Quality time

Funny how a simple weekend can be so rewarding.  Friday night I arranged for our maid to babysit so Marcus and I could have a date night.  Now this sounds easy but my maid has zero English so I had to try and communicate with her with a Thai/English Dictionary, a wind up clock and a calculator.  I used the dictionary to find the key words like "babysit, night time" etc. and it has each word written in Thai writing so she can read what it is I am trying to say without me having to try and pronounce each word.  I used the clock to position the hands to the times that I wanted her to start and finish and I used the calculator to show her how much I would pay her.  I didn't try to go into what to feed them or how to put them to bed because there are just too many words to look up.  I did however have Lillie already in bed and asleep before she arrived and Judd had a movie to watch and I showed her the time I wanted him to go to bed on my clock and used hand singles of pretending to sleep.  At first when we arrived in Thailand I felt bloody ridiculous but now it comes naturally to used my hands and speak simply.  I cut out all unnecessary words and speak what I call pigeon Thai.  I try not to be condescending or belittling because I am fully aware that I am the visitor in their country and it is not up to them to learn English it is up to me to try to communicate with them. 
So we had success with the babysitter which is awesome because that now means we can have our adult time and be able to get out alot more without dragging the kids along with us and keeping them up too late and it is good for our maid too because for one night of about 6 hours sitting she gets paid nearly double what she earns in one day cleaning. 

So Marcus and I went into town and of course we hadn't planned anything so we wandered around for too long and I got too hot and sweaty.  We ran into a work colleague of Marcus in Walking Street and he invited us to join his dinner party but he couldn't remember where it was and he didn't have a phone to call his friends to ask.  We ended up walking back and forth before I encouraged Marcus to ditch him (as he was blind drunk anyway) because our date night was nearly over and we hadn't even sat down for dinner or a beer.  We eventually stopped to watch a live band and one beer turned into about 6 and the music was so loud our date night turned into us sitting next to each other yelling over the music every time we wanted to say something but the band was so good that we didn't really mind.  Before long it was time to head home but we squeezed in a couple more beers trying to prolong the night.  I think we wandered back home at about 1am which is early for most people but super late for a couple of tired old parents with toddlers that rise at the crack of dawn.  When we got home the house had been completely tidied and the kids were still sound asleep so it was easy to pay our sitter and fall into bed. 

The hang over the next day was excruciating but worth it.  So Saturday was a right off but come Sunday we woke up fresh and decided to take the kids to our favourite beach for the afternoon and spent a relaxing day lying on the sand and watching the kids run about.  It was nice and there was no stress, no yelling and the kids were completely entertained and happy and of course promptly fell asleep within minutes of getting into the car to drive home.

That evening we decided to try a new local restaurant that was recommended to us by a friend and we ordered what we thought was a fair amount of food but when we got it home and opened it up it was more than fair, it was a huge amount of food and it was delicious and I will definitely be going back again.

It was overall a good weekend with minimal fighting and yelling and some good family bonding.  Funny how the simplest things are usually the most beneficial.