Magdalena Bay – liked this and was surprised to see that they are playing in Australia. They seem to be popular and I’ve never heard of them (which I guess isn’t unusual these days!). The thing that puts me off their music though is that it’s just too damn nice!
Irreversible Entanglements – Again nice agit-jazz but too far into the jazz for my tastes.
Prurient – I understand the appeal. Not for me.
Omar Souleyman – I seem to be behind on his releases and this is another enjoyable album. I was disappointed when I saw him live though, it didn’t quite translate in the venue where I saw him which was part of an arts festival. Needed more sand!
Avalanche Kaito – Recommended by you before and I enjoyed the discovery.
There’s still a mountain to climb And will the promise there hold true?
Step into the light I keep telling myself…
Step into the light I keep telling myself…
Step into the light I keep telling myself…
Submitted to WDYS #254 (above picture prompt). The title and first line is from Archers of Loaf’s ‘Step Into The Light’ and constitute the whole of its lyric! I haven’t added much more but it represents the dark headspace I’ve found myself in recently.
I could admire Thatcher as a woman dealing with a man’s world, but as a politician I despised her.
It’s impossible to say how things would have gone if she was never elected but I see the decline of the UK starting with her.
I appreciate that things were on the decline before that but this was visible during my lifetime and one of the reasons I was glad to leave the UK in the 90’s.
“Is it so wrong to sit on the fence?” – I constantly consider this, perhaps a reflection of my own Englishness. People who don’t sit on the fence seem to have more charisma and confidence but I find the world far more grey.
I also consider that I shouldn’t express an opinion if I am not fully aware of the facts.
Pretty good, though I feel like I’m overheating. Not sure if something is going on in my body or it’s just leftover from pushing myself with exercise this morning.
Today should be a relatively easy day at school and hopefully I still feel motivated when I get home and play some guitar. I totally lazed away the weekend and though I don’t feel guilty about it, I still know that I should be doing stuff.
Today I’m grateful for:
Only five students turning up to my first class. They didn’t know where everyone else was and assumed that they were taking the whole week away from school, as from Wed-Fri, they are not at school and supposed to be studying online.
I played a Quizziz of each student’s choice for the first hour and then let them go for the second two hours of our class, so I’m back early for more coffee!
The best thing about today was:
The extra coffee time that turned out well, as I got a couple of nice poems written after doing a bit of reading and thinking.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Another one of my pens went missing today during my class with 2/7. I’m fairly certain that it is Program who is taking them as he is always trying to steal things out of my pocket, never has his own pen and always walks around the room and near the table when I am not there.
I may be wrong but I’ve got my eye on him.
Something I learned today?
As I had some spare time in the morning, I ducked into the grade 10 English class to chat with some of the students I knew and whilst there, Kru Ren came in to teach. He didn’t do anything to try and get the students attention and seemed to be just shouting to no one, as everyone else was either on their phone, playing games or making TikTok videos.
I just don’t get how that is going to work. But what was weird was that meeting some of the students a couple of hours later, I asked them about the class and they were able to talk about the subject fairly coherently. Maybe it got better after I left, or Kru Ren decided to teach in Thai rather than English, so that at least he would be understood.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I stayed back after my last class to talk with Praew some more. I think she is a little bit of an attention seeker in some ways and I’m not totally sure what to believe. With her anxiety, depression and being bullied in class, it is sure to mess with her behaviour.
This Island Under night Skies a-blazing Rows and rows of homes Turning to ash and dust Maui, Hawaii – on fire No rescue until it’s too late There’s money to be made rebuilding This island under night skies a-blazing
Destruction and death Build back better, U.S.A. Casino waiting
The Country of the Blind. – Stanzas 1 and 4 by C.S. Lewis
Hard light bathed them and a whole nation of eyeless men dark bi-pedals, not aware of how they were maimed A long process, clearly a slow curse drained through centuries Left them thus
If a man, one that had eyes a poor misfit, spoke of the grey dawn, or the stars or green sloped sea waves Or admired how warm tints changed in a lady’s cheek None complained he had used words from an alien tongue None questioned. It was worse. All would agree “Of course.” Came their answer “We’ve all felt like that.” They were wrong.
……………… 1. What is Lewis saying? 2. Here he compares the poet to the masses who believe they have experienced the same feelings. Why does Lewis say they are wrong? Look at the first stanza. 3. What are your feelings in comparing the poem to society, today?
This has taken me a while to get to as I prefer to spend my time writing over analysing. Slowly I am starting to appreciate analysis though so as to better understand what a poet might be saying.
So, today I finally came back to this and interestingly I read this quote this morning which seems along similar lines:
That showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them.
– Socrates, The Apology
To attempt to answer the questions…. 2. Lewis says that they are wrong because society as a whole blindly accepts what it may be told. (Does this connect with the phrase ‘the one-eyed man is the king of the blind?). 3. In comparing the poem to society, I can see the parallels but as a poet, I prefer to consider myself with the man with eyes. But then, maybe individually, we all do that. And thus we end up with society. Individually thinking and believing different things and collectively believing the same things.
And I think that answers question 1.
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty good again. I forgot to write anything this morning as instead of spending the first six hours of the day at the cafe I decided to sit with my old class and help some of them with their work though I also took advantage of this time to make some future lessons.
Sitting in that class made me look at the kids a little differently. I could see that they were more attentive to the Thai teacher and understood more (obviously). They still struggled when it came to answering questions and their comprehension but it made me feel a little more sympathetic with them.
The work Kru NumNim has been giving them is from the British Council and I decided to take it and reuse it for my reading classes with them. I’m hoping that they at least remember some of it and can draw on their learning in this class when it comes to doing it again in mine.
At House, I sat, read and wrote as usual and now felt that 4 hours was an ok amount of time to spend doing that, instead of the six hours of the previous couple of weeks.
Today I’m grateful for:
All the folks who ensured that my records arrived safely from Hong Kong.
The best thing about today was:
Everything again. It was consistently good from morning alarm, exercise, breakfast and driving to school to getting home, sitting back and watching videos.
I’m also feeling a little relief at having fewer hours to teach tomorrow than before too as another two hours got passed on to another teacher.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
The parcel of Bennu The Heron records arrived yesterday but I had to go and pick them up from the main post office and pay 700 baht tax on them which is just about the end of my money for the month.
Still, it was better than paying what Amy originally thought was 4000 baht. If it had been that much then I would have sent them back.
Something I learned today?
I found Yurin sitting by herself today and she looked up at me sadly and said ‘No friends’. I talked with her for a little while and she said that she was quarrelling with Dena and Earn though I’m not sure about what. I told her not to worry and maybe it will all blow over.
Later I caught up with Dena and she said that Yurin was always causing drama and everyone was sick of it. Actually, I’m not surprised at this as Yurin was always causing problems in the first semester of grade 7 when she was hanging out with Hyper, who eventually got taken out of school by her parents. Somewhere inside, Yurin has some conscience, though sadly, I don’t think the future holds much positive for her.
Praew told me that she won’t be in school tomorrow as she has to go to hospital and when I asked her why, she explained that she has to get new medicine for depression.
I asked her how she felt after taking the medicine and she said that she felt better but it also made her more anxious. I noticed before that she has shaky hands. She’s a bright and funny girl and I wouldn’t have guessed that she was taking medicine for depression.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I told Praew that she could talk to me anytime if she wanted.
For the last couple of days, I’ve been trying to encourage Baipad to do something kind for her friends. Yesterday she offered up that she lent her lip balm to her friend.
But then I asked her to do something intentionally kind today and she was stuck.
When I saw her in the morning she and all her friends were all just sitting playing games on their phones, with barely any interaction between them.
She told me that she will go to Chiang Mai tomorrow so I reminded her that she could buy a nice gift for a friend or something like that. Let’s see if she does!
I took this picture because Jin demanded it. Ueang and Jin, busy avoiding study.
Some things are indefensible We all make mistakes The idea is to learn and grow No matter what it takes
When genocide repeats itself What was the fight for? When the persecuted rain down Their own hypocritical war
When destruction becomes immoral What must a soldier do? Take a big bite of courage To get the message through
Propaganda no longer hides The truth of all this killing To turn a buck for a belief In a society no longer willing
Today I’m feeling:
Good, after forcing myself up and to exercise. I really wanted to sleep more so I’m happy with myself and my motivation.
Today I’m grateful for:
The local hospital and Dr Poom, my medicine dispenser. I was able to get straight in today with barely 5 minutes wait, despite it being very busy. I also asked about information for my students who are struggling and what to recommend them if and when they go to the hospital.
It occurred to me today that after Baipad tried to overdose on paracetamol all the hospital were concerned about was her kidney health. It seems like maybe no one even asked her why she did it!
Anyway, the info from Dr Poom was useful as they have a child psychiatrist there and psychotherapists too.
The best thing about today was:
My energy levels being great for most of the day due to that morning exercise. I felt energetic and inspired through all of the day and though I wasn’t doing much strenuous work since the morning I just kept going from one thing to another.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago there has been a change to access the full replay of the AFL matches online and whilst I was able to access it with a VPN last time, today it didn’t work and I was getting wound up by it while trying to figure out a way around it. Eventually I just had to resign myself to watching the 15 minute mini-match highlights. Disappointing but all I can do is shout at the clouds.
Something I learned today?
I learned that it is costing the USA 200 million dollars an hour to keep the genocide rolling in Palestine. Or as the USA likes to call it, defending Israel.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
I sent pep messages to Anchan and Baipad this morning. I also chatted a little with my other students, Freya, Winter and Wipping.
I beeped at the annoying BMW in front of me that failed to move at the traffic lights, meaning that we all missed it and couldn’t go anywhere. I was frustrated for a minute.
Did you do something difficult or challenging today?
I picked up the guitar again today and it sucked! But I persevered even whilst continuing to suck. I need to change the strings too. They sound dull – much like my playing! Never mind. I won’t be deterred.
I took this picture because this was the view from our dinner table on Saturday, looking over the Mae Khong to Laos.
This is our genocide so that makes it ok We’re making money and making them pay Never been the good guys, why start now Doublespeak makes us believable somehow
Accepting that our morals are better than yours Peace is treason in this world of wars If you don’t agree then we’ll have to kill you And when we need an enemy, you know, it’s still you
Blessed are we with the God-given guns Bombs with the power of multiple suns No longer left with any place to hide Welcome to our wonderful genocide
Today I’m feeling:
A little slow to get going this morning but now I’m coffeed up and lesson planning so my brain is engaged. Kinda don’t want to stop except I need to eat something!
Today I’m grateful for:
The weird Chinese tea that tasted like medicine but successfully cooled my mouth at the mala soup restaurant.
The best thing about today was:
Starting with a bang and feeling good winding down from around lunchtime until nighttime! I could’ve gotten more done but things will get done at the right time.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Baipad told me that she was hoping her mum would be sympathetic and understand how depressed she was after taking an overdose but whilst in the hospital she asked “Why don’t you just die?” Jesus Christ. I didn’t know what to say except that ‘I’m sorry’
Something I learned today?
Tibet is actually called Xizang. Not even the locals have ever called it Tibet.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
After Baipad told me what her mum said I consoled her and advised her to tell the doctor as much information as she can about her situation and feelings. She’s a little shy and scared to talk about this, preferring to hold it all in but it’s obvious that this is having a negative effect.
We dropped a case of beer to Goleng and thanked him for taking care of Amy last night after she drank too quickly and threw up around 7pm and passed out soon after! Despite that she said she had a great time and everyone was laughing with her this morning.
I took this picture because today was the last day for splashing water for Songkran.
Inspired by news this morning that one of my young female students didn’t come home last night and was seen drunk posting on Instagram. Her name is connected with the poem’s title.
Like all my troublesome students, she reminds me of myself at that age. We fail to see that others want to help us and believe that we know better.
I hope she is safe and that the title doesn’t become a reality.
Today I’m feeling:
Super tired. I slept for about ten hours and when I woke up Amy started asking me questions and I could feel that my brain wasn’t working yet. I couldn’t think what to say!
The air is thick this morning and the mountains are barely visible, my nose blocked and bloody. I guess all the talk of countering the air pollution this year can’t overcome the actual problem. Let’s pray for rain, for all the good that prayer has ever done.
Today I’m grateful for:
An evening out for a change, trying this new restaurant Friendcation. It’s a fancy, expensive, beautiful place. The owners obviously have money though we can’t see how they can make profit yet. Chiang Rai isn’t quite ready yet but in the future they could be perfectly placed to do well.
The best thing about today was:
Reading more about British colonialism in the afternoon. I’m really enjoying this book, though it is hard going with the language used. Once I get into the rhythm of it though I don’t want it to end.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Amy and I left the restaurant at about 10:45 and Amy wanted to go to The Hideout Bar to check it out.
I was just tired and wanted to come home though. I didn’t see the point in us having to go tonight when we can go there at any other time to check it out.
As I was the driver I came home and listened to Amy complaining to along the way.
Something I learned today?
I heard that Pang made it home after her friends heard that the police were going to get involved. Not sure what the fallout from this will be.
I took this picture because this was the pleasant Mediterranean garden environment for our dinner this evening,
You can’t keep your dreams under a mattress Where they’ll be surely forgotten and flat They have value worthy of investment There’s really nothing better than that
First line appropriated and the rest inspired by a thought from David Elikwu’s newsletter
Today I’m feeling:
I woke up tired but was able to easily plough through my abs workout because I had things on my mind. I feel a little in and out of depression too but it’s very vague and dissipates quickly. I think some days I wonder if what I’m doing is actually worthwhile. It happens.
Today I’m grateful for:
Nancy and Aob at TLC for helping me get my visa sorted out since I forgot to get the re-entry permit last October! Despite the hard time they give me and the amount of money they make off me I still appreciate what they’ve done to help fix this.
The best thing about today was:
Getting another year’s stay in Thailand with my new visa. Though whilst I was sitting there watching the officer stamp and shuffle papers I started to brood on the fact of how much longer am I going to go through this annoying process. Tomorrow I’ll probably forget about all this until next November when I’ll have to start preparing for the next application again.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I got the message that next week I have to help in the Primary school for Scout week. It probably will be pretty easy but not as preferable as doing nothing, or even as a regular workweek. Still, a change can be good.
Something I learned today?
From The Jimmy Dore Show on YouTube:
The Internet was abuzz recently after MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid, while showing a video of Joe Biden, was caught by a “hot mic” revealing her true feelings about Biden by saying “… starting another fucking war.”
Of course, Reid would never have intentionally said anything so overtly anti-Biden on the air, so she was forced to apologize, although she only mentioned having dropped the “f word.”
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
As I passed Rista after class on the third floor of building six I saw that she had some rubbish to throw away. As I already had my coffee cup to take to the bin I offered to take hers too for which she gave her appreciation.
25 THINGS ABOUT LIFE I WISH I HAD KNOWN 10 YEARS AGO – 10. Pick an Industry, Not A Job. If you want to become good at something, you need to spend years and years doing that. You can’t do that if you hop from industry to industry. Pick an industry you love and start at the bottom. You will find the perfect role for you eventually.
It seems kind of incomprehensible to me that I would ever have a choice of the kind of work or job I would do. When I left school at sixteen any job was considered good and a starting point. There were also more jobs available back then too.
When I started my first long-term job it wasn’t something that I was particularly interested in (electrical wholesale) but I did enjoy the hard work when I was a storeman and did work my way up to be the buyer. I wasn’t interested in progressing any further though, which would’ve meant becoming a manager.
With the opportunity of moving to Australia, I discovered an interest in computing (beyond just playing video games) and was able to spend a year or so studying for that. Then I got in at a low level and worked my way up and sideways for the next 18 years. Once again I was not interested in (or offered) a management role.
While working an office job I knew one thing and that was that I loved coffee! After getting laid off it was a simple step to take courses learning to be a barista or bartender and I got into making coffee until injury stopped me short.
Moving to Thailand then forced me to make the decision to become a teacher because there are only a few things that a foreigner is allowed to do here for work. With each change of job or industry, I’ve always pushed myself to work hard to learn what I can about it. Teaching has really tested me but when I get it right I do love what I’m doing.
As I mentioned above though, there are times when I am unsure of myself and can’t balance the effort-to-reward ratio properly in my head.
I feel that the idea of this question is a little privileged. Many, maybe even most people, don’t have choices a lot of the time and just have to take the opportunities that they can get.
Great and ready to go. Up at 6am to head out with Bruno on a long ass bike ride that I’m following him along on. Right now, after 8 hours on and off we’re in the middle of some mountains waiting to go up to see a temple perched right at the top of a craggy cliff.
Today I’m grateful for:
The guy who came to help us use the petrol pump outside a village in the mountains. We didn’t need his help and he was just curious about is but we appreciated him anyways.
The best thing about today was:
Stopping in a pretty well-kept mountain village somewhere between Chiang Mai and Lampang and enjoying a coffee in an old wooden cafe overlooking a small community square where kids were playing.
(Later) We opted for going up to Wat Chaloem before it was too late and I’m glad we did. It was an expensive entry for foreigners but compared with anywhere else in the world I found it good value. After a van ride and an exhausting walk up steep steps the views from the top were incredible. When I saw the mountain in the distance as we were riding towards it through the valley, I couldn’t believe that there was a temple up there and then I was up there looking back down.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Bruno was a little frustrated with me and how slow I was riding but I just wanted to enjoy the journey for as long as possible. His personality has him racing everywhere. Well, he is the way he is and I am the way I am.
To be honest I haven’t felt quite so comfortable riding my bike since coming off it last year. That was only a minor incident but it was a good reminder of how easy and quickly an accident can happen. I’m way more cautious going around corners now especially when there is gravel on the road.
Something I learned today?
I learned a lot about the roads through the mountains around Chiang Mai and Lampang and the villages nestled within. I learned a little more about myself and about Bruno.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
At one of the lookout points we chatted with a Russian couple that live in Chiang Mai.
We deliberately stopped at a nice village cafe and I bought some expensive coffee honey from them to give them a boost.
I petted several dogs including a beauty at the temple that had a reddened eye and only three legs. It was very affectionate.
When was the last time I felt overwhelmed?
From memory that was when I was working at Woolworths and having to deal with my asshole boss. I’m sure he may have been a good boss for the company but that’s the kind of person I despise. Someone who puts the corporation ahead of people is not to be trusted!
Anyway, that situation badly affected me as it was tied in with physical pain from overwork along with depression and (apparently) PTSD. I was supremely grateful to get out of that situation as I felt myself going out of control.
I took lots of beautiful photos today but chose this picture because this is what I was faced with when I went to brush my teeth. This is Thailand, this is jungle country.
1994ever 