2006: the roundup

Now that they seem to have fixed all the cables, I can fill you in on everything that happened during the ho ho holidays. My appearance as Santa should at least be nominated for an Oscar. And the principal's interpretation of the Sundance Kid was no mean feat either. The crowd went wild. But that was probably due to the massive amounts of sugar eaten. And it wasn't over.

Christmas is of course followed by New Year and in Thailand that means: presents. Everybody buys something, all the presents are numbered and all the numbers go into a big hat. Guess who got to call the numbers? Guess who was a little scared of being eaten alive by a group of seven year olds if he didn't read the numbers fast enough? That's right. You guessed it. But luckily no teachers were hurt during the making of this production.

And luckily we had a party to look forward to. A teachers only party at a nightclub. I was expecting copious amounts of alcohol. I was expecting very spicy food. But nothing could have prepared me for Thai teachers dressing up as Snowhite, Rudolph The Rednosed reindeer and every other costume imaginable. Then there was the Isaan band with the charismatic male singer/jokester and the six scantly clad female singers. Quite a show. And if you can't beat them...

So we got on stage after getting Tessels saxophone. I climbed behind the drums and thinking that the band would surely know the H.M. Blues (a cool and famous jazzy tune composed by the King) I counted to four and played away, because that's jazz. The band was right there on the 'one' but then no one played the melody. No problem: so we're playing free jazz all of a sudden. Fine by me. Forget the theme. Straight into the solo's, Tess is there, but wait a minute: why are you guys not going to F? Blues has three chords guys. Three. Hello? Okay: so we're doing a long vamp in C now. Can't say that that has never happened before. Tess's going for it. The audience likes it. But the band is in a state of sheer panic. They bail when invited to solo. And when Tess's finally done exploring even the remotest corners of the chord of C and we go into a nice bombastic ending I can almost smell their relief.