Grubbs n Critters

November 5, 2011

Disaster Tourists

Category: Thaism

Having some idle time on our hands, we decided to pop by Chatuchak in the afternoon today; merely out of curiosity after having heard of news that the flood water has now gotten to Mochit BTS station.

Although the road right beneath the train tracks had shown some signs of raised water level, most of the surrounding area still seemed dry. We even walked towards and finally into the market thinking that perhaps, we can still get ourselves some chicken rice to tar pao home, but apart from some early signs of flooding on the road right next to the main entrance of the market itself, the rest of the area remained dry. Not a very spectacular sight in any way, but a couple snapshots here:

Road right next to Chatuchak market – halfway dry. 50m down the road was completely flooded

The road right underneath the BTS train tracks

There were only a few shops opened and there was also a handful of tourists and locals in tow. The entire market, however, did look like a ghost town. I don’t think I have ever seen Chatuchak market so quiet before.

We were in and out there within 10 minutes and then decided to chill out by the park right next to the BTS station.

The weather was perfect, it was rather windy and for once, the park over there was not crowded. It was quiet. It was nice. And we are certain that Spud did not mind us letting her loose for awhile.

Spud was really just happy today, and for us, it was a very good chill-out day being a disaster tourists.

Gone to the dark side

Category: Random

Past the 3 year mark, my old Sony Ericsson T700 phone has been showing signs of a slow death. In the last 2 months or so, the phone has been Spud’s object of affection day in, day out, as she gets intrigue by the buttons and the sounds the phone can emit. That being said, she has got no qualms throwing the phone around; and as it landed on the floor, the phone disintegrated into several piece – namely the battery, the back cover and the phone itself.

Over several weeks then on, the phone will switch off by itself, sometimes just hanged and other times the cover kept falling off the phone as the locking system is no longer in working order. I have been in inertia for the longest time in acquiring smart phones, just because I have so resisted it. I know for a fact that out of principle, iPhone or Blackberry is out of my consideration set, and it makes it harder that I don’t have a brand in mind because I know almost nothing about what makes a good smart phone.

It was a matter of time, and I don’t want to be caught in a situation where it will die on me when I did not even have a replacement yet. I guess, I could have gone for another simple phone, but I also realise that it is about time to get on the bandwagon…It was time for the imminent replacement.

So.

Anyhow.

Last week, we (by we, I meant Silver Bullet) spent a great deal of time researching for a smart phone since (luckily for me!), Silver Bullet also needed to replace his phone as it has got quite a crack for the phone to be broken in two!

In all honesty, I really was too lazy to go look for one given my massive inertia to succumb to one, and I cannot tell you how happy I was to be riding on Silver Bullet for the knowledge into the world of smart phones. While I know what I DO NOT WANT (i.e iPhone or Blackberry!), it was still a bummer that I had to decide for a brand myself. Hmmph.

So.

Anyhow.

After all that research and spending half the day literally trawling the stores to look for a smart phone, Silver Bullet decided on a HTC Desire – actually, given the feature, a brand I would not mind getting for myself

Unfortunately, given this is Thailand, some inconsistencies exist. It turned out that because I use AIS as my provider, I would need a smart phone with a 900 MHz bandwidth and HTC Desire only comes in with a 850 MHz bandwidth (only supported by DTAC). Tell me how retarded is that!

Funnily enough, I was told that the 900 MHz were all sold out; 2 hours and 5 shops later, we realized that that in fact, none of HTC smart phones came with a 900 MHz! And the only reason we found that out was because we had asked if it was possible for me to order it! Now why they told me “sold out” instead of “no have” is beyond me! Fed-up and tired, I moved on to the next brand I had in mind – the Sony Ericsson xPeria – only to be told at several shops again that they were sold out. Indefinitely.

I quit the search for the day, and decided to do a little bit of research from what I knew. With the knowledge of the limited smart phone brands I can use with AIS, I decided on Samsung Galaxy S and promptly bought it the next day.

I wish I know everything about it within 5 minutes as if there’s one thing I don’t have the patience for, I don’t have the patience to spend time (a luxury of time I don’t have!) figuring out what to do with it. With my impending impatience, Silver Bullet came to my rescue and with his help I managed to figure out several things here and there within a shorter span of time. (Is there a wonder why I nicknamed him Silver Bullet? :p)

Perhaps when I get the ‘smarts”, I may just be inclined to do a review of HTC Desire vs Samsung Galaxy S. But then again, why would I do that when there are already so many reviews out there?

Besides, by the time I get down to it, these models we have may have just been obsolete.

The only thing I can comment at present is the fact that I don’t like how much bigger than mobile phones used to be, and the annoying fact that I have to use 2 hands to work on it; left hand to hold it, and the other to touch-screen it.

All in all, I am still figuring it out and I am no means an expert of smart phone But I guess, I now have officially crossed over to the dark side.

Unlike SilverBullet who is now royally addicted to Angry Birds, I still have not downloaded those crazy games.

Yet.

* Pictures courtesy of Google Images

Skyping with Gramms

Category: Baby Milestones

It was requested that Spud needs to be more “accessible” to her grandparents when they left for Holland last weekend through Skype. Skeptical that Spud was unlikely to be interacting with them much given the “ants she usually tend to have in her pants”, we warned them of the potential outcome and adopted the let’s-try-it-out-and-do-a-wait-and-see approach.

Spud surprised us. There was an instant recognition the moment she saw them appearing on Skype. She was smiling , jumping and acting all excited. We reckon, it helped that the skyping happened quickly enough after they had left our crib, and so that helped with Spud’s instant recognition.

At one point, Spud kept trying to get to the back of the laptop – I reckon she probably thought that she can find her grandparents behind that screen! It was quite hilarious to watch her, as she not only interacted happily with them, she was even trying to hand toys over to them!

It was a very pleasant day for us. She was smiling, she was laughing, she was giving flying kisses and all sorts of antics that made me laugh in the background….but at the same time, felt almost sad that while the interaction was happening, there was no chance of physical contact at that point in time.

I can imagine that if I am on the “other side”, my heart would ache for not being able to kiss and cuddle her. So close…yet so far away…

On the hind-sight, though, at least that is better than nothing. And I guess, the real challenge is being able to keep this us. Not only for Silver Bullet’s parents in Holland, but for mine as well in the not-so-faraway island of Singapore!