Pretty good so far. Setting my alarm for 15 minutes earlier each morning in preparation for my return to work next week. I have a slight twinge in my left lower back from too much sitting around for the last couple of days and probably aggravated by the tree moving yesterday. I got back to exercising today too.
Today I’m grateful for:
Our pumpkin! The pumpkin that both Amy and I took care of to try and get it to a size and maturity that was edible, ended up in our spaghetti dish for lunch and it was great. Well done everyone!
The best thing about today was:
Cleaning out my inbox. It accumulates quickly and I don’t get a chance to follow up everything as I would like. I will need to get on top of this when I start working again next week. Get my priorities sorted again.
I’ve already started clearing out my YouTube Watch Later list by either watching in full or watching a little and deciding it’s not that important.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I decided to sort out a hotel room for myself for this coming Sunday in Bangkok. Nampan sent me a link to one near the venue and through Google Maps it linked to an Agoda booking where it said the cost was just 419 baht. Nice. It also said that if I downloaded the Agoda app I would get a 10% discount, so I did.
However, once downloading and going through the same process the total became something like 600 baht! So I went back to the original Agoda page and went to the checkout and the actual total was about 550 baht in the end!
Well, it’s still cheap enough. Never trust the price of anything you see online. Everything is a subtle scam.
Something I learned today?
When I got home from Utopia at around lunchtime (I was there so long cleaning out my inbox) I was happy to find that Amy had ironed all my shirts! I gave her a big kiss but it was already too hot to hug for long.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
Baipad messaged me after a few days of quiet and she mentioned that she was expecting a delivery to her house in the next couple of days but is still stuck out at her grandma’s.
I suggested that she contact a neighbour or her friend Butter to pay and collect it if and when they call, or failing that she could call me and I could sort it out for her.
I’m starting to see that she has not been raised, or pursued herself, with a mind to think about how to get things done. Perhaps she’s spoiled a bit and I think the issue between her and her mum is that her mum doesn’t see any maturity in Baipad’s behaviour and actions at home, so she continues to treat her as a child that needs taking care of.
I suggested that she show her mum who she is and what she wants in her life and her mum might start treating her differently.
It reminded me of the time I asked Hayden who he was and how much he struggled with that question. Many of us do.
Did you do something difficult or challenging today?
A couple of days ago I watched a video about a tongue exercise and I’ve been trying to do it once or twice a day. It’s simply rubbing your tongue between your teeth and lips/cheek in a circular motion, first one way and then the other, 25 times.
It sounds easy, and it’s not really difficult but I soon started to notice how useless my muscles involved in this exercise are, particularly my neck.
I will keep practising and hope that it helps a little with my neck problems.
I took this picture because Tigger was chilling on the terrace in the late afternoon, perhaps waiting for a storm that never came.
Similar to yesterday in that I feel like I have an oncoming cold.
Yesterday’s trip to the hospital doesn’t seem to have fixed up Amy’s skin allergy so we’ll go to the city this evening to see her doctor who usually is able to help with issues like this.
Today I’m grateful for:
Amy’s specialist skin doctor who advised exactly what she thought her problem was and prescribed medicines to help. Amy trusts this doctor and was much more upbeat after seeing her.
The best thing about today was:
Finding out which classes I will teach next semester. Some new challenges for me that have got me thinking already.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
When Kru Karn first showed me my new classes I saw that I would teach my two most testing groups of students again. Ah well, I can deal with it, I thought to myself.
As it turned out it wasn’t my classes and I found that I don’t have to teach them at all!
I haven’t exercised for over a week now due to not feeling well and also due to the toxic air. I don’t want to be gulping down big gasps of it, trying to catch my breath whilst exercising.
Something I learned today?
A Boeing employee was giving evidence in court blowing the whistle on the company (for what I’m not exactly sure). Boeing’s lawyers asked him to stay an extra day to add more detail and answer questions. However, the following morning he was dead by supposed suicide! And he had already told colleagues that if he was ever found dead it would definitely not be from suicide. Will corporations in the USA still be allowed to get away with murder?
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
I messaged David that the new class lists were available so that he could go and get it from school and start preparing for next year too.
My vile deed today was cutting into traffic at the annoying traffic lights near the hospital. Minus a karma point or two.
No longer intoxicated Awoken from my dreams Meaning was a delusion A stupid delusion it seems
Yeah, happy new year!
Today I’m feeling:
Happily lazy again. I ate lots and did little over these last 4 days and it’s been a good wind down to the end of the year. Tomorrow it’s back to exercise, work and reality. I plan to just do abs and legs this week to try and get the ache out of my shoulders before working on any upper body exercises again. I’m stiff from sitting and laying down so much recently too!
Today I’m grateful for:
The internet, YouTube, the BBC, John Peel and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 whose John Peel Session I have just found and listening to as I’m writing this. Excellent!
The best thing about today was:
Finishing the excellent John Cooper Clarke biography. It feels good to finish reading a book on the first day of the year.
Also releasing the SpeechOdd/HighxVoltage album for pre-order through Bandcamp today which got a few folks interested. It feels good to have a record release on the first day of the year.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
There wasn’t much to be done today, lots I could’ve done but decided not to, so there was little to get out of control.
Perhaps I could say that though I was happy to play a little guitar this afternoon I was also really bad at it. Just missing a few days sets me back. And then after watching some Thinking Fellars live footage I marvel at the genius of their guitar interplay and wonder if I could ever become as skilled as they are. It’s half inspiring, half frustrating. What a great band. I fucking hate popular music – what a waste of skill!
Something I learned today?
I came across an interview with a YouTuber I follow called Nathan Rich titled Scientology, Punk Rock and Addiction. Wild! I know him for his investigative journalism opposing the Western anti-China narratives. Life is long and varied and I’m looking forward to watching this and learning more about his past.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
I made Amy’s bed for her without being asked.
I cleared as many hairy worms as I could find around the hose and drowned them all in a bucket. All this was in an effort to stop Amy’s allergy to them which makes her itchy and brings her out in a rash. Somehow I’m not affected by them.
A close member of your family has committed murder. Would you keep quiet about it? What might your silence depend upon?
No way. The circumstances of the event may have an effect on my attitude towards them but covering it up would be out of the question.
Write a message to myself to be reviewed one year from today.
Why? Everything I write here is up for review at any point in time. Review that.
Art took this picture a few weeks ago on his trip up to Mae Hong Son. I saw it on his Facebook page and it jumped out at me with its magnificent misty morning glow. No new pictures today.
Fairly good after an extra hour of snoozing then good coffee so that when Amy suggested going out for lunch that sounded pretty good to me. The air is already unhealthy due to burning but it’s not overwhelming yet. It will be soon unless a fire ban is implemented and followed up.
27th Feb 2024 – A fireban was implemented from 15th February until 14th April and so far the air is better than last year.
Today I’m grateful for:
Soulseek, it being the only place I could manage to find Prog 2000 of 2000AD which was a special edition at the time due to the end of the millennium. It has some parts of the stories that I’m reading in the regular edition but is difficult to track down online as it isn’t actually the 2000th issue and was just called Prog 2000. To complicate it more, there is a 2000th edition of the comic which came out around 2016 I think. I think the series is up to about 2500 issues now. I love reading it. I’m not even half way through. I reckon it might take me another ten years to get up to date with it!
The best thing about today was:
Lunch. We went up into an Ahka village nearby to try their food and just get out of the house. Perched on the side of a hill overlooking our valley was a wide panorama of hills, jungle and rice fields. We could see several plumes of smoke slowly filling the valley but thankfully it was on the far side. Above us the sky was still a bright blue. I felt relaxed and enjoyed stacking up on some calories. I resisted the urge to nap when we got home, instead settling into the hammock to finish reading the Clive James biography. Wuthering Heights is next in the pile.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I usually sit and read with my weekend coffees at Utopia but today Amy decided to come with me as she hadn’t seen Art since she got back. Knowing that my I wouldn’t have chance to read I could have been disappointed but instead decided to just enjoy the change in routine.
Something I learned today?
The average age of Palestinians murdered by Israel in the last two months is five years old. Zionism is sick.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
Last night I dealt with the tokay in the kitchen (see photos), cleaning up its blood and still wriggling tail.
I cleaned out the water tank and also brought a mop and bucket of water to Amy when she requested it to clean the floor in the teaching room.
I drove us up to the Ahka cafe for lunch, and back again but my lack of funds meant that I couldn’t pay for the meal.
What do I like about this time of year?
Now is high season for North Thailand as the temperature during the day becomes bearable and the nighttime cold. But there is just a short period to enjoy this as the farmers fill the air with smoke from burning their rice fields. Now, at least, their is some breeze to stir it around to reveal blue skies but soon, once the hills come alive with fire, the air remains still and stagnant leaving it putrid brown and acrid. This should be the best time to enjoy being outside but sadly, gets reduced to being the worst.
Amy took these pictures. Last night Tigger brought this special gift and Amy was freaking out. I didn’t have my glasses on and thought I was looking at a freaky enormous dinosaur-style lizard, only seeing the tokay later. Tigger was quite proud but Amy wanted it out. After a bit of chasing around the kitchen I managed to grab it with some tongs and it hissed and spat its disapproval at me as I threw if over the fence. Then this afternoon instead of Amy brushing this little lizard off my back thought it better to take a picture.
The pace is slow, the sun is hot, we are moving along, shuffling…. our feet in slow motion, that’s what you get for staying up til two in the morning to watch the beer run out and playing midnight cricket in the street, just a few hours before, some screaming abduction takes place outside waking up those who’d rather be asleep (I did, though, sleep right through it!).
So, we had a rip roaring night and I met another of Broni’s old circle of friends, a guy called Noel, who I chatted to most of the evening. He reminds me of PJ, with his quiet soft spoken voice, so whispery sometimes a struggle to hear. Libby and Dougie their usual mad dog selves, running around feeding us and drinking us (under the table).
The screamings of Woolloomooloo go on around us as we’re tucked in the back yard, away from the eyes of the world but not the eyes of the neighbours, just us and the cockroaches. Stories are spun and topics discussed and we hit politics late on and realise we are too drunk to carry on and already feel the fear of the headache in the morning.
29th Mar 2021 – A few years later Bronwyn witnessed a murder on these streets. As she was sleeping in that top room of Libby’s house, screams woke her and in the morning discovered that a murder had occurred right outside the door. A homeless had been beaten to death. Homeless people were being victimised often around this time as things geared up for the Olympics. A couple of months before the Olympics started all the homeless people were rounded up and dumped in the Blue Mountains and told not to come back until after it was over (or preferably not at all). Bronwyn was later called to testify at the murder trial.
A crowd in the square Your desire is there A flame lights in your eye You know someone’s gonna die Pick a lonely target Someone easy to forget Take that lonely life With a flash of your knife
1994ever 