hi everybody,



Yes its been a while since I emailed everyone but things have been abit up in the air and I wanted to email when i knew what time I was going back to england so now I do.



 I will touch down on 2nd Mahy 6.15pm. So get the bunting out.



SKIP TO THE END OF THIS MAIL TO SEE MY PLANS FOR MAY



Well its beeen kinda odd lately I had everything sorted, then it all went tits up.



March

I finished handing in my grades, and there was mass confusion, we have just started to put our grades on the internet, if your interested



 http://reg.rmutk.ac.th



So some of the students names weren't on the class lists, some names were there that shouldn't be there, aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhh#$@&*?! after lots of headaches and pages crashing about my ears it was done march 12th. When I went to another graduation Party on the 28th March, which is a party to celebrate the grades being handed out, and the end of the last academic year for the fourth years, I found out some students still didn't know their grades two weeks later???????????



So I spent the first half of the evening giving out grades and the second half of the night poring whiskey from a bottle of green tea. I had put the whiskey in the green tea bottle because it  isn't done to be seen drinking, at least early on in the night. Went on to a bar which has a live hip hop cover band  and a small room for techno in the back, after many Kamikazies later I staggered home  managing not to lose my phone.



At this point my life was going well, I had booked my ticket for the 25th April happy and safe in the knowledge that I would get the rest of  my money for my evening classes about 10,000 baht (130 pounds).  And I had about 10,000 baht saved plus I could dip into the money in my barclays account if needed for spending money in when I got to england.



Oh how little did I know, I was happily working away on some stuff for next term when the head of the Japanese department (her name is EAW) informed me that the accountant had ballsed up the tax I have been paying, for the last three years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oops big time, Now I was liable to pay 10,000 baht in back taxes. All the foreign teachers had to do this, eaw told me she felt really bad 'cos she had to go round and tell everybody this ,I said "I think I feel I little worse 'cos I have to put my hand in my pocket to the tune of 10,000 baht, frankly I'd rather be the one giving this news out than the one receiving it." nuff said



So the next morning my boss head of the english department (whose name is PEAW) informed me that we would get our evening class money by the end of March for sure. Then the next day she said some papers needed to be signed, then someone who should have signed the papers was out of town. The next day she said she didn't know when the money would come and she was upset about it too as she hadn't been paid either. So  effectively 20,000+ baht which I thought was available to me suddenly was not, and I still had to buy my ticket from my next wage packet.



I went to the travel agency and the ticket I had booked in Feb. still wasn't confirmed so I probably wouldn't be able to get that ticket at that price, so I had to book a new ticket and the cheapest available was 36,000 baht, not the 30,000 I thought I was going to pay. As I was informed of this I whistled a happy tune and started to look around the travel agency for something to smash. I managed to stay calm and  I said she should have told me earlier by text, thank you good bye , I know my travel agent pretty well and she is normally good at this stuff so I phoned her later said sorry and I had being having problems with money lately so this is why I was upset.



I have always been of the mind that money is not important in life and it doesn't make you happy, well. I still believe this, but now i have to admit it does give you opportunities. Anyway money is a means to an ends its never an ends in itself. I was repeating this as I sat at home wondering whether I was going to be able to go home this year. And thinking about how not having money had got me so angry and upset. If didn't think money was so important I shouldn't get so upset about losing it.



March/April    Redemption Song



(there is a great version of redemption song on you tube by ziggy marley and the Chieftons) I was  listening to this all the time till youtube was banned.)



As the money was flowing out of my pockets my mate Meo's  26 year old nephew was in town and we saw each other at the pool abit and he's a good bloke we talked about bkk bullshit things and said we'd have to go out on the town. So we did, Bed club  + a few other places I got home at 5.30 am after going to a late night spot can't really remember that much, but I do remember we had a good laugh, drinking and trying to chat up girls, my sorrows were well and truly drowned.



So after this I settled down to make a plan about not spending too much money. I decided I would finally finish the short movie I have been trying to make for the last 2 and a half years off and on, (alot more off than on).



So after the last bit of filming and tireless editing and watching windows Movie maker freeze my footage for no good reason thus forcing me to recut the earlier part of the motorbike journey arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhh! I was done.



World premier of "Rush Minute"



You can see this at



www.youtube.com/dominickinbangkok



its in three  parts and runs for about 11/12 minutes,



Basically me getting up late and having to race through the streets of bangkok. Even if I do say so myself, I do think it is the best short movie ever made by anyone ever in this universe, or in any other conceivable universe. Although I'm not happy with the music fade between "pulsedriver" and "don't laugh" but I only have very basic volume levels to mix with ( in  windows movie maker) I made three fades and this is the least worst.



So I sat back and waited for the offers from Hollywood. Unfortunately none came, the only comment I got was on a previous video in which I'd spelt the Philippines wrong on the over laying titles.



But I have to say I'm happy, its not perfect, but its done and making a short film is something I've wanted to do all m life, My grandmother Oma  has always said it doesn't matter what type of art you create just creating something this is special, and even if it only raises one smile it will have been worth all your effort.



So there I was watching my creation play out on youtube happy, not spending much money just playing around on my lap top, and I got a message in my account. It was a quick note from i guy I sat next to on the sky train once, as I had known him for 5 minutes I decided to inform him I had made the greatest short movie of all time and if he wanted to watch it he should go to my account on you tube.



So it turns out his 6 year old daughter Ploy was between two schools and he needed someone to teach her extra lessons. After meeting the family over dinner. I was off I'm teaching her now, she is a very nice kid. Her father is english and mother thai and she has a really good level of both languages.



She is fun to teach, but she does have a habit of trying to distract me from teaching buy showing me around the house and introducing me to the dogs and the fish. She also asks about 300 questions per minute. Teaching is cool and the money has helped me out no end.



So here we are April I can no longer play about on youtube as its is now banned because someone uploaded a picture of one of the royal posters being defaced. I understand why they banned the site, royalty is a big political football here if they didn't ban it they would have received criticism from  right  wing activists for not protecting the honor of the king, now it is banned they can be criticised for restricting freedom of speech. I have to say I do agree with the freedom of speech argument more but I'm not surprised its banned. It will raise their  popularity so this is why they've done it.





I will be back in england in 3 weeks, vague plans are as follows





first week



stay with rach and matt see my nephew for the first time, hook up with vik and neil and ella either before, after or during this week.



second week



head over to james n' jackies for euroivsion party on the 12 th



third week



up to boston to see family and freinds there and celebrate my dads birthday on the 20th



fourth week



back to london say my fair wells



things i also intend to do along the way,



go to the Dogs with dev and anyone else who fancies going



go to the tate modern



meet my mate john windeatte and his long term girlfriend who I've never met even though they've been going out for 2 years +



hook up with alan n whoever fancies a city lunch, some where maybe thai food so I can show off by ordering in thai.



Take a train to rayners lane and meet up with dave n' co,



See chris n' kate and try NOT  get drunk and piss on their TV



meet up with my cousin dan who I haven't seen in ages



have the nicest chips in Lincolnshire at TATEs in boston with Sacha and Roise



AS ever all plans are fluid if you are in town give me an email, I might have a number sorted out for May but not sure, will email it if I have one.



Well congratulations if you managed to read all of the mail no worries if you just skipped to the end



I hope all is well



peace, love and snack jacks to you all



from dom