Desk jockeys like those of us at Phuket Observer are quite happy enjoying Phuket’s tropical weather in the shade of the casuarina trees, with a frosty beer close to hand. But there are those on the island who just itch to get out a sweat a bit. Or a lot.

As a result, there are plenty of healthy (ie, masochistic) activities organised on the island. One of these is coming up soon – the annual Marathon & Fun Run organised by the Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation. The event, on May 24, aims to raise funds for the Phuket Marine Biological Center’s sea turtle rescue and conservation efforts.

Mom Tris’ Boathouse hotel has long been a centre for literature in Phuket, starting more than a decade ago with its Chao Phraya Literary Club.

Okay, so far no Pulitzer or Booker winners have appeared at the hotel’s regular literary evenings, but the evenings do feature a variety of Thailand-based novelists, columnists, poets, editors and assorted scribblers, and attract a good crowd of people who have realised there is life outside Patong.

It’s called kway tio, and you’ll find it served up by the roadside and in food halls everywhere in Thailand. Look out for places that have a small glass box standing on the counter containing a variety of noodles, typically the triad of thin rice noodles (sen mee khao), wide, flat noodles (sen yai) and yellow egg wheat noodles (ba mee).

Did you hear the one about the Englishman, the Welshman and Scotsman? Nor did we. But we have high hopes that it will be told at the next comedy night in Phuket, on May 19, when stand-up comics from all three places will perform a one-night stand of stand-up comedy.

The fourth Best Western resort in Phuket – Best Western Sawazdi Patong Hotel will open in September of this year. The resort will be located near Jungceylon shopping center in the vicinity of the lively Bangla road area.

Nike and arch-rivals Adidas, Hush Puppy, Guy Laroche, Pierre Cardin and Van Heusen, along with Levi’s and Lee shoulder-to-shoulder, and a large Warner Bros emporium. They’re all at the new Premium Outlet shopping village. Click the pic for a guided tour of Phuket’s latest venue for punishing your credit card.

&Joy! Creative Lifestyle Boutique and Gallery, which soft-opened just a month ago not far from Laguna, will open its first exhibition, “Exploring Love” by Thai artist Nino Sarabutra on April 17.

Exploring Love is a wall installation of heart-shape stoneware bowls. Each is hand-made, as the artist (who, when she’s not pottering about, is a successful advertising creative director) explains, “In working with these bowls, I keep exploring,” she says. “It’s just like love. I never knew how each one would turn out. Every bowl was different; different clay, different glaze, different temperature, different degrees of care and attention.

After the long dry months, the recent heavy rain has revived plant life around the island. Everywhere there is the sound of weed whackers as gardeners once again do battle with grass that’s knee-deep in no time.

The trees love it. After riding out the Dry with no leaves, many take a deep drink, sprout leaves and then burst into blossom.

Most people will have heard of Google Street View by now, with its camera cars clicking their way down streets in the States and the UK, and its special face-blurring software, turning whole populations into Play-Doh people.

Google Street View doesn’t cover Phuket, and its probably going to be a while until it does. But someone else is already here. It’s called MapJack.

Years ago, before Hilton, Marriott and all the other giant chains arrived, at a time when the fanciest homes (sorry, “villas”) on the island cost 10 million baht, not six million bucks, The Boathouse in Kata was the nearest Phuket had to a centre of culture and other good things for foreigners.

For example, The Boathouse (now called Mom Tri’s Boathouse) pretty much started people drinking wine. Until then, the choice was Singha or Sangsom-Coke. The taxes on wine amounted to about 300%, so it was expensive, but The Boathouse became very creative at finding good wines from places like Chile and Australia at low prices, then almost gave the wine away in order to get people hooked on it.