Life in the North

We've been cleaning up around the house. We spent a few hours today cleaning out the second bathroom. After that, we sat down to eat and I didn't want to move at all. After having spent hours cleaning, one needs to rest. Apart from that, it's quite a kind of lockdown life. We're not taking any unnecessary trips out. Of course, there's a desire to travel but safety comes first. 

Most of the pictures are from a day when some of the village folk came to help us cut down weeds, trees, and more. They helped us do general maintenance around the garden. I enjoyed picking out these particular kinds of weeds that wrap themselves around trees to survive. It felt good to do that tree a service. 

Apart from that, the major update was that schools in Songkla were set to reopen on the 14th of June. That was a strange announcement because last year there were much fewer cases than this year and yet the lockdown endured for four months. This year, the cases were adding up by the thousands each day and yet they wanted to quickly open all the schools. Something didn't make sense. 

And yet, I received eager messages from people at my tutorial school, telling me that we would be opening back up on the 14th. I responded by telling them that I wouldn't be coming back until the end of the month. This is mostly due to the fact that we just got here and a trip between the north and south takes a lot of time and energy. I wasn't looking forward to a quick return at all. Moreover, we have no house back in Hatyai for us and there's no point in renting out a place for a few weeks. Ying's house will be finished soon - hopefully by the end of the month.

Before I sat down to write this post, I was uploading the photos and listening to reggae music when Ying came in the room. She told me that her friend back in Ban Pru told her that the date to reopen schools was delayed once more. The new date for reopening is the 28th of June. I haven't received any messages from my school yet. I take this as a sign of how eager they are to reopen and how disappointed they must be to endure two more weeks of lockdown. I, on the other hand, am happy to be staying away from society and work. Let's let this virus heal once and for all. Opening and reopening so often doesn't help all that much. There needs to be one final and effective lockdown until the virus disappears. 

So let's see how things turn out. It is still possible that the date of reopening will again be delayed further. There are no guarantees with this kind of thing. I wouldn't mind staying in Chiang Mai for another month or so. On the flipside of that coin is that if the lockdown continues, it means the cases are continuing at their current pace of thousands upon thousands per day. And that's no joke. Of course, I want this pandemic to end. And I feel that a tight one-shot lockdown could be an effective way. And the government needs to stop letting people in the country, regardless of how much money they have. Let's end this. And until then, I'll be doing my best to enjoy life in these limited circumstances. What else can you really do?

The weeds had wrapped themselves all around this tree.

I worked at it using limited tools because the other gardeners needed to use the machete. And so I found this plastic pipe and made it work for me. 

I'm not sure how or why, but I was seriously absorbed in this task. It took my full attention and I worked in an obsessive kind of way. I was really enjoying it.

This is the state of the tree after it was freed from the leech weeds.

This other tree shared a much different destiny. It needed to be cut down.

The uncle hacked away at it with the axe until it was time to start hacking the back of the tree. 

As he chopped away, two other gardeners pulled at the tree in the designated direction to control its fall. I tried to get a photo of them pulling on the rope but it was hard to get close to them without getting into the designated drop area. Ying warned me several times to stay clear and so did the gardeners. I felt like a kid.

I was moving to get a better angle of the tree when it finally started coming down. I immediately took this shot as the tree collapsed. 

The tree is coming down full speed in the intended direction. 

This is after the tree has fallen. 

I was getting a shot of the uncle as he rested right after the tree fell. Ying found a way to get into the shot too. 

Life imitates art and art imitates life. In the case of this photo, art is definitely imitating a natural side of life. In the case of cutting down the tree, it could be interpreted as life's deteriorating conditions following the pandemic. On the other hand, the other tree from which I helped clean the weeds off could represent the rejuvenating and replenishing aspects of life. 

I played around with Ying's Dulcimer - also called Hammered Dulcimer. It's quite fun to play with and produces a very unique sound. 

Life goes on and there's no point in complaining when you could be enjoying the moment.