A Great Day for Pics!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

8:15 pm

            If there was one day worth bringing my iPhone to take pictures, today probably would have been it. Unfortunately, it was the one day I decided not to. It was raining when I woke up this morning around 7:30. Pastor Doug's front lawn was flooded. Actually, all the front lawns were flooded--a regular occurrence as I am told. The plan was that in the afternoon, I would help Shannon, the charismatic Australian who does various video projects around Bangkok, shoot an episode for his vegetarian cooking show. I was told as soon as I moseyed on down the stairs that plans had changed. He now wanted to go at 8:00 am and shoot two episodes! I did the morning routine on double speed and got in the taxi 30 minutes later.

            We returned to that Buddhist temple from yesterday where just outside is a whole soi of vegetarian restaurants. We had spoken to a lady at one of them the day before and she had convinced Shannon to return. She and a couple other ladies sat us down and immediately started bringing us some kind of spinach-pumpkin soup. It was very good! They also brought us some kind of drink, which I held in my one free hand. We weren't at a table, so I had to hold what I had. They also brought us a second soup to try (chunks of pumpkin in a coconut milk broth). My hands were full and as I was trying to decide how to handle this sudden flood of soups, I lost focus on the (very green) soup in my right hand. The contents of which proceeded to pour into my lap. All I could do was wait for the women to bring towels as I played the clumsy foreigner. I cleaned my shorts as best I could, but could not destroy the illusion that I had just had a diarrhea explosion. A great start for any first day on a shoot!

            The rest of the day actually went quite well. We struggled through some footage at the restaurants near the temple, then, by noon took a taxi to our next location--May Kaidee's Vegetarian Restaurant. As soon as we arrived, we were given two plates of complimentary spring rolls. One plate was fried; the other was cold. They were delicious! Now, May Kaidee is a very special lady. As we told her we would need about twenty minutes to set up, she replied, "It's ok, I'm ready anytime. I'm beautiful all the time, so no hurry." She then continued to tell us how she was no stranger to the camera. Apparently we weren't the first cooking show to pay her a visit. She told us Dominic Monaghan, from The Lord of the Rings and Lost, had even paid a visit to her restaurant. We had a great time filming her. About half way through, she decided to dress the American host in a Thai getup. It consisted of a bright and shiny gold shirt, some kind of head wrap, and another piece of material he had a hard time defending as not being a skirt. May had him dancing and singing along with her. We filmed them cooking three different dishes twice each (once in English, then in Thai). After each take, we got to eat the product! All the dishes were fantastic!

            It was a great day and the stains on my shorts have turned bright yellow, so now it just looks like a highlighter burst in my pocket or something. Josh was kind enough to clean all the junk from the ceiling in my office as I've been writing this! In a couple days, I will be going to the church plant in Bangkok Noi to collect and document stories, so I may or may not be online for three to four days. Thanks for reading and commenting! I miss you all!

...but I'm not gonna lie... I'm having a blast! Sorry there are no pictures this time.