Inspired by a thought (‘magic blood’) from the Change My Mind Substack here.
* Repurposed from Chris’s poem ‘The Phoenix Tree Writes’
Final Solution – 10th June 2025
Tag: zionism
I am born of the magic blood
Habibi Was – 4th June 2025
Frustrated at every turn,
Invisible lines not to be crossed,
Random security searches,
Only finding all liberties lost;
Or checkpoints to clock in,
To be grateful for a shekel or two,
A home is not a home,
When one’s life becomes taboo;
Constant eyes are trained,
Machine guns held at the ready,
Deliberate provocations,
Ensure all balance remains unsteady;
So Habibi threw a stone,
A piece of protest found underfoot,
A frustrated release,
That was so ineloquently put;
It bounced off the tank,
Where no one was hurt by this token,
For this, he got a bullet in the head,
And another family heartbroken.
The title is a play on the Bob Marley song ‘Johnny Was’
Vendetta Generation – 25th July 2024
Voices trembling, yet as one to sing
A collected mind travels the crow road
Where prayers and prophets seek to bring
The moon silk dreams once borrowed
A shatter as the violence worshipped returns
A zigzag missile homes in on the heart
Faced with the darkness, the torment burns
The moon silk dreams soon fall apart
Submitted to The Sunday Whirl Wordle 664 wordlist.
Today I’m feeling:
I woke up with the light before 5 am and knew I wasn’t going to get enough sleep, so I reset my alarm for a little bit later.
Even then, I still felt like I could go back to sleep easily, even after breakfast, driving to school and coffee!
As it was a special event day today, though (Thai Language Day), I soon perked up walking around school and talking with students. There were very few classes going on, so there was a fair amount of excitement in the air.
I cancelled my grade 12 class, giving them a small assignment to do instead and took it easy with the grade 8s in the afternoon.
The best thing about today was:
Chatting with students Jee and Pemai this afternoon. It started off with their gossip about Freya and helped me understand their point of view about her behaviour. More interesting, though, was discussing differences between schools in Thailand and the West and also talking about some of the teachers and other students that they like and admire.
Something I learned today?
Amy’s mum has shingles on the right side of her face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the effects before but it looks really bad and painful. I need to investigate more about it so that I can try and avoid ever having it too!
The Truants – 4th March 2024
We found our place, a gathering stone
A place to hide and smoke cigarettes
To tell each other dirty jokes
And stories of first-love fumbled sex
Hidden away from prying eyes
Though all knew where we were
Once a month, rounded up
To the headmaster’s wrath incur
It was our heaven in quiet times
To laugh and joke and sing
Away from all the realities
That our wasted lives would bring
Submitted to Crimson’s Creative Challenge, inspired by the picture above.
11th Apr 2024 – Submitted to RDP Thursday
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty relaxed and happy. A little tired as Amy kept me up late when she got home last night, tired and emotional, overthinking about family things.
Today I’m grateful for:
The jelly candies that I bought in Mae Sai last month. I’ve been eating them myself because they are delicious but they are also a good candy to give to my students as treats. They mostly prefer them over the fruity Mentos.
The best thing about today was:
Having my students read one-on-one and two-on-one in my classes today. I was happily surprised by a couple of students’ improvement over the last twelve months. I like this time of year for the relaxed attitude towards study.
I’ve thought before that it would be good if it could be like this all the time but when I think deeper it is perhaps because of all the pushing and hard work during the year that they have gotten more comfortable with their study.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
In the morning Amy told me she wanted me to come home between classes to take Cap to the vet. I wasn’t into this idea because I wanted to chill at the cafe, catching up on reading and also because with the change of plans at the weekend it meant driving to the city and back twice instead of once. Her plan for today would’ve meant another two trips in one day.
I suggested it would be better to wait until we got the truck back and then she can take Cap at her leisure. Thankfully she agreed to this idea before I left for school.
Something I learned today?
I saw a headline about a Palestinian mother’s newborn twin babies who were killed in an Israeli airstrike. She had been waiting ten years to conceive.
Zionists sure know how to inspire hatred. This will not end well.
25 THINGS ABOUT LIFE I WISH I HAD KNOWN 10 YEARS AGO – 24. Never Look Back Too Long. Reflecting on the past is only good for one thing: Learning.
I am taking a lot of time looking back these days as I go through putting information into this blog. I am sometimes nostalgic but as the life lesson says, I am using this information for learning.
I’ve almost fully given myself over to my students and Amy these days. I’m less inward-focused in my day-to-day life even though I do do a lot of thinking.
I’m happy where I’m at though not sure where I am going just now.
The Feral – 26th December 2023
Raised in the manner of wolves
Howling at the moon
Running wild in the company of fools
Wide-eyed in chaotic tune
Tamed and reformed by riches
The devil still pulls at the heart
All are affected by witches
The feral rips itself apart
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty good from exercise but still not particularly enthusiastic. Perhaps due to this month’s struggle with money and its limit on what I’m able to do.
(Later) Things did improve as I spent time at House and then back at school wandering around talking to students everywhere.
Today I’m grateful for:
Kru Ning who seemed happy enough for me to help assist some of the students in her class – my grade 7 kids. It’s sometimes fun to join another class without there being any pressure and just offer assistance.
The best thing about today was:
Kwang (and Premier and Program) took my arms and led me around the school whilst chattering away with me, so I feel happy that Kwang is comfortable with me again after her episode last week. I’d really like to talk more deeply with her and get to how she really feels about things. She’s still covering things up with bravado at the moment, which is not unusual for kids at this age.
Something I learned today?
I watched Alexei Sayle’s Christmas message where, as a Jew, he supports the Palestinians and calls out the Zionists in Israel as absolute liars. Much of the world is in agreement with his sentiment.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
My students were happy that I cancelled all my classes today. It was possible that we could still have them but they would be distracted and unfocused with many not even bothering to show up. I feel slightly guilty though! Though not guilty enough not to be sitting in the cafe writing this right now! I will go back to school soon though and play with my students and hang around for an hour or three.
What was the best new thing I tried this year?
Best new thing? I’m not sure I tried any new thing!
Maybe I started using the DuoCards app this year which has been pretty helpful with my language learning.
Fuck, that’s not very exciting, is it!
If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?
As I’m already past the age of 30 and I can remember what my body was like then perhaps having that body would not be for the best. I was still skinny at thirty, the beer belly came on over the following ten years. As to my mind at thirty, I was still on my way at that point. I still had peaks and troughs that overly affected me.
If we could rephrase the question to be 60 instead of 30 then perhaps I would choose my body now, despite it being older and slower it feels like it has improved and is fitter than before. My mind is also in a better place…. Damn, this is a difficult choice. The two are inextricably linked – healthy body, healthy mind…. I think I will go with maintaining the body.
I’m thinking this because of seeing Grandmum now whose body is almost given up and unable to speak but I can’t help thinking that inside her mind is still sharp and that must be so frustrating.
Everything – 2nd December 2023
You can’t have everything
Where would you put it?
In a world-sized garage
Under everyone else’s everything?
Keep everything in your thoughts
Give away your proudest dreams
They’re still yours
Now you have it all!
Walk out of the cave
24th Jun 2024 – Submitted to Poets and Storytellers United as tangentially related to ‘an elegant sufficiency’!
Today I’m feeling:
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.
1994ever 