bannork

In our village at the base of the Yorkshire Wolds ( sounds impressive), we had a tennis court, occupied in the summer months by the able bodied ranging in age from teens to late fifties. I enjoyed many a moment as a ball boy, admiring the ladies' tennis skirts as they flicked upwards hitting a return volley Next door was the bowls club. A perfectly kept lawn with shiny, heavy black balls plus the target, a small white ball. In the summer it was abuzz with the over 60s, they loved it. Looking back the long winter must have been a real drag, there were no community activities to compete with this. And being on the edge of the Wolds, winter arrived early and left late. Only later on did I realise that spring arrived earlier in the Cotswolds whilst winter announced itself later.

Welcome to Ban Dung, Mawell. You don't know it yet but you've arrived in one of the best districts in Thailand. Fresh air, plenty of space, no traffic jams and hospitable people.

I really wanted to go to the monthly market but my daughter decided to give birth this morning so I've been hanging round in front of the delivery ward at the hospital. She already has three sons, a boy named Mangkon ( dragon), a girl named Maree, ( my choice, she was born at Sri Racha near the sea/ marine, Mawin ( named after a lotion for aching muscles produced by a student I taught for 22 years) and now Mawel, named after Captain Marvel. Not a good choice in my view, Thais will shorten it to wel and as l is pronounced as n at the end of a word, it will become wen, too near to wain imo which has bad connotations in Thai- wain kam- bad luck/ karma . She rejected Marty or Martin! Oh well, so far so good, both mother and son are doing well

Owl, I was in the large car park in Bandung early one morning after dropping off my granddaughter for school, and I noticed a few of the large double bench style school mini trucks parked nearby, the drivers on a mat on the ground enjoying breakfast. Behind the car park, near the exercise park, as no doubt you've seen, there are loads of pick-ups, small trucks and vans parked all day for ferrying students to Ban Dung in the morning and back again in the evening. It made me think, do the drivers hang around in Ban Dung all day? Looks like it to me though it must get pretty boring. Perhaps they're rubik cube, chess, hi-lo or dominoes experts, passing away the time

Gilmour's guitar playing above breaks the heart. Below, what a melody!

The insanity of RT participants continues. Russians will be zoo exhibits. Hopefully behind bars in some cases in The Hague.

An extraordinary album. Every track a gem.

I had what I thought was a cyst or wart on my nose, finally got it checked in Ban Dung, a biopsy revealed it to be a basal cell carcinoma. The local hospital got me an appointment with the surgeon in Udon Thani within 3 days ( the daughter can be very persuasive with officials) 2 weeks later had an op to remove it, discharged the day after, back to see him after the stitches are cut. I have a social security card so officially everything was free though the Doc's assistant asked for 15,000 baht to ensure speedy treatment. Fair enough! When I tell folks in UK this timeline they can't believe it, so quick. Anyway, got to use sunblock factor 5 from now on. I spend a lot of time on the farm.

Conscripts' grim humour about the state of their weapons.

Talking of Rubik's cube, my ten year old grandson proudly got all the colours in line. Unfortunately he left it in the floor. My youngest grandson, nearly two, picked it up, pulled it here and there violently till all the pieces scattered around the living room to join parts of other destroyed toys, a plastic toy car's chassis, a doll's severed arm, etc. Mawin, the toddler, is starting to become expensive, not only regarding food but in damages incurred. He slammed my laptop shut, thereby destroying 30% of the screen's pixels - cost of replacement 3,300 baht Butter removed from fridge, used as floor polisher - 82 baht Washing powder tipped into bath- 80 baht Then there's the mayhem, taps turned on that nobody hears for a while, ( gas cooker is his latest challenge) , attempts to relieve air pressure in the car tyres by playing with the valves, placing objects in the exhaust pipe. He's bright, he knows which button to press on the remote to pass over the frequent ads on YouTube on the telly. Time to get a kite from the Big C junction at Ban Dung, the kids will enjoy flying one in this wind

One sane voice on RT. Shot down by the deranged.

The cannon fodder protest.

Summers in Cambridge