Today I woke up and decided that I was sick of being stuck inside with no wheels. I asked the Manager to book me the Hotels car and driver for a few hours. It costs about 800baht. Not too bad, but not great. Anyway I packed up the kids with enough food and milk and headed down. They have a Isuzu version of what we call a Hilux, nice and big. I popped the kids car seats in the back, as they don't have the safety bolts to attach them to I had to make do with just using the seat belts to keep them in place. I have a special clip and keeps them fairly tight. Not perfect but much safer than sitting on my lap. Then after about 5 people helped me, there seem to be staff everywhere when I show up with the kids. The young Thai lady hopped in to drive and within about 2 secs I realised she was shit scared of the huge 4WD and had no idea. I would rather be in a car going 130kms down the highway than with someone who cant even stay in her lane doing 50kms! I was super nervous. More so when she couldn't find the indicators and kept turning on the windscreen wipers. I had to show her what to do. After about 20mins of back streets I was praying she knew where she was going. She took a wrong turn and ended up on a dirt road at a dead end. As the car was so big I knew without a doubt she wouldn't be able to turn us around without putting us in the ditch on the side of the road. I asked her kindly, to try and save face, if she would like me to reverse the car. And thankfully she said yes quite eagerly. I had us out of there in a flash and when I stopped to let her drive again she said "excuse me madam, you drive, you drive". Thank God! I said yes very quickly and told her to tell me where to go and we got the hell out of there and back on the highway. I was impressed with myself. Doing an illegal U turn on the motorway with heaps of cars. trucks and motorbikes whizzing by was interesting but I just had to put my foot down and do it. It was pretty simple after that. The girl kept giggling at how silly the situation was as she was being paid to be my driver. But I didn't care, I would always prefer to be the person driving. I was happy for her to be my guide, it gave me an idea if I had the confidence to drive in this crazy country. Once we got to our destination, The Big C (our version of Big W but with groceries) I reversed parked as I knew she wouldn't be able to reverse it out of the car park. She gave me her number to call her when I was finished shopping. Too easy.
This is where the fun started. Without Marcus to make me second guess my purchases I went down all the isles and bought whatever I thought to be necessary. Then I went straight to the electronic section and bought a toaster and a DVD player as Judd has been nagging and nagging to watch cartoons and our cable TV doesn't have any. So for 650baht ($33) I got us a nice little player that plays all sorts of stuff and has all these features I will probably never use. I then tried to find some swim nappies for Lillie. They don't have them here! I have been avoiding taking her in the pool without a swim nappy in case she does a big poo, which lately she has several a day due to the new food and formula she is on. I took her for a swim a few days back with her normal nappy on and by the time we got out it had literally exploded and little jelly beads where all through the water, all over her and me. I quickly got out of there before the pool lady saw. Oops.
So back to the no nappy situation. What do the Thais do? Do they just let their babies piss and shit all through their pools? Yuck. Our New Zealand friend told us of a local store 5 Min's from here that sells Vegemite so I will see if they have some, otherwise Lillie will just have to free ball.
Of course I had to buy Judd another toy. He has been getting one everyday since we arrived, do you think I am setting myself up for alot of tantrums by turning him into a toy monster? All you mums out there are nodding aren't you? I will rein it all in once we are settled down more, it is only our first week.
After I spent over 3000baht I decided to leave and find some food and there was a KFC. Yum! It is just like McDonald's but with more chicken. Their chips are like McDonald's french fries. Judd was happy though, he hasn't had any junk since we left Aust. I was so proud of him the other night, he ate a spring roll. I hope he learns to eat Thai, it will make life so much easier and less fattening for him too. Not that I worried about him being fat, but trying to find western food for him is expensive and not very healthy.
Once we found our driver she helped me load the shopping and then handed me the keys again. Too funny. I was happy to. About half way she asked me to pull over on a back street so we could swap, she didn't want her boss to see me driving. I totally understood, I was going to suggest that anyway. I would hate to get her fired or something.
It was such a rewarding day. I learnt I could shop without help, I can drive as long as I have a good navigator and I also saw alot more 'farangs' (western people) too, which made me feel so much more relaxed. I was starting to feel very alone out here away from all the hot tourist spots.
Marcus will be relieved, I think he is a bit worried about my mental situation here, he knows I am very independent and hate sitting around doing nothing.
You know the saying "happy wife, happy life". How true that is.
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