Insomnia Days Are Back...

Hopefully not to stay! I'm being bombarded w a truck load of maj decisions to make since returning from Thailand. As usual, my brain is ticking through e wee hours of e darkness. No wonder i'm getting wrinkles. To sum it all up, the million dollar question is：what do I do w my life? I've got this uncomfortale（n slightly sinking) feeling that it's time I look for stability. Bye Bohemian spirit. So sad it has to go. Sometimes it feels like its e end of my dreams. But I guess there's always better n more exciting goals with each new phase of my life. Cheer up, Audz, got to be more positive in life!

Bailey Goes Off To Boarding

Sent cheeky Bailey off to a fren's house yesterday to board for a month while I'm make an errand trip downunder. Hate to have to sent my furry friends off to unfamiliar surroundings :(. Tmr will be Trix's turn! Hope they won't think I'm abandoning them.

Back... But NOT For Good!

Got back on Sept 11 from Bangkok.

Nope there was NO anarchy in Bangkok. Life and business was as per normal. All that media hype...geez!

My beau, mighty Melvin, came to pick me up from Sawang Daendin.

We took a train to Bangkok before flying back to Singapore. Thank God for providing again! The trains (operation was ceased due to the demonstrations in Bangkok) started running just 2 days before our appointed date of departure.




Anyway, have been spending lots of time in Mackers checking e- mail coz I terminated my e-mail account at home. Trying so hard not to mooch Mr SMC's wireless internet account from the comforts of my room. Wish he/she will have more sense to install a password and stop tempting me.

Ok will make some more effort to update my blog again. From Mackers of course.

Stay tuned!

Across the Friendship Bridge

One fine morning, Pi Mem and I made our way across the Thai-Lao Friendship bridge, over the Mekong river, home to the giant catfish. My Thai visa had expired after 2 months. I needed to renew it for another 2 months anywhere outside Thailand (it's their regulation), then make a re-entry. The nearest country was of course Vientiane, the capital of Laos.


At the border, still in Thailand.


Welcome to Nong Kai, realm of the 7 headed Naga.

We stayed at the town of Nong Kai the night before, so as to hit the border early in the morning, hoping to miss the crowds of foreigners having plans similar to me. Nong Kai lies just next to the Mekong river along the north-east border of Thailand; Vientiane lies along the opposite shore of the river.

Wind blowing hard on our faces - having fun on the motorbike!


Mekong river landscape.


Vendors next to the river.


Stillness at sunset by the Mekong river. Where's the Naga?


Me getting fattier over the months!

Nong Kai is an interesting place, being next to the Mekong river. Legend has it that the Mekong river is inhabited by the 7 headed giant serpent, known as the Naga. Scary... if that was really true! The town has sculptures of the Naga, with its 5 monstrous heads, twirling comfortably around lamp posts and various important signs. It's surprising that the people choose to celebrate such a scary belief.







Is that what John saw in his prophetic vision in the book of Revelation? Did God bring him on a visit to Nong Kai?

Anyway, on to Laos....

One word to describe the place - boring. 2 words to describe it - boring and sleepy. Worst then Sawang Daendin. Their biggest grocery store was a large mini mart (like the Econ minimarts found in the HDB estates). Prices were generally steeper then in Thailand since most of their products were made in Thailand.

We were stuck there for 2 whole boring days, coz it took a minimum of 24 hrs for my visa to be done. Geez... yawn...anyway, here's some of their places of attraction. We skipped visiting all the temples coz it was too hot and too spiritual.


Patuxay - built in the 1960s to celebrate at independent struggle (Wikipedia).















Pha That Luang - the Golden Stupa, National Symbol of Laos.
P.S Do you notice the pounds I've put on? Thanks to the visit of my friends from COTL!


So bored .... that I made friends with the resident pooches of the guesthouse. Every morning he basked in the sun on the stairway leading to my room.


That's what a real dog should do!


Shared a big pau with this new friend.

Frogs Are Better Than Ants and Mice

Thanks to the rains, ants and frogs alike are finding access into the church for refuge. Think I much prefer frogs for now.

My Daily Battles

Geez, everyday I battle against sneaky intruders trying to disrupt my peace.

First, it was a suspected mite attack when the gals from my church were here. Lynette and me broke out in a sudden spotty rash on the inside of our arms one morning. Within the next 2 days, it spreaded to our tummies, bum and thighs. Then Wanyi started developing some, followed my Dawn. It took 2 weeks of furious scratching before they started to subside.

Second, were the ants. One rainy day, I found a trail running from the window to a tiny whole through the paint work in a corner of my room. That's fine I thought. I've been leaving with lizards, beetles, mosquitoes, flying bugs of many sorts, (and have even eaten some big mamas but that's another story) I'm sure I can put up with some harmless ants.

Few days later, the ants had formed another trail continuing out of another part of the panel some distance away. This time I was a little more alarmed coz it led to my wardrobe. I checked the drawers - true enough, there they were, not many though, scurrying around trying to look for a new place to settle in. There was nothing much in the drawer except a fuzzy bath towel so I decided to leave them to sort themselves out.

I didn't think much of it ( I'm usually quite nonchalant about bugs) until I decided to use a nice, clean and fresh towel that evening. It was like an ambush. My towel was brown. The ants were brown. Of course I didn't notice them. And boy were they angry and fierce when they found themselves stuck to my wet skin. They started biting me furiously!!!

The nasty welts lasted for at least a week, with me scratching furiously every so often. (Worst them mossie bites in my opinion. The welts were much bigger and persisted longer. But mite rash looked the most scary coz you get lots of little red itchy spots everywhere.)

Next they started attacking some sweets on my table. They worked thorough my entire pack of Halls sweets, tediously making holes in every individual wrapping. Fine. I moved all my snacks to the table in the common area, placed them in a bowl on a plate of water to form a "moat" to keep them off. Never did I expect, their next assignment was to attack my instant noodles. Get this right - they actually bit through the packaging to get to the noodles!!!

The last straw was when they decided to migrate into my Apple notebook. The nooks and crevices amongst the keypads, ventilators, speakers and electronic chips must have appealed greatly to their lifestyle. That was it - I declared war when I saw them scurrying around beneath my keypad. I plug in my laptop to charge hoping to either electrify them or burn them alive somehow. Every ant that I saw escaping, I crushed them to death with my invincible thumb. It took about 3 days for them to finally clear out from my precious computer.

Today, I got hold of a can of Bygone and I attacked their hangouts on the wall panels without mercy.

As I entered my room this evening, I heard a rustling in my bin - something trying to get out. A lizard I thought. Must be a big one for all that noise. I waited for it to scurry out.

Then a pointy nose and 2 beady eyes emerged amongst my papers and discarded chip bag. YES... THERE IS NOW A LITTLE GREY MOUSE IN MY ROOM. Great... Guess I should thank my lucky stars it's not a rat. At least it looks kindda cute.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Here's a taste of my present workplace (or more accurately, volunteer-place) - Rainbowland Child Developement Centre, located in (ulu) Sawang Daendin, Thailand.

It's kids, kids and more kids everyday!!!!! It's actually not as bad as I thought (i've never been a "kids" person), the kids can be rather funny and cute at times. Some will try to speak Thai really s-l-o-w-l-y and LOUDLY to help me understand. It never deters them though, knowing that I can hardly understand Thai. Everyday, they will try again, just in case I get sudden enlightenment in the language overnight and can manage to understand them the next day. Of course it has yet to happen.

Btw, life is NOT a bed of roses here. The teaching can get rather hectic and tough at times. To teach English to totally non- English speaking kids is indeed a challenge. Even when you give simple instructions (like " put up your hand" or "let's read together", you draw blank stares - from both the children and their teachers alike!! At times I feel like I'm standing alone on an island, trying to command the monkeys on the coconut trees to come down.

Just for your info, there are officially no English classes in every first week of school; there are also no English classes every Mon for the nursery and K1 kids (age 2 - 4). Why? Because English is scary. And English teachers are even more scary... Boo!

During my first few weeks of teaching, some kids will just start to cry for no apparent reason in class. Some of the kids from the nursery class will literally push me away when I try to talk to them. When the gals, Lynette, Wanyi and Dawn from my church visited and helped me teach, there was a boy who cried every English lesson for the entire 2 weeks except on the last day. I'm sure in their little heads, they were the scary English- speaking - giants - from- Singapore. Of course it didn't help that Wanyi's built is on the taller side and she wears glasses.

Anyway, things are moving along and the kids are no longer afraid of me, and by the law of association, English has become less scary too. Yay! - for the kids.

Still... God help me please!