Pickles n' Tickles by JJ

I'VE just checked into the Baan Amphawa Resort and Spa in Maeklong, Thailand, and really, it's been a long day. All thanks to our really sweet but also over-ambitious tour guide who was very insistent on visiting ' just  another beautiful place' before the next destination. With that, we've managed to squeeze in the Maeklong Market tour which includes watching the train pass through the market and visiting the community temple, Siam Cultural Park, a visit to another temple before shopping at the famous Amphawa floating market by the Maeklong River, dinner and a one-hour boat ride along a canal to see twinkling fire-flies. That was my day four of a six-day work tour to some tourist attractions in Thailand in an effort to promote the Northern neighbour after the November flood disaster. The railway market is along the track and it's amazing how the traders very quickly make way for the train which passes through  them 8 times a day. The train is passing...

I wish to god I could sing. I really do. I mean, wouldn't it be glorious to have a rich voice that demands attention like that of Annie Lennox ? I just sooo wish to god again and again. Coming from a family of musicians, it's easy to presume that I'd at least, be confident with a tambourine, but sadly when we gather I never ceased to feel left out as they strum guitars and violins, and sing. On many Friday nights, my brother and Uncle Nat would bring their guitars, violin or a banjo, just to sit at this alley joint near home where they'd entertain some senior citizens. From having no friends there, they now have many. Music brings people together. It's like love. It is Love. On that note, this is a personal favourite from Lennox' Christmas album from last year. I can safely say it's my most favourite Christmas album. Don't you just love that voice.

MY Christmas tree is finally up and lit !  It's been a bitter sweet experience for me to buy and decorate one in my own house for the first time in my life. Since I had always gone back home to my parents' or gone off to the Middle East for Christmas, I've never had a reason to put up one in my living room. But this year, Christmas is where I live and my husband insisted that we have one. I  wasn't crazy with the idea and so Compromise brought us to a 'small tree'. And then I went shopping... ... and ended up with a 8 foot tall dark forest, weighing 18kg (minus ornaments), and dragging the box containing it up to the 18th floor where I live must have been assisted by a divine force because it was all dead weight.  Why the hassle you ask. It's because average-sized  trees in every type were sold out, and I didn't want to mall-hop + I went shopping alone mightily. But I did take the elevator up the floors :) Still topless...in need of a Star A...

Here is a review of a book that came in my way recently.   A YOUNG woman with a potentially bright future succumbs to an arranged marriage to a man from the same clan to honour her family’s wishes only to be trapped in an abusive union. Woman turns to family for support but is shunned because she is now the husband’s property. By then, it is all too late and her fate is a sealed tragedy. Sounds like an overworked plot? But here’s the thing. It isn’t the plot in Bali Rai ’ s Killing Honour although it is the backbone to the story. What makes the British author’s new book different is that Rai has cleverly approached the common plot from a fresh angle, making it dynamically interesting. I read Killing Honour in one sitting, with minimal toilet and texting breaks. Then I went to bed only to experience parts of the scenes from the chapters being re-enacted in a series of disturbing dreams. It was pretty haunting, not in a nightmarish way but in way that pro...