Flowers of Heaven

I continue to be  charmed by the Thai version of the Catholic mass.  It just seems to be able to cut out all the excesses we have come to expect in America and get back to the basics.  Weekly mass in an open-air church is so pleasant.  The church is fairly small and frequently needs extra seating, which is easily remedied by people pulling up plastic chairs outside while still feeling like they're in church.  The music is led by an enthusiastic group of Thais with a couple of guitars and an electric piano.  Ash Wednesday mass was at 6:30 p.m., which meant many people came straight from work.  At least half of the musicians were wearing the Ford uniform that all workers wear here, including management, so I am very familiar with it.  It was nice to see Ford so well-represented.

I mentioned before how the handshake of peace is replaced by the "wai" - hands pressed together under one's nose while bowing in the other person's direction.  Not only does this feel quite respectful, but it allows you to connect with a lot more people just by making eye contact and bowing.  And Holy Water is sprinkled on the congregation at every mass, no matter the season.  The altar servers start at a very early age, and are so enthusiastic.  One little boy in particular just sings his little heart out up on the altar - so cute.

The multinationalities of the lectors is also interesting - in addition to Thais who read English well, we have had lectors from England, Scotland, Germany, France, Australia, India and America.  This past weekend a gentleman got up for announcements and spoke at length in German to his fellow countrymen.  From what I could gather, a bishop from Germany was coming to say mass in Pattaya this week, and he was inviting people to attend.  I always enjoy the English pronunciations by the Thai pastor, too, which can be pretty creative.  But I give him credit for struggling through week after week for the sake of the farangs.

Switching topics, the gardens at our condo are just beautiful and so well-tended.  Every morning the gardeners are out pruning, planting, watering, etc.  Beautiful pink flowers encircle the swimming area, and some amazing trees add their vibrancy.  One tree that was bare a few weeks ago is now covered with fern-like leaves and bright orange flowers - I believe this is a Royal Pinciana or  Flamboyant tree.  Another tree at one end of the pool has the most amazingly-fragrant white flowers; it's like a reward each time you swim to that side.  It reminds me a bit of a gardenia, but I think it's actually a Plumeria or Frangiapani tree. I noticed an unusual tree between the pool and the beach, with the fruit growing right on the trunk.  I thought the fruit looked like mangoes.  But I learned that mangoes actually hang from branches, somewhat like apples.  If my research is correct, this is, in fact, a papaya tree.

smells like heaven!

this one reminds me of a giant poinsettia

Kitchen funnies:  We have bought ice cream from the grocery store a few times, and it always looks like this when we open it:

It's the most voluptuous ice cream we've ever seen - makes us giggle every time.




Also, I recently realized that my little condo kitchen has a stove top from the Spinal Tap collection - it goes to eleven!








Do you think I've got too much time on my hands?






P.S. My interpretation of "at lay the stolen goods?"  (See previous post.)  It occurred to me that someone might have used Google Translate for something like "for putting hot items."  Hot items = stolen goods.  That's just got to be it, doesn't it?  Can somebody give me an "amen?"