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.

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....

Internet on my phone but no go

Since a few weeks I have internet on my phone. Funnily enough, it costs a small fortune to have internet at home from your computer but almost nothing from your phone. Just like with a computer-connection though, it is a hit-and-miss affair and often terribly slow.

For dun, I tried to post something here from my phone during the Thingyan holiday but i was never able to do so.

The good thing is that I can read the news and push the "I Like" button on Facebook. I need to connect often since the applications crash regularly for reasons unknown or are so slow that you're timed out but it is possible and I have spend a few pleasant afternoons and evenings (trying to) browse through unread mails, Facebook updates, and news articles.

I have internet on my mobile!!!

Not that it is fast or anything...  I tried to read my email yesterday and I got nowhere. But I feel like I have suddenly jumped into the 21st century.

Of course I could use hubby's mobile but somehow that was too often too much trouble especially with the kids around. Now I can check emails at least anytime I want (in theory ;-) )

The next step will be, of course, to have a good working link at home from the computer or laptop so I can post anytime I feel like it. Like the other day when I woke at 12:30 in the morning and didn't really know what to do with myself...

At work the connection speed has been steadily declining and the internet is now almost as gridlocked as the roads in Yangon. The Myanmar schools are on holiday now and I noticed a much improved circulation on the streets but the internet has slowed even more...

oops

I was writing a long post when something happened with my keyboard. No matter what I tried I could not change the post, let alone finish my sentence. I thought I 'd copy the post and delete the draft since it didn't do what I needed it to do. Of course in one of my  smarter moments I also deleted the draft immediately, I didn't want to clutter up the posts... I open a new post and.... nothing absolutely zilch, nada, nothing.. Now I'm too angry with myself to start over again... But since we're in Bangkok and have something as amazing as Wi-Fi in the hotel room, I might be tempted to try again tomorrow.

Great, now I find I can't publish it. This is definitely not my online day!

************************************************************

Finally, 2 days later.... I had to upgrade my browser. That's what you get when you never use your own computer for this kind of thing!

Finally, working internet but no time to post

Internet has been terribly slow of late. I did try to log on yesterday from home but it was an exercise in futility.

Now, internet is working but i have been running around for most of the day at school. Catching up on so many things that needed to be done. Especially since the computers and server were cleaned and therefore were unavailable for use at the end of last week.

It is almost half past 4 in the afternoon and I've just had a chace to check my email. I'll post this, then go shopping. We're out of diapers, wet wipes, and milk.

Time to go home

It is half past 2 and I'd planned to go home ages ago. It is raining so hard that the chance of getting a taxi, let alone a taxi at a near to normal rate, are between 0.0 and 0.5 %. It hasn't rained this hard since the beginning of the monsoon season. I'm sure that big parts of Yangon. like the downtown area near Sule, are flooded as they often are. I hope that it is OK near our house. We haven't had much trouble with water yet and I hope it stays that way. But these are a lot of extra drops on an already waterlogged Yangon. It has been raining heavily for the last 2 weeks or so.

Xenne and Thandar are happily playing computer games in the ICT-room so they don't mind too much. Unfortunately, lunch is at home. Though it looks like lunch is going to turn into linner or dunch, it already being this late and it'll take us another half hour at least before we're home.

High bloodpressure ??

Something that makes me laugh here ever so often is how easy Myanmar feel sick. Whenever they have a slight headache, they go to the doctor. An upset tummy gets you a week's worth of medicine, and a small scratch or scrape needs to be attended to by the school nurse.

Admittedly, my reference pool is based mostly on school experience (students and teachers) and my home base of course. Here, the nurse is always taking everybody's blood pressure. For the simplest of reasons. When we have the flu going around, let's measure your blood pressure, slight headache... measure.. At one point last year I saw several of our office staff using the blood pressure thing on each other since they felt slightly queasy.

I find that soo funny. Of course, there are plenty of occasions  when more professional advice is needed, but not at the slightest 'I feel less good than normal'.

Today again. A fellow teacher was filling her cup at the watercooler. She told me she needed to take medicine. I asked her what the matter was. Upset tummy... What happened to good-old-'let's wait a day or to to see if I'm really sick?'. Maybe I'm just not culturally adjusted in this way.. 

YES YES YES!!!!!

We have internet at home. I'm in heaven..... Well, sort of. It is a dial-up connection of a bandwidth, and therefore speed, of next to nothing. I don't think I've had a normal connection that was this slow since the early 90's.... Admittedly, internet is often slow in this country but seriously, the way the pace is now, it is not a lot of action for my 30 hours prepaid.....  Then again, in theory I can internet whenever I want, keep this blog better updated, research things like baby food, and in general feel like I'm connected to the rest of the world....

But first... the real test.: Can I get this post out there? Too often I've been frustrated when I typed an update only to find I couldn't get it on the blog......

Finally I got my stuff together (I hope)

This is what I wrote the 29th of September....

It is funny. For the better part of a year I haven't written anything on this blog. It seemed to be so pointless with me only being able to update the blog when I was on a visa run to Thailand. Now my mind is reeling with the possibilities and of course, having found out the site is no longer blocked, I can't resist writting a little tonight (Tuesday). This is by no means a guarantee that the blog will be kept up in future. I have to admit that an family extension from one child to three children makes time even more of a precious commodity but now at least when I do write something, I have the possibility of posting it as well......

Now, with the whole world at my fingertips (well, Yangon at least) what shall I write about? I think I'll spend a good night's sleep on that. Provided Eaindra will let me. So far she's been the easiest baby ever. 2 months old and sleeps an easy 6 hours a night. Admittedly, not always the most convenient hours for me but even that seems to be changing. The last 2 nights she wanted to be fed at around midnight. She woke again at 3 and 5:30 two nights ago. Last night (or better said: this morning) she came at 6 am. I hope she will continue to do so. Then again,.the times Eaindra lets me sleep well, Xenne wakes me up...

Shoot!!

Now I do have access I keep forgetting to bring the stuff... Today I realise I left my memory stick in the laptop at home. The other day I saved a blog update in the wrong format (still to be posted since on the forgotten memory stick). A great way to revitalize this blog....

Will try and remember to bring memory stick (with another update) tomorrow.

Btw, book week is a success so far. We get a free book for every 10,000 ks spent (about $12) but I've managed to buy the books I like from that stack for 1,000 each (including 2 Dr. Seuss books. Xenne loves those...).

Need to go home and make pasta but someone opened the big tap in the sky... You can't see much further than a few meters. But it's almost five. Wonder if I can hitch a ride in the school mini van. Mmm... worth a try.