Trip to Chinatown

After I got the children up this morning I wrote an article. I’d been preparing it in my head for some days. I was doing the research and my subconscious, bless it, sorted most of it out in my head while I got on with other things.

Then, I went to Sampeng Lane, Chinatown. I LOVE Sampeng Lane even though it’s migraine inducing. On the way, walking through Chinatown, are the weirdest shops: shops full of engines, shops full of metal rods; shops full of basketware; shops full of string and rope.

Sampeng Lane is a narrow ‘walking street’. No-one appears to have told the locals who insist on riding motorbikes down it and pulling carts full of bales of material and the like.

There are certain rulesI have invented to cope with Chinatown:

1. Really, really want what you’re going for.
2. If possible, go on your own. If you must go with other people, try NOT to care what you buy.
3. Start at one end. DO NOT start in the middle – which way will you go?
4. Start at the end you can walk to from Hua Lampong otherwise a taxi driver will think you’ve just got off the train from the beach and are stupid. Then he will drive you on a tour of Bangkok before taking you to Chinatown.
5. When I see a shop I want to go into I have to remember if I turn left or right going into it, otherwise I won’t remember which way to turn coming out of the shop. Sampeng Lane is designed so that shoppers are perpetually confused so they stay there all day because they can’t find a way out.

6. Buy a drink every time you see a vendor: juice, water and coke. 7. Buy dim sum in Sampeng – it tastes better there than anywhere else in the world.

I had to buy stuff for a grotto and lots of decorations for Husband’s work Christmas party which we are hosting on Friday.

I got there!

I got to my office this morning and I put together my fan (how hard can it be? I thought. The instructions were in THAI, so when it said 'remove the plastic protector sleevy thing', I didn't know I had to do that. Eventually, I worked out that that bit was too fat for that bit, so something had to change, and I got there in the end.)

Then I rushed off to my appointment at 12.

I got back to my office at 2pm, armed with lunch: Dim Sum and fresh orange juice, both bought on the street - (total cost £1.50ish)

And a full two hours to write. I was a bit slow getting into it because I haven't written for a week, but I got going in the end, and wrote 1200 words. My 'sick children' week was a blessing in the end, because last week I was really nervous of the pressure of the 'Office' but all of that worry had evaporated in the desperate need to get down there and write. HURRAH.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishing. xxx

Can't believe...

Can't believe I left pork Dim Sum off my list of Good Things. BIG Mistake. So here is some pictorial food porn ...

I managed to write 1000 words today - well this evening. I've worn myself out trying to avoid writing and in the end, it worked out fine. (Must remember that.)

And I've nearly finished my article this month.

Five Things What Are Good

Right, in balance to my neurotic moment yesterday, today I am taking the advice of Jon M to produce a list of Five Things What Are Good:

1. Yesterday in my miniscule time available for writing I wrote 258 words. Nobody died; nobody shouted at me that I was crap; I enjoyed myself and have even got a few more words.
2. Daughter shone in her part in the school play; remembered all her lines; husband got out of work early and took me to lunch, and he operated the digital camera.
3. Photoshop. How did I ever live without being able to make pictures of The Archivist in a dodgy suit, myself with matchsticks in my eyes and maps of Fictionville? I so love Photoshop and I really want to get better at it.
4. Dim Sum, yellow dahl and tea.
5. Sleep