FEBRUARY 1st STARTS WITH THE LETTER L: Lanterns. With Chinese New Year just ten days away this is the exact day you are supposed to put up the decorations. Many places all over the city already have elaborate displays but I stumbled upon this scene at the bank today
FEBRUARY 2nd STARTS WITH THE LETTER O: Om. This is one of many Bhutanese prayer flags flying in our apartment and the first flag is blue and always represents “Om,“ in the mantra “Om mani padme hum.” The word is not written in the usual script because it is in Dzongkha the language of Bhutan and I absolutely love this rendition of the word
FEBRUARY 3rd STARTS WITH THE LETTER J: Joker. After such a prolonged celebration with guests, things have suddenly turned very busy. Having once played often we have taken up playing “crapette” or double handed patience again recently. It’s a great way to unwind and shift the focus away from pressing issues as it requires focus, and concentration so this is what came to mind at home today
FEBRUARY 4th STARTS WITH THE LETTER F: friends. We are the living embodiment of this quote
"Make friends with people who aren't your age. Hang out with people whose first language isn't the same as yours. Get to know someone who doesn't come from your social class. This is how you see the world. This is how you grow." We had the best afternoon together today and always enjoy each other’s company
FEBRUARY 5th STARTS WITH THE LETTER H: Hornbill. I have been wracking my brains all day for this prompt and only when we went out for a walk a spotted a hornbill did it occur to me. This shot is from a couple of months ago when one decided to visit us and sit on the terrace railing. It even allowed me to get this close and took bananas from us
FEBRUARY 6th STARTS WITH THE LETTER C: coffee. I’m not worth speaking to in the morning until I’ve had my first coffee of the day. Today we discovered an outlet of a favourite cafe in a new to us location and had to order up an iced and a hot latte to reward ourselves for an extremely busy morning ticking off items on the to do list
FEBRUARY 7th STARTS WITH THE LETTER E: elephant. I was in search of a small gift for a young girl and stumbled upon these cute little elephants today
FEBRUARY 8th STARTS WITH THE LETTER M: mangos. I just added this children’s book to our collection as it immediately spoke to me. Mangos are for me too. They are definitely my favourite fruit
FEBRUARY 9th STARTS WITH THE LETTER B: blessings. Today has been all about cleaning the house from top to bottom for Chinese New Year, as is the tradition. We are also hosting a celebration tomorrow night so I wrote blessings for the red envelopes. I know they should contain money for children but I thought we could see what blessings the year of the dragon might bring our guests: happiness, long life, good health, peace or good fortune, just a bit of fun to begin the year of the dragon
FEBRUARY 10th STARTS WITH N: new year. Today is the first day of the year of the male, wood dragon. We hosted a celebration tonight and this is the new year feast we prepared
FEBRUARY 11th STARTS WITH THE LETTER K: Kezang and Kinley. Our two best dressed friends who attended the gathering for Bhutanese Losar, Chinese New Year or Vietnamese Tet last night at our place. Being Bhutanese and dressing in Vietnamese Ao Dai that honoured the Chinese tradition of wearing red ticks all the boxes
FEBRUARY 12th STARTS WITH THE LETTER P: pineapple. A favourite fruit of mine actually but this one is ceramic and I spotted it today while in a very lovely homewares shop. I wasn’t tempted by this but there were plenty of other temptations
FEBRUARY 13th STARTS WITH THE LETTER S: stairs. Finally, the repair of the stairs has begun and the vast improvement is such a welcome change from the state they were in only a week ago. Persistence pays
FEBRUARY 14th STARTS WITH THE LETTER D: drum. In the drum tower at the local pagoda at dusk tonight when we went out for a walk
FEBRUARY 15th STARTS WITH V: visa. Perhaps it’s time to let the cat out of the bag: big changes are a foot
FEBRUARY 16th STARTS WITH THE LETTER R: riverside. The district where we live is commonly referred to as riverside and this was the view this evening when we treated ourselves to a Japanese dinner
FEBRUARY 17th STARTS WITH THE LETTER I: incense. The drawer in the hall table which contains my favourite incense sticks and cones
FEBRUARY 18th STARTS WITH THE LETTER A: appetisers. We are enjoying date night out early so we can catch a movie tonight. We decided to make dinner a set of appetisers because when they look like this how could you resist
FEBRUARY 19th STARTS WITH THE LETTER T: Treats on the terrace tonight as it’s our last night here for several months. Travel commences tomorrow so it’s cranberry juice and tonic with strawberry ice cubes and tasting the travel trail mix blended to take with us
FEBRUARY 20th STARTS WITH THE LETTER Q: queue. Like most people I really dislike standing in queues but this is the one exception. Standing in a queue to check in at the airport always means the adventure begins now
FEBRUARY 21st STARTS WITH THE LETTER W: wishlist. There were exactly two items on my wishlist for Bangkok and on our first outing this morning we acquired both: winter jackets for the weather we are about to encounter and a new iPad for the lessons we hope to soon be teaching. It doesn’t get better than that. Time to relax and recharge the batteries now
FEBRUARY 22nd STARTS WITH THE LETTER Z: zen. It was what came to mind immediately for this prompt but I didn’t expect this menu option at our favourite eatery in Bangkok. I almost ordered it just for PAD, but I’m simply not a burger person so I just took a photo of the menu. Tempeh Gado Gado was a better choice for me
FEBRUARY 23rd STARTS WITH THE LETTER G: glare. We flew over the Himalayas early this morning and the views from the windows were spectacular. Snow yesterday meant there was some turbulence and some circling as both approaches to the airport were completely obscured by cloud cover but land, we did and oh what a warm welcome and wonderful but busy first day. I just remembered to post this now
FEBRUARY 24th STARTS WITH THE LETTER Y: yathra. In Bumthang central Bhutan the unique weaving of a combination of sheep wool and yak hair is a heritage that dates back many generations. Having bought a new iPad in Bangkok, the old one, which was described as vintage, needed a new cover. I was reluctant to wipe it as it still holds hundreds of books and photos. The perfect choice was a yathra cover so I bought one this morning
FEBRUARY 25th STARTS WITH THE LETTER U: umbrella. This is one of the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism. It represents protection and is a symbol of the sovereignty of Buddha as universal monarch. The emblem derives from thirteen royal umbrellas and I bought this greeting card today to continue my snail mail project
FEBRUARY 26th STARTS WITH X: Xmas. In this case Xmas cake. Having saved it and carried it into the country especially, we took the final Xmas cake to our first day of school in Bhutan today and it was served to all our new and previously known colleagues as afternoon tea
FEBRUARY 27th HANDWRITTEN: Our new apartment in Thimphu has a whiteboard in it for no apparent reason but as a teacher that seemed serendipitous. I decided day one to write a quote each morning and went out and bought a marker. Today’s handwritten inspiration is about friends which is also serendipitous as we have been shown a great deal of kindness from friends new and old since arriving here.
FEBRUARY 28th A SIGN: A rather pale looking me standing in front of the sign for the school that we started at on Monday. At this stage it is teacher orientation only and we are on a steep learning curve but we couldn’t be happier about being right here right now
FEBRUARY 29th MY NAME: we are in teacher orientation and my name along with everyone else’s has marked our seating positions each day. I love the artistry of the Dzongkha script and today asked one of the Dzongkha Lopens (teachers) to write my given name in Dzongkha on my name card
THE PROMPTS
No comments:
Post a Comment