Time flies...

I cannot believe that it has been more than two weeks since my last post. The time has been flying by here and I am slowly beginning to find my feet. The rain has been relentless since my arrival and apparently it hasn't rained in such a fashion for as long as anyone can remember. So, you can guess who is being blamed for bringing the British weather with him!

It's not too bad though as it's nice, warm rain and today was actually a scorcher. The weather here is actually quite tropical and I guess that the monsoon season has just decided to leave a little more than a calling card this year.

We went to the zoo this morning which was a bit of a joke. The poor animals have no artificial habitats in which to while away their isolated, caged lives. The monkeys had a reasonably-sized rock to crawl on but the solitary lion was in what can be best described as a circus-like transportation cage. Poor little bugger. And apart from a selection of common-or-garden farm animals, that was about the limit of the viewing pleasure. But the kids seemed to enjoy it and it gave me a chance to get some pictures.

Everything here is going very well. I am beginning to get to grips with the resources in the staff office and I think that my lessons are taking shape a bit better than they were for the first week or so. There's a long way to go before I will be even half-way happy though, as my lack of experience and knowledge of teaching methods and games will take years, not weeks, to build upon. Everyone has to start somewhere though.

Actually, sorry, did I say "everything" is going well? I meant "almost everything". The apartment that the school has provided has a resident nutter who keeps on turning off our electricity at night. She is able to do this because the master switch is conveniently located in the stairwell so any old Tom, Dick or Harry can gain access.

Her reason for doing this?

She claims that the air conditioning makes a noise that keeps her awake. So she expects us to frazzle in heat of the apartment at night and turn it off... sorry, no dice. And when she decides to kill the noise by turning it off at the mains it also turns off the mosquito repellent devices that we have plugged in at the apartment to keep the little so-and-so's away.

The result?

We are getting feasted on.

The solution?

Fit a cover over the box in the stairwell so that she cannot access the switch? Fix the noisy air conditioning unit so that she no longer kicks up a fuss? Buy the loony some ear plugs?

Nope.

Make me up sticks and move to a different apartment just one month after I have landed?

Yep.

Pure genius!