…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.
Once upon a time there was a crazy couple who got way too emotionally involved with a street dog. They walked to the street corner where she lived twice a day to feed her, gave her medicine and (the kiss of death) gave her a name. All was well and everyone was enjoying the relationship until one evening as the crazy couple were feeding the sweet little street dog, a car sped around the corner and hit the dog. Continue reading “A Mabel Fable”
I hope you have seen the brilliant parody some guy has done of Adele’s Hello. Even though we are not actually trapped inside here in Yangon, we are still in the midst of a lockdown which has now been extended until June. Although we did see some road blockades and very empty streets at the beginning of the order, things seem to be slowly ramping up and people are getting out and about more. Continue reading “Hello From the Inside”
Despite that glamorous pool-side picture up there, we just had a fairly boring Spring Break. We thought things were lame last week when we had the voluntary stay at home order, but the lameness increased incrementally through the week, with first a notice that gatherings of 5 or more were banned (punishment = 6 months in jail OR a £25 fine). Continue reading “Spring Break”
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 are now officially on our April break. Our original plan had us taking a train from Beijing to go see the Terracotta Warriors today. Then our second plan had us getting on a houseboat in Halong Bay today. The reality is I am sitting on my front porch in Yangon, watching Gav potter around in the “garden.” Continue reading “Lockdown”
Things have escalated quite a bit since the last time I did a post. Last weekend we had no internet at the house, so you missed an in-between post, but Myanmar officially reported its first two cases about a week ago and since then the number has risen to 20. Continue reading “It’s Happened”
Tuesday at 3:05pm, right after classes had finished for the day, we got the news that school would be moving to virtual learning effective immediately and lasting until at least May 4. It was not super surprising as there had been a growing feeling of unease among the expats in Yangon and some embassies started asking non essential employees to repatriate. Continue reading “It’s Happening”
Well it seems like the entire world is stumbling towards the zombie apocalypse! Although there are still no cases in Myanmar (ha ha ha), government officials have forbidden any “large gatherings” (but have not defined what constitutes large) and cancelled all Thingyan celebrations in Yangon. Continue reading “Creatures Great and Small”
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”