Tag: spa

Down And Dirty – 16th May 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 3 Comments

Romans once bathed here
Wiping blood from their beat brows
Spa after sparring
Solsbury Hill looks
Down River Avon Valley
Somerset steam rose
Conscious hearts beating
We ran through these stone warrens
Love in ancient times
Praying at the monastery
A different sacking was done

My first attempt at a Choka, inspired by The Skeptic’s Kaddish and submitted to dVerse’s Quadrille #201: Poems of Place

Fatman report

Today I’m feeling:

Good though a little nervous in the stomach. I think I have my head around how I’m going to do things in my classes. 

I can feel less enthusiasm in the air with everyone this morning as the reality of classes starts to hit.

I have a three-flight climb to my first class too and it was already an English summer 27 degrees at 7 am this morning.

One of the boy students was already smelling off by 9am!  And later in the day I saw David in his class of new grade 7s and the whole room stank of rank teenage sweat, like a changing room after five hours of football.

Today I’m grateful for:

Sometimes speaking up and sometimes keeping quiet.  I told the school that I didn’t want to teach the new Integrated Program until it was settled in and that I also didn’t want to teach the grade 9s this year and so it came to be.

So when I got new classes scattered around the school and more hours than the other teachers, I didn’t say anything and just accepted it.

My first class today was in a new (to me) building and on arrival I discovered that the internet cable and wifi don’t work which is a bit of a problem for the method that I teach, everything being stored on Google Drive.

I sent a message to Kru Mai that this was going to be a problem for the five classes I have in the building and he quickly scouted out other classrooms that I could use back in our usual building and voila – four out of five of the classes solved!

When I told Kru David about this he mentioned that sometimes it’s good to speak up and ask for some things and not just expect it.  He also mentioned that George was not happy that he has to teach the Integrated Program now.  He’s had it good for a long time but as soon as something is not to his taste he’s getting antsy.

The best thing about today was:

After my first two classes I managed to get back to House for a coffee refill and sat down to do some writing.

I noticed a pretty young lady studiously working on her iPad in the corner in amongst a lot of people coming and going – probably the busiest I’ve ever seen the cafe.  Some days I might be the only customer all the time I’m in there!

Later the lady got up and as she came to the counter, caught my eye and I thought I recognised her so gave a little smile and then when she smiled back I realised that it was Pear, who used to work there.  She has changed her style a lot but I could easily recognise her smile.

She was studying hard to pass a university entrance exam as she has taken a five-year gap year!  I could sense that she wanted to talk and indeed, she sat down and said that when it comes to English she could read and write easily but doesn’t have much opportunity for speaking.

Actually her listening and understanding is good too and when speaking she can find the words in her head most of the time but it is interrupting her flow.  I could feel that she is driving herself to improve so I stopped what I was doing and we chatted until it was time for me to go.

Something I learned today?

I learned bits and pieces about my new class of 41 grade 12 students.

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

After I finished my classes I sent Pear a piece of text to practice reading for me so I could help her more with her speaking.  She replied quickly and I sent a couple more and I will help her when I have free time.

Did you do something difficult or challenging today?

Motivating tired sweaty students at the end of the day was a challenge and I have three days where classes end at 4.30 pm but it’s looking more likely that I will have to end them all at 4 pm most of the time, which is fine by me!

When was the last time I felt misunderstood?

I can clearly remember thinking that I was being misunderstood by Amy about something that we were quarrelling about but I seem to put quarrels out of my mind (whilst subconsciously learning the lesson of the argument!) so that now I’ve forgotten what it was even about!

Luring me with all the people I love above all else – 3rd September 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Now is the time of change. After a long sticky summer and apparent death to all plant life suddenly the rains come. Despite the cooler temperature the humidity rockets making one wish for the drier heat of summer. After a week or so of the rains, those apparently dead plants now threaten to destroy everything built by humans, house swallowed up by jungle. Thankfully, the snakes go and hide from the rain; somewhere…they are always hiding. We call the gardeners, they do their work but it looks like they need to come back again the following week, the week after and so it goes.

And soon the rain deluges. Not much thought seems to be given to drainage. Perhaps it’s just an inconvenience for a month or two and not worth the investment but a lot of shoes get wet or you may choose to stay at school until the water has eventually seeped away.

Some creatures have little care for the foibles of the weather. They always find the right spot.

At the tail end of the season we head to a hot spring where we can soak our legs for free at varying degrees of insane heat. Kids play and splash in the 30 degree water while we suffer in the 45. No one is even close to the 85 degree water – who would be!? Predictably, whilst we are there, it starts raining. Later, at a restaurant, I can’t feel my legs. They are either relaxed or in shock. Either way, the no-feeling is good.

As if to signal the end of the rainy season (after a brief 6 to 8 weeks, though thankfully much more rain than last year) critters emerge.

Weird hairy caterpillars bumble about and the snakes make a reappearance. One morning as I’m leaving for work I’m surprised to find a couple of small crabs standing guard in the driveway. Amy says they usually live in the rice fields but to me it seems so weird to see crabs about 500kms away from any coast.

And so it seems the rain has ended until next July. We get out and pay a visit to the border market town of Mae Sai and shop for more socks and underwear and visit our favourite cafe/bar/restaurant.

This parrot announces our arrival like a door chime fog horn and I jump out of my skin. Other birds step out but thankfully don’t squawk.

The cafe is hidden away in a market, down a hallway that then opens out into this fantastic courtyard of artwork and decorations. All sorts of obscura adorn every space. In a shed area the owner keeps his batches of homemade hootch though he tells us that he was recently fined one hundred thousand baht and forced to pour it all away.

However, he disappears off somewhere for a few minutes and re-appears with a couple of bottles of plum shoju which are duly purchased. He remembers us from our last visit back in October and doesn’t seem to phased about his fine and lose of illegal merchandise. In fact the cafe is only open for 4 hours a day and I’m not sure anyone goes there to eat.

He potters around rearranging things, happy to chat about life but also happy to be alone by himself. He owns the whole market area and can easily survive of the income from rent. Nice life.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the toilet paper at DeLanna. Sometimes I forget to take paper to the bathroom at school and have to sit and wait for my bum to dry. Luckily, today the timing was right and I could use the facilities at DeLanna.

To-do list

  • Compliment someone ✅
  • 7-minute workout again ✅
  • Write a blog post during the day ✅

It’s now the 21st! I have gotten busy with my normal routine things but also added some yoga practice to my day. As well as home workouts, meditations and Thai practice getting a bit longer as I get better at them.

I’ve made myself busy again but I am also mostly happy these days. Writing here has gone by the way for now. I’ve even committed to some Thai lessons on Tuesday afternoons.

There are still some feelings and emotions that I would like to explore further but I’ll not push myself with them much at the moment. I will try to write here more often – maybe focus on particular things.