Fred

Fred setting up for work

Woke up this morning to the sound of Fred sweeping the street in front of our house. Fred is one of the many workers on our compound who spends his days sweeping the streets of our gated community. Fred does this every morning and is very good at what he does. Fred is not his real name…just a name we gave him. Even if we knew his real name, we probably couldn’t pronounce it. It's probably something like  Apichoksathaporn or Ungadjimagool. I think Thais purposely make up long unpronounceable tongue twisting names to amuse themselves at the expense of us foreigners tripping over our tongues when attempting to properly articulate Ungadjimagool. The same with the Chinese, except their names are shorter. The Chinese are good at messing with my mind. Their names may be shorter and most probably contain a few x's in them, but one needs to question why do they purposely switch the phonetic pronunciation of letters, like X being a C. Their current president's name is Xi, pronounce Si, as in Si senor. Get it? I certainly don't. Again, there is no logical reason for this other than to mess with the minds of poor dumb westerners like myself.

I would normally apologize here for digressing from the topic, but I won't because at this point, there is no topic to digress from, right? Simply said, I am not digressing due to the fact that I don't really have a point from which to digress from. You see, I am still adrift in the sea of mind incapacitating jet-lag. I’ve most recently, like yesterday, crossed 14 times zones in 24 hours. I hate the enfeebling fog of jet-lag; this paradoxical combined state of extreme fatigue mixed in with sleepless nights. But then, looking at the bright side because there is always a bright side, those sleepless nights do give me time to do things like keep up with my blogging, even though my jet lag state numbs my mind to a point of groggy discombobulation from which ensues more babbling about people sweeping the street in front of our house. 

It’s nice to be back in Thailand. After three weeks back home where the unusual cold and snow that gripped Vancouver contrasted with the usual comforting warmth of family and friends, I was ready to come back to my routine (I am a creature of habit and routine) and, above all, warm weather. Our three weeks away for Christmas holidays have been good. Of course there was the good of being with family and friends, and then there was the bad of the customary holiday overeating and the not so customary negotiating of the icy streets and sidewalks of Vancouver. 

And yes, there was even the ugly. I am talking about, you've guessed it, the always 'in you face' current state of US politics, a political landscape poisoned by the fallout of those toxic elections. Not that I want to get all political here but, during those few weeks back in Canada, I could not help but feel the doom and gloom that shadowed much of the everyday discourse of people in general, whether those conversations were with friends, family, strangers, at home or in coffee shops, overheard on the streets and in parks, and of course on all news channels.  Not that while in Asia we were and are sheltered from the political imbroglio brought to life by the nasty presidential elections of our American neighbours, but being on the other side of the world where one can more easily turn off and tune out the upheaval that these elections brought on the American people (the latent racism, the glorification of ignorance, the xenophobia, the sense of white entitlement, just to name a few...) is not as escapable when on North American soil. The pending new presidential administration is definitely more on people's minds in Canada than it is here.  

Fred sweeping

Yes all this will make for an interesting year, if not an entertaining one. Our American neighbours are in for quite a bumpy roller coaster ride, some of the bumps and jolts will be at times disheartening, I'm sure. Most certainly there will continue to be a lot of amusing, silly, cringe worthy, did-he-really-say-that? utterances from the new leader of the free world. No doubt about it, it will be a thrilling ride, and for those like myself watching from the roller coaster side lines, it will be at times funny to watch. I'm not sure this ride will last more than a year, if it does, then this reality show on steroids will have run it's course and it won't be fun anymore. At least not for me, the spectator. I’m just glad that I'm watching and being entertained from this side of the world. I wonder what Fred thinks of all this?