Welcome to Sunday Summary, the meme in which I attempt to summarize the week that came before. This was a relatively uneventful week with one major exception: my Lovely Lady is finally returning to Phuket after a prolonged flood-induced exile to the east of Thailand. Yet, as she readies her return to coincide with my birthday celebration next week, we are continuing to endure almost daily thunderstorms and the resultant high waters here in the south. Strange weather, indeed.
My own schedule is still hectic — I have been working seven-day weeks since the first day of November — but December is a month of holidays so I am looking forward to a few brief breaks. I actually completely forgot that Thursday was my favorite holiday back in the U.S.A. — Thanksgiving. It didn’t matter too much as everyone in my family had plans and my sister had let me know in advance that the annual family pass-the-phone-around call wouldn’t be happening. That was fine by me as the calls usually come when I am not quite ready for them!
Working
After just a month at my new school, I am fully immersed into my weekly routines and most days simply fly by. Even the Friday schedule with its six lessons does not seem too bad at all. The boys in one class are still extremely ill-mannered but some are starting to settle down; their Thai homeroom teacher is becoming a bit better in her classroom management skills and we assist each other when we can. The tiny tykes in the two Nursery classes are a lot of fun and I am having fun improving my dancing skills when I visit them.
Between last week’s funerals and this week’s severe weather, we have not had the flag ceremony outside for quite some time. With the children separated during the morning assembly I have not yet been able to do my “Word of the Day” presentation on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have prepared several visual aids for a couple of words but each morning, I change my mind on which word I would like to present (I rehearse it mentally) during Gate Duty. By assembly time, heavy rain usually determines that my portion of the event will be cancelled.
On both Tuesday and Wednesday this week, I spent every non-teaching moment creating flashcards on my laptop. I printed my designs and laminated them at home Wednesday evening and now have all of my needed materials for the next two weeks. I knuckled down because I had other plans this weekend and next week is my birthday which sounds like it might actually be a real celebration this year. I also want to begin work on Christmas materials within the next week or two; I may splurge for a tree to put in the office as I have a number of decorations I bought a few years ago that have never been used. I want the kids to see a Winter Wonderland when they look through the windows of my cubicle.
Following our classes on Friday afternoon, the Chinese teacher — as she does every week — drove me to Phuket Town and I arrived in time for my one-hour private lesson near my apartment there. My students for Saturday and Sunday ended up cancelling (I got the message a little after six o’clock in the morning Saturday) which made my tasks for the weekend much easier. My work permit is up for renewal and part of that process is obtaining a medical certificate. It usually takes a few hours so I was happy with the class cancellation as it meant I could get there fairly early.
When I arrived at the hospital, I was told that they were no longer accepting new patients due to a huge backlog. The receptionist suggested I return at 1:00 p.m. to queue (it was just after 10 a.m.) but then scanned my ID card to try and reserve a spot for me. She became excited and immediately asked me to follow her down to the Wellness Center, asking me a few questions about where I was teaching now and how long I had been in Thailand as we walked. Downstairs, I was given the VIP treatment and rushed-through the process as much as possible. I never did find out why I was receiving this preferential treatment but I thought perhaps one of my former students was a bigwig at the hospital now. It’s happened before — I once taught the chief brain surgeon at a different hospital. Still, I didn’t exit the hospital until after 1:30.
Blogging
I continued with my new blogging routine as mentioned in last week’s “Sunday Summary” posting two new Christmas stamp articles to this blog, one about a Lindbergh patch to My Collections, and resuscitating Postcards To Phuket with a slight redesign which in turn inspired me to produce five entries over the course of the week. The latter received a new logo (a portion of which dominates this post’s thumbnail featured image), a new color scheme and new fonts. All while using the same basic theme that I thought I had grown tired of. It is amazing what a new coat of paint can do!
Latest Posts on Postcards To Phuket:
Latest Posts on My Collections:
Speaking of featured thumbnails, I have been enjoying creating the ones for “Sunday Summary” each week. When I started doing this meme in August, I made a thumbnail using different Inca and Maya Sun God symbols before I decided to use my favorite mask repeatedly. Since the ninth installment of the series (the first “Flood Day”), I have incorporated that mask into graphics illustrating the local weather or some other aspect of my home. I have been quite pleased with most of these with the exception being the “philatelist” illustration last week.
- Sunday Summary #32
- Sunday Summary #31
- Sunday Summary #30
- Sunday Summary #29
- Sunday Summary #28
- Sunday Summary #27
- Sunday Summary #26
- Sunday Summary #25
- Sunday Summary #24
- Sunday Summary #23
- Sunday Summary #22
- Sunday Summary #21
- Sunday Summary #20
- Sunday Summary #19
- Sunday Summary #18
- Sunday Summary #17
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 a whole lot of music this week — some Journey (demos and live in 1977), a bit of Allman Brothers Band (live in 1993), some 1992 Tori Amos bootlegs, and several Bob Seger concert recordings from 1974. This was a total of 92 songs comprising 7.6 hours of listening, according to MusicBee.
Most of the time, the music was playing while I was reading. I am fully immersed now in Lawrence Block’s The Burglar Who Met Frederic Brown although most evenings I can only manage 30 or 45 minutes before my eyes become so heavy that I need to lay down and sleep.
That reading comes as the last task of the day, just after watching an episode or two of “1883.” I have two more remaining before I will have to endure weekly waits for the rest of this season of “Yellowstone” (I watched S05E03 early in the week and will download Episode 4 tomorrow). At least “1923” debuts in about three weeks so I can add that to the list of series that I follow.
I still have a few unwatched movies so they can fill the gap as long as I can stay awake! I did get through Ticket To Paradise starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts one rainy evening midweek.
Eating
My meals consisted of the usual stuff — 7-Eleven microwave meals (and a salad!) most of the week with a midweek splurge at New York Burger (the jalapeño burger with cheese is to die for). I visited a “new” 7-Eleven one afternoon this week on a trek towards the beach but got poured on by a thunderstorm as soon as I walked outside. The rain stopped just as soon as I got back to my apartment. During my weekends in Phuket Town, I generally rely on FoodPanda. I ordered fish and chips Friday night and had a really nice fried chicken sandwich with fries for lunch on Saturday. Unfortunately, ALL of my favorite restaurants were closed Saturday night so I went without dinner. I will try and get some lunch this afternoon before heading back to Kata.
Loving
Again, Kanchana video-called me almost every day (sometimes several times in a day), showing me various steps in the rice-harvesting process. But her time down on the farm is coming to an end soon as she will return to Phuket sometime this week (probably Friday afternoon). She needs to visit her doctor in Bangkok for a check-up before boarding the plane south and is hoping for an appointment that will prevent having to spend a single night in the capital city. The less time in Bangkok, the better, she says because it is still occupied by a huge police and para-military presence in the wake of the APEC protests.
Photo of the Week
And that is my Sunday Summary for November 20-27, 2022. I hope the week to come is just how you want it to be. Cheers!
Mark Joseph Jochim 