Your mission, should you choose to accept it...

I've got secret mission. It’s actually my second assignment of this type and the last one was most definitely a secret. We’ll call him Man A. He was my employer for the first operation. He was visiting my Husband and had, to his chagrin, been told by his Significant Other to come home with a ‘designer bag.’

I was having a beer with them in the night market when the mission came up. He hadn’t bothered to find out what she wanted and felt anything would do (Oh no, Man A, that is most certainly NOT the case). Husband (mine), cynical well trained as he is, laughed out loud at his disillusioned colleague. Trying to squeeze more information out of him than, ‘something black and designery’ I was given a woefully inadequate budget. Cue Husband (mine) laughing out loud again.

I was eventually dispatched into the market with a vague brief (honestly, anything I got would be better than that half witted, beer drinking man) and a more realistic budget. All seemed to be well. Bag was procured and I never heard anything else: Mission accomplished, I believe. Back at the beer drinking, I did relentlessly tease Man A that I’d hidden a little note inside telling his Significant Other that I, and not half wit man, had purchased the bag. I can guarantee that Man A spent half the night searching through the pockets of our purchase to ensure that Significant Other never knew I was involved.

So cue second mission. This one arose last Saturday with new colleagues in town and entails the procurement of my favourite ‘make’. Man B seemed happy enough for me to do the shopping. I was happy with the mission: emails were dispatched home regarding designs and colours (I don’t know if my part in the shopping is being discussed) and I’ve spent some of the weekend compiling a dossier…Man B has a hold on reality and has put forward a good budget. Tomorrow I make the hit.

So my question is this: if your Significant Other is on business somewhere famous for certain products and you really wanted him to come home with something for you, how would you feel about the situation? Would you mind him getting an ‘expert’ involved? Or would you rather he did the choosing and you risk getting something horrible?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it

For some time I have been thinking about getting something made in perspex for my desk. I know it’s possible to do this because when I was at art college I had a perspex box made by some lovely men in Hertfordshire to show one of my sculptures.

But now, I live in Bangkok.

I had a go at googling it and I got a list of companies who have something to do with perspex, but I didn’t really want to go on an Odysseus type quest that could take ten years. So I asked around at all those lovely people that over time have said ‘if you need any help, just ask.’ But it didn’t get me anywhere: I think they meant ‘if you need directions to the mall’ or something.

I am like one of those terrier dogs that won’t let go of an idea once I’ve had it (that’s the only resemblance between me and the terrier dog – if I really had to say what dog I resembled it would probably be a slightly overweight chocolate Labrador: but they’re cute, yeah?) Anyway, I wasn’t prepared to put the idea down: I NEED it, okay? Maybe I can’t write ‘til I get it.

So I asked husband to ask at work. I reminded him again, and then I started nagging, until today he issued a ‘beer to the person with the first correct answer’ type mission by email. (He’s a very innovative boss, can you tell?)

And now I have this:

Ekasilp Perspex Co., Ltd.179-181 Mitraphan Road Pomprap Pomprap Bangkok 10100 Tel : 662-222-5359Fax : 662-224-6268

I rise to the challenge, at least I think I might…

Where is Mitraphan Road? That postcode is the same as my postcode, but I’ve never heard of Pomprap. I know Prompong and Prommitr… I look on my Nancy Chandler map. I can’t find it.

Anyway, once I went over the river to an uncharted-by-Nancy-Chandler area. I was looking for waxed thread (it's a long story – oh right, bookbinding, okay?) I had a hand drawn map from a Thai girl, she couldn’t tell me which shop, or even which street (soi) but she drew an area on the map for me, and said ‘it’s one of those sois…’

It made me realise how unexplored Bangkok is to me. I frequent the same areas all the time, but this area was Foreign and so was I. They didn’t understand me when I said in Thai ‘Do you speak English?’ So I pottered about going in and out of shops, being watched like a circus attraction.

I’ve decided to accept the mission, though I have to do a spot of research first. I may be gone some time.