Random thoughts

Bangkok is dirty, noisy, smelly and hot. That said, it has some beautiful temples and interesting markets. The main purpose of our long weekend was to go to our friend Glen's marriage to Pat. The wedding was massive and was in a very smart hotel in central Bangkok. The speeches were touching and Pat looked gorgeous. The happy couples... The wedding photographer!! We stayed in a charming boutique hotel called the Wendy house, it's in central Bangkok and very reasonably priced. The breakfast was great and set us up for the day. The only downside was the four storey climb to our room. This, accompanied by the fact that to get anywhere by public transport in Bangkok means scaling about fifty steps, meant that we got a good workout this weekend. The reclining Buddha, Wat Po; The Grand Palace Our highlights were the temples (Grand Palace, Wat Po and Wat Arun), the canal tour and the enormous, sprawling Jatujak market (with 15,000 stalls selling just about everything you can imagine).

After weeks of no rain it has now started to rain heavily every day at around 2pm. It was no surprise, therefore, when it did so today. Or at least it shouldn't have been a surprise, but somehow I found myself walking back from the bus stop in a torrential tropical rainstorm. I broke the only 'weather'-related rule in Singapore - Always carry an umbrella...Never mind, I'll know better next time, or at least I'd like to think so. As usual on my walk home I looked up to the top of the fence to see the weaver ant's nest. It's amazing, there is this colony of fairly large red ants who have woven together about six leaves to make a pod in which to live. Apparently they make the nest by making a string of ants between two leaves and then shortening the string one ant at a time. Then they squeeze a larvae to make the silky glue that holds the leaves together. They are there every day maintaining the structure, frantically so when it rains like today. I live in c