It's all about the music...

 Hello. Here are a video and a picture of Mike on stage at Mai Muang. Also Mike playing wih the sea. It's often quite rough and you can't get very far in as it just tumbles you aroud with all the shells and pebbles. It's not rough like the atlantic. There's much more power and harsher rip tides.

So the bar opens tomorrow and the band is at ultimte stress levels. They sound really good though and every day when they practise people stop and watch. Some guys were even videoing them yesterday. There's a good mixture of Thai and western songs now and I really love the energy that the Thai songs bring to the set.

The location of the bar is quite magical. It's a traditional grass roofed, sand floored building at the end of the market. The sides are open to the elements but inside there is so much colour that the contrast works really well. There are big paper lanterns hanging from the high roof and the walls are orange, purple and green which I know sounds horrible but really works. On market days there are stalls right outisde and loads of people passing by. On the non-market days it is quiet and breezy and like a little island of tranquility. I think it will be a big hit here.

My search for work continues. I met the people at a volunteer teaching project yesterday and am going into a junior school with them on Thursday to listen to kids read and get an idea of how it all works. I would like to start teaching with them and Ken, the man in charge, sees no reason why I couldn't. It works well as there is a man who lives in the same town as me who gets involved when he can and has offered me a lift to the project office in the mornings. From there we can all drive out together to whichever school. It's exciting to get started with teaching although of course paid work is the ultimate goal. I have been teaching the girls who work at the noodle bar every night and my Thai is getting better. As we're at the same sort of level we have to learn each other's language to communicate. They are very sweet always getting me drinks and fruit while I'm there. So there you have the updates from both of us all in one. Hope all is well. Love, Jo xx