Under frozen soles

Drawing Cows in Bruges

Woops I haven’t written a post in an awfully long time. Sometimes life just runs away with me. I have no idea what I’ve been doing in the time to be honest. Working and sleeping mostly. Life can get kind of mundane sometimes, even in Bangkok.

Come to think of it, I have moved apartments, which I suppose is a pretty major event. Just over a year ago I found a cosy apartment on Sukhumvit Road, and moved in with 1 suitcase, and 1 back pack. Moving out I used 3 suitcases, 3 backpacks, and numerous other plastic bags of bits and pieces.

I’ve collected a lot of ‘stuff’. Oh stuff. How I wish I didn’t need you, yet I always seem to want more of you. I suppose it’s not too bad, though. Most of my acquired ‘stuff’ is books, bottles of wine… fairy lights, water guns and orchids.

November is fast approaching, and I’ve been reflecting on how much I miss autumn – even though as my friends and family in England point out to me ‘it’s cold!!’. But I miss the (ok I think this is pretty clichéd …) colours of the leaves and stuff. Plus I get to wrap up in a coat and scarf and drink gingerbread lattes and think of Christmas.  And make apple crumble. And I make a ruddy good apple crumble.

The main thing I miss is the sea. Living in Brighton, the seafront was my thinking spot. I often paced up and down, sometimes walking vast stretches, emptier – apart from the odd runner – with the onslaught of winter approaching. The waves’ mood became unpredictable, changing day by day from calm and pleasant with reflections of cobalt and an amber sun, to heavy and crashing, the colour of a dull, mottled sky. I often associate music with memories, and ‘Foals’ is my music of choice for this one, specifically ‘Total life Forever‘. It helps me recreate narrow streets and very steep hills, crunchy orange leaves on the ground against a backdrop of white terraced houses, pebbles, seagulls, and relinquishing the achingly long days of summer sun.

In Thailand, people look forward to less rain, less humidity, slightly cooler weather, and clear blue cloudless skies. It’s refreshing, and weather I look forward to immensely. Inevitably though, I will be caught wistfully thinking of gloved hands and cold noses, being given hot cups of tea by friends, wearing fluffy socks and going inside because it’s warmer, not cooler.

Ahh Samet…

Samet, it’s been nice to  kick back and relax,

Heather Randell

next to the familiar sound of the waves that I miss.

I like your palm trees and coconuts,

Heather Randell

and how you invite people to spend time together.

Heather Randell

You’re beautiful!

I hope to see you again soon!

© Drawing Cows in Bruges

City of Angels

Here are my first few snaps in Bangkok using film on my Recesky! A little bit pricey for developing unfortunately… however, film is awesome.  I love how the focus in the city scape makes it look fake, and the trees almost look plastic… or is that just me?!

This last picture is a ‘Spirit House’. These are everywhere in Thailand, and offer a place of residence for spirits – they are also appeased by being given offerings of food, incense and other things. Belief in spirits form a big part of Thai culture, which I should know more about really….. I aim to catch up on reading a lot more books about Thai culture!

Hope you like the pictures….

Hev

x

Recesky

So… it seems that actually there are a lot of toy cameras around Bangkok. MBK has quite a lot, I actually got of the skytrain to fall over a tiny little shop called ‘Holga’…

*ahem*

Sells cheap film, so got a few rolls… to put in this baby…

…which I just bought. It’s a Recesky TLR, and I completely geeked out and made it from a kit, using only a pair of tweezers… as I had no small screwdriver to hand!

So now I get to experiment!

Cameras

I love Saturdays. I have spent today reading, eating, doing washing, playing music loud…

This is my song for today – Zero 7, Sia’s just got such a good voice!

I’m gutted I left my Holga in the UK. Last minute when I had too much stuff, I decided that I would not take it and buy one in Thailand. I was sure it would be easy… after all I originally bought it on ebay from Asia… Hong Kong I think.

Thailand though, not so much.

So today I went on a bit of a hunt. Good old google pointed me in the direction of ‘Loft’ in Siam Discovery Centre, I don’t think I’ve ever been in there! It’s a really cool shop actually, there’s lots of random bits and bobs, gifts and the like. Now I wish I had a photo or two to put up… hmph.

Well after looking around the whole 2 floors of the shop… I came out and realised the cameras were right by the entrance I had come in. Typical. They had a Takeshi Camera, which I guess is a digital Holga, and some other various underwater cameras, and a couple of Holgas, I think they were both 35mm film ones, glass lens and one was a TLR I think. They were around the 4000 baht mark!! That’s quite a lot for a plastic camera! Hmmmm…

Next I went into B2S in Central World. Came across another Twin Reflex at 990 baht and a few underwater cameras a lot cheaper.

But not much selection. I may try chinatown. Fingers crossed.

So now I am eating instant noodles, on account of all the rain that has just happened. Getting a little worried about the flooding… but I think I’ll be ok where I am… wait and see!