Thursday, September 16

Maybe the biggest news of the week is that I got my work permit and now have a valid visa through August of 2022!!

It took a lot of time, money, and paperwork (from both me & the school), but now all I have to do is check in with Immigration every 90 days. Whew.

Otherwise, it was a pretty typical week—we ate most of our meals at home, we walked the neighborhood, we taught our classes.

Here are some pretty tropical flowers in the quiet neighborhood near our house…

I’ve also discovered that, early in the morning, a handful of elderly Thai ladies go foraging in the neighborhood. I watched one woman picking flowers and, when I went to investigate, I realized they were the butterfly pea flowers I’d bought at Khlong Toei. I saw another woman picking fruit off a tree just down the street, but I don’t know what the small, hard-looking fruit is, so I’ve left it alone. I don’t want to over-harvest any of these ladies’ secret spots, but I’m intrigued.

For breakfast one morning, I made rice cereal à la Martin Tusler, but with butterfly pea flower tea for the color, and a little coconut on top:

I also made stir-fried tofu and broccoli with a chili-galangal-lemongrass-lime sauce and sticky rice…

As well as pan-fried duck breast with pomelo salad and sticky rice…

And salmon with asparagus, cucumber, and sticky rice, with a yogurt-garlic-chili sauce...

Roman’s friend Ying brought us over some soup made from slow-cooked pork leg…

And we also ate at Pier 21—I ordered from the vegetarian cart, and Roman got crispy pork with sesame noodles…

Roman is trying to resist the temptation to poke at one of the unidentifiable vegetables on my plate. His resistance was ultimately unsuccessful.

And...here are some photos Roman took during the week:

Two ladies sharing their burden

An overgrown lot off Sukhumvit

A street dog near Phetchaburi Road

And...evidence that Bangkok nightlife is slowly starting to pick up: a little street cart selling mixed drinks, complete with bar stools!