Buddhist Lent

Did you even know there was such a thing? Well, now you do and it's this Friday. Of course this means Thursday is Asahna Bucha which commemorates Buddha's first sermon in Benares, India don't take my word for it, check out the link.  For the next three months, the monks are not meant to travel and to meditate, a lot. 

This also means there is a four day weekend coming up and we are off to Bangkok or civilisation as we sometimes call it. Can you believe we have booked a place with an oven. I know it sounds sad, but we don't have one let's face it, we don't even have a kitchen and I am so excited about cooking. Mr John has been menu planning for months. 

Speaking of Mr John, we attended the school Open Day for his Maths Project. The girls were very sweet and answered the judges questions well though sadly they didn't win any prizes. Mr John is hoping this will mean he won't have to do it all again next year. Anyway, back to Lent.

We are in a lovely area, not far from where we stayed when Anne & Graham were over. There's some snazzy little bars nearby and we were looking forward to checking them all out. The eagle eyed among you will have noticed I used the past tense. Why? I hear you cry. 

Well, the powers that be have decided that both these days will see the sale of alcohol banned. In fact, they've even named Friday "National No Drinking Day". Hurrah! So, I now have visions of arriving in Bangkok to find the alcohol shelves at all the supermarkets devoid of all booze except for a lone bottle of sherry and that's no good because you can only drink sherry at Christmas right? I don't want you to think we are total drunkards but we have been looking forward to a nice bottle of wine with our home cooked dinners. 

Still, all is not lost. There is a pool at the apartment which is ours to use for the four days we're there. Oh no, quick check the weather and tell me it isn't going to rain aaaaaargh.