‘Mad dogs and British Schools go out in the midday sun’

Is the quote which springs to mind today.

It is the Shrewsbury Fun Run Day in support of local charities. We all bought the T shirt for 300 baht or £7 which is how the funds are raised.

You can see some of my team members here modelling the gear.

Very snazzy. All day the school was a sea of blue.

The early years did the course in the morning but the rest of us ran in teams of 4 during the afternoon.

Our team was made up of library and TA staff

Seen here looking cool and collected – ha ha. THAT was soon about to change.

I have been doing a weekly Zumba class since coming here so felt reasonably fit. Boy was I wrong.

The course was simply a lap of the field. No problem thought I. The seniors were due to do 2 laps. I can do that easy thought I. But I had reckoned with out the 34 degree blistering heat and 65% humidity.

Here is the field seen from our apartment

But what you can’t see is the water tunnel or the men throwing buckets of water or squirting hose pipes as we negotiated benches, jumps and other obstacles. Songkran style.

I was worried about my hearing aids as once you were on the course that was it!!! Fortunately Marivic had a small towel with her so I covered my ear & that protected my ears ok.

Oh and here we are at the end where I am doing an extremely good impression of a tomato. A soggy tomato is probably more accurate!

The whole course only took 15 minutes but I quickly realised that I hadn’t exercised my running legs in a looooong time!!!! Whole different set of muscles

But one thing is for sure. It was fun!!!

Songkran is the Thai New Year festival which happens in April. This year it is 13-15 April.

The word Songkran literally translates as ‘astrological passage’ or ‘passage of time’. Although it is a traditional Buddhist occasion here in Thailand, as with many other religious occasions it has origins in an ancient festival. In this case the Hindu spring festival of Makar Sonkriti which was once celebrated in India around January time.

The astrological charts of Buddhism follow those of Chinese traditions and so April 13 will mark the Thai year of the Dog.

Living here means that we celebrate the actual new year, (Jan) the Chinese New Year (Feb) and now the Thai new year (April). We are well and truly refreshed and renewed by now.

Songkran is marked by family reunions, meals and celebrations with Thais often returning to their family homes in the countryside (which can clog up the roads) and a long weekend of public holidays.

People are encouraged to make merit by donating to their Temple. We celebrated at school with our own merit making ceremony last week. Monks from the local temple arrived at 7am and those who wished to participate gave dried foods or other necessities such as shaving equipment as monks are not supposed to own any worldly goods.

That day everyone in the junior school wore flowery shirts in bright, cheerful colours.

The items are placed into the alms bowl and then quickly removed by some sixth form helpers and bagged up. I gave some rice and instant noodles. I think that anything the monastery kitchens don’t use is distributed to the poor.

Everywhere in Bangkok we have seen special Songkran shrines. These have 7 Buddha statues one for each day of the week and you are supposed to pray to and donate to the statue for the day of the week on which you were born. This astrological observance is quite significant in Mahayana Buddhism.

So I decided to find out what this meant for me. I was born on a Saturday and I discovered that my lucky day is Friday (yay!) and my unlucky day is Wednesday until dusk (after that I’m ok). I am apparently calm, logical and likely to be engaged in physical work (shifting library books about all day is more physical that people realise). My lucky colour is blue (who knew) and my unlucky colour is green!

My Buddha statue is this one:

It is Siddhartha sitting in the full lotus position meditating whilst being protected from heavy rain by Naga the snake king who made a shelter using his multiple heads as a hood. Cool or what!

Kevin, born on a Friday just gets this ordinary seated one

The school parents put up a beautiful shrine for the festival

Floral offerings are often made at shrines using a small white flower which represents love. The flower is seen here kindly modelled as a necklace by one of my excellent readers from year 1

But Songkran is perhaps best known for its association with water. Water symbolises washing away the problems of last year and renewing/cleansing yourself in preparation for the year ahead. As such people pour water over each other. I have to say that I asked several people about the significance of the water and most thought it was just to keep cool as April is the hottest month of the year!!!!

In modern times the water purification aspect has developed into fully fledged water fights all over the city. All done with good humour and high spirits you can expect to be doused by water cannon until you are completely drenched!

This goes on for four days!!!

I shan’t be doing that bit. Water doesn’t go well with my dodgy ears or my hearing aids so we will be departing the country and leaving everyone else to that bit of the fun.

So we are off to Nepal next week. We got a tad worried when a plane crashed immediately after we had booked our tickets killing 50!!! But we aren’t going to let a minor thing like ‘country with the worst airplane security record in the world’ stop our adventures. Wish us luck!

What a lovely find this was and a great morning out exploring bits of Bangkok that we hadn’t seen before.

Buried deep in Chinatown is this amazing Wat. So much more than just another temple this has a modern museum, exhibition space and multimedia presentations telling the story of both the development of Chinatown

as well as the discovery of the golden statue. It all cost £3.17 but I had to laugh at the transliteration of baht on our ticket

The original statue was made in the old Sukhothai Capital in the 1400s. For some reason (probably protection from invading hordes) the pure gold statue was encased in lacquer and plaster where it has remained hidden for centuries.

The 12×15 foot statue was moved around from temple to temple over the years. In 1955 the monks were trying to hoist it up to a different level. It had only gone a few inches when the rope snapped & the statue fell back to the ground chipping a piece of plaster off revealing something shiny beneath.

Following careful restoration this ‘utterly brightly shiny’ (direct quote) statue is now in pride of place at the top of this shrine.

It certainly looks more spectacular than the numerous gold leaf ones we have seen to date. In fact in 1999 The Guinness Book of Records has it as the most valuable religious artefact at an estimated £28.5 millions!!! Given that security was pretty lax, but then again it would be too heavy to lift so it wouldn’t get stolen.

Walking back through Chinatown was interesting. I think we were in the scrap metal district!

And I even found the ultimate widget shop. I’m pretty sure that if they didn’t have the bit you needed then it probably doesn’t exist!

I would definitely recommend this as a place to visit for anyone coming to Bangkok.

It isn’t always easy living in a foreign country. Largely people speak good English (we rely on that) or we do excessive sign language (you can achieve a considerable amount that way)

But there are occasions where it all falls down…

I got myself some new tubes for my hearing aids at the end of Jan from a shop where a man spoke excellent English. However, after a while the right-hand aid was uncomfortable and kept falling off. This can happen. I decided that the right tube was shorter than the left one so perhaps it needed to be replaced by a slightly longer tube.

I returned to the shop. This is how the conversation went (Nb the original chap wasn’t there):

Me: Hi, my hearing aid is not fitting on my ear. I think I need a longer tube

Woman: *looks at ear* Ah *takes hearing aid off me and takes it apart*.

Snip

Me: what? You’ve just made it shorter! No it needs to be longer!

Woman: *tries fitting aid in ear* Ahhhh okay okay

Snip

Next: WHAT!!! You’ve just made it shorter again!!! No. No. It needs to be longer *moves fingers apart* see Looooooonger

Woman’s: I see, I see (they quite like repetition in Thailand) *snip*

Me *giving up the will to live…* NO you’ve cut it AGAIN. No it needs a new tube!!!!

Woman: no can do. This foreign (NHS)

Me… but I got the tube here in January

*muttered conversation with receptionist* -(in Thai obviously)

They produce a phone and I speak to the man who originally served me and explained the problem. He conveys this to the staff.

New tube produced and fitted.

Woman: Good?

Me: Yes thank you. That feels better. But I will try it and if it feels uncomfortable I will come back.

Woman: un-com–fort-able??? What is that?

Kevin *trying to be helpful * Ouch! aw!! Ouch!!!!

Woman * looks completely blank*

Man obtained on phone again & this message is relayed

Woman: okay okay

Exit Toners – exhausted

I just hope to god that these tubes fit fine. I’m not sure I could go through all that palaver again…

#Thailife

“The naming of Thais is a serious matter

       It isn’t just one of your holiday games

      You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter

      When I tell you a Thai must have three different names”

First of all there is the family or surname. These are usually two syllables for traditional Thai families but for Chinese-Thai families these can be much longer even up to seven syllables and are largely unpronounceable by the average ex-pat! For example Lertkornkitja or Kanthamala, Chakrabongse or Chamnansatol. Interestingly Surnames only became a legal requirement in Thailand in 1913.

Secondly the formal name of the person. Again these can be extremely long and complicated to our western ears and when combined with the long family name – we basically haven’t got a hope! Apparently when a Thai child is born there are particular letters of the alphabet for each day of the week which can be used. These names are usually auspicious and can be a combination of multiple syllables. Many formal names are selected by the monks and largely they are only used in formal situations or for documents.

Finally there is the name that is used daily – the nick name. These are cute, easy and often random words that the parents just like the sound of. Fortunately for us these are the names used at school.

“What’s your name?” asked a new Bangkok English teacher

“Yes,” the Thai student replies.

“No, I mean, what are you called?”

“Yes. My names is Yes.”

The nicknames are brilliant but have taken some getting used to. Ones I have come across include

Bright

Mighty

Clean

Best

Beam

Music

Jeep

New

We have a family at school with the siblings Porsche, Mercedes and Benz. Another family with Pizza, Pasta and Kebab.

One of my library assistants is called Tub. His brother is called Toob because when said together: Toob, Tub it sounds like a heartbeat. Toob, Tub. Toob, Tub. Isn’t that lovely.

Many names are androgonous such as Mint. This is a particularly popular name at the moment and there are several male and female Mints which is quite refreshing in a gender neutral way although does make it difficult when needing to refer to the child with a pronoun. I recently sent an email about Garfield to her teacher calling her ‘him’ all the way through! I have also just recruited a female Tom.

Some names are easier than others. I like the single letter ones: M or Q or A

Thais seem to like duplication so there is also

MM

Bin Bin

Ping Ping

Ten Ten

Tae Tae

Miu Miu

to name but a few

Some nicknames are colours e.g. Daeng means red,  Chompu is pink and Som is orange.

Some nicknames are wicked though and make me laugh. Porn is one which springs to mind. Porn is very popular here and actually means ‘blessings’ in Thai. It is difficult for us to keep a straight face; though Camp and Guff were also advised to change their nicknames before taking up a place in a western university!

Poo is also a popular name here as you can see.

The growth in western influence has spawned a generation with names such as

Pepsi

Pond

Bank

Lemon

Beer

Fanta

Super

Cake

Pencil…

We do have a young Pearly Peace but my favourite has to be a little girl in the junior school called Smile.

 

 

 

 

Fully Booked is the name of Shrewsbury’s annual Book Week – or Book Extravaganza as I’ve come to realise. It is the high point in the library calendar and definitely the busiest week of our year. It has taken weeks and weeks of planning and preparation but was a fiesta of inspirational reading activities and great fun to be part of.

This year we loosely had the theme of ‘mystery’ as we ran a Murder by the Book crime game in the senior library for all of Year 8. This involved them all sitting a detective exam (based on riddles) to choose their ‘lead detectives’ – there were 4 in each class. The game was competitive and points were scored for finding out who the murderer was but also how and why the crime was committed (using the available clues and evidence). Library staff wore CSI jackets for the day and kept the senior library closed to all but Year 8 – it was a crime scene after all. This piqued the interest of all the other year groups who couldn’t get in! I now have requests for ‘special activities ‘ for them too.

It was so much fun that year 8 asked if they could do another one! Maybe next year…

On Monday we all wore sticky labels on ties which had the name of our favourite book.

The idea was to chat to each other about books. We have 1700 children and approx 300 staff including catering, security, finance and admin etc. It was a lot of stickers to cut up and distribute. Obviously some folk forgot or didn’t bother but largely people engaged. In fact the non-teaching staff were delighted to be included in the activity. So huge thanks to Rosalind at Ripley for sharing that idea with me. It was a great starter for our week.

In the middle of the week we ran a reading fair. This was a co-operative initiative with the Literacy coordinator. Juniors could register to take part and the library was busy cutting out cardboard which the kids then decorated with their favourite book. They had to show an understanding of the author/publisher, setting, plot, mood etc and be creative. We had 59 entries which went on display after school on Wednesday. That day the Heat Index reached 41 (the point when outdoor activities get cancelled) but as this was after school the show went on. In sweltering heat we judges squeezed through throngs of proud parents armed with cameras to talk to each presenting child (or team) to check that it was their own work and that they did understand the story . The photos here show the high standards of work and to say that I was impressed would be an understatement. Judging was very difficult.

Wednesday was also our Where’s Wally themed day in the library. We all dressed as Wally/Wanda. The children did puzzles and games from the books. Every single Wally book (including the extras I had bought) were borrowed.

Thursday and Friday were the author visit days. David Bedford was over from the U.K. and we ran workshops with all our Year 1 & 2 children about his picture books and they got to make a little book of their own. Then David talked to Year 4 about his football stories and they made up a group story. He was an inspiring speaker and we sold many of the books at the end of each day.

David even popped into my Year 5 Excellent Readers group to talk with them about an upcoming reading competition.

In addition to all this members of SMT and other key figures came to read stories in the library after school to a dedicated core of pre-prep kids who thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Teachers also volunteered to read in a special story tent, put up in the playground, each break and lunchtime throughout the week. (A challenging task against the cacophony of noise!)

We ran a myriad of lunch time activities including an I Spy wall, a digital scavenger hunt, guess the character competition and daily breakout box challenges.

We ran a bookmark competition and a Tweet a Mystery competition for the seniors. Teachers in the senior school were asked to share a book that inspired them in their subject and whole year groups from the senior school went to read their favourite story to the little ones.

In addition each class in the junior school decorated their classroom door as a book and I am SO glad that I didn’t also have to judge that one!!!!

Running alongside all this is a major Family Reading Challenge where parents undertake to read to their child/children. They sign up and get a sheet then they choose a fiction, a non-fiction, an ebook, a book from a selected shelf of crime/ Mystery stories and a ‘book in a bag’ (it’s a mystery what you get). The objective is to read from all 5 categories to gain a ‘detective certificate’. Families who read 2 from each section can get an ‘inspector’ certificate and those who read 3 will be ‘secret agents’

This activity is hugely popular and on reflection perhaps should be run as a stand alone at a different time of year. We just couldn’t cope with the volume of issues and returns during the week. The parents have until Sonkran to complete this but they ‘peaked’ now.

Then there was a book fair running all week

And a book swap stall in the playground each morning run by the English dept.

But the ‘piece de resistance’ of the whole week was the Friday dress up day. Everyone in the junior school was a book character and it was amazing. The library team had chosen to be the Alice in Wonderland ensemble and the costumes created were stunning. Unfortunately though the Bangkok weather turned from its typical blistering sunshine to a tropical storm just at the time of the Book Character parade. (So yes, it did rain on my parade…) And boy did it rain! The entire playground was flooded in a short space of time.

Consequently the parade deteriorated into a squash in the smaller covered area. This was followed by an exciting assembly where all the various prizes were awarded.

Which was all followed by copious quantities of gin… (not for the kids)

February half term and Oliver is visiting. We planned a trip with him to Sabah in Borneo to visit Lena. Lena used to look after the boys 20 years ago when I went back to work after Inigo was born. Oliver was 7 then so remembers her. FB is fantastic for keeping in touch with people and Lena had long ago said that we should visit Malaysia- this seemed an ideal opportunity.

It was brilliant having a local to show us around. We were taken to food establishment that most tourists wouldn’t find!

Some facts about Borneo that I didn’t know…

* Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world.

* Borneo is the only island which has 3 nations on (Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia)

*Borneo’s rainforest is one of the oldest in the world (140 million years)

* some remote villages still practice head hunting!! (allegedly) we were advised not to travel without a guide.

Borneo is certainly a place for an adventure holiday (if any of you are looking for one). It is very green and warm (but not too humid -unlike Bangkok).

In fact Borneo boasts some of the largest ferns in the world.

We visited the mountain region. Lena told us that Mount Kinabalu is the highest peak in SE Asia at 13,435 ft. We didn’t actually climb it but the village we drove to was pretty high and the views were picturesque.

There was also an extremely rickety bridge which the locals used to take produce to market. Planks were missing but they didn’t seem to mind!!!

The highlight of the trip was a visit to an area where we saw Proboscis Monkeys in the wild. We piled into boats along with Chinese tourists (it was Chinese New Year) and floated gently past an island where the monkeys swung in the branches of the trees. If you look carefully at the pictures you can see them. At one point a baby missed its branch & fell but the Mother caught it. Some things don’t change between the species.

(This picture is from the internet but gives you an idea of what we saw)

After a delicious Chinese buffet we all got back on the boats and sailed back along the same river. As the sun set millions of fireflies began to glow their bioluminescence flickering and twinkling magically. In the soft warm air it felt as though we had entered a fairy kingdom. Apologies that the picture is so dark. We were just mesmerised.

After all the excitement the down time relaxing in a tropical island was very welcome. A little ferry took us to the island at a cost of £21 each which included lunch, tea and access to water sports and batik painting activities.

The hammock hut was a big hit with us. Very chillaxing…

Even though Kevin and I stayed under the shade we still caught the sun.!!

Our abiding memory of Sabah though is going to be the feasts that Lena and her brother treated us to. This is a seafood lover’s paradise. There was lobster with butter, lobster with cheese (!), crab, huge prawns which looked as though they had recently modelled for ‘aliens’ and even Stingray. That’s not to mention the dim sum, satay and adorable banana fritters.

It’s back to the diet now…

It was an amazing adventure and gave us a taste of Malaysia. There is so much to see and experience that we have decided to visit the other part yat some point.

I will just finish with some of the beautiful flora that we saw. It is lovely to see flowers that we don’t get back at home.

And a butterfly..,

Today is multi-celebrational (I might have just invented that word) on so many levels.

Back at home there is a tussle between Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. Here neither of those get much of a look in here as it’s Chinese New Year which is HUGE for us.

Streets and Shopping Malls have gone to town on decorations to rival their Christmas ones

The school had a special celebration with a dress up day for the juniors. They looked splendid in their red and gold outfits.

The library joined in. This is Tub one of our newest library assistants looking very dashing. Kevin said it was the ‘wear matching outfits to work day’!!! I have to say that the blouse was actually quite heavy/thick material so I got very hot!!!

In the morning the Chinese department organised a dragon dance performance. It was quite spectacular and the videos I took will be on Facebook as I can’t upload them to WordPress. Here are some photos though

The performance involved dramatic acrobatics in lion costumes! I was impressed. I have seen Chinese New Year parades in Soho and this was several notches above that.

Then the parents committee put on a massive spread of Chinese snacks. The objective being to sample food that you might not otherwise have tasted. There was SO much left over that I am now completely stuffed with spring rolls, custard filled dumplings and moon cakes. All totally delicious.

And to top all that excitement it is also our wedding anniversary…

The Nai Lert Heritage House and Museum is a hidden gem in the centre of such a bustling modern city and I am so glad to have been taken to it this weekend.

The home of an extremely wealthy Thai businessman has been restored and opened to the public as a museum in 2015. It comprises two teak houses joined together and surrounded by a veranda so huge you can fit several full scale dining suites there. It sits alongside one of Bangkok’s canals and nestles in quite extensive lush gardens.

This weekend Kevin went on a football outing to Hua Hin and I think that probably the less said about that the better…

So when my friend Maxine suggested the flower and art show at Nai Lert I was keen to go. I had no idea where it was so the whole day was a delightful surprise.

The flower and art show is only on this weekend and basically it does what it says on the tin. Floral displays and art installations scattered together in the gardens of the house. It reminded me of a very small scale Chelsea Flower Show as displays were submitted by companies and individuals (I think – the notices were all in Thai so I couldn’t tell exactly)

This one came second although I think it was my favourite. It comprises intricate folded petals to make the shapes.

I was just blown away by the work that had gone into every little detail

c

The actual winner was more abstract and used drift wood and a flower of gorgeous colour which was probably quite rare. Possibly some sort of orchid?

There was a craft fair, flower display workshops, a food market, live music and other entertainment . It was certainly very popular but didn’t at any point feel too crowded. We paid 150 baht entrance fee which is about £3.37! Then we were allowed into the house and museum free.

I have included some of my photos here. They are very colourful and detailed. Some of these are from a category called ‘wedding collection’

Unfortunately I am not a botanist and have no idea what any of these plants/ flowers actually are. Maybe some of you can enlighten me.

I do know a lily pond when I see one though. This site was apparently bombed at some point so the crater turned into the lily pond. This is the most colourful one I have seen

And this one has the largest lily pads that I have seen for a while!

The floral mandala was an intricate carpet and the perfume rising from all the petals was heavenly. I could have stood breathing in the aroma for hours.

And interspersed between the flower arrangements were little bits of art

Then, just when I thought we had seen it all we went into the house and found these displays of folded banana leaves which were used as table decorations. Coming from the ‘plonk a bunch in a vase’ school of flower arranging, I was seriously impressed! These must have taken some time and skill to produce.

All in all that was £3.37 well spent!

I haven’t done a blog post in a while. This is because I was completely knackered by the time we reached the end of term; what with one thing and another.

This is our fancy dress for the staff Christmas party. Only a handful of people got it!

Then Kevin & I set straight off for Australia which was lovely, except that we caught a VICIOUS Australian virus which laid us both up for the better part of a week!!! It was great to see all the family out there though and to drive on roads where drivers actually stick to the rules!!!!Little Ollie shown here is just adorable (even if he was shy of the strange Pommie people with the weird accent!)

Perhaps the best perk of this trip though was being able to bring CHEESE back with us. Not that we are addicted but we have really really missed cheese. It is scarce here and hideously expensive. Half our suitcase weight I think was cheese…

Then I was fortunate enough to be given the funding to attend the 21 Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong with my assistant librarian Marivic. What a treat that was – it certainly beats going to Manchester!

The first day was totally Library and was held in the Hong Kong International School on the eastern side of the island. The views up there were breath-taking but we had to go up some narrow and winding roads to the school! The older I get the less I like heights/sheer drops.

It was an intense day with an overwhelming number of new ideas and resources thrown at us. I loved the Rocks and Sucks exercise after lunch where we basically had to defend or negate a statement by moving to the side of the room.

The water here was delicious and I had to take a photo. Best water I have ever been given at a conference with cucumber, lime and mint.

After that it was 2 full on days at work in the HK conference Centre with an evening Junk trip around the stunning Harbour as well for good measure.

The focus of the conference was using digital technology in Classrooms and I used Padlet, pearl trees and and WolframAlpha for the first time. I learned about Newslea and Whacky Reading Challenges. My favourite piece of new technology though was LunaPic and I have subsequently had great fun doing photo editing from my album

Apparently this can be used with good effect with children to create their own graphic novels.

The last picture here was from the husky puppy cafe (sheer canine joy) which Inigo and I visited.

… for any of you who might have missed the Facebook posts.

Inigo brought Mother over and so we took them out and about. Most places already recorded here but there were a couple of new spots

This is the train market so called because the awnings of the stalls overhang a track. Twice a day the train comes through and everyone has to stand back!

But my favourite place was the old city of Ayutthaya where I say this Buddha head in real life. I had originally thought that it was a carving on the trunk but it had apparently fallen when the city was sacked by the Burmese 160 years ago and the tree roots have grown around it. The power of nature is impressive.

it’s hot here again. We must be acclimatising though because HK was 15 degrees but cloudy and grey which was like an autumn day in the U.K. this meant socks and sleeves which I haven’t had to wear now for 5 months!