Australia Day almost blew right past me this year, I am so disconnected with the world outside of my own little house and small group of friends. I don't even keep up to date with Thailand current affairs and news headlines, I am a bit ashamed of this. Access to the media isn't as in your face as it is back in Australia, all TV is cable or Pay TV there is no free to air so unless we tune into CNN everyday or watch the dead boring Australia Channel we don't catch much news at all. I do plan on asking my driver to pick me up the Bangkok Post each morning on his way back from taking Marcus into work, it is printed in English and even though most media in Thailand is strictly monitored it isn't as bad as it would be in lets say, China or Russia.
It should be quite important for me to stay up to date with what is happening in this country as we are foreigners and we don't speak the language and there has been a recent history of political unrest since the Red Shirt protests back in May. Not that we are worried or feel unsafe, on the contrary, we feel very safe and secure and welcome here in Thailand, it really is such a friendly country.
Back to Australia Day. Marcus decided to invite the Thai men he works with at General Motors over for a traditional roast Lamb BBQ to celebrate our favourite day of the year (aside from Christmas day of course). So I shopped about and found a nice boneless lamb that travelled all the way from New Zealand and I also picked up 2 kilos of pork neck to roast with it as we were advised that alot of practicing Buddhists will not eat any red meat, which is why the main meat eaten in Thailand is pork and chicken. So we combined a few roast vegetables and some steamed rice with the carved up meat and it went fairly well, they ate all of the meat and pumpkin but didn't touch the rice. About an hour or so after dinner one of the guys snuck off to pick up some Thai food for them all to eat on top of the lamb. If I had of put on a BBQ for my friends or family back home and then had them leave and buy their own food I would have been quite offended but being that it was their first time eating Lamb I didn't mind. However I did mind that while I was cleaning up after the party, the food they bought reeked of fish sauce and dripped all over my hands, legs and floor. YUCK.
I find it funny though as Thais don't particularly like lamb because of the smell and I don't particularly like Thai food because of the way it smells so we have a sort of catch 22.
It was really nice to have a taste of home, but it did make me a bit homesick to think of everyone we knew back in Melbourne having the usual get togethers and BBQ's to celebrate. We do however have a Australia Day party to go to this Saturday that some Aussies we know are throwing so it should be a nice day of meeting new people and eating some good food.
Our new driver started this week, it is nice to have my house back, even though I have to do all of the housework myself I prefer it, I feel like I have productive days now where as before I was listless, bored and irritable. It may seem small but as I said before, my job is a stay at home mum and housewife, if I don't have those jobs to do then what on earth am I going to do especially living in Thailand with minimal friends and zero hobbies.
So our driver is simply a driver, he takes Marcus to work everyday then comes back and drives me to drop off Judd at school then takes Lillie and I where ever we need to go for the day then he goes back to pick up Marcus again. But during the time when Lillie is asleep and I am staying in the house I send him off on stand by and give him a time to return. It works, he stays outside, he doesn't come in unless he needs to use the bathroom and he drives very well and I feel comfortable letting him drive my family around. So we will see how this works out, I mean ideally I would prefer to have 2 cars and not have anyone drive for me at all but it will be nice to have him drive us in the evenings on the weekends so we can both relax and have a beer and not have to worry about who has to stay sober to drive.
I also bought a treadmill last week, all with enthusiasm and good intentions and I have only been able to get on it once. I am disappointed in myself, I always find an excuse or give myself another job to do to fill up my time so I don't work out. I did like going to the gym by myself earlier in the month but then we had to fire our driver who also doubled as a nanny. Now I have no babysitter to watch over Lillie for me while I work out, so I am back to the same dilemma that nearly every mother has, NO TIME. But I am going to re arrange and prioritise my days to allow me to be a mum during the day and instead of my usual routine of working out in the morning I will now work out in the evenings after Lillie goes to be at 7pm.
A friend of mine did introduce me to a family day care center nearby but it is Thai owned and operated and I am just not 100% comfortable in taking Lillie to stay there, I mean its hard enough to leave kids in a new day care center back in Australia let alone having to leave them in care in a foreign country with people who don't speak the same language or have the same levels of safety and security that I expect.
I know I have to get my act together and start working out again because we have a wedding to go to in May in Phuket and I really really want to have lost at least 7 kilos by then. I guess the best start would be to stop drinking alcohol everyday like I have been lately, I have some bad habits I need to work on. No More Excuses!
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