Something new: About my blogs

Some time ago (actually a very long time ago) I checked my blog. As you can probably tell I'm horrible at blogging. I always promise myself to write and then I don't. This is what happened ( I took notes. Yes, I do that).
It had been so long since I'd written that the whole layout of the site had changed. It started with your statistics. So of course I checked them out. I was in for a surprise. I discovered that 523 people had visited the blog. Where did these people come from?! To be honest, I began this blog because I was lonely to death in a town where I didn't have anyone to talk to and writing a blog seemed like an improvement on talking to myself (sometimes out loud even). I was thinking some of my friends might read it, but I definitely do not have 500 friends. I was a bit freaked out. Who were these people? Why were they reading my blog? Did they actually read it? It seemed a bit creepy to me that total strangers were reading what is essentially me talking to myself. And it made me self-conscious. Like coming to a disco at high school - you think nobody notices you but if you do something awkward it feels like everybody sees it.
That's one part of it. The other was that I have another blog. It's about my traveling and I considered it very cool and useful to all those folks looking for some information about places. So I thought it would be more popular, statistically speaking. It wasn't. Only 150 hits. How confusing! So let me get this straight - people read about random awkward situations but aren't interested in the cumulative summary of all my knowledge and experience of travel?! This is probably why I write a blog - because I don't understand people well enough to actually talk to them effectively.
So with over 500 readers I felt wanted. I felt like I should write more. And I promised myself to. Yet it has taken almost a year to write this down here. I'm a horrible blogger.

Yes

I just finished a book called "The Yes Man" by Danny Wallace. It is a brilliant book! Nothing in common with the Hollywood film, though, surprisingly, because it was supposed to be based on it... It is an inspiring tale of what great things can happen if you just let them...by saying Yes to everything.
So I decided to do just that. for a few days. See what happens. (Yes, I realize it's not a self-help book...but...I mean...maybe?)
So this is what happened:
Day 1.
I was really inspired. I figured I'm so bored anyway that whatever happens as a result of saying yes it'll be fun. So I waited for an opportunity to present itself...an invitation...a suggestion...I waited and waited...and waited some more. Nothing happened. Nobody e-mailed me, nobody called to invite me somewhere. I ended up watching TV as one does in a situation like this. Even there nobody made any suggestions - only once they came close: "Do you want to experience television like never before?" they asked. -"Yes!!" - "Then experience it in high definition. It's like watching television for the first time." Sounds exciting - my TV isn't showing particularly well even in standard definition. OK...? Now what? Well, it's available starting next month..wait for details. Wait? Sure, I can do that... They didn't insist that I call somewhere or anything. Which is probably for the better - it's African television, a call there would cost me a fortune!
However, every time a show ended they'd say - stay with us for..something else. So I had to say yes. As a result I consumed a lethal amount of television. I ended up turning it off in the middle of a movie, which isn't really cheating because they didn't say I had to stay with them for the entire time..
Later I went out for something to eat. Even if the Thai people were in fact suggesting something I had no idea they were doing it so I couldn't say Yes.
That was day one...

Food again

It actually happens to me quite often here with food that I do something and just as I've done it I realize that's not what you're supposed to do.
For example, there is this new place I recently discovered. I passed it a few times, saw people eating and thought it was pretty cool. Basically, there is a pot on each table with some sort of broth boiling in it and you order things you want to put in it - fish, meat, prawns, mushrooms, veggies, noodles etc. So you get those things raw and you sort of cook your own soup. But this I found out only after I ordered. First I tried to ask what's on the menu but because the girl spoke some English but couldn't explain all the things she just brought out all the raw stuff. I just took some prawns and fish, ordered some fried rice and that's it. I only cooked the fish and prawns in the broth and ate it with the rice. Right after I did that I realized that was a big waste.

The second time I was smarter-I ordered noodles and veggies and stuff to make a noodle soup. I got two types of noodles - rice and egg. I put my chicken and prawns and veggies into the broth and right after I dumped the rice noodles in I thought - oh-oh, you're definitely not meant to do that. Explanation: rice noodles are those transparent noodles, and I'd cooked them at a cooking course so I should have figured this out but I didn't: you're meant to pour hot broth over them because they don't actually need to be cooked - they are soaked in water beforehand so they just need to pick up a bit of flavour. But if you put them in a pot like I did they become very thick and sticky and it's very hard to fish them out of there.. But I did it and in the end I really enjoyed the meal! So live and learn!)

Food

I guess I never realized how sloppy I am when it comes to eating. I guess it all comes from playing with my food when I was a kid. Today I decided to explore a new place to eat around me so once again I got a good bit of staring. And a bit of giggling as well... I ordered grilled fish. That was a bit of an adventure in itself - first I looked it up in my phrasebook then I had to compare all the weird little scribbles that make Thai to find it in the menu so I could point at it and so order. When I got the fish I decided to explore it to find out how it's cooked because it's absolutely delicious. So I started poking at it with my fork and spoon (for those of you who don't know - Thais don't have knives), as well I put the stuff it's stuffed with in my mouth to figure out what herbs those were. This must have convinced the lady who worked there that I was a totally hopeless farang, because she literally ran up to me, turned the fish around, lifted the skin with the spoon so I could see how I was supposed to eat it. All I could do was smile...
Then she brought a sauce for the fish. A habbit I got here is to try every sauce a little bit to make sure it's not too spicy. This one was. As I gulped down some Coke with what I thought was a pretty casual expression, not showing how my mouth was BURNING at that moment, I caught the stare of the lady again. A few seconds later she came back with just plain soy sauce. But to make it clear I DID eat the fish with the spicy sauce. When in Thailand, you know... Turns out you don't really feel the chilli when it's mixed with the fish but you feel the lovely taste that goes perfectly with the fish.
After finishing one side of the fish I decided to flip it over to get to the other. Seconds after doing that I realized you're probably meant to do something else.. I saw the lady with the boy-waiter looking at me and giggling this time..

buses cont.

Yeah and there were massage chairs for seats in that bus...

Bus trips

In many guidebooks there are warnings about buses in SEA. I haven't really been on a bad one actually. The trip were quite nice - I watched a whole movie in Thai. It was a romantic comedy. It was pretty romantic and really funny - even when you don't know what they're saying. It was obviously even more funny for those who did know what they were saying - the whole bus erupted with laughter every once in a while when I had no idea what's going on. It was one of those cute films about a shy awkward girl who falls in love with this guy and obviously she has a friend who's the exact opposite of her who tries to help...OK so the idea isn't really new, but I have to say it was pretty creative in the execution. A refreshing change from Hollywood. In general I quite like Thai movies: I've seen a couple now. One was a drama based on true events about a teacher who helps a group of teenage boys who get caught up with drugs.. The other was a horror film and it was really good. I have to admit I had to stop watching it midway because it was scary and I was all alone. But the half I did see was pretty original.

to add

Just to add to that - I was really impressed with many of the letters on that website. I was thinking - wow, some ordinary people out there are SO creative. But then I started reading all the about author points - turns out they are professional writers! No wonder their letters are so good..