Tag: Buffalo Tom

Carriage Four – 28th February 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 6 Comments

It’s the marker of my day’s end
Another hour to sit and spend
Contemplating tomorrow
In the warmth of my only friend

– Carriage four, sat by the door

*Walking home in the rain again
Missed the subway train again*
There’s a seat with my name
That I can’t explain again….

Submitted for Reena’s Xploration Challenge #319.
*Inspired by Buffalo Tom’s The Bus

Today I’m feeling:

A little disheartened.  I slept late again last night and couldn’t force myself up to exercise.  Like I mentioned yesterday I tend to feel better and more energetic in the evenings when I’ve been sick or still recovering.  When I woke this morning I could feel that I’m still not 100%.

My mood was ok but I could also feel that some of my students weren’t in such a great mood themselves this morning, though as can be expected there are still plenty who were.  Perhaps those down ones infected me slightly though.

I also felt a little disconsolate as I came out of school to grab coffee and the reduced number of students being around already at this time of year reminded me that this will all be over again for another year.

Yesterday and last night was also the turning point for temperatures as I put the aircon on for a little while when I got home after work and then needed it on for four hours at the start of the night.  With just the fan for the rest of the night, I woke up hot and tired.  Time to start the cold showers I think.

Today I’m grateful for:

Casually chatting with Kru Karn about what to teach her class today (with so many students away), which was about to start, and through that coming up with the idea to get the kids to take a photo or video of someone in the school and then make a one-minute video presentation describing them (our topic is Describing People).

Initially, the kids were shocked when I told them all to leave the class and go and find someone to talk about.  And then I was shocked to find all of them in the teacher’s room talking to Kru Karn because they wanted her to be the subject.  When I found them I told them that everyone had to have a different person as the subject and they all left somewhat dejected, though it got their brains spinning.

Whilst they all went off, some actually doing the work, others just playing with the other half-class of students next door, I sat back a little, fielded questions, gave advice and started my grading files.  Eventually, after the two hours were up, everyone had finished the task as best they could and I was happy and they were happy too.

The best thing about today was:

My grade 10s being late for class and me not caring!  The work planned for them can be done at any time so we just started when they finally arrived and can do more next week.  

It wasn’t their fault that they were late so we just enjoyed a relaxed lesson of writing and thinking.

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

(See below)

Something I learned today?

One of our Thai teachers told a student that they will never get a job because they are not smart enough.  I was fuming when I heard this, it’s the antithesis of how a teacher should be.  

It’s a struggle for a teacher to pick everyone up but you have to support the students in any way that you can.  You have to give them something.  

I asked the student who confided the information to me what grade they got from that teacher and it was grade 4! Top grade!  Unbelievable!  It makes me angry!

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

Another student came to me today asking for help with mental health issues.  We talked for about an hour going over the problems they are having (including the issue mentioned above) and despite our struggles with language we blundered through with translation and managed to understand each other.  

I’ve done a little bit of investigation and sent some information for support services in Thai and I will find some more information for them later too.

Bruno took this picture in Italy, in the mountains where his family is from. No pictures from me today.

Victims Family, Tse Tse Fly – Duchess of York, Leeds, Yorkshire, UK – 19th March 1992

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

VICTIMS FAMILY/TSE TSE FLY
Leeds Duchess of York

I fell asleep on the floor and woke up some hours later in darkness and silence, freezing my bollocks off! People emerged pretty soon, except for Ralph – crashed out on the kitchen floor!

After a refreshing cup of tea, it was off into Stoke to get some food and money and back on the road.  Got to Leeds far sooner than expected, including a two-hour stop off on the way. I enjoyed travelling across the M62 as it had some spectacular views. Most motorways, there’s bugger all to see, but this was quite a treat.

Got to Leeds and got rapidly lost looking for a car park.  I tried three, which all advised not to leave your car overnight! Not an optimistic prospect, though if people knew what my car went like, I’m sure they’d leave it alone. The car park I did end up in had a person on watch til nine but even he seemed a bit dodgy to me – hope I’m wrong!

Went up to the Duchess at about six o’clock, where I met Rob outside – much to our frustration, we couldn’t get in. We chatted about everything from good music to good comedy with a brief interruption by a really pissed-up lady who we managed to escape from unharmed – just!

I’m afraid we missed the first band, Tse Tse Fly, who were late replacements for Dawson. I sold the last of the fanzines I’d taken and headed towards the stage where the Family were about to unleash their frenzied onslaught on the expectant crowd. There was a real good sound tonight and things were going well up til Ralph broke 3 strings in about 10 minutes! Not to be outdone, Tim broke the bass drum pedal, upon which an impromptu version of ‘Sinatra’ was performed. Bass pedel replaced and it was on with the show. Once again, the crowd enjoyed the band and the merchandise stall was crammed with people. After some food, I managed to blag a place to stay with the band and said goodbye to Rob who was going home, before heading towards London.

We loaded up the equipment and went to this house in Leeds. I think it belonged to the girl who organised the show (Becky). Everyone was up til about 2 and everyone got reasonably drunk. I was talking to some guy there about Buffalo Tom who we both admired. Victims Family admitted their admiration for Nirvana, whom they played with a couple of years ago on their first UK tour. Nirvana were one of the support bands! Ralph puts Nirvana’s success down to simple pop tunes. Is that why Victims Family aren’t successful then? “Yeah, but our songs are getting straighter in the hope to attract more people.” Other bands on the Family approved list include Assassins Of God, My Name, Pitchfork/Drive Like Jehu, Jesus Lizard (Ralph’s favourite guitarist), amongst others.  Eventually, everyone crashed out to the Nirvana LP.

DO YOU THINK NIRVANA HAVE HANDLED THEIR NEWFOUND SUCCESS WELL?

Ralph: Yep!

HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE BEING IN THAT POSITION?

Ralph: Buy lots of drugs and OD! No, seriously, I don’t know if I could deal with that.

HOW ARE SONGS MADE?

Ralph: Lots of different ways. When I write a song, it can either come from a musical or lyrical idea. Most of the time, a song will be pretty close to the finished arrangement when it gets to the band, but we do lots of tinkering until it’s got that finished feel to it. Essentially, we tweak songs continually until we record them.