Tag Archives: 2007

Back to the grindstone

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Friday 13th April 2007

Hey guys,

Well, I’m back in Kuwait again, but had a fantastic holiday!! The last two days on Phi Phi were great (although that bad prawn returned to haunt me after all – not so much a bad prawn as downright evil, frankly!!).
I was a bit ill for a couple of days, and shan’t be eating seafood for a while (if ever), but it was still lovely!!

Betty and Bryn really enjoyed their romantic night alone, and the last two days were really great.
Then we went up to Bangkok for a night and a day, which was nowhere near long enough, but we only had a week off school, so what can you do?
We went to an amazing bar called Vertigo, which was on the roof of a hotel on the 60th floor. It was completely open air with no roof at all and had AMAZING views of the city, as well as Appletinis (my new favourite drink by the way!!). We managed to get to the Grand Palace before heading to the airport, which was pretty special too.

It was a very long and tiring journey back, and I arrived at my flat at 3.30am to discover the power was out and my living room was flooded. It turns out Kuwait has had freak storms all week, torrential rain, hail and sandstorms, most of which ended up in a muddy puddle under my sofa! Apparently there’s a gap at the bottom of the door to the balcony from the living room, and while it usually lets in a bit of dust now and then, this time the balcony filled up with water and it just poured into my front room!!
The water heater shorted out rather spectacularly after that with a flash and a bang, and the water on the kitchen floor apparently wasn’t from another flood, but my defrosted freezer, becasue the power had been out!!

So, I’m very tired, and sooooo don’t want to go to work tomorrow, but I’ve mopped, shopped and re-frosted my freezer, and am about to hit the hay. I don’t think I’ve ever come back down to earth from a holiday with such a decisive bump – reality really hit me in the face!!

lots of love,
Sleepy Maya
xxx

(I can hear thunder outside again, better start blocking up the door!)

The Kuwaiti towers at night

Kuwait at night

Mais al Ghanim – our favourite Lebanese restaurant

Dust storm

Chillin’ on Ko Phi Phi…

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Tuesday 10th April 2007
Hello everyone!!
I’m in Thailand in holiday and it’s pretty awesome so far!!
The journey was long, but uneventful, and after a night in Phuket we arrived on Phi Phi Don, the larger of the two Phi Phi islands.

Ko Phi Phi

Yes. That is a shark net.

It is STUNNING here, although it’s also rammed with tourists of a distinctly chav-esque quality. We’ve been having a competition to see who can spot the most dreadful tattoos, but unfortunately there were too many and we had to admit defeat!
There a large number of social stereotypes here, charicaturing themselves like crazy. From the leathery-skinned hippies with dreadlocks and sarongs to the “lads on holiday” groups apparently vying for the honour of most sunburnt and most nasty tattoos cup. The bars here are a tad grim, with some of the nastiest toilets known to man and a lot of older men with their 20-something Thai brides.
However, the beaches are fantastic, the sea is almost too warm and the views are unbeatable. We took a boat trip around Phi Phi Ley, did some snorkelling and I saw some foot long rainbow fish literally about 2 feet from me!! We also went to Maya Beach, which is most famous for being the set for the movie “The Beach”, and is, of course, the most beautiful beach I’ve even seen in my life! It was really fantastic, but after about half an hour of snorkelling the big cruise boats started to arrive and floods of tourists filled up the beach. My advice to anyone going there is go early and avoid the crowds!!
 
The food here is incredible, I love Thai food anyway, but it’s especially good here (obviously) and Bryn is planning to take a cooking class tomorrow. Naturally the drinking is also one of my favourite things, and we managed to find a random Italian/Thai restaurant that serves delicious spring rolls and Italian white wine by the caraffe!! Suffice to say we now eat there almost every night!!
Tonight I have returned to Phuket to meet up with a friend from school, Paul, who happens to be in the neighbourhood, and also to give Betty and Bryn a bit of privacy (we’re sharing a room together to save money, but I think we’re starting to see a bit too much of each other, so I thought they could do with a romantic night alone).

As for me, I’m off to shower and get ready for a night out with Paul, although I’m slightly nervous that the funny-tasting prawn in my curry earlier may come back to haunt me later!!

Wish me luck!!
lots of love and green curries,
Tanned Maya
xxx
p.s. – It’s now the next morning, as I didn’t have time to send this yesterday. Last night was fun and you’ll be pleased to hear the dodgy prawn did not in fact ruin my night (I found gin and tonic settled my stomach oddly enough! Long live Gin and all it’s medicinal properties!)
I am back on Phi Phi for our last two days before heading to Bangkok and then home.
xxx

My lovely toes!

p.p.s. – Oh, and by the way, you’ll be equally pleased to know that despite my fears to the contrary, I have not yet been attacked, bitten or fatally wounded by any sharks, jellyfish, fish in general or shady-looking seaweed.
Although there’s still two more days……………..
hee hee
bye!!
xxx

Getting old and over-excited

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Friday 30th March 2007

Hello everyone,

Well, I’ve been contemplating my upcoming birthday with the rather scary realisation that I’m actually very old.
I know it’s still 2 months away, but according to British Rail, at 26 I will officially cease to be a Young Person!
Also, I discovered on my brief trip home last summer that while Radio 1 plays nothing but the same new crap pop songs over and over, Radio 2 actually has some good songs on offer! One might even say golden oldies!

I never thought I’d say it, but I’ve become a Radio 2 listener – it just seemed to creep up on me!

Anyway, Life in Kuwait remains pretty mundane, fun things to do here include watching paint dry and, well, camel racing. I look forward to our weekly West Wing marathon a bit too much, and, frankly, I’m so excited about our easter holiday next week I can barely contain myself.

Let me tell you the lack of alcohol here is BORING! I’m starting to really miss going out, but luckily I’ll be home soon, and then the wild world that is the Suffolk countryside will probably, frankly, be too exciting for me.
God knows what would happen if I went to London. I think the excitement might kill me.

Basically, I’m old and over-excited by the plot-lines in House and West Wing, and even thinking about going to the pub has me drooling in anticipation!
Luckily I’m off to Thailand next week for our easter break and we have a 3-hour stopover in Dubai, so the first stop will be the bar!!

Hope you’re all well and appreciating alcohol appropriately!!
lots of love
I-Heart-Booze-Maya
xxxx

Making plans…

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Friday 23rd March 2007

Hello everyone,

Not much has been happening here I’m afraid. Our concert has come and gone, exams are over, although the marking and reports aren’t quite finished yet!

However, in just under two weeks, I am due to fly off to Thailand for our easter break! I’m very excited and am busy planning what to pack! Betty, Bryn and I are going to Kho Phi Phi for a week of sun and booze!

The fundraising for my Nepal trip is going well, I am now a third of the way to my goal, so thank you to all those who have donated!
I am also obviously getting ready for that as well, so I’m full of plans at the moment!

I will be coming home in mid-June, probably around the 15th or 16th, and will be home until roughly the 1st of August, when I leave for Nepal.
So, any of you wanting to see me, that’s probably the time to do it!
My brother will be coming over in mid-July to visit with his lovely wife and kids, so I shall have a chance to be a doting aunt once again!

I’m afraid I’m a bit short of other interesting news and gossip.
In fact, all my emails from Kuwait have been considerably less exciting and funny than Korea. I wonder if the lack of alcohol has affected the hilarity of my life at all?

Ah well, I’m sure there will be lots of amusing anecdotes from 6 weeks of drinking in Suffolk soon enough – I’m bound to do something embarrassing!

Hope you are all well and chirpy and cheerful – I’d
love to hear all of your news.

Lots of love
boring Maya
xxx

p.s. Here’s a picture of the famous Kuwaiti Water Towers – one of the only distinctive landmarks in Kuwait!

Kuwait Water Towers

Back in the desert…

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Thursday 8th March 2007

Hello there everyone,
well, I’ve had half term, which was fantastic. Betty and Bryn and I went to Bahrain for a week to stay with our friend Leila. We drank an obscene amount, ate more bacon than we could imagine possible, laughed a lot, Betty and I did a couple of cultural things and basically just relaxed.

Massively over-excited about gin and tonics!

Blind basket-weavers

Some more ruins

Over-excitement at meeting the lead singer of the worst band in the world!

Since coming back, we had a very hectic four days getting ready for our concert, but then the performance went well and it’s all over now, thank god! I’ve also added some pics of the concert, feel free to admire the giant snowman and dancing clocks (all my handiwork!!)

The concert

Admire my giant snowman and dancing clocks!

Me at the back of the hall reminding the kid of all the dance moves!

On the upside, Bryn and I made an incredible discovery on Monday. We were in the city at our favourite Thai grocery shop, stocking up on curry paste etc, and we found, deep in the depths of their freezer a slab of frozen meat. We asked the guy what it was, and he said
“meat”,
“what?”
…. meat”
“sorry?”
“…puh meat”
“what?”
“PUK meat!”
“Oh my god!! Pork???”

Turns out, he knows a guy, who knows a guy, etc, and has a sercret stash of pork in the bottom of his freezer!! It was totally awesome, and we celebrated by having bacon sarnies for dinner!

Not much else to report at the mo, I’m still fundraising, so if you know anyone who would be interested in donating (friends or relatives) please pass on my information to them too.

I hope you’re all well and happy
lots of love
Maya
xxx

Beauty and the Beast

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Friday 9th February 2007

Hello everyone,

Things here are trundling along slowly and are as busy as ever.
In two weeks I’m off to sunny Bahrain for a week of drinking and pork (yay!), and will no doubt have some interesting stories to tell from there.
Life here is a tad mundane at the mo, so not much to report I’m afraid.

I went to the photo shop the other day to get some passport pics taken, as I will soon need to replace my beloved passport. The new guidelines for the biometric passports are two pages long and extremely anal. From the bottom of the chin to the top of the head must be no more than 34mm, but the distance form the bottom of the chin to the hairline must be no less than 29mm and no more than 34mm!!
I explained all of this very carefully to the lady at the shop, who insisted that it was no problem.
When I came back an hour later, She had done a lovely job, and to my amazement, she had photoshopped out all of the blemishes on my face! It’s one of the nicest
pictures I’ve ever had taken, and it turns out I really look lovely without acne, even if I do say so myself!

Sadly, my head was tilted down too much, and so the proportions of my face didn’t fit the requirements. I went back for another set, and explained that while it was lovely, the key factor was the size and measurements, not on how nice the end result was.
The lady was adamant on removing my spots, and even when I aked her not to bother, to just check the size, she got really upset, zoomed in on my face and stood there exclaiming “Look!! Look!! It’s very bad! I MUST remove!!” I had to get quite tough with her, and when I went back to get them, she very dramatically refused to look at them because they were that awful!
In the end they had to digitally squash my head and stretch my face to make it fit the specifications, and the lighting and background made my acne stand out even more than it actually does in real life, making it one of the worst pictures I’ve ever had taken in my
life!
So, I’ve now got both the beauty AND the beast of all passport pictures, but I’m not sure either of them will actually be acceptable, so I may have wasted my money!

However, speaking of money, I have just set up my new shiny website for my venture in Nepal, so anyone wishing to donate (or even just wanting to have a look around) can do so!
Feel free to donate at will!!

Anyway, take care,
lots of love
that-picture-was-so-nice-I-may-just-have-to-staple-it-over-my-actual-face-Maya
xxx

The next step…

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Sunday 28th January 2007

Hello everyone,

Well, school is busy as usual, we’ve got four weeks to prepare and put on a concert, which involves a huge amount of work, so naturally on top of marking and the usual class prep, (including making viking boats using nothing but card, straws, toothpicks, scissors and glue)  I’m now spending my evenings making paper snowflakes (which, according to my anally-retentive fellow teacher, must have 6 points, not 4, because all snowflakes apparently do!!).

In case you didn’t know, it’s UNBELIEVABLY hard to make 6-pointed paper snowflakes, but I am gradually becoming a master. I only need enough to cover a 6-meter squared wall space, so you know, fun fun fun!!

Anyhoo, in amongst work, work and more work, I have been applying for various positions for next year, as Madame has asked us all to tell her whether we’re re-signing or not, and my answer was a definite and resounding NO.

I have decided that I want to do something a bit different, as while I love travelling, and want to carry on living and working abroad for a while, I want to try and move my “career”, if you can call it that, away from teaching. I still want to work with children, but I’ve been teaching for almost three years now and I don’t think it’s something I want to do forever.

Soooo, instead of teaching very rich and privileged children for lots of money, I’m going to hopefully help children who have almost nothing for no money.  So, I looked into a few options, applied to a few places, and have been accepted onto a ten-month volunteer program in a Nepalese orphanage.

I’ll be finishing in Kuwait in mid-June, coming home for about six weeks to sort out my visa and paper work etc, have a bit of a rest, and will then be going to Nepal at the beginning of August.

Of course, in the mean time, I have to raise almost £4000 in order to go, so I will almost certainly be hitting you all up for money!! I’m going to set up a website through justgiving.com where the charity (ICYE) will receive gift aid tax-relief for donations, so when that’s all sorted out, feel free to donate at will!!

Anyway, that’s about all the time I have right now, as the snowflakes are calling me, I have a lot of paper to fold and cut, and sometime in the next few days I have to construct a 5-6 foot snowman out of flipchart paper and cotton wool.
Yay.
(Although I can now make my own play-dough from scratch!! I’m so proud of that it’s sooo going on my CV!!)

Hope you’re all well,
lots of love and kisses and happy karmic vibes etc,

blue-peter-eat-your-heart-out-Maya
xxx

A Christmas wedding in Oz

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Tuesday 9th January 2007

Hey everyone,

Just for those of you that didn’t know, I’ve just had a fabulous 2 weeks off work, and flew to Australia to visit my family and to be there for my brother’s wedding.

The wedding was gorgeous – it was all lovely and happy and sweet and they are like the most beautiful couple ever – they actually look like the couple you get in your picture frame when you buy it!

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