I can’t believe I’ve just noticed the new Lee Child book, Nothing to Lose, in the bookshops. I think the problem is that a lot of the titles sound the same, and a lot of the covers look the same, in design. So I think I’ve noticed it for a while now, and though, “oh that? I’ve read that.” But this one, I haven’t. Published as recently as March.
Which presents me with a conondrum … in all likelihood I will stay up all night reading it, so the conundrum’s moot in some ways … but if I can hold off reading it until, say, a fortnight from now, then I will have something to do on the bus to Cambodia for a visa run. Otherwise I may not, besides the stupid movies and stuff they show. Or I could buy the new Grisham book that’s still only available in hardcover. Hardcover’s so expensive! I wish it’d hurry up and get to paperback already.
The aircon situation needs a report, seeing as I whinged about it so conclusively last week. The current aircon status is “upgraded, but not finished.” Now we have aircon back in the bedroom, which is a huge leap forward. We no longer have aircon in the lounge, though. Actually that’s a lie - we have aircon in one room at a time. Fixed this Tuesday, we’re assured, although I’m not sure how welcome Mint’s sister will feel when she arrives super early Tuesday morning if there’s no AC.
The “guest room” which can also be called our living/dining room now has a proper guest mattress. It’s quite nice, we broke it in last week when the air situation demanded we relocate. It’s lucky in a way that we’ve “pretested” the guest room airflow themaldynamics, because it made me sick being directly under the air. I should’ve asked for Leyton’s help building a super-ghetto cardboard-chiq aircon deflector, but he’s too far away to help anyway. I invented one of my own making the second night, and this was significantly better but not perfect. I think perfection will be achieved by swapping the bed and the dining table, and having the bed not actually in line of sight with the aircon at all. That will be the best for everyone, obviously.
Today for mother’s day I called Mum a couple of times before giving up and sending a text message, and gave her a gift card. It’s not technically Mother’s Day in Thailand, but I send Mint’s mum some money and made Mint breakfast anyway. For the longest time I didn’t bother cooking eggs sunny-side up for a combination of not thinking that they tasted as good as scrambled, and being scared that the bottom would burn before the top finished being raw and runny. I have no solved that and cook brilliant eggs. A quick trip downstairs to the 7-11 for eggs, ham, iced tea and pastries, and it was a great brekkie. Cheese would’ve been the icing on the cake, but I’m weaning myself on that front.
Yesterday Mint and I went to MBK for lunch, movies and shopping, and ate average Dim Sum, saw Deception and I bought shorts. Funny story that - I had received some quite trendy shorts as a gift but quickly learnt that Thailand does not tolerate fabrics that don’t breathe. I’m kinda loathe to wear these particular shorts but I had no choice on Saturday when everything else was dirty, or in the case of my jeans, now miles too big. So I wore them, pouting, until I remembered there was a reasonably good, cheap place to buy exactly the thing I wanted RIGHT WHERE WE WERE GOING! So I grabbed a pair as soon as we arrived, hit the changing room to try them on, and wore them out, with another 3 pairs in a bag, for 1000 baht (AU$30). They’re not super hi-quality or anything, but they’d be in the $12.95 range at somewhere like Lowes, so they’ll do as semi-disposables.
The movie - Deception - wasn’t bad until it became stupid at the end. Hugh Jackman is a cool guy, but he doesn’t look sharp in suits for some reason. Ewan McGregor was good, Michelle Williams was average and her part could’ve been played by someone hotter. I thought it was better than the 5.9 stars its averaged on its IMDB page. Mint didn’t like it, but she has an issue with a small man kicking her in the bladder whenever she fails to go to the toilet every hour, so that may’ve tainted her enjoyment.