Tag: bees

Two Goddesses – 17th July 2023

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

So you want to be the hero?
This path is full of toil
The shortcut to vice and pleasure
Is the easiest to spoil
To be equal to the gods
Means Herculean choices
The answer reveals itself
So trust your inner voices

Today I’m feeling:

Tired but also subconsciously energetic. The kind of feeling after tough exercise, you will be happy with rest or with motion. As I wait for my one class at 1.30 I also have to be ready for when I get home, having to go straight out again to take the motorbike for rego inspection. I’m happy to have Amy pushing me along at the moment. Our house is cleaner than ever and smells of bleach!

Today I’m grateful for:

Kru Aomsin to help me find some glue to try to fix Nong Jet’s broken glasses. It didn’t work unfortunately but we gave it a try and Jet appreciated the effort.

The best thing about today was:

I went to take the bike for inspection but they tried to tell me they needed a paper but I couldn’t understand. The only papers I knew were under the bike seat but apparently, it wasn’t those. So I got Amy on the phone and she said she had some papers at home. The shop wasn’t far away so she got in the car and came down with them. 

Whilst I was waiting I could see a price list on the table ranging from 1000 to 3000 baht so was stealing myself to pay this. But in a flash, we had the paper and Amy paid. 

I don’t believe they even looked at the bike. Total cost? 60 baht!

What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?

In a positive out of control moment I found out that we have another four days holiday starting on the 28th of this month. I reckon with all the holidays here the kids probably only end up studying for eleven years instead of twelve!

Something I learned today?

According to one report I saw today the USA has so much debt now that they have to pay 1 trillion dollars per year just to cover the interest. I don’t understand economics and I don’t understand a system that allows this to happen. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t get away with being able to borrow so much money that it can’t conceivably ever be repaid.

What is something meaningful that has happened lately?

Amy being back for a few weeks is meaningful in that it has gotten me out of my very comfortable zone. Comfortable zones are nice but lead to complacency and I don’t want to be that. I will have to make some adjustments and perhaps not have time to do some things I usually enjoy but that is meaningful too as it helps me decide the things that I really value and desire to do.

What is a challenge I overcame and what did I learn from it?

The biggest most recent challenge was to learn to teach English and then to stand in a real classroom full of expectant faces. What I really learned from it is that I can do anything. I can overcome insecurities and fears. Sometimes I have to remember that too, so I’m glad of this reminder.

I took this picture at the weekend because unbeknownst to me we have a bees nest happening above our heads. I asked Amy what will we do about it and she said her parents wanted to wait until it was bigger so that they could get the honey from it! Well, ok!

(It seems they were just here on the way to somewhere else as a week later there was no sign of them ever being here!)

29th June 2024

Malfunction – 13th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Malfunctions are a means of education
You must learn from your mistakes
The flaws revealed only in the execution
It’s the schooling that mastery makes

Inspired by Robert Greene’s Daily Laws (March – Mastery)

13th Mar 2023 – I thought this poem had a familiar topic as I had read about this again today. This means I have been reading the Daily Laws for one whole year now. It’s become my habit so I’ll keep going, just as I do with the Daily Stoic, which I have in physical form now and read a page a day in the morning with breakfast.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Theodore Roosevelt

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to Dr Arnon’s staff for taking care of our cats. Tigger reports back in good health. Kim and Cap go next week.

In the morning, the trees offer a noisy hum as a collection of bees feed on the fresh pollen. For a moment I couldn’t work out what was making the sound, until looking up into the freshly shooting leaves, and busy buzzing, making a kaleidoscope above me. These are smaller bees, not like the monsters that come to feed on our other flowers. No sign of a hive.

A longer walk this morning, pleasant, enjoyable coffees, some brunch now, to reading again. 

Nasty – 27th December 1983

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Killer bee stings me
Rash comes up very nasty
Going to town but I’m going crazy
Sit back and die, too lazy
Nasty me, lazy crazy

20th May 2023 – I’ve only ever been stung by bees one time as I was walking off the paths in the woods at the common near home. I knew almost every inch of the woods, paths, bracken and streams. I didn’t notice these bees though and I don’t know if I did anything to upset them without knowing but I suddenly noticed them buzzing around and then felt two stings on my arms under my shirt which I immediately ripped off. My white school shirt. Why do I remember that detail? Anyway, it wasn’t a pleasant experience and possibly inspired this poem. I’ve since been bitten and stung by a host of other nasties but no more bees or wasps so far.