Helloooo!!
It has been a fun ride between me and my blog. An ever-changing, ever-shifting, and also ever-moving one, too.
It seems that whenever I feel settled in one place, I would be thinking about my next move. Case in point, my blog here at ohhappybear.com, which you might not notice because the move is backstage and hidden from public eyes, but we have – again – just moved our internet-hosting service. Hence a new look, complete with sections for easier browse, and a brand new stats to accumulate. A new beginning, if you will.
I have been blogging for more than ten years now. Crazy to think how time flies when you are having fun. Throughout those years and more than 500 stories!!, I have moved from the first blog to the second and now the current third. From my earliest posts simply about the books I read to the very cute and frightened kitten I found behind my car, my blog – most written while I was flexing my writing muscles, getting ready for a real day-time-job on commissions – has been honed towards food stories. And honestly, the more I am into food, the more my perspectives changed about the subject. From merely talking about the tastes and the identity of the food, I am now also into the production, the roots, health-effects and the philosophy behind what I eat. This eating-with-conscience thing is now catching on everywhere, especially among food writers. Me happily included.  Also, our brief stint producing a cooking TV show just last year also exposed us to yet another angle of food. From fine-dining to industrial cooking. From meticulous mis-en-place to merely presenting and delivering. The whole shebang of food industry and business. I am quite happy at this point in life. I feel really I have grown up with my stories. More confidence in my words. And I am also very glad to continue to have this blog as a my precious space to still write. And I hope you’d enjoy reading it, too. ð
Anyway, if moving in any case means packing up, discarding what you no longer need and restart, my blog here is just the same. From that huge pile of posts I have accumulated, I have cut down now to about 200 posts. I deleted things that are outdated, no longer relevant, or plain silly from the system. Sometimes they were just restaurants that had been relocated, shut down or out of business. What are still here are still usable if they are info-oriented like restaurant reviews, travel stories, hotel reviews or recipes. But there’re also things that I found still fun or useful to read. So, I guess this blog is cleaner with a clearer content concept into the future. There will be food. Good food that does not equal – in my terms – only styles or prices. But also measured by intentions, quality and heart behind it. There will be travel stories and things we find interesting during our trips. There will be cooking, because it is what I do enjoy from time to time in our small kitchen. There will also be some personal tidbits, because, as you know, this is a personal blog of a very talkative woman.
So, thank you for dropping by, should you have any questions or would like to enquire about anything, please drop me an email at ohhappybear@gmail.com.
Sirin (Oh) , a.k.a. ohhappybear ð
OHB Magnificent Co., LTD.
Bangkok, Thailand.
March 2016
*** P.S. People always asked me why I chose the bear as in my logo and name. And here’s the answer. We used to have a small publishing house that produced travel guide books called Polar B Books with Wongklom Publishing House. Since I am an animal-loving bookworm, I conceptualised the logo of our publishing house to assimilate the revered and classic ‘Penquin Books’. Because, like many children back in those days, I grew up reading tons of books published by the house. The publishing house is the beacon for knowledge and I just always have a heart for them. So, when we were starting our own little book publishing business, it was where I went for inspiration. And bear is my favourite animal. Second only to dog. So, two reasons together is this logo, designed by my good friend Sakchai Sriwattanapitikul – one of Thailand’s best cartoon hands and art teachers. We have been using this logo forever, and yet it still draws out the crooning of admiration – all the oohs and aahs complete with face puckering – every time (I mean every single time) I give people my name card which, of course, has this bear logo imprinted in heart of all the necessary info.