C NTACT THE MAGAZINE OF THE BRITISH WOMEN’S GROUP BANGKOK
August 2021
BRITISH WOMEN’S GROUP The aim of the Group is to enable its members to meet socially, to welcome its new members and associate members to Bangkok and to establish a programme of social, welfare and cultural activities.
Contents
Directory Page 2
Chairman’s message Page 3
Diary Page 4
Chiang Mai Road Trip Part 6 Pages 6-9
Joan Bartlett’s lockdown Pages 12-13
Liz Dobson’s lockdown Pages 16-17
Scott Chang Pages 20-21
THEP Covid update Page 23
Covid Poem Page 24
Editor contact@bwgbangkok.org Advertising advertising@bwgbangkok.org Please note that the deadline for advertisements is the 5th of the month prior to issue. Please contact advertising@bwgbangkok for more information. PLEASE NOTE : Contact is published as a service to our members to keep them informed of news and events within BWG. The accuracy of other information cannot be guaranteed and is not an endorsement by the group. This also applies to advertisements that are included in Contact in order to cover some of the production costs. Every effort is made to produce Contact in good time to reach members before the first scheduled meeting, but the editor cannot be held responsible for unavoidable delays caused by circumstance beyond their control. It is the members’ own responsibility to know when meetings are scheduled and to contact someone to check if any changes have been made. Members are also asked to bear in mind when booking actives that most venues are not deemed suitable for children over six months of age and to make appropriate child minding arrangements.
Chairman’s Message Hi ladies, I hope you are all keeping safe and well? Another strange month is almost over again. Thank goodness we have had the Euros (words I never thought I would say!) and the Olympics to keep us entertained. Both have been emotional roller coasters, but was thrilling to see Panipak win Thailand’s first ever gold medal at the Olympics. We said goodbye to Scott Chang this month, he will be greatly missed, but we wish him, Brian, Elliott, Esme and Eric all the best in their next posting. Our Liz, is still doing an amazing job in getting people vaccinated in Bangkok, thank you again Liz. We will obviously advise if we are able to hold any coffee morning or lunches Take care Sue
Hi Ladies and I hope that you are all well wherever you are in the world. I have just returned to Bangkok from the UK and am presently in quarantine for the next two weeks. Ordinarily this would not be something that I looked forward to but fortunately I am now in a much more suitable timezone to watch the Olympics live and not on catchup. Its been so thrilling to see the amazing performances of Team GB so far and hopefully there will be a few more medals to come yet. I would have loved to have been able to travel and watch some of these events in person but sadly this is not possible for any of us so I am resigned to watching from the comfort of my hotel room. There is certainly no shortage of time to watch TV for the next two weeks. Hope that you enjoy the content of the magazine too! www.bwgbangkok.org
info@bwgbangkok.org
British Women’s Group Bangkok
Contact April 2021
August Diary SUN
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 Mahjong
10 Bridge Golf
11 Mah-jong Art Group
12
13
14
15
16 Mah-jong
17 Bridge Golf
18 Mah-jong Art Group
19
20
21
22
23 Mah-jong
24 Bridge Golf
25 Mah-jong Art Group
26
27
28
29
30 Mah-jong
31 Bridge Golf
Weekly/Monthly Activities You are invited to join these groups, but final approval is at the discretion of individual group leaders
Monday Mah-jong - (beginners welcome) (10am - 1pm) Tuesday Bridge - Audrie Sill Golf - (morning) Ami 0971851834 Bookworms - 1st Tuesday (10am) Jane Upperton Scottish Dancing - 1st Tuesday (7:30pm) Karen Burr Wednesday Mah-jong - (beginners welcome) (10am - 1pm) Art Group - Bistro 33 Sukhumvit Soi 33 (10am -12:30pm) Julie. juliehedge4@gmail.com Rosita. rositalau@yahoo.com
nspiring ndividuals At KIS International School all students can shine. The midsize, caring community allows KIS students to be confident and to be appreciated as an individual, with unique dreams and strengths. The school is a full IB school, offering the International Baccalaureate Programmes for all age groups (IB Primary Years Programme, IB Middle Years Programme and IB Diploma), ensuring an academically rigorous curriculum that not only prepares students to be successful at university, but also teaches important life skills. KIS, it’s all about Knowledge, Inspiration and Spirit. Check out the students’ videos to learn more about their passion www.kis.ac.th
Tel: +66 (0) 2274 3444 Email: admissions@kis.ac.th
“With the power of imagination, characters can actually fly off the page” Jun, Grade 11.
CHIANG MAI – CHIANG DAO - LAMPANG – LAMPHUN – CHIANG MAI 23rd December 2020 – 3rd January 2021 PART 6 - by Jackie Reynolds CHIANG MAI – LAMPHUN I woke refreshed and decided I would take myself off to Lamphun. I don’t often go to new places on my own as its always nice to have a friend to ‘Oooh and Aah’ with when you see new and interesting things, not to mention if you get lost!! I got a taxi around 08.15 to the central Chiang Mai bus station and from there a B30 minivan. I sat in the front with the driver for a better view and to take any photos on the journey.
I’m a bit photo mad as friends will tell you. I had considered going by train but they run infrequently and the station for Lamphun is out of the town. As it happens, for about half the journey we ran parallel to the tracks then back onto the scenic section with the amazing trees. The van stop was perfectly located right at the main temple - Wat Phra That Hariphunchai. I popped into the coffee shop from yesterday and was able to pick up a city map which was invaluable. I’m not good with Google street directions - DUH! I spent a considerable time taking photos at the lovely large Wat compound and I think I got it from every conceivable angle!! I left from the rear of the complex and crossed the road to a river covered in hundreds of beautiful water lilies. There was a small bridge with a covered market that I wandered through called “Khua Mung Tha Sing” selling some interesting local products. Outside I found a popular roadside restaurant so decided to check it out for lunch and had some very tasty pork dim sum and a delicious lychee juice (total B40!!). Yummy. From there I headed on foot towards the statue of Queen Chamadhavi. On route I passed a very basic looking Wat but when I looked down a side road I found that the walls were covered in lovely murals. A great and totally unexpected discovery.
Also, next to the statue was a large interesting market called “Nong Dok Market”. All told a great adventure so I’m glad I convinced myself to go alone.
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Joan’s Lockdown BWG Ladies I have decided to take up Liz Dobson's suggestion in her latest email and write of all the things I have been doing since the latest lockdown at the end of March. On 5th April, I was due at the British Club for Monday Mahjong and on the Tuesday I was booked at Panipa to be pampered neither of which took place! My hair is so long now that I have to hold it back with a hairband! I am not too downhearted as I have been very busy besides doing the squares for Sister Louise. In 2016 my niece asked me to write of our family history before her father was born as he is ten years younger than me. I did so but on reviewing it, and at the same time, my eldest grandson in England asked me for information of my life. So that is one thing I have been doing. I was born in Kent in 1934 so have been all through the war, remembering the skies in the far distance lit up from the fires burning in London as a result of the bombs dropped from German bombers flying overhead. I have been through rationing and came out unscathed, in fact we were all perfectly healthy, the only thing was the awful dried egg as we were only allowed about one fresh egg a week! The document has grown as my memories have been stimulated by other members of my family and it also has photographs included. It will eventually be bound into a book for the future generations in England, Australia and Thailand.
Whilst writing this document I have also been working on another one. My late husband was in the army for almost thirty years and once we were married, I moved around with him when there were married quarters available, although sometimes we had to wait a few months. We have been in Germany three times, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and various places in England. I enjoyed this life and the friends we made then are still our friends today. So, I decided to make a timeline of all the postings my husband had, the schools my sons attended and latterly the jobs I had and the people we had met and the fun we had. As some of you ladies already know I also trace my Family Tree and I have been doing this since my late sixties. I wish I had started earlier but I was fortunate that during the latter part of the war my sister and I lived with my maternal grandparents and my Grandfather told me a lot about his family and indeed I met a few of them. He was one of seventeen!! I have managed to trace his side back to 1714. I do not think I will get further back as one needs to visit churches and graveyards and of course I am unable to do this now. This is the reason I wish I had started earlier whilst I was still in England and still driving. In between that I have been rereading Agatha Christie, doing my Sudoku and Codeword puzzle books, and my household jobs. We do not have a house maid so certain jobs are my responsibility. I exercise by going up and down stairs as we have 63 of them! Joan Bartlett
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My Alcoholic Lockdown Pastimes By Liz Dobson I’m a gin drinker, always been a gin drinker. My father’s only sister was a gin drinker and a forceful personality. My siblings and I all grew up with an ambition to drink gin. Aunty Margaret would have been proud to see six of the seven of us drinking gin in Hong Kong on the occasion of one brother’s 40th birthday celebrations. So I start with gin. A few years ago my daughter-in-law gave me a bottle of bright blue Australian gin called Ink. I read the label and it said it was infused with butterfly pea flowers. Oh, I thought, you get butterfly pea in Thailand. I think I’d seen shampoo for dark hair containing butterfly pea. I collected some flowers, it climbs and looks like a dark blue sweet pea as it’s the same family. I dropped some petals in a bottle of gin and put it in a cupboard to see what happened. Very quickly the gin turned blue (it works with vodka too, I haven’t tried other spirits). The magic happens when you put in the tonic and it turns pink. I collected seed pods and now have it growing all over my iguana cage. Let me know if you’d like some flowers. I was hoping to host a decent sized lunch to say goodbye to our friend Jane Upperton. My thoughts turned to Pimms, what better for a ladies’ lunch. The recipe for Pimms is :GIN : SWEET MARTINI : ORANGE CURACAO I looked in my cupboards, I always have gin, as I said, I’m a gin drinker. I’m quite partial to a Negroni now and again so I usually have the sweet martini. The recipe for a Negroni is :GIN : SWEET MARTINI : CAMPARI Shock horror, no Orange Curacao, but two bottles of Triple Sec and so my thoughts turned to Tequila. Tequila was easier to find than Orange Curacao I can tell you, but by now we were only allowed to meet in groups of five and Jane’s lunch had shrunk. We drank sparkling wine, my kittens really enjoyed playing with all the corks next day, and for pudding we had Salted Margarita Bars. Just let me know if you want the recipe for that, but a Margarita is :2 PARTS TEQUILA : TRIPLE SEC : LIME JUICE Don’t know if many of you know this, but I am a minor petrol head. A follower of Lewis Hamilton (still a bit undecided about the British Grand Prix). My annual trip to Singapore for the Grand Prix is a definite highlight of my year (well it was). No sweating in the Pits for me I sit in the bar at the Mandarin Oriental watching turn 16 and last time I had the most wonderful Gimlet. It consisted of a lovely French gin (well there’s a surprise) called Citadelle, such a pretty bottle which now contains a candle in my garden. The Mandarin said the gin was infused with kaffir lime and the lime syrup for the cocktail also infused with kaffir lime. Gimlet recipe :GIN : LIME SYRUP Ratio up to you 1:1 or 5:1 according to taste. Home in Bangkok I tried popping a few scrunched kaffir lime leaves into a bottle of gin and I really liked the taste. Haven’t got around to faffing about with the kaffir lime syrup yet and yes, I know it was nearly two years ago. Next I think I’ll see what happens if I wash my hair with the butterfly peas.
Celebrating 60 Years A proud tradition of learning excellence
We offer a British-style education for an international community, from Nursery through to Graduation. Find out how our approach to learning and outstanding teaching staff develop global citizens who shape their world through independence, empathy, creativity and critical thinking. Contact us at admissions@patana.ac.th www.patana.ac.th | +66 (0) 2785 2200 | 643 Lasalle Road, Bangkok 10260
Bangkok Patana is a not-for-profit, IB World School, accredited by CIS and NEASC
In recognition of Scott Chang, who has been our most amazing Patron for the last few years. Thank you Scott for all the memories, fun and laughter.
THEP COVID_19 UPDATE -- July 2021 by Gale Bailey MBE As part of our THEP Team, my main responsibilities are fund raising, liaising with students and supervising our projects. I would like to share what I have been able and unable to do during the last 16 months or so. It has been difficult for me to do any fund raising since I returned to Australia in March 2020, just before the borders closed. Owing to the Covid-19 outbreak all over the world, our THEP funds are getting lower and lower, and being in lockdown I cannot push forward as I have done in the past. I have always been motivated by my interaction with the teachers, villagers and students in Mae Hong Son, as well as my THEP colleagues. The rest of the Team are Education Officers, Headmasters and Teachers and now have their own significant problems dealing with school closures and village lockdowns because of the Covid-19 situation in Thailand. However, we have found that there are still a few loyal sponsors helping us to push on, including the ANZWG Welfare team, AUSTCHAM, and most of all, ASOB (Association de Soutien aux Orphelins de Bangkok) who have never stopped raising funds to encourage us to build dormitories in village schools. There are also those wonderful donors who continue to support our hilltribe students through high school and university. At THEP we are very grateful to you all, even though in many cases we are thousands of kilometres apart. It is now the beginning of July and the students are back at school or university, albeit online. We have received some distressing stories from many of them regarding their families in Mae Hong Son Province who are still in lockdown, without any income because of the breakdown in the supply chain which takes their produce to market. As well as this, the students have to manage their online lessons with intermittent or non-existing internet connection and in some circumstances without notebooks or phones! We have also had numerous requests from the mountain schools in Chiang Mai whose students are in need of sponsorship. Recently the situation for some students has been very distressing because their parents go elsewhere to find work of any kind, to be able to support their families. The parents are hunting for jobs owing to the economic effects of Covid-19, therefore no money is forthcoming for the family and the parents cannot return to their villages which are in lockdown. The children are left behind in their village with any relative, usually a grandparent, to take care of them. We recognize that with the Covid-19 pandemic the poor are disadvantaged in many countries but the hilltribe people in Thailand are marginalized and receive very little social assistance. In times of crisis, hilltribe children are especially vulnerable and face uncertain futures. If you would like to help one or more of our students and provide them with an education scholarship, you will find the personal reward very gratifying. A scholarship gives you the opportunity to learn about the hilltribe way of life and culture, to interact with your student and to understand the problems they face, to help a student achieve success and fulfill his or her dream of a better life. Please refer to our website for information on how you can help improve the life of a hilltribe student. Or, if you require any information regarding our education projects please contact us through this page or through our website. [https://www.thepthailand.com
COVID TIME By Jackie Reynolds
WHERE DID THE DAY GO I’M SURE I DON’T KNOW ONE MINUTE IT’S DAWNING NOW IT’S NIGHT WITHOUT WARNING IN A BLINK OF AN EYE TIME’S FLITTED ON BY THE MOMENT IS PASSED DID IT FEEL THAT FAST? 24 HOURS IN A DAY SEEMS JUST TO FLY AWAY IF ONLY WE COULD HOLD BACK TIME TO WASTE IT SEEMS SUCH A CRIME YET PRECIOUS MOMENTS STILL TO BE ENJOYED BY HELPING OTHERS TO BE RE- EMPLOYED MOVING ONWARD & UPWARDS FROM DESPAIR TOGETHER TO GAIN STRENGTH TO REBUILD & REPAIR
