Starbucks Saturday

The past few months at work have been crazy busy! Court and I have worked most every evening and every weekend! So, this past Saturday was a necessary time to chill! We crammed my backpack full of some of our fave mags that we've gotten in packages from friends in the States. I also brought along a book that I recently started. First off, I'll tell ya that I'm super picky about what books I read. So, upon the recommendation of a friend that I trust to select a book for me, I'm reading "The Cat Who Went Underground". So far, so good. I'm surprised that I'm actually diggin' it. I was hesitant to start it. I'm allergic to cats and don't really care that much about anything that has to do with them. (Sorry, Miss, Brad, 'Lil Buddy, and Pierre.) BUT, I am enjoying how the author, Lilian Jackson Braun, wraps her impressive and crafty vocabulary around this kinda ordinary story to deliver a tale teeming with small town quirks and a big fat dose of whodunnit. You should pick it up if you haven't. It came out in 1989, I think....so you've had plenty of time.

Anyways...we placed our orders. Court: 1 grande ice caramel macchiato and an apple walnut muffin. Me: 1 large and in charge americano (I brought my own Splenda). We walked up to the 3rd story to sit outside and max and relax.

We made ourselves at home on the balcony that overlooks Thapae Gate. Unfortunately at this moment, the view and coolness of this stitch of town is being interrupted by construction everywhere! In fact, as we sat on the 3rd story, iPods blasting, and neck deep into Southern Living, I saw a very frightening thing happen. We were about eye-level with some construction guys swinging from beam to beam trying to put a building together or something. No hard hats, no steel-toed boots, no protective eyewear, no harnesses or ropes or anything! Just natural talent. Anyways... 1 dude tossed a hand saw to another dude, he caught it and began to hack away at a metal pole. His first whack knocked the BLADE out of the saw and I held my breath as it dropped and bounced off of the sidewalk below. Now, I had just been watching peeps walk in and out of that area for about an hour and then this happens!!!!! I couldn't believe it. He didn't seem phased at all. Oh well, he shrugged and caught another saw that his co-laborer tossed him. The other 2 dudes up on the beams who seemed to be just watching him didn't really seem to think a thing about it either.

A few minutes later, we gathered our ripped out pages of our Runner's World and Southern Living, collected all of our things (we kinda moved in for a few hours) and headed home. As we walked under the spot where the blade had speared the concrete, we ran in case it started raining saw blades, hammers, and nails. I think it's ok that they didn't have hard hats, boots, and protective eyewear. The innocent bystanders below are the ones that need it more!!!

It was so nice to have that time just to chill and hang out. I love hanging out and not even needing to talk! Good coffee, good reading, good times!!!

Rickshaws are RAD

Last week after one of our Thai lessons, we stumbled upon this rickshaw rally. Maybe it's something like the Myrtle Beach Bike Week minus the thundering mufflers and beer bellies. Nope. This was a lean crew of about 40 old men blowin' the dust off their carriages, pumping the ole tires, spit-shinin' their spokes, and doing a few leg stretches to warm up!!!

Pomelo: Not Nature's Candy

Since moving to Thailand, my life has been enriched by many things. For you faithful blog groupies, you may recall my post on the wonders of the lychee. Well, now I'd like to share my experience with a pomelo. I had never heard of a pomelo until I moved to Thailand about 7 months ago. When packaged in the market or grocery store, it's been peeled so it's only the flesh that you get and it looks kinda like a clearish/whitish grapefruit. I was told it tastes like that too. I wasn't too curious after hearing that being as I don't really enjoy grapefruit at all. Anyways...this past Friday, Panida, the world's coolest Thai teacher gave us a big green ball that she called a "som oh". She said it had come from Chiang Rai which is about 2 hours away. Basically, she said it was like a HUGE orange. BTW...some of the oranges here are green on the outside. We graciously accepted and I tucked it under my arm like it was a fat baby then dropped it in the backseat of the car--which I would never do if it really was a fat baby. I was intrigued. The texture was just like a basketball...thousands of little bumps. It probably weighed about 7 pounds. The color of the peel was a mossy green and wouldn't lead anyone to believe that there's something sweet and delectable inside.



Panida told us to wait a couple of days and it'll be super sweet and delicious (aroy mahk!). So, tonight we were super jazzed to finally get into this big green bomb! Silly me, I thought that since it was kind of like an orange/grapefruit I could just peel it. Wrong! It didn't exactly work like that. Little did I know that there was about 2 inches of white angelfood cake-like stuff beneath the bumpy green basketball exterior. After a few tries, we finally got to the flesh. It was so odd. It smelled really sweet so it didn't take me but a second to dig in and try it. Busted! It totally was NOT as good as it smelled. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe it needed more than a few days to be ready to eat. But, I don't think I'll be picking up any pomelos any time soon. Definitely NOT nature's candy!

Check out the photos by clicking on the slideshow at the top of this post...even Moo was curious!

Where U at?!

For the past week and a half, everyone from our office but 2 ladies moved into Suan Bua Resort for a conference that our company hosted for a large group of peeps that came from all over the world! Our company is hired to completely pull off an awesome conference for our clients. We provide many services such as having a full staff on site to help with anything the client needs, booking the hotel, assisting with travel arrangements, AND setting up a full coffee bar--beans ground fresh for every cup! Since I'm usually doing web design and a variety of web projects I was glad to fill in for my friend at the coffee bar when she needed someone to step in while she went back home to the States. This was a great gig to fill in at! The resort was up in the mountains about 45 minutes from my house. It was gorgeous! I love being up in the mountains! The resort even provided doggie daycare for Moo at the spa! I'm NOT joking! The ladies at the spa took care of her every day. They really were sad when she had to leave. Anyways...the participants of the group were really cool and super friendly. I opened the coffee bar each day from 7am and stayed open til around 10 and 11pm. I took breaks throughout the day and when I wasn't busy, I kept working on my web work. We had an on and off internet connection that was mostly off. One of the coolest parts about being at this event was spending so much time with our Thai staff. We're mostly all under 30 years old except a couple of ladies. At the end of the week, we all went and played basketball together and had a great time! It's great to be a part of such a fun team! Now, it's back to the city and back in the office.

After reading Court's blog I realized that we're missing Fall!!! That's definitely my fave season. Unfortunately, there's no sign of Fall here! Not even a cool breeze or anything! They DO have pumpkins at the market (they always do) maybe I'll get one to carve. I'll let ya know how that goes!