Slip ‘n’ slide

Happy Thai Mother’s day Mama! And to all you other mother’s out there!.... hmmmm.... reminds me of a certain SNL song... August 12^th is actually the Queen’s birthday, which is celebrated as Mother’s day because she is regarded as the mother of all Thai people. Since it is a national holiday, we did not have class and many businesses were closed. I heard that in some cities and provinces there are even mom ceremonies where the best mom of the year is given an award!

At the end of the last week I met Mark, Grace, and Mark’s brother, who was visiting, for coffee at a shop in Takuapa that is officially my new favorite place to hang out, so I spent much of today there. It’s called the Postcard Café and is owned by this awesome woman, Ja, whose slightly funky yet laid back style. Her shop is also conveniently located across from the open-air dance aerobics class, so I can watch in amazement as the peppy instructor bounces around in 85-90 degree heat, and Ja’s coffee is some of the best I’ve had in Thailand! There is also an adorable dog named Tao Tao, who sports a fitted tanktop and cruises the neighborhood. She is always down for some loving, which helps me deal with my dog-withdrawls.

On Friday I decided to drive down to Phuket again for some more surfing… I’m hopelessly hooked; at least until it stays dry long enough to go climbing again!

I met my friend and fellow PiA teacher from Phangnga, James, in Phuket and we found a place to stay at Kata beach, where there are waves suitable for surfing. Not knowing for sure, but hoping that there would be a night showing of the new Harry Potter movie at the cinema, we started back into town. Unfortunately, it started raining before we even made it out of Kata, but we were committed at that point. At one point I slowed down to turn, felt my bike start to slide one moment and the next, found myself on the wet and oily pavement. I was remarkably lucky… there were no vehicles directly behind me, so I had time to move my self and my bike to the curb, the ground was so slick that I slid faster than the bike, avoiding getting my leg crushed and any other major injury, and aside from a few bent parts, my bike was fine. At the same point where I went down, James got a flat tire, which we needed to have fixed before continuing to the cinema. After it all, there were no night showings of HP… sigh.

On Saturday, James and I surfed all morning and were joined by Ian in the afternoon. The waves were ok this time, but kind of messy without any pattern to when and where they were breaking. I got my first solid stand though, which made all the effort to get out past the breakers worth it. There were some others, both Thai and farang, out on the water too trying to manage the funky waves.

The three of us drove back to the cinema that evening, accident free, for the movie, which I was really pleased with… one of the best so far for sure, though a little heavy on the awkward romance scenes. I started back to Bangsak on Sunday morning because I wanted to be able to say goodbye to Grace before she left for the airport to return to America. When I was almost off Phuket Island, it started to rain… hard. I stopped along the side of the road for the worst of it, then continued on. The roads were once again pretty slick from the rain, and when I hit an extra slippery patch in front of the Heroines Monument round-about, my bike once again slid out. And once again, I was incredibly lucky. I didn’t slide into or get hit by any cars and walked away having slid hands and head first off my bike with only a few big bruises, some road burn, and a very stiff neck. Needless to say, there was something up with my bike and I figured that I had spent too much of my road luck to ignore it. Upon inspection, I found that my rear tire was almost completely bald, so I got a new tire with ample tread first thing after stopping by Mark and Grace’s house. Hopefully I won’t be playing slip ‘n’ slide on the roads of Thailand any more!

On the teaching front, it’s been an ok week. The lessons I had planned have been disturbed by the holiday, which I was unaware of until yesterday, a spontaneous Thai language day, for which all classes were canceled, and a couple of charity events, where wealthy benefactors came to the school to give the students a special lunch one day and blankets the next. The free days have given me lots of time to develop more language games though, which will hopefully satisfy my students who are always saying “play a game,” and get them thinking about and using English as well.