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There are many interesting events around town, but as the whole nation is fretting over a confrontation between the government and PAD protesters, it sounds a bit silly to arrange appointments to meet downtown when anything can happen.

Hopefully, violence won't take place or else many events, which took a long time in preparation, would become superfluous, including "La Fête de la Musique" at Central World Plaza.

The shopping complex this weekend will also host another event arranged by 21 public organisations. This is a programme that all taxpayers should attend to know what the organisations are doing with their money. Just ask yourself, how many of you have heard of the existence of the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation or the Biodiversity-Based Economy Development Office?

Then again, as all parties are prepared for the big confrontation today, who would dare arrange a plan to go to the shopping complex?

Yesterday, officials working at Government House were instructed to take today off while those who really have to come to work should not drive their cars to the premises. News from everywhere showed that many more people were coming to Bangkok to join the rally today.

During the Surayud government, soldiers blocked provincial people from entering Bangkok. But now, a TV channel reported that police officers could not block state enterprise workers from boarding a bus to Bangkok as they said they were coming to visit their relatives here.

There is a big question about the condition of Thai people's health - physically and mentally. While violence hurts us physically (and mentally afterwards), it seems Thai society is already suffering from mental illness. Yesterday, there was news that a Suphan Buri man stabbed another man to death, just because the dead man failed to give him a phone number. Arggggh!

If you plan to live long, making things not rosy is the news that only 900,000 of the 7 million who are 60 or over are free from illness, and 87 per cent of the sick suffer from more than one disease. Aside from diabetes, the most common is high blood pressure.

It's difficult for the Public Health Ministry to tackle this, given the increasing stress in our society. How can Thais nurture their physical and mental health when it is so hard to plan on ways to relax during this ominous weekend?