regular at roadside

New boy in Soma

We have an addition to our little Soma clan in the form of Ashley who decided in his wisdom to come out and spend a month of his gap year sampling the delights that Soma has to offer. As we speak he is diligently working on his artistic masterpiece, a rather large map of region 4 which he is painting on the office wall. I have to say it looks quite good so far although I'm not sure how long it is going to take him as he has a teeny paintbrush to fill in all the green for the land as some helpful soul walked off with our big paintbrush. Anyway I will provide photographic evidence of the quality of the work on completion.

Aswell as his artistic services he is offering his maths expertise at the local high school Packalinding, helping out with the grade 9 maths classes. I think he has found this an experience. His key behaviour management strategy when they are not paying attention is to say "Look at me I'm beautiful" He is certainly now the most famous of our group. We can't go anyway in Soma without the cry from some adoring student "Mr Ashley!" or being followed by gaggles of giggling girls. I think he is enjoying this notoriety, practising for his future career as film star!

I think two things have really struck him about living here, the heat and the boredom. He did get a bit of teasing by us for bringing out a flannel shirt and actually wearing it. He soon saw the error of his ways on the short walk to the bituk, when he turned a rather nice shade of scarlet. He dutifully took his place on the cooking rota under the instruction of Kate who has taught him how to make butternut squash risotto, lentil chilli etc and sweet and sour. So he's now all set for uni and planning to impress the ladies with his culinary skill. He soon got into the julbrews! Out of necessity rather than enjoyment I think, as did we all. Luckily he hasn't succumbed to the sachets of fake gin. That's strictly for us 10 monthers. He's read 3 books, won lots of games of scrabble - Cheeky young whippersnapper, thought he was very clever with his 50 bonus points for using all his tiles in one go with "tonsils". He was pushing it though trying to get away with dampenize - I ask you? He's made friends with the local kiddies by feeding them biscuits.

He has become a regular at the local video club to watch the footy, along with Marcus. He joins enthusiastically in our regular conversation "What we will eat when we get home" So all in all he has adapted rather well to life in Soma. It's just a shame he is leaving soon!