Cash!!!

In the space of fifteen minutes I went from nothing to everything, and with the help of a policeman.

Still raining, I shot down to Tescos just after nine. Understand, I hate Tescos but it was reportedly the only place with a working ATM. I got there and, of course, the ATM wasn't working. There was a policeman sitting next to the machine and I told him, in Thai, that I hadn't had any money for several days. His buddy arrived and very kindly and graciously, I must say, led me to another ATM of a different bank and said that this machine had cash in it. I thanked him and took out 10,000 Baht.

"While I'm here...", thought I. I peeped around the corner into the enormous supermarket. "Looks good". Not the usual billion people buying trolley loads full of cheap cola and instant noodles. I dashed in, looking somewhat like the cat who came in from the cold with my squeaky, sodden sandals and ancient belt holding up my tired shorts that have no buttons. I zoomed around. There had been some minor changes but everything that I used to buy here was roughly in the same spot. Muesli cereal - check, pasta - OMG wholewheat pasta is back! Pesto sauce - still ridiculously expensive at 160 Baht for a tiny jar a cat could sit on, coffee - not my usual brand but I tried some of this Thai stuff Arabian and Espresso. Feeling my mood suddenly elevated, I rushed home, even successfully stopping to pay the 'trickery bill, something I was sure would still be down.

So now I am back at home with all my creature comforts, albeit different brands, but happy to chug a lug of real coffee in me and not that abysmal Nestle shite they palm you off with and the vast majority of the population poisons themselves with.

And incidentally, I acquired an incredible fantasy role playing game (RPG) from Germany which is totally engrossing and a dream to play. An aborted attempt to play a female, elven ranger and getting horribly stuck in a cumulative battle whilst storming a toll house, I restarted, this time adopting a giant Northern barbarian wielding broadsword and dashing beard, long hair and headband. Normally, I would play a character more sophisticated like a mage or not what, but then it occurred to me that I haven't played the brute-force approach for a long, long time...