AWOL 2014 Issue 308 12th December | Page 17

Advertise here from only 40 baht per week to hull and back Mags Meanderings: From Som Tam To Mushy Peas calendars, stamps and pharmacies You may have noticed our absence from your sois last week. In fact this year AWOL has made a pretty good effort to compete with Thailand in the holiday stakes, where there are more festival and holy days than you can keep track of. But to me December 5th has always been the most special of Thai days. To observe the reverence with which his subjects honour His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on his birthday, and for farang to be welcomed in sharing the experience, really demonstrates the warmth of Thai people, not to mention their obvious pride in their heritage. Maybe it’s because we no longer have the same level of respect for our own monarchy in the UK that makes December 5th in Thailand so special. I’m not an anti UK royalist, and unfortunately I’m old enough to remember when our National Anthem was always played in cinemas here, but those days are long gone, replaced by the constant scrutiny of the press which often does very little to endear us to our Queen and her family. So I wasn’t really interested in keeping the ‘glossy’ 2015 calendar of Prince George baby photos which was a recent freebie in my daily newspaper. The fact that I would personally prefer to see dogs on a calen