“Do you appreciate that you are an outstanding and total success at being you, right where you are now?” Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret.

27 November
I spent the weekend in Chachoengsao with my parents and grandmother. The weather was very cold at night – relatively speaking, of course. Lots of my cousins have gone down with heavy colds. Thais are very susceptible to changes in the weather. They like air conditioning so much that they don’t turn it off when it’s not needed. Instead, they prefer to huddle in blankets – in the rather odd belief that it makes their skin white!

Why they think that air conditioning will make their skin whiter is a mystery. I suppose they think that the cold temperatures in “farang” countries make the farangs white – rather than the lack of sun.

This obsession with white skin is difficult for a westerner to really understand and is very unfortunate for the Thais. I see so many people who have ruined their beautiful golden skin by plastering on powder and “whitening” lotions, creams etc. which probably contain all sorts of dangerous chemicals. The result is an unhealthy sallow colour which looks even worse when accompanied by the brownish orange hair dye which so many Thais liked to ruin their hair with.

Today I met up with June and Dook at Pratunam. It is an amazing place…so many clothes, shoes, suitcases etc at very cheap prices. June wanted to go to Starbucks.

“I want an ice Mocha with lots of Whipping Cream,” she announced.

In England, we usually have mocha coffee with whipped cream. But this is Thailand. People tend to be more active here.