Food poisoning and turning 30

My dinner on Wednesday night tried to kill me.
I have had my second bout of food poisoning since being in Thailand, but this latest one was really bad.  It started at 1am with vomiting and stomach pains then continued until 5.30am.  I was so relieved when it stopped and I was able to lay down and fall asleep.  I don't know what was worse, the vomiting or the sleep deprivation.  I managed to get 45mins shut eye before the diarrhea started and that gave me grief for the rest of the day.  This all came about because I was stupid enough to re heat a meal from the previous night and eat it for my dinner.  Tip: never re heat a Thai take away meal, no matter what! 
I was really worried too as I shared some of the rice with Lillie but thankfully she didn't get sick at all. 
I had plans to go out and have pre birthday celebrations on Friday night but I was so sick and my body was aching so bad that I couldn't even think about leaving the house, let alone drinking all night.  I was even scared to eat just in case it happened again. 
I vowed during my delirium that I would once again never touch alcohol, chocolate, energy drinks or any other crap if only God would make it all stop.  I hope She wasn't listening because as soon as I was feeling better I was eating crap food and drinking beer again.  So much for my vow.  I did however stop having energy drinks, they stop me from sleeping properly anyway so its better that I avoid them.  I have no idea what the ingredients are in those drinks, all the labels are in Thai, they could be doing all sorts of bad things to me, they could have amphetamines in them for all I know.
On Saturday night our friends down the road had us over for a few beers and dinner and they re assured my faith in Thai food by introducing us to a new restaurant.  They make the biggest and yummiest spring rolls I have had and their Black Bean Squid is amazing.  We now have 2 really good take aways that we can alternate between.

Marcus is still on crutches and we are hoping that they take his cast off this Friday, but he still wont be able to put weight on his leg for a couple more weeks.  So frustrating, more for him than me, I am actually getting used to him hobbling around.  But he is bored just sitting around and not being able to run or exercise or take the kids swimming.  This weekend it is the Kings Birthday long weekend and I was hoping to be able to go away to one of the islands for a few nights, but Marcus is reluctant to go as it will be alot of work for me dragging 2 kids, suitcases and a portcot and pram by myself as he cant carry anything.  I am disappointed.  It would have been nice to do some tourist things, we haven't done or gone anywhere exciting for a while now.

It is also my birthday tomorrow, I turn 30!  This comes as a bit of a milestone for me, I feel like I have been in my twenties forever.  I started out on my own when I was still 17 so to look back and try to remember all the things I have done over the past 13 years it feels like a lifetime, yet I know that it is hardly a blip on what I hope will be a long long life.  But these past 10 years have set the mark for how my life is going to play out, I mean I worked a few jobs, climbed the ladder (so to speak) worked hard and achieved some pretty good results.  I also met Marcus, we got married, we had children (and still may have more) we have bought a house and now we are living overseas in Thailand.  Where to next?  Anywhere really.  But the basics will stay the same, I am a mum, a wife and my day to day duties will remain pretty much the same for at least the next 15 years.  But the exciting part is where will we be?  Thailand?  Australia?  Somewhere else, maybe like China?  Who knows but I would like to keep our options open and not slot us into the typical domesticated box that 90% of the population are in. 
I have no idea what I want to do with my personal time as the kids get older, where I want to work or what I want to study.  Right now none of that is even an option for me, I will decide when the time comes.  But I want to promise myself that I will not turn (as I already started to) into the nagging, bitchy wife that nothing pleases and nothing is good enough for.  I want to stay happy in my marriage and I want to be a good mum, these are my 2 main priorities and is my full time job.  I chose to be a wife and a mum so I don't expect to turn around at the quarter mile mark and change my mind, I am committed to my family and to my life choices because as the last 12 years have shown me is that its my choices that have brought me to where I am today and I must be proud of them.
So tomorrow I turn 30 and a new decade begins and I have a couple of resolutions that I would like to follow:   

1. Live in the present and not in the past
2. Stop comparing my life to others
3. Be alot more patient
4. Find joy in the simple things

These seem simple enough, but for me will be the hardest resolutions to keep.

Loi Khatong

Tonight there is a full moon and there are festivities all over Thailand celebrating Loi Khatong.  It is of Indian origin and it is a festival that is celebrated over 3 days of the full moon in November.  They make a Khatong, which is a flower shaped boat made from banana stems or polystyrene and decorated with flowers and carry incense, candles, a few coins and the wishes of the loi (launcher) who casts the boat into either a river, lake or the sea.  Outside our bedroom windows there are fireworks and and fire crackers being let off all around our village.  There is music coming from all different directions as people get together to celebrate.  It isn't a religious day but more of an excuse to throw a party and let off really loud and badly built fireworks.  As I type this there is a huge banging sound coming from over the back, it sounds like guns from a battleship are being fired instead of the pop pop sound of fireworks.  I am a little nervous and worried that the constant loud noises will wake up the kids and cause me a night of discomfort trying to convince them to go back to sleep.



Traditional Thai Costume


Judd made a Khatong at school on Friday, he had to dress up in a traditional Thai costume and they held a small ceremony and danced the traditional dance.  He brought his Khatong home with him, it was so pretty.  So tonight since we were too tired and didn't feel like battling all the crowds down by Lake Maprachan or the even bigger crowds that gather down at Pattaya Beach, I put Lillie to bed and took Judd to our little lake inside our village.  We lit his candle, made a wish and set it out into the water.  At first we were worried that the fish would upend it and make it sink, but they left it alone and we watched it float out into the middle of the lake.  There were many other Thai families down there too, launching there much bigger and more elaborate boats.  Then the fireworks started up over the back again and across the other side of the lake we could see the lanterns being sent up into the sky with peoples wishes as well.  It is a paper lantern with a flame that is lit and a wish is made and then they let it float up into the sky, higher and higher until it looks like a little orange star. 
It was a very pretty night tonight, quite peaceful despite all the music and noises.  It feels sort of friendly and there is an atmosphere of peace and joy.  It may sound a bit soppy, but I felt like I could just sit there all night just watching the lights in the warm evening air. 
Judd said he wished for his boat not to sink and to float all the way out into the lake, and I, honestly, could not think of anything to wish for. 


  

     Ready to launch his Khatong



The Khatong's floating out into the lake



Maybe that is a sign of content.





 

                                                          

To or not to?

I am about to turn 30 so I have been having some emotional ups and downs lately.  The biggest question on my mind right now is "do I want to have another baby?" My immediate answer would be to say Yes, however after further contemplation I end up arguing with myself the pros and cons of having another child.

Pros are as follows :-  I can afford a nanny while we are in Thailand to help me, I have alot more spare time to spend with a new baby, Judd is in school 4 days a week so I would just have Lillie most of the day, Lillie is older than Judd was when I got pregnant the second time and if I wait until after Nicole and Leigh's wedding in May then she will be 2 and a half when the baby would be due to arrive (that's figuring I fall pregnant straight away and according to Marcus I will since he has SUPER SPERM!)  So she would be slightly easier to handle, I hope. 
The cons would be that we would be starting all over again with the night feeding and breast feeding, the weight gain from being pregnant which I am still trying to get off.  Being restricted to the house again and working around the babies nap times and feed times, I would have to purchase alot of the baby stuff that I already have sitting back home in storage (that I am OK with as I love to go shopping, especially for baby things). We wouldn't be able to travel as much or as often with 3 kids and considering we are living as expats in a foreign country it would be a pity not to be able to be free to just hop on a plane and start exploring this part of the world.  We would have to get a bigger company car and since it was such a drama to get the car we have now I cant imagine how long it would take to upgrade to a bigger one.  I would have to get another car seat and cot as Lillie is still in the porta cot.  Marcus doesn't particularly want to have 3 kids, he is happy with 2, he feels we can afford 2 quite comfortably and possibly be able to send them both to private schools when the are older, but maybe not with 3.  I don't think I handled my stress very well with the first 2, I am still coming to terms with being a mum, even after 3 years.

It seems that I have alot more cons than pros but the one thing that overrides all of these objections is that my body does not feel like it is time to shut up shop, I don't feel finished.  As much as my selfishness tells me to give up now before I sacrifice another 3-4 years of babies and toddlers and tantrums and shitty nappies, I keep telling myself that maybe I could handle another one, maybe I am getting better with each kid, learning to handle situations better, maybe?  Also I ask myself  what am I going to do with my time once both the kids are in school and I have the hours between 9.30am and 3.00pm to fill?  Will I get a job?  Where do I want to work.  Will I go back to study?  What do I want to study?
Now there is the possibility of waiting until we return to Australia and then see if I still want to have another baby, the kids will be older but will we all then be passed the baby phase and into something else?  Do I wait and enjoy Thailand and all it has to offer, use my freedom to explore and take up new hobbies and grow and change?  Do I  really want to put more pressure on my marriage adding the stress of another baby? 

It seemed like a holiday at first, but then the reality of how far away we are from all of our loved ones and friends set in and how hard it can be to negotiate our way around this country as neither of us don't speak any Thai. Yes there are Thais in the tourist towns that can speak very basic broken English but it is only enough to barter a price or buy some milk or petrol.  If you get stuck in a bad situation and need to talk your way out of trouble, it is a bit hard when you don't speak the same language.  So it is all these little stresses that eat away at the happy couple on an expat holiday in Thailand.  The cracks start to emerge.

We may seem like we are living the high life over here, and quite possibly we are.  But the fact is that this is a hard country that has poverty right next door to wealth, literally.  We see young children living in tin shacks with dirt floors and torn clothing everyday as we drive around in our new car spending money freely.  The guilt of that plays on me and sometimes on Marcus too, it makes me feel like a very selfish person some days.  Wanting to do more but not knowing how, and being warned of trying to give charity as some of it can be scams that never reach the children or the families.  This is a country of contradictions, smiling happy faces, Amazing Thailand with white sandy beaches and clear blue water.  Not here in Pattaya, yes the people can be lovely, but the beaches are filthy and full of rubbish, the sand is rocky and lumpy with rubbish all the way through it, the streets along the beach stink with sewage coming from the open drains under the roads.  There are Bar Girls at every bar you come to, all there trying to coax men in to buy them drinks and hoping they will buy the girl too, to take them away from a life of sex and prostitution and become either the mistress or the wife of a foreign, desperate man.  Alot of these girls have young babies and children back home with the grandparents and they work to send them money for their care. They have either been abandoned or divorced by a Thai man. A fact which is astonishing to me as it is to most Westerner's, it is socially acceptable for a Thai man to upgrade to a younger, thinner wife and also to keep a mistress and even sometimes a girlfriend as well, where do they find the time, let alone the money?  There is no law to force this man to pay maintenance for the care of his children or to evenly split all assets and money with his ex wife. 

Now in saying all of this, this is how this country contradicts itself.  After spending 4 months here, I admit I was shocked and appalled at first, but I have now grown accustomed to this city, I feel familiar with is streets and back lanes.  I am becoming more knowledgeable about Thai culture and customs and their way of life.  I am trying not to view their world as I would view my own back in Australia.  I cannot and must not compare the two, it is impossible to try and force my world view and my ideals on these people, it will not work and I am the one who will suffer from it.  Once I resigned myself to this I was able to start to see the beautiful parts of this city, the quaint little shops that pop up everywhere, selling everything.  The people who sell flowers at the street lights for 20baht each, I bought some the other day and they smell wonderful.  Even the gardeners that work around our village, now we have gotten to know them, we see beyond the weather worn faces and and stern demeanor from working hard manual labour with minimal pay.  Gardeners in Australia are paid like kings in comparison to these men.  But they now smile and wave hello to me and the kids everyday when we go walking and Judd rides his bike.  Even the scary looking Guards that patrol the grounds stop and play and one of them even bought some fish food to share with Judd up at the lake yesterday afternoon. 
Cities and Countries are like people I guess, we always judge upon first impressions but its after getting to know someone or in this case Pattaya, Thailand.  I begin to see beyond the obvious and start to see the beauty that is underneath the smell, the sex, the bars and the poverty and realise that this really is an Amazing Country and one I feel privileged to be able to enjoy.

So how does having a baby tie into living in Pattaya?  I don't know, but I guess in the end my decision is that I will wait, keep my options open and use my time here to really discover this country and its people and take advantage of this great opportunity we have been given.  And if I can find a way to enjoy this country but also somehow give something back it may ease my conscience slightly when I drive past those poor kids playing in the dirt outside their tin sheds.

Walkin around on a broken leg.

What a day I have had!  Yesterday Marcus was supposed to play rugby with the Pattaya Panthers against a team from Australia here on a footy trip called the Unquenchable's, however they were obviously too pissed to play so they cancelled last minute and the Panthers ended up playing a practice match against themselves.  Fun for them but not for the families who showed up to watch and support.  The kids didn't mind I guess as they just run around the field like crazy and the babies just love having the freedom to roam where ever they liked.  It was the wives who were a little annoyed, but I solved that by having a few beers.
Marcus was about a quarter of the way into the first half when he was in a tackle and one of the big guys rolled or stood on his ankle.  He thought at the time it was just a twist and he could run it out, even though for a while there he couldn't even walk on it.  I knew from where I was watching from the sideline that it was bad, women's intuition I suppose, but he chose to play on for the rest of the game.  Which in hindsight he now agrees that it wasn't the best thing he could have done.  So last night we iced and treated his ankle thinking it was a bad sprain and when he woke up this morning, against my advice, and went to work.  It was about 9.00am that I called him and he said that he thought he should go and see a doctor at the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital.  I was quite frustrated with this.  Any other day it wouldn't have bothered me but today our nanny came to work after dropping Marcus off and asked me if she could take another day off work.  She had 2 sick days last week and about 5 the month before that. She has just about worn out her grace period and my patience.  So I had to take Judd to school and drop the nanny off along the way.  Then on my return home Marcus informs me he wants to go to the hospital and I would have to drive the 35 minutes to his Industrial Estate to pick him up, with the baby.  This was not how I planned my day when I woke up this morning.

Turns out he has a broken leg, down where the leg meets the ankle.  Thankfully the hospital we go to is very, very quick in processing its patients (as long as they can pay) and Marcus had seen a doctor, got a cast on his leg, picked up his medication and paid the bill in just over 2 hours.  Pretty efficient. 
So now I have 2 kids to clean up after and a husband who cant walk without crutches.  I know I should be feeling sorry for him and have some sympathy but all I feel is annoyed that my work load has increased.  How selfish of me, but I cant help it.  I guess I may have been in a more compassionate mood if the nanny hadn't pulled the pin on coming to work today.  On the upside though, I had a very productive day, I haven't been this busy in months.  I did laundry, cleaned house, got Judd to and from school, picked up Marcus took him to the hospital, did some grocery shopping, picked Marcus up, took the kids to the park, fed them, bathed them and put them to bed.  WOW its like my old life back in Melbourne before we had maids and nannies. 
Having a day like this shows the contrast between our two worlds.  I love having help around the house and help with keeping the kids entertained, and being able to go out and grocery shop alone or meet a friend for coffee or a massage, but I miss being that central point that the family evolves around, the one person that makes the house and family function efficiently.  I am almost a spectator on the sidelines now, if the baby has a choice she sometimes chooses the nanny over me, I have way too much spare time but not enough friends or a hobby to enjoy that spare time with.  Back in Melbourne I may have been a bit strung out and stressed out and time poor but looking back that was my job, I was (am) a stay at home mum.  Now I am not so sure what my job title is. 
I met a young man from Holland up at the lake near our house on the weekend, he was about 17 and goes to one of the International Schools nearby.  He asked me what I was doing here in Thailand and I explained that I was here with my husband and family and where Marcus works and he went on to ask in a way that only a 17 year old, overly confident boy can, "so what do you do?  On holiday?"  It was asked so straight forward and without malice that I just had to laugh and say "yes".  He obviously doesn't see raising 2 kids as "work".  But there is the question, is it still work when you have hired someone to do most of the work for you?

Visit to the Australian Embassy in Bangkok

As part of the on going saga of Marcus getting his work permit issued we had to drive to Bangkok today to get a statutory declaration signed at the Australian Embassy to say that his resume is a true account of his work history and not full of bullshit.  Thankfully one of the lawyers of the company that is handling his permit application came and met us at the Embassy and made sure that all the documents we gave him were correct and assured us that now the process can really start and we should have to meet him again in about a month for an interview of the whole family.  I don't know why they need to meet me and the kids, we aren't the ones who want the permit, but I think it has something to do with us all getting 12 month visas to stay in Thailand without having to do those annoying border runs every 90 days.  So fingers crossed they get the ball rolling now.  I am holding off getting my Thai drivers license until this permit is issued as apparently it cuts back on some of the paperwork you have to supply.  I have been told that they drown you with forms and requests for odd documents that most people don't think to travel with.  But they don't require you to sit a driving test or an exam.  And you need a medical certificate to basically say that you are alive and wont be dying anytime soon.  I will also have to drive back to the Embassy in Bangkok in a month or so and get another statutory declaration saying that my address is accurate and that my Australian divers license is a real one.  I thought to get it all done today since we were already there but as we don't know how long this permit is going to take there is apparently a time limit on how old these documents can be for them to be accepted.   


Stuck in traffic



I really do need to get a Thai license as I don't have a International License and if I get pulled over by the police they have alot of trouble reading a foreign license and it causes more confusion and just adds to the possibility that I will have to hand over cash to make them let me go.  I guess it has an upside though, tourists and expats can get around most things if they are quick to hand over some Baht.

Our dive into Bangkok today was interesting.  Marcus thought it would be easier if we drove the car into the city instead of catching the bus and then the connecting sky train to the Embassy.  I didn't really agree but I didn't argue the point either.  Turns out I should have.  The unfortunate thing about being in a foreign country like Thailand is that the language is very hard to speak and the written word is even harder to read.  So of course we drove way way past our exit and instead of being on the south side of Bangkok we popped out at the North end of Bangkok and had to negotiate several U-turns before getting ourselves back on track.  Luckily I recognised a market and park called Chatachuk which is also the last stop of the Sky Train, called Mo Chit.  I remembered these places from our very first visit to the city back in May when Marcus and I came for 4 days to preview the country we were planning to move our entire life to.  I was pretty impressed with my memory and sense of direction, however I am sure that Marcus would take all the credit as he was the one who was driving.  So in that case I could let him take the credit however he would also have to shoulder all the blame for getting us lost in the first place.  I can live with that.
We found our way back to the Embassy and parked at the Mariot Hotel down the road.  The problem with driving in Bangkok is that there is nowhere to bloody park.  If you have money you can find a hotel and pretend you are going to dine in their restaurant so they let you park in their secure car parks, if not, then I have no idea where everyone else parks but there has to be somewhere since there are thousands and thousands of cars, trucks, bikes and buses driving around the city all day long.

Turned out that the restaurant at the Mariot was having a special lunch offer and we had the most amazing lunch for only 190 baht each.  I did however have to order dessert which cost the same for only 1 scoop of the most amazing white chocolate ice cream I have ever had.  It was Movenpick Ice Cream and its worth every cent (or baht).  Marcus really enjoyed his lunch too, get got it all over his face and didn't care, he groaned and kept going on and on about how yummy it was.




After lunch we miraculously found our way back onto the motorway to head back to Pattaya and got the easiest run home, so we decided to treat ourselves once more with a massage each before heading back home to the kids. It was Marcus' first Thai Foot massage and I told the girl to go really hard on him as he likes the pain, and from what I could tell from his groaning and flinching she heard me.  I got a head and shoulder massage and I swear I could almost have stayed there all day.  It is the best 200baht ($6.10) I have ever spent. 

 Meanwhile our lovely friend Karen came over and spent the day with Judd and Lillie and helped our nanny/maid take care of them while we went to the city.  She is one of the most kind hearted, warm and caring people I have ever met.  We have only known each other for just over 2 months and already she has adopted the kids as her grandchildren (and spoils them like a grandparent too) and she gives up her time regularly to look after them for me.  Without Karen I think my time here in Thailand would have been alot harder than it has been. 


Overall it was a good day and I think we handled the traffic pretty well, I got cranky as usual, but we didn't fight and apart from Marcus farting in the car with the windows up it was a really nice trip.  One which we will have to repeat in a month or so to finalise the work permit.  Maybe we will make a weekend of it and stay in the city and do some tourist things.

Halloween

Saturday night we were invited by our new friends to come along to a Halloween Festival that was being held near our village at a park called Three Kings Park.  It is a huge parkland with a Polo Club where Marcus trains for Rugby, a horse riding club, a huge open park full of free roaming animals and 3 huge Buddhist temples.  It was at the site of these temples that this festival or fete was.  It was mostly full of expat families from the international schools and a few Thai families as well.  All the kids (and some of the adults) got dressed up in their Halloween costumes and there were pony rides, fire twirlers, medieval knights duelling, a huge jumping castle, merry go rounds and bumper cars.  There were other games and activities aimed more towards the older kids and there was a ghost tour which our friend Karen was acting in as a wicked witch scaring people as they walked in the dark through the park.  The Temples were beautiful, the 2 smaller ones were all lit up from the outside and in the night they just looked amazing.  Apparently the man who owns the country club owns the whole parkland and surrounding housing estates.  It is huge.  The park is open to visitors most days so we plan to take the kids back to have a play in the grass and see the animals another time when the weather is nice.  Lillie spent her whole evening running around in her little lady bug costume, she refused to get into her pram and didn't want to be carried she just wanted to run.  I reckon she ran around for over 2 hours.  I made a deal with Marcus that if we were to go to the fete he would have to be the one in charge of Lillie and I would take care of Judd.  Marcus has way more patience for her stubbornness than I do, I just get frustrated with having to follow her around all day.  Judd really enjoyed the fete, he dressed up as a crocodile (actually a green dragon but he wanted to call it a crocodile) and he got to have his very first pony ride and he looked so little sitting up on that horse.  Thankfully he got to ride the bigger more docile horse as the smaller pony was playing up and getting frisky.  Judd also went on the dodgem cars over and over again and he liked the merry go round but I think it went too slow for him.  I wanted to let him go on the jumping castle but it was full of bigger school kids and he would just end up getting jumped on.  It was a good night though and I am glad we went.  I tried to dress up as a witch but the witches hat I bought was too small for my head.

I have noticed lately that the kids are different over here, especially the expats kids that go to the International schools.  They are quite spoilt and naughty.  I have a real problem with parents who don't pull their kids into line when they are being rude or bullying another kid.  There is a little half Thai half Italian boy at our village and his dad owns the restaurant and he is only 5 but he is the naughtiest little shit.  One afternoon while we were in the pool Judd asked him if he would play with him and the little boy got a mouthful of water and spat it right into Judd's face.  I was furious and so close to telling him and his parents what a right shit he is. 
But not all the Thai kids here are like that, Judd has made friends with an older Thai boy who helps him feed the fish and turtles in the lake and plays with him in the play ground.  Yesterday we all went up to the park and kicked the footy and soccer ball around and some of the other kids joined in and it was really nice watching them all play together.  Marcus ended up playing with the kids long after I went home to feed and bath Lillie and then Judd walked in the door by himself I asked him if he told daddy that he was going home and he said " No I just told the boy (his thai friend) to walk me home".  How cute, but I didn't go and tell Marcus that Judd was with me as he obviously wasn't watching Judd closely while at the park and I wanted him to stress a little when he finally realised that Judd was gone.  It didn't work though.  Men just don't watch kids like the mothers do.

Judd seems to be making friends at his kindergarten too.  He had a bit of trouble the first week as they serve the kids lunch everyday and Judd is a fussy eater and he didn't want to eat their food.  So now I have to provide a sandwich just in case he doesn't eat. They also tried to give him cold milk which he spat out as he only likes warm milk and then they tried to give him chocolate milk which he spat out again as he has never had chocolate milk or anything sweet like that before.  I couldn't believe they give the kids chocolate milk, it is just full of sugar and junk.  I now also provide his own bottle of milk and I found it strange that I had to stipulate that it needs to be kept in the fridge and then warmed up in the microwave before they give it to him because the first time I sent him to school with milk they didn't even put it in the fridge and they just gave it to him at room temperature.  I had to quickly make sure that they know to keep it cold as it is fresh milk and he will get sick.  The Thais just don't get it as they all drink the UHT milk.  Yuck.

It is all these small little differences that add up at the end of the week and can really wear me down.  Having to explain the simplest of things is so tiresome.  And I cant show my annoyance as it is very uncool to raise ones voice or show you are angry to a Thai, they do not outwardly show their emotions like we do and if annoyed they more than likely will not even tell anyone about it.
This is a hard thing for me to learn because if I am pissed off I don't have a problem telling the person or people about it and lately I get pissed off very easily.  Don't really know why but I guess it has something to do with constantly having to repeat myself to the kids over and over the same things as neither of them listen to me anymore.  Then I have to speak in baby words and repeat everything to the nanny as she doesn't speak much English either.  So I spend my days speaking babyish and can't have a real conversation until Marcus gets home but then he doesn't want to talk much either as he is tired or has work to do as well.  So it can be a bit mind numbing sometimes.

On a brighter note the weather has really cooled off now.  It is almost cool today, the Thais are all rugged up like its 5 degrees but for me its perfect.  Cool enough to leave the air cons off and sit comfortably without sweating.  The humidity has dropped heaps as it is now entering Thai winter.  They tell me that the weather is perfect from around now until January before it starts heating up for spring and summer.  The seasons don't work over here like they do back in Melbourne so its quite difficult to tell what time of year it is.  For me it is just different stages of hot. 

This Friday Marcus and I are going to drive to Bangkok to visit the Australian Embassy to get some papers authorized for his work permit.  I hope to leave the kids with the nanny and just have a day out with Marcus and actually try and have a conversation without being interrupted all the time.  Should be a nice day trip if we don't get lost.

Border Run to Cambodia

I must begin by apologising to my handful of loyal followers about being so late in adding this most recent post to my blog.  The only excuse I have is the same one most women use, " my kids were being a pain in the ass".  But I have had quite a busy week as well.  In my last post I mentioned we had to take a trip to the border of Cambodia and Thailand to renew our visas.  That awful and most painful trip happened on Tuesday, a day I will never get back, precious time spent sitting in a mini bus with a crying baby and no way of settling her down.  To add to my frustration we were not the only people on the bus, there was an American man, a German and another women who didn't speak a word for the entire trip so I do not know where she came from.  I was very aware that Lillie's screaming and crying was not only recking my trip but also the other people who were forced to sit through it.  I can only imagine what they would have been thinking, I would have been thinking the same thoughts had I been in their shoes.  Thankfully Lillie did scream herself into exhaustion and we managed to get a little bit of respite.  And to tell the truth, once she was quiet the ride was really very pleasant.  Judd was watching his DVD player (thankfully I thought to put it in my bag as the driver played only violent, action films full of blood and guns).  Every now and then I would turn to check on him and catch him watching our screen during a particular bloody scene, typical boy.  The seats in the bus were so comfortable, they were like leather armchairs, they reclined and swivelled, which made it easier to get to the kids who were sitting behind us.  The driver was typical of Thai drivers, he swerved in and out of traffic hit and exceeded the speed limit whenever the road was flat and smooth enough to make it safe and he loved lightly beeping his horn at every bike, dog or person who looked like they may get in his way.  I could have even had a sleep if Lillie didn't wake up from her nap so soon.

Once we got to the border we piled out of the bus and dragged the kids over to the immigration office which was a little row of windows with a Immigration Officer sitting behind.  We got our passports stamped for leaving the country (and narrowly avoided a HUGE fine for the kids overstaying their visas, phew).  We then had to walk about 20 meters over a bridge which spanned some very dodgy looking water full of rubbish with slum like shacks perched precariously on the edges.  We went straight to a little table and there we had to sit until the Cambodian Immigration Officer received our passports and issued us with a one day tourist visa for Cambodia.  Lillie decided this would be a great time to play in the mud. 
The Cambodian border was just a small glimpse of how poor and poverty stricken that country is.  The roads go from nicely paved on the Thai side to yellow mud, beat up shitty cars, smokey motorbikes and ramshackle shops selling heaps of crap.  I was warned about begging children but I only encountered 2 on my way to the toilet and since I left my purse in the bus I couldn't give her anything.  Speaking of the toilet, this was a first for me since arriving in Thailand 90 days ago.  It was the famous Squat toilet.  I have successfully avoided these so far but today I had no choice.  Unfortunately I was wearing long harem pants so I had to somehow pull the pants up so they didn't drag in the water puddles that covered the floor, then gather the rest of my pants together so I wouldn't pee on them while I perched in a very uncomfortable position over this ceramic bowl with footholds on either side.  Luckily I managed to put some tissues into my pocket before going in otherwise it would have made for a uncomfortable ride home.  Its times like these I wish I was born a man so I could pee standing up.
We then walked back over the bridge into Thailand, lined up again at the windows and received our visa stamps for another 90 days.  Once we hopped back onto the bus to head home there were lovely trays with our lunches waiting for us to eat in comfort and watch TV on the ride home.  This I would have enjoyed, however Lillie was not keen to get back into her car seat and decided to scream again.  After trying to calm her I finally gave up and ignored her and miraculously it worked and she fell asleep again.  Mind you I don't think the other passengers were at all happy about me letting her cry it out.
So 3 movies later we arrived back into Pattaya and our driver picked us up and took us home.  It honestly felt like we had been away on a 4 day long weekend trip and walking in our front door I had that lovely feeling of "GOD its so good to be home".  I haven't had that homely feeling since we have been here, and it was reassuring to know its attainable.

Now I have firmly told Marcus that I flat out refuse to do another border run and he needs to inform his employers that they need to pull their fingers out of their bums and get us our work visa before our 90 days run out again. 
The up side of all of this is that we both agree that we would like to take a few days off and have the kids looked after so we can go to Cambodia and visit it properly as tourists.  I couldn't do it with the children, it would be far too stressful.  But it is now on our "places to visit" list.