Where's the Beef.... Festival

I've received a number of alerts:

"Sakon Nakhon Province is all set to hold a local OTOP, Beef and tourism festival."

By tourism festival I'm taking a wild guess that they are referring to the Christmas star festival.

The "BEEF Festival" is to be held from December 24 to 26, in "Sakon Nakhon Province."
Guess I'll have to send out the troops in the morning to find out the exact location.

Sakon Nakhon Beef does have quite a reputation throughout Thailand.
The local Thai-French  Beef is of the best quality in the entire country, as far as I am concerned.

I'm a regular customer at the local Thai-French Natural Beef store.
If they don't have a certain cut in stock, they'll have it for you within a few days.

My favorite is T-bone. I generally have one a week.

When I'm in the mood for a T-bone, but not in the mood to do the work, I head to the Dusit Hotel Restaurant. With salad, vegetables fries and their own gravy, I'm always pleasantly stuffed and wind up taking home a doggy bag.

I'm waiting for the Thai copy on this one

Thais have a reputation to be able to copy just about anything... I'm waiting to see their version of this one

Cool to Cold ahead --- AGAIN

Enjoyed the last couple days of warm weather

Thai Meteorological Department has posted a weather warning.
That cold weather that's been  in southern China and parts of Laos is heading south on the express train.


The three weather services I check regularly tend to agree that it's going to get cool again, but not when, nor how cold.

	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday
Thai Meteorological	19	17	15	14	14
Accuweather	19/20	19/20	20/21	13/9	9/6
Weather Underground	12	14	17	18

Accuweather includes FELLS LIKE Temperatures

The school had asked me if I wanted to move into an air conditioned classroom next week.

Oh... never mind

Friends sent me these Videos, I loved them

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One Hump or Two

Quote for the day

We used to call it gossip, these days they call it networking.

Some of them have two

The text book lesson was word association.
Famous opera house - Australia
Eiffel tower - France
Koala - Australia
Camel... The class went silent. No one seemed to know what a camel was.
I tried to explain; I drew on the board and explained: an animal with two...
"Tit's," one of my students interrupted me.

I tried to elaborate: "some of them have one hump, others have two humps."

The class was rolling in the isles with laughter.
I had a very puzzling look. What did I say to create such an uproar.
Actually I was quite pleased that I had every student's attention.

As I later learned the Thai language has a similar sounding word pronounced humm, meaning... penis.

O.K. now I know why they had a good laugh.

Think I'll add hump day and humpback to next weeks lesson plan.
Or how about humming a song

Anything to keep their attention


Did you notice the Viking Invasion of Sakon
It was quite a pleasant experience according to ScandAsia

My Sakon Nakhon Christmas Tale

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I think it was 2006 when I first watched the Sakon Christmas parade.
A convoy of trucks with lit stars.

The following year I decided to sneak into the parade and participate.
I bought almost a dozen bags of candy. I intended to throw the candy to the kids watching the parade.

We were in the parking lot near the parade gathering point.
When the policeman in the parade lead car turned on his emergency lights, signaling the start of the parade, we headed to our truck. We intended to merge into parade.

The policeman wouldn't stand for that.
He helped us carry the candy to his police vehicle.

That year I was throwing candy from the lead vehicle in the parade.
Some of my Thai friends watching the parade were astounded to see me up front of the parade.

I noted the following year that a number of parade participants were throwing candy into the crowd.


Pictures of the 2006 Ned's Christmas Party

I added 74 pictures of the Christmas party at Ned's Bar in 2006 into a private online album. If you participated and wish to see the photo's, please contact me for the link.

Chern Chim Hours

	Open	Close	Open	Close
Mon	10 AM			9 PM
Tues			7 PM	9 PM
Wed	10 AM	4:30 PM	6:30 PM	9 PM
Thur	10 AM	5:30 PM	7 PM	9 PM
Fri			7PM	9 PM
Sat	10 AM	12:30 PM	6 PM	9 PM
Sun	10 AM	3 PM	6 PM	9 PM

For additional Information call: 087-269151

Christmas Star Festival

สกลนคร

Tha Rae Christmas Star parade Dec 24, starts at sunset

It's been dubbed the "Star of David Festival," and promoted as such in all media. ISN Hot News
I'm not a theologian, but the way I see it they got it all wrong.

King David lived a thousand years before Christ.  The star was the insignia on shields of the time.
There is some discussion that the star was used even before King David's time in the occults and witchcraft.

Today the Star of David is associated with Judaism and is on the Israeli flag.

The star celebrated at Christmas time is the legendary star which guided the three wise men.
It is known as the Christmas Star, or Bethlehem Star, or Star of the East.

Most likely Christmas lights are a tradition adapted from the Jewish Festival of lights,Hanukkah, which was celebrated this year from Dec 1 through 9. 

Ho Hum Parade Season

Had two early morning appointments at my house, so I made no special effort to photograph the festivities around town.

I did have to go shopping at the electric store at 10 AM.
Of course I ran smack dab into the fireworks.

One guy saw me coming and made sure I'd have ringing in my ears for a while.
Seeing the youngest child high up in the air always makes me nervous. But I guess there were enough people below to catch the kids in case of a mishap.

 

At least this year they had an ambulance standing by

There'll be plenty of noise at the temple tonight

• Leaked report reveals Thai military responsible for protesters' deaths Guardian UK
• Nasa sells shuttle PCs without wiping secret data BBC
• World reacts to WikiLeaks Guardian UK
• Flooding in Australia ITN
• Weather causes Petrol Prices to soar ITN
• Tax man is getting desperate- German Sex Tax Reuters

Sakon Pattana Suska School Parade

They were lining up along the street to watch the parade

Mister "T" ain't going to America

Didn't think so from the start. Was more of a publicity stunt.
Hadn't been in the headlines for a while. It's safer doing a video link.
Thaksin canceles US trip  Thai-Asean News

More Chilly Nights Ahead

Chern Chim opens for business

Martin has announced he'll be opening his shop Friday at 466/1 Thanon Senthai Road.
Just a few doors from the Satawtree restaurant.

From Big C head south throught the intersection there. At the next intersection, turn left.

Brrr

The general consensus is that last night was the coldest night of the season (so far),
Official Thai Meteorological recorded the temperature at 14C (57).
Add to that windchill and you have feels like temperatures hovering around 12C (53F).
Expect similar, even slightly cooler temperatures over the next few nights.

A cold front which could be seen  in southernmost China over recent weeks has now entered Laos.
You can see it at weather.com.

This Week

10          Constitution Day
              Sakon Pattana Suska School Parade and Student activities day

11          Chinese Dragon Festival

 

Unusual weather in Antartica