19th July 2007

Sorry it's been so long cats and kittens, I am in deed still alive just partying too hard, you know how it goes.

Let me start at the beginning, well as I'm sure you all know by now, I have been struggling with the powers that be to restore my passport etc, etc to a level of legitimacy appropriate to my continuing lifestyle here in Thailand.

Phuket immigration really didn't want to know, I turned up there, shiny new virgin passport in hand. I told my tale of woe and the official (who was camp as a row of tents) look very perturbed said "This is very hard for me" and I sat for several hours as he pissed about trying to avoid doing his job. eventually he rang Bangkok then told me he couldn't help me and I would have to go to Bangkok.

So I went to Bangkok, I arrived at the airport and bumped into one of the guys who lives in the same building as I he chatted in my ear at the airport, he chatted on the plane, he chatted on the bus into town, my ears were pleased to get away from him, and then Bangkok happened, I went and stayed at Kevin and Ian's place, we went out we danced we drank we laughed, it was too much fun till too late in the morning it was daylight before bedtime it was rasberry mojitos it was electrolyte drinks before bed, it was Harry Potter and fuzzy days segue into fuzzier nights.

One night Kevin's friend Paul asked me to go and invite an amazonian style Blonde who was sitting alone to our table over, I did, she had a firm handshake a voice pitched several fathoms below feminine and he was a good sport about talking to her all night although she was not exactly what he had in mind when he had first spied her (he did get her phone number though so maybe he did know all along). The evening unfolding around me was one of the funniest events I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of.

So still muzzy I made it to immigration where I rode the emotional roller coaster at first it seemed a simple matter, then they discovered the original paper work for my visa is "missing" they decided they couldn't help me, but I say if you can't help me no-body can so several hours later Suvarnabhum come through for me, a subsequent visa issued at the new airport was traced and the paper work faxed over, they re-issued my visa and it didn't cost me a satang (yay).

I hear you ask. Why don't they just put all these records on one data base that any immigration/border crossing official in the country can access? Ahh you foreigner you, this is Thailand, the "It doesn't matter" attitude can be a real pain in the ass when you are trying to get anything done you just have to learn to live that way or go slowly mad.

When I arrived at the airport (to fly back to Phuket) they took one look at my passport with it's shiny new visa and immediately started chatting, talking and laughing, I was their long lost friend, they issued me with a new multiple entry visa on the spot, there was smiling and wai-ing. What it is to be popular, what it is to have no clue as to why I'm popular, oh I love the cultural chasm, it's like living in a dream, your never quite sure which tangent your life will veer up next, whether the street is made of water downed concrete or whether the wheel will fall of your bike it's a mystery.
It's a mystery, but it's a more honest reflection of the true instability of our lives, we deny this by building social institutions in an attempt to control the unpredictable nature of well nature, we lacquer the gaps with our own habitual "lifestyles" and then we're shocked when the fabric of this world is damaged. Here you can't build let alone maintain the comfort of these illusions, your living your life raw. Oh it's all getting a bit deep, better go.
Catch y'all on the other side of the weekend.
N.J.