Welcome to Sunday Summary, the meme in which I attempt to summarize the week that came before. It has been a very wet week, culminating in most of Phuket Town being underwater as I write this. I spent most of my morning today wading through dirty water and my afternoon putting together and uploading a video of the flood. It’s still raining heavily so I will need to go out soon and stock up on food. Thus, I will try my best to make this a rather short “Sunday Summary.”
Working
I mentioned last week that it was the beginning of the month-long Term Break and that I was quite lazy. The three girls whom I usually teach for two hours each Saturday afternoon decided they wanted to learn with me EVERY DAY this week. I taught them from 10-12 Monday through Wednesday, Thursday was a holiday due to being the anniversary of King Bhumibol’s death, and I saw them Friday morning and the usual Saturday afternoon.
I was scheduled to teach another class (two teenage girls) today but all classes were cancelled due to the flooding. Ironically, the building which houses our offices and classrooms was one of the few places in Phuket Town still on dry ground (one of the others happened to be my guesthouse). However, trying to get to either of these two “islands” would have been impossible for our students.
Walking
Since I had the day off from work Thursday, I decided to walk from my home in the northern stretches of Phuket Town all the way to Saphan Hin in the southern part of the municipality. This is a recreational and sports area and I videotaped most of my walk. Again, I edited it down for a video (and a blog entry). Following that long walk, I made a detour to the post office before heading home. Other than daily walks to work and today’s adventure in the rainwater, I did not walk anywhere else of note other than to get a haircut Friday afternoon. I discovered a fairly new barbershop (Two Girls) behind the 7-Eleven at Seng Ho.
Blogging
I blogged a lot this week with five entries posted to this, my main site. These included a prologue and first entry for a new series which will highlight different stamp-related YouTube channels, the photo-blog companion pieces for two YouTube videos, and a continuation of my Thainess series detailing how to use the bathroom and take a shower in Thailand (important stuff, indeed!).
I performed some long-overdue maintenance on the original WordPress.com-hosted version of Philatelic Pursuits and published a “Moving Forward” overview post. I wrote introductions to a couple of articles intended for My Collections but never found the time to finish them and add in the scans. I hope to do that later this week. I would also like to choose a card for Postcards To Phuket and start posting over there regularly once again. We may even see some items cross-posted between My Collections and A Stamp A Day in the not too distant future.
Latest Posts on MarkJosephJochim.com:
- Sunday Summary #32
- Sunday Summary #31
- Sunday Summary #30
- Sunday Summary #29
- Sunday Summary #28
- Sunday Summary #27
Listening/Reading/Watching
I didn’t listen to much music at all this week, and I only managed two more chapters of Black Earth City by Charlotte Hobson. I did do a lot of video watching. I spent several days watching YouTube videos about stamp collecting — some good, others not so much — and taking notes about those for my new blog series as mentioned above. I got caught up on a few other favorite (non-stamp) channels including Bald and Bankrupt, Noel Philips and Johnny FD. I finally finished Season 2 of The Wire, watched this week’s episode of House Of The Dragon (only two more remaining in Season 1), and stumbled across Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner.
Eating
I had a mix of different things this week, starting off with a Sunday night dinner of McDonald’s (mainly to finish off the salsa from the Mexican restaurant the night before, made for awesome McNuggets’ dipping). Got some of the best pork fried rice I have ever had one night but they cancelled my order when I tried them again, perhaps due to the weather. I bought some grilled chicken breasts one day after work and made sandwiches for a couple of days. Spaghetti twice and grilled chicken steaks with bread and salad twice. My students’ parents bought me snacks a couple of times as well!
But the absolute best meal — not only for taste but also for the price (free!) and company (good friends) — came mid-week. One of the teachers I had worked with at the school in Phang Nga texted me as I had left my phone charger there. She was in Phuket to pick up her salary and turn in paperwork. When she met me near our offices, she was accompanied by another of our former Phang Nga teachers and then they invited me for an evening out. Their treat! Things tend to close early in Phuket Town so we walked a bit before we found a newish restaurant still open. This turned out to be Full Moon Brew Works on Th. Thepkassatri. I’d walked by it a few times but it was always closed.
I ordered the Pulled Pork BBQ which came covered in cole-slaw and a large slice of dill pickle on a brioche bun. Wow, was it delicious! There was homemade ketchup for the perfectly seasoned fries and I washed it all down with the Chaliwan Pale Ale. Beth and April were pleased with their orders as well. We spent a pleasant couple of hours eating and getting caught up on all the gossip. We wrapped up the evening with cups of gelato from the ice cream shop across from the old Rasta Bar on Thepkassatri Road (I don’t know the name but it is the one with the “Will You Melt Me?” mural). I believe Beth will remain in Phuket but April has accepted a job in Chantaburi near the Cambodian border (our agency did not bid to renew the contract in Khok Kloi due to the many problems we experienced up there).
Loving
Our time apart has gone into its third month now. There is a possibility that my Lovely Lady will be able to come back south this coming week, provided she can make it to Bangkok for a scheduled doctor’s appointment. Most of Thailand remains under heavy floods, making any inter-provincial travel difficult at best — either by road or by air. Of course, boats are in high demand now. The best part of any day is seeing the incoming call from Kanchana; sometimes, it’s just a few short minutes in a day while other times we talk for hours or even multiple times throughout the day or evening. Both of us have become early-birds so the calls rarely happen too late which suits me just fine.
Photo of the Week
I hope the week to come is just how you want it to be. Cheers!
Mark Joseph Jochim 