He's away again!

Well, as I write this, Mr John is in Chiang Mai. All the English Programme teachers, which includes Thai teachers, have gone on a field trip. They left at 1pm yesterday on a bus for the 16 hour journey. As you can imagine he wasn't overly enamoured with the mode of transport.  

Factor in all the stops for food and comfort breaks and they arrived there around 6.30 am. Time enough for a "wash" and change of clothes at a petrol station before arriving at the school they're visiting. Whilst the trip is paid for, each teacher was given material to have a shirt made for this school visit. There's a lady around the corner who does sewing so we left it with her. Whatever you think of the shirt itself and I have my own opinions the craftsmanship is amazing and all for 550 baht.

They're having lunch at the school and then back to the bus for some sightseeing this afternoon before rocking up at the hotel around 16.30 this afternoon. Yes, that's right, a total of 27.5 hours without a bed or shower! There's more sightseeing planned for tomorrow after the 7am breakfast call and 8am bus departure. Luckily, they can also choose to do their own thing in Chiang Mai and I think Mr John might be choosing sleep! 

Never mind, they leave at 8am on Sunday for the trip back complete with various temple stops so I'm not really expecting him home til close to midnight. He's one of the lucky ones though as next week Grade 6 are taking exams and so, at most, he'll only have to invigilate. Imagine that bus trip on Sunday and then having to teach Monday morning? 

I did the usual washing earlier in the week and I've taken to popping in the local coffee shop while the washing is doing it's stuff.  The lovely man there I really must find out his name speaks reasonable English and he kindly offered me some passion-fruit that his Uncle had given him from his garden.  It's the best I've ever had. Quite sweet but with the lovely passion-fruit acidity.

Some of you may have noticed I've not been posting as much lately as I usually do. The truth is, I've been really out of sorts. I enjoyed Mr John being on holiday and of course Ross' visit was exciting and once that was all over I just found I don't know what to do with myself. I had so many plans when I finished work - scrap-booking, family tree, painting - but it's just so hot here all the time that doing these things takes a massive effort. A fan blowing at you is not at all conducive to having photos and paper and glue spread out in front of you. Turn said fan off and the result is a pretty sweaty, horrible mess. 

Bex & Jules

There are times when I'm extremely lonely. Foreign teachers are a transient bunch, tend to be quite young and it's very hit and miss whether you find people who are decent and you actually want to hang out with and who themselves don't want to go clubbing every night. I don't think it helps that I was spoilt when I met Juls and Bex. Those girls were amazing and I miss them a lot.