Day 5
The cockerel kept me company for most of the night (I’ve
decided to name him ‘noisy’), but at least this gave me time to think about
what I was going to do, and to put a
plan of action together in my head.
Ralf has leant me a bicycle, so I cycled into work, making
sure I avoided the dogs! Most of the staff were out; at various seminars,
delivering water filters, or visiting the villages. So I was able to knuckle
down and get on with the task in hand.
I spent the day trying to summarise the various sources of
financial transactions the organisation has, so I could produce an overview and
understand the Foundations finances a bit better. I also began producing some
project budgets, a cash flow forecast – which should all lead to me improving
their ‘accounting system’ (this is my plan of action!). I’ve enjoyed doing all
of these things, as It’s recently become a fear of mine, that the longer I’m an
‘auditor’, the harder it would be to do ‘day-to-day’ accounting tasks (no
matter how basic) - so being able to use more of the skills I learnt whilst
gaining my qualification has been reassuring.
I went out on my own to get lunch, I walked past many food
stalls, but was waiting for a busy one. I was also preparing in my head what to
say, I fancied some fried rice, which in Thai is ‘Khao pet’, (pronounced ‘cow
pat’), and for some reason or another, I just couldn’t gather the confidence to
go up to a food stall, in a foreign country and ask for ‘cow pat’! Thankfully,
a local took pity on me, after doing a loop (and looking hungry and lost), I
approached a food stall…but before I got round to pointing to some food, a
local said ‘hello’ and then asked if I wanted to eat, which I did…she then
proceeded to order for me…I got back to the office, with no idea what I had in
my ‘doggy bag’. I opened it to find some noodles, veg, soup, blood sausage and
some chicken on the bone…I put the last two items in the bin, and had a lovely
noodle and veg soup! For dinner, I went to the local village shop and bought
some bread and cheese!
I
haven’t bought any DVD’s to Thailand with me (as I can watch films anytime!), so
after eating my lovely cheese sandwiches (and doing some more work!), I thought
I would see if I had any films on my laptop - as it was too late and I was too
tired to do anything else – It turns out I only have one film on my laptop…Love
Actually...I have no idea how this got here!! Anyhow, in a hot foreign country, I ended up watching a
soppy Christmas rom-com - my favourite bits include: Hugh Grant dancing, Andrew
Lincoln declaring his love for Keira Knightly via ‘dummy boards’, the story
involving Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson, and the story with Liam Neeson and
his son – so most of it. Afterwards I did some press-ups, and looked for
football scores on the internet to counteract what had just happened!
Day 6
I spent the ride to work thinking of the various ways I could
declare my love for Keira Knightly.
The day was spent continuing the tasks from the day before. I also began my attempt to put a new ‘accounting
system’ together (just an excel spreadsheet) and writing process notes, to show
how it would work (with examples) and why it would make things easier! I’ve
never done anything like this before…im not sure how it will end up!
Thankfully someone in the office went out to get lunch!
Stefan and Thomas asked if I would like to join them for a
drink in town in the evening. At first, I declined, as I had an early(ish)
start on Saturday morning, and I know that a few drinks, can easily lead to a
few more drinks! However, after some rather gentle persuading, I quickly
changed my mind – I figured it would be rude to decline their offer/I fancied a
beer/they are both nice people. So we went to the Tha Pae Gate area of Chiang
Mai for some Chang lager, some of their other friends also turned up. I then
lost a few frames of pool to Stefan, before we played (and lost) a couple of
frames of ‘doubles’ against some Belgium travellers (I fear I may have been the
weak link!)!
Some bar snacks were ordered whilst we finished our beers,
what to expect; Crisps? Peanuts? Pork Scratchings? No, nope and nada! Instead a
plate of ‘fried Crickets’ was served up – now, I don’t know what made me try
these, I wasn’t hungry, there was no pressure for me to try them, but I did. To
be fair, they didn’t taste of much (just salt), and if you didn’t look at them,
it could have been anything…until you get a wing stuck between your teeth - which is a stark reminder you are eating an insect!!! All in all it was a pleasant evening!
When in Rome...
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