Welcome to "Sunday Summary" in which I try to summarize the week that came before. This is the 62nd installment, covering the week ending yesterday, 28 October 2023.
For the second week in a row, we are linking up with The Sunday Salon, hosted at ReaderBuzz, and Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer. Check out their posts and the links to see what other book bloggers have been up to in the last week.
This was a week of updates. With postal administrations around the world starting to announce their stamp-issuing programs for 2024, I spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday adding schedules and images to my stamp site, including a calendar. I have been covering new issues since 2019 and this was the first time I thought of something so useful -- all of the listings on one page with links to the images -- so I am quite proud of it. I also created a number of November layouts for my bullet journal so I am not too bogged down when the month changes over.
I expect that I will be extremely busy for the first few days of the month. Term 2 starts on 1 November and the agency has yet to provide the ten foreign teachers at the school with class schedules or the course curriculum. I expect that those will be sent out after six p.m. Tuesday evening (just as many of us are going out for Halloween parties!). As I am returning to the same kindergarten class -- and remain with the same kids all day every day -- I am not too worried about a schedule although it would be nice to know (in advance!) which topic to teach. I have been teaching long enough that I do have a stockpile of flashcards and other materials that I can use on a wide range of subjects so, again, the tardiness doesn't bother me too much. I worry about the new teachers hired-in for the second term and returnees who are not very experienced yet.
I want to spend a bit of time Wednesday or Thursday telling the children about los Días de los Muertos. I think it would be fun to have them color sugar skulls that we can then cut out and make masks for them to wear. It would be nice to show them the entire film Coco (I tried but failed to find a version dubbed in Thai) but I have a nice animated short I will play instead.
I did a fair amount of reading this week, finishing Day of the Dead Folk Art on Tuesday and Mexican Gothic on Thursday. I am also making progress on Something Wicked This Way Comes and a short story collection called In These Hallowed Halls.
Look for my November TBR post on Wednesday in place of this week's WWW Wednesdays meme as they would be two of the same thing! I really hope to finish at least the Ray Bradbury book as I hate to carry-over reads from month to month.
Yesterday, I stopped into one of the very few remaining book stores on the entire island -- Asia Books at Central Floresta. The same mall has two additional branches of this same shop but neither carry near as many English language books as this one. There is also an Asia Books kiosk (just a grouping of three or four tables) at the Jungceylon Mall in Patong and an independent shop (Phuket's oldest) called Seng Ho in Phuket Town. That is it as far as new books in Phuket; there are also three places in the province selling used books (two of these are thrift shops with much more than just books).
On this visit, I found several "tree-books" on my wish list that I had not been able to find as eBooks -- their purchases are going to have to wait until after my work permit and visa renewals in December -- as well as several that I already have eBooks of, including one that I just started reading. One of the books I saw is on my November TBR and I was tempted to purchase the physical copy. Had it been hard-bound, I would have. I did add a few others to my wish list (sorry about the poor photos -- they encase all of their books in thick plastic and the lighting is too bright!).
I have decided to host the Crossing Continents Reading Challenge 2024 as mentioned in last week's Summary. I will put together a proper announcement post sometime next month. I have already set a theme for each of the 12 months and I think there will be different tiers for completing more than just one book each month.
I suppose the "big news" this week is that I finally added another Thursday 13, the first since the end of September. I had planned just to list the items but, of course, the commentary got the better of me as I reminisced about an America that might not exist any more. I am not sure when I will attempt another installment as that meme always turns into a lengthy task to finish. With that one, I finished six articles on this site (and it will be seven once I finish this one) which makes it a really good week for me. I won't feel too guilty by skipping a couple of memes next week (WWW Wednesdays, for sure as mentioned above and quite possibly one or two others depending on my workload).
I published two articles on Philatelic Pursuits -- one about a 1959 maximum card featuring the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and one announcing new stamps from Slovakia and the U.S.
I spent a bit more time than usual surfing around the blogosphere this week. Here are some of my share-worthy finds. . .
The 18th Blog4Peace and Post4Peace occur on 4 and 5 November. The theme for 2023 is "Change the Room -- the Transforming Power of Walking in Peace".
We don't change the world or the room by ourselves.
We pass what we carry to each other.
Peace expands.
We transform.
Next Saturday and Sunday, add a globe or peace symbol to your blogs or social media posts and use the title Dona Nobis Pacem ("Grant Us Peace" in Latin). The goal is for all blog post titles and social media posts to say the same thing on the same day across the Internet. You can use hashtags such as #blog4peace #blogblastforpeace #blogblast4peace #peace to allow others to find all the wonderful peace globes. If you are stuck for image inspiration, you can browse through the many templates here.
'Tis the season for Halloween book lists for those who like to keep their reading especially creepy during those Autumn evenings. One that I found this week was Mystery Fanfare's lengthy list of mystery novels and anthologies of short stories that take place on or around Halloween. This led me to "Pumpkins and Peril: Halloween Mysteries For Us Scaredy Cats" on CrimeReads.com which is described as "Cozy mysteries with lush autumnal settings and Halloween themes (without the terrifying stuff)."
While following links on The Rap Sheet's latest Revue of Reviewers, I found the following new-to-me blogs of interest:
This was my fourth week bullet journaling. I got a bit carried away with some reflective Halloween stickers and kept most of my daily layouts pretty much the same other than some experimentation on Sunday and Monday. I liked only the alarm clock icon that I drew on Monday, even keeping it on succeeding days. I colored the backgrounds of the boxes at the beginning of the week but the lead in my colored pencils is much too soft -- prone to quick dullness and breakage -- so I abandoned the effort. Once I purchase a better quality of colored pencil, I may resume this or use some pastel markers I have just purchased for some limited shading. I put in a page for October's month-end reflection and a sugar skull sticker onto the November cover page. Since I created most of my November collection pages last week, I only had to make ones for the month's New Stamps (not very many so far) and a modified Sleep Log. Both will look a bit better once they are filled-in somewhat so I didn't include them in this week's slideshow of pages.
I have maintained my daily video journal, although none of the clips are at the desired 1.5-second length. Some days (like yesterday), I end up with more than a few short videos and will struggle to choose just one when I edit them into one video covering the entire (half-) month. Other days, those I stay home, I struggle to come up with anything different to film. Sometimes, nature helps me; waking up at 3:45 one morning generated a great video showing the full moon. Every time I venture up to 7-Eleven, I plan to capture some footage inside but I always forget. Maybe today.
I spent nearly five minutes one afternoon waiting to cross the road to my home following one such trip to the store. I shot two short clips, edited them together with some dramatic music and am quite pleased with the results, laughing every time I watch it; I almost got hit by the second motorbike that U-turned and a pickup truck further up the road blocked the cars when the light turned green. It really felt like an accomplishment when I made it to the other side.
I shot so much video yesterday that I strung them together to see how long it would be -- just over 13 minutes! Nearly half of that is footage filmed from the songthaew on the journey over the pass between the central part of the island to my home on the southwest coast. The steepness of the hill going up and coming back down is completely lost in the clip. I decided to upload the raw, unedited footage to YouTube (after adding a title and credits). Here it is. . .
I hope I have time to start editing all the bits of video together sometime in the next day or two. I think I will make a couple of versions -- one adhering to the 1.5-second limit per day (no sound) and one with one or two unedited clips from each day (with either natural sound or with music).
Is almost over and it seems like I still have a lot to do. . . .
After a week or more of mostly overcast (and rainy) skies, it was nice to witness a brilliant sunset Tuesday evening. Thankfully, much of the rest of the week was just as clear.
I finally remembered to take a few shots of the big mural near Kata Beach. It's been there for two or three months now but I usually see it when I am riding in the back of a songthaew on the way to work and then promptly forget about it. Mid-week, I took a walk over the hills to the south of the beach and then up the near-the-beach road (separated from the sand and views by a high wall surrounding Club Med) and came across the mural. It took a while to get a shot devoid of traffic and I managed only two that weren't blurry.
As I mentioned already, I spent Saturday afternoon at the big shopping mall in the center of the island. They were in the middle of their "Halloween Festival" celebration so more than the usual number of customers were wearing creepy costumes. They also went all-out in their decorations; I initially thought that the flowers were for wedding displays and then I saw the wraiths. . .
I particularly liked the creepy guy carrying a book and attempted a couple of selfies with it. I suck at selfies. . .
They had a bloody bride at the end to make the kids into little ghouls. I thought about having my face made-up as well but the line was just too long. Speaking of brides, the Thai teacher for my class got married Tuesday. Here's a couple of photos from her wedding (sent to me by a parent as I couldn't make the 8-hour trip to Phatthalung):
Congratulations, Teacher May!
I needed a new pen for my bullet journal and I wanted to pick up a few pastel markers that didn't bleed through the paper so my next stop was Moshi Moshi where I found some markers that worked out perfectly. They had a small selection for 20 baht each -- I had wisely brought the journal along and tested each marker in the back of the book. It turned out that my next stop -- B2S -- had many more colors from the same brand for 19 baht each. They also had a number of Sakura Pigma Micron pens -- considered one of the best for journaling due to its archival ink guaranteed to never bleed-through, smear or fade -- at a much higher cost (59 baht each) than the 16 baht I buy them for on Lazada. Perhaps that's because they were color markers but I did see some ones in black ink for the same price.
I didn't buy anything at B2S as the check-out lines were too long as the staff were mostly on-break (as usual). In fact, everywhere in the store was extremely crowded except for the small area in the back with English-language books. I didn't peruse many books while I was there as their redesign did not leave enough room between the stacks to bend down and look at items on the lower shelves.
My last stop of my shopping spree was up the road a bit to buy new flip-flop sandals at Big C. That successful, I wandered the food section but couldn't decide on anything to eat. I did spy some Thai pumpkins. These just are not the same as we are used to in the United States.
During the entire day, I had fun looking at the variety of treats -- both hand-crafted and mass-packaged -- laid out for Halloween. I don't remember there ever being as huge a variety as I saw yesterday. Trick-or-treating has never been popular here although some of the international schools do it between classrooms. Thai people love dressing up in costumes (the girls and women are almost always black-garbed witches) and, of course, the foreign expats and tourists have influenced the elevated level of the day. It is a shame that school has not been in session during Halloween for the last several years. Next year's just-announced dates for the Vegetarian Festival (3-11 October 2024) will change that, however.
I don't usually take very many photos in retail shops but I was on a roll yesterday and ended up shooting a few things I wouldn't normally bother with. For example, I was surprised to see the Walker's shortbread tins for King Charles III and Queen Elizabeth II. I also spent a long time looking in the ice cream freezers, having just viewed an episode of Good Mythical Morning on which Rhett and Link were trying to determine the best flavor offered by Ben & Jerry's. Many of their favorites included peanut butter. Alas, NONE of the ice cream at the Central Floresta grocery store featured peanut butter. Weird! Still, no matter the flavor, I would never pay US $20.75 for a quart of ice cream (pints were priced at the equivalent to $9.69!). I will stick with my Wall's or Nestle's brands, thank you very much.
They also had the big Christmas tree up already as well as some Christmas candy at the food hall. Seems like they do all that earlier and earlier every year but the U.S. still has them beat. It still seems odd to me at how over-the-top a predominantly Buddhist country goes after a Judeo-Christian holiday but there you have Thai mentality in a nut-shell: all appearance, meaning doesn't matter.
The bus going to Phuket Town did not come at the time expected yesterday and I took a photo of the schedule. It was changed at some point during the holiday with the first east-bound songthaew now leaving a half-hour later than before. We are required to be at school no later than 7:30 each morning and even with the 6:00 departure time, I was often a hair's breadth of getting to school late. With this new time-table, I will be late to school every day (there is no other way there other than an expensive daily taxi) -- not to mention all of the high school students who rely on these buses. Who makes these decisions?
All that remains this week is a shot of yesterday's full moon. Hope everyone has a great week!
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