Holidays are Coming and Making Merit, Isaan Thailand.

Holidays are on the horizon. I can smell the holidays they are that close. Tomorrow is the last day of school for students. They sat exams today and also will tomorrow and then it will be absolute bliss.

I don’t have to return to school until the 26th of October. That is if all the paperwork is finished, which it is. I have had some late nights writing report cards and filling in scores. My students have already sat their English exams, and the students that needed to be retested have been retested.

I still have a handful of students who need to sit a retest a third and final time, their last chance to be proficient. I already know these students will probably not be able to pass; their English ability is just not up to the standard.

Sadly there are a few students in each class that are just too far out of their depth. They are miles behind other students and no matter how much extra help you try and provide, how many times you tell their parents they are struggling and need help, these students just don’t seem to have the self motivation to want to try and make progress in the class.

Thankfully, the exam marking is done, all the official paperwork is complete, I think! There are so many forms to fill out and then duplicate scores over and over again for some ludicrous reason. Why I need to fill scores and totals out so many times is frustrating, but it is no point demanding the reason why, as the answer would only make me more frustrated.

I have spent many hours on the computer collating scores in excel, writing reports and so forth. This time has been broken up here and there by this little angel above. Nong Ja my amazing niece (we have had Nong Ja living with us for two months straight).

As soon as I move away from the computer and the seat is vacant, Nong Ja will prop herself up on the chair and start to bang away on the keyboard and play with the mouse that has amazing colours illuminating from it.

My rabbit, Cola is going strong. He is so domesticated now. He was born on December 13th, 2007. I cannot believe rabbits are so smart. They are great pets and not too much work to look after. He loves being petted, brushed, massaged and just having attention sent his way. He clicks when he is happy and thumps his legs when scared. I hope and touch wood he has many more years with us.

Nong Ja, I love her to death. I was marking exam papers and went to the toilet and when I returned she was sitting in the chair with my red pen scribbling over some of the papers. I am not sure if she thought she was helping or was just having fun.

It is pretty easy to entertain Nong Ja, she has this large set of markers, pencils, paints, crayons and more. Nong Ja loves to scribble I would call it but I am sure she thinks she is creating masterpieces.

Nong Ja gets bits of recycled paper I will take from work at times and also what I create at home. She often colours the floor as well but thankfully it is very easy to clean off.

Four times a month we buy flower garlands and Miss Noot makes an offering to Buddha. These times fall at certain times relating to the moon and its new phases I am pretty sure. We have four major images in the living room that have flowers placed over them. Moss Noot lights 3 incense sticks that represent the Triple Gem (or ratanatri). That is the Buddha, his Teaching and the Sangha (the monks).

Miss Noot will ‘wai’ a respectful gesture to each image before placing the garland over it. It is an easy ceremony to perform and doesn’t take long and makes Miss Noot happy she is making merit, which Thais love to do.

Only one day to go before 4 weeks of absolute bliss, not a student in sight or a piece of paper to mark.

Brunty

Criminals with Piss Poor Excuses, Australia.

Picture taken by Fiona Hamilton Source Herald Sun Newspaper

These sorts of people disgust me, and there are plenty of them across Australia and the world. The gutless cowards always after the fact of committing a crime become remorseful and make up the most pathetic excuses for some halfwit, dimwitted judge to make an erroneous judgment.

Like this case that has pissed me off. This is from the Herald Sun Newspaper in Australia.

I first was pissed off at the heading being “Drinking was part of my job,”) she must be a wine taster or something like that I thought.)

And here was the lead in.

A SUCCESSFUL businesswoman who says social drinking was part of her job is facing jail after ploughing into a traffic controller while drunk. (This thing, I cannot use a pronoun fit for a human as I don’t believe she deserves this respect. I would love to read her ‘job description document’ and see where this is described in her terms of employment)

Amanda Pollard, lost her job and suffered the humiliation of being arrested at her office after driving home after a work function instead of using the stack of company cab charges in her purse. (She suffered humiliation, Oh please fu#k me. What about the traffic controller and what he has probably suffered! She had cab charge cards.)

The former high-ranking mortgage manager for Bankwest blew 0.181 after slamming into the traffic controller as he stopped in an emergency lane to collect large arrow signs from a freeway ramp. (‘It’ was more than three times over the legal blood limit.)

The controller was lucky not to be killed when he was struck beside his truck But the thing ‘Pollard’ didn't even notice as she kept driving in her badly damaged company car. (So 'she' (I will use this from now) was so pissed she didn’t even know she hit a person)

The defence lawyer said it was part of Pollard's job to attend functions and she drank to make her seem happy and "easy to deal with". (I love lawyers, they have a horrible job, some of them having to represent scumbags like this and then use terminology and lies to try an make an excuse for the crime that was committed.)

She usually took taxis home, but after being propositioned by a driver that night she got out of the taxi and decided to drive to her Point Cook home from the city. (Pollard, was so pissed before that she didn’t know she had even hit a person, but we are meant to believe that she could remember being propositioned by a cab driver and had enough sense to decide to leave the cab. They couldn’t come up with a better lie or excuse than this pathetic one. Also looking at the picture, the woman is no bed of roses, the cabby must have been hard up to hit her up.)

And then the apologies came:

"I made the most regrettable decision I have ever made in my life,"

"I know I should not have been driving that night . . . Please forgive me for the pain I have put you through." Pollard wrote in a letter of apology to her victim. (Always after the fact, when you are facing a criminal record, fine and jail time that common sense prevails)

And then this shit flowed out of the defence lawyers mouth!

He said Pollard had been orphaned and penniless at the age of seven and ran away from foster care at 16. (So fuc#en what! Do you want me to feel pity for her? Do you want me to think that she has had a hard up bringing and this contributed to this crime? What kind of a statement is this shit? This all took place 19 years ago, she must have adjusted allright as she has become a ‘successful business woman.’)

The traffic controller had been wearing a reflective safety vest and his truck, which had both its hazard lights and yellow rotating lights on, also had a large roof-mounted warning arrow. He said he could see Pollard coming and pressed back against his vehicle to try to get out of the way, but she did not veer out of the lane.

His leg was smashed and tendons in both his knees were torn apart.

At least she has had the guts and has pleaded guilty in the County Court to negligently causing serious injury and failing to render assistance after an accident.

Now to the Judge, Irene Lawson has ordered a psychiatric report and continued bail pending sentencing in November. (A psychiatric report, what bullshit. If she is successful she cannot be too fuc#ed up. Again a smoke screen and I wish I was a fly on the wall in the sessions to see her acting for the psychiatrist.)

Why can’t people have the decency, guts and honesty to just admit to their crime and not bring with it all the excuses and hard luck stories under the sun? I think that no person should be able to use supposed family upbringings and so called tragedies as an excuse.

The sad part is the idiotic judges who take sympathy on these criminals and then hand down the most outrageous and lenient sentences and many times fail to record a conviction against these sorts of people.

Jails are overcrowded, build more and employ more people and get people like this off the street for a little while to give them the biggest wake up call of their lives. The fines and stern words that are offered often go unheeded, another crime is committed and more excuses are made and another soft sentencing takes place.

It has to change, it has to stop.

That is my rant.

Brunty

A Pizza Party for Thai Students, Isaan Thailand.

Today at school we had a very important ceremony to start the day. The students were made to stand out on the wet football court and then partake in this exciting ceremony.

Some students were being issued with certificates. I have never come across a place that issues so many certificates, Students get certificates for nearly anything the participate in or do.

Today the certificates bordered on the side of lunacy. The certificates today were for, a beautiful Thai greeting (wai), and having a neat and tidy uniform, and being a polite student. Did the first period need to be interrupted for this? I don’t think so. Just give the certificates to the students in their classes and not embarrass them in front of everyone. That is just my opinion.

Today I had a party for some of the students I teach. The students, who have worked hard and earned 20 stamps from me, for all sorts of things get to attend the party. They get stamps for completing their work well, neat and tidy workbooks, participating in class activities and so forth.

They were presented with a certificate, only joking. There were given pizza, chips and of course soft drinks. I bought the pizzas from Pepper’s Bakery and they were a big hit. The kids all knew they weren’t the usual horrible Pizza Company. I have been to Pizza Company once here in Ubon and wrote about that experience, actually only once in my entire time in Thailand. I have eaten pizzas from Pizza Company as there isn’t much choice when people buy Pizza in Ubon, until now.

Pepper’s Bakery started an afternoon until evening pizza menu and I hadn’t had a chance to go and buy a pizza from the gang there. Also another place has opened cooking genuine Italian food called Spago, I have heard and read great things about this place as well. I hope to visit Spago in my coming holidays and try some of the food on the menu.

Back to Pepper’s pizzas, they were huge and they tasted good, very good. I only got to taste a little of each one and the meat lovers, BBQ chicken and also sweet chilli chicken were sensational.

The students were saying the pizzas were delicious and where I had bought them and then had to open the internet site on the computer and download the map for them. I showed them pictures of the food in the website and I am sure that some kids will be now asking their parents for a trip to Peppers for a meal and the delicious cakes.

Back to the party, the primary 1 students seemed to really enjoy the chips and soft drink a lot and hovered about the sweet sugary drinks. The students were all enquiring if they could attend the next party in December. I told them that if they acquired another 20 stamps they surely could attend.

Outside the room of the party, some students had gathered and occasionally popped their heads into the classroom to ask for a piece of pizza or a drink and were politely told to, ‘go away.’

I haven't blogged a lot of late. I have been busy compiling test, doing revision with the students and just today the students sat their final exams.

I still remember and have the first tests I made five years ago and how badly formatted they were, actually how bad the content was as well. I am not ashamed to admit this. I was green and had a lot to learn. My tests now are much better, formatted that is.

The students usually sit 5 tests in each 10 week block of school. I do not test once at the end of each semester for their 20 exam marks, this is too unfair. I break the 20 marks up over the 4 or 5 tests in the 10 week period.

Above is the primary 1 test. This is the 4th test they have completed this last 10 week block. It is geared towards the students being able to recognise the main vocabulary we have learnt over the past 10 weeks. Also write some number between 5 to 10 and some basic classroom commands.

On page two was much the same, some word to picture identification, plus some individual creativity by letting students draw a toy that they have and colour and write about it. All in all an easy test, you would think so anyway.

The primary 5 test was a little more involved, this is their 5th test in this 10 week period. In this test they had to differentiate between using “for” and “since”. This was the hardest part of the test I thought and we had revised this topic well and most seemed to grasp the rule on using for and since. What I thought was going to be easy, as the words were from two pages in their books, was simply writing the opposite word of the one given. When I was monitoring the students I was surprised many were having trouble spelling the words.

On page two I thought the simplest exercise was drawing some prepositions of movement. Again we had revised this and most had grasped its concept. And the last part was using “too and enough” with some easy adjectives and again we had revised this well.

And my primary 6 class this was their 5th test in 10 weeks as well. This was fairly easy as it started out with a multiple choice set of questions about 4 places in the world, The Great Barrier Reef, The Eiffel Tower, The Taj Mahal and The Great Wall of China. There was one page in their book that they had to read and remember the information on each place. Also agree or disagree with the speaker on certain statements. All revised well.

The hardest part of this test was making ‘Passive sentences”, we had also revised this and then I thought 90% of the students had understood the use of the passive voice. Also some word groupings where one word doesn’t belong.

Those were the tests, they have been sat and I have to mark them over the weekend and then have students who don’t pass do retests next week before students break up on Wednesday for holidays.

So my weekend is going to be busy, some late nights like tonight are on the cards like tonight as it is now 1.15am.

Goodnight all.

Brunty

Sweet 16 Birthday Party, Isaan Thailand.

Time has been short of late. I have so much paperwork to get in order, reports to finish, exams to mark that it is making my life pretty boring at the moment.

I want everything to be in order so I can walk out the door on the 30th of this month and not return until the 26th of October. I really need the break.

The great part is this next semester flies by; we have plenty of holidays and also a good break over Christmas. Then I have my really good break of two months. I am really looking forward to this already.

I managed to venture out to a friend’s daughter’s birthday party. These are the mums of the birthday girl’s friends and they looked happy.

And the birthday girl, she looked adorable in her dress. It was her sweet 16th, a coming of age.

The birthday girl’s grandmother was enjoying herself as well, very good food and company.

And of course we had our lovely niece Nong Ja, she was having a great time running all over the place. She was a huge hit with the kids.

The birthday girl and her mum.

Birthday girl and a tall friend.

The mums were enjoying themselves, lots of chatting, plenty of drink and of course food, the most important thing for a Thai girl.

The birthday girl striking a pose.

What Thai party wouldn’t have karaoke? This is a Thai staple.

Some of the family singing up a storm.

The singing had really started to hot up, the microphones were getting a good working over.

I had to agree with Nong Ja, she was trying to tell the last singers to tone it down a little as it was hurting everyone’s ears.

All were so happy and without a drop of alcohol.

Finally, the most important part of the night came, the birthday cake and blowing the candles out.

Then the cutting of the cake.

So it was a good night and I did enjoy getting away for a few hours.

Brunty

ZDK Student Defends Her Art With Pride.

I love the technology of the internet. I wrote a while back about another tattoo I had and then went into why I had this tattoo done. I had a reader from New Zealand a girl called Shihan write a response to the post. You can read the original post called a new tattoo and some boring history.

This is Shihan’s comment:

As a female Shodan Ho of Zen Do Kai and still currently training in this style it makes me angry to see how people who once trained in Zen Do Kai can speak about it in such a manner.

Let me guarantee you that Zen Do Kai is still as hard as it ever was and in no way have standards dropped. Consider yourself lucky you only had to do 20 rounds, my Dai Shihan and Sensei (who is also my father) put me through the most grueling 6-7 hour physical test of my life for my probationary black belt.

I am only 21 years of age and have trained in many styles and Zen Do Kai ranks amongst the best. As a not so popular style here in New Zealand our club competes in many other styles competitions (including Kyokushin and Tae Kwon Do) always ranking amongst the best. I don't know how long it has been since any of you have last entered a Zen Do Kai dojo or if any of you have ever for that matter but by suggesting my style is IMPURE quite frankly pisses me off and for someone whose tattoo encompasses much of what bushido stands for you sure don't sound like someone who should even posess such a tatoo,,, IMPURE???? pfft

My father is a sensei my mother a dai sempai and all of my 4 brothers and sisters are black belts, Zen Do Kai has done nothing but good for us so I won't stand to see anyone put it down. My name is also Shihan I was named after my father’s first instructor who was a Shihan at the time.

Shihan, thanks for dropping by and offering your thoughts. This is the great part of free speech and the internet; we can agree or disagree with each other even though we are so far away.

Congrats of reaching your rank of Shodan Ho, this is something back in my day that was not accomplished by women. The highest ranked girl when I left Zen Do Kai was a green belt in the dojo, she was dedicated and trained harder then 90% of the guys.

I am sure that as a student of a martial art, that you love and dedicate yourself to being ZDK, you should say something when someone is saying that ZDK has become impure as this would insult and make you angry.

Anyone who spoke bad of ZDK or a fellow brother back when I was training would have been given a very stern warning to be very careful about what they are saying. When I was training I would defend the Zen Do Kai and also Bon Jones name with pride as it was like a family to me then.

I have taken so much out of my time in Zen Do Kai, don’t get me wrong I appreciate all that was taught to me. It changed my life in direction and also the way I conducted myself.

I didn’t really open my eyes until I finally became open handed and then when I eventually became a black belt and finally got to face the students on their journey in ZDK. This is when my journey in ZDK really started and I learnt so much.

When I was a lower belt I never really understood the katas I was doing, I didn’t understand their beauty, grace and importance or what they meant.

Finally when I started learning katas like, The Iron horse or Nihinchin passed down by the founder Soke Bob Jones, it was the first kata I mastered. I perfected it to a degree and would visualize I was defending myself against multiple attackers.

The Sanchin kata or three battles with full ibuku (tension) breathing taught me how to breathe when training. I thought I knew how to breathe but this kata taught me so much. How to be strong minded, how my body could absorb being hit and without being hurt.

I remember when I first started the Sanchin kata, how easily I could be pushed off balance, winded by a kick to the stomach, my arm pushed down with a strike. After years of perfecting ibuku breathing you became like the kata is known, ‘an iron shirt to protect your body’ and ‘iron bridges that makes your arms like steel.’

Anytime I graded and did this kata I knew I would be tested 110%, when I left Zen Do Kai many of the students didn’t know the importance of this or many katas and would hardly be touched during it.

I can still do all the katas I learnt; it was funny tonight as I was in my lounge room doing katas to the bemusement of my girlfriend. My form is not beautiful, strong or graceful anymore but I could still remember every kata from the first punch routine to the Seipai or 7 dragon ways. I am very unfit I can tell you.

I am glad to hear your sensei tested you as you should have been. A grading should be an ultimate test of the student, how dedicated, strong and determined they are. I can honestly say there was not a grading I walked away from with an ounce of energy left, no matter how fit I was.

I seen this toughness leave the ZDK style, gradings became soft. Students did not push themselves or were pushed like we were when we earned our belts. I saw this at many dojos when we travelled to join gradings.

The biggest disappointment of all to me was the way the crosses were starting to be given away. These crosses were sacramental to me. They weren’t just a piece of metal. They were years of dedication, sweat, blood, broken bones and love I put into ZDK.

They were to be worn with pride (not for show), I saw too many young ZDK students who didn’t conduct themselves in ways to deserve having one of these crosses around their neck.

ZDK students, who would have been lucky to pass their grading in my time, pass and receive tips on their belts or a cross infuriated me. This is what I considered impure. To me, my crosses were all the sacrifices I had endured over years of training and I had earned them.

Towards the end when I left ZDK I found myself being very severe on students grading, especially those who would be grading for brown belts up. Many times I found myself striking a student during the grading very hard. After warning them of a fault they were showing and they didn’t rectify this fault and failed to defend themselves’ I would make sure they knew what I was talking about. This was done with control but also had anger in it, which wasn’t good.

Shihan I am sure that there are still plenty of dojos and senseis out there in this world who keep ZDK pure, I am glad your father is one of them. ZDK is a great martial arts and I as I said, I am so grateful for what I learnt during my time studying this martial art.

This will probably sound silly, but your journey probably like mine after reaching your black belt has just begun. I again congratulate you on your probationary 1st dan black belt and your impending Sho Dan grading whenever that may be.

Again I thank you for your thoughts and appreciate you taking the time to comment. It is so good to see that some people still have this passion and love for ZDK.

Brunty

Thai School Dictionary Race, Isaan Thailand.

There hasn’t been a lot of excitement lately, here in Isaan, Thailand. Life has been just cruising along.

I blogged that I was a little unwell the other day, well I just felt off colour. I am 90% better now after plenty of rest and a round of amoxicillin and Paracetamol 500mg that helped me sleep and also ease the fever and aching pain I had.

AT school things have not been exciting at all. We are coming to the end of our first semester and this means we are busy setting exams, writing report cards and getting all the paperwork in order before the 26 day holiday.

I do an assessment of all my students for their parents. I have a rubric that I can tick and have categories, such as:

Behaviour in the classroom, Participation in class activities, submitting work on time, Completion of their student workbook, Workbook is neat and handwriting legible, Student has corrected mistakes in workbook, English pronunciation/use in class, Strength of their voice in class.

Ratings are, Excellent, Very good, Good, Average, Below Average and Poor.

I can simply tick the box that relates to each student I am evaluating, it is very time efficient and doesn’t take hours writing report cards.

Any parent is invited to come and met with me, anytime to discuss any enquires they have or maybe how they can help their student improve a rating. Sadly out of the 120 odd students I teach I will probably get one or two parents asking about their son or daughter.


Anyway, this is the biggest bit of excitement I have had of late at school. And as you can see there was a good sized crowd on hand as well to watch this competition.

This exciting competition is a dictionary race, the Thai dictionaries are huge and the small students look dwarfed looking over the mass of pages before them. A teacher gives the students a word and then the race is on as a monitor watches over their progress.

Pages are flipped in a flurry; fingers scan the pages for the word as the monitor watches the action intently.

When the students find the word, the monitor checks this is correct and raises their paddle to alert the teacher.

Points are issued to the teams on a sliding scale. Ten points to the winner and then dropping to eight for second, six for third and so forth.


The confident young lad above is a real gem. He is in the English programme, in primary 4. His English is very good, he’s confident as you can see and I wish there were more Thai students like him in the classes.

Of the 4 races I watched, this team won all four. I don’t know how as I believe it is just a bit of luck to who opens the dictionary closest to the word, the first flip of the book and then some quick page flipping to find that word.

But again maybe I am wrong.

Brunty

House for Sale, Ubon Ratchathani Thailand.

If you are living in Ubon Ratchathani or surrounding area, moving to Ubon Ratchathani and are looking for a house that most foreigners (farangs) dream of, there is one for sale.

A friend called me; I don’t get to see him very often nowadays. I had been to his house many times for dinner and to watch football. He informed me he is selling his house. He is moving onto a new adventure, and he won’t need the house anymore as the new adventure has accommodation already.

It is a one storey house (no steep stair cases), 3 bedrooms. The main bedroom is huge and of course has an ensuite. The other two rooms are also of good size.

There is a large open living room, a small dining area and a complete kitchen. The kitchen is a gem and what nearly all foreigners want. It has an inbuilt oven, ceramic hob. The granite bench top is an absolute gem.

There is a fabulous garden; if you like some grass to mow and to do a little out in the yard then this is your place.

Anyway, you can look at the pictures below.



Looking towards the dining area from the living room.

The kitchen any foreigner would want.

The house is over at the huge manmade lake, Hua Wang Nong here in Ubon Ratchathani. It is a quiet area but pretty close to everything.

If you are interested in having a look at the place leave me contact details, they will not be published and I will get the owner to ring you and make a time to have a look through the house.

Oh the price. He is asking 3.9 Million Baht.

Brunty