Pussy footing

Long run: 5.7k, maximum altitude 178m, total ascent 202m. Sex Sprinter, Short Screw and Bua Kao were home first in 57 minutes, just ahead of the leading short runner, Mucky Pup who covered the 4.3k in about 58 minutes. Everyone came in more or less together, apart from the injured-but-still-determined Buk Toy and Perky whose only excuse was that he couldn't see the paper.
The party that followed was up to the usual Tung Jaeng standard and most of the TJ staff joined in the fun. Selected pictures culled from facebook below.

Harey pussies including Only a Yolk - only truly happy when given gifts of beer

...but then with a husband dressed like this, who can blame her?

More pussies: any comment would be taken the wrong way

What is this thing that's come between us?

Obviously tired and emotional!

The run after the night before

Feeling woozie? Clearly today's hare is experiencing some slight technical difficulties this morning, but if that's all he's suffering then he's lucky!

Still nothing a quick thrash round Nern Pijit won't cure. For those who prefer their directions verbally:

Hatyai H3 run, 28th September 2014, 4:17 p.m.

Hare: Sex Sprinter and Sex Tsunami

Misdirections: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4.6k and turn left for 11k then follow the road round to the right (at Wat Nern Pijit) and go a further 1k . Turn right at the hash sign and follow the road to the run site on the right. 

And don't forget, you can register this afternoon for the HH3 outstation run next month or at last establish your cred as an active runner!

Happy Birthday Owen!

Despite his youthful looks (and unlike some we could mention this photograph has not been subjected to the retoucher's deceitful attentions) Owen "Wi Wi" Shannon will be 70 on Saturday. He is the Hash's longest standing active runner, bearing hash number 22 which considering the then practice of naming people as soon as they arrived, means that he must have been present at one of the first few SH3 runs. Admittedly it then took him 20 years or so to notch up 50 runs, but since then he has been more regular in his hashing habits and he is always a welcome sight at a run, reminding us that you don't have to be a misfit, a fanatic or a piss-head to come along and enjoy the Hash.

The picture below was taken by Owen back in 2010 and is special for him and all of us because along with the usual misfits, fanatics and piss-heads there are a number of people who sadly are no longer able to join us on Saturdays and a good few more who, like Wi Wi, can't make it every week but every so often come along and add something special to our weekly gathering.

So from all of us at Songkhla Hash: regular runners, less frequent visitors and departed runners alike:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OWEN - YOU'RE TRUE BLUE!

Pussies redux

If it's September it must be pussy birthday time, and the girls will be entertaining us on Saturday as they celebrate their coming of age yet again.
The run will be from Tung Jaeng and there will be dinner to follow. The beer truck will be in attendance during the early part of the proceedings but contributions of beer later are welcomed, preferably purchased from the restaurant (it's the same price as from the beer truck). There will also be karaoke in the padded cell and "entertainment" - be warned!

Details are:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers run #1737, Saturday September 27th 2014, 4:30 p.m.
Hares: (from, but not necessarily limited to) Crackwurst, Superpig, Only a Yolk, Meals on Wheels, Temporary Relief, Peppered Pussy, Ork Dork and NGV.
Misdirections: From The Kao Seng intersection take the old Yala road for 11k and turn right at the Ang Thong intersection into the new Yala road for 1.4k to the Tung Jaeng restaurant on the left. (If you are coming from the Ko Yo intersection you can no longer turn right into Tung Jaeng, so continue eastwards along the new Yala road towards the Ang Thong intersection and take the final U turn (just before Ang Thong and go back westwards for about 1.3k)
For anyone having the misfortune to be coming from Hatyai, the easiest route is to just go to the Ko Yo intersection and take the new Yala road all the way to Ang Thong then do the U turn and come back to Tung Jaeng. The shortest route is to turn right off the old road at the traffic lights at Kuan Hin as if you were going to Egg Towers, then to keep going straight ahead after 4k and follow the metaled road past Ban Napong until you hit the New Yala road. This will still involve you in making the U turn to get to Tung Jaeng, but if you are on 2-wheels you can probably get away with going down the hard shoulder on the right to avoid it!

Before all that, there's a birthday party for Temporary Relief at Temp and Softy's house on Thursday evening (25th September) in Benjaporn Estate and on Friday evening (26th September) there's a quiz night at the Office Bar at 8:00 p.m. when Perky will be the quiz master, so do come along and help the SH3 team crash and burn.

Finally, just to round off the weekend, there will be an HH3 run on Sunday but details of that will have to follow when the mapping department has got its act together!

Mission accomplished...more or less

The long run, a whisker under 6k, took about an hour - Sex Sprinter went astray and didn't come in on paper so our official timekeeper let us down. Maximum height 138m, total ascent 202m - a lot less if you didn't take the 4th F. A fairly straightforward run except that most of the FRB's seemed never quite to be on paper and for a lot of the time were way off it. But the less fit young things stuck gamely to the trail accompanied by the hare who limped round, abandoning the effort to sweep after the short run departed. The short run was 4.5k and also took about an hour; no one complained about it. After the run, Wee Wee produced an eskie-full of beer to celebrate his up-coming 70th birthday and there was an adequate circle. Ru Man Kap, Aftershock and Sex Sprinter were iced for their waywardness in deference to Yardstick's view that their behaviour on the trail was unbecoming, quote: That sort of thing is OK at Hatyai, but it just won't do at Songkhla, unquote. Does he have English ancestors?

The back of beyond

Click to make it big enough to read with the aid of high powered glasses!

This week's SH3 run is from the old football field behind Sai Kao village - one of our more difficult runsites to describe but actually not that far from Songkhla as the GPS flies. The map above may inspire some creative route finding, but the signed route will be:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1736, Saturday, September 20th 2014
Hares: Egghead and doggies
Misdirections: From the Kao Seng intersection take the old Yala road for 16k and turn right just before Wat Kun Thong. Go 3.5k and turn left just after the big tree, then go 800m (straight ahead at 150m) to the run site on the old football field.
Too soon for any news of the HH3 run on Sunday but that will be added later. Meanwhile it may be as well to mention that HH3 are intending to hold an outstation run on the weekend of 11/12 October in Satun. The cost of the weekend will vary between 200 and 1000 Baht per person depending upon your HH3 status. Details of the weekend are on the HH3 facebook page in Thai (https://www.facebook.com/groups/589896937720491/permalink/777209432322573/): Expect a car rally on the way there and kayaking on Sunday in addition to a run on Saturday.

To infinity and beyond

The hare has provided this track of last Saturday's run, which might help to explain why his estimate of 7k seemed a little parsimonious. Happily, no track available for last Sunday's HH3 monster so we don't have to relive the pain.

To where?

News just in from the space between Buzz Lightyear's ears:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run # 1735, Saturday, September 13th 2014, 4:30 p.m.
Hare: Buzz "Gan Yao" Lightyear
Misdirections (and we quote): From the Koh Yor intersection take the Old Hat Yai Road for 4.7Km. Go 10.6Km (passing Wat Khao Kloy on the right at 7.8KM).
Turn left at 10.6KM. Go 3.4KM to the runsite (blacktop road ends at 2.3KM). Park along track side.
Note; If its raining heavily the road may be tricky to those in regular cars and wimpy Ford 4WDs, any problem park & call me on 081-8989427 and I’ll come and get you.

Sunday's HH3 run is from the other football field in Poonakan, i.e. the original one on the left about 4k down Poonakan from Wat Khao Kloy. Hares are Sex Si and Sex of the Man.

FM 112: Tough but fair

A good turnout for the first independent FM run for about 3 months split about equally between the long and short runs. The short run took an hour probably due to some sparseness in the paper department. The long run seemed to be going well until the 5th F in the valley between Kao Lam and Kao Wong, which took about 10 minutes to break despite the helpful presence of the hare, who was just as confused as the hounds, eventually finding the paper about 200 meters beyond where everyone was looking. The result was that Stick Insect who had become parted from his glasses and Yardstick who stuck around to rescue him, got dropped off the back of the pack, but they still managed to more or less catch up by the end. Sex Sprinter timed it at 1hr 14mins. Overall length 6.8k or 6.2k for those who did not experience the checks.
The super moon smiled benignly on the apres run which wrapped up at just about same time as the rain, which had threatened all day, started to fall. Thanks to everyone who contributed food and to Kee Ling for the mini-eskie full of beer, all of which was consumed. Thanks to OaY for the tequila which seemed for the most part to just sit threateningly on the ground being ignored. Maybe we are learning!

Full Moon 112

...will happen tomorrow night, Tuesday September 9,  2014 at 7:00 p.m. The hares are Khai Jeow, and Moo Sahb if she feels like it. The misdirections are: From the Ko Yo intersection take the old Hatyai road for 4k and turn left for about 7k to the run site on the left (this is slightly different from the run site intimated below, as the area round the water tower at Napong is "unsuitable" i.e. we haven't been there for a while and nature has taken it over). Bring a hand/head light if you intend to run and some food if you feel like it. Beer will be on sale as usual but if you want to bring your own to share with your mates you're welcome to do so.

From this...

to this...

A monster lay in the morning of over 11k turned into yesterday's R2D2/Ork Dork run which seems to have been about 7.5k. Full marks for execution and artistic impression; 2/10 for planning as the hill section proved just how much damage can be done to trails in a few months.
But the end result was widely agree to have been hugely enjoyable.

Changes, changes!

This week's birthday girl getting younger by the day.

After stepping neatly into the breach last weekend, Kee Ling's professional engagements have necessitated that she step out of it again. But happily R2D2 has pulled some strings and Ork Dork will now fill the role of co-hare. And wouldn't you just know it, one change begets another as the relentless march of one-wayism has reached Ban Dan so that the familiar directions to Saturday's runsite have had to be changed and now read:
Songkhla Hash House Harriers' run #1734, Saturday September 6th, 4:30 p.m.
Hares: R2D2 and Ork Dork
Misdirections: From the Kao Seng intersection, take the old Yala road for 8.1k and make a U turn at the far end of Ban Dan School. Come back Northwards 100 meters and turn left at the other end of the school then go 1.5 meters (about 100 meters beyond the rubber tappers' sala) to the runsite on the left.

HH3 on Sunday will be set by Robocop and Sex Racing and will be from the other football field in Th. Poonakan, i.e. the one near the ITV station, about 7k from Wat Keow Kloy on the right.

Meanwhile there is a significant birthday this week as Crackwurst hits 21 again. The party starts at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, 4th September in Songkhla at Bai Meang in Th. Sadao.

Also on the agenda is a Full Moon H3 run next Tuesday, September 9th, when Kai Jeow and possibly Moo Sahb will entertain HFMH3 at the water tower in Napong. There'll be another announcement about that one early next week, just in case your memory fails you, but put it into your personal organizer!

Not the 1000th!

The race is on...

...to see...

...who will publish the...

It could be YOU!

1111 - an appreciation

It would be easy to dismiss Saturday's run as the demented product of a deranged mind with sadistic tendencies, so let's take the easy way out and say that Saturday's run was the demented product of a deranged mind with sadistic tendencies. Not that there weren't some excellent trails and great views, but as we slid down the backside of the hill near the Chinese temple that "Why the **** am I doing this?" question raised it's ugly head just for a second or two. By that time half the pack had become detached from the Hatyai tendency, largely because they had attempted to short-cut up the hill avoiding the false trail that should have sent them down into the jungle again, before ascending the hill by a different route, thereby ending up going down the hill before meeting Conebrain coming up the hill by the correct route (got that?). Then just as things seemed to be back under control, it all seemed to fall apart at the end as the paper, which had rarely been better than patchy, became less and less prolific and finally seemed to disappear completely just as it hit the short run which by all accounts had been erratic, and didn't actually lead back to the run site. The upshot was that just about everybody ended up on the road and Conebrain, whose disappearance was greatly exaggerated, took the sensible decision to miss out the runsite altogether and head directly to the restaurant.
From that point everything got better and better. The end of the circle (always a good sign) coincided with the beginning of the rain and more or less with the serving of the food. The kids disappeared into the karaoke room and shut the sound-proof doors which didn't quite stifle the sounds of pitiful agony emanating from within. The beer kept mysteriously appearing even after the generously donated Leo had expired, and casks and flagons of wine of various hues and flavors did the rounds. Eventually at about 10 o'clock it was decided to move the party to Softy and Temp's house where it teetered on until about 2:00 p.m. accompanied by champagne, Elton John and Bruno Mars. Remarkably some of the party animals made it to HH3 the following day (see below) many didn't!
Thanks to Stick Insect for a memorable afternoon and evening and for his generosity in sponsoring the T-shirts commemorating his achievement as well as the wonderful food at Tung Jaeng. Thanks also to those who sponsored the beer, notably, Sex Sprinter, Porn Star and Ru Man Kap, and the wine, particularly Softy and Temp and whoever produced the champagne later which helped keep the party afloat.