And yet another Bangkok lull.

Dear Readers,

Happy Halloween! I can’t believe it’s been 1 year since my amazing, ridiculous night in Shibuya. And I have to say that this night had some similarities to last year, but overall gave me a huge opportunity for reflection.

So, I didn’t expect to go out today, and was quite happy to just sit at home and watch whatever was on the TV line up, and do some tidy up work, and/or unpack a few things. But meeting Jeab yesterday for MJ’s concert, we were in the whole ‘yeah let’s go out’ mood.

In yesterday’s loud dinner environment, Jeab shouts, “Let’s go to a place called Red docks, its suppose to be nice and lots of expats + english speaking ppl there” Ooooh, sounds nice right?  I asked what type of music they played, “It’s an art gallery, no music”

WAaaaaaaaaah, aw shit. no offense, but I bloody hate those art gallery things. I went to No Space when the exhibition was about the condition of Bus roof tops in Bangkok, and he stood at a bridge and took photos of buses driving by. Granted, Bus roof tops here in Thailand are rusty, ghetto colours, mismatched paint jobs, so I guess it is interesting. But to pin it on a wall, sell it for 3,500 – 18,000 baht? Are you serious?

Anyways back to my story, ugh…Art gallery…art exhibition again a place where I totally speak on different levels with the people there, I wasn’t looking forward to it, but thought, hey, Jeab really wants to go, okay let’s go. Party flyer said – HALLOWEEN! 7pm-12midnight, and listed all the bands that were playing la la la…

So in my true Halloween spirit, I threw on my Kimono , Jeab helped me with my makeup, and went as a Japanese kimono lady (You could say I was a geisha, but I’d prefer if you didn’t.) I even tied a pillow at my back. (Grego will give me the photos to upload later.) And it was nice to go as a Japanese person – in tribute to my fabulous Halloween of 2008!

Anyhoo, what is the whole point of dressing up in Bangkok. At 9:30-ish (it’s always good not go so so so early.) we managed to find Rain Dog – which is this house turned gallery turned live band place situated in this deep dark alleyway along side the highway. And as I am driving…approaching the Rain dog sign…we hear music…but we don’tsee anyone there.

Stacy: Jeab, look at the empty tables…there are EMPTY TABLES
Jeab: Let’s go inside anyways since it is nice to see the art gallery.

So I took off my kimono because i REFUSED To walk in an empty room looking like a fool.

Picture this setting:

 an open air rundown house…with funky furniture…good retro music playing…a ceiling fan swinging,….turn your eyes to the left to see  empty chairs and tables, turn right…again…empty chairs and tables…and look ahead beside the bar…a waiter, sleeping in 1 lounge chair with his mouth open.

FABULOUS. One look at that I just walked straight to my car.

I was still in a good mood, determined to have a good time, and then as events unfolded…it turned out, we had no clue where the Halloween parties were! And I looked to my left, and saw my one friend, and it really hit me like..Wow, look how my life has changed in the past 2 years. I’ve morphed from a social butterfly to a natural born loser?

No wait, I take that back, I know I’m not a loser, more like, I don’t even know where the HALLOWEEN Party is! Geez what is wrong with me! You know what I mean? It is so different. It’s not that clubbing is the best thing in the world, and I can tell you, I’m quite tired of it, but I guess there is a huge social aspect lacking.

Maybe it’s 3 am and I can’t articulate my feelings, but in short. It was damn damn depressing!

Jeab made it up to me by taking me to ZENSE which is such a beautiful lounge place at Central World Plaza. Would recommend it to anyone. But it wasn’t the same. And I’m the ONLY on in the whole lounge wearing a costume ( I basically had my sheer tank top underneath my kimono so I couldn’t take it off.) and I don’t mind sticking out like a sore thumb at all. But I guess, today was just one of those days that I could add to my “Days where Stacy feels she doesn’t belong list.”

And so I guess my conclusion to this Halloween is that, it left me feeling a bit down and about.

Hermitising yet again,
Stacy

 

Squash is awesome

Dear Readers,

It was pouring rain today, so my regular 4pm tennis session was cancelled. And instead…I played SQUASH! Today marks my first day of playing Squash!!

HURRAY!! I LOVE SQUASH!!! It is now my favourite sport!! (besides dancing of course, is dancing a sport?)
It is super easy to learn, and my instructor told me that I am “Intermediate” level. AFTER ONE DAY. ITS SO FABULOUS! And I can even serve and ACE! I love serving!!!!

I can completely understand why they named the sport, “Squash”. I think the person who named the sport, is the same person who named the card game “Slap!”

Squash is really…squashy.  – in terms of space, and in terms of getting squashed. I was running into the walls, dodging the rubber ball, dodging my instructor’s raquet.

Anyhoo, I absolutely love the sport, and will play more often.

Three cheers for Squash!

YAY!
Stacy

Happy Birthday to me! Round 1

Dear Readers,

Dad calculated that I was born (according to the Chinese calendar) on January 19th, 一月十九日. Yesterday, he said to me, “Stacy, tomorrow is your birthday!!!”

Today is my Chinese Birthday! And next friday is my actual birthday, so thats 2 consecutive friday birthdays.

Nice! I guess if I was in Singapore that would mean 2 hard core party sessions, but this year in Bangkok, I feel just like lying in bed and doing homey things.

Instead, just spent my friday night lounging and watching October Road, then Privileged (Good new show to hook onto!)  And now I am seatdancing to the spice girls. Yay!

Anyways, my parents really love me and gave me exactly what I wanted for my birthday, a BLENDER!!! YAY!!!

This is a new and improved blender, with a dry grind accessory!! (Grinds dry ingredients) So I can make nicer oatmeal cookies!  This morning I was just thinking how there are 2 things I really want but can’t have – 1. Deep Fryer (banned from the house) and 2. a new blender.  !!!

I am easy to please, and extremely domesticated,
Stacy

Bangkok’s 2009 Early Tragedy – Santika’s Inferno

Dear Readers,

I am pissed.

I am pissed at the whole situation, and pissed because Jamie lost her friend Win in the Santika tragedy.

Imagine this, December 31st 2008, a Goodbye Santika party, with performance from Joey-Boy and a band called Burn.

Party goers were handed sparklers to celebrate the new year. Santika was a chic happening club, a club where tourist went,  and higher-than-normal folk – society people partied. Outside the club, you could see a line of expensive cars – ferraris, minis, bmws, and mercs. I went there once with Neha, and have to say, I liked it. Yes it was the typical Thai style dance club – with tables on the dancefloor, but there was a little dance floor room near the stage (from what I remember) so any club with a dance floor gets a two thumb approval from me.

But what we really overlook when we do go clubbing, are fire exits, the presence of sprinklers, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, emergency lights…I guess we either assume that nothing bad would happen to us – or – a club would obviously have all these safety measures because they have a club liscence. – right?

That law of logic basically goes to shit in Thailand. That whole list? fire exits…sprinklers..fire extinguishers…- not adequate.

Santika decorated their stage with normal curtains – not fire retardant ones. Fire extinguishers? – One.

Sprinklers? – none that I know of. Fire exits? – 3 but 2 back exits were only known to the staff – not even the fire fighters knew about it.

So what really happened that night? Its a piece by piece put together, but the rough idea was that about around 12:20-35ish the band BURN celebrated the new year by using FIREWORKS (not stage fireworks) on stage, and immediately the ceiling (that was made of soundproof material) caught on fire. Some revellers thought it was even part of the show, but when the ceiling started to fall on them (not a whole chunk at first, more like ashes) a panic broke out. Somehow, people on the 2nd floor realised the fire before people on the ground floor, and everyone was rushing to the main exit, so that some deaths were caused by the stampede.

I read here and there, and one man said he jump kicked the glass windows on the ground floor, and only made a small hole and felt so helpless didn’t know how to get out. Worse – on the 2nd floor the windows had grills.

The fire was further amplified because of the bottles of alcohol on the main dance floor (remember, Thai clubs have bar tables on the dance floor, thats how Thais party, head bobbing and minimal booty shaking around their bar table.) so there were mini explosions from the alcohol bottles.

1,000 people, stampeding out of the 3 storey building, mainly using the 2 metre wide exit.

It took the fire fighters 2 hours to bring the blaze under control. Total – 64 people dead, 240+ injured.

Of the 64, there were 17 bodies that were burnt beyond recognition – charred. When they couldn’t locate Jamie’s friend Win, by the 2nd day, I had a strong gut feeling that it was bad news. His mother had to fly in from Myanmar for DNA testing and they found him, his girlfriend Laika and his friend Mark all near the back exits.

After googling alot about the incident, my mother found a post on thaivisa.com, someone who similarly was missing 4 friends. Then on a facebook group, I saw the same post, but the photo that was shown to look for the missing people did not include Win, so I didn’t think it was him.

Turns out, after giving Jamie the link, she pointed out that the people in the photo included Mark and Laika, but Win wasn’t there (maybe he was taking the photo).

So this was his story:

“We believe the girl was hit by debris from the roof, and her bf tried to help, but either passed out, or he and my bro managed to get her to the rear exit before passing out. Unfortunately, when the rescue teams came, they only went in from the front… As for the last friend, apparently he had already managed to get to safety, but didn’t see any of us, so went back in… He was found in the vicinity of the entrance, only a few meters from the 3…”

He was 26, a MBA student at ABAC, and Jamie’s friend/mentor (in the Debate club) for the past 4 years. He was also Dianna’s close friend, so its devastating for the both of them. I didn’t know him, but I always remember Jamie raving about him, how he is such a nice guy.

And the way he died, trying to save his unconscious girlfriend, most probably being knocked out conscious from the falling ceiling, or succumbing to the clouds of smoke…and the most UPSETTING thing – seeking refuge/hope by circumventing the crowds – going to the back exit and having it overlooked by fire fighters.

I’m PISSED! Pissed at the lack of safety regulations in Thailand. Santika did not hold a club liscence – they only had a liscence to run a food stall. FOOD STALL. Bribery is how they got away with it, probably paying police/inspectors 100,000 baht a month (at least).  In total, Santika made an estimate of 60 million baht per year in revenue.

This is how Thailand works – its called systemic corruption – corruption that is more than just one bar owner and one tainted cop, its a whole SYSTEM of police, government regulators and business owners. I recently spoke to a friend who opened a pub/restaurant near her home. I asked her if she had proper liscencing, and she told me quite frankly that she doesn’t, she knows a high police official in that area, and so pays a bribe of 1,000 baht per month to the police.

1,000 baht, can you believe that?

Days like this I am very disgusted to live here, and there is a facebook group that now shares places to boycott and be aware of when clubbing. Here is a link showing the fire exits for a popular gay club called DJ STATION : Look at this crazy ladder exit.

You know, I was watching Oprah’s Best Life – the Spiritual episode, and one interviewer said he was stuck in an airplane crash -Dante’s Inferno and he saw aura lights leaving the passengers’ bodies. Some were bright some were dim, each aura had a different strength to it. I’d like to think that Jamie’s friend Win’s aura left very bright, just from the photos that I saw of him, all the posts his friends wrote about him, and stories from Jamie and Grego, I know that he was a fun loving individual, always caring and selfless – this was especially illustrated at his heroic attempt to save his girlfriend – it is a damn dirty shame that the back exit wasn’t adequate for them to be rescued.

To see his facebook dedication page, please click here

May all the victims of Santika’s inferno find peace in their afterlife, know that they have touched many lives and are deeply missed,
Stacy

News articles:

Police: Many Victims were Foreigners

Rescuers helpless as flames engulf revellers

Teenagers flock to Santika to take photos of “ghosts” (this link is a bit freaky.)

Resolution add-on

Dear Readers,

In retrospect, I have 2 more powerful resolutions to add:

11. I am writing in my diary.

12. I am no longer partcipating in one-sided like/love relationships!

As my dearest friend Adrian once wisely told me : “dont make anyone your priority when you are just their option”

History used to always repeats itself, but NO MORE in 2009!

!!!,
Stacy

:) Happy New Year :)!

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year!

My new year started in quite an eventful and telling way. After the countdown, we hung out a bit, chatted abit over snacks and champagne, then Greg, Tim and Jay headed out for clubbing at Route 66. Parents went to sleep and I cleared and cleaned all the dishes, rearranged the furniture so that everything will look good come January 1st morning.

Went to sleep in my newly cleaned and rearranged room, fell asleep reading my present from Marsha “The Little Prince” and was woken up at 330am by Jay, she came home.

At first I said, alright goodnight love you happynew year…then she still came inside my room to chat with me. Turns out they thought a bomb went off in Santika (a very nice club that I like to go to, went there only once though..) and so they came home right away. I immediately called Dianna and found out she was safe, phew.

Jamie’s friends and greg’s friends were downstairs so I woke up, got changed went downstairs to make sure everyone had supper if they wanted, and to watch news, and to send her other 2 friends home.

At the end of the night, I got back at 5am, sat around to chat with the boys a bit, and I was just in shock. It wasn’t a bomb, it was a fire caused by apparently some suspect fire crackers inside the club! This is Thailand, no fire retardant (sp?) curtains, or extinguishers or sprinklers. So dangerous! it makes me so angry!

What a way to start the new year! The good point is that Greg and Jay were safe from harm, thats a good sign.

Anyhoo, what a night.

Before the clock struck 12, I did write down my annual neurotic but very ’stacy’ like resolutions. And after reading Jeab’s book “How to get from where you are to where you want to be”  I realised that all these years I’ve been doing my resolutions wrongly, I am suppose to write them in the present continuous tense!

I taped my resolutions on my dresser door, in pink cursive writing Stacy’s Resolutions for 2009 reads…

Drum roll please….

1.  I am living in the present

2. I am enjoying life at my ideal weight of 56 kgs.

3. I am working harder and making a success out of the company.

4. I am starting and enjoying my new business.

5. I am refraining from consuming coffee.

6. I am working out at the gym at least 4 times a week.

7. I am working hard – improving my chinese.

8. I am practicing piano + guitar at least 1 time a week, 30 minutes.

9. I am more patient with people

10. I am happy with life and open to the world.

My affirmation : I am in 100% control of my destiny!

The last resolution is a bit artsy fartsy new age-ish, but what I mean is that I am open to whatever comes my way, maybe I should scratch that out and write open to the universe?

I wish everyone a most fabulous 2009! A year filled with love happiness and good health!

Happy 2009!
Stacy

Done with School

Dear Readers,

I’m DONE WITH SCHOOL!! HURRAH!! At least for the next 3 years.

I won’t be touching an exam, – tutoring for one, but not actually writing one. Not that I’ll stop learning, I believe in the continuous learning doctrine

So you wouldn’t believe it. My pen analogy? Well it turns out, it might possibly be just a pen afterall!

Haha, before I went into the exam, I took 5 minutes of crucial revision time to try my luck at the Chulalongkorn Book store. And lo and behold, many many pens – and I was wrong it’s not 0.7 its 1.2!

Anyhoo, so the 2nd best pen is readily available, and I bought 3 incase I’d never see them again. So do I drive the analogy further and say that there are many 2nd bests around?

Ironically, I didn’t use the good luck blue pen, because I spent all of Sunday and Monday revising auditing with the clicker pen that I thought that if I abandoned it during my exams, I wouldn’t be able to channel knowledge.

Hah.

It feels REALLY GOOD to be over with school. And I got home all excited, ready to face the world! Changed my MSN name to “so many things to do ” – then by 8pm I was feeling really tired. <—that energy and inspiration boost was really short lived.

Now I have no excuses, gotta get my act together, start exercising again, start playing guitar again, and start blogging again!

So I will find definitely something more interesting to blog about next time,
Stacy