Month: July 2021

Shoes – 21st July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Count our blessings we still have choices
But stand beside those without voices
It’s not my body that suffers these pains
And I will support those with purer aims

Bootstrap pulling without boots
Kept downtrodden at the roots
I should walk a mile in your shoes
To understand there’s nothing to lose

Top dogs shout down ‘try your best’
Knowing you’ll never catch up the rest
When your choice is to eat shit or die
It’s everyone’s business to question why

Suffer a life for god and king
Does not a satisfied nation bring
I should plough the fields in your shoes
To understand the ways you choose

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to come home and see Amy had been busy all day baking cakes for the hospital workers dealing with Covid. She will deliver them today – she is very kind-hearted and concerned for everyone in this situation.

A nice day today. No aircon last night – just a fan and wake up to a cool post-rain and cloudy sky. Perfect temperature. Still don’t need a t-shirt but just a little more heat in the morning shower.

In my drive to school (and back) I listen to punk rock podcasts, rather than listening to punk rock and at school I can start the day with a delicious coffee. I feel blessed that for 4 days of the week, my first class is with my old students from primary – they are good students and we have a great relationship. They understand quickly what needs to be done.

I am in a great workflow with all my classes and they are all starting to get into the swing of things. I’m not actually teaching anything but with this all being online they are practising their skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. They are even better students when doing it this way as they don’t have the distraction of each other in the classroom.

So, even though today was my busiest day, it was super easy as everything is prepared a few weeks in advance. And when I got home I was ready to teach Ashley her daily class, again, not teaching, just having a conversation.

Anyway, I got a message that she cancelled today so now I can relax early.

I was just thinking before, that I am busy every weekday this month, having to teach after school and anticipating how good it will feel when those classes finish. Working hard to enjoy a rest.

2000AD Again – 20th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The dogs will always get you
If not stabbing each other’s backs
Franks is in the Krool Heart
Where Kano suffers attacks
Alphabet warriors of steel
Drive through black holes of Khaos
And back in the big bad city
Dredd remains the toughest boss
There’s future shocks in store
Splashed across every page
As the rogue trooper attempts
To quell his partners’ rage
A breeding ground of stories
Fantastic fiction and fun
Two thousand AD forever
Even after two thousand and one

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for our lime trees – finally fruiting with delicious fruit that we can use for cooking and drinks.

Both Worlds – 19th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

A lazy day with thundery skies
The temperature for Netflix and chill
In between episodes, look out the window
To see the clouds descend the hill
The bang and crash as lightning strikes
I can’t believe my good luck
But suddenly the power goes out
And now it’s Netflix and fuck!
Wait for the rains to stop again
And electricians to earn their pay
So we can get back to our series
And watch until the finale
Weirdly, there’s top-speed internet
Yet intermittent electricity
Nowhere has the best of both worlds
Neither this country nor city

Letts Association Football Diary 1979 – 30th December 1978

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have had a lazy day yesterday – even forgetting to write here. The busy week makes me tired on the weekend and I enjoy being home with the cats, our surrogate dog and crazy Amy.

Gifts of Gold – 18th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Never surrender to the sparkling
The shiny gifts of gold
The devil is in the details
That’s how the world gets sold
Young idealism should be encouraged
Try to maintain in golden years
Though experiences bring resignation
And experience shed so many tears
Aware of imminent ending
Desperately clinging to breath
A sacrifice of principles
Ensures a living death
So inspire belief in others
Though diplomacy holds you back
Now fallen off your slippery rails
Help others see the track

Our House (again) – 17th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

The feature picture (above) is a picture that we have to take every year for my visa application, to show that we are the happy family that we are telling them we are. We also have to supply a picture in our living room and bedroom!

The dog, Tangmo (Watermelon), is our neighbour’s but he is increasingly happy to be at our house these days as we give him love, pats and attention. We do not listen to the aunties who insist that we should hit him when he’s naughty. And they don’t understand why he likes to visit us so much…

This is the view from behind the village market, across the paddies looking towards our house, which you can see on the left, with the green fence. On the hill on the horizon is the stupa. I still don’t know what they indicate or ceremonies they are used for.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for our fresh-cut garden again. I love it when it’s been tended to and happy to pay for someone to do it (5 people!).

A Beautiful Life – 16th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Modern life is no poetic dream
Fancy words for reality unseen
Grey buildings, dull cars in commute
Dead faces in an old fading suit

Stray dogs barking at stray cats
Dead in the gutter, eaten by rats
Rice fields planted on broken backs
A pleasant vista for tourist snaps

Instagram cafes and beauty filters
Made by dollar-a-day immigrant builders
Sunsets on mountains, time to sleep
Poetic minds now sunken deep

The toiling hordes have no time to play
With words about their tortured day
No romance in their existence
The beautiful life kept at a distance

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have Amy here to take care of the house and cook for me. She is contemplating going to the USA with Takky for 3-4 months, so leaving me to take care of all these things. That will make me busy!

Working By Yourself In Teams – 15th July 2021

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Sometimes things don’t go right
The first time of trying
But to carry on without fixing it
Makes me feel like crying

Wasting time doing double work
Instead of finding a solution
Our so-called green administration
Contributes even more pollution

29th Apr 2024 – Submitted to Word of the Day Challenge – work

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that I didn’t have to teach at school yesterday as the Thai teachers all went off to get the second shot of the vaccine cocktail and decided to cancel all classes. Relaxing day.

Face – 14th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Let’s be straight and say what we mean
Because saving your face doesn’t keep it clean
Words that please can be heard as lies
To misunderstanding they give rise

Are you really so delicate you can’t hear
The truth when spoken loud and clear
We’re going backwards, why not advance
Here’s the real world, given a chance

19th Mar 2024 – Submitted to Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Misunderstanding

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be kept busy by my students. It is a difficult task to motivate them when teaching online so I spend a lot of extra time chasing them up.

Kim Chi is here in my room, and as she has stolen my chair, I have time to sit here on the floor and write this. I don’t want to push her off as she is very happy and relaxed with her paws over her eyes to block out the light.

I am home today, after arriving at school, out for a quick delicious coffee, back to start my lesson, only for Dylan to come and see me and when I saw he was wearing his backpack I asked him where he was going and he said ‘have you heard that there’s no classes today?’ Responding in the negative, he said that the Thai teachers were all going off for their second dose of vaccines and cancelled all classes – without telling us! So typical and annoying.

When I called our coordinator, he just said, ‘Oh, I thought you knew!’ How the fuck were we supposed to know!?

In the past, I would’ve gotten really wound up by this bad communication – especially as I’m always well-organised and have lessons planned around a regular schedule. Today, though, it’s just, oh well, at least I can go home and relax.

First, I went with Dylan to his girlfriend’s cafe, Tongsiam and had a coffee and chat there. His girlfriend, Wa, is a nice, level-headed girl, just out of Uni and looking for a more rewarding job.

Two coffees later (another delicious one at Utopia), and I got home for lunch – much to Amy’s surprise. And now, I’m relaxing in my room – after a quick go at the grass with the cutter, until it ran out of petrol. I feel compelled to get it back into proper working order again and make a little more effort in the garden, which is totally out of control at the moment due to constant rain this year.

I’m finding it a little difficult to love it here at the moment, but I must remember that I will be here for another 5-10 years at least, as I will stay here for our cats. I guess it’s all the frustration of not being able to go anywhere at the moment, too, and the Covid situation getting worse in Thailand. It’s hard to see an end to it or even the much-touted ‘new normal. ‘

Still, it’s my mind that needs to get in order – the world is going to carry on.

Yesterday – 13th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

It’s a vague memory
Not sure what I can say
I just don’t recall
Much about yesterday

I know I enjoyed it
It went very well
What were the details
I can no longer tell

I’m sure there was coffee
And stroking the cats
Did the dog come to visit?
I don’t know – perhaps?

Online classes of kids
I think they enjoyed their study
I think it was fun
Though my memory is muddy

What about this morning?
What the hell did I do?
The onset of senility?
What if I write this poem again tomorrow……
Too?

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for my iPad that I could use last night to watch Sydney beat the top team in the AFL. Then to read comics and books. I don’t use it for much else but it’s fantastic for what I want.

Same Old Song – 12th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 8 Comments

You were a Frankenstein
When I saw you on the screen
I was scared and curious
At the weirdness I had seen

What drew me to it
I don’t really understand
But the thing I knew is
That I wanted to start a band

Your face inspired my generation
Though now you’ll never know
You burned and crashed out
While others took the chance to grow

Ten years or so, later
And others inspired the same
They too destroyed themselves
Cos they couldn’t handle the fame

Exploited to make a buck
It happened again and again
Working hard to get where you were
But it will never be the same

Now little girls chase this dream
To get famous for a minute
As if life was a competition
And everyone has to win it

20th Sep 2024 – Submitted to Reena’s Xploration Challenge #348

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the chicken that laid the egg that Amy is about to cook in the kitchen. I hope the chicken is having a good life and not stuck in a factory farm somewhere.