Another interesting day. Did my recent posts in the morning before getting ready for an afternoons teaching. But, when we got to school it turned out they were having a half day so we came back home.
I did a little more stuff on the internet and filled in an important document I need to send to the UK and then we decided to head into Chiang Mai for our first Gym session.
So i now know it takes about 45 minutes to get to the gym from here. I also know, from the after effects, that whether I like it or not, age and a long stretch without significant exercise, has taken their toll and I really need to make this a regular event. I also need to do it gradually. Trouble is the latent strength is not so much reduced , and neither is my ego, resulting in me trying to do far too much on the exercise machines, on my very first day.
With Boon watching closely, making sure I did it, I first did 15 minutes one of the walking machines, and did manage to raise a tidy sweat. I then went from machine to machine working on the upper body and then legs, for a further 30 minutes.
It turned out to be a good thing that we were on a time limit because we had arranged to meet Jonathan in town at 4.30. This meant that i had to stop after 45 minutes, even though, with the adrenaline now pumping, i wanted to do more.
In the changing room I soon realised that this would not have been wise and that I had stopped at around the right point as my whole body quivered from its exertions and continued to do so for about an hour.
Once at the Montri Hotel, at the top of Ratchadamnoen Rd, opposite Thapae Gate, we took a table outside, ordered drinks and waited for Jonathan. By 4.45 I decided I should check inside and sure enough spotted Jonathan who had been sitting there for about 20 minutes unaware that we had arrived already.
After eating as well we went inside, at least me and Jonathan did, Boon went off to buy a book. Jonathan wanted to interview me about my experience of TEFL courses and was recording the interview so we needded to be indoors to exclude the traffic noise.
The interview was fun and of course we chatted more as well. Boon returned after a while and we left at about 6.30 and headed home. Jonathan had to go get ready to do his next interview.
He’ll be back off to Dubai in a couple of days, but we will stay in touch and I’m sure he’ll be back to Chiang Mai again in the not too distant future.
On the way we first called at Chiang Mai Gate food stalls to get stuff to take home with us.
Coming home first we then went to the Temple in the first village we go through on our way to school.
Earlier we had spotted that they were having a Festival there.
We had seen the start of a local ‘rocket competition’,
where they use rockets to power a small trolley trying to see how far it will go along a wire cable stretched between two posts on an upwards incline.
Getting there at 8pm we sadly discovered that most of the activities has finished and people were busy packing everything up.
It had apparently been going on for two days.
Never mind, it won’t be the last one.
More photos from today in our photobucket album here.
