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Laos.
This photo was taken from the first floor of the Lao-American College in Vientiane. I went there with a group of teachers to provide teacher training for Lao teachers of English who can’t afford to go out to the big linguistics conferences for upskilling. The LAC, who hosted the mini-conference, was really great in making us feel welcome and even provided a wonderful leaving ceremony including food and performances by the students that I will talk about for years. Working with my talented colleagues as well as the local teachers was a fantastic experience in grass roots action as that information will filter down to other teachers and also to the students.
It was the first time I’d been to Laos despite having spent lots of time in surrounding countries and I was surprised to find that Vientiane felt like some places I had been in India (except for the lack of crowds!). The fun part was that most people understand Thai so I attempted to use my rudimentary Thai to communicate with Laotians. They would then tell me what the words should be in Lao and then laugh at my attempts to switch over. That brings my number of tonal languages that I can successfully butcher and embarrass myself in up to 3, hurrah!
growing food wherever possible.
Even though my legs are embarrassingly sore today and even though our, so called, plot is only 30cms x 1 metre and even though we have as many slugs and snails outside our house as there are sheep in New Zealand, we are still going to use that tiny little hole in the cement and exploit it to the tune of two canes of sweetpeas, two canes of beans, three endive plants and a couple of lettuces. So there. Take that, concrete garden!
being a writer.
Sometimes it means that I’m not here even though I’m here. I’m at my computer, but some (graciously accepted) project is taking me away from my blog or other writing. Sometimes, I have to do the money-writing when I’d rather be doing the more exciting and beautiful creative writing. Sometimes I have to look at the sunny day out the window instead of going out and sitting in it. Sometimes I have to tell my friends to have a good time, rather than join them for an afternoon coffee and cake session. But that’s par for the course and I accept it. I love being a writer.
time spent with good friends.
This photo is a couple of years old now, but I’ve been thinking about the friends we had back in Japan quite a bit recently. I think it is wonderful how you can float around on the globe and then settle down for a while, look up, and there are people just like you. Amazing, amazing. What are the chances? Why does this happen? Maybe you have to be open to it in some way. Or maybe there’s some boring reason like the fact that they are doing something similar to what you’ve chosen, so you think alike.
This was a moment out of a long weekend we spent at our friends’ cabin in the mountains. It is known as the “Foreigners’ Village” by locals because there have been long-term expat summer homes here for generations. There are Japanese who come as well, but the basic conditions only appeal to very few people. The history is amazing and every simple little cabin has its own story. One cabin is the place where we spent wonderful nights discussing books, listening to music (some on LPs!) creating menus and making delectable dishes, trying to outdo each other and then waking late the next day from too much wine. If it weren’t for our ages, you’d think it some scene out of the life of an undergraduate. Eventually we’d make it down to the local sento for a bath.
I’m convinced someday that I’ll be able to collect all these wonderful people and get them to move to one place so we can live like this all the time. But I know that will never happen because we are all transient by nature. We can’t stop forever. That’s what makes us alike. But wouldn’t that be cool?
August.
It’s time to say goodbye to July and hello to August. To me this means that we are on our way to spring. I know I’m a little bit early but I am crossing my fingers, closing my eyes tightly, holding my breath, and wishing for more sunny days to come our way. With so much cold wind and rain, even the smallest spot of sunshine can lift spirits during Auckland’s winter. When the sun comes out, everyone comes out of hibernation and the beaches become full with walkers and the parks enjoy impromptu rugby matches or even barbecues. It’s cold, but we don’t care because it’s all about the sunshine. And in honour of this happy mood I want to give a couple of shoutouts.
Our friends Tina and Matt have finally taken off back to Tina’s home country of Norway to live for a while. The good thing is that they are doing a few months of travelling through South East Asia on the way so my husband and I will be following them on thier blog to see how they are enjoying the places we love so much.
Some other blogs I follow have been putting up interesting news. Liz at A Girl in Asia is having her second baby and, judging from the silence on her blog something exciting could be underway in Bangkok as we speak. Niamh of Irish Wanderings has started up a great new blog called Inspiring Sports Women. Julie at Cuaderno Inedito has returned from a trip to Cuba and is getting ready for a big revamp of her blogs. I can’t wait to see what it’s all going to look like. Over at Bearshapedsphere Eileen is talking about my favourite subject, food, complete with a vocabulario lesson. Two colleagues from Pocketcultures, Bec and Arwa, have joined us over at Nile Guide (where I’ve been writing about Auckland. Have I told you?), which is very fun. And my high school friend, Shiela at Design Sparxs, has actually jumped out of a plane! I won’t be topping that.
I’ve also met a few new people this months who have very nice blogs indeed. Please check out:
Breathe Dream Go
Discover. Share. Inspire.
Uncornered Market
Treehouse Kitchen
Hella Delicious
The other exciting thing is that the team at Pocketcultures is gearing up to write a book. Oh yes we are! It’s going to be about children’s games around the world and we’d really like your help with some preliminary research. If you, or someone you know, would be interested in a book of this nature we’d love it if you had a couple of minutes to do a short survey on the subject. We really want our book to be something that fills a need and would be interesting and engaging to people. So, lend us a hand! Many, many thanks in advance:-)
The Pocketcultures survey will be open until the 14th of August.
Here’s to a productive and fulfilling August!
Hoi An Market Fish
the way they sell fish in Asia.
Japanese mushrooms. I really miss the variety and they were relatively cheap. These are bunashimeji.
my fifty cent, made in Korea, bought in Vietnam, nailclippers.
You may be wondering why the shift to the mundane this week. Well, here’s the story. When I was 12 or 13 years old I had a typing class at school. We used real typewriters since those were the days before word processors and many of the keys had been lost and replaced randomly, or just mixed up to encourage us not to look at the keys. The curriculum consisted of sitting at the typewriters and going through drill after drill and it was, frankly, bor-ing! I completed term one but needed to do term two in order to cover the entire keyboard. Of course, typing was an optional class and there was something far more interesting to take in term two, so I never finished. To this day, I am not a touch typist. Even though I can type quite quickly when I get going, I still need to look at the keys much more than I should. Ask anyone who has tried to Skype chat me. Typos are like my personal signature. Perhaps someday I’ll go back and learn the rest of the keyboard, but until then I’ll just keep practising my proofreading skills.
There is, however, one antedote. If my nails grow long, my fingers keep tripping over them on the keyboard. Enter Korean-Vietnamese nail clippers. I’m not sure if it’s only psychological, but when I trim my nails, it’s almost as if I’ve got someone else’s fingers. These magical, short-nailed fingers can type! Well, they still can’t touch type, but they are fast. So, thank you fifty-cent, made in Korea, bought in Vietnam nailclippers. You’ve saved me.
…my Mum!
I know Mothers’ Day was technically yesterday, but I wanted this to be this week’s “I love Mondays” post. You can click on the photo to take you to the original, full-sized photo or watch this video of the building. This display was up all weekend and not one person vandalised it (I love Aucklanders!) unless you count the person who wrote “I love bacon”. Happy Mothers’ Day, Mum!!
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