maggies_lens

I had the best day yesterday. My first RDO. Doesn't get too much better than this, tbh. Nothing fancy. Nothing material gained. Just a lot of plain good ol' happy, old school style.


It started like this


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I couldn't help but burst out laughing at hilarious juxtaposition at the library today :D

I was very sorry to say good bye to the city, I have to say. I enjoyed myself so greatly there. :) It's a beautiful place and the people are marvelous. There was this Yank on the train who was telling is that CM is a TERRIBLE place, full of shysters etc. That we'd HATE it. Um, no :)
We spent our last night at the Vegetarian place down the rd called Food fro Heaven, they are sister to the Elephant Nature Park. The food was AWESOME. In the morning we packed, then took the scooters back to their shop. Which sucked. Got back to the Soi, and checked out. There is this crazy little dog that lives across the Soi that we all made friends with. She's the dog of our laundry woman. Doggy came to say goodbye.
All 3 of us then went for a 2 hour traditional Thai massage. Holy SHIT the PAIN! But GOOD pain :D I felt loose as a goose afterwards. And anything I needed to distract myself from the pain I could hark back to seeing Craig in the bright pink loose pants they had given him to change into; you change into very loose light clothing for the massage.
Then off to the airport and back to BKK.
We're in a different hotel than the last one, but only one Soi over. I have my whole own room on a floor above C&M, which is actually very lonely after we have been living in each others pockets :P We had dinner and then went to Soi Cowboy, a famous Adults Only Soi here in BKK. Everything goes! And it did! We had drinks at a bar on the cnr and gave each other conniptions by being extremely risk-ay :D Our faces were HURTING from all the laughing :D I didn't bring my cam so I will go again tonight and try and get some shots :)


way, way, way too much fun :D Craig and I on our little scooter.

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I have found heaven, and it is not in some other dimension or whatever. It is located on a large property outside the city of Chiang Mai right here in Thailand and it is called the Elephant Nature Park. I will never forget my time there. Have you ever stepped into the gates of a place and known right away that every single thing there is RIGHT? Just... right? I never have. Not until yesterday morning. As soon as I stepped off that mini bus I knew I had found a place where I belonged like no where else I have ever felt I belonged. I met the most amazing people, and even tho we sometimes had trouble speaking with each other (they were mainly hill tribes), we got along like a house on fire. There were loads of vol's from all over the world, most speaking English so I made heaps of new friends. Each and every one of the elephants found here (barr the babies that were born there last year) has a sad tale. Some are not so bad as others (elephants and keepers fallen on extremely hard times and forced into doing things they don't want to until BOTH were saved by the park), some are so horrific that I want to track down the people who did these acts and beat them into bloody pulps. Yes, I know, not very Buddhist of me but sometimes you have a right to be FURIOUS. Girls, I bonded to an elephant. I know. I KNOW! WTF, you say? I kid you not. We were able to walk amoung the little herds and made friends with them. You can go right up and love on them all you want, as long as you follow the directions of the kwan/mahouts and use your common sense. All have scars and other signs of physical abuse. One of the worst is Mae Do. Her story is distressing as hell. I won't put it here in case it upsets you, but you can read it here:
http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/herd/medo.htm
Be aware it's distressing.
Her injuries are horrific but OMG she is sooooo beautiful. She has the most beautiful face you have ever seen on an elephant (well I think she does anyway!), and her spirit just shines. She's also very, very gentle, and loved me :) I went up to give her love and she full on leaned into me. She started up this deep belly rumble and closed her eyes. Her kwan was a little shocked! I gave her more love, the more I gave her and the more I love-talked her, the more she responded. Apparently, according to our guide, she is not normally that demonstrative apart from to her kwan! So, she LIKED me! I loved her to pieces, quite frankly. I intend to start sponsoring her as soon as I am home.She is the biggest love, in every sense of the word.
I'll pop the photos up in 2 lots as there was a bit. There is also video but that will have to wait til I am home and can install a software to splice it all together as there's too much in segments. If you want to know what I got up to, let me know and I'll post. Never quite sure what y'all will be interested in :D



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Wishing you all a merry, safe and fun Christmas wherevere you may happen to be in the world :-)
Rant - heheheheheheeee, sorry; horsey post next to make up for it, and I swear it's NOT Christmas related AT ALL ;-)
For those keeping score on the weather front, today was aprox 38C, with a sudden, short, short thunderstorm at about midday, now it's boiling hot again. Bring on the CHANGE!!!



( some more Christmassy cheer with Murray getting in on the act! )

That had to be THE most chilled out Strike Team EVER.
It's a looooong drive to Wilson's from here, and we stopped once at Tooradin Station to pick up one of the crews. Napped on the way up, we were in a touring bus so it was very comfy. Stayed in a VERY small towm called Yanakie just outside the Prom. The boys stayed in a donated holiday house and we girls (3 of us) got 2 cabins at the local caravan park. I quickly made friends with JJ from Clyde Brigade - we rapdily discovered we both love horses, animals of all kinds and fire-fighting :-D She volunteers time at the Pearcedale Wildlife Refuge. I didn't even know that place existed, they don't advertise. It's a re-hab for injured/sick wildlife that is in the re-release preperation stages OR housing for those that can not be returned to the wild due to ongoing disability etc. She's invited me down for a visit so guess what I'll be doing probably next week! Apparently at the moment they have a lot of sugar gliders and other gliders in. I've never seen one up close in real life so am looking forward to that very much indeed.
Anyway, we could see the fire-glow from the Prom. It was a bit scary. Next morning they got us up at 5am and fed us a breakfast fit for a KING. Toast, honey, fruit salad, banana's by the 100, egg and bacon sangers...we all packed in as much as our stomachs could handle as normally on a Strike Team it's VERY iffy re whether they will be able to get lunch to you. More often than not, they can't. Once we'd eaten so much we could eat any more we got our briefing. Turns out the majority of the fire was in totally inaccessiable areas. Not even the slip-ons (utes with tanks) could get to it. No choice but to let it burn. Luckily it's a slow moving front and staying fairly low so wildlife should be pretty safe. The rest of the fire was near tracks that can't handle the weight of the Tankers so we acted basically as quick-fills for the little slip-ons and as observers in conjunction with the air units. We had two 'planes, and 3 choppers, INCLUDING ELVIS!!!!!!!
We were sooooo bored at the Staging Area (like a RV point) that most of us went  back to sleep on the trucks, or read, or watched the cattle, or... well... I'll show you how bored I got in the next post. Then they moved us to to the air-field where the choppers landed to re-fuel etc. Elvis landed just as we got there and the crew invited us right up to check it out! That is a fairly rare and VERY prized opportunity for fire fighters!!! We often SEE them working, very very rare we get to go up and TOUCH. Elvis is an Erikkson Sky Crane Chopper, for those who don't know. He sucks up bugger loads of water from damns, pools, the ocean, whatever, and then flies over and DUMPS it. Those guys have saved more lives and properties than you could imagine. There's a bit of a fan-club going on with that 'chopper. :-D
We eneded up staying at the air-field for about 3 hours or so before we took turns being quick-fills. The road leading into the Prom is narrow and heavily forested. There are feral deer in there, and unfort one met a bit of an ikky fate when it leapt out in front of a Tanker a few days ago. The smoke was thick and it was a bit scary, and the wasps were all HIGHLY agitated so we had to be very careful of them. One DSE girl was stung/bitten and had a large allergic reaction and had to be ambulanced out. I hope she's ok. I had a great crew tho, Schmitty was the driver and pump operator, and Prowsey was the Team Leader. He's prob my fav Lt. As crew there was me and a newbie named Liam who cracked it that we didn't get to act the hero and fight the flames directly. Gawd. He should be grateful our first ST experiance was so cruisey!
After a while we moved to higher ground to let the choppers hit a slightly more agressive front, watching the wildlife move in a very lazy fashion. In fact hawks were having a great time  picking off rodents and lizards. The roo's and wallabies were a bit concerned about us but soon got over it and grazed happily. I even saw some emu's moving off in the distance.
When we were stood-down we went back to the staging area where we were again fed like absolute kings. The CWA and the Red Cross did such a great job, we all made sure to thank the ladies and the couple of guys for all they had done for us. One of the Elvis pilots (they are Canadian and American) was looking a little lost amoung us all so I sidled over and said 'how about them Canadians, eh? Funny looking 'choppers they build, eh!' doing my best impression of the accent of the New Foundlanders I have heard. He almost chocked on his chicken parma and then started laughing so hard he had tears. I guess I do it well or something ;-)
Slept most of the way home. My favourite crew in the WORLD was on shift back at the station so we all stood around chatting and exchanging war stories. I showed them my 'I'm bored' photo and they almost died. Al showed up shortly thereafter with Kody, who was beside himself with excitement as per normal. Dave Lillywhite took one look at Kody and was in love. Kody kept trying to run into the garage but I wouldn't let him. Then Dave, the cheeky bugger, told Kody 'Go get your Uncle Crossy!' just as the doors went down! Kody ran in before I could stop him and then the doors closed! Crossy didn't notice him until he was bounding around. Al, Dave and I couldn't stop laughing. Kody came leaping out when the door opened again, convinced the whole thing was a marvelous game and hyper excited he had the starring role. :-)
Got home, showed Al my photos, enjoying his reaction to my 'I'm bored' moment, had a loooong cool shower and dropped into bed like the DEAD.  I liiiiiike Strike Team. Next time I'll pack a book just in case tho...


Yeah that's me, with Elvis, beng a silly :-)

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So, what do you guys think of my first attempts at photography on a strike team? I couldn't bring my Fugi with me as it's just too big and bulky so I just had the little Canon which fits perfectly into my front pocket. I think under the circumstances (thick smoke, little zoon ability and interesting light) it did the job rather well!!!!

He didn't make it. His poor little body had just been through too much. He went downhill fast and was laid to rest today. I couldn't save him, folks. We found him too late. At least he spent his final days warm, full bellied and well cared for.