An ordinary life in an extra-ordinary place
Archive for March, 2012
In a bizarre intermingling of interests, this weekend features the Pattaya Livestock Show and Eastern Drift Championship. Cows in the hall, drift cars in the car park outside.
I went to the previous cow display and had no great desire to go again; but I popped my head round the door, only to be met by the cold, dead eyes of a killer:
Suitably startled, things got worse when a girl asked me if I liked her cock:
Enough of the livestock, so off to the drift cars which were just finishing up a tyre destruction session:
It rained before I managed to get any decent shots. Maybe I will go back tomorrow and try again.
Head still hurting following a total bitch of meeting in Bangkok yesterday; courtesy of the most arrogant, unpleasant little shit of a man it has been my misfortune to meet.
Best way to make things better; go take some photos. So wandered round my usual haunts and ended up here. World now seems a slightly better place.
Back from three days in Bangkok.
Yesterday evening we were passing (purely by chance*) through Zen, and stumbled across these ladies; seemed impolite not to snap them.
All shots, Panasonic GX1 with Panasonic/Leica 25mm
*I’d heard rumours of models, and steered she who must be obeyed in that direction. I rule.
No polo this weekend so a chance to relax and leave the camera at home, apart from a brief session to help out Craig and Amara at the windsurfing club.
They want to make a new brochure, highlighting their role in bringing children into the sport; so it was down to the water for some windsurfing, sailing and SUPing. Their model was their daughter who seemed to enjoy every moment. This is maybe not surprising given her Mum is a world champion windsurfer with more than 25 years experience and her father has webbed feet.
First she did a bit of windsurfing:
Then she took a ride on a SUP:
Then we took some shots of Mummy doing training; but the assembled students already knew what to do and soon became bored:
So they were all loaded onto a windsurfing training catamaran which was much more fun:
And she finished off the morning with a quick sail with the parents:
And if a little girl can windsurf and ride a SUP; so can you. Learn how here.
Just a few simple scenarios captured and I toddled off home to process the snaps. Loaded onto the computer and what do we have here? Nine hundred and twenty three photos? WTF? Or more exactly, what the fuck?!
My fault. They had been kind enough to float around on the sea for twenty minutes or so for each activity, it seemed impolite not to snap them. So I did, continuously; and ended up with around 800 more photos than I needed. So that was a fun few hours weeding out some good examples to keep before deleting the rest.
Still, not finished yet. Today was the cross-bay swim for charity and Craig was supporting it by providing a team of SUP riders to help protect the swimmers on their journey. I stationed myself at the Dusit hotel (which has a very good cake and coffee shop; just by chance) and caught a few shots as the swimmers arrived.
SUP support for an incoming swimmer:
The winning swimmer arrives:
Why don’t they look tired? I found the walk from the car park fairly exhausting:
Tough conditions:
Every swimmer paid a minimum of 2,000 baht to charity to take part; and it wasn’t just the young and fit. Respect to this guy:
And respect to the SUP team for lending a hand:
Lunch on the way home, processed the shots from this morning, then off to the windsurfing club to deliver the photos from the last two days and then to the polo club to deliver the shots from last weekend.
I reckon I have taken something like 3,500 photos in the last nine days; so I really should take a little break from snapping before the next event kicks off on Friday.
As an exciting alternative activity, I am off to see my doctor in Bangkok tomorrow to see how the thyroid murder campaign is progressing. Hopefully he will take me off these steroids; my face is expanding and I am convinced my willy is shrinking; to the extent that she who must be obeyed now points at it and giggles much more than she used to.
No presents, no cake with candles, not even a sodding card; what’s wrong with you bastards?
Check this. I know; a rather inconsequential post about a broken switch on my coffee machine. But it’s the first post on Pattaya days and it happened four years ago today; and as blog years are five times normal; Pattaya Days is now twenty. So, I ask, where’s the bloody cake?
All together now: “Happy Birthday to this”.
Postscript: In an amazing coincidence that in most primitive cultures (e.g. America) would be taken as a sign that there is a god; my coffee machine switch destroyed itself again last week and a replacement arrived today. Maybe not actually proof of a god, but definitely an indication of a four year life cycle for coffee machine switches. I bought three new ones, so I am covered for a while.
I have already posted a few shots arising from a brief interaction with cosplay aficionados; including the one above which is now the “out of the camera” look rather than the B&W treatment I previously published. Time to share some more.
The cosplay convention was happening outside Paragon in Bangkok and I had fifteen minutes of shooting time before we had to meet someone for dinner. What a target-rich environment. Dozens of weird, or cute or, best of all, weird and cute students in outrageous costumes, just aching to be photographed. I could easily have spent an hour or more with them. Still, in fifteen minutes I caught a few, and here they are:
Top marks to the Panasonic GX1 with the Panasonic/Leica 25mm lens, which enabled me to jump in and take quick shots while the DSLR boys were manipulating their monster rigs. Never missed focus and the images looked good right out of the camera.
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