Updates: Decorating

Once again a busy and productive week at work this week (the last week in September - gosh the 9th month .... time flies when you are having fun :) - tearing my hair out mostly and putting out fires! Hands up to Thai spontaneity and impulse decisions for keeping you on your toes :-) It turns out that our manager - without consulting any of us - in a meeting with the BKK Technology University agreed to hold the first entrance exam now in time for October admissions! The date is set 5th and 6th of
October. Hello!! We haven't even finished writing the test, recording the listening scripts in a recording studio, getting copyright permission from Bangkok Post for articles we are using in the reading paper, testing levels, writing band descriptors etc. Needless to say, a danger of quality suffering under fierce time contraints (for the first exam anyway). So me, being my perfectionist self and kicked into 6th gear and getting down to some serious business and delegation. It looks like we will make it. The only thing that will have to wait is the recording, having to book the studio well in advance. Instead we will record it ourselves - poor students, hope the quality won't be too bad. This Friday (tomorrow) is D-day to test the exam on several of our current students to see if the levels match. Fingers crossed! If not it will involve a whole lot of extra work.
On a positive note (well above is too - just a little frustrating) I went to Chatuchak Market with Som, Thai friend) and bought to gorgeous lamps and silk cushions and throw for our bedroom). I am really pleased with the result and am now looking to buy a Thai style painting for over the bed. I am starting to get really passionate about decorating again - even to the point where I dream about it and wake up with colour schemes in my head. It's great! Luckily, Amandio, realising how important my surroundings are to me, is supporting me on this (probably wouldn't have much choice.. but it is good to be on the same page) ... "as long as we keep putting money away for the baby" :-) Sweetheart.
I am starting Thai lessons next week - a short 20 hour course, 2 hours twice a weeek. Finally, I won't feel like such an alien anymore - the deciding factors were: 1) I want to be able to communicate with Khun Tim (cleaning lady) particularly when we have our baby... and... 2) to intigrate more into the culture. It was so nice on Sunday in the market when vendors spoke to both Som and I in Thai.. thinking I could grasp a bit of it. Of course, I did hold eye contact and smile and nod - keeping up the appearance that I wasn't a complete 'farang'. The whole shopping and living process will seem more 'real' if I can communicate with the people in their own language.
Amandio went with Som's husband (Tahitian) to the heaven of electronic buffs - an eight storey plaza of nothing else but computers, tvs, dvds, movies etc. Calming him down proved to be a tough challenge (but thoroughly enjoyable to watch his inner child - like a pig in shit :-) but I managed to persuade him not to buy the projector TV, the Plasma, the desktop pc yet for... SOOO cheap! Comparatively, it IS incredibly cheap, infact ridiculously so.. but it is still a big chunk of money that we don't really have. Oh Yeah, speaking of which - our apartment in Lisbon has been rented for at least a year - with interest expressed in buying it later - a HUGE sigh of relief and can't wait to stabilise our account in Portugal after a few months. Anyway, Amandio bought me a thoughtful present - 'MoviePlus 4' software and an external hard drive (100GB!!). As soon as I get enough time I will start playing around with my new toy and hopefully dazzle you all with stunning masterpieces and new found editing skills (at least that is what the cover promises! LOL)