Weekend Yehs and Mehs

I am planning to compose one of these after each weekend as I want to try to make a better job of maintaining the blog in the hope that my writing improves, and my current state of apathy (which has seemed worryingly permanent) will lift. I can’t say it will be of special interest to anyone, unless they’re in need of a soporific (big word – Yeh!) But, here goes.

Friday. After work. Two-for-one margaritas. Here. Yeh!

Saturday. First thing in the morning. Headache caused by aforementioned beverages. Meh. Resulting in not being able to go out that night, which brings me to the next Meh: Revolutionary Road. I could only watch the first 10 minutes – Kate and Leo, ever so over the post-Titanic honeymoon phase, arguing (rather pointlessly, in my opinion) in a theatre, in a car and out of the car. The Seven-Year-Itch? Whatever it was, my poor head just could not cope. I had to switch from the DVD player to the normally crap cable TV in my building. But wait! What is this? Yeh! The series channel has come back after a two-month absence. Oh Meh. It’s gone again. It very kindly waited until after Grey’s Anatomy had finished, though. Yeh! Decadent dinner of smoked salmon Philadelphia (a very costly luxury) and crackers. Another one for the Yehs!

Sunday Cinema to see Shopaholic. Yeh! Although am a tad worried that my intellect is now so diminished (meh) that I enjoyed this MUCH more than Revolutionary Road. I read a Jilly Cooper the other week, too. Can somebody help me, please?! Dinner later here. Food was a bit meh, but the company was Yeh! – Thanks Ms. O.

And, to end on a YEH! Series channel still not back, but Fox Crime has appeared in its place. CSI episodes back to back. YEH, YEH, YEH!

Back next week, should inspiration fail to strike in the meantime.

A New Year and Another New Beginning

So much has happened since I last updated the blog. The reason for not writing was that I wasn’t even sure that ‘Letters from Thailand’ would still be the right title. Back in October I was reaching the end of my tether in a job that was sucking the soul out of me, so I decided to quit before I ended up looking for lost marbles in an institution for the insane. At that point, I seriously considered going back to the UK. I even told my family that my Christmas holiday might be more permanent. However, after some heartfelt talks with friends here, sipping cocktails at Vertigo and looking out over the city, it was clear that I wasn’t ready to go back and that my issues had nothing to do with Thailand, but with my job. Therefore, I decided to look for another job, and luckily found one that would start in January, which allowed me some time with family over the festive season.

As for not writing, well, the strain of those months made it very difficult. My style has always been light and humourous – It’s part of my character to see the funny side in any situation, now matter how dire (some might even say I’m a bit warped, they’re probably right!) but my characteristic humour was rapidly disappearing as I struggled with my lot. It became impossible for me to put my thoughts in writing – the tone of which would have been a collection of self-indulgent, ‘poor me’ type rants. If they’d been written by someone else, I’d have wanted to give them a good bitch-slapping and tell them to GET OVER IT, ALREADY! Oh, and I also feared that if anyone working at the same place happened upon this blog and read the ranting, my number would have been up!

Anyway, I finished work at the end of November and enjoyed a month of unemployment. One week was spent here in Bangkok, then 3 weeks at home with the family, where I perfected the art of terminal unemployment by lounging on the sofa watching daytime TV and scoffing the Christmas chocolate rations. Had it not been for regular walks down the road to visit my nephew and play with his train set and the fact that I wasn’t getting income support, I could have been a real benefit scrounger! And, in the new year, I returned to Bangkok and started my new job straight away.

So far, all is good. The benefits of the new job are far outweighing the salary cut I’ve taken (I look at it as payment for having what’s known as a ‘life’.) Whereas before I was leaving the office in the dark and not getting home until late, grabbing some junk to eat when I got back, I’m now home by 5 which gives me plenty of time to do a few laps of the pool and get something healthy to eat. I’m really not sure if it’s the endorphins from all the unfamiliar exercise or the new job, but whatever it is, I haven’t felt this good for ages. An added bonus is that almost 3 weeks into the new year, I haven’t lost the motivation & self discipline to work on losing the red wine and chocolate kilos gained at Christmas and they are slowly disappearing. Let’s hope I can keep it up for the rest of the year.