Hi ho! to you guys out there in listener/reader land. It has been an extremely busy couple of weeks for Tom, and I’ve not had the chance to sit down and record a program since the embarrassment of my drunkcast. I guess I should apologize to any of my listeners that might have been offended, and i debated whether or not to even post the show once it was said and done. However, I think for the most part…if you do enjoy listening to the show, then you know i don’t rarely self edit and I thought why not just put it out there for all to see and hear…for better or worse.
I also have to say i’m sorry cause I’ve been waaaay busy with work the past 2 weeks and I’ve really not had time to put together a podcast for all my peeps out there. So I thought the least i could do would be to sit down and write a bit for you guys to let you know what’s going on. We’ve had torrential rains here in the Southeast of Thailand for the past few weeks, but October is meant to be the climax of the rainy season anyway. Some parts of the country have even had problems with flash flooding, but fortunately we’ve had none of that here in Rayong. Just lots and LOTS of rain. The staff housing (close your eyes and think public housing, projects, council flats) have not fared so well with all the rains and the ceiling tiles on our front porches have started to bulge and collapse due to leaks and saturation. The lovely institution i’m working for has been “repairing” the problem this week by slapping a couple of coats of paint on suspected water entry points and supposedly will be hanging new slabs of sheet rock tiles to replace the old ones. However, it has been 4 days now and we all look like we live in derelict houses with bits of tile hanging loose and missing. Not that i’m bitter about the housing or anything!
Also, I’ve just finished doing quite detailed reports for my students which will go out tomorrow before the break. This is the first school I’ve ever worked at that has done mid-term progress reports but it is always good to keep the parents as updated as possible to keep the channels of communication open. International schools, or at least the ones i’ve worked for, do very detailed reports for students. So we have to write very detailed comments for each student, by subject instead of getting grade cards with an A, B, C, or D. Oh! We’ve also started planning the Christmas production for lower primary this week….yes, i know…it wasn’t my idea, trust me! On top of all that, we’ve got a big celebration at school tomorrow night called Diwali or the Indian Festival of Lights. It is an interesting holiday celebrated in India, apparently akin to Christmas in the west as far as popularity and festiveness go. There is a big dinner tomorrow night, which i’m really looking forward to attending, followed by a cultural show. We see lots of the Indian students bringing in extremely yummy looking snacks and lunches, so finally a chance to sample some home cooking! We have a large number of Indian students at the school, so the festival has been at the fore front of student activities this week.
Then, as soon as possible on Friday, Tom is off to start his mid-term break. I will be traveling to Bangkok Friday afternoon and spending the night there before I fly up to spend a few days in Issan with the partner. REAALLY looking foward to getting away from Thailand’s version of a one red light town and spending some much needed time with my guy. I will be spending a few nights in the lovely Northeastern town of Udon Thani and i’m really looking forward to the time away…did i say that already? Anyways, thanks for all the great comments, emails and stuff here and over at Facebook…you guys know i really appreciate it! I will be podcasting from the Northeast for sure while i’m there, so stay tuned in and turned on to the T.I.T. site and podcast. Much love to you from a rain soaked Thailand and peace, love and hair grease to all!
