Advertise here from only 40 baht per week
to hull
and back
Mags Meanderings:
From Som Tam
To Mushy Peas
why, why, why...
And there it was gone - again. Only three different New
Year celebrations to look forward to now. Plus the 2015
launch of Coca Colas new product ‘Fairlife’ milk.
Although this so called ‘premium’ milk will be launched
initially in the States, it seems like an ideal candidate for
the next Thai Hi So must have drink. With its 50 percent
more protein, 30 percent more calcium, half the sugar
content of regular milk, and at only twice the price, who
wouldn’t rush out to buy it?
Talking of drinks - how does Smirnoff get those gold
particles to suspend themselves in bottles of vodka?
You may also ask why do they bother, although it does
look pretty. Personally a pretty drink to me is a coffee
bean aflame on a shot of Sambucca, but even that is
a rare sight these days, when common sense dictates
that splashing out on a good malt makes much better
economic sense.
Theories include one that the gold flakes are held in
suspension for ages due to the viscosity of the drink, a
theory which does seem preferable to those involving
coating the gold flakes with either paraffin or beeswax.
Just imagine having that job on your CV. ‘So Mr Smith,
I see that you have been working for Smirnoff in their
Gold Leaf Beeswaxing Division, what on earth makes
you want to leave?’
On a much more serious note we can’t let the week go by
without remembering the 10th anniversary of the Asian
Boxing Day tsunami. You won’t all have been living in
Thailand at the time. Those who were will never forget
that day, or the contribution made by some HuaHin
expats to the provision of essential supplies to the
southern islands.
Dream
Guesthouse
Cheap room for rent
from just 350 baht
0915094729 Th/Eng 0805626735 Swe/Eng
Soi 94 (1st left after 7-11)
My own memory of the disaster will always be of
the scene at Don Muang airport four days later, with
ambulances arriving every 10 minutes or so carrying
injured tourists for their flights home, and the eerie
silence which hung over the whole airport. Even then
the enormity of the situation didn’t really sink in until I
boarded a Phuket Air flight to Gatwick and realised how
many seats were empty, and how many of the passengers
who had made it were wearing only the clothes in which
they had survived.
December also marks the less well remembered 30th
anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster in India, when
a gas leak in a pesticide factory killed thousands, and
injured over half a million people. The eventual death toll
is thought to have reached over 25,000. To this day babies
are being born with defects, caused by contamination of
water supplies by the thousands of tonnes of toxic waste
which remain dumped at the factory site. Meanwhile
legal battles continue over the responsibility of majority
share holder in the pesticide company, Union Carbide
Corporation, and of UCCs American parent company
Dow Chemical.
Although we know there can never be an end to either
natural or man made disasters, every New Year we hope
for better things to happen. We raise a glass or three to
the future, and make our New Year resolutions. And in
Britain we are being urged to sign up to ‘Dry January’,
which promises to save us money and make us feel
better - except of course for those who brew, distill, sell,
and coat gold flakes with beeswax. We can’t even buy
Fairlife Milk as a substitute over here yet dammit!
Here’s wishing you all a good Chang filled New Year.
This weeks word is a good one for you Scrabble players
out there. ‘Xiphoid’ simply means a dagger like shape.
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