Friday. Gateway to the weekend. Payday, this time around (we get paid monthly on the 12th). Also, a very hot day as our unrelenting heatwave continues. Today was the first in more than a month that DID NOT see any class cancellations so it was a full day of climbing stairs in different buildings to confront uninterested masses of teenagers. They were relatively well-behaved today with the heat perhaps playing a role. It really is reducing all of our energy. At least the foreign teachers’ office is nice and cold and I spent the time between my morning classes sitting at my desk consuming bottles of ice water and trying to file my taxes online. After answering many pages of questions in Turbotax, it turns out I will have to mail my return forms. C’est la vie.

As a philatelist, I am also fond of various postal implements and there are several older pillar boxes dotted around Old Phuket Town. This one on Thalang Road is probably the oldest. It sits in front of a shop that sells t-shirts and other souvenirs, including postcards, but is usually obscured by racks of things to buy when the shop is open and the owner really hates people taking photos. When the shop is closed, there is usually a motorbike parked in front of this postal receptacle which makes me wonder how the postie can collect whatever may have been dropped inside. This morning was a very rare occasion indeed that I was able to get a decent photo of it. A good start to what became a good day.