Paint Jobbers

Back in the days when a forum was something that we’d only ever heard of in Roman history lessons, when websites were places where lots of spiders lived, and Bluetooth was a rather unwelcome cosmetic condition I used to earn my living performing a job that was somewhat generously known as being a Triple Skilled Linesman. We Triple Skilled Linesmen used to spend a small amount of our time working in customers’ premises, an even smaller amount of our time working with underground cables, and huge amounts of our time shinning up and down telegraph poles. This latter mentioned overhead work was both very hard work and extremely good fun, and it’s left me with a fascination for watching other folk working at height. So, when recently I gazed from a fifth floor window only to espy the sight of the fellows working as featured in the photo below, I felt that I just had to snap it. And it’s my pleasure to present the resultant snap for you here, today on Doodee’s Thailand. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.


The above photo was taken in Petchaburi Province. I took it at a distance of several hundred metres away from our subjects. The guys that can be seen on the scaffolding were repainting the outside of the building. They were working at fourth and fifth floor height. They were performing their tasks at heights in excess of fifteen metres from the ground.

I expect that you can see from the photo that the scaffolding upon which these guys were working is a simplex latticework structure. It’s constructed from heavyweight bamboo tubes lashed and clamped together. It’s secured in an upright position by being tied to a bracket on the wall (it was also supported by two other lower brackets which are out of view). There aren’t any ladders on or near this scaffold. The only way to get to a high point on this scaffold is to shin up it from the ground, or to climb out from an upstairs window and descend on to it. In all of my years of performing overhead work I was never carefree enough or enthusiastic enough to have accessed such a basic structure in either of those manners.

Please note the guy squatting on the tiny ledge at the top left of the photo. Please take my word for it that he’s a long way from the ground and he’s squatting on the edge of virtually nothing. The next photo will give you a little more idea of the height at which these guys were working.


When I see Thai workmen toiling in the manner as shown above it makes me realize just how spoilt we Triple Skilled Linesmen were. Our employer provided us with safety goggles, hard hats, protective footwear, weatherproof clothing, harnesses, ladders, tool belts, and enough sash lines to moor the QE2 in harbour. And he also rewarded us handsomely for our endeavours. I stand in awe of Thai workmen who work as hard as the guys shown above were doing whilst utilizing only the most basic of equipment, and all for such modest remuneration. I couldn’t have done it all those years ago when I was a frivolous, fearless, pole-climbing fellow - and I certainly couldn’t do it now.


Nowadays my life is so much quieter than it was during those halcyon, pole-climbing days of my youth. Nowadays I can go for months on end with little more to excite me than the misplacing of the TV remote control, or a low battery warning on my mobile phone. But just recently I was involved in an unusually exciting incident – an incident during which I found myself to be within only a few metres of a most fearsome creature. And I plan to tell you about that chilling incident in the next entry on Doodee’s Thailand. I hope that you’ll pop back for a look.

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Have a nice day.

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You Wouldn’t See This in Liverpool

Today I have another photograph of an interesting automotive paint job to show you (for previous photos of automotive paint jobs please click on this link). But I have to confess that it’s very mischievous of me to publish this particular photo here on Doodee’s Thailand today. It’s mischievous of me to publish it because I know that it will delight my friend Gee Dubya (not Bush – I’ve never met him), and will at the same time very likely cause my close friend and mentor for this blog, Jaysee, to have palpitations. Please indulge me whilst I explain:

Gee Dubya and Jaysee are both keen football supporters.
(Language Note: “Football” is the English word for “Soccer”).
Gee Dubya is a devoted Manchester United fan. Jaysee is an ardent supporter of Liverpool Football Club (the archrival of Man U). And today’s photo on Doodee’s Thailand, although taken recently in Thailand, does seem to rather honour Manchester United Football Club. Hence, Gee Dubya pleased; Jaysee most un-pleased.


You can click on the above photo to enlarge it.

As you can see the motorcycle featured in the above photo has had some rather eye-catching airbrush artwork performed on it, and all in honour of the English Premier League football club Manchester United.

The enthusiasm that Thai people have for English Premier League football never fails to amaze me. It seems that almost all of Bangkok’s taxi drivers can name and identify most of the top players in the English Premier League, and they also display a knowledge of and an interest in team line-ups, match results, team progress, and players way beyond the extent of my own interest. A large proportion of other Thai people that I meet share a similarly extensive knowledge of and interest in English football clubs and club players. Some Thai football enthusiasts even go so far as to have their motorcycles painted in honour of their favourite football team (as you can see from the above photo). And I shudder to tell you that even Her@Home has been heard to shriek with excitement at the sight of a crucial goal being scored in a tense and enthralling Premier League football match.

Nowadays I enjoy watching a skillfully executed game of football but I don’t have any real allegiance to any one particular club. I used to be a big fan of Budleigh Salterton First Eleven, but we never won much and so I lost much of my interest in the game.
But even so, now that I’m living here in Thailand I find it very refreshing whenever I see vehicles such as the motorcycle featured in the picture above decorated in honour of football teams from my country of origin ten thousand kilometres away. It’s like having a little bit of my ethnic heritage here with me in Thailand. It’s the kind of thing that in conjunction with the warmth and kindness of the Thai people makes me feel to be so at home in this country.

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COMING NEXT on Doodee’s Thailand: Paint jobbers (not jobs) of the aerial kind.

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Airbrush Artistry Gives Rise to A Useful Thai Expression or Two

As I strolled in and around the coastal resorts of Petchaburi Province one of the many things that constantly impressed me was the magnificent artistry that adorns the exteriors of the tour buses that visit the area. Some of these tour buses, like the one featured in the photo below, are relatively plain, but pretty. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.


Others are decorated more intricately and artistically.


Others appear very artistic.


Some of the depictions are inspired and very imaginative.


Some are elaborate.


And others are downright ostentatious.


But they all reflect the bright, colourful, creative, joyous, fun-loving qualities that are such appealing aspects of the Thai psyche.

The above pictured multi-wheeled motorised murals are frequently to be seen meandering slowly, often in tight procession, through Thailand’s coastal resorts. They really do look most splendid as they travel in close procession.


You may notice that in the final one of the above photos that our view of the tour bus is partially obscured by a pick-up truck that was approaching it from the rear. This situation and similar situations have been recurring themes whenever I have tried to photograph these lovingly decorated vehicles. It seems that almost every time that I’ve managed to find my camera and ready it to take a snap of my chosen subject matter, so my view has been obscured by another vehicle, or a pedestrian, or the subject vehicle has already sped off into the distance. The most impressive buses always disappeared before I could photograph them for you. Such is life, or as we say in Thai, “Wut terr juk cheewit”.

“Wut terr juk cheewit” is an extremely useful Thai expression. A literal translation of it is rather difficult but -
“The customary practice of the wheel of life”
or
“The regular action of the wheel of life”
- are pretty close.
A more colloquial translation would be, “The Circle of Life”.

My experience is that “Wut terr juk cheewit” is used in exactly the same situations as those in which we English speakers would say, “That’s life (for you),” or, “Such is life”.
“Wut terr juk cheewit” can be seen as a rather more philosophical and much less flippant Thai equivalent of the English expression, “That’s the way the cookie crumbles”.
It’s a wonderful response to make when you don’t really know what to say for the best.

Despite its repetitive, revolving, circular implication “Wut terr juk cheewit” cannot be used to express the sentiment of the English proverb, “What goes around, comes around”.
“What goes around, comes around” is better expressed by the Thai expression, “Tum dee, daiy dee; tum choo-a, daiy choo-a”
– which literally means, “Do good, receive good; do bad (or nasty/ wicked/ evil/ vicious), receive bad”.

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Have a nice day.

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THE NEXT UPDATE to Doodee’s Thailand will be published very soon.
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More Cha-am Observations

I took the photo shown above as we strolled from the Fishing Pier back towards the beach road in Cha-am. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

The photo was taken during the early afternoon, and at the time of taking it the sun was blazing down, scorching hot. But we were cooled by a gentle breeze. The weather on the day on which this photo was taken was a perfect example of the typical climate of Cha-am. It’s usually sunny in Cha-am and really rather hot, but due to the gentle sea breeze and the delightfully fresh, clean air it generally feels no more than pleasantly warm there. And the almost constant daily sunshine makes the locality appear upliftingly bright.

The Fishing Pier access road is lined with a profusion of most magnificent sea food restaurants. They are all open-air establishments. I took a couple of photos of one of them for you. The first of these photos is shown below.


The food at restaurants such as the one shown above always looks good, and in my experience is provided at a reasonable price too. Service is attentive, and the ambience of such eateries is usually exemplary. This style of restaurant is very popular with Thai people.

The next photo shows the featured restaurant in a little more detail.


Please note the trays of seafood in the foreground of the picture. They are each filled with water to keep the produce fresh. The larger receptacles to the right of the picture contain extremely fresh food – it’s still alive! Prospective diners can select their repast from a wide variety of sea creatures which are to be found swimming in these larger receptacles. I have noticed that as a human personage gazes into one of these larger receptacles the aquatic inhabitants therein all cower at the back of the receptacle, and the larger ones of them push their smaller, weaker brethren to the front. I don’t know why they do this, but they appear almost human as they do so…..


I took lots of photos during our recent visit to the coast. It’s my plan to show you a few more of them in the next entry on Doodee’s Thailand. I think that you’re going to enjoy them.

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A Bird, A Naughty Word, A Fish and a Proverb

Today I have a few photos of creatures that I saw during my recent visit to The Fishing Pier in Cha-am to show you. And also I have a little of what I’ve learned about the Thai language to share with you too. I hope that you’re going to enjoy it. So, here goes….

The first photo on today’s entry shows a Great Egret. Great Egrets (Thai name - “Nok Gru-yang”) are commonly seen in Thailand. They inhabit marshland, inland waterways, and coastal mudflats. Fully grown adults can attain a standing height of ninety centimetres tall. I would estimate the height of the specimen featured in the photo below as between fifty and seventy centimetres.


The Great Egret has beautiful bright, shining white plumage. The bird’s plumage and its large size make it easy to spot and identify. When on the ground the bird moves stealthily and daintily, but in my opinion not particularly gracefully. But in flight Great Egrets exhibit grace, style, and elegance in abundance. They often glide low over water, swooping gently, and then appearing to be almost as if they’re weightless they touch down with the delicacy and the precision of a watchmaker dropping a tiny spring into a new mechanism. These creatures are true artists of flight.

The next photo shows a fascinating little amphibious fish that I have always known in English as a Mudskipper. Mudskippers are very common in Thailand. They are generally referred to in Thai as “Pla Teen”. Pla is the Thai word for fish, and Teen (pronunciation falls halfway between teen and tin) is a very, very impolite word for foot or hoof (and feet or hooves). You should never use it. You should always use Taow for foot or feet, and Taow Sud for hoof or paw.


So, bearing in mind the content of the previous paragraph we can see that mudskippers are commonly known in Thai, albeit somewhat impolitely, as Foot Fish. Polite or not, the name does seem to have a certain logic to it.



And, polite or not, the word Teen also finds its way into a commonly used and readily understood Thai proverb. The proverb is

“Gai hen teen ngoo; ngoo hen nom gai”.

The English translation for this proverb is

“The chicken sees the snake’s feet; the snake sees the chicken’s breasts”.

The above proverb is used to describe a person or a group of people who make themselves much too busy with other peoples’ business, or a situation which comprises of very little else other than gossip. It can also be used to describe a situation in which two or more discredited people are exchanging accusations and insults. I suspect that the use of the impolite word for feet in the above expression adds emphasis to its derisive quality.
This expression is basically for descriptive use only.


So there you have it; a bird, a naughty word, a fish and a proverb. I hope that you’ve enjoyed them.

Before I sign off, a quick word about today’s photos: All photos on Doodee’s Thailand are clickable. But today’s photos were taken at the absolute limit of my camera’s capabilities, and beyond the limit of my own photographic ability. So I don’t know whether they’ll look any better after you click on them than they did beforehand. But you might want to give it a try anyway. If the results are disappointing, please stick with me. I’ll try to do better next time.

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COMING NEXT on Doodee’s Thailand: More photos which I took during our recent visit to the coast.

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A Tightrope Walker Monitored from Below

I was sitting in a generously large café (which probably prefers to be referred to as a restaurant) at the Fishing Pier when the boat featured in the first photo on today’s entry drew into port. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.


The captain lifted the boat’s propeller clear of the water, the first mate tossed a tiny anchor into the wet and the mud on the starboard side of the craft, and the little boat coasted calmly into port.

The two-man crew lashed their vessel to and alongside a larger fishing craft. The captain leapt from his humble vessel onto the deck of the adjoining larger craft. He then hopped, skipped, jumped and strutted his way across the cluttered deck of the larger vessel, and finally proceeded to access the quayside in the manner shown in the photo below.


The next photo shows his acrobatic access technique in more detail.


A tightrope walker? Not quite. Actually, in this case a less than tight-rope walker.

He climbed confidently on to the quayside, and a few moments later returned, but this time carrying a bag filled with large blocks of ice. The next photo shows him descending from the quayside on to the rope. He is holding the bag of ice in his left hand. This photo should give you some idea of the height at which he was performing his impromptu acrobatic display.


Apparently such athleticism and ingenious acrobatics are nothing out of the ordinary for this man and his colleagues. They’re just all part and parcel of a routine day at work. Wow!

The next photo shows our hero returning with his bag of ice across the rope bridge. The ice is used to pack the days catch and thus keep it fresh, and the amount of ice that he’s carrying is extremely heavy. Wow again!


As I watched this man perform what to me were extraordinary feats of acrobatic accomplishment, it came to my attention that mine were not the only eyes watching him, for from the area below the craft the creature featured in the final photo on today’s entry emerged. My guess is that it had been disturbed by the acrobatic antics taking place overhead.


The above featured creature is our old friend the Water Monitor . This particular specimen was about one and a quarter metres long (it’s tail constituted approximately half of its length). Water Monitors are very common throughout much of Thailand.

I continued to sit quietly in the riverside café, gently sipping at what was my fourth glass of refreshingly cool water, and eagerly awaiting the next performance in this magnificent display. And to my delight there were indeed more fascinating performers, in this case ornithological and aquatic performers, waiting in the wings, ready to continue this delightful show. They weren’t as exciting to watch as the opening display had been, but for me they were equally interesting. I took a few photos of these unwitting stars for you, and I plan to show you those photos and tell you a little about them in the next entry on Doodee’s Thailand. I think that you’re going to enjoy them. I hope that you’ll pop back for a look.

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Happy New Year!

I wish you, the readers of Doodee’s Thailand, a most excellent New Year. I hope that the year ahead brings you good health, good fortune, happiness, peace of mind, and shedloads of fun!

Happy New Year!

Have a great two thousand and eight!!!

The next entry on Doodee’s Thailand will be published tomorrow and will feature some unusual photos that I took during my recent visit to the Fishing Pier .