Why....

This week's starter for ten does not have the usual answer (because no one else volunteered) but instead owes its solution to the fact that whoever was running last week's SH3 circle forgot to ask the question! So no one had a  chance to volunteer and it seems only fair that 'whoever was running the circle' should step into the breach.

So it's another Egghead Meccano job this Saturday, from one of our nicer runsites in the big sala at Napong. Nevertheless the run bears a mild dog advisory notice as it is almost impossible to run from the sala without crossing at least one, albeit lightly used, road. Be that as it may, it is unlikely that the full force of Egg canines will be out guiding their owner on the lay, so the details are:

Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1652, Saturday February 2nd, 2013; 4:00 p.m.
Hares: Egghead and Harram
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4k and turn left for 5.2k then left for about 500 meters to the runsite.

Sunday's (February 3rd, 4:00 p.m.) HH3 run also carries a doggie warning as the runsite is the other big sala, the one behind the CP factory (old Hatyai road 6.5k, right 1k, runsite on the right), where the late lamented Pink Floyd had her first brush with mortality. The hare seems likely to be Sex Star, HH3's answer to Egghead. A map will follow.

How do you feel this morning?

Uuuuughhh.
Two great runs (though I do say it myself), SH3 in red and HFMH3 in green, respectively 61 and 42 minutes, 5.3 and 3.9k. The Full Moon pack was well over 20 people who seemed to whizz round the SH3 short run which had been modified by Peppered Pussy removing the squares that joined up the checks, the first known case of  the hare picking up rather than laying paper to set a run! The party that followed seemed to go well with the card-school kicking in around 9:00 p.m. but being concluded at a civilized hour, leaving only the hardiest to crawl into their tents for a few hours sleep. The campsite was then taken over by ants who viciously attacked anyone who ventured out to answer nature's call. Stick Insect suffered a stiff shoulder and packed his tent and left about 3:30. Egghead did the same about an hour later after being delayed by a lost car key. The remainder of the campers waited for the ant-tide to subside with the dawn then cleared up the mess and enjoyed breakfast supplied by OaY and KY.
On! On! to Hatyai!

HH3 this weekend

A disappointingly literal map for Sunday's HH3 run - hare, Robocop and not as previously advertised.

Wanna party?

You wanna party? OK, we have party!

This weekend, SH3/HFMH3/HH3 present 48 hours of mildly manic activity. Kicking off on Friday evening with an international blow-out evening in Hatyai, those with a strong stomach should assemble at 6:00 p.m. at the new Gap's Garten, which for those who don't know about it is the German restaurant which used to be up by the klong in Juttee but which has now moved to a new location immediately adjacent to the Chao Phraya dodgy massage joint (helpful map below).

 If you are coming from Songkhla, take the old road past Tesco and turn right at the next set of traffic lights. Go about 500 meters through another set of lights and past the Chao Phraya then turn left by a sign saying Daza Pub and look for the restaurant on the left. Once we've eaten our fill, the intention is then to adjourn to the new Irish pub which is somewhere near the Odean Shopping Center and is run by sometime SH3 hasher, Yen Gon. After that....

To expend all the excess calories from Friday night, on Saturday, there will be both an SH3 run and a full moon run with a camp-out to follow. Directions for the SH3 run are:

Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1651, Saturday, January 26th, 4:00 p.m.
Hares: Egghead and depleted canine chums
Misdirections: from the Kao Saeng intersection, take the old Yala road for 8k and turn right before Ban Dan School. Follow the road for 1.3k to the rubber sala. From that point, cars with low ground clearance or driven by people with a low tolerance of potholes should go another 700 meters up the road and park in the rubber on either side where indicated, then walk for about 100 meters to the right, following paper to the run site. 4-wheel drive vehicles can turn right before the rubber sala and follow the rather bumpy track for 900 meters, then turn left into the run site through the gates (which should be open!)

The full moon run will follow the SH3 circle at approximately 6:30 p.m. The run fee will be 200 Baht to include copious food and beer, or 100 Baht for non-beer drinkers. Children will probably be free. The hare is Kai Jeow, and the run will not be over demanding! Bring a hand light if you intend to run or stay after dark as there is no electricity at the run site. Contributions of food are always welcome, but probably unnecessary. Beer will be available in large quantities but any other alcohol may help those inclined to overindulgence to do justice to their predilections (ok, get pissed).

For those intending to stay overnight, a tent and other camping gear would be advisable, although there is some rudimentary communal accommodation available inside the house at the run site. However to get to sleep comfortably there, you will need an air mattress or a very thick skin, or be very overindulged!

Sunday's (January 27th) HH3 run is out near Nam Om, on the highway between Chana and the airport. The easy way is to take the old Hatyai road all the way past Macro then turn left at the big intersection for about 2k and do a U turn near the Choti Lot factory. The run site is then on the left in the big quarry. The hare is believed to be Sex Star. A map will be posted when it arrives.

It's disgusting . . . but it's vegetarian

Out of the wilds of Transylvania

Stick Insect makes some new friends

. . . and tells them that we all come from monkeys, that there is no god, and that the ultimate purpose of life is p***y and b**r, not necessarily in that order.

Extreme cooking

Run #1650: The Afterbirth

Click on me to see me big!

Afterbirth? Did I say that? I meant aftermath. The long run was about 7.4km, or 8km+ if you also did the unnecessary parts. Total ascent was 220m. First back was Sex Sprinter in 1:03 but he got so comprehensively off course on the first two-thirds that he really doesn't count. I think Palm Job was the first one in who'd done pretty much the whole thing. Not that we keep track or anything. Incidentally, first to arrive at the beer stop, 6km into the run, was the now shockingly fit Perky. He must be young or something.

The idea of the long run was an easy run with tough checks, and it seemed to get good reviews. The idea of the short run was something as quick and easy to lay live as possible, so of course it was crap -- sorry about that. Gan Yao disappeared into an alternative universe of his own, as he does from time to time, but he didn't seem too upset about it. There was plenty of food and endless beer until, of course it ran out. That's the problem with endless: when the end inevitably comes, you're not expecting it.

P.S. Somehow Smeghead didn't get welcomed back properly as a returning runner. Where's our hospitality gone?

Your cute'n'cuddly beaver for this week

This weeks SH3 outing, which the hare describes as kind and gentle, is:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1650, Saturday, 19th January 2013, 4:00 p.m.
Hare: Beavershot
Misdirections: From The Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.7k and turn left for 8k, then right (at Wat Keow Kloy, into Punnakan Road) for 1.2k then left for 500 meters to the run site on the left.

Directions for Sunday's HH3 run have now emerged and are appended above. Official SH3 directions would read: From The Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.7k and turn left for 6k, then left for 1.5k then right for 500m to the run site at sala hin keang on the left. Dog advisory note. The run site is not dog friendly being located on a junction of a fairly busy track and a road. The runs from this run site also have a nasty tendency to end up on one or other of the local roads. Be warned - bad luck tends to come in threes, and we're on two!

Farewell Pigloid

The run in pictures

Flowerpot Man arrives on the beer truck. He was narrowly to avoid icing after he admitted taking it easy on the run to save himself for his social life in the evening. Mostly we were just envious.

Kii Leum did end up on the ice, for erratic parenting. Of course his kid is turning out a lot better than he did, so he must be doing something right. He also told us the traditional way to compliment a Dutch woman: "You're as fat as a pig!"

Bitch and Master. (The Master is the one in front.)

At last we get a hot girl on the hash and all she wants to do is sell us fruit.

Hares R2D2 and Perky set a most satisfying run in an area that seems to change every time we visit it. 

Yardo was thanked for his almost one year of service as SH3 Grandmaster. What he doesn't know is that in just two weeks, under the light of the full moon at midnight in a ceremony featuring the sacrifice of a live goat, he will be inducted into the mysterious ranks of THE CRONIES.

Ladies, be careful of this man. His dog will get your dog pregnant.

The amateur way to cut open a coconut.

The professional way.

This seems to come dangerously close to violating the great philosopher Meatball's famous dictum, "Never eat anything bigger than your head."

What we do best

Great run: 7.5k, exactly 1 hour if your name is Sex Sprinter and you short cut down the road - a few more minutes if you did the honest thing and followed the paper. Maximum elevation was 48m. A bit short in the check department which meant that for most of the long run pack it was all running with no breaks. No complaints about the 4.1k short run with the more substantial short run pack mostly following the long runners home. Beaver was selected by the magic cube and ran an impeccable circle, even icing our late lamented GM without incident.  The food was wonderful and  the villagers were on hand to supply us with lamyai and fresh coconuts. Plans were laid for a double run and camp out at a location not far from today's run site on the day of the full moon in 2 weeks time. Sweetness and light prevailed. The dogs all survived and there was not a lemming in sight!

The other end of the track

By sheer coincidence, this week's Songkhla  run will begin more or less where Kii Leum's voortrek ended up last week. Details are:
SH3 run #1649, Saturday, January 12th 2013, 4:00 p.m.
Hares: R2D2 and Perky
Misdirections: From the Kao Saeng intersection take the old Yala road for 8k and turn right before Ban Dan School. Go about 1.5k along the road to the run site.

 Nice clear map for HH3's run on Sunday, although having a brain which sees the world like Pablo Picasso would help. Official misdirections would probably look like: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 10k and turn left at the Nam Noi traffic lights. Follow the road for 3.5k then turn right, and follow the road for about 3k then turn right, and follow the road for 1k to the run site in the crematorium.

The Not a Run, or What it Could Have Been

This is the route that made up Run #1648, but it could well have been the route, as shown in the following image, in part anyway, as it would have started and ended on the New Yala Road. Check C05 was where Sex Sprinter came undone, being about 350m from the out trail, and after the ON ON had already been called on paper. Always a problem when setting runs on narrow ridges, but the hares DO know a run where it would have been nigh impossible to shortcut, even a certain hare couldn't find a shortcut. Of course it would have taken about four hours to run, and we wouldn't have had to worry about running out of beer, as there wouldn't have been any returning runners to drink any of it.

Don't forget, if there are any volunteers to fill the currently vacant post of SH3 GM, feel free to come forward this Saturday and you will be democratically voted on, before gladly being bestowed this honourable post. Otherwise it will probably be left to the wisdom of THE CUBE.

This is not a rehash

Despite a recce that sounded like a cross between Where's Waldo and Brokeback Mountain, it was a fine run out and back the ridge over Prem's place. Returnees included Flowerpot Man, Wiwi, and, as shown in this dashing pose, Fuckin' Lucky, visiting from Angola by way of Canada. Please hares, now give us the GPS track so we can see how Sex Sprinter managed to get back onto the out-trail just before we headed homeward down the hill.

Sunday's Runsite

On the anything you can do... principle, Sex Printer will attempt to negotiate the recently well used slopes of Ko Hong again on Sunday. The run starts at 4:00 p.m. For visiting aliens unaware of the location of Suan Hatyai: From the Ko Yo intersection, take the old Hatyai road for about 13.5k and take the second entrance  (left) into the park, then follow the road up and behind the lake for about 1k to the run site in the car park on the right.

Beam me up Botty

Some interesting rumours circulating concerning an unexplained disappearance by one of Saturday's hares, notably on the SH3/HH3 Facebook pages, and the TOS can exclusively report that Kii Leum was found wandering in a dazed and confused condition, about 10k away from where he was supposed to be!
As a result, the run site for Saturday's run has been relocated to the point from which he wandered off in the hope of a re-enactment of his suspicious dematerialisation. Scoff ye not, oh disbelievers in alien abductions!

Details of Saturday's run are now:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1648, Saturday 5th January 2013, 4:00 p.m.
Hares: Kii Leum and Yardstick
Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the new Yala road for 800 meters and turn left, following the road for 800 meters to the Home of Faith then continue up the hill for a further 1.1 kilometers to the run site on the right in the rubber.

Perhaps it is a reflection of the quality of last Saturday's HH3 New Year's party that your correspondent has no recollection of any announcement being made last weekend about the location of this week's (Sunday) HH3 run. No doubt a map will appear as mysteriously as Kii Leum disappeared today. When it does it will follow.