Immersion – 30th May 2024

No moon, no stars distract
My world is on this page
Immersed in the act
A real story for this age

A wide world, web wild
Spinning in my head
Weaving my inner child
With the written and said

Wonders of the word
My world on this page
Only silence is heard
Projected from the stage

Submitted to WDYS #240


Today I’m feeling:

A little tired but positive.  Snoozed my alarm and skipped exercise this morning otherwise I feel like I will be totally exhausted by tomorrow night.

I’ll see how I feel tomorrow morning but hope to do some exercise again.  I can feel my abs holding me together a little better!

Today I’m grateful for:

All the folks that grew the watermelon, picked, cut and packed it and sold it to me in the market this afternoon.  Refreshing and cooling.

The best thing about today was:

After school, I did a quick walk around the lake again to see who was around and bumped into my quiet grade 8 students Earn and Nampan who I had also just finished teaching about 15 minutes earlier.

I asked them if they liked studying with me and they both grew big smiles and said yes and when I asked them why they said that the class was fun and that I am funny.

It was nice to hear that and made me feel good.

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

The afternoon grew super humid and dealing with a restless class of grade 8s was hard work and made me sweaty.  Film came and stood next to me waving a fan saying that I was sweating too much.

When I bumped into some other students they said that I looked tired and I realised that I was feeling it and when I got home I went straight out to pick up some food at the walking street.

I had planned to go and eat with Baipad and her sister later on but couldn’t wait.

Something I learned today?

Teaching my grade 12 class about IELTS today I asked the students what they knew about it, what they wanted to know and at the end of the lesson, what they had learned.

During this lesson, we all learned that the test costs about 7,350 baht here in Thailand.

Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10

I sent a message of support to Namsai who cried in class today because others made fun of her not knowing how to spell a word.  I got really upset with the rest of the class about it at the time.

Whilst not particularly vile I did cut in traffic on the way to school and upset some ute-driving workers who sped up to force me out.

The last traffic lights before school are a pain in the ass and take too long because of the way they are set up (just one direction can enter the junction at a time).  As the turning lane moves the slowest I usually drive down the freer lanes and cut in which is usually easy because the Thais are either so chill or so lacking in attention that they don’t move quickly and leave big gaps to cut into.

Driving to school is probably my least favourite part of the day.

I took this picture last night as our birdy was on her nest. I had to stand in our living room behind the blinds and then zoom in to get this shot without frightening her off.

Getting There – 31st May 2022

I don’t want you to get left behind
I know you feel you’re standing still
The world is running too fast to find
The chances to improve your skill
So I’ll give you all the time I can
Although my time is hard to spare
Let’s walk together to make a plan
That will see you getting there


Failures really gave me confidence. They led to great things and opportunities. I was terrified of those very things happening until they happened.

Cindy Spiegel

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have a visiting bird at eye level, and out of the way of our cats. I hope I can see the chicks hatch and they don’t fall out of the nests into our cat’s mouths.

The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour #63 – Creation Myth – 6th November 2020

A weird one for these weird times.

Highly curated, carefully selected and specifically ordered* for your listening edification by world-renowned DJtenzenmen, who has over 1 year of experience in this business.

This week there’s music from Peter Black, Feed Me Jack, Cause For Effect, Didjits, Api Uiz, Thingy, Banks, Max Frost and the Troopers, Victimize, Men’s Recovery Project, Thinking Fellars Union Local 282 and Caroliner Rainbow Customary Relaxation of the Shale.

Intro and background music by Utotem, Phantom Tollbooth, Daniel Striped Tiger and someone else I forgot.
Incidentals taken from the Church of the Sub Genius Hour of Slack.

Find us on Twitter and Facebook too. Tell us if you like it, tell us if you don’t.

Listen right here or Podbean, Stitcher, Apple, Amazon…..all those cool places I guess.
* ie totally random.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the few days I got to spend with the little bird that Kim caught. I’m sorry we couldn’t save it.