Getting a read on things…
Finally feeling settled in now… the need to be doing something, wondering what I’ll be doing after I finish what I’m doing now, and all of the other things that are commonplace at home, but foreign here, have settled down. A case could be made that they should be foreign at home, too.
I’m in the process of reading the third draft of my book, which should finish today or early tomorrow. It’s something I need to do to start work on the fourth. I need to have a sense of the whole, and not just start editing Chapter One blindly. There’s incentive to finish that read ASAP, though, since a) I want to get writing the fourth draft and b) I want to read something else. I have a stack of books here to get through.
It was very windy last night, and after I called my grandmother for a quick call, I put on my headphones and listened to my iPod for the first time since leaving the U.S. It was kind of nice, just laying there listening to music and settling in to really encounter it. It wasn’t background noise or something to listen to while walking or in a taxi, but just for the sake of the song itself. Again, something that shouldn’t be unique to Thailand.
It’s kind of overcast today, so I’m thinking I might head up to the Wat Khao Tam, where people go for silent meditation retreats. I like quiet when I read, so two birds, really. Just have to wear long pants, since they don’t like you wearing shorts and such in religious buildings. Of course, they are also too nice to mention it if you do, but since I know…
I went to the Night Food Market last night, and found… that’s it’s pretty much the same stuff that’s there all day, so no reason to go at night for it. And, of course, that most of it is either meat-based or suspicious as vegan food. The one stand has all food that can be deep fried, different sausages, etc., and at the end I see what is clearly tofu. Normally, fried tofu isn’t something I’m drawn to, or at least I keep telling myself that, but here… it is one of the few things I know I can eat. Of course, it is put in the same oil that all the other sausages and such have been fried in all day, which isn’t the best. And then she asks if I want sauce… I opt for the sauce, but the whole thing definitely has a fishy taste to it. Could be the sauce, could be the oil, who knows. I did have a nice corn/coconut thing that was sweet and nice.
Since I was downtown, I ate at a restaurant there, and they had a page of vegetarian food. Well, it was stretched out to fill a page. I think the first three items were the same dish, but each time they added another ingredient. So, the first one was whatever, then whatever and cashew nut, then whatever, cashew nut, and tofu. I settled on a dish with a confusing name and no details, hoping for the best, although I didn’t know why the title was “Fried Noodle Wide Noodle Broccoli and Tofu,” and apparently there was some sort of selection on my part between the fried and the wide, although whenever I picked one, the waitress asked more questions about the noodle. I finally said, “Yes.” I don’t know if there was a question in there, or if she’d had enough of us going in circles, but at that point I had placed my order.
I posted on FaceBook, but should mention here as well that the big news is that Britney Spears is going to be staying on Koh Samui next month after she wraps up her European Tour. She booked an entire resort for a whole week for her dancers and everyone in her entourage. It is kind of funny thinking that she booked an entire resort to not be bothered here. In a lot of cases, it seems like all you have to do is book a room, and you’re the only one at the resort anyway. To be fair, I do have neighbors here now, they arrived last night. Didn’t meet them yet, but I am no longer the sole guest at Awe Resort.
