I taught a two-hour class at Central Festival this morning; my Sunday students never cancel their lessons the way those who are scheduled to learn on Saturdays do. I had a ton of tasks on my to-do list before and after my class so I didn’t have any time for photography. I took motorbike taxis both to and from the mall since the Airport Bus seems to be another victim of the pandemic (apparently, it brings passengers from the airport but the northward route seems to be on hold).

The photo pictured below is of my dinner, purchased at 7-Eleven during a quick walk down the street from my home. These wide, flat noodles with pieces of pork and green veggies in a very tasty and slightly spicy broth has become my favorite microwaveable meal from the mini-mart since my discovery of it a few weeks ago. It’s priced at about one U.S. dollar and the clerk will usually give me packets of chili flakes, sugar, and nam-prik (spicy chilis in juice) to flavor the soup. I save these condiments for different meals and slurp my noodles plain. This constitutes my dinner at least twice per week.

One of my errands today involved sending some stamps to a trading partner who has just returned to university in Germany; he lives in Greece. I supplied one of the recent golden 100-baht stamps issued by Thailand to mark the one year anniversary of His Majesty’s Coronation and had planned to have the envelope weighed and buy actual stamps to bring it to the actual mailing rate. However, this particular post office did not have ANY stamps at all (a growing trend) so the clerk added a meter for the remaining 55 baht. As I did not want to commit some form of lèse-majesté by licking the stamp with the King’s image, I asked the clerk to apply the stamp to the envelope, figuring she had a sponge-pad as I have seen at so many other post offices in Thailand. To my horror, she affixed the stamp using a GLUE-stick. She also seemed reluctant to let me take a “proof of mailing” photo (seen below) but I managed to talk her into it. I wonder how long it will take to get to Germany? Mail from Europe seems to be reaching Phuket in record-setting speeds lately.