Under the greenwood tree

If you like period films you must have seen most if not all of these titles. I am fond of such films but this list consists of what I haven't watched; except nos. 4 and 12:

1. Love on the Land  post civil war America
2. Versailles: The Dream of a King  Versailles, Europe's most splendid palace
3. Bleak House  mid 19th century England about British judiciary system
4. Under the Green Wood Tree  rural town life in the mid 19th century England
5. The Buccaneers  four American girls in London searching for husbands
6. Upstairs, Downstairs  servants and masters in Edwardian London
7. Angel  Edwardian Cheshire about an eccentric British writer
8. A Month in the Country  1920s rural Yorkshire
9. Circle of Friends  1950s Ireland
10.True Women saga of love, war and adventure; Texas Revolution thru the Civil War
11. Sally Hemings: An American Scandal  Thomas Jefferson and his slave mistress
12. From time to time  ghost story spanning two worlds two centuries apart
13. Glorious 39  set around a British family on the eve of WW II

 This post is linked with Thursday Thirteen

Orchid

Orchid

An aircraft takes off and she's not in it
the clock ticks as she heads back for the exit
Christmas is nigh
and alone she passes by

Just in time for the orchid to sigh.

Suvarnabhumi (Thailand international airport), almost midnight, December 24th 2010. I sent off friends who flew home for Christmas.

 
This post is linked with ABC Wednesday.

Beauty and power

Music Monday: Light and Shade, Fra Lippo Lippi
Monday Mayhem follows

... of words, music and images are what I am happy to share today. Fra Lippo Lippi is popular in my home country (Philippines). Thanks to people who put together media like this for all of us to enjoy.

This post is linked with:

Amanda @ Bloggin with Amanda

XmasDolly of XmasDolly, Lori of Shewbridges of Central Florida, Larry of Cakeblast, and Callie of JAmerican Spice

Denise @ Run DMT hosts Music Monday Blog Hop

*****

Q1. What brand/flavor of chewing gum would you recommend to the rest of us?

Dentyne Ice Midnight Mint. Guaranteed to funnel chili oxygen to your nostril. If you don't want your tongue convulsing in strong mint, stay away from it. (But it's my favorite)

Q2. What brand/flavor of beverage would you recommend to the rest of us?
Water from a mountain spring. I never drank anything like that from the shelves. But I have from a real mountain which took 8 hours to reach the peak. Just missing those days.

Q3. Describe the perfect steak (vegetarian's can describe the perfect tofu or whatever). Beef that gratifies the palate and doesn't break the wallet

This video is a heart warmer. Watch.

Harriet hosts Monday Mayhem

Never let me go

Never Let Me Go

  Kazuo Ishiguro

- a novel I am reading for a book club meeting I am attending on the last week of this month. Being 'pop sci-fi thriller' it's not what I normally read but exploring new nooks of genre is nifty. 

Characters of this novel (2005) are children raised in a boarding school in East Sussex, England as clones intended to provide organs for non-clones. A film adaptation of the same title was released in 2010.

Never Let Me Go

Hazel, Delineating Des

 

Baby, never let me go

Kathy sings as she hugs her pillow

Madame watches her and cries

Kathy later asks her why

And Madame replies:

because I see this little girl

A new world she is facing

An efficient but cruel world

But it is emerging

Never let me go

To the old world

The little girl is asking.

This post is linked with ABC Wednesday.

Songkran in Huahin

Thailand has just concluded Songkran (traditional Thai New Year), which is celebrated on April 13-15.  The festival has many fun features, most significant of all is water.  People are out on the streets getting drenched, dancing, eating, greeting each other a happy new year. This is a scene in Huahin last week. Hilton Hotel is behind that old house which is actually a bar. Behind it is Hard Rock Cafe, and the opposite side are an assortment of shops and restaurants.  White foreigners participate in this event too as you can see.  They have as much fun as the locals.
   

My World Tuesday is brought to you by Klaus and the My World Team Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Sylvia

While I'm alive

Music Monday: It's My Life
Monday Mayhem follows

A friend celebrated an approaching change on her civil status Saturday night. When documents are sorted she will be officially single again. "Better get on with it," I thought. Down at Hard Rock I noticed for the first time a reference to Sinatra on Bon Jovi's It's My Life. I never really paid attention to this hit until I admitted I did relate with the message coming off the lyrics. My two left feet were exploiting the dance floor when this was played.

This post is linked with:

Amanda @ Bloggin with Amanda

XmasDolly of XmasDolly, Lori of Shewbridges of Central Florida, Larry of Cakeblast, and Callie of JAmerican Spice

Denise @ Run DMT hosts Music Monday Blog Hop

*****

Q.1- Why does it seem that every TV station goes to commercial at the same time- when you are checking to see what's on the other channel? Financiers probably want it that way - commercials get about the same amount of exposure at similar times from viewers

Q.2- Should we spend all of our million dollar win right now or save it for a rainy day which may never happen? We should enjoy the money and at the same time set some aside for the rainy day which will most probably happen when you least expect it

Q.3- Is it really funny when people send in videos to TV shows of themselves getting hurt in order to win the TV shows funniest video award? Are these videos even funny to you? No. Getting hurt is no justification for a video award. It's not funny to me. It is sad.

Now. When I'm old I'd like to be as calm as this grandpa in the face of silliness. If I could pull this off I'd laugh my way back to my rocking chair.

Harriet hosts Monday Mayhem

Chikuyoh Yakiniku

You know what happens when you live in a normally boiling hot city and it suddenly turns cold? Instead of staying where you are you wander... Half an hour into looking around your empty stomach growls and you remedy it with a cup of coffee -

And then you become curious what's on the other pages of the menu. 

Ok, that's my routine, sort of. A month ago this was what I experimented on: Chikuyoh Yakiniku @ Yagura Chaya Fumi. Loved it!

This post is linked with

Food Trip Friday

and

Friday Food Fight

World's richest royals

Sent via email from Forbes, I didn't pay attention to this list until probably last week when I was at the Stock Exchange of Thailand to attend a classical concert for Japan. No royals there; just approximately seven ambassadors in attendance, but enough to see some connection to draw up an 'affluent' list.

1. Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, worth $30 billion

2. Brunei's Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, worth $20 billion

3. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud, worth $18 billion

4. UAE President Sheik Khalifa bin-Zayed al Nahayan, worth $15 billion

5. Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashedal Maktoum, worth $4.5 billion

6. Liechtenstein's Prince Hans-Adam II, worth $3.5 billion

7. Morocco's King Mohammed VI, worth $2.5 billion

8. Qatar's Sheik Hamid bin Kalifa al-Thani, worth $2.4 billion

9. Prince Albert II of Monaco, worth $1 billion

10. His Highness the Aga Khan, worth $800 million

11. Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said, worth $700 million

12. Britain's Queen Elizabeth, worth $450 million

13. Kuwait's Sheik Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahamad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, worth $350 million

 

More about them here.

This post is linked with Thursday Thirteen

Sai Yok Noi Falls

My latest visit to Kanchanburi was my third in thirteen years. Of the three visits, I enjoyed this most recent the most. Everything went as planned. We went with Good Times Travel. Their tours are well-organized and their mini-buses not crowded with tourists. They conducted the tour with just six of us: 3 Italians, 1 Thai, 1 British and 1 Filipino. Our first stop was the Sai Yok Noi Falls.

My World Tuesday is brought to you by Klaus and the My World Team Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Sylvia

If I wrote a note

Musical Monday: Note to God by Charice on Oprah
Monday Mayhem follows

There's a twin issue currently hovering above my a** - a son diagnosed with PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder), and an ex-hubster who plays hardball about all this. I shoot questions and need answers.  Unfortunately this reality takes time to be sorted and moments trying to penetrate the core for possible solutions could seem frustratingly non-existent. At times I fancy communicating with a deity like this - 

This post is linked with:

Amanda @ Bloggin with Amanda

XmasDolly of XmasDolly, Lori of Shewbridges of Central Florida, Larry of Cakeblast, and Callie of JAmerican Spice

Denise @ Run DMT hosts Music Monday Blog Hop

 

*****

Q1. Do you think Twitter is taking over as the 'social media tool of the moment' (replacing Facebook who replace MySpace)? It has its purpose to people, just like FB. Determining whether is has taken over as the "social media tool of the moment" could be partly based on the stats which I haven't checked so in playing this by ear - nope. I don't think it's taking over exactly.

Q2. What are your thoughts on the one year anniversary of the Gulf Oil spill?

Verifying facts before forming opinions is as important as its effect on us. That the BP top guy - Tony Hayward is a Phd (Geology) at 22 intrigued me but it has yet to be checked against that honorary something Edinburgh U conferred on him. No time to do that further. A question mark forms in my head on: 

The offshore drilling in the Gulf approved by the Obama administration features the same blowout preventers that we now know are prone to blowout. The safety report from BP that is cited in these latest applications is dated 2009, before the Deepwater Horizon failure. This failure to enforce standards is unsurprising in an industry where the “impartial” regulators have significant connections to lobbyists. McGill Daily

Q3. What combination of items, that people will sometimes use, should never be used in making a sandwich in your opinion?  Everyone has different tastes. No olives for me.

Jonas is a vampire too? God, where was I all this time....

Harriet hosts Monday Mayhem

The culinary excuse of the hedgehog

Bangkok used to be predictably boiling hot during summers but now it's freaking cold. Two nights ago I walked around Piyarom Sports Club, my long-time haunt. The wind only had to make me shiver slightly and I was inside Ma Kitchenette in an instant, one of several eateries in the complex. It was half past ten at night and I needed the warmth you know :)

 

Rice fried with fish paste and dried mint leaves. The cashew nuts were my first attraction.  And that book club session I got back from earlier had too much red wine, chips and opinions on The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I had to temper those with a warm cup of cappuccino.

This post is linked with

Food Trip Friday

and

Friday Food Fight