Unusual customs

[sometimewoodworker]

As may be apparent from my profile though I used to live near London I am now in northeast Thailand. Here in deepest Issan which is the poorest area in Thailand there are

Issan covers 167,718 km2(64,756 sq mi) making it about half the size of Germanyand roughly the size of England and Wales.

There are some local customs that I find unusual. In our village Kut Dok Kham (บ้านกุดดอกคำ) one is that when someone dies once the body is brought back to the village you can not do any work that makes noise until the cremation takes place. that is usually somewhere between 1 and 3 days later, so far there have been 3 deaths this year which given the size of the village is not too usual the population is only a few hundred

To ensure that I don’t work SWMBO has encouraged my shop staff to lay down tools

 

[StilwellDesigns]

Nice, every workshop needs a cat as standard equipment.

 

[Fitzroy]

If you ever need to know where you pipes run under a floor get a cat. Their ability to detect a floor surface that is even just fractionally warmer is amazing. Looking at your moggies lying preferentially on the insulation board.

Russia (where I lived for 4 years) was less weird customs and more a completely different set wives tales. I was told off for whistling in the office as I was whistling the companies money out the window; I was accosted in the market place by an old lady and reprimanded having a full beard as it would result in me not having any children; After going for run one evening (in about zero degC) I got back to the building I was staying at rang the door bell and stood for 5mins waiting, finally my colleague opened the door and apologised for the delay but he'd been in the shower and had wet hair so couldn't open the door as the cold air would make him sick. yes I was waiting covered in sweat and getting darn cold as he was blow drying his hair. That is just a handful!

 

[sometimewoodworker]

If you ever need to know where you pipes run under a floor get a cat. Their ability to detect a floor surface that is even just fractionally warmer is amazing. Looking at your moggies lying preferentially on the insulation board.

and the shop temperature is about 67% & 28C at the moment so we definitely need fans all day and probably the AC will be needed at night for the next 10 month. The AC needs to be a little lower than comfort as the shop helpers want to spend the night keeping myself and SWMBO warm


Our oldest who is now restricted to being a house cat, when brought in from the garden where the temperature was usually well over 30C, would immediately lie full length on the tiles to shed some of the excess heat

 

[Garden Shed Projects]

My wife is from Ukraine and I have been critisised for whistling in the house, as Fitsroy, as we will have no money and similar she won't drink cold water as it will give you a sore throat but we have to keep the rum in the freezer which makes sense. Also you cannot pass anything through a doorway with out stepping on the threshold as it's bad look.
She has absorbed a number of ours. The one that makes me smile is saluting Magpies, she has nearly crashed the car in the past to ensure that he gets a salute

 

[Spectric]

Nice, every workshop needs a cat as standard equipment.

How safe are they, is Thailand not like China where if it walks, flies, crawls, swims or wiggles it is on the menu !

 

[paulrbarnard]

No odd customs here beyond having to look busy or something will be found to make you busy. This is my current working environment. Fortunately I’m working on the computer so it’s quite sociable

 

[dzj]

How safe are they, is Thailand not like China where if it walks, flies, crawls, swims or wiggles it is on the menu !

How prevelent is this, though?
Is it possibly a stereotype from times past when hunger was rampant in China?
The Chinese I see around here are quite happy eating the same critters that people in the West eat.

Among older folks here, for many years there was a belief that Italians ate cats.
It stemmed from the days of WWII, 1943 to be exact.
When Italy capitulated, the Germans rounded up some of their former allies and sent
them to a labour camp in the north of Serbia. They were worked hard and fed misserably,
and the poor fellas, in desperation, were seen having a feline dinner (or 2).
The locals saw this and it was hard to persuade them that this was not typical Italian cuisine.
A bit of a tangent. Sorry.

 

[Ozi]

What beautiful animals! I particularly admire your ginger / silver tabby

 

[sometimewoodworker]

How safe are they, is Thailand not like China where if it walks, flies, crawls, swims or wiggles it is on the menu !

Hear (in Thailand) cats have never been a menu item (occasionally we hear about someone eating them) though until a few years ago in some places dogs eaten but that has now been made illegal though probably not more than 10 years ago.

Basically if it moves and is in the fields it’s probably likely to be someone’s meal or snack, though SWMBO says that Chinese and Vietnamese eat more strange food than Thai’s do. Also it very much depends on the income of the person as “field food” is free and as the government OAP is £15 per month, free is a big incentive

 

[Spectric]

I remember someone saying that brown field rat is good, nothing like our sewer rats.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

I remember someone saying that brown field rat is good, nothing like our sewer rats.

Field and farm rat is quite easy to find for the locals and is also easy to see when you are driving, it’s more common to see barbecued chicken and duck on roads stands but barbecued rat is also a thing. I am told that it tastes OK however I would not eat it knowingly, but then neither would I eat horse

 

[Henniep]

I remember someone saying that brown field rat is good, nothing like our sewer rats.

Sugar cane rats are a popular diet amoung the locals in Africa and, by all accounts, tasty

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Lidl used to sell kangaroo meat - it was excellent in pasties.
My mother went to H.K. in the mid '90s and told me they roasted duck's head heads while you were waiting - the pavements were black where the ducks were beheaded. You chose your duck and they despatched it for you - the heads were eaten held by the beaks, like a lollipop.
If you've travelled on the continent or eaten ready meals here in the past you've probably eaten horse without knowing. Dutch and Belgian chips - frites - were thought the best in the world ................ primarily because they were fried in horse fat. One reason, apparently, that horse doesn't figure in UK and north Europe's dietary history is thought to be the prevalence of horses in Celtic and Norse mythology.

 

[MF1000]

The Chinese eat anything from a pig ….love trotters & heads etc. One ‘delicacy‘ is ‘fat end’ - sliced bowel & anus which apparently has a strong pork flavour

 

[TheUnicorn]

I knew someone once who for a while would only eat what he caught (meat wise) so mostly rabbit, which he said was ok (personally never a fan from my limited experience), but that squirrel was delicious.

 

[Homeless Squirrel]

and the shop temperature is about 67% & 28C at the moment so we definitely need fans all day and probably the AC will be needed at night for the next 10 month. The AC needs to be a little lower than comfort as the shop helpers want to spend the night keeping myself and SWMBO warm
View attachment 153132View attachment 153133

Our oldest who is now restricted to being a house cat, when brought in from the garden where the temperature was usually well over 30C, would immediately lie full length on the tiles to shed some of the excess heat

My friend lives over there hes exwoodwork trade as made Furniture he designed

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I knew someone once who for a while would only eat what he caught (meat wise) so mostly rabbit, which he said was ok (personally never a fan from my limited experience), but that squirrel was delicious.

Rabbit is very good health wise - very low cholesterol. Like kangaroo, it's excellent in pasties.

 

[Homeless Squirrel]

How prevelent is this, though?
Is it possibly a stereotype from times past when hunger was rampant in China?
The Chinese I see around here are quite happy eating the same critters that people in the West eat.

Among older folks here, for many years there was a belief that Italians ate cats.
It stemmed from the days of WWII, 1943 to be exact.
When Italy capitulated, the Germans rounded up some of their former allies and sent
them to a labour camp in the north of Serbia. They were worked hard and fed misserably,
and the poor fellas, in desperation, were seen having a feline dinner (or 2).
The locals saw this and it was hard to persuade them that this was not typical Italian cuisine.
A bit of a tangent. Sorry.

Chinese esp down in east london near docks ate dogs! years back not sure if moved on? but don't seem to have so many go missing these days so guess have.
Used to have many Chinese restauranty/take away's in a very small area and there was a plod raid one time that turned up 'much' as word had got round that they was taking peoples pets.

Mind few years back was in Billingsgate fish market and someone had turned up with a crate or so of green shore crab(pesky things that chew your bait when fishing)The Chinese bought lot up so they carried on bring them in.

 

[dzj]

I can't say I went as far as the Chinese, , but I do enjoy pork belly cracklings, shank and trotters in jelly,
lard on freshly baked bread with a dash of paprika and onions...particularly if the meat is from local, indigenous breeds of pig.
Very costly nowadays.