Happy new year y’all.

Sunday started with a trip out to someone’s house in the country for a lunch with about 20 family members, none of whom speak English aside from T and her sister. I got to meet T’s grandmother and her other sister, various uncles and cousins and a guy they all refered to as Osama because he has a beard. There was one tiny girl there, maybe all of 4 feet tall and 75 pounds, with dyed blonde hair, full make-up and big earrings. I had this horrible vision that this was some family member working as a very underaged hooker until I found out she was 25 years old and just “small” – someone refered to her as a hobbit.

I sat there on a wooden platform in the shade, surrounded by people who stared and smiled and pointed at me. A few attempted the little English they know. “Where you are from?” “It fucking hot!” and so on. There was a ton of food but also a ton of flies. And with coconut palm trees in the backyard, someone spent the whole time opening up coconuts and handing them out for drinking.

It didn’t take long before I was bored as fuck. Luckily we didn’t stay long. But with similar activities planned for the following day, my suggestion to T that she go alone and leave me behind met with a taciturn response.

T figured I was bored with Thai food and picked a Japanese restaurant for dinner. This place was filled with Japanese and it seemed to even have a Japanese owner, but the food itself was some of the worst Japanese food I’ve ever eaten. Finally took refuge in a California roll, with veggies and fake crab and smothered in Japanese mayo.

We ended up with some cousins of T’s and their Japanese husbands in the huge disco Web Site, which as I mentioned a month ago may be called Web Site but doesn’t have one. The live band was called, I think, Concert Cl*sh. Needless to say, nothing like the Clash in concert. Then a dj spinning hardcore hip hop. Never ceases to amaze me – most of these people don’t speak English, have no idea what’s being said, but love this music. The joint was packed and it kept getting busier and busier. A thousand people in there? Two thousand? All’s I can say is that almost all of the girls were cute, many maybe more than merely cute, and only a few wearing the dyed hair and tattoos that in Thailand are often the mark of a bar girl.

Then a late supper of spicy baby clams, noodles and soup. Back to the room, TV on and news reports of 9 bombs going off almost simultaneously in Bangkok. I’m headed to Bangkok on Tuesday. Eager for a change of scene and a bit of excitement – hope I don’t get more than I bargained for.

Many years ago he
Looked out through a glassless window
All that he could see was Babylon
Beautiful green fields and dreams
And learn to measure the stars
But there was a worry in his heart

He said,
How could it come to this?
I’m really worried about living
How could it come to this?
Yeah, I really want to know about this
Is it like today?

Then there came a day
It moved out across the Mediterranean
Came to western isles and the Greek young men
And with their silver beards they laughed
At the unknown of the universe
They could sit and guess God’s name

But they said,
How could it come to this?
We’re really worried about living
How could it come to this
Yeah, we really want to know about this
Is it like today?

Then there followed days of Kings, Empires and revolution
Blood just looks the same when you open the veins
But sometimes it was faith, power or reason as the cornerstone
But the furrowed brow has never left his face

He said,
How could it come to this?
We’ve living in a landslide
How could it come to this?
Yeah, we really want to know about this
Is it like today?

Then there came a day
Man packed up flew off from the planet
He went to the moon, to the moon
Now he’s out in space
Hey, fixing all the problems
He comes face to face with God

He says,
How could it come to this?
I’m really worried about my creation
How did it comes to this?
You’re really killing me, you know

It isn’t just today
Is it like today?
Is it like today?
Bang!

Many years ago he
Looked out through a glassless window
Didn’t understand which what he saw

Hongkie Town
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