Roosters!

Well my fist day alone with the kids in Thailand was not a success.  Lillie has become very clingy and wont let me put her down.  I don't think she is sick as she is still sleeping all night.  Maybe she is jet lagged or something.  They both seem to be still on Melbourne time.  The roosters that live over the back of our building seem to be on Melbourne time too. 4.30am they started up this morning.  Luckily the kids didn't hear them until just before 6.00 but that it still to early for my liking. 

I got very frustrated with myself and both the kids through out the day, I lost my temper a fair bit.  They are bored and they don't have anything that is familiar for them.  Their beds are different, they don't have their toys and their favorite TV shows aren't on.  There aren't any kids cartoons on our TV which is a bit disappointing.  I never realised how much I use the TV as a babysitter. 
We met a nice New Zealand man by the pool yesterday and he was telling us of some nice Australian and British expat communities a little further away from here, but still within driving distance to Marcus' work.  He said he could take us out there and show us the Australian pub as well. 
As much as I would like to experience the Thai lifestyle, I think we will have to go about it slowly.  We don't know any of the language at all and simple things like paying the rent is turning out to be quite difficult.  And I don't want to live out of a 7/11 the entire time we are here either. 
I did however have a small success with a Thai ATM, I freaked out at first as it was all in Thai but I soon found the English button and it was so easy.  I was very proud of myself for that small achievement.  At least I know how to get access to money. 

I think I was a bit deluded in my thinking of how we would be living over here.  I pictured white sandy beaches, lots of swimming and relaxing by the pools. Wasn't I wrong, we are smack in the middle of a industrial park surrounded by factories, apartment blocks and weird rooster farms.  If I stay inside I can pretend I am somewhere lovely, but as soon as I go out onto the balcony the reality hits me pretty hard.  I know we will find somewhere nice and calm to live and I guess we will just have to bunk down here for a few weeks to get acclimatised then head out and start checking out where all the nice spots are. 

I think it will be alot easier when we get a car.  I was hoping Marcus would have a couple of days off before starting work to check things out with us and settle down a bit.  But it seems they have alot of work to do so I am left to hang out in our apartment with 2 bored and frustrated kids.  Its not an easy thing for me to do, I am so used to just popping the kids in the car and heading off to where ever we feel like going.  Some people would say, "Relax and enjoy it".  And trust me I would like to but when there is crap on the TV and no DVD player its a bit hard.  I cant read a book as the kids don't let me.  I will just have to get creative and think of some new ideas to entertain ourselves.  Lets hope today is slightly better.