Technology has become a love-hate thing. I'm a typical example. After all. Where would I be without my beloved little flip-top Motorola, with its store of priceless baby pictures and virtual address book? Completely lost, of course. But there are days when I swear out loud at my phone, thanks to its constant interruptions. And surprise, surprise, I'm increasingly intolerant of other people's mobile use.

I can't help feeling that technology has increased levels of both rudeness and intolerance. It is now an accepted part of everyday life that the average woman carries around 25,000 Baht of 'walking wealth' at any one time, including mobiles laptops and other gadgets. But, with one in six of us carrying an mobile iPod, or an MP3 player wherever we go, why are so few of us skilled in the laws of techiquette? Why don't we know how to use our new toys with grace, poise and consideration for others?

Our attitude towards technology is schizophrenic. We want more of it, but wish sometimes that it would go away.

Traditional Thai New Year, or 'Songkran,' is observed each April 13 with celebrations usually lasting for three days.

During this festival, it is customary to practice customs and traditions, passed down from generation to generation, starting with offerings of food to monks and merit making in the morning time

As a gesture of respect, young people pour lustral water over the palms of elders. Other celebrants join in a variety of traditional games.

Part of the celebrations is the procession of the year's Songkran Queens - seven in all. Legend has it that the original seven Songkran Queens were daughters of Thao Kabilaphrom, also known as Thao Maha Songkran.

You've been there: stuck in traffic gabbing on the phone, stealing bites of your burrito, reapplying lipstick, doing some makeup changes or writing notes about things you need to remember.

But lawmakers want to put an end to all that motorist multitasking behavior. So what, I drive years without any insurance claim, the worst thing ever is somebody hitting me. So should the government intervene for safety's sake, or should they stay out of our cars?

Personally, my car is my space and we all have our own comfort zone behind the wheel, and I think it's our responsibility to figure out what we can handle as drivers. I can apply lipstick, mascara, and shadow with minimal attention loss and, I admit it, I' an excellent knee driver.

Water runs through the Thai cultural fabric like a silver thread. Villages and towns were traditionally build on the banks of rivers and canals, and wet rice cultivation provided the people's staple.

In Buddhism, water, both sustaining and transparent, are symbols of the spiritual support and purity of the Buddha's teachings, and lustral water is widely featured in religious blessings and rites of passage.

Water is also literally life sustaining, and the water jar, Maw Nam, has for centuries been an icon of daily life. The term 'Maw Naw' is generic, but the water jar most typical of Thai rural life, as well as being indicative of the innate hospitality of the Thais, is a wide-belied clay pot with a lid.