What’s in a name?

I work with a person here at the bank whose name is suffixed by ‘Na Ayuthaya’.

I asked one of my Thai colleagues what ‘Na Ayuthaya’ meant, suspecting it had something to do with social standing – apparently it indicates a person’s familial lineage, which is usually traced back to the royal family. There are several types of these ‘extra’ names given to those fortunately born in the right place at the right time, or who have married someone in ‘the family’.

I was trying to figure a Western cultural equivalent (such exercises help make sense of this country). All I could think of was an OBE, MBE etc.

My colleague wisely said that therein lies a wonderful illustration of the fundamental differences between the two cultures. In a general sense, where social status (think jobs, opportunity) is delivered via one’s blood lines in Eastern cultures, in Western cultures, status is earned and generally related to positions attained or money earned.

Mulesing

Interesting segment from the ABC's Bush Telegraph on mulesing from last Friday...

Listen in here.

I think I need to Take 5

On page 69 of this week’s Take 5 magazine, a social journal of high repute, you will find a picture of Clare, a surfboard and a mysterious-looking orb (I’ve previously blogged the photo).

My mate Millgate submitted the picture on my behalf into the journal’s resident psychic Jenny Smedley, asking her what the orb in the photo means for us both.

As you can see in photo to the right, it sounds like there’s a baby on the way…

Panda PR

It's panda-monium in Northern Thailand at the moment.

The Chiang Mai Zoo has painted their elephants to look like pandas in a PR attempt to help remind Thais of the plight of the national symbol. Not sure if this is brilliant, weird, animal cruelty or all of the above.

As background, the Thai public went absolutely nuts after a rare baby panda was born in Thailand in late May this year. Since then, there's been a panda frenzy amongst the Thai public with panda pens, panda screensavers, panda mobile covers, a panda song and other assorted panda accessories on sale left right and centre!

Golf's got it right

From last weekend's Fitzfiles:

I WANT to pen a paean on golf. In what other sport can you get anything remotely close to the scene we witnessed at the British Open last weekend? I mean, a legend of the game such as Tom Watson - whose last major win was 26 years ago! - taking on the world's best, including not only Tiger Woods, but a 17-year-old from Japan, a 16-year-old from Italy, other players of all ages from as far afield as Colombia, Argentina, Denmark, Sweden, South Africa, Spain and Fiji … and getting within a single shot of winning the whole tournament! Not one of them threw a tantrum; not one raised hell in local nightclubs before or after their rounds, all behaved impeccably. The sporting theatre of the whole thing was spectacular, and there were no corporate billboards flashing, no logos emblazoned on the greens, no nuttin'. In all the codes in all the world, golf is the big-time sport that has got it absolutely right, and Watson's achievement last weekend served to highlight it as never before.

Face

Face is a funny thing.

Back home, the word face commonly means the outer-front-side of someone’s head, some of which are quite nice to look at. In Asia, it is a misty mystifying social veil of beauty, frustration and humour.

Beauty in the sense that the concept of ‘face’ and ‘saving face’ is so culturally intricate, thus difficult to understand and at times exclusive. You just can't help but admire the social pillar.

Frustration in the sense that its unspoken language can be excruciating at times to navigate. Why hasn’t he returned my emails? Why do they have such dark tinted windows on their BMW? Why say the bus would take 4hrs, when it always takes 16?

Humour, well sometimes you just need to sit back and smile. For example, I’ve been meeting weekly about a forward sponsorship strategy with a whole bunch of the bank’s VPs and execs. Every week, this important-looking dude walks in, is wai’d profusely by those in attendance, sits in an remote part of the boardroom, doesn’t say anything, then leaves after 5-10 minutes.

Reason? All for face I reckon. It’s important to show respect in meetings by turning up in person (as opposed to just sending apologies). It’s also not necessary to contribute to a meeting if you’re not an important cog, and it’s cool to send a minion there on your behalf to report back to you. It's also cool to just leave after 5 minutes without contributing.

With all due reflection, every country and sub-culture has its own language of face. At home, you never visit someone for a meal empty-handed. Or you always remember to return a shout at the pub.

It’s quite an introspective human behavior really, fascinatingly manifested differently across every culture. The world is quite charming, isn’t it?

It would be interesting to know what variations of ‘face’ you see where you live, or what circles you hang in?? Rural, city, European, beach, work, gay, sports clubs, shopping, politics…

To Saigon!

I'm on my way to Saigon for the weekend for a rugby tour. Just got through immigration and am having a quiet one while the other blokes arrive.

Spammers are getting creative

'Boris Burger'??

Are you serious?

This appeared this morning in my junk email folder - spammers either have a good sense of humour, or have been watching Wimbledon whilst smashing some McDonald's delivery.

Thailand PR tip #1

Need to big-up a customer letter or some other ad/web copy?

Chuck something in about the royal family.

Books I’d like to read this year

‘One Step Ahead’ - Rod McQueen

One from a few years back...combines approaches to rugby and business.

‘It’s not about the bike’ – Lance Armstrong

Recommended by Libby!

‘Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson’ - Mitch Albom

Been wanting to read this one for a while, further to the recommendations of many friends.

‘The Aussie Expat - The Luckiest Person on Earth’ - Steve Douglas

Talks about investment options for Aussie expats.

‘First Tests: Great Australian Cricketers and the Backyards That Made Them’ - Steve Cannane

This one doesn't come out until August, but wouldn't mind getting a copy for some light reading. Steve Cannane was a favourite journo when I used to listen to Triple J's hack, so hopefully it'll be replicated in the book.

‘First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong’ - James Hansen

A 2005 biography about some bloke who once walked on the moon.

Any other recommendations??

Phuket pina colada

Currently at a clifftop Bob Marley themed bar, sucking down a pina colada as the day wanes.

We're staying the weekend down the bottom of Phuket, at my mate Gearing's holiday house. Enjoyed an excellent day at the beach - a bit of surf, swimming and beach cricket retribution against a few poms. Magical stuff.

State of Origin: Greatest biff

I was too busy getting bollocked by a voracious client last night to be able to watch Game 3 of the State of Origin.

From all accounts, it sounded like a little pearler of a match, fit with freakish athleticism, hard hits and the odd spot of biff. Saw the fight on YouTube when I was finishing up last night.

Got me casting my mind back to some of the great Origin biffs. I reckon Game 2, 1995, has to be the best. Blokes coming in from everywhere to have a good old fashion Maroon vs Blues stoush. And it was only 2:27 into the game!

Also brought the best out in Ray “Rabs” Warren:

“Well, they’ve come from everywhere…almost like it was a rehearsal”

“Well! We’ve seen plenty of this in Origin – this is one of the best!”

“Av a look at them throw them!”

Message to KRudd

I’m now following KRudd’s Twitter updates via my account – I think he uses it well, giving insights into the role of Prime Minister and politician that has seldom been done before in Australia.

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, I’m off to Phuket this weekend to meet up with some friends. So is KRudd. Except his friends are the leaders of different ASEAN nations across the world. I’m yet to crack that clique.

So I updated my status, hoping it will get through to KRudd:

In Phuket this w'end...beach cricket. Trying to get @KevinRuddPM to come & roll his arm over…an expat game might be a good break from ASEAN!

You never know, might get lucky, like some at the recent Winter Ball.

It's all happening

God bless budget airlines. Over the next five weekends, I certainly won’t be doing anything for the global push to reduce greenhouse gases emissions:

18-19 July (this weekend): Flying to Phuket with Clare, not to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and KRudd who are there for the ASEAN summit, but to hang out with some friends from Bangkok and Singapore. On the agenda is a bit of beach cricket, maybe see if we can find a place to watch the rugby, and a couple of beers.

25-26 July: Flying to Saigon on a 1-game weekend rugby tour, playing and meeting up with a few of the blokes from the Saigon Geckos.

31 July – 2 August: I’ll be flying down to Singapore to meet my mate Dave as he travels back to Australia from a UK business trip. It’s also his birthday on the Monday, so will see if we can arrange a bit of festive action for him somewhere…

8-9 August: I’ll be staying in Bangers, meeting up with my mate Al who’s coming to stay with Clare and I. The Wallabies play the Boks that weekend, so will be watching it in between showing Al the finer points of Bangkok.

14-16 August: Flying to Chiang Rai for the weekend with Clare. Chiang Rai is tucked right up the top of Thailand – there we might go on a day jungle trek (if I can convince Clare), likely do some market shopping (if Clare can convince me) and enjoy each other’s company for the long weekend alongside some good grub and wine.

I feel very fortunate!! So will hopefully have a few more interesting blog posts to throw up over the next month or so…watch this space!

For Willis

On twitter…

Talk about online evolution – in the last decade, I’ve gone from:

ICQ to Yahoo!Chat to Yahoo!Games to GoPlay to Hotmail to Blogger to LinkedIn toYouTube to Facebook to Skype to now…twitter!

Twitter’s a micro-blogging service where you can send and receive 140-character updates, which can include links to cool articles, personal reflections, by-the-second news etc. Sort of like the status update feature in Facebook. I’ve decided to make my profile based on sport, with my user name ‘scrumblue’.

So I’m now following the updates of the Wallabies and Waratahs (media!!) teams; journalists Jessica Halloran, Mark Cashman, Ben Kimber and the Ruggamatrix crew; a rugby blogger fromGreen and Gold Rugby; sports star Lote Tuqiri; and rugby brain and ex-Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer.

For instance:

LoteTuqiri So i'm getting 4 wisdom teeth pulled out after yesterdays consult. Now where to find the time???

You’ll also notice I’ve attached a twitter widget onto the sidebar at the bottom right (scroll down). This will include any of my updates or conversations happening on twitter.

Gay Cut

There's a barber down the road called Gay Cut. I'm still not sure if they are trying to attract a niche market, or if they're insinuating that said haircut would be an exceptionally happy experience.

I went in this morning to investigate.

Its clientèle consisted of one bloke getting a pretty standard haircut, and another getting the letters 'MJ' shaved into the side of his head. No discernable evidence of sexual disposition.

After being led to the chair by a young woman sporting pink braces and tight pencil jeans, we run through the logistics of a short back and sides in Tinglish. I then settle into a Thai popstar magazine and she gets snipping.

"OK, na ka?" she asks.

I look up. Oh god.

Is that a square chunk of hair that she's just excavated off the side of my head? Yep, a number 1 job on the sides, shaped for a lover of geometric figures. I can't even go an 'MJ' now...

We worked on it somewhat, but it has still turned out to be a shocking haircut. Only another two weeks until I no longer look like a US Marine in Bangkok on R&R.

Conclusion about Gay Cut - must be named and aimed for the gay niche market.

Could you imagine a worse place to live?

Beach times with Clare

I found these snaps on my computer randomly so thought I'd put them together and post them on the blog. They're from a disposable underwater camera that we used at beaches from Freshwater Beach in Sydney to Byron Bay in late 2007.

Doesn't Clare look like an absolute surf'n shweetie!

Click to see a larger, higher resolution photo...

On tour

I'm currently in Phuket playing in the international club rugby 10's.

After what can only be described as an emotional night last night, today I'm part man, part brewery. The rugby is a painful formality.

Elsom dominates

Watched the Heineken Cup final with a few mates on Saturday night, enjoying an absolute ball-tearer of a game from Rocky Elsom. Interestingly, Irish legend Brian O'Driscoll reckons he's the best player he's ever played with...

Elsom was named Man-of-the-Match in the final, apparently his 11th honour in Leinster's previous 13 matches, an incredible statistic.

Here's a vid including a few of Rocky's highlights from the final. Let's hope the ARU can get him back on Aussie soil!!!

Clare and I on Sunday

Clare and I are in bed, feeling somewhat sorry for ourselves after a particularly festive Saturday night...Clare sent me this PM on Skype which pretty much sums up the two of us (yes, we message each other whilst lying side-by-side...).

Playing the numbers game

According to the new 'computational knowledge engine' Wolfram Alpha:

• I am 7449km from home.
• I consumed 34% of my daily recommended caloric intake at lunch. 
• I am 25.56 years old today.
  
• My birth was not a notable event.

The internet, news and democracy

Fascinating article from this week's Economist on the future of media...what impact will the internet have on not only traditional newspapers, news and advertising, but also democracy...

...Technological change has destroyed all sorts of once-popular products, from the handloom to the Walkman, and the world has mostly been better for it. But news is not just a product: the press is the fourth estate, a pillar of the polity. Journalists investigate and criticise governments, thus helping voters decide whether to keep them or sack them. Autocracies can function perfectly well without news, but democracies cannot. Will the death of the daily newspaper—the main source of information for most educated people for at least the past century, the scourge of corrupt politicians, the conscience of nations — damage democracy?...

Read the full article here.

We live in Bangkok

A couple of snaps from our place here in Bangkok!

Looking toward the north from our bedroom window. We get some amazing sunsets, especially during the monsoon season as thick clouds engulf the city. This part of the city is home to an eclectic mix of Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist cultures, with the Islamic Call to Prayer often heard just before the sun sets.

View from our bedroom balcony, bearing north-west. You may notice the low-lying buildings surrounding the odd high-rise. We live on the 18th floor of a 38-floor building. About 1km away behind the large buildings is the snaking Chao Phraya River and further north is the royal palace and some of Thailand's most revered temples.

Looking toward the east from our living room balcony as night falls. There's quite a lot of building happening at the moment, illustrated by the new W Hotel going up in the foreground. This area is Bangkok's main financial, embassy and flash hotel district. Also of note is the constant flow of traffic along Sathorn Road below, as well as the sky train tracks passing over the motorist's heads.