I am lucky in having a little garden and a lot more blessed to have Khun Noi care for it. Noi was the spouse of my late house maid who veteran readers referred to as Ms Yasothon who routinely appeared in PostScript.
When Yasothon, or Tong as I understood her, died in 2003, Mr Noi continued doing her tasks at our home on Sukhumvit Soi 49. I am delighted to state that when we relocated 2006 to our present house Mr Noi occurred too, taking care of your home and garden.
Gardening has actually constantly interested me, particularly if another person is doing it. Just Recently Mr Noi needed to go to Isan for 5 days and with my better half in Chaiyaphum I remained in the uncommon position of being “house alone”. It appeared an appropriate time to momentarily select myself “head garden enthusiast”.
The very first day I evaluated the garden and was surprised by the various ranges of plants Mr Noi had actually so thoroughly cultivated.
There was every shade of green offered by a range of foliage– ferns, trees, bamboo, potted plants and some unidentifiable things that appear like they got away from the Day of the Triffids.
Keeping the plants delighted appeared like it would need significant effort on my behalf and I instantly devalued my title to “assistant garden enthusiast”.
That indicated that anything that appeared effort I might leave for Mr Noi to deal with when he returned.
In the end I took the simple choice and simply gone for watering the garden, not desiring Mr Noi to come back and discover his valued plants gasping for life.
Watering should be a simple job however not the method I did it, almost strangling myself with the tube which appeared to have a life of its own. The foreseeable outcome was that I wound up getting wetter than the plants.
The missing out on gnomes
Something we have not got in our garden are gnomes, although there are a number of little stone accessories that look like Hansel and Gretel. Garden gnomes are popular throughout Europe and Germany alone has an incredible 25 countless them. They are likewise widespread in Britain where some owners treat them nearly like animals.
In the 1960s I understood a senior gentleman in Maidenhead who had a big garden with a happy collection of garden gnomes. He was typically a joyful fellow however on among my gos to he was most distressed. A gang had actually taken all his gnomes which he had actually cared for for several years.
He liked those gnomes and the bad chap was never ever rather the very same after that. It was unfortunate viewing him roam around the garden hoping the gnomes may astonishingly come back.
They didn’t.
Travel alert
Taking garden gnomes ended up being rather a trend in Britain. Sometimes individuals would purloin the gnomes and go on a jaunt around the globe with them. They took pictures of the gnomes in popular locations and after that sent out the snaps to the owners to let them understand their gnomes were enjoying. The practice ended up being referred to as “gnoming” and in France there even emerged The Garden Gnome Freedom Front committed to “releasing” gnomes from gardens and returning them to the wild. Oh well, various strokes for various folks.
For a number of years garden gnomes were prohibited by the Chelsea Flower Program since the organisers thought visitors were paying more attention to the gnomes than the flowers. Nevertheless, gnomes stay popular in Britain and in North Devon there is even a Gnome Reserve where more than 2,000 garden gnomes socialize with a couple of pixie pals in what is called a “pastoral sanctuary”.
No laughing matter
Gnomes undoubtedly penetrated the world of home entertainment and included plainly in a number of motion pictures, Gnomeo & & Juliet and its follow up Sherlock Gnomes Horrible gnome puns were likewise plentiful in David Bowie’s 1967 novelty tune “The Laughing Gnome” extensively considered his worst ever number. It was at first a flop however after Bowie had actually accomplished fame with Ziggy Stardust in 1973 the record label sneakily moneyed in by re-releasing the Gnome tune which in some way reached No. 6 in the charts.
The old and the brand-new
It is a trifle paradoxical that in the very same month that Bangkok’s 105-year-old Hua Lamphong train station is shutting down, neighbouring Laos has actually opened a brand name brand-new station in Vientiane to serve the Chinese-funded high-speed link to Kunming.
Putting aside the political ramifications, it needs to be rather remarkable for Lao individuals to witness a bullet train whooshing through their countryside where buffaloes when strolled. However the number of residents can manage to ride it is another matter.
One questions what Thai rail authorities made from the smooth red, blue and white bullet train easing of Vientiane on its inaugural journey.
After all that’s what they have actually been appealing Thais for years. In 2013 a report revealed that Pattaya would have a high-speed rail link by 2018 with fancy trains belting along at 250kph “disallowing any issues”.
Slow however sure
I’m not persuaded individuals in Thailand are in fact all set for high-speed trains speeding through the kingdom. They are more at house with the sedate speeds they have actually ended up being familiar with over the previous century. There’s no requirement to rush. Leave all that high-speed things to those men who drive the buses.
Contact PostScript by means of e-mail at oldcrutch@hotmail.com
Roger Crutchley
Bangkok Post writer
A very long time popular Bangkok Post writer. In 1994 he won the Ayumongkol Literary Award. For several years he was Sports Editor at the Bangkok Post.
Email: oldcrutch@gmail.com
