|
Snap Shot: More SFX
(Special Effects)
 by Harry Flashman
A few weeks ago in this column I showed you how to
make a very cheap and effective soft focus, centre spot filter for the
princely sum of 1 baht. This week I thought we should experiment even more
and see what special effects we can come up with. Again, I am not in
favour of going out and purchasing expensive filter kits. After all, you
may hate the end result, and what do you do with the expensive accessories
then? By the way, the following experiments can be done with any camera,
even the ‘film in a box’ styles.
The first one is the Super Sunset Filter. This one will
give you that wonderfully warm “tropical sunset” which will make
people envious that they aren’t over here to enjoy such spectacular
endings to the day. To produce the warm glow, just take off your
sunglasses and place one side over the lens. It’s that simple! Just look
at the difference yourself, with and without the sunnies. The camera will
see it the same way.
The next one is the super-cheap polarizer. This time
you need a pair of polaroid type sunglasses. Holding the sunglasses in
front of you, slowly rotate the glasses while looking at reflections in
the water for example. When the reflections disappear, note the degree of
rotation and then hold the polaroid glasses over the lens at the same
angle. Once again, you will get a very similar result to the way your eye
sees the scene.
Soft romantic effects can be produced in many ways, and
I don’t mean chocolates and flowers! Here’s a few tried and true
methods, and super inexpensive as well. The first is to gently breathe on
the end of the lens just before you take the shot. Your warm breath will
impart a “mist” to produce a wonderfully misty portrait, or that early
morning mist look for landscapes. Remember that the “misting” only
lasts a few seconds, so make sure you have the camera pre-focussed and
ready to shoot. If you have control over the aperture, try around f4 as
well.
Here’s the next. Use a piece of stocking (pantyhose)
material. Stretch it over the lens and tie it on with a rubber band. Cut a
small hole in the middle and go ahead and shoot romantic portraits.
Here’s another way. Take an old Skylight 1A filter
(the UV filter you should have on the end of your lens - if you haven’t
got one, then get one!) and smear the outside of it with Vaseline
(petroleum jelly). Not a thick coating, but just a thin smear around the
outer area of the filter first, leaving the centre clear. Take a
photograph of your favourite lady. This is another centre-spot shot with
soft focus around the edges.
Now let’s continue with our tub of Vaseline. With a
little jelly on the tip of one finger, smear right across the filter with
parallel strokes and take another shot. Next step is to smear the Vaseline
in concentric circles and take another picture. These shots will also look
better if you are “backlighting” your subject (the sun is behind them)
and a little “flare” into the lens is good. The end result will be
like something you have seen in way-out fashion magazines.
There are also other ways of bending, refracting or
just generally fooling the camera’s lens system. This you do by holding
transparent materials in front of the lens when taking your photographs. I
suggest you get small pieces of glass or perspex (around 10 cm by 10 cm)
and use these as the final filter. You can even use semi-transparent
material like shower screen glass. The concept is just to produce a
“different” effect, one that you cannot see with your own eyes, but
the camera may be able to pick up. It is very difficult to predict the
outcomes in these situations, but you can be pleasantly amazed at some of
the results. The main idea is to give it a try!
Modern Medicine:Cardiac unit diet - fast weight loss?
by Dr Iain Corness, Consultant
The other day I noticed a friend of mine had dropped
some weight. “Fifteen kilos in two months,” was his proud reply. He
had done this by following a diet - and one that had obviously worked!
This is put forward as a seven-day diet, and although I am not always in
favour of ‘crash’ diets, this one does merit some study. It is
reputedly from Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital and is used in their cardiac
care unit for overweight patients to lose weight prior to surgery.
It states the first no-nos as being bread, alcohol,
soft drinks, fried food or oil. Agree totally.
After that there is a concoction called Fat-Burning
Soup (FBS) which you make up and keep in the fridge. You gobble FBS any
time you feel hungry and have as much as you want. You are also advised to
drink plenty of water - 6-8 glasses a day along with tea, coffee, skim
milk, unsweetened juice or cranberry juice.
The physiology of hunger works that when the stomach is
empty, messages are sent to the brain to send down food. Fill the belly
with non-fattening food and the hunger pangs will be less, but the weight
does not go on.
Here is the recipe for the Fat-Burning Soup:
4 cloves garlic
2 large cans crushed tomatoes (810gms)
2 large cans beef consomm้
1 packet vegetable packet soup
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch celery
2 cans French beans (or fresh)
2 green capsicum
1 kg carrots
10 cups water
Chop all veggies into small pieces. Boil rapidly for 10
minutes stirring well and then simmer until veggies are tender. Add water
if necessary to make a thinner soup.
Now the other downside to dieting is food boredom. A
week of FBS, water and cranberry juice will sap the resolve of most
overweight people, so what this diet does is allow you to add different
items on a daily basis. Here are the suggestions.
Day 1, any fruit except bananas. Eat only soup and
fruit today.
Day 2, all vegetables. Eat as much as you like of
fresh, raw or canned vegetables. Try to eat green leafy vegetables. Stay
away from dry beans, peas, and corn. Eat vegetables along with soup. At
dinner reward yourself with a jacket potato and butter.
Day 3, eat all the soup, fruit and veggies you want
today. Don’t have the jacket potato today. If you have not cheated you
should have lost approx 3 kg.
Day 4, bananas and skim milk. Eat at least 3 large
bananas and drink as much milk as you can today. Eat as much soup as you
want. Bananas are high in calories and carbohydrates, as is the milk but
you will need the potassium and carbohydrates today.
Day 5, beef and tomatoes. You may have 600 gm of beef
or chicken (no skin) and as many as 6 tomatoes. Eat soup at least once.
Day 6, beef and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content
of beef and veggies. You can even have 2-3 steaks (grilled) if you like
with leafy green vegetables. No baked potato. Be sure to eat soup at least
once.
Day 7, brown rice, vegetables, fruit juice. Be sure to
eat well and eat as much soup as you can.
By the end of day 7, if you have not cheated, you
should have lost 7 kg. The theory is good, but I caution against losing
too much, too soon.
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
After many years in Europe, we have come to Thailand to retire. My idea of
retiring is to have the time to do what we want to do, when we want to do it.
No longer do I have to catch the 0635 train. I do not have to wait till 1630
hours before leaving the office. That was the plan. I now find I have an even
bigger problem. My wife has decided that she is the saviour of the animals on
the streets, and our home is now a sort of zoo. I could put up with this if it
didn’t mean that we have to be awake by 0635 every morning to feed the
puppies, or make sure we are home by 1630 to make sure the rabbit is in its
hutch. The whole idea of a relaxed time in retirement has now gone. I have
tried talking to her about this, but it falls on deaf ears, or else she has to
run off because the pigeons are laying. What do I do?
Patrick
Dear Pat (the dog?),
You certainly do have a problem, Petal. And chocolates and champagne aren’t
going to fix these very quickly. I presume you have been married a long time,
so this behaviour is something new. Did your wife leave children behind in your
own country and this is perhaps the ‘empty nest’ syndrome? Whatever the
reason, you are going to have to get a time that you can have a sensible
heart-to-heart with her (not with Hillary). Perhaps in between the pigeons and
the rabbits could be a good time. You are going to have to state your wishes
and needs very strongly. This will not be fixed overnight. Perhaps if the
animals escaped it might make it easier. They were on the streets before, so it
should be nothing new. More suitable pets might also be an idea. Tortoises only
need food once a week I believe. If this doesn’t work and she insists on
looking after her pets, you might have to find a couple of your own. Buffaloes
might be a good start, some of them have very interesting families! Best of
luck.
Dear Hillary,
Normally it seems to be that wives complain about their husbands drinking, but
this time it is the other way round. My wife has started drinking every day at
home, not just when we go out and she is becoming a problem with her moods and
her excuses why she drinks, usually blaming me or the kids. I have tried
talking to her about this, but she’ll have none of it. I don’t know what to
do any more. Do you?
Al
Dear Al,
You, or rather your wife, has a large problem. Try contacting Alcoholics
Anonymous in your area and be guided by them. This is such a serious problem
that Hillary will refrain from her usual flippant self. Best of luck, Al.
Dear Hillary ,
Once a week I go out with a group of Thai people from work and we go to a Thai
restaurant for a meal. There is about seven or eight and they order quite a few
dishes and when the dishes go down on the table, they all just tuck in with
their eating spoons. In my world this is not very hygienic, but I don’t know
what to do to let them know I am worried about getting diseases. Don’t they
use serving spoons?
Amanda
Dear Amanda,
No, Petal, they do not use serving spoons! What you are trying to do is to
change Thai ways in one evening a week at a local restaurant. I’m sorry, but
you won’t change them. Neither the restaurant, nor your work-mates. Actually
there is not much chance of disease, but if you are really worried, you can
always get in first and ladle out what you want, before the others have time to
dip their spoons into it. They may think this is strange behaviour, but since
you are a farang they will ignore it.
Dear Hillary,
I am an 18-year-old girl from America living here in Thailand and often use
motorcycle taxis to go about. As I am a visitor, I do not want to upset the
local people and want to know if I should ride sideways like the Thai girls, or
leg over like we do in the US? My mother is old fashioned and says I
shouldn’t be on motorcycles at all and that they are too dangerous. What do
you think?
Motorbike Minnie
Dear Minnie,
With all due respects to Mum, who is trying to make sure her daughter comes to
no harm, the most important factor is that the rider knows what he is doing -
not how the pillion passenger sits. Be prepared to tell the rider to slow down
“Cha-Cha” and if he does not then get the rider to stop and get off. Thai
women will ride sidesaddle if they have tight or short skirts, it is not really
anything to do with etiquette or custom. Have a look at the girls in jeans -
they will sit astride too.
A Slice of Thai History:The Dutch in Thailand
Part Two: Cementing ties 1612-1636
by Duncan steam
The VOC trading post in Ayutthaya prospered under
Pieter Both as he skilfully manipulated commerce between Japan and
Thailand, and Dutch interests in Indonesia. This was despite the opening
of factories in Pattani (June 1612) and Ayutthaya (August) by the English
East India Company. As the VOC posts in Japan and Ayutthaya were guarded
by local military forces, the Dutch only needed troops to protect their
Indonesian possessions, primarily the island of Ambon, which they had
seized from the Portuguese in 1605.
Problems arose with the Thai authorities when the Dutch
began using the Ayutthaya station more as a storage facility than a
trading post. Dutch ships would merely tie up, load or unload and then set
sail again. This meant the Dutch traders conducted less and less business
with local Thais, thereby reducing the amount of revenue flowing into the
local economy. However, on 12 June 1617, a treaty was signed between
Ayutthaya and the VOC, under the auspices of governor-general Laurens
Reaal, granting the Dutch definite terms for the purchase of animal hides.
In 1619, the new VOC governor, Jan Pieterszoon Coen,
was of the opinion that the Ayutthaya post could be closed down and
relocated to the newly-created station in Jakarta (then known as Batavia)
on the Indonesian island of Java.
Coen’s decision was opposed by local director
Cornelius Van Nijenrode, as well as King Songtham. The former was able to
convince Coen that it was in the VOC’s best interests to at least
maintain a presence in the Thai capital, especially as their rivals, the
English East India Company continued to maintain their factories in
Ayutthaya and Pattani.
Relations between the Dutch and Thais grew stronger,
and between Thailand and Portugal weaker, following an incident in 1624 in
which the Portuguese took a Dutch ship as a prize near Ayutthaya, but King
Songtham compelled them to restore the captured vessel. When the
Portuguese sank a Thai vessel in 1628, Songtham, confident in the support
of the Dutch, declared war on Portugal.
The conflict was barely underway when, in December
1628, the 38-year-old Songtham died and was succeeded by his 15-year-old
son, Chetthathirat. The country suffered as various factions within the
ruling elite lobbied for power. Chetthathirat was supported by Yamada
Namagasa, the Japanese mercenary who had commanded Songtham’s bodyguard.
However, Prasatthong, the powerful minister for
military affairs, intrigued against the young Chetthathirat and was
implacably opposed to Namagasa. The latter was appointed governor of
Nakhon Si Thammarat.
In August 1629, Prasatthong had Chetthathirat removed
and replaced by his younger brother Athittayawong. Just one month later,
Prasatthong usurped the throne and immediately set about consolidating his
power by offering generous concessions to the VOC and making peace with
the Portuguese.
Prasatthong’s rule was marked by unrest. In 1630,
Nakhon Si Thammarat rebelled and was soon joined by the vassal state of
Songhkla. Governor Namagasa seemed unable to quell the rebellion and
Prasatthong turned his vengeance against the Japanese. In 1632, the
monarch ordered the massacre and expulsion of all Japanese traders and
settlers in Ayutthaya. The survivors fled to Cambodia. Yamada Namagasa was
poisoned in Nakhon Si Thammarat. The English East India Company reacted by
closing down its factory in the city.
Then, between 1634 and 1636, Ayutthaya conducted two
ill-fated expeditions against the rebel vassal state of Pattani. The VOC
sent ships to help the Thais and as a reward, Prasatthong gave them a
piece of land on the Chao Phrya River, approximately two kilometres south
of Ayutthaya.
Social Commentary by Khai Khem: Let’s get real about the so-called double pricing system
I don’t condone cheats and con artists who swindle
innocent victims out of their hard-earned cash. And maybe in a perfect
world, everyone would truly be created equal and prices for goods and
services would be uniform throughout the globe. Meanwhile, until the
roadmap to Utopia has been published, most of us will have to make do with
what we have. Yes, there are some people who get bargains while others pay
more; and yes, the two-tiered pricing system in Thailand is a fact in some
cases.
This controversy has been raging for more years than I
can count. In fact, the whole topic of discussion has become what I would
call a sociological ‘tick’. Lots of countries have social ‘ticks’.
France is frantic about her national language being polluted with English
phrases. People in America have been known to walk up to total strangers
in the street and slap cigarettes out of the mouths of smokers while
lecturing them on the dangers lung cancer.
The Dutch are “clean freaks” and the English will
bang on your door at 4:00 in the morning to complain about your barking
dog. Aussies love to “take the Mickey” out of the Yanks and tease them
into a snit just for laughs. Argentineans consume more sugar per person
per year than any other nation and are usually toothless by the time they
are in their 40’s. Malaysia’s Bumiputra policy - the equivalent of the
USA’s affirmative action - irks non-Malays who feel they are victims of
this protective and discriminatory government policy and are at a
disadvantage in business dealings.
As the many letters to the editor in this publication
tell us, Thailand is not the only nation which offers different prices for
different target groups. To cut to the chase - pricing is a business
decision and not based on malicious racism. Like death and taxes, price
fluctuation is inescapable. Unlike death, (and maybe taxes) bargaining can
often take the pain out of shopping.
Many foreigners who come here are extremely annoyed
when they are asked to pay a higher price for certain things than Thai
citizens. The discrepancy of entrance fees into public parks and tourist
attractions are a matter of policy, usually clearly posted and rarely
negotiable. But of course it doesn’t stop there.
Items in small shops often fluctuate in price,
depending on who is buying. If ‘Madame’ shops in local outdoor markets
it is quite possible that she may pay more for the same item than her next
door neighbor who is Thai and knows the ropes. If ‘Madame’ is lucky
enough to have a maid or a Thai friend who knows how to bargain and will
do the shopping for her, the total bill for the same purchases might be
less. If a Western man goes shopping with his Thai girlfriend or wife, and
lets her do the talking, she may get a better price than he would on his
own.
However, these little tips are rather narrow, and do
not address the overall picture. In real life, everywhere in the world, it
really comes down to how we shop and how much effort we are willing to put
into by getting the most for our money. In some instances, if we bargain
hard enough we can get a better deal. Oftentimes, we simply have to bite
the bullet and pay the price or go without. Go without? You bet.
That money is in YOUR pocket. When you part with it,
you have made a personal choice. If you make the choice to pay the price
and find out later someone else got it cheaper, stop whining and learn the
lesson. If you are vexed that the entrance fee to an attraction is
two-tiered, walk away and find something else to do. If you cannot make a
satisfactory bargain during a potential purchase, try another shop, or
two, or three.
Try to keep a healthy perspective on this subject. Thai
shopkeepers are too busy trying to make a living to make you their sole,
personal victim. “Whatever the market will bear” is an age-old
business practice and was not specifically conceived to make Western
visitors to Thailand miserable.
Any foreigners who think that being Thai in Thailand
automatically gives them access to the “good life” through slightly
cheaper prices should take a good look around at our highly visible
poverty. A quick reality check will dispel that fantasy.
For the record, I have true sympathy for the visitor
who has been outrageously overcharged and truly ripped off. This is
inexcusable and those who have been victimized by unscrupulous locals
should file formal complaints so the perpetrators can be prosecuted to the
full extent of the law.
The government and many legitimate organizations are
taking tough stances on this issue and are increasingly more vigilant in
weeding out these bad apples. Laws, strategies and interactive cooperation
from the government and private business sectors are serious about
tackling this problem.
Most Thais warmly greet visitors to their kingdom and
sincerely want their stay here to be a safe and pleasurable experience. We
welcome our international guests with open arms and hope they will return.
Sometimes it’s the small things that get on people’s nerves. Let’s
try to meet each other half way and be a little more tolerant of some of
our inherent differences.
Woman's World:
Is false beautiful?
by Lesley Warner
My daughter Emma was dressing to go to a wedding last weekend
and bemoaning the state of her injured hand because she could no longer
have her nails done without attracting attention to it. Since then I have
found myself looking at hands and beauticians. There appears to be a
number of styles and materials used for false nails and many home kits.
 Starting with very short nails.
There are several very good reasons to have false
nails; for example, changes due to injury, or from excessive dieting, thin
nails, extremely fragile nails or frequent nail biting. I spoke to one
beautician who said that the nail care services are one of the fastest
growing areas within the beauty industry. So if your youngsters are
looking for a new career it is definitely a direction to guide them to.
 Choosing
your length.
Artificial nails do not appear expensive when you first
look into having them fitted. The price range appears to be from 30-60
pounds in the UK, obviously depending on where you go and what area of the
country you live in. What some ladies do not realize is that the aftercare
works out to be extremely expensive. Every two weeks the nails need to be
re-filled due to natural nail growth and this can cost anything from 20
pounds up. Unscrupulous beauty parlours can demand high prices knowing
that the client has little choice and must have the fill ins. So if you
compare the cost to that of a normal manicure for approximately 10 pounds
there is a huge difference.
It is worth remembering that many of the beauticians
you trust your hands to have only trained for a few hours before entering
the workplace. In many countries, however, there is move towards more
formalized training for nail technicians, including the introduction of
unit standards and the completion of a specified number of hours of
training before they can begin working. Some people might ask, what can go
wrong, it’s only nails? Believe me, I watched a documentary on TV last
night called ‘Makeovers from Hell,’ there was a bald lady, caused by a
simple perm, a young woman with no skin on her arm from a home wax kit, a
thirteen year old boy with a cauliflower ear from a piercing plus many
others, all from supposedly every day simple procedures ... it certainly
made me think.
It is well to remember that although acrylic nails have
the advantage of being very strong, natural looking and durable, the
disadvantage is the thinning of the natural nail plate with constant wear.
This damage is supposedly not permanent and will grow out as the natural
nail plate grows, but personally I find the whole idea rather repulsive.
Therefore I did not have the procedure performed on myself, I simply
observed it being done. There are various different types of false nails
and they are constantly being upgraded. The method I am describing is one
of many used by different beauticians.
Acrylic is a general term as products differ in their
chemical make-up. I was told the ideal temperature to prevent the product
setting at the wrong speed is 27 C, so if you get it done in Pattaya make
sure they have the air con set correctly. Apparently if the room
temperature is too cold the product may set too slowly or even
crystallize, if it is too warm, the product can set too fast and not stick
properly.
|
