C NTACT THE MAGAZINE OF THE BRITISH WOMEN’S GROUP BANGKOK
September 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.
Editor
Contents
Directory Page 2
Chairman’s message Page 3
Diary Page 4
Chiang Mai Road Trip Part 7 Pages 6-8
Recipes by Liz Dobson Pages 12-14
Book Club Pages 18-19
Thank you from THEP Page 21
September birthdays Page 22
becky.adderley@btinternet.com
British Women’s Group.
bwgbangkok@gmail.com
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 Hello Everyone, September already! Who can believe it? Must be about time for paying my BWG sub? How on earth we’re going to manage that I don’t know. I’m hoping by next month we can meet in person and we can collect cash. Our bank account is not suitable for taking lots of payments as I don’t have any access to it (and I’m the Treasurer remember!) Oh well, think about that one later. This month we are starting our recipe exchange and I start you off with the Margarita Bar we had for Jane Upperton’s leaving lunch and my favourite standby Shortbread. Lovely stuff for lockdowns. Keep safe and entertained and tell us about it. Liz
Hi Ladies and I hope that you are all well wherever you are in the world. Everything is still very quiet here in Bangkok because of the continued restrictions. There does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel though with the lifting of some restrictions from September 1st. As such, the content of our magazine is still quite limited because our opportunities to socialise have been curtailed for the time being. Hopefully this will begin to change over the coming months. If you have any articles to share for the magazine, maybe related to what you all have been up to over the past few months (holidays, baking, new hobbies etc), then please email your contributions to me at becky.adderley@btinternet.com All contributions will be be very gratefully received and these will really help to preserve and strengthen our links as a BWG community. www.bwgbangkok.org
info@bwgbangkok.org
British Women’s Group Bangkok
Contact April 2021
September Diary SUN
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
1
2
3
4
5
6 Mahjong
7 Bridge Golf
8 Mah-jong Art Group
9
10
11
12
13 Mah-jong
14 Bridge Golf
15 Mah-jong Art Group
16
17
18
19
20 Mah-jong
21 Bridge Golf
22 Mah-jong Art Group
23
24
25
26
27 Mah-jong
28 Bridge Golf
29
30
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 7 - by Jackie Reynolds CHIANG MAI
FOR MY LAST DAY CLARE AND I DROVE AROUND THE SURROUNDING AREA OF CHIANG MAI PASSING THROUGH LOVELY FORESTS OF AUTUMNAL TREES AND STOPPING AT “WAT PHATHATDOI KHAM” LOCATED HALF WAY UP DOI SUTHEP MOUNTAIN. IT WAS WELL WORTH A VISIT FOR THE TEMPLE AND THE VIEW. I HAD BEEN BEFORE ALTHOUGH SINCE THEN THEY HAD ADDED A VERY IMPRESSIVE MURAL ON A LONG STRETCH OF WALL AS YOU ENTERED THE COMPLEX.
FROM THERE WE WENT IN SEARCH OF SOMEWHERE FOR A LEISURELY BREAKFAST AND ENDED UP AT “THE HIDEAWAY CAFÉ” WHICH HAD EXCELLENT FOOD AND AMBIANCE. THANK YOU GOOGLE! FROM THERE IT WAS OFF TO “BANTAWAI” IN HANG DONG, A MUST SEE SHOPPING SPOT IF VISITING CHIANG MAI (IN MY OPINION). BANTAWAI HAS A VERY LARGE OPEN MARKET WITH EXCELLENT LOCALLY PRODUCED WOODEN PRODUCTS, LARGE AND SMALL, AT GREAT PRICES. YEARS AGO I HAD BROUGHT QUITE A FEW PIECES OF FURNITURE THERE AND HAD THEM SHIPPED DOWN TO BANGKOK FOR, AT THAT TIME, ONLY B800!! SADLY (OR LUCKILY FOR MY BANK BALANCE AND ALREADY CROWDED APARTMENT) MOST OF THE MARKET WAS STILL CLOSED FOR NEW YEAR, BUT I STILL MANAGED TO FIND SOMETHING I COULDN’T RESIST! ALSO WE WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO STUMBLE ACROSS A LOVELY THAI UMBRELLA DANCE PERFORMANCE GOING ON.
WELL THAT’S THE END OF ANOTHER GREAT THAILAND ADVENTURE. HOPEFULLY THERE WILL BE MANY MORE TO COME IN A POSTCOVID TIME.
Two Yummy and Scrumptious recipes from Liz Dobson
Firstly, the pudding from Jane’s leaving lunch. Very yummy, but it doesn’t hang about especially in our climate.
Salted Margarita Bars Ingredients Crust: ½ cup/113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), melted, plus more for greasing the pan About 40 saltine crackers (from one 4-ounce/113-gram sleeve) 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 1 teaspoon kosher salt Filling: 2 teaspoons lime zest plus 1/2 cup juice (from about 4 limes) ¼ cup tequila (preferably blanco) 2 tablespoons orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier Pinch of kosher salt 5 large egg yolks 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk Flaky salt, for finishing
Preparation 1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch square baking pan with butter (or use the wrapper from your stick of butter). Line the buttered pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on two sides. (This will help you pull the bars out of the pan easily.) 2. Prepare the crust: In a food processor, pulse the saltines until ground like coarse sand. (Alternatively, place them in a zip-top bag and use a rolling pin to crush them.) It’s OK if there are a few larger pieces. Add the melted butter, sugar and salt, and pulse a few more times until all the crumbs are evenly saturated (or mix to combine in a medium bowl). Pour the mixture into the lined pan, press into an even layer and freeze for about 15 minutes.
3. After the crust has chilled, bake it until fragrant and golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes. 4. While the crust cools, make the filling: In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, combine the lime zest, lime juice, tequila, orange liqueur and salt. 5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the yolks and sweetened condensed milk. Add the tequila-lime mixture to the yolk mixture, whisk to combine, then pour into the prepared crust. (It’s OK if the crust is not yet completely cool.) You may be tempted to prepare the curd earlier, but don’t do so more than 10 minutes before baking, as the lime juice will start to thicken it, which could affect the bake. 6. Bake 15 to 17 minutes until the curd is set around the edges and slightly jiggly in the center. 7. Transfer to a rack to cool slightly, then freeze for at least 2 hours. 8. After freezing, remove the bars from the pan using the parchment paper overhang and transfer to a cutting board. Sprinkle with flaky salt, cut into 16 bars and serve right away. Store leftovers in the freezer. Cheers!
And secondly, my world famous shortbread recipe. Well a fair few have had it in Hong Kong and Bangkok. My standby for all school events, bake sales, coffee mornings and afternoon teas. I think the finer flour and sugar give it extra bite and I personally prefer it a bit darker than pale gold. Don’t forget to cool on a rack or it will not be crisp.
Liz’s World Famous Shortbread 8oz plain flour (225g) 8oz butter (225g) 4oz cornflour (100g) 2oz icing sugar (50g) 2oz caster sugar (50g) Preheat oven to 325°F/170°C or gas mark 3 Sift the flours and sugars into a bowl and rub in the butter. Press into a greased baking tin (28x18cm). Prick all over with a fork. Bake for 45min-1hour. It should be a pale golden colour. Cut into fingers. Cool on a wire rack and sprinkle with caster sugar.
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September Book Club by Liz Dobson Book Club has got a bit lost recently. Not surprising really, on top of losing our leader Jane Upperton in July, the restrictions imposed then put paid to the very few of us still in Bangkok continuing to meet up. We are around 16 members, but at present most are in Europe, Australia or Phuket and they all probably have more to do than sit around reading books like me. As Jane prepared to leave we were reading “The Midnight Library by Matt Haig”. Quoting Amazon here, “Nora’s life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived.” Comments included a number of people who thought there were too many lives, but liked that she had to confront the reasons for her depression and evaluate her life.
Marks given 8/10; 8/10; 8/10; 8/10; 7/10; 7/10.
Jane left us with “Next book: The Four Winds by Tristin Hannah”. I waited for Kinokuniya to deliver my copy and began to read comments on our What’s App group chat saying that some had downloaded the sample on their kindle and didn’t like it enough to lay out the £7.99 for it! Is the kindle a blessing or a curse for a Book Club? Personally I love it when I travel, a lot less bulky than a pile of books and I do indulge in the Kindle Daily Deal at 99p if it’s something I’ve wanted to read. I prefer the real thing mostly probably because I always have to refer back to remind myself of happenings or characters. So The Four Winds arrived and I started on its 465 pages. Quoting Amazon again, “Texas 1934. Elsa Martinelli had finally found the life she’d yearned for. A family, a home, a livelihood on a farm on the
Great Plains. But then drought threatens all she and her community hold dear. She wakes to find her husband has fled and she is forced to take her two children west to California in search of a better life.” Comments from other Book Club members who read this book included finding it a bit repetitive and lacking in character development. It is certainly not a cheery read dealing with abject poverty and desperation, in fact pretty depressing, but interesting. I also agreed that it didn’t give much weight to the rise in the fight for workers’ rights of the time.
Marks given 6/10; 7/10; 8/10; 8/10.
At present we are reading “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce” partly because it is said to be uplifting and redemptive. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it in book form and had to resort to my AA Road Atlas to follow his route as I read it on my kindle. Our next two reads are “A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James” and then “Destination Wedding by Diksha Basu”, mixing it up a bit and keeping it below £7.99!
THANKS FROM THEP Today’s challenges make us feel helpless. However, we are very fortunate to have many generous sponsors who share the load with us and give us motivation and determination during these difficult times. At the beginning of 2021, we hoped that the worst was over and that Covid-19 could be brought under control. How wrong we were! Thailand is currently experiencing the worst outbreak of the virus since spring 2020. What looked like a successful management of the pandemic last year, has faltered and plunged more than five million Thai people below the poverty line. This has had a huge impact on our hilltribe students. Whereas hilltribe people can generally live off the land, they now have no income due to the disruption to food supply chains owing to village lockdowns. They have no money with which to purchase fuel and basic necessities, no access to health care and no way of supporting their children’s education. A scholarship is a relief to a student and the family in so many ways. For instance, it enables a student to buy a smartphone and educational materials, so that he or she can take advantage of online classes, even if their internet connection is limited. Parental support is difficult because they are mostly unable to help their children with their studies due to their own lack of education, incurring costs for internet access and their financial situation. Our university students are also in a precarious situation with the closure of universities for online learning. To gain a tertiary education, our students live in towns as far away as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang etc. With no part time jobs available, the students struggle to continue. This is a typical statement from one of our students: “I am now studying in my first year at university. Currently, the university has announced that online classes will be implemented for the whole semester. There are so few part time jobs available, which means I have had to return to my village because I cannot afford to rent a room in Chiang Mai. At home I have many problems, including unstable internet signal, expenses for computer materials, and long but not interactive online classes. I want to get back to the classroom to meet my friends and my professors. I do not think this is good for me.” We want to thank all those who have stepped up and offered support, who have given us hope that our students will receive some sort of education in some form and will carry on despite their hardship. The THEP Team (Thailand Hilltribe Education Projects)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! We would like to wish a really happy birthday to:
Jimmy James - 1st September
Clare Nevin - 12th September
Jen Nevin - 21st September
Nina Jaruthavee - 26th September
Jan Powell - 27th September
Gina Christie - 28th September
Have a wonderful day and we are all thinking of you.
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
