Episode 2

Greetings,  By accident or design you have reached the web page of Tony and Tos Brading and our dog 'Doughnut'. This page was last updated on 3rd June 2004. You can email us here, if you have Outlook Express on your computer. If you don't have O E, you can email us at tigger@tonybrading.net

Thank you for your comments on my last effort. Not everyone was pleased, but those in favour outnumbered those against approximately fivefold. Especial thanks to Chuck for helpful tips, even if I couldn't get them to work. The rainy season is now established. It has brought a welcome reduction in temperatures, and so far it has rained mainly at night. The only downsides seem to be that the car needs cleaning more often (a job I prefer to pay someone else to do) and that at nighttimes we are serenaded by 'The Frog Chorus'. It seems that with the arrival of the rain, all the adult male frogs want a mate, and I don't mean a mate to go to the nearest pub/bar with.

Meanwhile our story continues from Friday 21st May when Tos and I dined with a very likeable Australian named Ian at Carsten's bar in Tha Sadet.  While Tos advertised a local bank, I tried to put Ian off his food with my choice of shirt. However Ian loves his food so much that not only was he not put off, he wouldn't stop eating long enough to pose for a photo. For some unknown reason, Carsten confuses Ian and I, and has called me Ian. Next time we go back we'll swop shirts and see if he can tell who is who.

Tos wants to resume her studies, so the following morning we had to get up really early in order that she could take an entrance exam at a college in Udonthani. She finished before the allotted time and told me matter-of-factly that she had failed. In keeping with tradition, the afternoon was spent drinking beer in The Complex in the company of Colin, Major John (left) and Wee Jimmy (right).

Tip: Next time take off the glasses Jimmy. Jimmy will be reading this back in chilly Scotland, as he returned there a few days later to resume his job of being paid to let people drive him around. Sounds good to me. When Jimmy has as much money as the Major, he may come to live here permanently, but as the Major has more money than Bill Gates, that may not be for another month or two.

Below Doughnut's reaction to the mention of Bill Gates.

From the Complex, Tos and I headed to the airport. There we dined in the restaurant overlooking the runway and terminal apron while waiting for the arrival of my best friend Dan, known to some Thai women as 'Mr Ling'. Dan's flight was on time and I was able to open the restaurant window and attract his attention as he walked across the apron. Dan and I have known each other for a very long time. This photo was taken in 1959. Can you spot either Dan or I? Clue: you can see my knees.

No? I am at the left hand end of the front row, and Dan is next-but-one to me. Yes those are my knees.

Tos and I hosted our first dinner party on Sunday, when Ian and Dan ate with us. Not surprisingly perhaps it consisted of the wok fried chicken and potato salad that Tos and I had enjoyed so much previously. In need of some exercise, we walked to the Meeting Place where we snapped the genial boss Paul and his girlfriend Joy. Ian penned the notice behind them as he is presently womanless .

It reads:- I was born to suffer. Please find me a wife (Femmanazi). Desperate 4 misery. Interested parties can email Ian at DesparateOz@tonybrading.net

Tuesday evening found us with Kim and Ou at OJ's to see who would be eliminated from American Idol. It was George Huff. Dan had previously met Kim and Ou when he was here in February, so after the show, we dined at our preferred Neua Yang Gau Li restaurant on the bank of the Mekong. This style of restaurant is inexpensive because you cook the food yourself at the table on a charcoal 'barbecue'. It is open air, but it is the rainy season, so you have to choose fine evenings to dine there.

L to R Dan, me, Tos, Tos's sister Neng, and Kim's wife Ou. No picture of Kim as he was behind the camera. Sorry mate.

Wednesday we met up with Ian again and dined at the Savoy. That sounds quite grand doesn't it? I do like good French cooking. Both Dan and Ian agreed with me that Christian excelled once more. Tos captured Doughnut's dark secret in this photo.

Once again Ian was unable to pose for the photo as he was concentrating on his order for the next course. Or was he planning his next subtle marketing message?

By Thursday evening we were down to 4 finalists on AI, all female. They each sang 2 songs, and without exception their second song was better. Fantasia and La Toya continue to be the best. Kim favours Fantasia, but for me La Toya had the edge. Even Simon Fuller has said that she is the best singer by far in the competition. So it was a bit of a shock all round to find out on the following Tuesday that she had been eliminated. What is going on?

Thursday and Friday evenings Dan, Tos and I ate at the same restaurant (Mekong Guest House). It was also the one where we had celebrated Tos's birthday, but this time photos were taken, e.g. Dan and I some 45 years after we first met.

On the second night we were joined by a young lady Dan first met 3 years ago when he came to stay with me in Banwaeng. On the way to Richard's house we had had lunch in Banwaeng on Friday, and met Wat by chance. Spookily in one of those Thai co-incidence ways, Richard has also met her. Dan was very pleased to see her again, to put it mildly. She is rather gorgeous.

On Saturday we lunched at the Charoen Sri Grand Hotel in Udonthani with Colin, before taking Dan to the airport. His week's stay had flown by. Dan went off to meet 'O' in Bangkok with whom he tells me he had an unbelievably good time, before he headed back to the UK today. Since Dan's departure, Tos has found out that she passed the entrance exam, so she goes to enrol next weekend, while I have been working to make up for the time I took off last week, catching up on correspondence and this web page.

I hope you enjoyed it!

Have a nice fortnight          Tony & Tos     Woof Woof (and Doughnut)