April 13th 2009 will be remembered by me as one of the strangest days yet here in Thailand. I think the pictures pretty much tell the story; pictures of the last moments of a running skirmish between Red-shirt protesters and the Thai Army – while at the same time over on Silom Road - Thais were celebrating Songkran with characteristic enthusiasm.

Come with me on a journey – a journey of pain – a pain worse than bamboo slivers under your fingernails.

You see that picture to the left? That’s my laundry basket. I know, it’s not a fancy once – but it came with the serviced apartment I currently live in. But it’s really a mutant killer laundry basket. Really it is. I put my laundry in it… and then when I get my laundry back – anything that’s not on hangers – is folded and placed back inside the basket.

So then I have to reach inside the basket and take out folded shirts, shorts, jeans, whatever. And that’s when it happens. That’s when the  mutant killer attack laundry basket strikes! You see the next picture below?

Take a good look at the notches cut into the side of the basket – somebody's idea of an artistic motif maybe? Nope – a really insidious man-trap. I reach in to grab my laundry – my fingers travel down the inside of the basket – and then wham! – one of those little notches catches my fingernail and I’m done. A perfect fit – finger in the notch, small barb of the notch under my fingernail. It’s all over.