One tank in Bangkok

Well actually there were four.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/30121152/4-tanks-sent-for-maintenance-lead-to-coup-scare

Four tanks were spotted on the Vibhavadi Rangsit near the Samien Nari Temple Monday evening, leading to coup scare.
But officials explained that the tanks were decommissioned from an operation in the southern border provinces and were sent for maintenance in Pathum Thani, and thus having to run through Bangkok.
The officials said the tanks would later be deployed to a UN operation in Sudan after the maintenance.
The Nation

What surprises me is that anyone noticed and that anyone found it newsworthy. A few months before I left BKK in April of '07, there were about 30 tanks rumbling at top speed down Phayathai rd. and that did not make the news.

I remember very well laying in my bedroom reading and then hearing this amazing roar. I stood out on my balcony and watched as tank after tank went past my apartment building. After witnessing what might be a new coup; I called my BBC acquaintance, Jonathan Head. He consulted his contacts and later called me back to tell me this was a scheduled deployment of tanks around the palace for Wan Makha Bucha. I had lived in Bangkok for over 8 years and had never seen or heard of such a similar deployment. This was not standard operating procedure for holidays. Thai media outlets had been informed of the tank movements ahead of time- supposedly it was in response to threats emanating in the South. Whatever the spin, I was not heartened to discover no coverage of the event the following day. What else was happening under our noses and behind our backs.

Things have changed- four tanks now make the front page. I guess Thais are becoming more leery of the machinations of the politicos. My biggest wish is for the country to pull itself together. I miss my adopted home. I want to visit my old haunts and show my daughter the place where she was born. Revolution- bring it on, and have done with it.

Rememberance of things past

I have been waiting a long time to get my hands on my letters and journals that I wrote over a 10 year period in Thailand. They have arrived. They have been sitting, untouched, for almost a month. Many of the journals were destroyed by the Thai climate but what remains, sits atop a bookshelf, unopened.
I am not sure why I have not looked at these pieces of my life yet, just waiting I guess for an opportune moment. Perhaps I am a little scared to see what my life was like; the past never lives up to your expectations.
I recently had a similar realization when I reopened some journals from my late teens/early twenties. I remember myself as someone intelligent and funny. Certainly not in my journals. They turned out to be the typical maudlin stuff about boys. How could I have been so wrong about myself. I guess I might be afraid of that happening again; hence a pile of writing left gathering dust.

I have started this Blog as a kind of journal, I just don't seem to be able to keep a real journal these days. My hope is to keep this as a place for thought and reflection on the world which I used to be more a part of. My journals inevitably become a discussion of my feelings about men, in order to write about less personal things and actually think I am making this public.

A few days ago I wrote on my FB status that I was making a Solar Furnace and much to my dismay, no one asked me what that was. I came to the conclusion that either all my environmentally conscious friends are fully aware of this idea and that my other FB friends are not environmentally conscious at all and have no desire to be. I am still working on my project and I have to admit I am not doing it to save the environment but to save my pocket book. My old house is a killer on oil. I hope to have my solar furnace installed in my kitchen window before week's end.