The House Of

Dot Com

After years of alternating between its Fort Lauderdale and Bangkok offices, THOCBDC kept gradually forcing its thumb down on the Bangkok side of the scale. It's now official: Bangkok's Athenee Residence has become the permanent home.

Latest update (February 29, 2016): That's All!

• In 1999, Paul's French Photo Album came to an end as an early morning Previa ride deposited our weary travelers back at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
• In 2000, we recalled how Napoleon's hemorrhoids cost him his empire.
• In 2001, in Florida, Alf and Watcharee concluded their 13-hour marathon with the first season of The Sopranos.
• In 2002, Alf and Watcharee were aboard an Air France Airbus, bound for Bangkok.
• In 2003: a skeleton in the stacks.
• In 2004, we spent another beautiful day at the beach.
• In 2005, a bundle of joy awaited at the local adoption agency.
• In 2006, young Bo was training to be a passenger.
• In 2007, the Millennium Hilton served dinner.
• In 2008: a small alley in Bangkok.
• In 2009, Watcharee and Ta Skyped across 11 time zones.
• In 2010, there were recurring dreams.
• In 2011, a car collided with a motorcycle taxi.
• In 2012, the sun set beautifully over Bangkok.
• In 2013, technical problems continued.
• In 2014, there was Marianne Faithfull.
• In 2015, there were views to the east.

From our archives ...

Visit Elephant Polo Player Tom Claytor's Everest 2010 Site

Over the years, corkscrew-balloon.com has visited The Medieval Torture Museum in San Gimignano, Italy, several times. Links to various travel journals and photos from those visits can be found in our miscellaneous pages.

Due to popular demand, we added a whole new section featuring this Tuscan institution! Included are illustrations and descriptions of several devices on display at the museum. Those who are interested in this field of endeavor will definitely want to take a virtual tour through these pages.

There are now four Corkscrew Balloons! You can see the development of this new balloon though the photo shoot with balloon model Jan and Sian's subsequent masterful design work ... as all is revealed in Alf's February 2002 Journal, in Part III and Part IV. Also available: construction photos and pix of the balloon's first inflation.

Here are this year's Best Six:

Cleverly disguised under the cover of RUDIMENTARY ECONOMICS is hidden a scrapbook of newspaper clippings from the late 1800s. 1885 to be exact. The first clipping apparently is from April, the last from January 26, 1886. A few are out of chronological order.

It is a scrapbook of sadness, gore, tragedy, woe, wasted lives, bloodlettings, shootings, live burials and fatal fogs. Little things that will make your own life a little peppier ... perhaps, perhaps not.

Part I of my "re-clippings" includes seventy-three stories I clipped in June and July of 2001; Part II contains several additional entries from August.

See also The Latin Reader ... another textbook pasted over with gory news stories from long ago.

Hundreds of photos created by Annie Erickson are available throughout this corkscrew-balloon site. A few select ones are presented at anniephotos.com. Anyone who is missing Thailand might want to review a portfolio of digital photos Annie shot in Bangkok a few years ago.

You might also want to check out Annie's North Korea portfolio.

The Annual General Meeting of the International Correspondence of Corkscrew Addicts for 2003 took place in Roanoke, Virginia.

Watcharee
Ballooning
Elephant Polo
Antique Corkscrews
Useful Links
Useless Links
Fort Lauderdale and South Florida
Recommended Books
LeeAnna Yater, artist
Annie's Photos

(Since September 2, 2009)

See more Namfon

The Athenee Residence is the new Asian Headquarters for The House of Corkscrew-Balloon Dot Com. As the building went from breaking ground to final touches, we monitored its construction progress and provided updates.

The old journals become more fun to revisit with each passing year, as we look back on them with some perspective. Years from now, these will be the primary resources of historians.

We recently took a look back at 2007. There are lots of travels, lots of dinners, trips back and forth between Bangkok and Fort Lauderdale ... and more.

• 2007 Chronology

And you can revisit the following years, too. We invite you to live in the past!

• 1996 Chronology
• 1997 Chronology
• 1998 Chronology
• 1999 Chronology
• 2000 Chronology
• 2001 Chronology
• 2002 Chronology
• 2003 Chronology
• 2004 Chronology
• 2005 Chronology
• 2006 Chronology

Or ... take a look at a travel journal, from sometime in the past several years, that we've selected just for you: Your random journal was written by Alf, and it's ... Ballooning at Chateau d'Oex 1999!

In the summer of 2003, Alf and Watcharee, along with Pom and Golf, went to Hong Kong to do some shopping for Screwless Tuskers apparel.

During the first few weeks of May 2002, Alf and Paul counted down the days leading up to the Northern European Ballooning and Zeppelining Adventure. First, logging in from Thailand, Alf created another Bangkok Journal. Then, on May 17, Alf passed the journal pen to Paul in the United States, for a short Silverdale Journal.

The amazing Northern European Ballooning and Zeppelining Adventure included visits to Berlin, Sweden, Helsinki, and St. Petersburg! Paul's Journal tells the story, with selections from two thousand digital photos snapped during the trip. There was so much to report, updates are still being added to this day.

Most recent addition: entries for June 10 and 11, including Alf's sudden change in plans.

After Russia: Alf's Journal covers the spontaneous post-Russia trip to France for a week of ballooning, and it concludes with an Air France flight to Bangkok, and dinner back home at the Oriental Hotel.

The Screwy Tuskers elephant polo team competed in numerous World Cup matches over the years. In 2003, the world of competitive elephant polo saw the introduction of a "sister" team, the Screwless Tuskers.

Details of both teams' exciting matches, along with their tasteful fashions, can be found at our main polo page.

Join The House of Corkscrew Balloon as it presents a rare glimpse into Thailand's Corrections Museum ... one of the least-visited tourist attractions in Bangkok.