YES!, when the rain let up last night, I walked around the moat in the cool air for some needed exercise and have just returned from a great meal at Pun Pun (wat Suan Dok). perfect.

[slapout]

Agreed, beautiful day. So pleasant the morning I am making a pot of chili, ok not winter time but its good enough weather wise and I am not patient.

[MonsieurHulot]

This morning, I wanted to sleep until 9, unfortunately I woke up at 6. I went to the kitchen only to find out that the coffee machine was out of service. A little bit edgy, I decided to have a walk in the garden. Bad idea, first thing I saw was a dead squirrel.

Otherwise, I agree that today is a beautiful day.

[bojo]

The pool was the coolest it's been since January, so revitalising early in the morning. Followed by people watching over breakfast at 'The Kafe' on the moat. Not bad but the cappucino was only 1cm deep! Loadsa tourists ambling around, probably relieved at the break in the weather.

No dead animals so far!

Regards Bojo

[eek]

Couldnt sleep at all last night so I was up with the larks..or should i say those big talkative birdies that i dont know the name of. (Two regularly come to visit me squawking and whistling and bobbing their heads up and down. As big as crows. Anyone know which ones i mean? If so, what are these birdies called? ) Took a nap at 8am till 11am then waking up craving coffee I thought 'sod this! Time i bought myself a coffee maker'. Went out and got myself one of these: 1 cup coffee maker. 600baht. Bargain! (and not made in China )

Didnt see any dead animals, but did feel like a bit of a retard (thats un pc isnt it???) when i was buying the coffee machine. Like to try always to practice my Thai. First lady, no problem, she went with it, not reverting to English. Second lady, however, made me feel a bit pathetic as i stumbled over some words and she reverted to English. I understand of course, but it wasnt like she was doing it out of kindness, more out of lack of patience (but no one was waiting behind me). I also wanted to read the piece of paper she gave me to sign for the guarantee as I wasnt sure where she pointed to to sign..but i read Thai slow..so she just assumed i couldnt read it. Eventually i conceded and went along with the cannot-read-it-so-point-where-i-should-write-name plan. Whats worse is there was a westerner buying a coffee machine next to me, so he probably thought i was a half-baked eejit too. Ahhh..nvm...thinking wayyyy too much! Time to do some work

..and time for coffee.

.....forgotten about it already

[Tywais]

Couldnt sleep at all last night so I was up with the larks..or should i say those big talkative birdies that i dont know the name of. (Two regularly come to visit me squawking and whistling and bobbing their heads up and down. As big as crows. Anyone know which ones i mean? If so, what are these birdies called? )

Anything like this, turtle doves? I also have lot's of them around our house.

[ChiangMai2]

YES!, when the rain let up last night, I walked around the moat in the cool air for some needed exercise and have just returned from a great meal at Pun Pun (wat Suan Dok). perfect.

Sounds like a very long walk or a very long meal!

[Blinky Bill]

This morning, I wanted to sleep until 9, unfortunately I woke up at 6. I went to the kitchen only to find out that the coffee machine was out of service. A little bit edgy, I decided to have a walk in the garden. Bad idea, first thing I saw was a dead squirrel.

Otherwise, I agree that today is a beautiful day.

Bonjour Monsieur Hulot.

Below is an excerpt from the book: The Cycle of Power - Animal Totems by Sayahda

Finding a dead squirrel in your garden is, indeed, a bad omen.

Anyway, have a nice day, at least what is left of it.

When you observe the squirrel in nature they are always busy. They seem to have an endless supply of energy. Seldom do you see a squirrel inactive. Focused on the task at hand, agile and quick, they are constantly preparing for the future by gathering nuts and seeds for later use. Although they are always prepared for what may come they have a tendency to forget where they store things. The forgetfulness of squirrel serves as a reminder to those with this medicine to slow down, pay attention and to stop running frantically in several directions at once.

Squirrels are sociable and communicative. They can be quite vocal both in work and play. Sometimes their continual chatter disturbs the silence, which creates an air of distraction and chaos. If you find yourself disturbed by their constant chatter the squirrel is telling you to speak clearly and effectively or to go within and be still, depending on the circumstances around your situation. Their gathering nature teaches those with this totem how to reserve energy and store things for future use. Honoring the future and readying yourself for change.

Squirrel embodies the quality of trust and is one of the few animals that will eat out of a person's hand. This symbolizes a need to let down your defenses and learn to trust more. The issue of trust can play out in all areas of a person's life from personal intimacy to trusting Great Spirit. Because the squirrel is always prepared those with this medicine must remember that they will be taken care of. Establishing trust where it is presently absent would compliment the power of this medicine.

Squirrel represents balance within the circle of gathering and giving out. If squirrel has scampered into your life pay attention to the wisdom it has to offer you. Preparedness and survival skills can be learned from this powerful totem.

Edited July 10, 2009 by Crow Boy
changed colour of quoted text for legibility

[eek]

Anything like this, turtle doves? I also have lot's of them around our house.

Nooo..but tnx! ..and i found him! Turns out it is a Thai Mynah bird I have heard of Mynah birds of course, but never seen one. I had no idea they had a native species here.

Absolutely love them, although i sometimes jump out of my skin when i didnt notice one near me and suddenly it squawks a high pitched noise! They seem to emit a ton of different sounds.

Found a brilliant article on them here: http://www.thailights.com/thai-mynah-birds.php

..as well as a youtube link on it with a Mynah bird doing an impression of a tuk-tuk!!! :lol (although this Mynah doesnt look like my guys. Mine look like the pic above):

[Tywais]

Nooo..but tnx! ..and i found him! Turns out it is a Thai Mynah bird I have heard of Mynah birds of course, but never seen one. I had no idea they had a native species here.

I didn't mention Mynah because it's such a common bird around our place I was sure you would recognize them. Have huge numbers of them here and I find them a bit obnoxious, they tend to squawk when startled.

Here's one that flew into our house, not the first time either.

[eek]

^ Haha, nop, I didnt know what they were. Im so naive about some things its shocking!

I think if i had huge numbers I would find them a bit obnoxious too, but I just have the two coming to visit. They seem to like ripping apart a large palm plant (i guess for their nest.). They keep getting braver too. If i talk to them they just cock their heads for a while as though listening. Anyway..mystery solved.

[Rasseru]

Well, I'm very happy I started this topic. One reason is, it has been a pleasure (really) following eek and Tywais through their wandering chat about about birds. Oh, those old goalposts just keep moving . . .

[orang37]

Well, I'm very happy I started this topic. One reason is, it has been a pleasure (really) following eek and Tywais through their wandering chat about about birds. Oh, those old goalposts just keep moving.

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun Rasseru,

I'm happy to respond to such a happy post : what makes you happy makes me happier (meaning, of course, not happier than you, but happier within myselves, or in at least one or more of myselves [often the nature of the current self in which consciousness is occurring as foreground renders "me" <the totality subjectively experienced as "background" in relation to the current self subjctively experienced as "conscious"> unable to enumerate all of said selves which are ... at any moment ... conscious, but, of course, in varying states of consciousness, some flavored with emotions, some not, some more abstract than others]).

At first I thought Khun Eek might be talking about (because she likened them to crows) the wonderful Thai bird "Nok Kapoot" (russet colored body with darker head) which are large, do look like crows, and make wonderful hooting sounds. They are very shy of people : in fact I've been surprised that I have heard them in my "in town" neighborhood the last two years (some overgrown large empty fields nearby probably help). They are a member of the Cuckoo family.

One thing that "blew" my mind whilst I first visited Singapore was walking down a sidewalk (where a sidewalk really is a sidewalk and not an obstacle course [designed to help the partially infirm become totally disabled] changed daily) and seeing Mynah birds let me pass with a few meters of them without flying off. Whereas, here in CM I find them quite people shy.

My day started happily with an e-mail from a programmer in the US to whom I had written a letter of appreciation for an article he recently published demonstrating some very advanced techniques with irrregularly shaped and transparent windows (for PC's, not Macs) : he kindly sent me his commercial product that takes the publicly available code a few steps further. Of course he gets a t-shirt with an elephant on it from Chiang Mai

Feeling that someone appreciates being appreciated is, to me, one of the happiest feelings, and to have that good feeling at the same time as drinking hot soy milk with sesame butter while my head still aches from being up all last night in intense study/play is dam_n good.

Clouds ? Ah, yes, the Sky ! I will go out now, and see if it is there in this reality.

May you quiver with pleasure as your goalposts wobble (or move ... if that is a consensual act free of duress or coercion).

regards, ~o:37;

Edited July 7, 2009 by orang37

[eek]

Ahhh...thanks Rasseru for making this topic. Because of you we actually have a sweet fluffy feel-the-love thread in the CM forum! ..well, for however long anyway. Plus I learned something new (ornithology wise).

Aint natur briliant!

[MonsieurHulot]

Because of you we actually have a sweet fluffy feel-the-love thread in the CM forum!

It's amazing but, thanks to a misanthrope, I now feel love all around me. It's almost psychedelic. After all, the broken coffee machine and the dead squirrel were good omens.

[DavidOxon]

The Mynah you see is the common Mynah, the famous black, talking type is the Wood Mynah, there is another common one round here which is black with a white bottom and a mohican haircut that is a White Vented or Whiskered Mynah.

D

[PeaceBlondie]

Beautiful day indeed. Rode the 'chopper' to town. No rain. Cavorted. Swam alone in cool pool. Put 8 liters of benzene in chopper. Came home - still no rain. Neighbors walked by for a chat. Sizzler, teriyaki burger, baked potato, salad bar. Got back home just as the rain started.

[Rasseru]

The day that started so beautifully ended beautifully too. Delicious Italian dinner with fabulous wine, shared pleasantly with three people very close to me and a fourth person brought by two of the others (their grownup son), whom I met for the first time, all of which began after a downpour began and continued until well after the downpour finished, making possible two-wheeled travel in both directions in mostly dry conditions. Yippee!

[Theyreallrubbish]

Was up very early to drive to a hill tribe village about 60 kms away to give food and clothing on the Big Buddha Day!

Really cool and nice and the roads were almost completely empty.

Stopped at a market in Doi Saket to buy the food and when the stall holders found out what the food was for they wanted to donate as well and ended up with enough food to feed a village for 100 Baht!

Driving up into the mountain was a bit scary on the wet mud but the green and freshness was worth it.

However, when I got to the hilltribe village I was surprised to see that they all had large modern houses with new cars parked out front, satellite dishes on the walls and new clothes.

The person I went with had been going there since she was at university in Chiang Mai 15 years ago and I had to tell her that it may be time to change her view on their need for help as they had nicer homes than she did!

I used to visit Hilltribe villages myself 16-17 years ago and things were rough back then and I'd see diseases that hadn't been seen in the West for a century. Now, at least in this one village, there has been a dramatic transformation and they're living better than the urban Thais.

[Priceless]

A big THANK YOU to all of you for a lovely thread

As some of you know, I am presently in cold and wet Farawayland (summer fell on the week before last this year ). It is really heart warming to read something like this, reminding me why I moved to the Land of Smiles

/ Priceless

[daoyai]

Group hug

Edited July 8, 2009 by daoyai

[MonsieurHulot]

Another beautiful day. No dead squirrel.

[Rasseru]

I'm with you, M Hulot, and thanks for the images! I just woke up, after nine - count 'em, nine! - hours of beautiful, solid sleep, to the most gorgeous of mornings. Nearly the same spectacular range of colours in the clouds as yesterday, but far fewer of them, and the broad swathes of blue are delicious. In the bright sunlight, the swollen muddy Ping looks like chocolate. Puts me in mind of the cappuccinoes I'm going to go make now . . . Yay! New day!

[MonsieurHulot]

Puts me in mind of the cappuccinoes I'm going to go make now ...

Enjoy your cappuccini As far as I'm concerned, my coffee machine is still on strike

[Blinky Bill]

Puts me in mind of the cappuccinoes I'm going to go make now ...

Enjoy your cappuccini As far as I'm concerned, my coffee machine is still on strike

Cappuccini, cappuccinos!! Now let's not make Razzzzzarooo feel too humiliated by his lack of spelling ability. I had instant.

[harrry]

Puts me in mind of the cappuccinoes I'm going to go make now ...

Enjoy your cappuccini As far as I'm concerned, my coffee machine is still on strike

giving you the silent treatment is she

[Rasseru]

Enjoy your cappuccini

Thank you. I was trying, yet again, to write in proper English, but fell badly short, as our friend Mr Bill has pointed out.

[Rasseru]

Puts me in mind of the cappuccinoes I'm going to go make now ...

Enjoy your cappuccini As far as I'm concerned, my coffee machine is still on strike

Cappuccini, cappuccinos!! Now let's not make Razzzzzarooo feel too humiliated by his lack of spelling ability. I had instant.

I envy you your instant spelling ability. I'm trying my hardest to think that the day has been made even better by the glee I have induced in you over my sad error. In the thought that it might enhance your joy, I will quote here from my own private message replying to yours of earlier this morning, in which you first hooped and hawed over my deeply embarrassing screwup: 'Thank you for that correction. You will not be surprised, I think, to learn that I puzzled over the formation of that plural, which was not given in the dictionary I consulted. I decide to wing it, and fall flat. Oh, well, there are worse things in life than being taught a little humility! ' Although, for the life of me, I cannot think now what those worse things might be.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Rasseru