Sunday 22 September 2013

New projects

Sorry guys for not keeping this up and running for the last two months but have been busy with other stuff.

http://myanmarwithkids.blogspot.com/

and

http://www.atasteofmyanmar.blogspot.com/

Although I have to admit that the cooking school site needs a new name (suggestions very welcome) . I also want to make it into 'real' domain names but as usual it is difficult here to find out who to ask and where to arrange things. I've asked the IT people at school twice already and even they can't give me a straight answer.

I will post more on this as soon as I have straightened things out a bit more. KK has been busy painting the kitchen and cleaning up in the house in general. The outdoor place where we want to have it eventually needs the tarp back up over the roof but that it impossible to do at the moment with the rain being an almost constant factor. In a month though, the monsoon will be over and it will be easier to get on that slippery roof and fix everything properly.


Tuesday 16 July 2013

A new layout

By now it was high time to give this blog a make-over. After all, I started it a fair few years ago and only updated the look of it once. Am not sure yet whether this new and fairly minimalist style is the one I want to keep but for the moment I like it.

Revamping the blog was not the easiest to do with connection speeds ok but not great. Besides, My laptop seems to find it difficult to keep up with me as well. I have had the need for frequent toilet and coffee breaks in order to give the computer/connection the time to catch up.

It is interesting to note how easily we get used to having something and then to start complaining about it. It was not so long ago that we got internet at home. True, we have had a dial-up connection but that was incredibly slow and we had to buy access cards so we could keep using it. I remember being incredibly happy with that connection when we got it.

A month or two ago, we subscribed to the service provider we have now. The dial-up did not work well with out phone line, not so strange since that line is frequently out of service, and when we got this lifeline to the wider world, I was again very very happy.

Now I'm trying to download the whole internet, or at least I am getting very close to doing so, and the connection speed is already starting to bother me. Luckily with youtube downloader an interrupted connection is not a big thing but it can take a tremendous amount of time. Xenne and Eaindra love the little clips I download. It is also very good for their Dutch since I have been able to find quite a good number of classic Dutch children songs. I have those all on Cd but with these songs there is also a visual part which makes it much more entertaining and at the same time more instructive for them. There are nights when I can download a reasonable amount of data. There are  more nights when I get tow or three measly songclips.

My My, it has been ages

Obviously I was aware that I hadn't visited this blog in a few weeks but I had no idea it had been this long.

Time flies when you have fun, but time most surely skyrockets when you are busy.

We're in the middle of summer school. The builders are still busy every day with the new school but the new P.E. court has been declared accessible for the students today and I'm sure Xenne will be very happy tomorrow when he comes to school.

Apart from the job of teaching English to Grade 6, 7, and 8, I am very busy with preparing homemade watercolour paints, ice chalk, homemade playdough, baking pizza (and teaching Thandar and Sheila how to do it with good results), and all other things that are kids-related.

This weekend we made icecream from bananas (and nothing else). It turned out to be 'heel erg lekker' (very delicious) according to Xenne and absolutely no diary whatsoever. Not that the kids are allergic or anything but most ingredients for icecream are fairly expensive here. So stuff made of only bananas definitely hits the spot in more ways that one since a bunch costs next to nothing here.

With 4 weeks to go before the school starts again for the teachers at least, I will make some time to add some pictures and comments on the Bagan/Mandalay trip we made mid-June.

Thursday 23 May 2013

A new 'project'

The plot of land next to our house is empty and i realised I have a great project on my hands here. every year in the dry season the owner has the vegetation cut as far as it can possibly be cut. Then, the rest of the year nothing gets done. Last year the weeds were growing over the gate and it was almost like the gates to sleeping beauty's castle, so overgrown was everything. It was almost impossible to comprehend that all that greenery had grown in less than a year.

This year the vegetation was cut about 1,5 - 2 months ago. We had the usual influx of unwanted visitors (we think there is still a snake hiding out somewhere behind the house but we can't find him). I'd forgotten about my intention to take regular pictures of next door's plot but this weekend I took my first ones.

 For the coming year, I'll be taking pictures regularly to show how fast vegetation can grow in the heat and humidity that makes up most of Yangon's weather. The rainy season has started this week so it is a good time to keep an eye on the property next door.

I hope that the land will not be sold somewhere down the line, that would be disastrous to my 'project'. It is a distinct possibility though since land and houses are a hot commodity at the moment and there is no sign of a slacking market. But who knows, i might be lucky and show you some nice 'before-and after' imagery.


Monday 29 April 2013

Two fantastic things in one day

While browsing around a bit for a possible recipe I found this great site
http://www.thedutchtable.com/ . And there are so many Dutch recipes on here.

This weekend I definitely want to try and make 'vla'. Just the thought about it makes my mouth water.

It is also a good thing for Xenne en Eaindra to learn about some real Dutch food. They are turning into 'rice kids' if I don't take care to feed them more western/dutch food on a regular basis.

OMG!

We have real live (life) internet at home. I can't believe it. It is absolutely like being in another reality...

I had plans to correct some homework but that's so not going to happen...

Facebook, here I come....

OMG!

We have real live (life) internet at home. I can't believe it. It is absolutely like being in another reality...

I had plans to correct some homework but that's so not going to happen...

Facebook, here I come....