Happy to report that my fitness campaign goes on.
Having made 3 visits to the gym, in Chiang Mai,last week I also made sure I did some serious swimming whilst at the Lake in the Mae On hills.
As usual it was a beautiful place to be.
There towards the end of the afternoon and early evening, on a dry but cloudy day, the differing light around the lake and the hills was quite something and really added to the ambience.
I said dry, as it was for us, but not so far from the lake they were not so lucky.
We watched this isolated storm making its way across the hills infront of us.
Then, after a great afternoons teaching yesterday, it was back to the gym again.
Not so much visible evidence of much change, but they do say that it generally takes 3 months before you get major change after not having excercised for some time. Despite this I definately am feeling a change, which is good.
Next plan is to add either swimming or bicycle riding to a daily routine. During our ride from Lamphun, up the River Ping, I now know that there is an extensive pathway along the river, perfect for cycling.
Maybe I might even get to a level where I feel able to join in with the kids playing football. Good target to have.
For more photos please visit our photobucket album here
Its been a great couple of days at school, with the kids behaviour having settled well and the whole experience becoming more fun for both them and us.
Laying the pictures out on the ground and splitting the class into 2 groups, I called out an item, e.g ‘swing’, and one child from each group had to go find the right photo. Its a great game, that gets a little heated at times as the kids are very competitive, and i believe a great aid to learning.
After school Boon and I went into Chiang Mai for our second session at the gym, stopping on the way for high energy ‘Kow Soi’.
The ride home became a battle with nature as the winds rose and we did our best to avoid a very visible rainstorm ahead of us. At one point we hit the edge of the storm and did a hasty U turn, outrunning the storm for a while and staying dry. But as we rejoined highway 11 it was obvious that the way ahead was being hit by a heavy deluge and that it was heading our way. So we took shelter for a while and escaped the worst of it.
Around 35 minutes ride saw us on the Mae Rim road out of Chiang Mai. Having been quite peckish from the outset I was on the look out for breakfast and spotted a nice looking place just before the first Jiffy petrol station on that road.
A very modern Thai bakery outlet , with air-con indoors and a pleasant outdoor section to, if you ignored the muddy empty plot next door and the building works behind.
Just as we were trying to decide what to do instead, the heavens opened again and we were stuck for over an hour and a half during a torrential downpour.
Luckily our time there was not boring.
Then, looking around we saw it again, huddled against the rear tyre of one of the vehicles in the car park, getting drenched in the rain. Clearly to young to fly properly we did not hold out much hope for its survival. We spotted its parents desperately flying around it and calling before returning to the nearby tree.
Boon managed to pick the little thing up and first placed it on our table out of the rain. Then after watching the parents closely, we took the chick to the tree and I pulled down a branch for Boon to place the chick on.
More wildlife to be seen here are lizards in the trees. I spotted quite a large one, at the height of the rain storm. Its even harder to spot him on the photo than it was in real life but if you look closely, the branch to the right of the red box is not a branch.
