My computer hosts two operating systems, one from Apple and one from Microsoft; and they are both more than adequate at what they designed to do. I also have many useful applications, all of which work without crashing and serve my purposes.

And this is to be expected. If you are in the business of providing software, then you better make sure it works well or else you will not be in business for long (although Microsoft managed to get away with it with Vista).

If you have an aversion to sails, you can still get yourself wet at the windsurfing club by paddling a stand-up paddle board (SUP). To promote the sport, the club held a relay race yesterday and the only way I could avoid being one of the competitors was to offer to take some photos.

There were boards on the beach….

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…and twelve potential paddlers expressing various levels of reluctance. Once everyone was together, Craig started to explain the rules which were clearly being made up as he went along.

My wife left me yesterday. Again. Off to her home town to investigate some land with which to further her dream of self-sufficiency.

As we left the condo she told the condo manager I was not allowed to bring any women back to our unit; but if I wanted to bring ladyboys that was OK. I’ll try anything twice once.

It is an increasingly worrying aspect of our relationship that, each time she goes away, I seem to miss her more. I used to be extremely comfortable on my own, and looked forward to a chance for a few days with no for company other than the occasional ladyboy cats. Yesterday I found myself looking forward to her return as soon as I put her on the bus for the airport. Disconcerting.

My computer of choice for the last two and a half years has been a Mac Pro; eighteen kilos of aluminium and fancy bits, whisper quiet, reliable and fast enough to handle everything I throw at it. Even though it was already a year old when I bought it, it feels like it will go on for ever and I had no immediate need to change it.

But then a very nice chap from Bangkok had the misfortune to move into a smaller condo, have a baby, and decide he had no space for his top of the line, nine month old Mac Pro. He put it up for sale and eventually reduced the price so it was less than half he paid for it. Just too good to pass up….

One hundred baht is a reasonable price for a haircut. Normally I pay one hundred baht less than that because she who must be obeyed wields the scissors and, with only the occasional mistake and limited blood loss, does a reasonable job on my scruffy head. But when she decides I am to get a professional cut, one hundred baht might just cover the tip. The problem is that she drags me to a salon in Central plaza, and it doesn’t get any more expensive than that.

One enterprising stallholder was selling his Thai desserts with extra protein at no additional charge.

As anyone married to a Buddhist will tell you, today is Asarnha Bucha Day. Or, as expats call it, another no beer day.

So we made our usual pilgrimage (by car, followed by a very brief and not at all arduous walk) to the nearby Buddha hill. The sun had just set when we arrived, which made for a pleasantly blue sky.

Photokina is the world’s largest photographic trade show, and the event is traditionally a time when manufacturers announce new models.

In the run-up to the event last September, everyone was waiting for perhaps a minor upgrade to the DSLRs churned out by Canon and Nikon. Or maybe a new selection of bright and sparkly point and shoot cameras with pet face recognition and shit image quality from seventeen different manufacturers. In other words, nothing of any note was expected.

And then, just before the show, Fuji announced this:

It was called the Fuji X100 and photographers went nuts. Voted the star of show at Photokina and subject to massive pre-ordering, the Fuji was an instant hit. And if you can’t understand why, then you probably don’t know about cameras like this:

This is the Leica M9 and it lurks on the edge of the consumer camera market. A throwback rangefinder design with a full frame sensor and a Leica lens which together produce stellar images. The only problem is that you either have to be insanely rich, or insane, to fork out the $10,000 or so to own one. But it costs nothing to desire one and most photographers would murder their pets for a chance to shoot a Leica M9 for a while (I have informed my cats that this is the case. They now avoid me). So when Fuji announced something that looked similar, but cost “only” $1,200; then the excitement was understandable.

When the X100 was announced, I remarked: “Once this is released next year, I am going to have to make sure that my credit card and this camera are never in the same room at the same time.” Almost inevitably, we were, and so now I have one. After a month or so of ownership I feel ready to record my thoughts.