Tag: gratitude journal

Singy – 7th October 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Rob’s singing about his cat again
And I’m trying to sing-a-long
I can’t quite hit the harmony
And I get the lyrics wrong

But the joy is in our hearts
As we’re belting out this song
There’s no difference between us
We are all where we belong

Inspired by listening to Thingy and the genius songwriting of Rob Crow and his songs about his cat Molly.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that the dentist called to remind me to go today and bring my mouth shield because I forgot it last time.

It’s been pretty hot during the days recently and despite flooding in other parts of the country, it hasn’t rained here for a week or more now. The temperature in the evening is perfect though, and when the skies are clear, Venus and Jupiter (maybe) are super bright up above.

When I got home on Tuesday, Amy wanted to go for a swim and despite the sun being behind the mountains, when we got to the resort pool, just 3 minutes ride from us, it was a very pleasant hour or so, which a few other families were also enjoying. Relaxing here, overlooking beautiful jungle mountains and rice fields, a clear pool, food and drink, we both once again blessed ourselves for how lucky we are.

It’s dentist time again today. Let’s see how much these damn things will cost me this time! I’m happy to still have most of my teeth. I can still see my dentist’s face from when I was a teenager, always telling me to brush more and stop eating candy. He was trying his best but my rebellious streak thought I could survive forever.

Well, here I am, mouth full, sometimes hurting and most times painful on the wallet. I can remember a time when mum got her first clip-in teeth and I must be older than that now. So, I can consider I’m doing well enough, right?

The last few times I stayed with her, I was always amused in the mornings when she would wake up and ask me to hold on while she put in her teeth. A few more were required by that time. She’d also have put in her hearing aids and put on her glasses. Is that my destiny too? So long as I can put it all off a little longer, that’s ok.

I can’t imagine not losing my hearing, considering all the loud shows I’ve been at, surely exposed more than my mum had in her lifetime. Her parents both went deaf but I don’t know about anything on dad’s side. Hopefully, I inherited something good there.

This Shirt – 6th October 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

This shirt is too tight
Restricting my space
Sleeves too short
And collar around my face

Nice design and style
But not quite the right fit
It’s only 8 am
And I’ve got all day to wear it

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for a great massage yesterday. Combined with my working out recently I can feel my body and thinking changing for the better.

Is it post-massage hangover? Slept well, woke up happy enough but sitting this morning, reading and sipping my usual big cup of cappuccino, I was aching and uncomfortable. I’ve noticed that I really love lying down on my back – it’s about the only position I feel comfortable in. I don’t have to use many of my puny muscles to support myself.

However, I recognise that this is not anyway to thrive and is one of the reasons for soldiering through the Six-pack in 30 days course, which, when you look deeper, is actually Six-pack in 90 days but who is gonna buy into that? I’m pleasantly surprised by my sticking with this regime so far, two weeks or more, and notice a sense of overall well-being, despite the achy bits and let’s hope that strengthening these stomach muscles will be part of the solution to the random pain points throughout my body. Or at least, perhaps, I’ll be able to touch my toes.

24 Jun 2025 – Update to this is that whilst I still have a better feeling of well-being, I don’t have a six pack, my body continues to ache and I still can’t touch my toes.

I finished entering in my 1979 diary to the blog, which has been an interesting exercise in the memory-jerking reminiscence department, but I have to keep remembering so that I can actually write alongside the diary entries at some point.

The more I think about collecting my life history into one place, the more ideas come along or memories of things forgotten are prodded forward for evaluation. When I see all the shit in the world I can’t believe how I lucky I am. I think about this every day now.

Check Your Dreams – 5th October 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 4 Comments

Conspiracies abound among the paranoid
Secret cabals of lizard men must be destroyed
Spooks at every corner have been deployed
Data analysis deep tracking employed

Inception matrixes to check your dreams
Killer drones are shooting laser beams
Manufacturing consent it seems
Our new masters are our own machines

10th May 2024 – Submitted to No Theme Thursday for the attached picture prompt

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that I pretty much managed to finish my grading files in an hour yesterday. A whole semester measured with a number.

Today’s a good day so far (it’s 2pm). Probably the best thing was spending an hour in the city getting a massage. First one for a long while. How grateful I am to be getting paid and being able to get a one-hour massage! I’m thinking to go back again on Thursday! Why not!?

There is nothing particularly bothering me personally these days. My life is sweet. I’m conscious that I’m reading a lot of news again, generally about the US and the US-China relationship. That shit is making me angry and I’m wondering if I should just cut it all out again.

Amy and I finally watched The Tiger King and that documentary seems to highlight for me everything that is wrong about the USA. In my youth, I always argued for freedom but as the saying goes, ‘with great freedom comes great responsibility’. I don’t think freedom to be ignorant and stupid was quite what my idealised youth was thinking of.

False Faces – 4th October 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Accept me the way I am
What you see is what you get
There’s no fake smile hiding
Something you don’t know yet

Speaking as I see it
Truth will rise to the top
Connections are only made
When your false faces stop

There’s nothing to be afraid of
Whether we’re friends or not
I’m happily surrounded by
The honesty my friends have got

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the opportunities we have – we can put some money into mutual funds to help us in the future.

A pretty busy but also relaxing weekend. On Saturday, we prepared for Bruno and Nut to visit on Sunday, although I must say Amy did most of the preparation where food was concerned. Actually, no – she did all of it!

On Saturday, I wasn’t feeling too hot, probably side effects from the vaccine and I slept in the afternoon. Luckily, I felt better by Sunday and when Bruno and Nut came, we had good food and a good gossip.

Bruno has managed to get himself a good bit of work on the Netflix film about the Thai Cave Rescue and seems to have met some interesting people there.

T.M.I. – 3rd October 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

*So many things to be late for
How can anyone keep up?
Have you heard the latest
Gossip overflows its cup
It’s a big world of T.M.I.
Mindless work is just distraction
Just time for another meeting
To discuss avoiding action

*I read this line somewhere and was immediately taken by it and wrote it in a notebook. Then remembered it again when I was struggling for ideas and came up with this.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to chat with Bruno and Nut at our house. It was a pleasant afternoon with food, alcohol (not me) and coffee and cake. Nut seems pretty down-to-earth and straightforward. Amy and I like that.

Sandcastle – 1st October 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Some revel in comforts
Others itch for change
Nest has been made
Now time to rearrange

Build a dream castle
Atop a mountain high
Next a beach paradise
Under this big sky

Settle down right here
The sun shining bright
Nothing lasts forever
Thus day turns into night

Weight: 77.7kg
Resting heart rate: 48

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have had my 2nd vaccine yesterday and didn’t have any side effects. Hopefully, it protects me well from Covid.

The beautiful cat is not here today. Probably for the best! Amy was happy to have finished the last couple of days’ baking work though she still has one more tray to do today. I think she is secretly pleased with the results of her work and is half decided on whether to pursue this further. She is equally happy to just do baking for pleasure and when she wants, rather than putting pressure on herself.

I had my second Pfizer shot yesterday with no real side effects that I could tell, except for feeling really good! I maybe a little achey but it’s hard to tell if that is just my normal state these days. Lower back and neck are always like this anyway,

No more classes now and I guess we start grading next week. Pretty easy and I’m able to fill my time, whilst having no work to do, with plenty of reading.

If the weather is ok on the weekend I may go for a ride into the mountains, though as I write this I’m thinking I should wait a bit until the ground dries out.

Push – 30th September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Forcing this one out
Like a rock-hard turd
No ideas forthcoming
Today I have no word

So I pushed and squeezed
For the longest time
Eventually, I came up
With this little rhyme

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the crunchy muesli I bought yesterday and about to eat for breakfast as Amy prepares her workbench for baking her buns.

Another month down and all classes finished. It’s been a trip. There are a lot of Covid cases around Chiang Rai, apparently. It feels like the official figures don’t include any Burmese workers, where they live together in squalid camps and also cannot afford to isolate ‘at home’ for even a day. Whilst cases in general seem to be reducing around the country, potentially it could easily get out of control here as the country prepares to open up again. Despite this, I hope that the kids can come back next month.

After Amy and I are both vaccinated, I guess it will just be a matter of time before we catch the virus and hopefully we will be best protected. I’m of the mind I’d like to get it over with.

This morning there was a beautiful kitten sitting in the teacher’s room. No one knew where it came from. It looks and feels very healthy and it purred loudly when I picked it up. She (I think) followed me downstairs as if I were its new owner, which was tempting, I must admit.

When I came back after coffee, the kitten had been named Chicken and was comfortable on the lap of one of the teachers downstairs. I’m a sucker for a cute cat, even an ugly one, but adding another to our family wouldn’t be fair.

Pay Attention – 29th September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Are you listening carefully
To the big world around?
Are you looking where you’re walking
Or just staring at the ground?

Notice all the details
Little things easy to miss
Be grateful with all your senses
From which to bring you bliss

Breathe deep the air in thanks
Test everything you touch
Taste each gift of food
With the passion you love so much

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the buttery smell this morning as Amy prepares for a busy day baking cinnamon scrolls.

Today I’ve been feeling a little antsy though I’m not sure why. I think maybe yesterday I spent too long sitting and my lower back and thighs felt sore and then I woke up with a stiff neck again. I wasn’t looking forward to another day of sitting, whether at school or at House.

So, as I was going for coffee I decided to head to 22 Grams and read there for a bit, before heading to House. How lucky I am to be able to go to two cafes before even going to work!

There’s talk that we’ll have no holiday this time and that’s kind of a bummer if it happens, but as Dylan said, it’s not exactly like we work that hard anyway. He and George don’t put in the same sort of effort as I do from what I can see and I don’t mean that as a comparison but as a statement that for them they are very relaxed about their classes and the work the students put in. I can’t help myself being fully invested in helping my students.

Nearing the end of the semester, I’m relaxing too but even though I can sit around doing as I like most of the day, I would rather be able to do that at home. Having said that, I probably wouldn’t get as much done, such as reading, blogging or even writing this!

Mother Of All – 28th September 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

George is getting excited now
He really seems quite upset
His words are getting shorter
The angrier he will get

The world has pissed him off
And quite rightly so
The lying liars are lying again
It’s really time for them to go

The sweat is across his brow
His hat looks about to fly
The answer to every question
Is always, ‘why?’ ‘why?’ ‘why?’

An angry man shouts at clouds
Morning, noon and night
The thing is that what he’s saying
Seems to be quite right

Reading Al Franken’s ‘The Truth With Jokes’ and watching George Galloway’s ‘Mother of All Talk Shows’ recently. It’s easy to get worked up.
11th May 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt – mother.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to watch a misty sunrise this morning as I prepare for an easy day at school.

The days and nights are full, they go too quick. Even if they are full of nothing particularly special, the time just disappears. But I’m filled with happiness.

My student Aomsin is interested to be an exchange student so I thought I’d help out with some investigation. I can’t imagine that her family is that rich and I also haven’t been able to find any pricing. I’m just not sure how feasible it might be for her.

Considering whether perhaps Sharon might be able to house her but then don’t know how she might apply for local schools there. I guess I can ask at least.

I’d love to get every willing student overseas to see something of the world. It should be compulsory! In my Utopian world, anyway!

Maybe my enquiries will crush her dreams. That would make me sad.

Time for my one class of the day.