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.
We’re off to the office Where the witches never smile What should take 5 minutes Is sure to take a while It’s a dreaded moment Waiting for confirmation This time can be no mistakes On my visa application …… Luckily it was quiet today No one in the queue And even the witches were happy With nothing much to do In and out like a flash I get to stay another sixty days I hope it’s this easy next time So I can enjoy my stays
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful today as it’s Amy’s birthday and we will have a nice lunch together at Le Meridian. She will also help at immigration to apply for my new visa. I am so happy to have her in my life.
Amy’s birthday today. 42 years old. Still a young ‘un.
I didn’t feel so fantastic this morning – slight sore throat and headache but I still did some morning exercise and talked myself out of feeling worse.
I’m happy that on Monday to Thursday, I have 2/9 each morning as they are mostly good students and we can have fun together. And sure enough, by the end of the class, I was in a calm enough mood to deal with Amy’s crankiness as we prepared things for my visa application and my house registration document. Ironic that we are getting around to getting this as I’ve got it in my head that we will go back to Australia in the future.
Well, we got that all sorted easily enough and headed off to Le Meridian for a lovely lunch with lots of bread and it was a struggle to eat so much!
Anyway, the rest of the day was fine. Greeted by Tangmo as I came home, played a bit, pulled some weeds and then Amy and I did some Just Dance as she wants to do some more exercise. It was fun, and I even beat her. I think we’ll both sleep well tonight.
All in all, a good day. Got to prepare myself for my busy teaching day tomorrow and try to orgnaise what else we will do in classes for the rest of the week.
We marched ever onward Til we conquered all around Spilled blood, spread disease Put generations in the ground Now the march is inward To conquer our own mind What then becomes of us After what we find?
Godsnake
Some absurd things make us laugh While others they offend But if you cannot laugh at yourself You’ll be angry until your end You can have your faith and eat it Not everyone feels the same Our beliefs are as absurd as each others Let’s not apportion blame
Legacy of GG
Ugly is art, all the same No judgement on defect It deserves respect Only opinion, it’s in the name It could be a mistake Art for art’s sake Like it or leave it Opinions aren’t facts So just relax If you don’t believe it Existing is real Whatever you feel Fame can be fleeting Soon passing on by Even after you die Those people you’re meeting Will return to the sky Just as you and I
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for the delicious smells coming from the kitchen this morning as Amy prepares me my lunch – chilli jam fake duck. The fake meats here are many and varied and I’m grateful for all the choices.
Argh – fuck it all, fuck it away Get it out, make it snappy Process frustration every day Get it out, just be happy
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for Amy’s cooking experiments which means I can eat Pecan cake today as she will make a new one (for Goy’s birthday). Her recent cookies were delicious.
I am so happy and grateful for our air fryer and Amy’s new batch of cinnamon scrolls which she is heating up now. I realise how useless I am at cooking, having not really done any for the last ten years or so. One day I will have to find out how to use the kitchen again.
I am so happy and grateful that we can listen to Australian radio online. It’s nice to hear familiar English language voices even though it’s mostly vacuous nonsense. I know it makes Amy feel more comforted to listen. I’m thinking that we will end up back in Australia in the next ten years.
I am so happy and grateful for this delicious cinnamon scroll that I am about to eat. Amy made them earlier this week and she nailed it. Better than any store-bought scroll I ever tried.
Everyone was asking me why I wasn’t drawing pictures of Amy, so I thought I’d prepare a little surprise for our 11th wedding anniversary. I started with one of us together and then ones with Amy and one of her friends. I then sent these digitally to her friends and asked them all to send them back to Amy digitally today. It was fun to plan all this and it got me a lot of practice with sketching.
Shaun and AmyAmy and JessicaFern and AmyMay and AmyAmy and MueyAmy and GraceBillie and AmyMai and AmyAmy and Bookie
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for the TV in our hotel room last night. The porter switched it on when bringing in our bags and I thought it was weird to turn on the TV. As I was waiting for Amy I switched channels by total coincidence they had the ABC Channel and the Swans game was being shown live. I managed to watch the first half before we had to go out for dinner.
Woke up today with huge indecision about the future. Last night Amy and I discussed what we might do in the future and whether we are happy where we are at this time.
Amy’s reverse culture shock has been getting her down a lot and she is itching to go back to Australia – whether just to visit or to make more long term plans. She says once her parents have passed that she has no compulsion to stay in Thailand.
Combined with news that our school’s budget has been cut and we will have to teach more classes, containing more students, it’s a somewhat depressing look ahead. I would be happy not to work at all. I can ‘be’ in any place or country and the advantage for me here is that I don’t necessarily have to work, whereas in Australia it would be a must just to survive.
The current plan is that Amy goes to Australia for 3 to 6 months once there are less travel restrictions and I carry on teaching (or perhaps stop – to be considered) and then when Amy returns we start doing some sort of business on our land and see how that goes. If that keeps us both happy, then we stay and if not then maybe we have to decide to pack up and think about our options in Australia.
I started this post with these pictures of the summer garden taken a couple of weeks ago, but bigger thoughts have taken over. Let’s see how our garden grows.
Our mulberries have gone mental this year – everyday I can pick a new bowlful.These tall branches reaching into the sky now have so much fruit that they are bending to touch the ground. I don’t know if this needs to be cut to grow differently or if it’s best to just leave it the way it is.This Jacaranda currently has more flowers than leaves. Our four Jacarandas all seem to flower at random times throughout the year. I just hope that they can live and survive a lot longer and grow as big as the ones in Australia. Love these trees.This is a weird bush, plant, tree (?) that reminds me of fractal theory – it looks like each ‘branch’ separates off into two and on and on.
24th Mar 2023 – The plan I discuss above is still in progress. Amy will have been in Australia on and off for almost two years by the end of this year and will come back then and again consider doing some business on our land. Things are a little more normalised after the 2 or 3 years of pandemic restrictions. The mulberries are going crazy again this year too. I wish the sky were as blue today as it is in these pictures. Today’s AQI is 224 (Very unhealthy).
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for our wheelbarrow. Yesterday I used it to move a whole heap of rocks to the other side of the garden. Without my wheelbarrow, this would’ve been a real pain. I’m also grateful for our big shovel too. this helped me get all the rocks into the barrow. They are both bright orange – like lots of garden equipment here in Thailand.
The best thing about today was getting a gift from Am and Tee. It’s just a mug but I liked Am’s explanation for choosing it.
I taught Maeve online again tonight and that was really a pleasure – she’s a bright and enthusiastic learner so time went quickly.
I tried to practice guitar after that but somehow my fingers and brain aren’t quite connecting. That happens sometimes. If it’s not coming together after ten minutes, put it down and try again tomorrow.
I am so happy and grateful that Amy had such a good time at the weekend. She came back very happy and a little drunk. I am grateful to Takky for taking care of her and doing all the driving too.
Well, Dylan didn’t make it on Saturday as he went out the night before. I can recall times when things like that would’ve upset me – especially as I was up and waiting for him at the meeting point. But now, I just brush it off and get on with other things and I spent an enjoyable day around the house and even treated myself to my first beers of the year – for which I paid for on the Sunday – but it was OK to remember what alcohol is like! It was also damn hot during the day and through the night now too. One thing I did notice is that my neck didn’t hurt in the morning like it usually does. Just the rest of my body suffering.
Anyway – the best thing that happened today was that I managed to get a lot of posts on to the blog as there is nothing much to do at school this week. Sadly, this morning George was really rude and abrupt with me, not even trying to be friendly with generic conversation, inviting others out for coffee to a different place than his usual DeLanna and not inviting me along or even looking at me. I can’t pinpoint anything in particular that I have done to upset him but he seems to have some problem with me again.
It’s sad to be posting up blogs from 2019 and how George helped me a lot and now he doesn’t even want to talk to me. I have my suspicions that it is something to do with his relationship with Bee and her friendship with Amy. I haven’t been the friend he wants me to be and that seems a little sad, selfish and egotistical on his behalf.
George likes his little troupe of followers to go along with him and everything he says and if you step out of line you are not allowed back in. Even Bee says he has problems with friends which is so odd because he is friendly and outgoing on the surface. But all that’s superficial.
Anyway, now is a test to see how I handle things because the environment at work is very uncomfortable because of this.
I’ve been reading Zen Mind, Zen Beginner and some of that calms me – but I can’t quite work out how. Other bits of it seem close to nonsense in a realistic world setting. I can understand it without thinking it’s something I should do – like bowing 9 times or something like that.
Anyway, reading, thinking, growing. It’s the same as it ever was.
1994ever 