Welcome to yet more random twitterings. First up…

Tootling around Nahkon Si Thammarat I saw a tall chedi on the skyline.

I’m not sure why I’d never seen it before … it seems to be visible from quite some distance. There’s almost no highrise buildings in Nakhon, the only one I can think of is the Twin Lotus Hotel, which is nowhere near here. So I’m assuming I hadn’t been in this area before, which is why I had no idea where the National Museum is located. And that’s what I was looking for.

According to a large on-site plaque…

This is a huge stupa in Ceylonese (Sri Lanka) style. It is assumed to have been built around 1257-1358.

Whereas, according to Tourism Thailand…

It is said that the pagoda was built by Khotkhiri, a wealthy Mon, and his employees when they took refuge in the city in 1003.

Now, I’m not quite old enough to remember that far back, so you’ll have to take your pick. Methinks they need some carbon dating, but, it’s tall and it’s old.

What I do know is, it’s a shame it’s just bare rock and hasn’t been covered in gold leaf like the adjacent Buddha statue. That would be spectacular.

So, I had to buy toothpaste for the first time in Thailand. A simple task. I picked this one as it looks like Colgate.

Well, yes, the tube looks like Colgate, the toothpaste looks like Colgate, but it tastes like S**T!

That’s right. It tastes like salt. What? You had a different word in mind? Tsk. Tsk.

What the hell do they put in the stuff? Every time I use it, it’s like I’ve just put a teaspoonful of salt in my mouth.

Don’t tell me I have to go back to Malaysia just to buy toothpaste!

When I was staying in Bang Saen (which is near to Chonburi and Pattaya which are fairly close to Bangkok which is nowhere near here!) to organize my Thai Visa, I was wandering around some of the streets just behind the beach area. It seems to be where rich people either live or spend their weekends.

One particularly well guarded mansion had some small slits in the metal gate and I realized there was something lurking behind, but I wasn’t sure what. So, I held my camera above the gate and discovered this thing.

Is it supposed to scare intruders, or is this the equivalent of a rich man’s garden gnome? Either way, it’s not something I’d want in my front yard.

Most of the motorsport I watch on TV is on one of the Fox Network Channels. All of their advertising seems to be for their own future TV programs. How do they make money from that? Do they pay themselves to advertise themselves? Bizarre. Anyhoo…

In some of those ads they seem to have re-invented the English language.

A lot of the programs they claim are “Best On Time.”

Is that English? Does it make any sense? To me it doesn’t. Planes, trains and buses are best if they’re on time, but TV programs? Why wouldn’t they be on time?

And when they show a caption to tell me what time I can watch a program – which usually shows several time zones – they also tell me “Different Schedules Apply.”

What different schedules and what do they apply to? Color me confused. Do they mean “We’re showing you the time we plan to air this program, but we may change our minds just to piss you off”?

Then, just last week the delectable Paula Malai Ali announced “The Singapore Grand Prix will burn up your thrills.” Where do they get this gibberish? Can’t blame Paula, I’m sure she’s paid lots of money to read this nonsense.

“Burn up your thrills”? Is this while I’m watching the race, or will my thrills get burned up before or after? I’m not even sure where I keep my thrills, but from now on I’ll have a fire extinguisher handy while I’m watching F1 just in case I can smell my thrills starting to smoke.

Oh, and that’s Paula on the right. I was going show you a Fox logo, but Paula looks much foxier don’t you think? Well, the guys should agree.

I recently bought a small induction cooker. Actually, it’s the second one I’ve purchased, because cooking a decent meal on just one is almost impossible, even though I also have a toaster over, crock pot, rice cooker, etc. The usual toys.

I didn’t want to buy the second one until I’d discovered how well they work.

Actually, very well. They are easy to control. Any change in heat setting seems to take place almost immediately. And they’re easy to keep clean. I didn’t really know how they worked until I checked Wikipedia …which offers the helpful advice…

An induction (or any electric) stove will not operate during a power outage.

Which genius wrote that?

I decided I’d try a different make for the second one, because I have a problem using the first one to cook breakfast. I can’t explain this, but if I turn it on in a morning, it trips the main breaker, and I’m left without power until I walk to the living room to reset the trip. Supper time, no problem. Bizarre!

So cooker #2 came with a free aluminum saucepan. Quite a large one. That’s nice, I thought.

For some reason I read the instruction booklet before I used the cooker. Maybe because it’s the only appliance I’ve bought that actually has instructions in English. It very clearly tells me not to use an aluminum pan – steel or iron only. But, didn’t I just mention that the cooker came with a free aluminum saucepan? They have to be kidding me.

Well, they’re not, because the pan needs a steel or iron base for the magnetic field to do its thing and to heat the contents. That’s it, I thought. The free pan must have a steel base. So I tried it.

Destroyed the free pan inside sixty seconds!

It doesn’t matter because if I couldn’t use it, why would I need to keep it? But I’d really like to know the logic behind including a free pan you can’t use.

…when you can use wood. I was driving around somewhere last week, I don’t remember where, when I spotted a strange-looking building, set back from the road somewhat, which was entirely made from wood.

It was inside some kind of construction yard. A place for storing all kinds of construction-related machinery and vehicles.

And it looked like this huge all-wood building was nothing more than a storage area and workshop. In most countries that amount of hardwood would have cost way more than steel, but I guess in Thailand the opposite is true.

Anyways, I didn’t stay long. The manager didn’t seem too happy with me intruding in his yard and taking photos. I tried with hand signals to tell him how impressed I was with his wooden columns, but looking back on it, they might have seemed somewhat indecent!

So, I got out of there real fast before he found his loaded double-barreled shotgun, or unleashed his pet king cobras!

But you have to admit, it’s a pretty impressive workshop!