Some Difficulties

Life can be tough in this idyll. Our maid Boo is starting to test my patience. In recent weeks our food has become very bland and boring and to complicate this situation she has burned some of my clothes with the iron. The food issue is causing me a lot of problems because I enjoy eating. I am surrounded by an abundance of beautiful, fresh food and ingredients like garlic, chilli, ginger, basil.....and on and on. Except I am eating (or rather not eating) tasteless mushrooms with tofu cooked in some sort of lukewarm stock, with cabbage leaves and tofu in the same lukewarm stock but in a different bowl and this is being served up 6 days a week.To be honest it is driving me crazy! I cannot understand how anyone could be so uninterested in food.

Poor old Boo has not helped her case by burning a work shirt. The school provides us with bespoke tailored tunics. She managed to burn a sleeve and did not say anything and I went into work and some one asked what had happened to my shirt. I haven't burned a shirt in 40 years. This comes after she burned a pair of trousers. Again nothing said. She did manage to tell Luna today that she had lost 6,000 baht. According to Luna she has suggested that she watch us prepare food for the next month and then she'll take over. A comedian as well.

I have to say I don't cope so well with these situations. I can be very intolerant and unsympathetic. My attitude is we are paying good money, giving the girl a fair amount of latitude and I don't think we are really demanding. We expect a service and are not getting the quality we would like, and I just think we should get some one else. It is not as if we have suddenly asked her to cook....

In addition I am genuinely tired. Work is tough and by no means a garden of roses ..... contrary to what some readers of this column think! I have no doubt it will become easier with experience. However I am looking at the mid-term break in early October as a kind of finish line. I need a break. I do very little with Benedict in real terms but I get wakened in the middle of the night when he is feeding. I am not complaining as this comes with the territory, but it adds to my sense of tiredness. I will say this Benedict has started to beam at me in the morning. It's a great way to start the day, seeing your son beaming. A real kick start.

In the great scheme of things these are really high class problems. However the food thing is delicate. I am sure most of you understand!

I went to mass after school today. They have a 'first Friday' mass for teachers and in the main school, as opposed to the rarefied rooms of the bilingual programme where I work, there is an expectation that teachers will take part once every month in an act of worship. This counts so there was quite a decent turnout. It was pleasant to catch my breath for 30 minutes or so. But that's pretty wild! First Friday mass to mark the beginning of the weekend! There was a time I would have been paralytically drunk every Friday........and first Friday mass in Thailand of all places. Depending on your perspective that is a measure of how sick or well I am these days.

Of course I have my babies tomorrow morning which shall be interesting and I have warned Luna that I may get up at some ungodly hour Sunday morning and make for the Myanmar border to look at birds up in the hill forests. We shall see! Maybe a few eagles and raptors for a change!