During 2007, The House of Corkscrew-Balloon Dot Com's home base alternated between Bangkok and Florida, relocating every few months. The end-of-the-year holidays were spent, as usual, in Bangkok. After three months of 2008 spend there, GPS tracking indicates that THOCBDC has returned to Florida. Is it too late to catch Spring Break?

Latest update (May 13): old brochures from the USSR.

• In 1997, the long-anticipated Watney Auction was held at Christie's South Kensington.
• In 1998, with bad weather preventing any flights, our excitement came primarily from an equine escape.
• In 2000, the Third Secret of Fatima was finally revealed ... also, the tragedy of Mother's Day.
• In 2001, there was a mysterious five-day lapse in the Florida Journal.
• In 2002, our investigation of the breastfeeding controversy continued.
• In 2003, Ning was on the move.
• In 2004, as a storm hit Bangkok, Google steered traffic our way.
• In 2005, we thought about papal miracles.
• In 2006, as torrential rains fell in Bangkok, the writing was on the wall for the Bush-Blair era. Meanwhile, Prime opened in the Millennium Hilton.

From our archives ...

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.

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

See more Namfon

As soon as it's ready for occupancy in 2008, the Athenee Residence will become the Asian Headquarters for The House of Corkscrew-Balloon Dot Com. Until then, we are monitoring construction progress and providing 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 2005, and we've completed a compilation of all of 2005's journals! There are lots of corkscrews, lots of dinners, trips back and forth between Bangkok and Fort Lauderdale ... and more.

• 2005 Travel Chronology

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

• 1996 Travel Chronology
• 1997 Travel Chronology
• 1998 Travel Chronology
• 1999 Travel Chronology
• 2000 Travel Chronology
• 2001 Travel Chronology
• 2002 Travel Chronology
• 2003 Travel Chronology
• 2004 Travel 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 Stephani, and it's ... Ballooning in Europe, August 1996!

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.