Archive for January, 2010

The good news for you is that there are no more polo tournaments until February, which no more polo photos will be inflicted upon you (unless I find something really special over the next couple of days of processing). The bad news for me is that there are no more polo tournaments until February, I rather enjoy them.

Anyway, here are the (probably) final offerings from last weekend.

Polo is a hard, rough sport played by adults. But nobody told Martine….

Martine is 13 years old and gets stuck in with rest of them during a game of polo. It may be something they put in the school milk in Argentina, but the fact that both his parents are polo players may have something to do with it. He may not have been born on a horse, but was possibly conceived on one and certainly grew up on one.

He is also a bit of a whizz on the guitar and drums; maybe that’s thanks to the school milk.

How time flies, it’s the 4th already.

Following my new year’s resolution to relax and enjoy retirement more, I find that all I have done this year so far is:

Taken 1,923 photographs
Processed 835 of those photographs
Been windsurfing
Spent a couple of hours at the radio control track in a fruitless attempt to get better.
Watched The Hurt Locker which is a very tense movie about a bomb disposal squad, and A Perfect Getaway which isn’t, but it does have a cute twist.
Cleaned up some cat vomit.
Bought some seedless grapes for she who must be obeyed which will earn me monster hugs when she gets home ‘cos she loves them.

No wonder I feel chilled out.

Last night was a busy time on the roads as the population of Thailand headed home after their new year break. So of course we would look to the nation’s policemen to help ensure a smooth flow of traffic.

Heading back from the polo match I joined Sukhumvit south of Pattaya and hit a massive jam of traffic, presumably all heading home to Bangkok. It’s a clear stretch of road with two lanes in each direction, so no obvious reason why there should be problems. Then we arrived at some cones which were funneling cars into a single lane, and then there were the signs indicating this was a police checkpoint. An inconvenience, but no doubt the brave upholders of the law were there for a good reason. On the look out for assorted criminals perhaps, or drunken drivers.

There were certainly many policemen in evidence, but not one of them was manning the checkpoint. They were all sat under a tarpaulin watching a Thai soap on a portable TV, while the people who they are meant to be serving crawled through the “checkpoint”, just trying to get home after a holiday. Made me laugh, but then I was almost home; others in the queue looked less amused.