Caine/Fry

Two wonderful articles about two of my favourite people today; Michael Caine and Stephen Fry. You can find them in the Dail Mail and The Guardian. I think they both have new autobiographies coming out. Moab is my Washpot was a scream.

Last night I was feeling glum so I called up my buddies and joined Patrick for a night at the Co-Art. Don came along too. Tom didn't make it as he had just bought a new second-hand motorcycle which promptly refused to start. Don recited to us the gruelling phone call with Tom who had vented his skull bashing frustration. Poor old Tom. He does seem to have rotten luck, and more than his fair share.

Patrick is talking of making moves to KL in Malaysia. He has a new chick on the scene who is beckoning him to join her. It would be sad to see him go, but I understand his desire to move on, and sometimes Hat Yai does seem like the restaurant at the end of the universe. The place where all the old turds end up. I am gald I live out of town a tad. The ride into town is very refreshing and really reminds me of the road from Rake to Petersfield that I took so many times as a young lad. In fact, even the slow curve of the main road we live just off reminds me, funnily enough of Four Marks, where Joel used to live. This road, known as Boonnagan, is the only road in Hat Yai that appears like an English road. All the others have that crazy, dangerous, hecticness about them that one expects in South East Asia; screaming trucks and crazy motorcycles hurtling along at breakneck speeds. Boonnagan is quite sedate with lovely green mountains to gaze at as one ambles along.

Grace is getting very busy these days and has indeed grown some. She's turning into a toddler at last and our duties have changed a bit too. She understands a lot of what we say to her and has her own language. She nods for "Yes" and scrowls her face and throws up her arms when she doesn't want something. She is a happy girl, who can play contentedly by herself. She likes to open my wallet and hand out the money inside. She presses the buttons on the mobile phone and then holds it tro her ears and garbles some important message. We get the kids from the street in often to play with her and it is funny to watch her trying to keep up with them. Obviously she is still very young but you can see that she wants to join in the fun with the local kids.

It is coming up to the October break soon. It will be nice to have some time off. Phit offered me some extra work, but I graciously declined.

I saw Gee last week. It was the first time since she flew into a temper at Oi when I decided I wanted to stop teaching privately. Losing a good friend is very painful and I have been quite upset about it. I think through a complicated set of circumstances I made her lose face, which Thai people cannot do. Anyway, she told me that she missed me and held my shoulder for a moment as she walked passed, so it was nice to have some sort of reconciliation. Better than my experience with the dreadful Lee, who after nearly 2 years of not meeting him was as cold as ice to me when I saw him at Don's house a while back. I even asked him directly how is daughter was. All he could say was "OK" without even looking at me. I nearly got up and left but then thought better of it. Very limited use of the English language for a teacher talking about the welfare of his daughter I thought. I was glad there were witnesses to his coldness, and Patrick sums it up nicely, "He's got issues." A very strange and sad individual caught up in some imperialist hate-thing.

Doom 3 is proving terrifying and I may have had my fill. There is always a big boss I cannot defeat and the process is so stressful there is very little pleasure in it. I do like to complete these games however before moving on. We shall have to see.

I liked Iron Man 2 and Salt seems fun though is yet to finish.

The boys are all into watching live concerts right now and we have seen some corkers, including Led Zepplin at the Albert Hall (1969), Sugarcubes, Allman Brothers to name a few. It 's more fun than watching a movies when you are with the lads.