Friday, January 22, 2010

One Week Today

We heard it was 38 degrees in Melbourne today! It felt hot here too and kind of muggy.  The locals say that the weather is cold at the moment and are frequently seen wearing jumpers and jackets (some had scarves on too) but I saw a thermometer outside someone’s house today and it was still over 30 degrees.  I guess that’s winter in Thailand for you!
We decided to keep the children home from kinder today. It’s only been a week since we arrived and we didn’t want them to over do it. They enjoyed some chill-out time watching their borrowed DVDs, playing with their new ball in the yard, taking a long bath and basically just relaxing.  Dave and I enjoyed the slower pace too both getting in a much-needed nanny-nap!
We managed to obtain our Thai drivers licenses yesterday… this may sound impressive and I’d like to say it was and that I’ve actually been driving but I haven’t. In fact, it did not even involve setting foot in a car! We just had to pay our money, show that we knew our colours (red, green and orange) and then have our photo taken.  Apparently there can be a few other tests that they get you to do but we think Spencer’s impatient screaming may have hurried the process along somewhat! Oh well, we weren’t complaining.
After obtaining our licenses, I was excited to discover a shop that sold some “baking” ingredients.  As expensive as they were, Dave let me purchase a few items to satisfy my home-cooking yearnings.  I got up eagerly this morning to make some fresh scones for breakfast only to realise that, in my excitement, (and inability to read the Thai packaging) I had used plain flour instead of SR.  Thankfully, the scones were still quite tasty but unfortunately that did not rise!  Not a crumb was left over though so obviously Dave and the kids didn’t seem to mind.
I then set to work making some play dough for Eliana.  This gave her hours of enjoyment as she set about creating pretend birthday cakes and tasty meals.  We enjoyed our first home-cooked dinner tonight too (besides all the food that everyone’s been dropping off).  We hadn’t seen the children eat so much in a while.  Eli kept telling me how delicious it was and how much she loved me for cooking dinner! Nice!
Yesterday we promised the children a trip out to “Daddy’s new work” the ZOE Children’s Home… if they had a huge afternoon sleep.  They all did so we headed out after dark (which was pretty exciting for them coming from Melbourne’s day-light’s savings). They had so much fun running about talking to everyone and playing in the younger children’s dormitory style bedroom.  Eliana instantly joined in a game of elastics, Tobi found a similar aged boy with a truck and Spencer cruised around trying to dodge all the Thai children trying to pick him up and carry him.
Dave had his first Thai language lesson yesterday. It was challenging and the reality of just how much work it will take to be able to read, write and speak Thai has had him sitting with his earphones in tonight hoping it will all just sink in… the fact that I just heard a big ripper snore indicates though that not too much study is taking place as he’s actually fallen asleep! There’s always tomorrow I suppose.
Well as I sit here listening to the docile tones of a Thai karaoke bar, at a near-by restaurant, wafting through our open windows, I will wrap it up for another day.  Tomorrow we will probably have another quiet-ish day but then again there is a whole new country explore!
Love to you all and take care, 
Andie :) 

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