The kind that operates quite out of sight.

Here I am with my cameraman Rodrigo, en route to the Thailand Association of the Blind (TAB) offices. We were producing a short movie to capture some footage of how to print a braille menu for the wine dinner happening Wednesday February 16th at Bed Supperclub (A Blind Affair). The concept of the dinner was to offer guests a blind fold experience during 1 course so they could enhance their other senses and appreciate – in our opinion – the dish and the accompanying wine. Part of the proceeds of the dinner will be distributed to the TAB.

Arriving at the gate of the building of the TAB, we are greeted by Khun Karn who liaises with Bed Supperclub for the dinner. She tells us "You are lucky, our president is in today, you can interview him". I acknowledge quite positively since I wanted to get first hand answers about the concerns the TAB are facing so that we could put them forward and create awareness.

We meet in a pared-down office on the 3rd floor. A man, probably in his early fifties, is seated behind a desk, he is visually impaired. We are being introduced in Thai, he gives me his card: K. Monthian Buntan. I barely notice the Senator title under his name. Actually I don't really pay attention to his card, as I was thinking to myself I did not bring any of mine, not to mention how he could have read the content of it.

Right then, as my camera operator is getting ready to shoot, I have my questions in front of me, we start chatting in English. K. Monthian has a perfect american accent. OK. I feel that some of my prejudice about blind people are about to fall. The following are excerpts taken from my notes and not the from the footage. Complete transcripts will come in a later stage.

Q: What is the mission of the association?
A: Simply put, we work "to change how people view blind people". The association works in promoting acceptance and respect towards blindness. We want society to stop looking at blind people in a peculiar way. We fight against prejudice, the idea that blindness is darkness and seclusion. Thailand is a charity based society, but we would like to promote positive action. Blind people have rights. In order to benefits those rights they need to register. We work so that as many blind Thais can have access to those rights. Recently we have succeeded in getting a law voted that allows free education through college for blind students.

Q: What is the population of visually impaired people in Thailand?
A: We do not have an accurate census of the population incapacitated by blindness. But according to some figures and estimation we can say there are about 600,000 people visually impaired. That is 1% of the total population.

Q: Given the data that you have, can you estimate the ratio of those living in rural areas versus urban areas?
A: Well, we can say that 20% live in urban areas and have access to rights, knowledge, work opportunities and assistance. Whereas, 80% live in the country side, in majority in total seclusion, because of shyness or shame they dare not get outside their house (or kitchen) to seek assistance or recognition. They are literally invisible.

Q: What are the challenges of being visually impaired in a country like Thailand?
A: There are still a lot to do with accessibility issues: city planning, architecture and of course the prejudice from the rest of the population itself. There needs to be harder campaigns promoting universal accessibility and issues such as corruption are giving hurdles in improving the footpaths and streets to make them blind-friendly. In terms of access to media, we need to get more done in the fields of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). We need to get more Speech Synthesizers in Thai available out there. There needs to be more blindness friendly products. More generally, blind people are not given the right opportunity to prove to the rest of society that they can contribute in doing something worthy. We need to eliminate discrimination.

Q: I am still living with the prejudice that blind people can only get jobs as lottery sellers or pianists. Do you have examples of blind people working and integrated in society?
A: Of course, blind people can be employed or self-employed. Some examples are: Radio DJs, lawyers, teachers, farmers, massage therapists, office secretaries and tele-marketers. Myself, I am a member of the senate, whilst taking care of the association.

Q: How many visually impaired people can read braille?
A: There are only 10% of the population that can read braille [same ratio as in the USA]. That makes an illiterate ratio of 90% which means there are tremendous efforts to be made in improving the education.

(…)

As I finish the interview, with a strange feeling of mind cleansing, I cordially invite the senator to the wine dinner. To which he accepts joyfully not without mentioning he is a wine amateur. We discuss briefly about training blind people to become sommelier, why not? He then remembers that Siam Winery provided the wines for an APEC summit not so long ago.

We then part ways and I continue filming the process of how to do the menu of Wednesday February 16th dinner in braille. Khun Karn the liaison lady shows me and my cameraman to a typing machine used to print braille characters on clear stickers. The operator, a blind lady, reads the menu from her laptop where a speech synthesizers translates the text in english to her ears (the speech is quite quick as in fast forwarding dialogues). She then types the keys simultaneously on a 6-key keyboard (there are 6 characters on a braille letter grid).

As we hop into a taxi, leaving the TAB building, there are 3 blind people in front of the car, holding hands walking one behind another in the narrow street. The taxi driver, mockingly, says to me "See that? How many eyes are there?" To which I reply: "There are 6 arms, 6 legs and 3 hearts". As his smirk went off his face, he engaged the gear and we slowly passed them.

During dinner, there will be two blind massage therapists, providing after dinner massages for guests.

One day we realized so much has changed: new staff, different décor… it became routine.

Then, looking into our core values: creativity, the need to excel and surprise our guests and the passion to deliver a unique experience, we put all our efforts in getting the right things done.

Bed Supperclub's first Chef, Dan Ivarie, previously at the "Jesters" at the Peninsula is now back, overviewing the kitchen, designing the menus, in discussion with the management about what today's guests want to see in their plates.

And here we are, with a new theme, "The Invisible World"… a true modern Thai theme (a contemporary interpretation of Thai classical dance) that gives a unique sense of space and time to the audience. New uniforms and… well let the picture talk for itself.

We started off with the idea to get an interesting visual. In this case it is a photograph of a girl sitting on a floating market type boat, suspended from the ceiling, literally hovering above the center stage in the restaurant of Bed Supperclub. She is surrounded by dining guests, both seated on chairs and lounging/eating in bed.

To get the attention of the readers and to entice them to read the copy (for an explanation of the photograph), we chose to put only one word, and an uncommon word that usually sell food and beverages: "Democracy".

The idea stemmed from the key feature that one feels while experiencing a dinner in bed and that is one of freedom. The copy ends with the sentence: : "After all, this is a free country".

The copywriters now admit that this structure of interaction between headline, visual and copy is actually a textbook one. It came from the groundbreaking advertisement DDB did for the VW Beetle called "Lemon".

In the "Lemon" ad, one could see a spotless photograph of a Beetle, under which the odd word "Lemon" would hover above the 3 column copy. The text would explain that the car depicted above was in fact a defected one. The copy ends like this: "We pluck the lemons, so you get the plums".

So blame it on the MAD MEN series which has revived the Lemon Advert to the copywriters mind? Why not?

Another way to see an explanation of how the beetle got into their minds, but this one a bit stretched, is to think that the 8th year anniversary party's main installation was also a Beetle – the same as in "Herbie Goes Bananas" in which a little Mexican boy nicknames Herbie "Ocho" (eight in Spanish).

What do you know?

Do you pay, like me, a very special attention to what makes a great atmosphere in a restaurant? Seeking the reaction of your companion to see if they are comfortable with the seat or the table you've been given – one is much more lenient when alone or with the company of large group of friends than with the loved one, on a tête-à-tête.

Do you often realized the level of stress one has to go though when booking at a new restaurant? Getting the right table, getting the proper welcome and anticipating all the rest: lighting (for me, with my thinning hair I hate the vertical spot light above my head), smell (what's the first smell you get in the lobby or entering the restaurant? Will it be toilet smell or oven baked pizza?) and sound level (will I have to shout to talk to my companion or will it be so dead silent that I will have to chew silently?)… And of course, most importantly, for those living in hot countries, the temperature of the aircon.

In temperate climates such as France for example, the problem is not so important as in hot countries. For, usually the restaurants are well heated during winter time, except of course for those who get the dreadful experience to sit by the door and feel the biting breeze seize their necks or their legs everytime the door opens.

In Thailand, personally, I don't go back to restaurants where the temperature is too cold. Cold temperature is the most discomfortable annoyance to me. I have no tolerance to very noisy restaurant, specially if the sound comes from the speaker rather than the general buzz of people eating and talking. I abhorre restaurants with strange scents although bad smell never really lingers, it's just very localized. And I am allergic to cold temperature in dining rooms. This curse of modern indoor restaurants is usually linked with the very bad placement of the aircon, which isn't just about freezing temperature but also the fact that the cold air is literally blown directly at you, as if it was intentionallly engineered to make sure you will get a stiff neck and the most unpleasant experience possible. We're in Thailand, a hot country, people dress accordingly to the climate, they're not prepared for the freezing air in some restaurants here. Make no mistake, I am talking about restaurants only, not clubs or bars where too cold is preferable to too hot. But that's another debate.

In a restaurant, the right temperature should be what is generally accepted as "room temperature" which is 22 degrees celsius. For sound levels here is a quick and easy rating:

Quiet (under 60 decibels)

Conversation is easy (60-70 decibels)

Must speak with raised voice (71-80 decibels)

Extremely loud (over 80 decibels)

For the sake of comparison, 50 decibels is equivalent to the sound of a moderate rain shower; 60 decibels represents normal conversation; 70 decibels is akin to the noise made by a vacuum cleaner; and noise levels higher than 80 decibels (conjure up city traffic) are potentially hazardous if listened to for a sustained period.

The brain registers every 10-decibel increase as a doubling of loudness. Thus, a restaurant that measures 80 decibels sounds twice as noisy as a place that measures 70 decibels.

News of the sudden and shocking death of punk svengali Malcolm McLaren came days after we decided to make London the theme for this issue of Bed Sheets. So it seemed fitting that we pay tribute to the brilliant impresario, performer and tireless self-publicist in the ‘Art’ section of the magazine.
We also put the spotlight on Billie Ray Martin’s latest project ‘The Opiates’ and our ‘New Kid on the Block’ is London based Ian Batten. Tee Lapan’s London column takes in Rihanna on tour, talks about Madonna’s new movie and turns us on to two fantastic new designers.
Closer to home we check out some new designs from Bangkok based fashion house Headquarter and our cover stars, Thaitanium talk about the state of hip hop in Thailand and their brand new album.

Finally here’s a London quote from Britney Spears….
‘ ‘I would rather start out somewhere small, like London or England.’’

See ya ! PAUL -BEE- HAMPSHIRE

Twitter: beefuton
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Email : bee@bedsupperclub.com

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It seems like this show lighten my heart  every time I see it, last night a diver came out of no where with his fin and wet suit diving around Bed Supperclub. I thought it was quite amusing and well, it does remind me of myself when I go diving! Most important of all, you'll get to see Junior, our hunk co-worker dance to the classic song, 'Staying Alive.'

There are a few people that would stay in my mind for the longest time even when I'm residing in another country or even another planet! I have until 30th April to continue my unforgettable experiences here and it's my intention to do so. I do hope that I would still be one of the bloggers even when I depart from Bed Supperclub as the Head of Events, PR, & Marketing.

The Chief

Justin Dunne, General Manager at Bed Supperclub is the person I'm referring to if you have heard me mention, 'My boss…..' He occasionally reminds me and everyone at work that he's not the easiest man to work with but I happen to think that no one is easy to work with, in fact, Justin has this quality that any General Manager should have, a heart and human relations skills.

Mr. DJ

He thinks that I'm a 'blonde,' and I think he happens to be bald, bold, and very right. If there's one thing I will miss about Bed Supperclub, it's Mr. Federic Alexander Jungo better known as Fred Jungo. He's fair, funny, very sarcastic, and as I always tell him, 'You're so kuan-teen.' That's a compliment by the way and oh, you don't want to mention Farah Fawcett or request a song from him, that's a no-no

The Captain

I blogged about him once but I just can not not blog about him again! Sakol or Nueng used to call me, 'press lady,' because I came from an online magazine. Now we have our own words and code that even both of us don't understand! News flash is that Sabina and Sakol orders the most name cards at Bed Supperclub, the factory now sends our name cards in the same box to reduce the carbon footprint. P.S. This is not a joke, it's true!

The Bed World Babe

How can I ever forget this detailed oriented, obsessive, compulsive, somewhat confusing yet very friendly at the same time. Cherry is my Bed World Bitch as I'm her Bed Bitch as we call it, she reminds me of myself a lot of times and I do the same for her. Age ain't nothing but a number with us. Two Aquarius girls still looking and searching for love, life, and the meaning of it all, hmmm… I wonder how we're going to be when we're separated.

Point is, I love Bed, I love the long island here, the music, the party, the French Fries, the valet guys, the bartenders, the floor staff. I love everything here and I know that once I discover my passion and purpose in life, I'll definitely be back .. in bed.

Konnichiwa check out our Japan issue! And what a lead up getting it together !!!!! Flying out to Tokyo and hanging out with Japanese rock stars like Luna Sea's legendary rock god SUGIZO and then trekking around Tokyo to find you a cheap but cozy place to crash. We even took pop pin-up MIYAVI to dinner at Bed Supperclub and interviewed him for our cover story. We also took time out to rediscover artists like Takashi Murakami and Yoko Ono and re-watched the Shunji Iwai's enigmatic movie 'All About Lily Chu Chu' for our 'Talking Pictures' feature.

Now we're back in Bangkok and we're poised to get giddy at Bed Supperclub at events like The Stereo MCs, LTJ Bukem, Mickey Slim and The Freestylers, get more details in the Bed Sheet back pages.

Before I say sayonara, here's an ancient Japanese proverb that has even bigger implications now that we are struggling to save the planet …
あらゆる紙に双方がある
'Every sheet of paper has two sides'

PAUL –BEE- HAMPSHIRE

"I'm turning 25, it's the big 2-5, that's like a quarter of a century!" I told my BED Fellows a month ago. Known as a 'Birthday Party Planner,' this year I handed my job to the creative & operations team.

The night was painted with silver & gold decor, DJs from Space, Ibiza, a live singer by the name of Asambai, and a non-stop flow of Vodka & Prosecco. To highlight 25 years of my life, our VJs looped a slide show of my life. Pictures from when I was 2 to 5 to 15 to 22 until present.

Quarter Centuranian

It was simply memorable, very touching, in fact, it's inspiring! Makes me want to throw a perfect birthday party for our future guests just because I know that we can totally blow their mind away. I know mine did!