Sunshine Cafe

I'm off the rig now. Whew! what a relief. The stress was fairly high, with the last 24 hours being particularly challenging. We worked until 10:00 pm, then I got up at 4:45 am the next morning to furiously complete adjustment and testing, since the helicopter flight was scheduled for 10 am. We finished, with about 5 minutes to spare.

When I got to the hotel I took a relaxing hot bath, then walked down to one of my two favorite restaurants, the Sunshine Cafe. I sat down to enjoy a hot bowl of Tom Yum Goong soup and an ice cold Singha beer and watch the sunset.
What a great way to unwind and de-stress. The young lady in the photograph has been studying English so she can work at higher-paying jobs.
I helped her with a few phrases, and told her how to say "thank you" in several different languages, since she serves people from many parts of the world. Pattaya is a popular tourist spot. I have tried to learn how to say "thank you" in each of the countries I have visited. It wasn't until I started going down the list of "thank you" phrases that I realized how many places to which I have traveled. Travel has its hardships, but it has greater benefits. For me, it helps me to have a better perspective on life, and what is important.

While sitting at the cafe, several thoughts came to mind, I jotted them down in my notebook. I have written several here. These are not profound truths. In fact, I have not given them deep, critical analysis to verify if they are universally true. I have simply written them here to share my thoughts, and maybe stimulate new thoughts:
1. Ignorance of the shortcomings/ills/hardships of life can promote a sense of joy and well-being.
2. Human connection, fellowship with people who find pleasure in your company, this is a primary ingredient of paradise.
3. Diligence, effort and honest intention are better than competance.
4. Competance without diligence, effort and honest intention is of no value.
5. Alive with life and personality, even if a bit messy, is better than orderly and sterile at the expense of personal expression.
6. The hardest worker is the most valuable, but they must not work so hard that they damage themselves.
7. Truly seeking God brings you to Him.
8. Excessive, prolonged self indulgence results in ugliness.
9. Happiness is seeing the truth beyond present circumstances.

So, those are some thoughts, for what they are worth.

One more note. I had a different perspective on this trip. Each trip has the potential for many problems, many of which are very difficult to solve, must be solved under difficult conditions in an abnormally short time frame, and may result in the client losing confidence in my abilities. It is always tough on me, as I happen to have a condition called "perfectionism." Anyway, this time I just kept praying that God would use whatever happens to glorify Him, and to help me to withstand whatever happened. The project did not go smoothly, we had several setbacks, and the client was not totally happy with the finished product, they were just agreeable that it was an acceptable product that will serve its purpose. I got a report back today from my client's, client's client (guys at the top of the food chain) that they were pleased with what I had done for the project, and were pleased with my contributions to it. So, I guess it has been a success, and God held up His end of the bargain (see Romans 8:28).

Asparagus Promotion

I noticed that my blogs on this trip have been largely food-centric. Food is one of the experiences I enjoy when I visit here, so I guess that is why I write about it so much.

Today as I took my walk I noticed a sign outside a restaurant. It advertised an "Asparagus Promotion." I thought that was a funny way to put it, I guess it has something to do with the translation from Thai to English. I like asparagus, but I kept walking, because I had my mind set on...curry shrimp.

I had this on one of my previous trips, I remember I loved it, so I thought I would have it as my "last meal" before heading offshore.
What I forgot was how messy it was. You have to peel the shrimp, so you basically dig into the plate of food and get the gooey curry mixture all over your fingers. That is not typically a problem for me, but if you have ever traveled to Asian countries you know that most restaurants don't have American-style napkins at the table. What they have is basically little squares of very thin paper. They are the equivalent of a single square of single-ply toilet paper. In fact, in some very informal dining settings, they actually put a roll of toilet paper on the table. I'm not making this up.

Anyway, so I sat there attempting to remove the mixture from my hands with these little pieces of toilet paper. If you have ever tried to handle toilet paper with wet hands you know that it just tears apart. So, what I ended up with was a pile of about 10 pieces of toilet paper on the table (one per finger) and little bits of toilet paper stuck to my fingers. The wind picked up and started blowing the little bits of paper off the table and scattered them around the deck area. I had visions of the waitstaff scampering around chasing after all the toilet paper generated from my dining experience. They didn't actually do that, or maybe they were so discreet that I didn't notice. After all, I was staying fairly focused on the curry shrimp. I did look up to see the waiter placing a huge fingerbowl on my table. He smiled and nodded his head, as if to say, "this is for messy Americans, you need this." Since the wind was blowing I could not keep any little squares of toilet paper in my lap. It would take about three of them to cover my lap, but the wind kept blowing them off. I soon noticed that I was dripping the bright orange curry mixture all over my beige pants. Great. I suddenly realized what I must look like with curry and toilet paper on my hands, my pants, the table, my beard. I wouldn't have been surprised to look up and see the waitstaff standing by with a water hose.

Culture

I had a special treat yesterday after work. We went to a local museum of Chinese and Thai culture. I did not realize the amount of Chinese influence in this country.


What I found particularly interesting were the number of statues of part man-part animal creatures, and lots and lots of dragons. I don't think it is just art and myth, I think there is something to it.
The man standing next to me is my good friend, Pradit. He suggested that we visit here today and he showed me around the place. The first photo is of a terracotta soldier. If you see "The Mummy Returns" you can see these in the movie. The movie is not totally accurate, but there were thousands of these buried with the emperor (I can't recall his name).

Red Cubes

I pushed my luck today and tried another new item on the breakfast buffet.

They have made some changes to the buffet since my previous visits. There is a section with two types of rice boiled until it is a mushy soup. One is plain rice, the other has chicken added. Along with the rice there are little bowls of various condiments that one adds to the rice to flavor it. One of the condiments that is now missing is tiny little fried salty fish. It might sound a bit unsavory, but I actually like to put the fish in with the rice and add a little of the chili pepper sauce. Well, the fish is gone and has been replaced with red cubes approximately 1 inch in size. There is no label to identify the cubes, and they have no recognizable features associated with any food group that I know of. My positive experience with the green goo a couple days ago emboldened me to try more new foods. I decided to take a chance and toss a red cube into my bowl of rice along with some chili sauce for good measure.

The experience with the red cube was not so good, actually it was quite revolting. As I bit into the cube I discovered it was made primarily of salt, mixed with a small amount of...mushy food-like substance with an unrecognizable flavor. I swear it was saltier than eating pure salt. I don't know how that is possible. I couldn't get it out of my mouth fast enough.

So, if you are at a breakfast buffet in Thailand I recommend the green goo. Stay away from the red cubes.

Great Day

I had a great day in Pattaya. Completely un-scheduled, no appointments, no agendas, no objectives. What a blessing that is. I was able to watch a few of the World Cup Grand Prix Races, and walk around taking photographs. I was fortunate to capture this nice photograph of this cute little girl.

I am so grateful to be able to experience life and interesting people in so many places in the world.

Thailand, Green Stuff, Grand Prix

Well, I'm back in the land of smiles. It was a long, tiring trip but it went without a hitch. It was approximately 39 hours of travel from checking in to the airport in Houston to checking into the hotel in Pattaya. I barely had the energy to walk down the street for dinner. But the prospects of seeing the friendly people there at the restaurant and eating my favorite meal (fried sea bass with chili sauce) propelled me.

I was very pleased to see that they are on the last day of the World Cup Grand Prix Jet Ski competition, right here just a few blocks from the hotel. It is Sunday so the shop is closed and I have a day to recuperate. I get to go watch the races today! Wow, what an excellent, unexpected bonus!

I decided to try a new dish from the breakfast buffet today. I had seen it for some time at almost every breakfast buffet in Thailand, but it never appealed to me. It is thick slices of bread kept in a steamer, with a large bowl of green gooey looking stuff sitting next to it. I rarely see anyone get it, but I assumed one was supposed to get a slice or two of bread and spread some of the green stuff on it. The "stuff" looked to have the consistency of pudding and it had a homogenous pale green color. I was not sure if it would be spicy, salty, or sweet in flavor. Things are not always as they seem in foreign countries. Today I decided to try it. I understood why the bread was sliced thick, the steam made it so soft that it almost came apart when I picked it up. I slopped a blob of green stuff on it. I looked around to see if anyone was watching me, not certain if I was doing this right. After all, I wasn't even certain if the bread and goo were intended to go together. I could have been doing the equivalent of pouring maple syrup on spaghetti noodles, or putting ketchup on pancakes. I sat down, cut off a piece of the bread-goo combination, put it in my mouth, and it was...delicious. It was kind of a vanilla pudding flavor. I was too full for seconds, but I will get some more tomorrow.
Now I'm off to the gym and then off to the boat races!

Pile it On

What a day I had yesterday !
I am not saying that everything went wrong or I had a lousy day, I just had an "action packed" day that challenged my new resolve to keep focused on God and not get stressed-out or beaten down by the struggles of life. The pressures were actually due to having plentiful well-paying work, it just got a little overwhelming, like drinking from a fire hydrant.
Let me make a list and see if I can raise your blood pressure, I use terms like "client 1, etc." to avoid any legal issues:
1. Arrived at the office at 7:00 a.m. to wrap up details and attend a meeting for client 1 for project 1 so I could leave for my trip to Thailand for client 2 and client 3 for project 2.
2. At 7:10 I discovered that client 1 had an urgent project (project 3) for which I was qualified to do. It likely involved a trip to Vietnam in addition to evaluating numerous reports in the next several hours and days.
3. Went to meeting at 8:30 am, spent approximately 30 minutes defending my calculations to several very experienced Asian professionals.
4. At 10:00 am, apologized to meeting chairman for leaving meeting early to attend other meeting to discuss project 3 and project 4.
5. At 10:15 checked email between meetings and found out from distributor that I had to re-master the dvd for "Spirits Among Us" before leaving for Thailand in order to meet the January release date. I had made a mistake on the dvd I had sent earlier.
6. At 10:30 met with client 1 to discuss project 3 and 4. Found out that I may need to fit in a trip to Vietnam while I was in Thailand working on project 2. Also discovered that I needed to prepare a proposal within the next few hours to do project 3 and contact vendors to verify support for project 3.

Wait a minute! I just decided that it is not nice for me to do this to you. To wrap it up, the remainder of the day, which lasted until 6:00 pm went along the same lines as what you see in list items 1 through 6. I rushed from the office to the movie theater to have a date with my wife, which was a very welcome break from the hectic day. I worked until 2:00 a.m. after we came home from the movie so I could finish up the most urgent work. Then I woke up at 7:20 am so I could see the kids off to school and do the remaining work before leaving on my trip. Are you nice and relaxed now?

Now I am in the Los Angeles airport for a 5 hour layover. Five hours.

So what is the point of this rambling? Yesterday I called my client/co-worker/friend/counselor/brother in Christ to vent all my frustrations. He said, "great, here is an opportunity to see if you really believe Romans 8:28 as you say you do." He was correct. I had a paradigm shift at that point. I realized that:
a) I was stressed because I had bountiful work opportunities, even during a recession
and b) God would work out the "unfortunate events" for good, since I do love Him and I am called to His purpose.

My life is not "easy" but it is very good. God is very good to me. While I don't pray that those reading this blog are put through undue trials, I do pray that He blesses you through experiences that help you to grow nearer to Him.

I need to write a funny post, this one was too serious!