It's the rainy season, about which I am not complaining.

Pithy comments: Rain is good. Water is life. 

We shall not speak of the humidity...

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You have to pay for those moon cake calories, boy!!!

You can't get something for nothing. Eat high-calorie moon cakes often, and you will get fat. The crime: Gluttony. The punishment: Turning over the elliptical machine.

Admittedly, a high risk of injury due to overdoing it...

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สนามกีฬาเฉลิมพระเกียรติ 80 พรรษา / 80th Birthday Stadium

How many maps have been stored in this poor little brain of mine? Always room for more, I suppose, depending on where I am. As of now, it still feels very good to learn a new street or a new area of town. My most recent discovery was the สนามกีฬาเฉลิมพระเกียรติ 80 พรรษา / 80th Birthday Stadium.

It was built for the 2007 Southeast Asian Games, and it still sees a lot of use. We went over there about 14:00 to buy tickets for the volleyball match. Too bad the tickets had been sold out since 10:00 hours. Oh, well. We greatly enjoyed watching it on TV from the comfort of home.

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More and more moon cakes, possibly until I burst...

It is the season of moon cakes. S&P has more than 15 different flavors. I can report that Purple Sweet Potato & Lotus Seeds is good. Orange Chocolate Lava is good.

There is no question regarding the quality of S&P moon cakes. This fat bastard approves.

However, there is a fatal flaw on several of these moon cakes. That is, there is no Chinese character on the cake. There is only the branding in English--S&P. Unacceptable.

Although the S&P moon cakes are delicious, I shall not purchase any moon cake lacking a lucky Chinese character. A glutton I may well be, but a picky one, I guess you can fairly say.

Purple Sweet Potato & Lotus Seeds

Orange Chocolate Lava

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Happy Chuseok to all my Mid-Autumn Festival-connected peeps...

Hmm... This hasn't happened before. I was somehow thinking that Chuseok / 추석 / 秋夕 was happening on the 20230831 full moon. I was a full month ahead of reality. Chuseok is actually happening on the 20230929 full moon. 

I will say that the moon cake I purchased at Lotus was excellent. It was a fruit and nut version that made me think somewhat of fruit cake. 

Error!!! Error!!! But corrected now. And best of all, we can eat moon cakes often during the coming month. All different kinds!!!

中秋節快樂

즐거운 秋夕 보내세요

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2023 August Blue Moon Super Moon

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After the storm...

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Special treat: Giant Bug Village.

I admit to a bit of hyperbole. It's actually just Bug Village and not Giant Bug Village. But still... Many of these bugs are large enough and scary enough to give you a heart attack if you were to suddenly encounter them in the wrong situation. An interesting exhibit. I might go back for a closer look on a weekday, when the mall is less busy.

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Lots of nice cloud days these days...

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แม่น้ำมูล / Mun River at ท่าช้าง / Tha Chang: The final, final stop.

ท่าช้าง / Tha Chang is the "elephant pier," where a herd of thirsty elephants used to come down to drink water from แม่น้ำมูล / the Mun River. So I'm told.

For me, Tha Chang represents the final, final stop. You die. There's a funeral ceremony. A cremation. Some fireworks. And then, a couple of weeks later, the family heads over to Tha Chang. There's a going away ceremony. Then you all get on a boat. You go out onto the Mun River. At the right time and place, you pour your family member's post-cremation bone fragments into the water, and they sink down to the bottom.

Rest in peace, my departed-too-early brother. (Not my actual brother, but a member of the brother/sister-hood, for sure.)

Back home, where life in this world goes on--for now.

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