Back at work...

Well I'm officially rehired and on the roster. It's weird up there because it's all pretty much the same except I dont know anyone anymore! But I do know the manager, the barman (of course) and one of the chefs still so all the bases are covered. Oh and the uniform is a little weird, kind of like a chef's jacket with a weird belty thing at the back.

So last night there were two weddings, one for 70 people and one for about 200-ish people which I did and I was kind of the float (ie just do everything where needed) and the manager was kind of like 'just do what you like', felt like I needed a bit more direction than that! :blink: BTW in case anyone is interested... the theme appeared to be mint green and brown with singpore orchids and it was absolutely gorgeous but the flowers alone must have cost the a fortune with about 12-15 sprays of orchids per table, christ! very pretty tho!

They had anstipasto, starter, entree, main, dessert, petit fours... I'm only telling you this because my arm strength lasted through to taking out the entrees and then my muscles (or lack thereof!) died completely! OMG! This is the girl who used to be able to match the boys clearing plates and I was struggling to take HALF of what I used to, all I can say is OWWWW...

From 11:30pm-2:30am I polished cutlery which was ok because my arms weren't going to hold out any longer. My back was aching like crazy and I was doing my impersonation of a flamingo; standing on one foot until it hurt too much and then swapping to the other, if anyone was watching me they'd have thought I was mad :rolleyes: I finished at 2:45am :wacko: and my gorgeous husband gave me a lift home, gotta love him! Got to bed at 4:30am...welcome back to banquets! Erggg....

Surprisingly, not as tired and sore today as I might have expected which is good cos it can only improve from here. Hoping that in a couple of weeks I'll be able to carry a reasonable amount of plates (it's verging on embarrassing how little strength I have now).

So that's my looong update. Thank you for reading :P

Reminiscence

[I 'rewound' this post for a Weekend Rewind at Pink Fibro. It was written over 5 year ago, before I learnt about grammar! I have edited the spelling, but I left the rest exactly as it was originally.]


One year ago to the minute I was an unmarried woman. I was in my mother's house, surrounded by family from near and far.
I was primped and preened, hair stiff and immobile, make-up weighing on my face and feeling strange in my own skin. The flowers had arrived and they were beautiful as all flowers are, sitting heavy, damp and dewy in their box upon the coffee table. The photographers were there and I was awkward and stiff in front of their lenses, I don’t enjoy being the centre of attention.
I put on my beautiful dress, pinned my gecko brooch to my hip as a reminder of my future, and the family dove brooch of diamonds to the fabric over my breast to remind me of my past.
The photographers hovered, trying to capture this transition from girl to woman but how can you take a photograph of the inside of someone’s head?
I slipped on my shoes, pretty, soft suede and aqua coloured, no heels for this chickadee. My shawl was placed around my shoulders, beads scratching gently at my skin, slipping down my bare back. My flowers were handed to me, surprisingly heavy, a dull weight in my arms. Beautiful but for what purpose? Flowers for a maiden, flowers to grip in fear and anxiety on that long walk? Or flowers just because it’s ‘what is done’?
We walk to the cars lent by friends and family and squeeze inside and begin the short drive to the garden where I am to be married. My heart beats fast, speeding up with every corner. We pull in to the long gravel driveway and it is so far I can see nothing at the end of it. By the manor house we stop and finally I can see people, all family and friends peering eagerly for the first glimpse of ‘the bride’. I don’t feel like a bride, I’m just me in a pretty dress with flowers. But there at the end of the short grass aisle scattered with rose petals is my beautiful boy, my Dylan. Cheeks wet with tears, eyes screwed up to slow the flow and face wreathed in smiles. Oh my gorgeous boy, why tears? But they come to me as well, in the instant that I see his face the tears are there unbidden.
My maid of honour goes ahead of me to the grass. I have my tall brother holding my arm on one side and my lovely mother holding the other and together we go down the aisle but I remember none of this. In this moment there is only Dylan and I, lost to the world. At the end of our little green walkway I pull away from my family and my maid of honour has taken my flowers. Dylan and I grip one another, first hands then tightly around the waist holding each other up, keeping one another afloat in our little world. The tears continue, tears and laughter.
The celebrant speaks words unheard, they are for our guests not us. We know what we feel for one another, we’re not even listening to some other’s interpretation of heart and soul. For he has my heart and has done since the day we met. I gave it to him in good faith that he’ll look after it for me. He took my heart and my trust and put them somewhere safe and in return he gave me his own.
We kiss and kiss hard, lips pressed together, damp cheek to damp cheek, nose to nose, tongue to tongue fleetingly. The sound of cheers and laughter breaks the spell. Girl and boy no longer, man and woman now, husband and wife but mostly we’re just Dylan and Katie he and I in our own bubble of two souls joined into one.And so the day continues, photos and yet more photos. There is food and wine, speeches and a cake covered in roses. There is family I saw the day before and family I haven’t seen in years, there are one or two people I didn’t meet until this day, there are friends who will always be friends and friends we may not know forever but they are all there in celebration of love, companionship and good food just this one day of the year. Life goes on but from time to time I look up and see those beautiful blue eyes and a face wreathed in smiles and I know he has my heart in his pocket and will keep it safe for me.

Ho hum 15/04/06

We'll here we are again. Bored mindless, can feel brain cells dripping out of my ears.
It's easter weekend, D is working working working. I'm sitting at home on my bum being unemployed. More than 2 months without work, eep! Still, no one's fault there but my own cos I've made no effort to go and get a job yet. ALTHOUGH I did drop of my resume at the old Rad last tuesday, shock horror, gasp, what is the world coming to? My gut says it will come to nothing and my head says why the hell do you want to go back there to work anyway? Short answer is $$$, and the fact that I have none and I'm tired of watching pennies and never having anything nice anymore. Plus of course we want to go OS at the end of the year again and it'd be nice to actually be able to do something about it. Love might make the world go round but the axel is greased by cold hard cash.
Stopped taking the pill the other day, first time since I was less than 13 years old that I haven't been on the bugger. We will see what we will see. But no babies yet! Unless of course something happened, and then we will see something else entirely :P
Been a bit of a loose cannon these last few weeks, started taking more anti-depressants in an effort to keep the downers at bay. Oh what fun depression is. Laugh? I laughed so much I cried, again and again and again.

Adelaide 09-02-2006

Well, we're back home in Adelaide. It always amazes me how quickly you settle back in. We go away, see all these amazing things, have amazing experiances and when you get back home it's as though you never left.

We're feeling the cold a little, it's supposed to be 35 degrees today (I'm sure it's not there yet) but I'm in jeans and a long sleeved top and thinking about getting a jumper. Maybe it's because it's not humid here, and although the humidity in SEAsia sucks when you're not used to it and I thought I hadn't adjusted maybe I did more than I thought.

Another thing I'm finding a bit weird is that its so quiet here at night, and during the day as well for that matter. No insect noises, no traffic, no animals rustling in the night. Asia - at least the part I know - is always noisy. I've had to put the fan on at night in our room because it feels so eerie. Give me a week and I'll be back to normal.

I've busied myself hanging up the bits and pieces we brought home with us, filling and sewing our thai-style cushions and catching up with family and friends.

We dropped over 50 rolls of film off at our photo shop at uni, almost giving the poor woman a heart attack when she saw how many there were. She gave us a good discount tho, just as well because it's going to cost a fortune!

In a matter of weeks we'll be back at uni and back at work and this will all seem like a distant dream with only the photographs to prove we ever went (that, and my badly depleted bank account ).

Chiang Mai 31-01-2006

This email comes to you from Chiang Mai where we arrived last night for the express purpose of souvinear shopping and breaking up the trip to Bangkok (we go tonight).

Chiang Mai seems the same as it ever did although the night market was especially flat and lacking in atmosphere. This could be because the whole thing was flooded three times in about october-ish last year and so it now looks like a bit of a construction site and lots of the market is closed off and many stalls are missing, but the thai vendors were out-numbered by tourists about 5:1 and I got the general impression they didn't give a sh!t whether we were there, or whether we bought anything or not, lines were said by rote, eyes didn't meet ours, not even the Akha women tried to sell us anything properly. Oh well.

The phad thai and pancakes from the street stalls are just as good as they always were, better than Khao San phad thai and pancakes by a mile.

We have succumbed to the budget and have lowered ourselves to catching a backpacker bus direct to Khao San Road tonight, the upshot is it goes from here to there with no taxis in between, and it's cheaper. The downside is we dont' get to stop for dinner so we dont get the adventure of eating bus-stop food.

Well, I promised to tell you about Thaton and our northern thailand, the part that passes tourists by.

Thaton is a little-bitty town in the far far north, over 3 hours from Chiang Mai, closer to Chiang Rai in fact but still in Chiang Mai province. It's right on the burmese border, a 10 minute walk out of town along the river will take you to the army checkpoint where you may go no further. Well, WE may go no further but in fact there is a constant traffic back and forth over the border by hill tribes, the army and of course (this being Thailand), drug runners. Stay here long enough and you may even get to hear a gun-battle in the night.

You probably wouldn't realise on a quick visit to this country just how much of an impact drugs have, especially in the rural areas. We're not talking opium, that's old news. We're talking yaba, crazy medicine, dirty speed, meth-amphetimine plus rubbish. Here, in the north it's kind of the Thai army's responsibility to keep check on the constant stream of drugs moving from the Wa army just over the border so it's a little bit ironic that something like 60% of the soldiers use yaba even if they aren't addicted.

Dealers and the police seem to go hand in hand most of the time, every second cop is on the take.

Within the Wa people (they're the ones that make a lot of the yaba) if someone get's caught actually using it a deep pit is dug and they're put into it for a couple of months, in the dark, squatting in their own filth. What does that say? They know it's bad but it makes money (funding a rebellion against the Myanmar Junta Generals?), what's good for the goose is NOT good for the gander.So yep, big problem up here.

Around Thaton, in fact in much of the north there are hill-tribes. I've already mentioned Susan's charges, the Lahu/Musa boys. But there's also Karen in their long blue shifts, Padang with neck rings that attract tourists like flies, Akha with their colourful silver decorated headwear that will sell it to you as soon as you look at it, Shan with their slight figures and darker complexions and others.

Naturally where there are hilltribes there are tourists. They come in their buses, buy trinkets off the Akha and drive off or go rafting down the River back to Chiang Rai looking at elephants along the way.

You see, there is the tourist and royal-funded, king's project ,nice, neat tidy Akha village with the cute, well-fed kids who go to school. But over there, over the hill, round the back are the other villages. NOT funded by the government, full of people who have no identity in this country and certainly NOT visited by tourists. Dirty kids, under-nourished, high on glue. And do the Thais care? Of course not. Thailand has a whole class system and these people are right at the bottom of it (thanks to Adrian for this info!), last on the list.

So if you're an illegal resident, say a burmese refugee, how can you become legal? Well as I understand it you might be able to get yourself on a village list. And how does that happen? You look different, you sound different, people have to lie bare-faced to the authorities and swear blind you were born there or whatever. Well, they do say money makes the world go around. And it takes a LOT of money, more than your average refugee would be able to rustle up. So, no thai identity card. Can't go anywhere, stuck in the same area. You can work mind you, the shitty jobs that no one else wants to do, picking fruit and so on (hispanics in america ring a bell?), heaps of Burmese work up here.

Call me cynical but I've met Ume, possibly 12 years old. Can't count because he's frazzled too many brain cells in part of his brain inhaling fumes out of a plastic bag. Gruesome burn scars over his torso and legs after an argument over some petrol he had plans to sniff and the other kid set him alight. Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was on purpose. Either way it's not a nice thing to think about. Ume had been sold to that village to work, he ran away later but not before the burns had festered and become infected and horribly scared. He just shrugs and said 'it hurt'.

On the weekends he often wears rags and begs from the thai tourists who come to visit the temple complex on the hill. He knows how to look destitute, he knows how to make the face. Not that the Thais would look him in the eyes anyway, they just give him money as they get 'karma credits' for doing good deeds. The best thing you could say about this is that at least he's working for himself, unlike many of the child beggers who work to fund an adult's habits.

It's maddening because he's a nice kid most of the time, if he's not high, if he's bathed, if he's not in trouble for stealing something he's totally likable. And he HAS a chance here. He's looked after, he doesn't need to beg. He has a village, he can possibly get an identity card in the future. Old habits die hard maybe, bad behaviour persists. And it's not just him, there must be hundreds of kids just like him here.

Dylan has just said I dont make this sound like a nice area of the world so I guess I need to clarify something. It IS a beautiful place. It's quiet, it's calm and peaceful (if you ignore the fact that people shoot anything that moves). There's rice and garlic greening the fields, a nice and fairly clean river running through the venter of town, bamboo swaying in the breeze, lychees and oranges (let's just gloss over the fact that they are a bit of an environmental and social disaster and more chemical than organic probably) and some fairly good looking forest. People are friendly, there's a cafe where the guy makes the best chicken and cashews nuts in Thailand and of course a fabulous monkey sanctuary.

What I mean to say is that when you visit a place like this don't just go 'oh it's nice, quaint, and the people wear funky clothes'. Look beyond the surface a bit. Don't be one of those tourists that does everything and sees nothing.

I know I'm lecturing but the whole 'hill-tribe trekking' scene gives me the shits.

Anyway, nuff from me for now! Just got a couple of hours to go and we'll be on our last bus trip, to our last guesthouse and counting down the last noodles and curries and our last baht. Not the last trip of course, we've already made tentitive plans for another one next summer (after christmas this time :-P), we're thinking fly to BKK, overland to Vientiane, Laos, bus to Luang Prabang then sail up the Mekong on a slow boat to Huay Xai then onto monkey world for an extended stay, because that place has us firmly in it's furry hands and refuses to let go. I miss Peter the monkey already, my squeeky boy.

This may or may not be my last post, depends how bored I get of window shopping in Banglamphu. We're on our way home and it feels very weird indeed. Half exciting, half depressing, bundles of emotions. Still, we have a wedding and developing the photos to look forward to (yes, still a film affecionado), and I'm in a motivated mood for uni for now at least and motivated to start making and saving up more money for more holidays and for my own bit of earth to dig my toes into.

Cast of thousands 27-01-2006

Susan: Australian but hasn’t live in Aus for about 30 years give or take.

Yuki: Japanese partner, yoga aficionado

On: 19, Burmese refugee who doesn’t officially exist in Thailand (or in Burma for that matter). Speaks Lahu, English, Thai (and Shan maybe?). Teaching himself to read Thai, play the guitar. Amazing DIYer, made his own tattoo machine and then gave all the neighborhood kids tattoos (yes, real ones) much to Susan’s horror . Currently building a guest bathroom outside our hut. Sleeps with Pinky the monkey at night.

Shu-Wai: 16, Lahu boy, primary charge is Poppy the monkey. He’s a bit ‘dark’ (inside, not out) and lost, lots of teenaged angst but a good kid. Mother is around somewhere (actual village unknown) but left him and his brother to fend for themselves, she turns up occasionally.

Shu: Shu-Wai’s 14 year old brother. Animal expert. Friendly, smiley. Looks after Peter the monkey at night. Adopts stray dogs, chickens, has numerous guppies and tadpoles. Currently whipping Dylan’s arse in a game of dominos.

Ume: Is also Lahu I think. Aged approximately 12. Glue addict but seems to be getting on top of it with the constant support and encouragement from Susan. Had been gone for 2 weeks when we arrived (New Year in his village) but not sniffed glue the entire time which is great. Totally unable to count (glue has frazzled his brain cells). Recently stole Shu-Wai’s bike and sold it. Duties; feeding dogs and cats. His father popped around yesterday for a visit and a haircut and Ume took off with his Dad’s bicycle and hasn’t been seen since (it seems Ume cannot be trusted with ANY bicycle). Ume is the poster-child for the issues that surround hill-tribes in this area, we'll talk more on this later.

That’s it for the humans in the house apart from the Musa (lahu) kids who come to visit walking down from the village on the hill, the Thai kids who come to look at the monkeys, the sticky-beaking monks and let’s not forget the 30 odd Thai soldiers who wandered through the other day in search of illegal charcoal burners.

So, some of the animals who live here, in no particular order:

John: Australian cattle-dog, brought out to Thailand years ago but left behind when his owner went back to Aus. He’s old, almost completely deaf and walks like an old man. Suffers terribly from mange despite having every cure known to man-kind tried out on him, no immunity probably as he’s not from here.

Mi: Black female dog, log-shaped due to anti-puppy hormones. Very friendly, ran away from wherever and gradually insinuated herself into the household, meter by meter from the road, Shu fed her despite being asked not to.

Puss and Pie: Mother and daughter cats who share a serious addiction to cat cookies .

Joi: Monkey number one in more ways than one, first Susan ever had and alpha monkey which means he’s in charge. Beautiful beautiful face. Almost always cool, calm and collected. Sulks if he doesn’t get a banana for breakfast. Pig-tail macaque.

Ah Son: As good looking as Joi and almost as big. Features in my memory for biting me nearly 3 years ago and scaring the bejeezus out of me, he was only small then, lucky for me because he’s huge now! Another pig-tail.

Sham Penn: pretty female monkey but always seems a little ‘stuck up’, wary of her but she’s good to watch from a distance. The only person who can deal with her is On, everyone else will land a bite. (Pig Tail)

Ai: Has a bent hand but is still in charge (top-female). Doesn’t like me much and paces whenever I’m hanging around. In fact she apparently doesn’t like any blonde female, which is funny because my hair is currently dark but maybe she remembers from last time? (Pig Tail)

Nong-Nii: Had a calcium defiancy as a baby so now is small with short legs and wonky teeth but a nice face. She’s narky at night and will bite anyone except Susan or Yuki who gets too close. Still sleeps with Susan at night. Loves spaghetti. At night she’s in the house and in between the kitchen and the dining area where she paces back and forth and glares balefully at anyone who tries to get past, effectively trapping them. Dylan got one bite on his ankle and now has a funky bruise which shows each separate tooth. (pig tail, albeit a small one!)

Mongarbi: The lone black white-handed gibbon. Recently unwell so has been moping around but better today. Went for a swing and I heard him singing this morning (you’ve not heard anything cool until you’ve heard a gibbon in full voice). Gibbons have the most hopeless record of rehabilitation in the wild, only about 7% survive. Gibbon species are endemic/allopatric to their areas, ie they have their one patch and no-where else making them especially vulnerable as once they’re gone there are none of their species anywhere else. Gibbons are primates like us, not monkeys by the way

Mot: Has picked out all of the hairs on the left side of her face and shoulders when grooming making for one funny looking monkey! (pig tail I think)

Lucy and Marli: Two girls that arrived together looking like twins as their mothers were shot at the same time. Behave like collaborators in crime most of the time (species unknown, Marli may be Assamese, Lucy no idea)

ET: the lone 'definate' Assamese (sp?) macaque, chubby and fluffy. Has to be given water every day as he breaks any tap put into his cage. Eats three times faster than anyone else.

Mother and Bebe: Mother and daughter as you may have sussed out already, Bebe has an extra big bum and both have an endearing way of wiggling their eyebrows when they get their milk in the morning, Bebe wiggles hers at a faster rate than Mother. (yet more pig-tail macaques)

Grumpy: Fights terribly whenever he’s in the same cage as anyone else, was put into his own cage where he proceeded to fight through the wires with the monkeys next door, so extra fine wire was put up to stop him hurting anyone or being hurt. Rhesus macaque.

The ‘family’: Wani, Eck, Kinni, Lanni (and Sunny), a group of funny looking monkeys more wrinkled and smaller than the pig-tails, they’re also Rhesus macaques, all the young ones were born here.The babies:

Peter: Very cute, extra cuddly, banana-snatcher extraordinaire. Has a bullet in his abdominal cavity from when his mother was shot. Bent tail-tip probably from the same incident. Extra squeaky and talkative. Possibly Assamese like ET. Holds record for 'most photographed monkey' by dylan and I.

Sunny: Born here, very small because she doesn’t eat fast enough and gets her food pinched. A bit shy but will come and sit with you if you are quiet enough. Tail looks like a squirrel due to her mother’s over-enthusiastic grooming, nearly bare at the base but fluffy at the tip! Is determined to relieve me of my glasses before I leave, when I wouldn’t let her have them she pulled my hair and poked me in the eye . Yesterday she peed on me, making me the first person to ever be peed on by Sunny as far as Susan knows, lucky me! You wouldn’t have thought a tiny baby monkey would have such a large bladder capacity . Rhesus macaque.

Pinky: Most monkeys get a pink face when they are upset, Pinky has a pink face ALL the time even when she’s perfectly happy. However, she’s also highly-strung and will fly off the handle really easily so she gets into fights a lot and needs lots of cuddles. Today she’s in the boys' cage (with Ah Son and Joi) and seems happy there, they ignore her, she ignores them. Seems to be working quite well as opposed to the constant fights in the babies cage. Has a strange short tail that we don’t know if it’s normal or not, so we don’t know what type of monkey she is.

Poppy: opposite of Pinky, never gets a pink face no matter how mad she is! Loves to run up to people and hold onto their ankles and sit on their feet when they are walking. Poppy also has a strange stubby tail identical to Pinky’s, so sp. Unknown.

Jojo and Jimmy: The big kids of the babies, older, faster, sneakier. Too big to go out on their own now. Pig-tail macaque.

There’s also 3 geese, assorted ducks and chickens, fish, frogs and tadpoles and as of this morning, an owl which was brought here by a woman hoping it would be looked after. This being a monkey sanctuary we’ve spent the morning googling ‘owl care’ hoping to work out how on earth to look after this bird.

Monkey Madness 27-01-2006

Imagine your average toddler. Feed them something guaranteed to make them over-excited and hyperactive (red cordial, coffee, coca cola whatever), shrink them, cover them with fur and give them the ability to climb the walls and then you have something like a monkey.

Watching the monkeys I think they're like humans but sped up, they behave like we would like to be able to behave (sometimes), how great would it be to be having an argument with someone and so you just bite them? Ok maybe not, but it's fun to think of it.

This is the 'Monkey Sanctuary' and it's not an official organisation.

The pet trade is big in Thailand. People go out into the forest and shoot the monkeys to eat and then sell the babies. A lot of those baby monkeys have ended up here, at Susan's house (Susan is my mother's husband's sister).. She does NOT buy monkeys as it encourages people to shoot more. Some monkeys are also here as their owners are unable to look after them for whatever reason (basically because a full time job and a monkey do not match).

The little ones (the 3 smallest bar one) spend their time between a large cage or running loose. The very smallest one, Sunny was born here and is easily able to fit through the bars of the cage so she spends her days going from cage to cage getting groomed by everyone and pestering the humans. She's not as tame as the other smaller monkeys so you don't pick her up but she'll come to you.

Baby monkeys need a lot of care, like human babies they dont know how to care for themselves, they dont know what is dangerous and what is not and get frightened at night.

There are quite a few monkeys, adolescents and some of the younger adults who wear belts around their waists which get clipped to long leads and attached to a bamboo run for part of the day so they're not in cages all the time.The cages are very large and tall with plenty of runs, huts, ropes, baskets and so on inside them to keep the monkeys entertained, there are passageways between most of the cages so the monkeys can been moved from one to another when neccessarily. Of course, the cages are not big enough for wild animals but a cage never is. Still, they are as big as could be made, world class.

It's one big sort-of-family here, which means like most familys there are many noisy arguments, hair pulling, biting and squabbling and cuddles afterwards. Surprisingly, species is not a boundary to a relationship. The dogs get groomed by the monkeys, the cats and dogs share food, monkeys and humans share beds and chickens and ducks get chased by monkeys.You could never set out to have this kind of life-style, you just fall into it I think.

There are also 4 hilltribe boys living here who kind of don't have anywhere else to go. Susan took them in years ago. They have their own huts and kitchens and they help with the monkeys (nobody can look after 23 monkeys and a gibbon on their own!). I'll talk more about hilltribes later, it's all very interesting.

So now that you have an idea what the deal is - although a bit of a run down doesn't do this place justice at all and it's very hard to explain in a western sort of context.