I was just about packed, but the sole had been flapping off my trainer for a couple of days already. I still had half an hour before I had to leave for Bangkok airport, so I figured I had time to fix it.
I applied superglue to both surfaces, pressed them together, put the shoe on the floor, and realised that I’d superglued all the fingers of my right hand together.
And so it began.
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After a little over two weeks in the USA, it was time to head East to Europe – to Ireland, and the UK.
A week in Southport would once have seemed the dullest of destinations.
But having now lived in a variety of elsewheres for about seven and a half years, I think I’ve spent long enough away to appreciate what can be a surprisingly pleasant town.
Perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I’ve no doubt that I’d be bored silly if I were to spend years, or even months actually living there again, but yet a week was not quite enough.
I hadn’t been back to England for almost two years, and quite aside from family and friends there was so much more that I’d missed without even realising it.
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Yesterday was Saturday. Just after 7pm I thought I’d give my friend Pat in the UK a call, I hadn’t spoken to him since leaving and he doesn’t use the internet. Skype is my saviour, and we had a good natter.
Pat had to cut it short though – he was getting ready to go and watch the England match. I’d completely forgotten, obviously. Still, I had half an hour or so to make it. Into (and out of) the shower, and out of the building.
I got a motorcycle taxi down Thong Lo to Sukhumvit road, which served to dry my hair far more swiftly than a towel ever would. You can ask the biker for a helmet, if you can speak enough Thai, but you’re unlikely to get one. Stupid, perhaps, but there’s still something thrilling about zipping down the main street, entirely open to the elements, and hoping you don’t fall off… Cost: ฿20 (30p).
At Sukhumvit road (one of Bangkok’s main streets, and full of bars with big TV screens ideal for the match) I’d intended to get the Skytrain, but the traffic was moving relatively freely – odd for a Saturday evening. So I figured a taxi would get me to the pub quicker, and indeed it did. Cost: ฿50 (75p).
I arrived at Gulliver’s seconds before kick-off, kicked back with a bottle of Heineken (okay, four eventually), and thoroughly enjoyed England’s 6-0 rout of Jamaica. Cost B60 (90p) per beer before 8pm, ฿80 (£1.20) afterwards.
Not a bad night’s entertainment – I wonder how much it would have cost in London…