November 2021

GROUNDHOG DAYS – MONSTER PROPOSAL – MEMOIR ONE FINISHED – THE COVID TRAIN LEAVES THE STATION – WORKING WEEKEND TO LAO OCEAN

 It feels as if I could simply take the text from my October diary and cut and paste it here. Although possibly I have become spoilt over the years with “variety”, the fuel of my motivational engine. For the most part my days were a Groundhog Day repetition of morning cycle, work and homeschool zooms, afternoons work and evening exercise with Christopher at the field. I should not be complaining should I, not at a time such as this. 

 I have been engaged with a MAMOTH work project, developing a huge, complicated proposal that if successful, will provide funding for 5 years of good work on my Protected Area. Pretty much every night and all weekends have been taken up with this task as it needs to slot in over and above the day-to-day management of the program. This certainly has contributed to my feelings of being on a conveyor belt of deadlines and zoom meetings. This too will pass through. Did I already say I should not be complaining?

 My first memoir project was finally completed this month, and I received all the completed document files for the e-book and print versions, including a media pack of images for the marketing process. Marketing process……. 

I decided that the least I could do, after all the efforts that went into the project, was to have a few copies of the book printed at our local printer. It came out better than expected. I so badly want to load it up on Amazon for sale, but the sad reality is that if I do that, it will be still born, just as my Oman Oracles book was. Without a significant marketing strategy, no one other than my few friends and family would even hear about it, never mind finding it and then choosing to read it, why should they?  I must think carefully about this one. 

 COVID 19 hit Lao hard during this month, and even in my small village, small red squares of cloth depicting a “COVID house” could be seen on many locked gates close to me. Strangely through, even as cases rose, the country started to open up, markets and restaurants, then provincial borders as well (All except my NP province of Houaphan which remained locked down) In spite of the continued lockdown of the Lao international borders, the long-awaited Lao / China railway was opened on schedule, allowing international access to Chinese and Thai passengers across the borders. I guess it’s going to be difficult to justify this concession for too much longer, so possibly we can expect some level of border lockdown relaxation in the near future. 

 Towards the end of the month, I was able to take my motorbike on a road trip up to Vangvieng town and then on to Greenview resort on the Lao ocean for a weekend of working in a more peaceful, uninterrupted environment. 

 Next month is December. What happened to the rest of 2021?

October 2021

LOCKDOWN SMACKDOWN - ZOOMING THROUGH SCHOOL – GREYSCALE - WHEELIES AND POWERSLIDES - SELF PUBLISHING PROGRESS - FINAL 5.

 Difficult to get a solid grip on this time now. With the rest of the world opening up, Lao is locking down as COVID really takes hold. With no chance of heading out of Vientiane or going to my site up North, I am feeling restless and discontent. The lights of Thailand, just a short distance across the Mekong from our house, beckon cruelly. I have taken to fantasizing out loud to Mina;

“Mina, do you think it’s possible for you to take me to the airport tomorrow morning? I have a few things I need to do in Bangkok. It’s just for a few nights and I’ll be back on the Sunday afternoon flight.”

Mina looks at me. 

“What you talking about, you crazy or what?!” 

I’m not the only one struggling with this, though. Little Christopher is missing school terribly, with no friends to play with and the 5-6 zoom lessons per day a poor substitute for a 7-year-olds social life. I’m trying my best to be all things to him, a father, friend, teacher and mentor. My efforts are essential to his well-being, but they do little to fill him up in the areas he really needs. Tough times. 

With all this self-induced pressure on me, it’s interesting to see my creativity take a dive. I struggle to lift the burdens of work and home sufficiently from my mind to allow my creative spirit to roam free. As a result, my photography feels grey and uninspired, as are my few weak attempts at writing. Better to aimlessly scroll through YouTube videos, right?   

Despite the exploding COVID situation in Laos, the strict lockdown regulations set in place appear to be receiving less enforcement resulting in some inconsistences throughout the capital city. On the positive side, all the police checkpoints have disappeared, some restaurants and many coffee shops have opened for business. After supervising Christopher’s major set of zoom lessons and “classwork” in the morning, I head out to the office after lunch and work alone till the evening to catch up on the backlog of my morning's work. 

I bought Christopher his first “real” bike, a blue 20’’ 7 speed MTB. His old bike was really a toy. In the evenings, Christopher and I ride down to an abandoned school field near our house and ride our bikes around. During this time, I practice my wheelies, while Christopher practices power slides and gets used to having a set of gears. We are both improving in our separate objectives. Long controlled wheelies is a skill I have always wanted to develop, but never really had the time. I can now do around a 4 seconds burst at a time. It doesn’t sound much, but it is actually a vast improvement. 

In terms of my book development, things moved quickly this month. We finalized the book cover edits and completed the print book formatting and type-setting. I was shocked to see that the final proofreader found 123 errors, and this after a full set of professional line and copy edits! I also now have a set of ISBN numbers, one for each format, print and e-book. All that remains is the e-book formatting and a media marketing pack.  

I had an interesting experience this past week at work while developing a concept proposal for a new UK government funded grant for my site. Nothing unusual, X amount of GBP for a 5-year period. Been there and done that on more than one occasion. The thing that got me was the realization that this is most likely my last 5 year anything in terms of my formal working life. When I write the final report for this grant, if we get it, I will be 67-year-old. 

September 2021

 ANOTHER MOTORBIKE – RAIN SEASON IN HIEM – LIMA SITE 85 – VIENGXAI CAVES – COVID-19 RUNS AWAY IN VIENTIANE – LOCKDOWN – WORK FROM HOME – SCHOOL FROM HOME – BOOK PUBLISHING PROGRESS.

Brummmmm..

A month ago, I bought, or rather, replaced my adventure motorbike back home in South Africa with a road bike here in Laos. It’s not a conventional bike for me, a replica of an old classic, but lovely looks, old school handling and a beautiful voice. I took it up to Hiem, a good 800km round ride over a variety of road conditions and loved every moment on her. 

LIMA site 85 

My three weeks up in Hiem were hot and wet, as is the case now in the rainy season. It was a busy time work wise, but we also got to visit the top of Phati Mountain (LIMA site 85). The site is the scene of an infamous battle during the secret war in Laos. During this battle, the Vietnamese attacked a small company of American soldiers and “contractors” maintaining a radar base to guide the US bombers into Hanoi City. The small area on top of the mountain is still full of the remains of the base after the attack. Anti-aircraft guns, parts of a downed helicopter, machinery to maintain the old STOL runway, and sections of the bullet ridden accommodation unit are clearly visible.  

 We went on further to the town of Viengxai. Here we visited the network of caves that the Lao revolutionary army and civilians lived and worked out of out of during the secret war in Laos. They have an audio recording of the history and first-hand accounts to listen to while you visit the various caves. There are caves used for hospitals, command center, library, jail, living quarters, and even a large entertainment center. It’s quite moving and genuinely inspiring to see the level of solidarity during that time, and to hear first-hand accounts of the pain, courage and bravery. I think they should encourage more people to visit these caves at regular intervals to remember what the original ideal was all about. In some cases, these ideals appear to have been lost somewhere along the road to riches.

COVID 19 run 

By the time I headed back to Vientiane, a fresh wave of COVID-19 had broken out in the capital, and so I returned directly into a “work from home” situation. Along the road back from Hiem, I endured a dozen police and military checkpoints, all related to the COVID-19 travel restrictions. Fortunately, all my paper and vaccine work was up to date, so my encounters, while tiresome, were pleasant enough.

 The next weekend, we found a hole in the lockdown curtain and could do a quick weekend trip to Vang Vieng. There, as a family, we could enjoy the hotel swimming pool and surrounding countryside, as always, stunningly beautiful. On the night before we returned to Vientiane, we heard ominous news that Vientiane was to be placed immediately under an even harder COVID lockdown. There was a strong possibly that we could not return to the capital at all. Leaving early the next morning, we travelled down through endless roadblocks and police checkpoint taking 7 hours to do a normal 2 hour road trip. We got home safely, although to a now very locked down Vientiane.

All from home 

The last few weeks at home have been taxing. With School from home for Christopher and Work From home for me, it's proving to be extremely challenging. Despite my efforts, I can see him slowly slipping away from the rest of the class. Regardless of how many Zoom classes in the day, it’s still home schooling, and needs full time parental supervision and input at his age. I am trying, but just can’t do it all. It hurts.

Self-publishing

 After struggling to find a competent book cover designer for my upcoming book publication, I decided to go the route of contracting a small publishing company. So far it proved to be the correct decision and the first set of cover designs they offered me were next level in terms of professionalism. The next stages are typesetting and proofreading for the print version of the book, followed by formatting for e-book. Lots for me to learn about the process of self-publishing!