Wednesday, March 24

The view from Roman's balcony at sunrise

Day Ten.

I am wondering if I am going to find things to keep posting about? I mean, the content of this blog has only ever been My Brain on Quarantine (and q-tine meal pics), but I find my brain has been quieting over the past few days, and there's just not as much going on in there to report on.

Hopefully I'll see new animals today.

This morning, I checked out Street Dog Life. When I looked down from my balcony, I immediately saw the black-and-white dog hanging out in the alley, in the vicinity of the blond dog with the white-undersided tail. Maybe the blond dog isn't a bully after all! And the black-and-white was no longer limping, making him seem less the victim. There were four tan-colored dogs in repose in the restaurant parking lot. There was a white-blond dog in the 7-11 parking lot this time, waiting patiently by the street food cart. As I watched, the black-and-white and the blond dog went running up the alley, out of sight. And then another blond dog with a white-undersided tail appeared in the 7-11 parking lot. It turns out I am not a dog expert yet and confused the two. So maybe the 7-11 one is a bully, after all? I'm over-thinking it. Over-narrating.

By 7:00am, all the dogs had vanished.

Breakfast was Typhoo tea and cantaloupe and French toast with Justin's chocolate hazelnut & almond butter and it was delicious.

I've had an on-and-off headache since yesterday afternoon and I don't like what it implies. Either it's Covid (not really, I think that's super unlikely given the two negative tests I've had in the last two weeks, but isn't that where all our minds go when we feel at all unwell these days?) or a reaction to the intense heat from yesterday's Outside Time.

I don't like that idea because I like to think of myself as someone who handles hot weather well. That's just ego talking but, more importantly, 91F in Bangkok is, how do you say, nothing. Even if it does “feel like” 106F. But I will adapt. I have to. And once I have sparkling water in my life, it'll be easier to stay hydrated. Plain water is just so dull.

Also! I learned that, to say you're hungry in Thai, you typically say hiu khao, which literally means I'm hungry for rice. If you're thirsty you say hiu naam, which means I'm hungry for water. I wonder if, when I'm thirsty, I could say I'm hungry for soda water in Thai, which is literally what I mean when I say I'm thirsty.

In the morning, we had a brief exciting power outage. My lights and AC and internet all abruptly went out, and the hallway went dark. I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and put in my contacts and used my phone's flashlight, shining against the wall, as a kind of lamp. I thought it gave the room a certain atmospheric feeling, and decided to take a picture with my iPad—but the moment I touched the photo button, the power came back on.

Turns out there are many things to write about. Power outages!

Roman and I met in the garden around 9:30am this time, which means we did not melt.

Lunch came early but I was in the middle of yoga and it had to wait. I got mushroom red curry and it was not nearly as good as the first time I had it. One of the things Roman and I text each other about a lot is our meals, how we rate them on a 1-10 scale, and how they compare with different versions of the same meal. See, the thing is, the meals are not totally consistent, and today's mushroom red curry wasn't prepared nearly as much to my liking—the mushrooms were less cooked, the sauce less reduced and less spicy, and the whole dish was full of the bitter green pods.

One can start to feel one might be imagining the differences but OH LOOK WE HAVE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE.

Mushroom Red Curry; March 20, 2021

Mushroom Red Curry; March 24, 2021

I mean, it was fine. It's amazing to get a warm meal brought to me three times a day—and someone's hands prepared this meal. I am NOT turning into a cantankerous old man in q-tine. Mostly.

Not a fan.

In the afternoon, I meditated, did yoga, and read—I finished Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and have started An Unfortunate Woman and The Queen's Gambit. 

When I was hanging out on the balcony, two mynas landed on the tower across from me—close enough I could actually see their little crests.

Dinner was a pretty unfortunate spaghetti with bacon and garlic.

I watched Project Runway, talked to Roman on the phone, and was in bed by 9:30pm. Quarantine life.