This past week I was in Thailand. I really could not single out a "strangest thing" there[1]. I did not see any performance involving ping-pong balls, though. I did have a really odd experience at work the week before. As you are no doubt aware the sense of smell is strongly associated with memory. Normally, my workplace smells of whatever is being cooked for dinner or the nothing-at-all smell of a place you have become too familiar with. The stairway often smells of something between old cheese and feet for no readily apparent reason.

My most recent week of work, however, there was a period of time when my workplace smelled like a friend's parents' house. When I started dating him he still lived at home and so when I would go to visit we would stay up late and watch movies and cook veggie dogs after his parents went to bed and the smell was just like the house after dark when it was just the two of us. I was so surprised I emailed him and told him this (as well as wishing him a merry Christmas).

The smell brought to mind happier times, before things went south. This same person is responsible for the strangest relationship moment I can recall as well. About a year after I ended things he gave me what can only be described as "the break-up talk". Imagine an ex from your past contacting you to let you know that things just aren't working out between you two.

[1] Although I do have a story about me, looking like the creature from the pink lagoon, wandering for miles through Bangkok with a bag of freshly cut durian. But only the details might be strange, the general absurdity of it was very typical for me.