What I'm reading: The Gods Drink Whiskey : Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha
Why it's so good:
He is writing as the exact time we were in Cambodia. I mean EXACT - he described the anti-Thai riots we observed (you know, the one where we had no idea what was going on - we thought the Thais beat them in a soccer match - until we saw it in CNN) and he also talks about an ASEAN nation tourism conference that was going on while we were in Phnom Penh - we were accidentally mistaken for conference participants after we'd had a few beers at the Foreign Correspondents' Club (yes, as cool as it sounds) and given a whole bunch of free stuff: backpacks, t-shirts, pens, hats...
It is also amazing because he is pondering a question I've asked many times on my trips to Southeast Asia - how is it that the most devoutly Buddhist countries seem to be the most chaotic? Isn't Buddhism about acheiving inner peace? About being calm and meditating? How can these two states coexist? Insane traffic, sex tourism, pollution, intense poverty, chaos in its most pure (and fascinating) form - and devout Buddhism - over 95% of Thais and Cambodians are Buddhist.
I highly recommend this book (Kessa, you should check it out, it's pretty hilarious, but you find out a lot about the world too). Through crazy tales and meetings with odd characters (from dignified prostitutes to hard drinking louts to hard drinking Buddhist monks) and strange situations (marijuana pizza, massage parlours) he tries to debunk many of the perceptions that Westerners have about the East.
Check out the reviews on amazon.com I promise you won't be sorry!
Friday, June 30, 2006
Check out the new photos on flickr!!!Irregular posting
It has been tough to get a moment to post anything these days. Since I've gone back to work, I try to spend much of my time off playing or feeding or some activity with Gus - either that or I am having some serious downtime. The last thing I wan't to do is sit in front of a computer after spending a full day at work doing just that. So here I am, making excuses for not keeping up to date.
Since my last post, our son has had his first birthday, had a visit from Granny Joan learned to walk and then forgot how to walk...
Something about visits from grandparents. It seems our boy was just on the verge of walking when Joan left and then he completely lost interest. I'm guessing we haven't been encouraging him quite as much as she did - he went from taking a couple steps towards you before falling into your arms, now he stands and lunges into your arms skipping the couple steps part.
His first birthday was pretty fun - ate a big piece of carrot cake:
We had a second party on the weekend with a poor showing, seems all his little friends have a pretty busy social calendar! He did get some fun stuff though: toys that make noise, toys for the bath (hooray bathtime!) a little swimming pool which he absolutely loves:
and it's a great way for us to keep him in the shade because he can't crawl away.
Yesterday we went to the shockingly crowded Sasamat Lake for a picnic and a swim. Looks like we have a water baby, he wanted to get right in despite the cold water. Sorry no photos for the blog, but we did take some with an old fashioned camera so one day you might get a chance to see them. Since I've been working and Darren has an aversion for outdoor activities on the weekends (too crowded at the nearby spots) we haven't been getting out as much as we'd like. We have, however, firmed up plans for our yearly cabin getaway near Prince George. Just waiting for D to get home so we can book the flight! We are hoping to do some camping soo too - maybe at Garibaldi where they have a couple yurts. That way if Augusten has a rough night we'll have more than a tent to keep the noise in. Personally, I don't care who hears him but Darren is just way more considerate than I am. I've also booked off a bit more time in the summer (or tried anyways) so maybe a few more day trips will happen. The weather is supposed to be spectacular for the next few weeks! We have been barbecuing every night. Hooray for summer!
On a child development note, we are finally training him to sleep in his crib. Two nights down and so far it seems pretty painless. He falls asleep after about 5 minutes of crying and then has a couple 5 minute crying interludes through the night (although he did have one on the first night that lasted 40 minutes). The weirdest thing - we peeked into his crib last night before we turned in - he was just sitting there silently...until he noticed us and started crying. I don't think he's getting enough sleep in the night, he is sleeping until 10am! The whole training thing may be disturbing his naps though - he and I wrestled with naptime for about an hour today before he actually fell asleep. Who knows, the whole thing has messed up his schedule, but eventually he'll be sleeping in his crib and we'll all be getting a good night's rest. Well, that's the idea anyways...
Since my last post, our son has had his first birthday, had a visit from Granny Joan learned to walk and then forgot how to walk...
Something about visits from grandparents. It seems our boy was just on the verge of walking when Joan left and then he completely lost interest. I'm guessing we haven't been encouraging him quite as much as she did - he went from taking a couple steps towards you before falling into your arms, now he stands and lunges into your arms skipping the couple steps part.
His first birthday was pretty fun - ate a big piece of carrot cake:
We had a second party on the weekend with a poor showing, seems all his little friends have a pretty busy social calendar! He did get some fun stuff though: toys that make noise, toys for the bath (hooray bathtime!) a little swimming pool which he absolutely loves:and it's a great way for us to keep him in the shade because he can't crawl away.
Yesterday we went to the shockingly crowded Sasamat Lake for a picnic and a swim. Looks like we have a water baby, he wanted to get right in despite the cold water. Sorry no photos for the blog, but we did take some with an old fashioned camera so one day you might get a chance to see them. Since I've been working and Darren has an aversion for outdoor activities on the weekends (too crowded at the nearby spots) we haven't been getting out as much as we'd like. We have, however, firmed up plans for our yearly cabin getaway near Prince George. Just waiting for D to get home so we can book the flight! We are hoping to do some camping soo too - maybe at Garibaldi where they have a couple yurts. That way if Augusten has a rough night we'll have more than a tent to keep the noise in. Personally, I don't care who hears him but Darren is just way more considerate than I am. I've also booked off a bit more time in the summer (or tried anyways) so maybe a few more day trips will happen. The weather is supposed to be spectacular for the next few weeks! We have been barbecuing every night. Hooray for summer!
On a child development note, we are finally training him to sleep in his crib. Two nights down and so far it seems pretty painless. He falls asleep after about 5 minutes of crying and then has a couple 5 minute crying interludes through the night (although he did have one on the first night that lasted 40 minutes). The weirdest thing - we peeked into his crib last night before we turned in - he was just sitting there silently...until he noticed us and started crying. I don't think he's getting enough sleep in the night, he is sleeping until 10am! The whole training thing may be disturbing his naps though - he and I wrestled with naptime for about an hour today before he actually fell asleep. Who knows, the whole thing has messed up his schedule, but eventually he'll be sleeping in his crib and we'll all be getting a good night's rest. Well, that's the idea anyways...
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
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