…you could be working in the construction industry in Myanmar. On May 3rd, a Sunday and the day before we got Mabel, the house directly behind us started getting torn down. Houses are built right up to the edge of the land here so this house is about 3 feet away from ours. At first they started removing the tiles from the roof and then wooden beams etc. We then started seeing them hammering away at the floor they were literally standing on with sledge hammers.
Benjamin Disraeli, a 19th Century British Politician once said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” I have been copying daily stats from the WHO Situation Reports on to my own spreadsheet tracking the major countries affected by the virus. Continue reading “The Undiscovered Country”
We decided to spend our luxurious three week 2019 Christmas break in Sri Lanka. I had been there years before in about 2000 but not since. I remember the great birds, some great sites but terrible food. On that trip there was a week long part on the beach but this time we did no such thing travelling around the whole time. Like with our trip to Laos we probably packed a bit too much in but thoroughly enjoyed it regardless.
Continue reading “Santa in Sri Lanka”
The audience for this post is not really our regular audience so feel free to give this one a miss. If however, you are interested in the birds of Yangon then I hope this will be useful. What follows is not an exhaustive list of every bird but simply every bird I have been able to identify so far. I will try to keep it updated with new photos that I have taken and new birds as I discover them. For birders more expert than me (which is just about anyone) feel free to comment with corrections and missing species.
The other day a friend of ours, Liz, treated me to a birthday extravaganza. This was literally months in the planning which was done with Lindsey. Two other friends of ours went along for the ride initially but had no idea of the plans. The first step was a crossword puzzle which when completed had to be viewed with a black light to reveal our first destination. Liz hired a driver for the day which is a new feature on Grab (the Asian version of Uber). You basically pay by the hour and can have a decent size and quality of car. You literally order a driver for 8 hours or so minutes before you need them, quite amazing.
Continue reading “Birthdays & other things”
That should be ‘Yangon by e-bike’. Last year in October we rented e-bikes at Ankor Wat in Cambodia. They were fairly low powered and ideally had to be charged during the day to keep them going well. We both loved riding around on them and Cambodian driving though seemingly nuts is actually quite calm so it was a great experience. Continue reading “Yangon by bike…”
Here we are with our second October break of living abroad and I can hardly believe it’s come round so fast. This time last year we went to Ankor Wat in Cambodia and had a very relaxing time there. This time we planned a trip to Laos (and by we I mean Lindsey).
We’ve been back now just over a month. Comparatively with last year, the process of coming to Yangon and starting work has been a breeze. It was so nice to come back home where all of our things are, including Nell!
Right – Rattlesnakes! Why the fever over rattlesnakes you may ask? You may have also noticed other comments about snakes in past posts. You probably know that I am a birder so why the sudden interest in snakes. Continue reading “Retirement Practice (part 3)”
Why Retirement Practice? This is my first school summer holiday as a school employee. For years I have had to put up with comments from Lindsey’s colleagues like ‘have a good summer’ and ‘what are your plans for the summer’ etc when my answer has usually been ‘well, more of the same’ as I had a normal job. Continue reading “Retirement Practice (part 2)”
