I received some fabulous news on Friday. Marcus phoned me to let me know that the Australian branch of his company want him to return for the month of April to do an audit for them and they will fly me and the kids too (which is part of our contract anyway) but because he will be working they will provide us with accommodation and a rental car. We had wanted to plan a trip home but accommodation is so expensive it would cost us a fortune to rent a apartment and car for 2 or 3 weeks, so this came as such a lovely surprise. Now nothing is confirmed just yet, they have to get approval from the Director in Thailand first and he better say yes or I will have a serious bone to pick with him. Once again he has not paid us our expenses for January, he also still owes us for July and August last year. I am beginning to get very frustrated with this man. He is the one who promised that we "would be well looked after" during our stay in Thailand and he has done NOTHING to honour those words. We have had to do everything ourselves and then he gripes about having to pay us as well when it is clearly stated in our contract what we get paid for. Thankfully Marcus REAL boss is going to be here early April and I am hoping that Marcus will discuss all of these issues with him because if he wants us to extend our contract another 12months here then things need to start running alot more smoothly than they have been. I mean we should not have to be dipping into our savings or living on credit each month because the Thailand office forgets to pay us, it is very unprofessional to say the least.
But back to our trip home, we should be there 2 weeks or more hopefully and I would like to plan a quick little visit up home to see my parents and grandma in Townsville while we are in the country. We cannot stay any longer than April as we have a paid for holiday and wedding to attend in Phuket in early May so we will be very very busy for a few weeks. I am very excited to be seeing everyone, I didn't realise how homesick I was until he phoned me on Friday to tell me the good news. I was starting to think how exciting it will be when we do make the final decision to return home permanently. We have been talking about that maybe if we do extend our contract for 12 more months we will move to a bigger house with a pool, we think we rushed into renting this house due to the fact that we were stranded way out in Amata City miles away from anything remotely familiar. But now we know the area, we know how to bargain and negotiate so maybe a small move to a bigger place would be a good idea. At least something with nicer furniture.
I also have started to make posters to put up in local vets and shopping malls to find a new home for Lady the dog. She just cannot settle her properly, whenever it rains she gets completely wet as there is nowhere at this house where she can take proper shelter, the rain blows in under the carport and all the eaves and we don't have a back porch or anything and also we will be away most of April and half of May it wouldn't be fair to lock her up in a boarding kennel for all of that time. Our financial adviser has offered to take her for the time we are away thankfully. He has just has a new baby and he travels away alot for work and would like a outside dog to guard his wife and house while he is away and hopefully if she is well behaved and he likes her he may even offer to keep her. Fingers crossed because then I can rest easy that she has a good home and I will still see her occasionally. Judd will be sad, he has enjoyed having a dog around, but it is just far too much stress always wondering what on earth we will do with her when it comes time to leave as no animals can travel from Thailand to Australia without costing thousands and thousands of dollars.
Judd is off on summer break now, his last day was on Friday and he brought home his exercise book with all of his work in it from semester 2 and I must say it is pretty good for a 3 yr old, tracing Thai alphabet and English and writing numbers and colouring and puzzles and so much more. He also brought home his report card with all TOP marks for everything except eating, how funny, but he doesn't always eat the Thai lunch that they serve so he got a good instead of a 'very good'. Little champ, his comments from his teachers where excellent too. They love having him. He has this week off but then I have signed him up for Summer Camp which is about 4 weeks of casual play and activities and excursions. Should be fun for him. It all sounds very American with the way the school year is broken up and the names they use for everything. But it works out pretty good in the timing too, he may miss a couple of weeks at the end of summer camp when we go away but the new school year doesn't commence until the very next day after we return from Phuket, perfect! But that is another reason why I am annoyed at the Thailand office for not paying us, we had to pay Judd's school fees and Summer Camp fees for next semester last week, that's $1200 that I had to pull out of a credit card because our money was missing. Very very frustrating, I should send him an invoice for all the interest and fees we will get charged I am sure he will like that.
The timing on this unexpected trip seems almost uncanny. Just the day before we found out I spent hours scouring the Internet trying to find a good deal on a family size room in a hotel on the island of Koh Chang for the week of the Thai new year, Songkran. Marcus would have had 9 days off of work as the Thai new year is a week long celebration. Alot of people had advised us to leave the country for the time as the water festival as it is more commonly known is very crazy, the traffic is horrendous and it is meant to be almost impossible to go into town without getting wet. So we thought about maybe going up to Chiang Mai, northern Thailand for that week but then the principal at Judd's school told us that Chiang Mai is the countries center for celebrations for that time of year, alot of tourists go there but also many Thais holiday there as well. So we scrapped that idea and started looking at the local islands instead. I finally found a family size bungalow at a little beach side resort on the island of Koh Chang for only $79 a night, a bargain especially for this time of year. I jumped on it of course, booked and paid for a whole week of sun and relaxation and then the very next morning Marcus calls me to say that I need to cancel the booking as we are needed back in Australia for that week. I was excited and frustrated at the same time, all those long hours spent on hotel websites looking for a cheap deal and after finally finding what I wanted I had to let it go. But the excitement over going home totally out weighs it all, I cannot wait to see my girlfriends, my family and my darling little dog Sticker. I am going to cuddle him so hard he might pop.
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