I will make this a very quick entry as the power has just gone out once again — the second time this evening.

Two out of my three scheduled lessons were canceled at school for unknown reasons today. One of those was to be the last time I would see the class before they take their final exams next week and I planned a review session with several games and a bit of a farewell party. It is very frustrating when this sort of thing happens and we are usually not informed until we arrive for a lesson that has been pre-empted by some non-academic reason. It is a common occurrence in Thailand and not only in schools.

After school was to have been the final dress rehearsal for tomorrow’s performance portion of the annual Open House. I was invited to watch by the teacher who usually provides me with a ride home. It was a bit strange as most of the groups of kids were not allowed much of a rehearsal at all other than practicing climbing the steps onto the stage, bowing, and then exiting the stage. Teachers who had spent weeks rehearsing songs with their students were not allowed to plug into the hall’s sound system. Luckily, one brought his Bluetooth speaker so he was accorded a bit more on-stage time. Today’s photo is from the very end of the dress rehearsal, one of very few photos I shot today.

This ran until nearly six p.m. and then we hopped onto his motorbike for the ride up to my home. The skies had darkened by this time and as we drove north towards “Monkey Hill”, we could see the squall line rapidly approaching. We hit every single red light along the way and I predicted it would start pouring as soon as we reached my soi (lane). As we reached the parking lot to my building, we both rushed for cover but the rain suddenly stopped. The other teacher hopped back onto his bike and I entered a very dark building. The power had been knocked out in the entire neighborhood (this happens whenever the rain is heavy so that’s quite often during monsoon season). My apartment was an oven, the ice cream in the freezer was completely liquified and it was very dark.

Luckily, the electricity came back on within another 45 minutes or so and I decided to make tostadas using my rather melted cheese and the tortillas I purchased this weekend. They were pretty good but not as great as my two forays into taco-making but I forgot how potent the Thai jalapenos can be (I bought a jar on Sunday but forgot about them when I made tacos). We had another two or three heavy squalls, the last of which shut off the electricity once again but that came back on a few minutes ago.

Quite a day….