Intimidating Bangkok

Finally Heather and I arrived in Bangkok on Sunday night at about 10:30pm. The plane ride was alright but soooo long, it was ten and a half hours from Vancouver to Tokyo then six and a half hours from Tokyo to Bangkok. There were a one good movie between both planes, which was Nacho Libre, the other four were pretty bad I think it was Mission Impossible 3, House Boat, The Devil wears Prada, and Possidion. It was hot and muggy when we arrived, the air here is so thick you can taste it. After we deplaned we collected our luggage and went through customs. Customs here is kind of a joke, there is the "Nothing to declare" line and the "Have something to declare" line, and you can just walk through the "Nothing to declare" line and no one bats an eye. We got a cab and since I can't speak a lick of Thai I couldn't add anything to help steer us to Heather's apartment but luckly Heather was awake enough to get us there. Our cab driver had the craziest hair, it was similar to the pointy bangs look back home but his bangs were about six inches long and pointing at a right angle from his forehead the rest of it was flat to his head.
Heather's apartment is about twice the size of my living room and all one room with a seperate bathroom. The bathroom is kinda strange on it's own because there is no bath tub or shower stall. The whole room is tiled and the shower is in a little alcove in a corner but there is no curtain or door to stop the water from splashing all over the room, so when you are finished showering you just leave water all over the floor and it dries in a couple hours because of the heat and humidity.
My first day here was pretty chill. Heather had to go to work early and since we didn't really have much time between arriving and the next morning I decided to laze around in the apartment by myself for the day. Around luch time I was wondering if I would actually go outside by myself and look around when Heather came home to pick up some things for work and have lunch. On her return to school I walked her to a cab and then took a stroll down one of the main streets. Man it's hot here! The bus's here are a little scary because they stop for about five seconds and if your arn't fast enough to jump on it will drive off with you half on, I didn't get on one but I saw Thai people hopping on and off. The sidewalk here is a nightmare for people on bikes and in wheelchairs because if the paving stones arn't all broken up then the transition from street to sidewalk is about the size of a stair back home. After about twenty minutes in the sun I was ready to go back inside, where I proptly fell asleep because it was about 2am Vancouver time and I still haven't really adjusted to the schedual yet. Later we went out for dinner at a place where no one spoke english and bought groceries for about a fifth the cost that they would be in Vancouver.
Today I might go to the Grande Palace or Ko San Road I haven't decided yet.
Ray

Two days in

I didn't get a chance to post these pics at the time of taking them but it doesn't really matter now, they're up here anyway. The day following the buying of all our material Knesha and I realzie that my original plan of a room that was 8 feet by 10 feet was a little bit on the small side. So re-sizing the room to 14 feet by 16 feet requied a whole new pile of material that Alex Taylor was good enough to drive me all around burnaby and coquitlam to pick up more drywall and lumber. We got some really nice Red Oak for trim and the table legs, I'm looking forward to using it too. After we drove around for most of the day Alex and I unloaded the truck and I went to work on building the wall frames. I kinda felt the twinges of a cold creeping up on me but I was determined to fight it and sweat it out at work. This was not the best thing for my mental state because at around 8pm Kneesha showed up to help and as we were raising a wall it fell apart on us. I had been working for about eleven and a half hours and I was really starting to feel the cough and cold kick me in the teeth. Determined to erect at least one wall Knesha and I hammered it back togeather and set it upright and nailed the supports in place. We raised one more and I screwed one sheet of drywall on and decided to call it a day.
The next day was amost as good.
Ray

First day on the Set

Today I started work on a student film for my friend Knesha. Knesha goes to SFU and wants to make a movie based in a Hong Kong apartment during the 1960's, and I am the Production Designer! I designed the layout for the apartment and selected all the material and I am putting it all togeather, with the help of the crew. I am excited to be in charge of something like this because I have never done anything like it before. I have dressed some sets but never built the whole thing from scratch.
Today was a bit of a rough day even tho it was the first day of construction because we expanded the whole area of the set. Origonally it was going to be 8 feet by ten feet. Man I wasn't thinking! That isn't even the size of my front room! So we expanded it to 14 feet by 16 feet however that meant that we needed more material so today was mostly spent driving around buying drywall and lumber and LOSING MY FOUR FOOT LEVEL AND FRAMING SQUARE! But that's okay, roll with the punches, it's my own fault for fogeting them at Home Depot. Later on Knesha asked me if I could just call and ask if they had found them and I know that the conversation would go something like this:

Home Depot -"Home Depot how may I help you?"

Me - "Hi. I was in earlier and I bought some drywall and as I was loading up my truck I forgot my four foot level and framing square out side. Did anyone happen to turn it in?"

HD -"Were the items you lost products that we sell here or did you have your name on them?"

Me - "Well yes, and I know that my name isn't on them but I thought that you could have found them and then maybe I could come pick them up later?"

HD - "Sir you want me to look for items that we carry in this store and then give them to you when you come by later?"

I can't imagine that they would belive me at all however, you win some you lose some.
Tommrow I'll get some pics of the set in progress and things will really get moving then.

Ray