Thank goodness that’s over. For weeks we have been waiting for the decision on Thaksin’s frozen assets. Friday was Judgement Day, and the judges spent 5 hours reading out their conclusions.

The end result was a that $1.4 billion of his assets were confiscated by the state; but that still leaves nearly a billion that was not seized, so the man won’t starve. The response to the verdict from Thaksin was predictable. He did his usual impression of a baby throwing toys out of a pram, with a statement that can be summarised as being “Me! Me! Poor me!”. His supporters seemed disinterested in the fact that he had been found guilty on many counts of abusing power to enrich himself; claiming, with some justification, that all Thai politicians are corrupt, so why pick on Thaksin? So they vow to fight on, for something that is not entirely clear, but they call it democracy; which can be interpreted locally as meaning that whoever can buy the most votes wins. To reinforce the message that the party isn’t over till the fat lady explodes, four grenades were thrown at Bangkok Bank outlets last night.

To an outsider (and probably to most of the Thais, who just wish the problem would go away so they can get on with life), the ongoing political saga here is hard to comprehend. But it’s not my country, so I am happy to remain bemused and generally disinterested.

And anyway, in the wider scheme of things, nicking a billion dollars is not a big deal. Silvio Berlusconi has similar charges of profiting from office laid against him; but redeems himself by being a buffoon who plays around with prostitutes; someone the Italian people can take to their hearts. Ciao! And then of course there is the mass murdering war criminal Blair. Why is he still prancing around, making millions, rather than rotting in prison or, preferably, being placed in front of a firing squad? I am bemused and very angry. Next to him, Thaksin’s misdemeanours are trivial.

And it was good to see that triviality continues to occupy the fine policemen of Pattaya. While their colleagues in Bangkok were dealing with grenade attacks, the Pattaya contingent stopped a young man on his motorbike and discovered a collection of ladies underwear under the seat. The bike rider gave the perfectly reasonable excuse that he had discovered the knickers hanging on his bike, mistook them for dusters, and stowed them for future use. The police, presumably suspecting the man to be the notorious Pattaya knicker nicker, impounded his bike as “evidence”. I am bemused and amused; which is the best of all the bemused conditions, and one of the reasons why I love living here.