My week in Bangkok: Wednesday

Evening views from our roof

My Wednesday’s, like Monday’s have 3 classes; 7-9am, 1-2.40pm and 4.20-6pm.

After my first class Celine and I hit the gym in our apartment. It is small and often something is broken but it does the job. I have lost over 5kg since arriving in Bangkok. I am not sure if it is the heat, the gym, the lack of beer or a combination of all three. I wanted to put on weight so I guess I am failing that one. Before hitting the treadmill we play ping pong and Celine is seriously good. Years or rubbish competition from my brothers has been replaced by Celine’s wicked forehand and an ever improving backhand. She is constantly apologising for beating me.

The gym

Where my battles are lost


The gym is usually followed by a short stint at the pool which is my favourite part of the apartment block. On the roof the pool deck gives great views of the city. It is the perfect chill out spot, peaceful and relaxing. Great for reading or preparing lessons.

Our pool

Celine has been cooking a bunch of great Asian dishes lately, prepared from her recently purchased cookbook, so after the pool she headed off to Carrefour to do the weekly shopping. I prepared an early lunch, a stir-fry, and somehow managed to get chili in my eye. Seriously, it is not the smartest thing to do. After lunch, we had mango and coconut rice (made by Celine), a popular choice in Thailand, which was superb.

Coconut rice and mango. Delicious!

After lunch I took a motorbike taxi and train to my next class. My eye was suffering the after effects of the chili and decided to twitch uncontrollably as I tried to teach my student different way to apologise in English. In the end I had to apologize to her; continually rubbing my eye must have looked a tad weird. Now she knows how to apologise to someone if she ever gets chili in her eye. A beneficial lesson I thought.

After my last class I darted across to a nearby cinema to watch a film with Celine at the Emporium. Wednesday, we thought, was a cheap cinema night but not, it seems, at the Emporium. Next week we will head to MBK where you can catch a movie for 80 baht.

We took the 20 minute walk home, cruising up Soi 22 before stopping at a bar for a drink. We chatted about the movie, talked about the next day’s lessons and watched the traffic pass by. Across from us Thai girls, dressed in not much, huddled outside their respective Japanese clubs waiting for customers. I don’t really know what happens behind those darkened windows but it doesn’t look that innocent. We headed home soon after to catch some of the Wimbledon quarter-finals.