Technical Difficulties

Yet again I find myself reduced to typing this on the school computer as ours is making weird whirring noises and is clearly buggered for the time being. Never fear, TB is on the case, which as far as I can tell involves presing abutton every so often seeing the comp. process stuff for 20 mins and then pressing another button, not that I would ever suggest that the world of computer teachnology is not a fascainating one!

Last week was Loy Krathong and I have some fab photos from it (Thai thanksgiving) however you will just have to wait until the next installment when hopefully all will be fully functional to see them!

As always, plenty enough has been going on that doesn't require photographic representation, I believe my imagery alone will conjure up a fair idea of what is going on....

I also thought it time I explained a few things. My school is called PPM1 (it is just too long to write Praphamontree) this is where TB and I work. The other school where 16 foreign teachers work is PPM2. We teach from K2 - P6.

I teach: TB teaches:
K2 4/5 years old K3 5/6
P1 6/7 P4 9/10
P2 7/8 P5 10/11
p3 8/9 P6 11/12

These ages are only approximate as parents are allowed to enter their children to school at any age they want, so in actual fact they could enter Kindergarten at age 8 if they wanted to which might eplain why I have a kid in my P3 class who is taller than me. Not that that is saying much I know, but still, last I knew I was the average height of a 15 year-old!

As for my kindergarten I am still trying to ween them off stickers. I only dish out two in a class and that is it. They latched on to this pretty quickly and are now trying all the tricks they know to get them out of me. They tend to lurk around my desk and stare at the stickers in the hope that I might randomly hand one out on a whim. They spend a lot of time tugging at my jacket calling me closer and then whispering "sticker" into my ear and a personal favourite the all out ridiculing of each othr's colouring and writing efforts in order to make theirs appear more sticker-worthy. One of them even thinks that he can get away with casually placing his pencil in my hand as I walk past thus getting me to do the work for him and guaranteeing a sticker! Who knows where this is going to end but I have a feeling it won't be any time soon... At least Krittanut has stopped wailing in that class and has rturned to his old disruptive ways, I often find myself wondering which one was better.

It is cold here it has to be said - it is 25C which is I-don't-care Farenheit - I know most of you re dealing with the onset of winter but seeing as I booked flights for TB and I over our rather short xmas break to Shanghai because I was desperate for some cold xmassy weather I am a little concerned. Possibly the fact that I have no winter clothes was an oversight on my part but at least I get to see Mr Pope and I am rather looking forward to seeing teh Chinese idea of Christmas decorations including Father Chrsitmas nailed to a cross.

I had a massage last night which nearly killed me. I finally broke my vow of silence. I often jsut grimace and bear it but blimey or reilly the woman last night was mean! She stood on my arse (something I still can't work out how they do) and then proceeded to wrap my legs around hers and then lean forward and land on my back whilst wrenching my legs into rather an uncomfortable position - does it hurt? is a question I learnt pretty quickly in Thai and yet stubborn pride only allows me to reply "only a little" rather than "Yes woman can't you see you dislocated my hip?" Although it does bode well that should I indeed decide to go ahead and get trained to give Thai massages it could prove a rather useful trade.

The beauty industry here is cheap that is for sure but there are times when I do wonder about quite what I am getting. Of course the massage place I go to is highly professional or painful whichever way you look at it and all things are so cheap it is hard to resist. Most of you are aware i have already been scarred for life by my one and only waxing incident where I was concerned when the woman emerged with a saucepan and a wooden spoon and then proceeded to remove half the skin on my shin. Last week I thought I'd get a facial (about 3 pounds for an hour) which usually runs rather smoothly however this time I found my face being rubbed with a fresh lemon - no idea what it is supposed to do and stinks of course! - and then she took an implement to my face and after it was all over I wasn't the radiant beauty I was hoping for I had lumps the size of red golf balls on my face. I think Beauty mishaps are common but it is hard to resist the temptations of cheap pampering.

Well, I really need to get on with some work. I was actually pleased to receive a phone call from my DOS this morning (usually my blood runs cold when I see the name and I freeze debating whether I should answer or not knowing full well it is bound to be bad news) thankfully today it was to say that I shall not have to go into work ON SUNDAY and do this stupid open day at the other school to which I replied "oh excellent" however he didn't know when it would be, possibly Monday, but he can't get a definite answer on that to which I replied "that's not a surprise".

continue enjoying my misfortunes...