I Make an Apron

To put it bluntly, I wear my food. Whether I’m cooking it or eating it, part of my portion will end up on my clothing. I need an apron, as the one I had in the US somehow didn’t make it into the moving boxes. In fact, there’s a whole bunch of kitchen stuff that I set out for the movers to pack and they apparently didn’t, but that’s not relevant. What’s relevant are the food stains I inevitably acquire on my limited wardrobe, and the missing apron. 

The cure was obvious. I needed an apron, and I needed it pronto. I had the foresight to bring an good apron pattern. Yesterday I made the pattern alterations and cut it out. Today I sewed it, all except the button, buttonhole, and hem. I can’t do the buttonhole until I know how big the button is; and I don’t have a button. I’ll pick one up Tuesday when I’m in town. I could hem it, but in my present state of mind I’d do a machine hem. I’ll wait until I’m not so tired and do a nice hand sewn hem.

Not in Kansas Anymore

An article from today’s Bangkok Post:

Qualified people only may apply

ANUCHA CHAROENPO

Being a beggar will not be so easy anymore if draft legislation approved by the cabinet yesterday becomes law. The bill proposed by the Human Security and Social Development Ministry sets conditions for people who want to be beggars.

They must provide proof they are underprivileged, disabled, homeless or elderly without children to care for them. And this will be a reserved occupation, exclusively for Thais who must carry ID cards.

Would-be professional beggars will have to report to local administration organisations for approval and work permits.

Local agencies will be responsible for controlling beggars in their jurisdictions, while the Social Development and Welfare Department will have special centres to help them and programmes to care for them.

Those who force other people to beg, or exploit them, will be liable to criminal punishment, deputy government spokeswoman Suparat Nakboonnam said.

Passing the legislation into law would help the authorities get rid of the large number of foreign beggars in the country, she said. The bill will soon be handed to the government whips and then go to parliament for approval.

If passed, it will replace the 1941 Begging Control Act, which is outdated and begging for a makeover, Ms Suparat said.

 

I am so not in Kansas.

Almost Tivo

While I commonly refer to our satellite TV service as UBC, it’s been bought out by True Corporation and is called Truevision. In Bangkok, True offers cable TV and cablemodems. Here in Korat, they offer satellite TV. All over Thailand they offer mobile phone service. They have some nice convergence packages, like TV service on your mobile phone. One of their newest offerings is a PVR.

This PVR is made by Humax, a manufacturer of the Tivo Series 2. It’s almost Tivo; the software isn’t quite advanced enough to record a program being shown at a time other than the normal schedule, or to record based on keywords. It does allow for pause during live TV, and to record a TV show every week at the same time. Improvements to the software are planned, too.

Naturally, I want one, so we went to the local True shop to get one. We ran into problems; the man running the shop had had a previous bad experience trying to get PVR service for somebody else who owned their set top box rather than renting it , and who paid for the satellite service annually instead of monthly. He did contrive a way around this. His solution was to sell us the PVR as if we were a new customer instead of an existing customer. The point we found objectionable in his plan was the part where he insisted we had to sign up for the satellite package we wanted a second time. Truevisions does not give refunds. We would be paying double for service for the rest of the year, and our Truevisions year is only about half over. He honestly expected us to go along with this plan!

I sent in a request for PVR service to True directly using their website. We shall see what transpires. A Thai friend said the shop owner was merely trying to take us for more money. My experience tells me that while this is probably true, there will be problem getting PVR service because we aren’t presently getting a monthly bill, and their system is dependent on that billing. Never mind that the PVR service fee is waived for the first year. If it doesn’t fit in their little box, they don’t know how to deal with it.