More monitors

I was over Lumpini way yesterday with several hours to myself so I did one of my favourite things: I went monitor lizard hunting in Lumpini Park. I love these creatures. They're so unlike anything I've ever encountered anywhere else. (Thank heavens; can you imagine the hysteria if these climbed out of the Serpentine one day?) My normal practice is to tear around the park, wondering why there aren’t any lizards to be seen and it’s only as I slow down and accept Thai time that they become visible. I think there might be a life lesson there.

I was sketching a tree (badly) when this little baby – about fifty centimetres long - appeared. He was beautifully marked. His yellow spots - which looked as though he'd been assembled from beads - make him, according to my book, a simple Water Monitor Lizard. 

He seemed oblivious to me, a metre or two away. He moved about flicking his tongue and exploring and then, after playing for a bit in a puddle of water, he took off around the edge of the lake.

I watched him for a long time and then I decided to go in search of another; greedily I wanted a bigger one. On the opposite side of the lake I’d seen a group of adults doing T’ai Chi. As I approached them I saw a piece of tree that looked a lot like a monitor lizard’s head but I decided it couldn’t be because it was so close to the T’ai Chi practice.

Then it moved.

This chap was about two metres nose to tail tip. According to my reference book I'd swear it was a Bengal Monitor Lizard but these aren't documented (in the book) as living in Thailand though they do live as our near neighbours in Burma and I'm not sure they have much respect for the border control. So the next best (and a bit unsatisfactory) ID would be the South East Asian Monitor Lizard, famous for their scavenging – hence the T’ai Chi people. Maybe it is then.

Monday memories: Christmas 1986

I’d been going out with Not Yet Husband for about two months. Notions of husbands couldn’t be further from my mind because my first term at university had finished and we were meeting for the first time on fresh turf: Covent Garden. Just us. Would we still like each other away from university?

(I just went to ask Husband if he had any fond memories of this trip. Readers, he had no memory of the momentous occasion. He looked hazy and said, ‘was it a big meet up in the Punch and Judy?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘it was just us.’ ‘Oh. Did we have lunch in that place in the middle?’ I said, ‘you’re guessing aren’t you?’ He said, ‘well I have lots of memories of Covent Garden…’ I said, ‘but not this special one?’)

To be fair to the old bloke his faculties are probably going. He got glasses for the first time yesterday: reading glasses. At last I’m not the only one… When he got home from the glasses trip he did a bit of tidying. He ventured into the button box where he found a number of treasures. A tie pin (aw gawd, did I really fall for a man who wore a tie pin?); an ARP badge (air raid patrol) and a single earring of mine.

He remembered (vaguely) that these earrings had been purchased by him in our dating days (though he couldn’t put an exact date on it) during a trip to Covent Garden (where we might or might not have been with other people) and was distressed that he had only found one. (The other one was in my jewellery box; I had kept it for sentimental reasons in spite of its singleton status.)

We had wandered about Covent Garden market and saw these gorgeous earrings. They were expensive and we were students but Not Yet Husband told the girl he wanted them. To our horror, the expensive price tag was for a single earring only (damn that trendy Covent Garden) but by this time NYH was unable to back out.

Regular readers will know how much I like lizards. I have blogged about all sorts – monitor lizards here and here; a blue crested lizard here; various gecko visitors here and a skink here. But I thought the lizard fascination grew while I was in Thailand; apparently not.

I wonder what those two young people wandering around Covent Garden in Christmas 1986 would have thought if they’d been told what life had in store for them.

For scale these are about 1cm tall and wide. They are inserted from the back of the ear lobe.

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As a public humiliation tactic, each day I will show my progress (or otherwise) on my edit: page 31.

I'm going on a lizard hunt...

After four days on my sick bed, I was released from the Towers sanitarium yesterday, aided by yet another dose of paracetamol and a promise of a bagel for lunch at Au Bon Pain.

Our main destination was Lumpini Park. The (extended) family’s intention was to geocache. My plan was to hunt and shoot monitor lizards… with my camera!

It wasn't long ago that I told you of my favourite thing to do at Lumpini Park. This collage does not include the best pictures I took yesterday which are being saved for a couple of article ideas.

Friday Photo

I had lunch with Husband yesterday because I spent the morning over in Silom, near his work. He’s got his boss in town so I hadn’t seen much of him. (No, we still don’t know any more about ‘Our Future.’ *Sigh*)

I got a taxi home past Lumpini Park and I caught sight of a GIGANTIC monitor Lizard. OOOOHHH. I love these chaps. Actually, I understand the Thais consider them bad luck but I love to see them. These critters are direct descendents (in my eyes and not in a scientific sense) of the dinosaur. Luckily – because they can be 2 metres long - they are very shy.

I took this picture in the first year we were here in Bangkok. I am rather proud of it.