Most days I buy the Bangkok Post. It's a great pleasure to open a broadsheet on the table and read from page to page.Unencumbered by flashing banners and screen-mediated text, one can sit with the texture and content of the pages. It is intelligent and it is tactile. But I digress from the central purpose of this post. I buy the Bangkok Post and Ann usually buys Thai Rath, a Thai national newspaper.

Every day she asks me the same question, "Is it today's newspaper darling?" It's an odd question, don't you think, for who would not buy the newspaper of the day and who would stock yesterday's news?

Today I got an explanation. Upon pointing out to Ann that the Post was dated today's date, this being Wednesday 14th June, she astonished me by saying that her paper was dated June 15, that being tomorrow. Thai news is very fast and constantly updated, she informed me by way of explanation.

Now I may just be a dumb foreigner but it strikes me that the Thai press are trying to subvert the laws of physics, as I understand them. I thought it prudent, however, not to press Ann on the issue. It's just one of those quirky things.

It makes no difference to me whether tomorrow's news can be had today. I am happy enough with the black print spilling across the table, the omnipresent fan lifting the sheets like gentle sails, the creases forming where I have read, where I imperfectly turn the pages.