End of Term

Tomorrow will be  my last day for just over two weeks as we head into our mid-year break. I don't feel anywhere near as tired as I did this last time last year on completing my first term. Don't get me wrong I am ready for a break! It's been difficult this term with changes in the school being quite unsettling but I am hopeful we will start to settle down next year.

I have had a very busy spell recently. In between exams and grading I made a lightning visit to Chumphon in southern Thailand to the Raptorwatch. It is entirely feasible and indeed cheaper to do this by train. I also stayed in one of the best value hotels in recent memory. Check out www.tanisaresort.com . Great rooms with beautiful round circular baths and all modern facilities plus a small swimming pool and wifi, and in my case I got picked up from railway station, all for 480 THB. That is a UK tenner. The rooms are really neat, themed in fact. If you are in that part of the world check out this place. I doubt if there is better value around. Plus Chumphon is a delightful place. We are going back end of October.

So we are off to the Philippines tomorrow night and it will be nice to reconnect with family and friends and also see some birds. As you can see Benedict is a picture of health and vitality. Tonight he got two vaccinations and squealed for a few seconds and then got over it! What a joy. I am well and looking forward to going away. More from the Philippines. Mabuhay!

Getting Stuff

I am in a bit of a financial no man's land here. I don't have a bank account and use cash for most things. I get paid in cash. For bank stuff I use Luna's accounts. Is this not terribly inconvenient? Actually not really.

It's very easy to pay for things here by paying money into a bank account. Tonight I booked a hotel for next weekend by transferring the deposit into the hotel's bank account. The transaction cost 30 baht, about £0.60 and required a trip to the bank tonight. Yup the shopping mall bank branches are open so long as the shops are open. Easypeasy. We do this when we book airline tickets and a whole host of stuff and it has always worked smoothly.

Now recently I ordered some photographic equipment from New York. The stuff was available here but was twice the price. I wired the funds to the company at a cost of 1050 baht (just over £20.00 GBP) and the funds must have been received almost immediately because the goods were despatched a few hours later. I received the goods 7 days later and would have received them 2 days earlier had they not arrived in Bangkok on a Friday night. I know this because I was able to track the stuff online! This speed is really awesome to my mind and I have to say I saved a bundle notwithstanding the cost of the wire, the shipping and the duty applied by Thai customs. The savings were enhanced by the strength of the Thai baht against the major currencies. So I would be very happy to do this again although most things are available here if needed urgently.

As part of my weekend away next week I decided to travel by train. I am going down to Chumphon and I can travel by train from Ratchaburi straight to Chumphon. My return ticket cost 600 THB second class. That is about £12.00 GBP, and it is equivalent to London - Glasgow. Fuel for the return drive would cost about 3,000 THB. It's kind of a no brainer really!

We are all well moving towards the end of term and a trip to the Philippines a week on Friday. Benedict is wild and brilliant.  Luna is getting into retail buying up Pratunam and taking it to the Philippines for resale! Maybe retail therapy but I hope she makes lots of money as I like the idea of being kept!

A Few More of Benedict

Recently

So glad to have reached September and the end of our semester, at the end of this month, is in sight. There follows a trip to the Philippines to connect with family and meet our newest member, Ethan Edgar Joseph, born to Luna's sister, Nenen, on August 26th. A fine figure of a boy. Hopefully we will be able to do some birding too and see a little of Negros.

Benedict is growing fast and is very confident on his feet. No real words yet but if he is slow in this respect I am not really concerned because he is exposed to four languages: English, Thai, Tagalog and llongo. Some of you bright sparks will say: "Well five languages, Gerry cos you are Scottish and nobody understands a word you say!" Chust a wee choke at ma ain expens! Inevitably this exposure will slow the boy down initially but I am pretty sure Benedict will become at least bilingual and perhaps more.

In all other respects Benedict is a joy though  I must say he is becoming a little bit more self-willed and at times a little testing. He has so much energy, he is so strong and at times he can be frighteningly focused! But Benedict is great fun and it's a real privilege to watch this little boy grow and develop. He understands about putting plugs in sockets, keys in locks, he can switch fans off and he loves playing with mobile phones and TV remotes. He likes nothing more than having a good bash at the keyboard and thanks be for child car seats because he likes to grab the gear stick and loves to fiddle with the radio controls. I expect I am going to have a very energetic and active old age! What a happy prospect!

Luna is well and spending a lot of her spare time buying up clothes from Pratunam in Bangkok with a view to selling them in the Philippines. So we have made a couple of trips into Bangkok over the last few weeks. It will be interesting to see how she fares in this venture. I think she too is looking forward to the end of term and the trip home. Been tough for her with the recent loss of her father.

School has been a bit challenging. I never really know what is happening. The new school management consultants have parted company with the school's managers and things are a bit up in the air. This rupture is a bit like a marriage breaking up after two weeks. I am left wondering what sort of process preceded the decision to jump into partnership and then resulted in such a quick and sudden decision to split up. Clearly an inadequate one! Unfortunately what was good about the old set up has been lost.

In terms of the actual teaching I am very happy and  comfortable in front of the kids. It was undoubtedly good to get that first year in. I really enjoying working with the kids and I now work with small groups of much younger children on a Saturday morning and I love it. I wouldn't resist a move to the lower grades.

I have been doing a fair amount of birding recently, see botab.blogspot.com. Bought a new macro lens so expect to see more pictures of flowers and the like. Also getting in some golf but the less said about this the better! Let me just say there is a great game of golf in me some time!

So we are in good form and busy with one thing or another. It is a good life here and I have no real thought at this stage of changing anything. We are here for the forseeable future.