I have always liked the multicolored window frames, shutters and flat arches on the upper floor at No. 112 on Thalang Road in Old Town Phuket. The upper-storey façade juts out over the lower part, creating the five-foot way detailed in yesterday’s “Daily Phuket”. The adjustable shutters on the floor-length windows allowed the young women in the house a peek at life on the street The Greek-influenced columns on this particular rowhouse are quite plain compared to many others nearby. No. 112 has housed the popular restaurant Eleven Two & Co. for the past six or seven years, formerly one of my favorite hangouts during the Sunday evening Lard Yai walking streets but I haven’t visited to eat or drink since prior to the first semi-lockdown last March. Lately, the front has been so obscured by racks of clothing on sale that I have not been able to see inside to determine if the restaurant is still there.

The photo was taken during my walk to work early this morning. Again, today proved to be my last teaching day of the week as we were informed officially (after several days of rumors provided by various students) that almost all classes are cancelled tomorrow so that students can take tests on Buddhist teachings, practices and ceremonies. This is the second or third similar test that they have cancelled classes for in the past couple of months. I still have to go and sit in the foreign teachers’ office all day, however. It will give me an opportunity to finish my final exam drafts. I have not taught any Friday classes since 5 February.

Here are a few other photos that I took during the day:

The first two images are of doorways along Thalang Road. There are many different styles, some original and others modern fixtures. We then have a packaged banana from 7-Eleven. They tend to spoil very quickly when encased in plastic. The next shot is of my box of materials that I lug to each classroom; the case of markers, pens and pencils always goes with me and there are also folders for each lessons’ worksheets or flashcards. For today’s first lesson in M4/2 it was mostly a review of countries, nationalities and flags so the items in the box include conversation-prompt cards and hand-held flags. At the start of class, I gave them an extremely easy quiz to test their recall as this was their first lesson since the beginning of February. The students are quite lazy but I got them all to create individual flags during the second half of the class. Their regular Thai teacher stopped-in at one point and was quite amazed to see that they were all participating in the activity (which, I must admit, was the first time that has happened all term).