Champions – 12th July 2024

July 12, 2024May 13, 2025 ~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 4 Comments

Champions know the taste of defeat
Aces burn on the last turn
Adversity is needed to complete
The winner’s desire to learn

Plans B and C, as good as A
No best case wins the race
The champions turn up to play
And look their failures in the face

There’s no luck to lift the cup
Making a plan to play the hand
Even when dealt downside up
A champion will understand

Submitted to WDYS # 244 and inspired by a recent David Elikwu newsletter

Today I’m feeling:

A bit groggy, perhaps sick, in pain! I didn’t sleep well because of the pain in my hip and I’m limping around a bit today. It’s a bit of a drain on my thoughts.

I’m also on the edge again with a sore throat. Lots of Covid and dengue fever around at the moment.

It’s cool again with some rain but the grey skies are feeling uninspiring. I’m motivated to sleep more.

Today I’m grateful for:

The young chemist who spoke good English helped me get some tiger balm patches to help my aching hip.

The best thing about today was:

22 Grams coffee for the morning. Gui closed House today to go to Bangkok, so 22 Grams is my next choice. It would be my first choice if it was nearer school and cheaper.

In the end, I didn’t stay too long as I came to the hospital to drop mum and pick up Amy, who hadn’t slept much as dad didn’t get into his operation until 11pm and out again at 4am.

I came home and struggled around with my painful hip, which seems to be agitated by sitting down.

Something I learned today?

It’s Spain’s birthday today and he told me that he is now 15 years old, which means that he is a year older than everyone else in his class. I guess that he was held back a year at some point because of whatever his minor social disability is.

Review your acts, Good and bad.

At around 5 pm I was getting hungry and Amy had mentioned the uni having a market on Fridays now.

I dropped by to Baipad’s to see if she would practice riding up there and though she complained, I convinced her to do it. She lets her lack of confidence stop her from doing things to improve herself.

Her sister jumped on the back too and we slowly made our way to the uni but there was no market sadly, so we headed back and then Baipad wanted to show me where Fahmai lived and we went there too but he wasn’t home.

At the end of the day, I think that Baipad gained a little more confidence in herself at least hopefully understanding that repeatedly doing something will improve her skills.

Baipad’s chatty kitten, whose name I’ve forgotten already.

Mandala – 10th July 2024

July 10, 2024May 13, 2025 ~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 4 Comments

Wild chaotic geometry

Vague approaches to symmetry

A universe in the hand

Reintegration as planned

Womb world thunderbolt

Ritual sensory assault

Burning up ignorance

A ring of fire confluence

Diamonds in illumination

Aspects of individuation

Graveyards to lotus leaves

Here the mandala conceives

Inspired by the image above for Reena’s Xploration Challenge #337 and a quick perusal of the online Britannica entry for mandala.

Today I’m feeling:

A little bit tired and unmotivated. With no kids at school for the rest of the week I have lots of time to read, write and prepare more lessons but now I’m sitting here in the cafe I kinda just feel sleepy!

Amy had a sore throat a couple of days ago and mine is starting to tickle a little bit too.

I have to go to the dentist at 11.30 but hopefully it won’t be too expensive and shouldn’t need any work done.

Today I’m grateful for:

A decent, long downpour which has finally seen the temperature become more bearable. Ironically, I’m not at school to enjoy it and everything will be back to scorched and sweaty by next week would be a pretty good guess.

Still, it was nice to feel the cold rain on my skin when I was outside looking around the garden.

The best thing about today was:

My phone being ok (see below) and also the dentist telling me everything was looking ok and them cleaning up some plaque for me.

I wasn’t too surprised when the bill was 800 baht, so I sent through the payment via my phone but then the receptionist realised that she had given me the wrong invoice and that, in fact, today was free of charge. So she refunded me in cash!

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

Amy sent me across from the cafe to get some cookie bags from the bakery and I was leaving my phone fell out of my pocket and something happened that has made it difficult to use. I’m hoping that it is nothing too big and expensive to fix but it will be a further strain on my budget this month.

(Later) I managed to restart the phone and everything was back to normal which is something else that I’m grateful for today.

Something I learned today?

I’m learning lots of little pieces of interesting information from my grade 12 kids with their oral diary.

Beam told me that he is really interested in human behaviour and psychology and wants to study that at university.

Noticing The Nuance – 13th November 2023

November 13, 2023May 16, 2024 ~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Humbled and heartbroken
Fallen to a knee
Eyes wide open
How could they not be?

Shocked into submission
Suddenly set free
No longer distracted
And starting to see

Hours once dedicated
To you from me
Were blinders to the bronco
From forest to tree

Stars return to brightness
From a distant memory
Noticing the nuance
Analysed by degree

The chaos of our lives
I’m sure we all agree
Turn our attentions
Into nothing but debris

16th May 2024 – Submitted to Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge – Humility

Today I’m feeling:

Run down and sick. I slept through most of yesterday and last night and feel like sleeping more. My sore throat has transformed to a sexy voice as my nose starts running causing me to cough and hack up phlegm. To top it all, I forced myself to eat this morning and more of my busted booth came loose. Really have to get back to the dentist soon. Needless to say, I’m not at school. I should go to the hospital but not looking forward to sitting around for a couple of hours just to get prescribed medicine I can get at the pharmacy.

Today I’m grateful for:

The staff at the hospital that made everything relatively smooth and pain-free. Just a bit of waiting around. A bunch of meds were prescribed all for 200 baht, about 8 Aussie bucks. I don’t not know how much the meds had to do with it but I started feeling a little better after getting back from the hospital.

The best thing about today was:

Still working a little with my students in the afternoon while waiting at the hospital. The work I give to my grade 8s is simple and repetitive just with a different text each week so I don’t actually need to even be there with them. Still, about ten students skipped doing anything, which is a shame.

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

I went out to Utopia and grabbed coffee but the bike wouldn’t start after and I had to wheel it down the road in the scorching heat, adding to my already-addled brain. After the guy in the shop got it running again I decided just to buy some medicine and go home and rest. Amy came back an hour or so later and berated me for not going to the hospital so here I am, already told it’s at least a one-hour wait. I’m handling it by sniffing, coughing and wondering if I’ll even be well enough to go to school tomorrow.

Something I learned today?

Thailand is introducing a Clean Air Act but has no real solutions to stop the yearly burning by farmers. Just ideas and suggestions. There is support online behind a 28-year-old doctor who is about to die from lung cancer but I can’t imagine anyone in government is going to do anything seriously to stop this annual event that is due to be worse and for longer this year.

What new hobby would I like to try?

It’s not new I guess but I really need to get on and make some music with the equipment I have. The problem is that I would have to drop some of the other things that I already like doing with my time.