Week 24 (I think) - Busy Busy Busy

I have been really slack with keeping this blog up to date, it’s been over a month since my last entry.  In that time lots has happened but I will focus on the main points.

Work has been very busy, trying to get all the lectures prepped before I left for the UK, also had to write a quiz for the 4th year students.  It also not got any quieter since being back as had three lectures and a seminar to write.  As I write this I have just finished the seminar, it was enjoyable and I think I’m finally getting the knack of this presentation lark. 

UK Visit

Me and Jui went back to the UK for two week at the start of July 2 -17th, for her graduation.  It was really good to see my family & friends again, although we were so busy, didn’t have enough time with them.  It also rained every single day apart from the last day, I really wanted a game of cricket, but no such luck. :(

Graduation was very nice and was great to see three people from my old research group graduate.  Was just a shame the weather wasn’t great so the photos of everyone on the steps outside could take place.  

Other than graduation, we did plenty of work. Jui; experiments and meetings, me; fixing MY machine (look after it you lot!! ;) ) and meetings too.  My meetings were really good and got some excellent ideas to take forward.

Of course we had to do some shopping, I glad most of it was done online before hand though, but I did get some decent shirts from Bicester.

The flight back was tiring as we arrived in the morning and then had a 10 hour wait in Bangkok.  To pass the time we went and watched the new spiderman film was enjoyable if nothing special. So we had to suffer a few days of jet lag, but are definitely over that now.

On a personal note, we have almost set-in-stone the wedding date (May), and are off to see the place soon.  I’ve also some good goals to finally get into better shape.  The tour de France has got me interesting in buying a bike which I will hopefully have by the next blog and also try and find the gym.

PS - it was really good to hear so many of my friends are following this blog, and the compliments were surprising but very welcome to hear, seeing how I’ve always struggled with writing.  So it I leave it that long ago please get on my case :-)

Week 18 / 19 / 20 - Term starts

As I write this the second week of term has just finished, and I definitely had my best lecture so far this afternoon.

I am current teaching two classes, both to the undergraduates, one is analytical chemistry to the second year chemical engineers, this course also has a lab class which I help with but don’t teach.  The second class is polymer technology to the fourth years, and is an engineering elective course open to both the material and chemical engineers.  Before term started they both had 33 students, but now the polymer class has 55 students out of a maximum 61.  So I must be doing something right (or as my brother said they think it will be easy).

The analytical chemistry lecture is three hours in one go which is far too long to teach, for both me and the students.  Whereas, the polymer is two hours then one hour, so I lecture in the two hour slot and then have a tutorial and go through problems is the last hour.  This was the lecture I had this afternoon, and the multiple choice English questions got a very good response, so will keep doing them.

Since my last blog we also took Jui’s mom, dad and niece, to sukhothai national park, this time we had longer and went to the large Buddha image.

Week 16 / 17 - Bangkok trip

Have spent the last few days in Bangkok, as we had to go and apply for Jui’s family visit visa for the UK.  As we were both going we decided to drive, its about 350 km (220 miles) from Phitsanulok to Bangkok.  The drive was fairly straight forward with most of the roads being two or three lanes.  The only problem was the satnav playing up and directing us in Bangkok down a bus / taxi lane.  Where a police man kindly gave us directions for a small fee / fine (£8).  The drive home was totally uneventful apart from two separate lorries buried in the tree on the side of dead straight roads (must have fallen asleep), I had said on arrival here that I would never drive in Bangkok (this was a lie ha ha), and although it looks like chaos from the outside is kind of works when you are driving, as other road users knows you are going to cut them up as its the done thing.

On the first day of our trip, we had dinner with friends then they dropped us off at a roof top bar.  This was the bar used in the film the hangover part 2.  It gave magnificent views of Bangkok at night, although you do have to pay for the privilege, with two cocktails coming to £25.  The second day we went around the shopping malls, either side of the visa appointment.  Then meet more friends in the afternoon and then for dinner, was really good to see everyone again.  If we lived in Bangkok think, it would be easy to lose weight as we took the sky-train and walk loads, which we never do here.   I did think while I was there maybe I’d like to live in a big city to see how different it was, but think I’d get annoyed after a short period, maybe a month or something.

I’ve started back doing some exercise, I brought some boxing gloves and a heavy bag, and have been doing 25 mins on the days when I don’t play football.  (although have had a few days off) 

Work wise I have been doing nothing but preparing my lecture (with a few meetings thrown in) as the start of term is approaching fast, I feel I’m on top of them but only just.  The new and old students have mostly returned and are preparing for “shows” I think, as there is many noisy drums and dancing happening in the afternoon of most days.

I’ve been reading lots of updates that the UK is finally getting some sun! Just to rub it in a little bit, that would be called winter here!  The rainy season is coming soon though, we get thunderstorms every other day at the moment usually only for 15-20 mins of heavy rain.  Have to say I love it, the weather cools down to 29-30 from 35 and a lovely strong breeze. 

Week 13/14/15 - Bit of this, bit of that...

Been a bit lazy with writing the blog as been busy writing lectures as term opens the start of June and other things.

In the final week of April, there was an Industrial engineering trip, this was to discuss how to improve the quality of the courses and teaching.  It was in the neighboring province, in some a mountain resort (prob more like large hills), the place was very picturesque, even though there wasn’t any air-conditioned rooms but being that bit higher up, the weather was that slightly cooler, so not to make it unbearable.  The only problem was no wifi or phone signal!

The actual meeting was a little over my head as it was all in Thai and as I haven’t taught anything and it’s hard to give suggestions, if you are unsure of what is already in place.  Afterwards we socialized and drank over dinner.  The dinner lasted about 4 hours I think, I’m not sure where Thai people put all the food!  Did my usual and was joint last to go to bed at 2 am.  Got up at 7am and went to breakfast feeling surprising spritely, although some people wanted to take me sight seeing for 3 hours, no one else wanted to go including me so after some gentle persuasion, we headed back to the uni, even though it was only 150 km we had to stop 3 times again not sure why but seems to be a Thai thing.

(NB - haven’t lost my pro evo skills, played one of the secretaries sons and beat him 2-0 don’t think he had a shot)

Since coming back, I finally got paid (well half), me and Jui booked flights back to the UK for her graduation (3rd-16th July) and this week, we have had two more bank holiday’s, and I’ve also had my first cold since arriving, which I think I've finally shaken after 4 days.  Went to the cinema to see the Avengers, was fun to watch not much plot but more than enough action to make up for it.

Mini Rant

The one thing I won’t ever get used to is karaoke, I just don’t get the point of karaoke, I’d rather hear the songs sang professionally by the original performers.  Also, in the shopping malls they play modern songs but not sang by the correct singer, I’m not sure how many bad renditions I’ve heard of bad romance by Lady Gaga, but it’s a lot.

Will try and get back to writing more regularly now things have settled back down....

Week 12 - Thai new year otherwise know as a big water fight

Last weekend (Fri-Sun) was Thai new year called Songkran, the theme of the festival is water, in washing away the old year to bring in the new.  This means that the 3 days just become one big water fight in daylight hours.  Anyone on a scooter gets flagged down and soaked, or just get water thrown at them if they speed past. 

On the Friday we went down the road in the morning, where people from the local village were for a blessing from some monks, after this everyone had a water fight.  Even though it was 35 degrees, ice in water makes it freezing! After this back at our home we did a private blessing for Juis parents then soaked each other, (yes this theme continues) and then filled up a large container and any passers by got a blessing (I mean soaking).

Later on I wanted to see more of what was going on in the town so we drove towards the city center.  We shot the video clips embedded, we didn’t manage to get all the way to the center as the traffic was a nightmare, could have easy on a bike - yeah right would need a snorkel for that

On the Saturday we went to Sukhothai to see our friend and there family, where we had a lovely meal, a blessing for their family, then you guessed it another water fight.  In this water fight I came to realise a bucket beats a water gun at close range every time.

Also for songkran everyone wears shocking shirts, I don’t know why but they do 

Week 11 - Traveling to the North

As Friday and Monday were a bank holiday we decided to have a long weekend and see some of our friends who live in the north of Thailand.  Chiang Mai is about 350km from Phitsanulok, I was a little worried when google maps said it would take almost 7 hrs, I don't really understand why though, as almost the whole way was dual carriageway.  It took us a little less that 4.5hrs, the drive was easy apart from one section and it didn’t help that we were running low on fuel.  I had said we would fill up at the next petrol station as there was ~100km of the dash, then we didn't see another station for 85km. The satnav said the next station was in 18km with only 15km remain of fuel, we stopped at a small village to ask if they had any or knew where the nearest station was and luckily there was one 2km down the road which was a massive relief.

We arrived at our friends house just after 7pm, after doing a small blessing for songkran (more on this in the next blog) we went to a lovely restaurant on the outskirts of the city.  

Our friends in chiang mai, were Jui’s lecturers when she was a undergrad student and were also one of the first PhD students of our PhD supervisor.  We are in the same situation as them although 34 years later, and there advise has been invaluable. 

The next morning we meet at Chiang Mai university were Bob gave me good advise on a range on topics.  Then we headed to see some cricket at the Gymkhana sports club, which was hosting its 25th anniversary six-a-side tournament.  The club was founded in 1898 by British expats working in the teak trade.  Outside the club house there is an amazing tree which is also the symbol of the club.  There was close to 40 teams playing in the tournament of various abilities, I definitely would like to enter a team next year!

The next day we headed to Chiang Rai, the road twisted through the mountains (see pic) I absolutely loved the road, and was one of the few times I wished I still had the Vx.  The 200km flew by and there was very little traffic.  It was really good to see Joy again and meet her boyfriend Francois, we had a great meal and then a few beers at a club getting back to the university where we were staying late.  After having a long lie in the next day we had brunch then visited Doi Tung in the mountains close to the Burmese-Thai boarder which has some spectacular views and a lovely garden.

We headed home early the next morning stopping of first at Wat Rong Khun (the white temple) we had been there 4 years early, the area just gets larger and larger and we be extremely beautiful when its finished.  In this case pictures speak louder than words.

We also stopped off in Phayao where Jui used to work for lunch.  Phayao is situated on by a large lake about 100km from Chiang Rai.  After the stop off at Phayao we drove the remaining ~300km.  The car was faultless the whole way, and the roads were not very busy.  The only hold ups being the police check points.  We got stopped twice out of the 5-6 checkpoints.  The first I just showed my Thai licensee and on we went, they were more interested in checking the pick up tucks.  The second was a larger check point, as we had come from Chiang Rai (where nearly all the drugs are ferried though from Burma (Myanmar)) we had our car searched, this may have been as I was a foreigner and they were just interested in talking to us.  It didn’t take very long and we were soon on our way again.  We have another long weekend next week as it is Thai new year (songkran).

Week 9/10 - Two for the price of one

Really haven’t been up to anything of real interest the last two week.  Just more lecture prepping. I am half way through one course and am now starting the other to mix it up and keep things interesting.  After my swimming in the last blog I haven’t managed to go again, but have managed to play football twice a week.  Scored an absolute screamer to win the game, half volley outside of the foot in off the post.  Then I realised that meant we’d have to play again as its winner stays on, should have missed it!!! as it was still 35 Degs at 7pm.  

I finally got round to getting UK tv, and access to sites restricted to the UK, so can listen to test match special and at home even watch the cricket, its not HD quality but watchable.


Today got my visa extended to match my work permit which has got a weight of my shoulders, now if I could just get paid everything would be perfect!


Am on holiday next week so hopefully the next update will be a lot more interesting!! :)

Some random photos below: 

• My staff sport competition top - hope pinks my colour
• Yummy icecream which cost the same as 5 meals lol
• How many can you squeeze into the back of a pick-up records (10)
• Watching the cricket :)
• Working

Week 8 - A short update

After getting my contract signed last week I submitted my paperwork for my work permit, which I get to pick up in a weeks time.  Work wise much of the same with lecture prep, I also moved into a new office in my department (after getting mold cleaned off the air ducts - yuk!)

I’ve also been swimming twice this week once on Wednesday evening, and as I had to take Jui to the airport for 6.30am Friday, and went swimming at 7.15am was really pleasant as it wasn't too hot but by around 8am you can start to feel the power of the sun.  Am going to try to go at least twice every week.


Just so this isn't a boring update, the flavour of crisps here are how can I put this different - the selection you can see here, are hot plate lobster (blue), hot spicy crab (orange), bacon cheese and seaweed (green - which is actually extremely nice) 

Good points

The food is so yummy here and unbelievably cheap, around 50p is all I ever pay for lunch

Week 7

This week and last weekend has been full on with work, 

Saturday - stoichiometric lab class for a high school in the morning (although after went to the shopping mall and had pizza and got my new phone (iphone 4s - Yay!!)

Sunday - Had dinner with a Japanese prof and the dean, vice-deans of engineering plus head of Industrial engineering (IE from now on)

Monday - agreed to look after the Japanese prof in the morning and we went round the temple (see pics) and a local museum, We also had lunch together before heading back to engineering, I also attended a Chem Eng meeting that was in Thai, I got some of what was going on but not a lot.  Was good though as next week I am moving closer to more work colleague in IE.

Tuesday - worked on lecture prepping, got bored of the maths / stats lecture so moved onto some real chemistry

Wednesday - was a bank holiday here called วันมาฆบูชา (Makha Bucha Day) so spent the day on the couch watching movies. :)

Thursday - back to lecture prepping and then played football in the evening again the standard was much better this time and our team was worse, the one at the back in 7-a-side didn’t work surprisingly.

Friday - finally got my contract signed! More lecture prepping plus wrote this. :) Also meet some people from thaioil and got given a cool USB drive, shaped like a credit card with 18gb storage.... nice way to end the week!!

There has been a science camp this week so we have had to be in for 8.20-9.00am and not leaving till 6pm. If it hadn’t been for the day off in the middle would have been shattered.

RANT

The turn of driving habits this maybe a long one! I found this on a thai motorbike forum and can’t disagree with any of the points and see almost all of these everyday....

Driving Habit's here.

* rarely use indicators

* rarely look anywhere else but in front

* often cross centre lines and cut corners

* often on H.w.y. or rural roads, a motorcycle will pull to the L.H.S.of the road, before crossing traffic lanes to turn right 

* a L.H. blink can mean its safe to overtake (opposite to Australia)

* a R.H.blinker can mean it not safe to overtake

* around dusk and into the night, it is common some people on the roads are intoxicated

* don't expect a motorcycle to be moving faster than 60km

* will overtake another car into oncoming traffic if they feel there is room for three or more vehicles on the road ( you are expected to get out of the way)

* often overtake large slow moving vehicles like buses or trucks that they cant see around with zero view of oncoming traffic

* drive erratic and move around the lanes

* in rural areas often have poor driving skills, no license and poorly maintained vehicles which are overloaded and have regular accidents on their own

* will leave on the road large rocks used for wheel chocks on a incline.

* use there ears as much as their eyes to drive

* will drive short distances on the wrong side of the road (this is very very common!!!!)

*At peak hour traffic on a 4 lane road will often use a extra lane (3 lanes) for the direction most traffic is flowing(Chiang Mai)

* will overtake you, only to turn into a left street and cut you off.

Using Thai Traffic Lights

* BE AWARE! traffic light in Thailand are used on highways if you are unaware its hard to stop at speed, and easy to run into cars traveling through the crossroad or stopped vehicles in your lane

* traffic lights tend to be a indicator only, locals will often keep passing through lights a few seconds after they are faced with a red light

* if you are the first vehicle to stop for a red light, check rear vision and move to the side, as the vehicles behind you may have plans to run the red light and will go sheer over the top of you not expecting you to stop

* usually jump green lights by 2 seconds

* are allowed turn Left on a red light (keep the left lane open)

* at a traffic light crossroad it is normal when the light turns green for people turning right to take off first and slip a few cars past the oncoming traffic

A couple he missed were driving about half a meter behind you wanting to overtake even if you are overtaking a lorry etc (this is nearly always a isuzu pick up or merc).  Talking of mercs, (and i’ll include BMW’s) the ones that are here are nearly always bottom of the range but still very expensive thats what 400% import tax does.  As they have an expensive car they seem to think they own the road and drive extremely aggressively, as in, overtake in any lane and fly up behind you, they have no sense in closing speed or leave themselves an option to bail out.  Other things has to do with scooters and bikes, i’d say more than 50% dont wear a helmet maybe closer to 80%, and its not uncommon to see 3 or even 4 people on a scooter plus a dog in the basket (i have seen this!!!) or is it not uncommon to see baby’s being carried on a bike or texting/eating, even if carrying the afore mentioned baby!  

Last one is U-turns onto the highway, these can be dangerous but some cars and pick ups think that if you pull out slowly onto the edge of the fast lane this is fine even if cars are coming. 

Generally the speeds traveled here by all is slower than back home and its a good job as there would be so many more accidents.

Week 6 - A social life at last

Last weekend was extremely hot getting to above 40^oC and feeling hotter, I missed the hottest part of the day in the picture (around 4pm) but as you can see it was still rather toasty!

Since then its been the usual 35-6 in the day, but after the weekend that doesn’t feel so bad! I’m going to freeze when I go back to the UK.

Work this week has been good, I had two meetings with my coworkers who I will be lecturing with as the students will need their help, as my part will be in English, they are also teaching parts of the courses.  The semester here is 16 weeks, on one course I am lecturing for 10 weeks and 8 in the other.  I also spent time talking with some phd students who want to learn more conversional English and which was fun.

On Wednesday we when out for a meal with Jui friends, I had a few beers, the food and company was excellent (see the pictures).  On Thursday evening we went to a wedding, which was in a field 20 km outside of the city in the middle of the countryside.  Some of his friends had come from Austria where he had just finished his PhD, so it was pleasant to talk with some other ‘falangs’.  The only problem was the 20 million or so flies that were annoying everybody, I have never seen so many flies around the lights.  I don’t think me and Jui will do a Thai style wedding is seems no fun for the bride and groom, standing taking photos with everyone then standing on a stage while people make speeches then back to take photos when everyone leaves.  The drive home was also interesting but I think thats all I’ll say on that and save it for the driving standards rant.

Almost forgot we have been having a car port build and it’s now finished, in truth it makes the whole of the ‘yard’ area seem so much bigger.  We wanted it so it could fit 2 car but I think it would fit 3 easy.

RANT

Having a week off the rant as in a good mood and don’t want to ruin it :) 

Week 5 - Some history and lecture prepping

Last weekend we had to go to Sukhothai as our car had reached 1000 km and to keep the warranty, it needed a check over. The drive is simple and about 60 km, so roughly 45mins. Sukhothai has an old ruined city from when it was the capital about 600 years ago. The car was not due in till 2pm, but we decided to leave early so we had time to look around the ruins for an hour or 2. The temples were beautiful and you could see they were very old as some of the stone pillars looked like Swiss cheese or coral, with pores and holes in the surface.  Jui only had the large lens for the camera as the normal lens broke while we were traveling here, with all the packing and unpacking of the hand luggage. So we couldn’t get as good photos as we would have liked, but as it is not that far away I definitely want to go again and spend more time their.

Work wise this week I have been busy preparing my lectures for the next semester, which starts in June.  As expected it has started off slowly with me thinking about the depth of content, course layout, pace, background reading and the general presentation of the slides.  I also finally find a good chemical drawing program that runs native on the mac, so this took a while to learn but this will make future work much easier.

 

The chemistry department held a party for the returning lectures last night, lots of food, plenty of alcohol and also some karaoke.  Im not really a fan of karaoke and thought I would get away with not singing due to all the songs being in thai, but they did have some english songs, so was forced into singing Oasis's don't look back in anger.  Have to say though the evening was fun, was nice to have a few drinks and the food was yummy!

RANT

The village leader lives not far from us and has a tannoy system that plays information to the village, this I don’t mind but why must it be played at 6am in the morning!! Houses here compared to the UK have zero sound proofing, it lasts for an hour and is just constant speaking with a low tone thats hard to block out. It not everyday or every other day just random and is sometimes even on the weekend. I’m hopeful, it will be just for the local election which is on the 26th. If its more long term I thinking the speaker wire maybe chewed thorough by mice with scissor sharp teeth. ;) 

 More photo’s from Sukhothai can be found here     http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyPgcfc

Week 4 - The fat controller

Work this week has been interesting as I attended some lectures as it was the last week of lectures before the exams.  The lecturer that was introducing me was a little eccentric but extremely nice and was keen to practice his English, as are most are here once they get over there initial shyness.  The first lecture threw me as I had no idea what to expect or what he expected of me.  After the 3^rd one I had a little routine to let the students (hopefully) understand me and not bore them.  The key to this was to stay where I was from (Birmingham - UK) and then with the UK being represented as a large blob on the white board ask the students where certain cities were in retrospect to Birmingham; north or south.  This seemed to amuse them when they got it completely wrong.  So after Birmingham, London, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle were on the board, this linked nicely to football and some more interaction with the students.  I thought Manchester United would have the most fans, but Chelsea and Liverpool came out on top.  After this they got to ask questions, an interesting but not surprising observation was the one class which had a majority of girls was more out going and willing to make mistakes and ask questions (even if of a slight personal nature!!).  Another lecturer here has the habit of holding my arm as we are walking which is slightly disturbing to me and I have no idea how to stop it?!?!?

Also got a valentines tip from the mostly girl class; a white rose is better than red as it is pure love.....lol

Finally did some exercise this week, some of the lecturers and students play 5-a-side football on a Wednesday night for an hour.  Have to say I really enjoyed it and although I was soaked through with sweat (yeah, nice image I know) it wasn’t as tiring and hot as I thought it would be but the temperature was still low thirty’s.  Played a fat Paul Scholes role, I like to term this role the fat controller, scored a couple and created plenty also did plenty of running ;)

RANT

One note which annoyed me this week was my phone contract, for some reason they put a ฿1000 limit on the contract and rather than ring or text saying your phone will be blocked they just blocked it, also the same day the universities wifi was down. So I have no internet (and can’t ring anyone) which I hate not having, since its the only way I keep contact with the UK.  The only reason I had reached the limit was ringing home in the first few days before we had the internet set up. So had to get my fiancee to ring and up the limit, I said ฿5000 but we settled on ฿2000, not like it will be ever reached again.

Hmmm I like this rant feature so will make it a permanent part of the blog, I think driving standards may get it in the next one! Because I’m now legal and fully insured see below.

Ending on a good note....

As took a major step in getting settled here and got a Thai car license, it’s valid for 1 year then it can be converted to a 5-year license.  Did try to get a motorbike license at the same time but didn’t have the correct picture on my UK one, the license got printed and they were just about to give it me then didn’t.  Oh well better you learn how to ride Thai style and do their test.  (the cost for the car license was as follows: 12 passport photos - ฿120 (this was for immigration letter - ฿1000), 2 medical certificates - ฿120, driving license - ฿340) if that was in the UK the 12 pictures alone would have been more than the driving license!!

Summary of settling in....

This maybe a little boring but this is a summary of the first 3 weeks here in thailand (although I have prob missed a quite a few parts out).  I will update with photos and might go into more detail in certain areas, if I feel they are interesting enough.  I plan on updating the blog once a week or when any special occasions occur such as trips or points of interest 

Me and my fiancee flew from Heathrow on a direct flight with Thai Airways on the 16th January at 9.30pm, the flight was delayed 30 minutes but heathrow has plenty of shopping to keep us entertained.  The flight from London to Bangkok takes around 10-11hours, the flight was fine no turbulence, but would have liked an isle or window seat.  During the flight I went through the movies and noticed they had King Naresuan parts 1 & 2 with English subtitles, as this is the university where I was going to lecture, I thought it best to learn the history.  I have to say I enjoyed the films (although a little long) and reading the subtitles made me sleepy, so after the meals plus watching the two films I got maybe 3 hours sleep which was plenty as we were landing at 3pm local time.

After we landed we passed though immigration, the line was a little long and a smile / sawadee wouldn’t have gone a miss but other than that it went smoothly.  One of our friends had come to pick us up, we took the train into the city centre to our hotel which was located very close to the skytrain.

That evening we went out with friends who live in Bangkok for a meal, which was in a great location near the rama 7 (or 9) bridge, the food and company were both excellent.  We only had 1 night in bangkok, so the next day, my fiancee and her friend went to submit and report to the education office then we went to the british embassy to get a letter stating I was single and allowed to marry a thai resident.  We then found a local place that would translate this into Thai and also register it with the correct thai department which saved us alot of hassle and time, as later in the day we were flying to our home city of Phitsanulok.

For the first week after arriving in Phitsanulok we stayed in a hotel close to the university while our room and on suite bathroom was being finished at home, we also had to buy all the furniture and set up the most important things such as internet and satellite tv so I could watch the football.  There is more football coverage here than back home! every single game is shown live, pity that the commentary and analysis teams are the same as itv back home, which to be honest are not a patch on sky.  After about 2 weeks we had almost everything sorted, there wasn't a single day in which we had chance to rest and relax. (We did have one day but I was ill, as it seems there is one type of mushroom I am unable to digest - I believe the england name is a jelly mushroom) 

We ordered a new car and collected it on the 31st of Jan, a ford focus sport+, which I have to say for an automatic (which I have hated everyone I had ever driven) drives well and is usually in the correct gear.  I’m still driving on my UK driving licensee as I need a letter from immigration or a work permit before I can obtain a thai one, the same with a bank account which is annoying.

Work wise I had a meeting with the president of the university (plus the dean of engineering), which went well.  They had not decided which faculty I could best help, as although my first degree is in chemistry my PhD is in biomaterials, so I have knowledge in both areas of science and engineering.  As the faculty of engineering had no falang (foreigner) lecturers it was decided it would be beneficial that I start there but I can also interact and teach in the faculty of science if needed.  I was a little apprehensive at first as I saw myself as a scientist not an engineer, but after discovering the nature of the subjects I will lecture, I was happy.  The staff here have all been extremely friendly and helpful even though this is the busiest time of year for them with the final examinations only a few weeks away (20th Feb).

My official start date  was the 1st of Feb, I was moved into a temporary office while my permanent one is cleared and furnished.  The offices here are all very large as is the whole of faculty of engineering, there are four 6-7 story buildings plus 4 large workshops for labs.

NB since the first draft of this blog, I found a bank that would give me an account with just my passport and the non-imm visa (seems its a little pot luck) reported my address to immigration and got a letter confirming my address from immigration thus allowing me to convert my UK driving license into a 1 year thai license, which I will go to do hopefully tomorrow :)

First Blog

I'm setting up this blog to keep track and record my new life here in Thailand.....
In the next few updates I will post what has happen in the 3 weeks since I arrived here; it's been hectic!