Saturday, February 2
Ireland v Italy (9pm)
England v Wales (11.30pm)
Sunday, February 3
Scotland v France (10pm).
Saturday, February 9
Wales v Scotland (9pm)
France v Ireland (11pm)
Sunday, February 10
Italy v England (9.30pm).
Saturday, February 23
Wales v Italy (10pm)
Ireland v Scotland (midnight)
France v England (3am Sunday morning).
Saturday, March 8
Ireland v Wales (8.15pm)
Scotland v England (10.15pm)
Sunday, March 9
France v Italy (10pm).
The Chiang Mai Expats Club is two years old and the members celebrated in great style on Saturday.
The day began with the usual Saturday morning meeting at the Royal Orchid Hotel. members were given a quick reminder of the Club's history b founder, Jim Cox before being entertained to a show of music and song by the talented Scott Jones.
In the evening the action moved to Tuskers and the club, wined, dined and partied to celebrate their birthday. Special mentio should be made of the generous donation of travel vouchers by club sponsor, Boong of BTS Travel for the lucky draw
It was a great evening for the Club which has gone from strength to strength in the two years since it's inception. The Club is not only an invaluable source of help and advice for people moving to Chiang Mai but also a lively social network of people from all walks of life and home countries across the globe.
You can find more information about the CEC on their website
Thank you Ally for these wonderful pictures
At last it’s finished – a week behind schedule but the new deck extension is completed and has attracted some great reaction.
The new deck was designed by Chiang Mai’s leading architect, our friend Khun Dang and his team at May 37. Their strikingly original concept combines the traditional and modern to create a roofed garden atrium and a great new seating area.
We have chosen comfortable cane furniture to create a space where people can relax and enjoy a drink, snacks or finger food from our latest menu items.
We also plan to use the space as a stage for live music which will be starting in the next couple of months. Keep an eye on the Tuskers website for details.
On Saturday the much awaited Thai Visa BBQ was held at Tuskers and it lived up to and exceeded all expectations. People came from far and wide to meet the real people behind the avatars, not just regulars from the Chiang Mai forum but others travelled from
The packed house enjoyed the generosity of over 4 hours of free beer courtesy of the world’s number one expatriate internet forum as well enjoying a fantastic BBQ. Buckwheat’s extraordinary ribs and beans were as good as their legendary reputation! We were also grateful for the unexpected but welcome arrival of free pizzas from the Duke’s restaurant and some late night burgers and kebabs from Woody’s.
The party ran on into late into the night and after formal proceedings finished spawned a dozen late night gatherings in favoured waterhole throughout the city. There is no doubt that Thai Visa caused a big boost in the takings of bars all over town.
A great night was had by all and Tuskers would like to thank Thai Visa and for such a great night and for their wonderful support. We would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped in many different ways and all those who came and made it such a huge success.
The monstrous carbuncle at the front of Tuskers has finally gone. We have now acquired the lease to the awful tine shack that covered half of our road frontage and are now busy developing an extension to the deck.
The new area will give us another 25 square meters of trading space and is being developed in the same style as the rest of the deck only it will be covered to give some extra shelter from both sun and rain. The roof will be striking and original and has been designed by our good friend Khun Dang, one of Chiang Mai’s leading architects.
The new extension will be raised slightly above the current deck level and will double as a stage allowing us to begin featuring live music.
When not in use as a stage the area will feature comfortable bamboo furniture to allow customers to relax and enjoy drinks and light bites.
As we go to press the structural work and deck is almost complete. It will take a week to complete the roofing work and a further week to add power, lighting and landscaping. The project will be complete the Thai Visa BBQ on August 18th.
We hope you will like the design and enjoy our new facilities.
Anyone with an email account will at some stage have received a scam email. You know the kind of thing – ‘I work at a bank where a chap has died leaving 50 million US in cash and I need your help’ or ‘you have won the lottery yada, yada , yada’. These letters are known as 419 scams or Advance Fee Fraud’. Most people just delete them but some unfortunate and misguided souls fall for these offers and end up losing lots of money, their jobs, family and even their lives.
The scammers however have met their match. I recently happened across a whole community of internet users dedicated to combating these fraudsters and engaging in the highly amusing sport of scambaiting. The baiter use the greed of the scammers against them often resulting in hilarious results. One expert baiter (I deliberately refrain from using the term master!) has succeeded in actually getting scammers to send him money as well as persuading others to handwriting out an entire Harry Potter book, drawing A-Z maps by hand, carving a perfect replica of a Commodore 664 keyboard and even persuading one scammer to get a tattoo!
You can find out more about scambaiting and read many of the stories on www.419eater.com – hours of entertainment at the expense of criminals!
Race 1 – Saturday June 23rd
Race 2 – Sunday June 24th
Race 3 – Tuesday June 26th
Race 4 – Wednesday June 27th
Race 5 – Friday June 29th
Race 6 – Saturday June 30th
Race 7 – Sunday July 1st
Race 8 - Tuesday July 3rd
Race 9 – Wednesday July 4th
Come and enjoy!
The remaining team members slowly gathered at the ground to watch the Finals.
Plate Final – Yarrambat beat the Sugar Shack Postels. We had not really come across either of these two Aussie teams during the week. Never mind there is always next year.
Shield Final – Our neighbours at the ground the U.N Irish Pub had sufficiently recovered from their marathon 8 bottles of vodka fine session earlier in the week to beat the Tokyo Wombats in an excellent match to win the second division.
The Cup Final – What a game! This was a legendary final that had everything demanded of a top class sporting occasion. It was contested by the Gloucester Gipsies, with whom we had become very good friends over the week and the Cricketeers, a fine group of cricketers from
The
At the beginning the Gipsies were ahead of the run rate and looked to be odds on but some very fine bowling tied them up in the middle overs. It seemed that they had too much to do in the last over in the last over but overthrows on ball number 4 gave them the tiniest chink of light.
Ten required for the win off the last 2 balls. The fifth ball was despatched to the boundary for four and the ground was hushed for the final delivery. A maximum required to win the whole championship.
The bowler put it on the spot but Dominic, who has played cricket at the highest level, was up to the task. As cool as you like he smashed the ball over mid wicket to clear the boundary rope by inches.
Pandemonium broke out in the Gipsie ranks and the crowd rose to applaud such a nailbiting victory. A feast of sporting excellence and drama by two fine teams.
The Spoon Final – Further drama was to come in our own comp the Spoon Final. The Maythais who were undefeated all week were odds on to beat our spiritual brothers and the party champions of the tournament the IOS Malakas. The Malakas fuelled by alcohol and held together with sticking plaster and cortizone following a drunken session of WWF wrestling, bowled surprisingly well to restrict the Maythais to 52.
However fine bowling by the Maythais stopped the Malakas from keeping up with the required rate and the dismissal of Max the Beast seemed to have consigned them to the runner up spot.
In a mirror of the Final 10 runs were required off the last 2 deliveries. Fortunately the crease was occupied by Marty who has been in fine form all week and who drinks and bats with the same gutsy intensity. He smashed ball 5 for an enormous six and the ground readied in anticipation of another monumental finish. Unfortunately the final delivery was a wide giving the Malakas the four they required and a deserved win.
Some great cricket on the Final day as befitting what was the most extraordinary tournament and all involved wore great smiles as we left the Gymkhana Club for the final time to prepare for the rites of the dinner and awards ceremony.
The Beavers were much depleted at the dinner Millers and Big Phil having also flown out so it was left to Begley, Jonesy, the 2 Irish Boys and
Unsurprisingly the Beavers didn’t trouble the judges at the award ceremony although there was always a faint possibility that the Voldermort incident may give us a sniff at Turd of the Tournament. However it was not to be. After the awards we took a quick trip down the clubhouse at Tuskers and then to the Sugarshack for the final knockings.
The Sa Pas were on great form and out in force. No question that they are kindred spirits with the Beavers. The Armadillos were also hitting it hard and fining people at random with their killer cocktail. However they were astonished that knocking back two in a row had no noticeable effect on Jonesy – these Beavers Girls are made of stern stuff. The Malakas were of course present and celebrating their win in their usual style by imbibing enormous amounts of any alcoholic beverage that came their way. The Beavers sent them some celebratory Sambucas which were rapidly dispatched.
Gradually as the night wore on people slipped away but we lingered not wanting to let such a monumental week slip away. In the end it was left to the best and worst of the tournament (at least in a cricketing sense) to see this great tournament week to bed. It is perhaps the message of the tournament that it is not how good you are on the pitch that counts but how you relate to your fellow competitors and all the others who are involved in the Chiang Mai Sixes. The Gipsies and Beavers united in a love of cricket and camaraderie toasting the week just past and clinging desperately to all that remained before we parted for the year.
As dawn finally began peaking over the horizon we downed the last drop of gin and headed for the gates. The Gipsies headed for bed just a few hours before their flights and we headed in search of an early breakfast feeling saddened that such a great week had come to a close. Only 356 days to go until next year!
Sunday 1st April: a significant milestone in the history of the Stuffed Beavers Cricket Club, as they took to the international stage for the first time. In temperatures soaring into the mid thirties, hydration was clearly going to be an important factor – to this end we were fortunate to have the services of Belle, a student at the university of Chiang Mai who kept us supplied in San Miguel as the start time of 4.30 approached. We were also pleased to welcome two new members to the SBCC fold: Chris Billingsley, a 26 year old all rounder from Belfast, and John Dunn, a 66 year old seasoned veteran of the Chiang Mai sixes.The Stuffed Beavers will be competing next week in an international cricket tournament. Yes the Beavers are going global and representing Thailand (odd given that we have no Thai nationals!) in the 20th Chiang Mai Sixes Tournament.
You are of course welcome to attend but for those that are unable to make the trip you will be delighted to discover that you can watch all the action live as it happens on the internet. See Gurners steam in, watch Millers smack boundaries, admire Fordy flying through the air to take miraculous catches, watch Begley collapse trying to save booundarys. Don't miss any of the action.
If we are sober enough at the end of the days play we shall compose a few lines iand publish it on the Tuskers blog and you can post your comments on the days play. http://tuskersbar.blogspot.com/ While you are on the blog please click on some of the google ads which earns me a commisssion!!!!
You can watch the action here http://www.chiangmaisixes.com/sixes_internet_video.html
or listen here http://www.chiangmaisixes.com/sixes_internet_radio.html
The Beavers schedule is as follows (all times for Bristish Summer Time and they are approximate)
Sunday 1st April - Beavers v IOS Malakas 10.30 am
Monday 2nd April Beavers v Wombats 10.30 am
Tuesday 3rd April Beavers v Gymkhana Cavaliers 10.50 am
Wednesday 4th April Beavers v Maythais 10.30 am
Thursday 5th April Beavers drinking only
Friday 6th April Beavers v Bangko Postels 5.30 am (You'll have to get up early for that one
In the unlikely event that we make the final we will be playing in the last game of the tournament at 10.45 am on Saturday 7th April but since the hcore of our side will be flying home at that time our chances will be pretty slim!
So join the Beavers in their quest for immortality and pass this email on the everyone you know
At the moment the menu is small and easily manageable, the idea being that we can serve decent fresh food without having to throw too much stuff away. I have been helped enormously by Graeme, Rachel’s cousin who just happens to be one of
Graeme has been sending me good recipes for idiots and although there is a gulf in cooking ability comparable to Ronaldinho and a fat Sunday kick about player, under his guidance we have immeasurably improved some of our dishes.
The menu at the moment consists of:
Indonesian Beef Satay
Hummus and Tzatziki served with warm pitta bread and a salad garnish
The Thai Burger – fresh mince mixed with Thai herbs and spices
Chicken Tikka Burger served in pitta bread and mint yogurt
A Green Salad
Peri Peri Chicken
BBQ Chicken
Honey Soy Chicken – all 3 of which are available in quarter, half and whole sizes
And the latest addition Tuskers ribs
Crocodile satay - in lime and ginger – yes crocodile which I feel is a very under used meat.
Creamy crab and herb dip
Giant river prawns
There is much else besides but the key is to build slowly so we can maintain the quality.
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More Loy Krathong pics here
The Tuskers project is proceeding at a distinctly un-Thai pace- ie record time.
We got a number of builders to quote for the job forcing them to move quickly if they wanted the job. Out of four two firms were very good and quite close together i=on price so in the end it came down to personal preference. Khun Ek and Khun Pad are immensely likeable guys who have been highly recommended and seem to know their onions, although it can be quite tricky to tell as they can’t speak any English and our Thai is still in the ‘what do you like to eat?’ stage. Anyway they look to be good lads and have agreed to a pretty punitive contract in terms of late delivery so they have been appointed builders in chief.
Within hours they have got men on site and there is plenty of destruction afoot The old bar has had the sledgehammer treatment and the upstairs of Building A has had the cheap, nasty partitions removed. Alas lurking behind the wall are all kinds of nasties, in this case termites, not ideal residents in a wooden structure! The little buggers have eaten away at the structural timbers, quite badly in some places. I’m no expert but when a piece of 4x2 crumbles in your hand it can’t be terribly good! Luckily Ek and Pad seem unperturbed by this development. They inform me the timber framing around the partitions can be used to replace the eaten wood and a quick visit from the local termite terminator should fix the pest situation. As crises go it’s a tiddler.
The good news is that when the bamboo matting was removed it revealed some lovely exposed wooden plank that will be a great feature in the pub. I love wood and once this stuff is waxed and varnished it should look the nuts.
More pics here
So there we sat - deal done, the brothel bought, surrounded by tons of miscellaneous crap what the bloody hell to we do now?
Tidy up a bit for a start but deep down there was the nagging feeling that something more fundamental was required.
The site consists of two buildings which for ease of reference we shall hereby refer to as buildings A and B, and a substantial outside space some of which is roofed. Building A consists of a concrete ground floor and a traditional timber first floor. Currently downstairs consists of two bedrooms both en suite (that sounds far more refined than it is in reality) two grotty toilet/showers and a small vile kitchen. Upstairs has been partitioned with cheap wall into 4 bedrooms (two ensuite). All in fairly rank condition.
Building B has four foul bedrooms on the ground floor and three on the first. All are in various states of disrepair.
The outside area consists of a roofed pool room (that’s 8 ball not swimming) with quite a nice table and a covered bar area with some tables and chairs. The rest of it is space a couple of cars and an area that the previous owner used as a rubbish tip. Delightful!
The basic plan is to deck over the entire outside, put professional kitchen facilities in the downstairs of Building A and convert the first floor into a dining/drinking area. The downstairs of building B will be converted into a private dining/meeting room, ladies loos and two offices, while upstairs remains three bedrooms for staff or myself when I am unable to stagger home.
It’s all very well in theory but I am confused as to how to build the deck and new roof. I want a traditional Lanna (northern Thai) style look but know nothing about how to achieve it.
Luckily Rachel, a short while ago, met one of Chiang Mai’s leading architects and when we approached him he was very amenable and offered to help. Khun Deng, came to the site with us and instantly understood what we were looking for. Knowing time was short (because we need to get open for high season) and money tight (because it always is) Deng and his team produced a design in record time. A big, big thank you to them all and as you can see from the impressions in look pretty damned good.
