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Reed in Asia

My new daily routine

A life changing trip

The next morning I was picked up as usual by the RTAF and taken to the dome. I started my work by running the various aircraft target profiles and making adjustments on the mirror console to try to correct for a realistic flightpath for the target aircraft. This is a very slow process and you can make one profile perfect, but then those settings are not good for another profile, so basically you have to use your own judgment and compromise and make adjustments that you think would be within tolerance for all of the profiles and being a perfectionist, I was constantly making minute adjustments. Just before lunch that day, the dome door opened and Dumrong came in accompanied by Banyat who shook my hand and asked me how things were going with the dome, I said that it was going okay, but that it just takes time to get everything calibrated within the allowed tolerances.

Banyat then asked me to go to lunch with them, so I shut the systems down, locked the dome and Banyat led me to his car. I thought like every other time that I had been taken to lunch that we would be going to the Cafe On again, so I was surprised when we drove past it, we carried on down the same road for about another kilometre and then we pulled into a large carpark and got out of the car and when I looked around this was a very large place and the name on the building was 'Jit Porshana Restaurant'. Once inside I could see that it was a very up-market place, there were dining tables and venues everywhere, some inside, some upstairs and some outside in garden patios and we sat at a table in one of the garden patios. Banyat handed me a menu and then asked me what I would like to eat, I just said that I would leave the choice of food up to him, he then asked me if I would like a beer and of course I said yes. The beer came quickly and we all had a drink, we were all smokers too, so that was obviously why we were seated at one of the patio venues. The meal when it arrived was very good, Banyat had obviously remembered that I had enjoyed the food at his house, so he had ordered almost the same as we had eaten that day, but with some extra side dishes for me to try. I asked him the Thai names for all the different dishes that we had eaten and I tried to remember them, I also made a mental note of the location of this restaurant, because I really liked the style of it and the food there was very good too.

After lunch, Banyat tried to pay for the meal but I wouldn't let him, I just said to him "This meal is on GQ" and I paid. He took me back to the dome after the meal and he was very interested in what I was doing and followed me around whilst I was making my adjustments to the system. Dumrong was very quiet that day, he stayed in the background all of the time and I just put it down to maybe a Thai act of respect, letting his senior work colleague/manager Banyat do all of the talking. They stayed at the dome all afternoon with me that day until it was time for my transport to arrive and then they said goodbye and we all drove away. Back at the hotel that day I didn't have my usual beer in the lounge, I went straight to my room, I had a quick shower and a change of clothes, then went downstairs to get the hotel transport into town. In Bangkok, I went straight to my new local 'the Tavvern in Patpong II' I sat at my usual place at the bar in there and Tony came over to chat for a while. I played a few games of darts with Phet and then I just sat there watching videos and listening to music on the juke box. Because my seat was close to, but on the opposite side of the bar to 'On' the cashier/bartender, she started talking a little more to me that night, she was asking me about my work and how long I would be staying in Thailand and we just chatted generally all night until it was time for me to go and get the transport back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, I went to the disco for my usual beer nightcap and I stayed there until I was almost falling asleep at the table, then I went to bed. Another day over!

'On my own now'

Asia33: Another day at the Dome

The Legless Blog