June got a haircut during her visit to Thailand.

Recently there have also been a lot of from IsaanStyle and from a post that they did back in October when they were reviewing some of the Thai websites.  They even mentioned us as one of their favourites….wow.  I guess that is one of the reasons for having a blog, just on the off chance that someone, somewhere will appreciate it.  The strange thing is, I have been also looking at IsaanStyle for a while as it is a great website about a teacher living in the northeast of Thailand.  This was of particular interest because that is where Nok comes from.  Brunty, the author of that site always has loads of photos which I love.

If you are new to my site, have a look around.  There will be loads of new stuff coming in the new year when our son also arrives.  For me, the best thing about the site because it lets my friends and family, all over the world, have at least an idea of what my life if like in Thailand.

Nok started off this morning taking Megan for her piano lesson and then they came back home and we headed of for Dream World, which is about 30miles north of where we stay.  I have been there with Nok before but that was about 5 or 6 years ago and I thought that it would have changed a little in that time.

Nothing had changed but it was good having Megan with us this time as we were seeing it through her eyes this time.  At first she was her normal hesitant self but after a while she started to calm down a bit and started to get into it a bit more and do more and more things.

We started of in the Giants House, this was a room that had everything in it oversized, Meg was a bit freaked out and ran through the place in a matter of seconds.  I was starting to think that it was going to be one of those days…

I did the main roller coaster that they have and it was really quite impressive, fast and loads of tight corners.  It was the first time that I have been on a roller coaster that your legs just dangle in the air so I was a bit worried that my feet would hit something while we were going round as I am a bit taller that your average Thai so I wasn’t sure if they had considered this when they were designing it.  In the end my feet were still attached to my legs but exiting the ride my legs were a bit wobbly from the effects of the ride.  In the video below I am in the last row.

Roller Coaster from ThaiBankie on Vimeo.

We moved on to Snow Town and Megan got her first experience of snow and I think it will be memorable to her even if we were in a large freezer at -30C.  I had a go on the snow slide and nearly killed some young girl.  I was flying down the hill and at the bottom the guy bounced into me to try to slow me down before I bumped into the wall but all he did was put me into a spin and some girl had to jump over my legs as they spun round or she would have been flattened.

Deep Freeze from ThaiBankie on Vimeo.

I had a go on a couple of the fun fair games and I managed to pop 5 balloons with 7 darts getting Megan a small stuffed monkey who we named Coco.

We had a 15min go on the boats and then onto the train that runs round the grounds of Dream World.  Finally was Megan’s biggest achievement, she went onto the racing cars by herself and wasn’t even fazed when the girls in front of her were screaming and had to exit the ride halfway through.  I think we really made a breakthrough here.

Racing Cars from ThaiBankie on Vimeo.

A really good day out was had by all. Photos are in the Holiday section

This year for Songkran we decided to go to Pran Buri, this was our first time to visit there and it was only about 20Km south of Hua Hin where we have been so many times over the last few years.  I think Pran Buri is more for Thai people as it is a bit cheaper than Hua Hin but some of the resorts there are well on par with what Hua Hin has to offer.  The down side of Pran Buri was that other than a strip along the beach which was a few Kilometers long there was very little else to do there.  Hua Hin seems to have more of a complete package for tourists as there are much more bars and restaurants to choose from.  We decided to stay at the Golden Pine Beach Resort which was a little small but it was very well run and it was very relaxing.

We arrived a few days before the crowds arrived as our office finished work a day or two earlier than most companies.  There only seemed to be about half a dozen other people staying at the resort when we arrived but the people at the check-in desk assured us that the place would be full over Songkran.   The good think about finishing work before other people is that we don’t get stuck in traffic which is often the curse of New Year and the Thai New Year (Songkran). 

Megan fell in love with the beach on this trip much more than she has done on previous holidays, maybe it is because she is getting a bit older or maybe it is because I am not keen on the sand getting stuck all over me.  Anyway, Megan was having a ball and she was loving making castles and playing with all her toys (or friends as she calls them!!). 

Nok, who usually doesn’t enjoy eating hotel food, thought that the food at the hotel was really good and she was also happy with the cost so we ate at the hotel most of the time.  On our last night we went to another hotel which was not to far away from us.  This was a real luxury hotel which looked really good.  I had a steak there and it was probably the best steak that I have had for many many years. 

All in all a really good holiday that was a great way to recharge the batteries.  I think I didn’t have high expectations before the holiday so it was great to have such a nice time there.  I think there are a couple of nicer hotels around that area so we may try there again in the future.  Also, going on holiday with Nok and Megan I don’t really miss the nightlife too much because we don’t get much chance to get out and enjoy it even when it is on our doorstep.

I have uploaded some photos into the holiday section and also posted a couple of videos which you can see below.

For most of the first couple of days while they were here they spent most of their time in either the small pool that Megan has or at the big pool at the Clubhouse in our village which is just round the corner from where we stay. Megan was still being a bit naughty and on Yang and Chi’s first night here Megan told Yang that she wanted then to go home. She didn’t mean it when she said it, she was just a little frustrated but Yang took it quite badly and was a bit upset. It was business as normal the following morning and Yang seemed to forgive her.

Nok also took them to the play area at Yo-Yo Land at Seacon Shopping Center, the same place I took Megan a few weeks ago when Nok was on holiday. I was at work so couldn’t join them but they seemed to have a great time and it looks like Megan was a bit more adventurous than she was when she was there with me. She was jumping around a lot more and sliding on some of the larger slides that they have.

On last weekend we took them to Leoland, this is a big water park on the roof of Central City shopping mall in BangNa. We have been there before, probably a couple of years ago when Megan was much younger, I think she was able to enjoy it much more this time because she is older and less scared about playing in water. They were all a bit wary at first so I decided to get in the water with them and play with them a bit more and try to bring them out of their shells. Megan was more interested in eating and spent most of the time running between the pool and eating the food that Nok had bought. I think it was a good time for Yang and Chi to get a bit more used to being around me and they seemed to relax much more than they had done previously. Most of the time before then they would just stare at me like I was a big monster because they found it difficult to communicate with me because they speak little or no English and they also don’t get much experience being around westerners.

Yang is very much like his dad and is much more confident and is very jovial. Chi is very different and more like his mother, he is much quieter and a lot of the time you feel he is just sitting back and watching and learning. They are great kids and more that welcome to come stay with us again. I know that Megan will miss them a lot over the next few weeks.

Noddy from ThaiBankie on Vimeo.

I had been out for a few beers on the Saturday night so I was a bit tender on the Sunday when it was time to leave and drive to Lopburi. I started the car and put my foot on the clutch and I thought that it didn’t feel like it normally does but maybe it was the hangover and I was imagining things.  We managed to drive the 60Km along the east ring road around Bangkok and were taking the slip road and having driven the majority of the last 60Km in 5th gear it was time to drop the gear and slow down a little but the clutch dropped to the floor with almost no effort and I spent the next 10 seconds trying to find a gear that I could get into.  Nok said to just go home but I didn’t want to miss the wedding so I decided to keep going and fight with the gearbox for the next 90Km until we got to Lopburi.  The wedding was good and it was really great meeting up with people that I had not seen for the past 4 years.

The drive home after the wedding was a nightmare greater than anything I had experienced before.  Every time I needed to slow down or stop because of the traffic I would desperately try to find a gear that I could get into so that I could drive when I needed to.  A few times I was in a real panic as I didn’t think I would be able to do it, then I remembered a time about 17years ago when I worked on the Ice-Cream van and it’s clutch cable had broken.  I remember someone telling the driver of the van to keep the revs high and it will go into gear easier, and I was even more surprised when I tried it a couple of times and it worked.  We managed to get home safe and on the Monday morning I drove the car to the Honda garage to get it repaired.  We also decided to get it serviced at the same time so I was surprised when the bill was only 5200Baht (80quid).

While my car was being repaired we managed to borrow Tuk and Paibool’s Ford Escape which was a big big help to us because we didn’t want Megan to miss school as it was her last week.  This weekend we needed to return the car to Rayong and we set out in a convoy with Nok leading in the Escape and me trundling along behind in my Jazz.  After about 60Km I noticed that the car was starting to get a bit hotter and thought that it must be getting really hot outside but when I turned up the fan it didn’t make any difference, in fact it was probably getting hotter.  I called Nok and told her that the air conditioning in the car was not working so we continued south to get to Rayong.  I had all the windows down and was starting to get really sweaty but it wasn’t too long till we reached Tuk’s house.

Megan was not to happy about driving with the windows open and she would always tell me to put the windows up a little every now and then.  By the time we got home they were only open about 1cm and almost nothing was coming in through them but it was early evening so the temperature outside was starting to drop a little.

Honda just finished fixing it this time and it is costing me 8090Baht (125quid) to fix it but in Thailand it is a small price to pay to keep cool while driving.

As the school is only a kindergarten the kids will need to go to another school once they finish K3.  Today was the schools first graduates as it is only a new school and it was the first time for them to put on a show with all the kids from all the classes from Pre-Kindergarten 1, 2 and 3 and also Kindergarten 1, 2 and 3. 

She is already exited about going into K2 after the summer and today we found out that her new teacher, Teacher Tammy, is the mother of her old teacher, Teacher Cat.

Below is a video of Megan performing with her classmates on stage.

Show at Kindergarten from ThaiBankie on Vimeo.

Once we got to Seacon we decided to go to Yo-Yo Land which is  large area on the 5th floor which is like an amusement park for young kids which has loads of activities for kids to do.  To be honest it is a bit dated now and needs some money invested in it to make it a bit better.  We started off at a pirate ship game that lets you fire a jet of water at a pirate ship for a few minutes, you can knock over some things on the ship and also when some of the boxes fill with water they drop down and other things rise up so that you can hit them too.  Megan quite like this and has played is a couple of times in recent weeks.  Next we went to a large play area which has padded floor an walls and lots of climbing areas and lots of small plastic balls.  Megan spent the first 20 minutes running around trying to collect all the balls but when she had 4 or 5 of them in her arms she couldn’t pick up any more and would come to see me and dump them all beside me and run off looking for more balls. When our time was up the girl came over to tell us that it was time to go but Megan was not yet ready to leave so we gave her coupons so that we could stay for another half hour.  I just sat at the side throwing balls and Megan would run around collecting them. She was just like a wee puppy running after a stick.

After we were all tired out it was time for food and Megan said that she wanted to have some salmon.  We walked to Fuji which is a Japanese restaurant chain that is in every mall in Thailand. we got there and it was quite busy, I told the girl at the door that I was looking for a table for 2 an she said ok.  more people started arriving and she took there name and gave them a ticket with a number on it.  She started calling the numbers for the tickets that she ha just given out and the people went inside, I was still standing at the door with Megan.  the people who got seats were also in parties of 2 so I was getting annoyed so I just told her to piss off and we went to McDonalds.

After McD’s I hoped that Megan would be tire enough to fall asleep in the car on the way home but my luck was out when we hit the Saturday afternoon traffic jam.  Both of us were getting frustrated and I knew there was no way that Meg was going to nod off.  We got home an hour later and Megan was overly tired but I tried to put her to bed, after lying down on her bed for 10 minutes Megan made a dash for the door and went downstairs by herself leaving me almost nodding off on her bed.

We went downstairs and played the Wii and watched some Pooh Bear then I made her some dinner which she finished.  After dinner we played a little more then it was time for a bath and bed.  Megan was fine up until I told her to go to bed then she started with the "I miss Mummy" routine again.  I told her that mummy wouldn’t be back for another day, she went to the window just to make sure that Nok’s car hadn’t come back and we went onto the bed and lay down together.  She said that she wanted to talk to Mummy an I tried to call Nok so that Megan could say goodnight but Nok must have been drunk at this point and was not answering her phone.  I told her that I would wake her up when Mummy called back.  She put her head on the pillow and told me not to sleep in case mummy called back.  10 seconds later she was snoring just like her father.  I stayed for another 10 minutes just to make sure she was really out and then I went downstairs and watched a couple of movies.  My big debate was whether I should sleep beside her incase she woke up and was looking for Nok but I decided just to go to my bed.

At 5am Megan came into my room and said that she didn’t want to sleep in the big bed by herself so I told her to climb in beside me.  She rolled around for 5 minutes and then told me that she needed to do a poo.  I took her to her potty and then put her in her on cot and both of us slept until about 8am.  We got up and planned to go back to Seacon for another morning playing but Megan drank her carton of milk in about 10seconds and then promptly decided to throw it up all over the car.  We went home and got changed and decided to go to Tesco for some bread and milk and KFC for some fish fingers.  When we got home I fell asleep on the sofa for about 90 minutes while Megan watched Pooh Bear again.  We then went to the club house in the village and played with some of the other kids for a couple of hours.

All in all it was really easy and enjoyable just being the two of us.  Nok thinks I am a crap dad anyway so I think she was surprised that I could cope.  She did complain because there was some dishes in the sink that I hadn’t cleaned so she told me that I was crap anyway because I couldn’t look after the house and Megan at the same time.

This week we got her first report card and I must admit I was a little nervous to know what her teachers think about her and the progress that she has made.  To be honest I as a little surprised just how well she is doing and how positive the made her report.

Her report card is basically put into 2 sections as she has 2 teachers, one teaches English and the other is Thai.  I have scanned the English part of her report and you can have a look at just how well she is doing.  It looks like she is still a little shy to talk English at school but I think that this is understandable because she does not have too much exposure to speaking English except with her dear old daddy.  Maybe different accents make her less confident and maybe the teacher struggles with what Megan is saying because she speaks a bit too fast sometimes.  All of this could affect her confidence. 

Overall, we are really proud of her and hope that she continues to progress as well as she has over the past 4 months.  I also think that her progress at kindergarten is also helping her outside of school because she seems to be less naughty and she is beginning to understand more about what is the right things she should be doing.

Download Report Card

We have taken it to the repair shop to get an estimate on how much it might cost to get it repaired but to be honest I expect them to come back and say about 4000Baht (60quid), if that is the case then I don’t think it will be getting repaired any time soon and frankly I feel that it is time to get a new one.  I think I have had this one for about 3 years as I remember getting it at Heathrow on the way back from a holiday in Scotland with Nok and Megan.

The problem I now have is that the one that I want to buy will not be available until sometime in April so I guess I will just need to hope that I can get it before we go for our Thai New Year holiday, wherever that may be.

For now I will need to upload all the photos that I have not yet posted and maybe this can keep you satisfied until the new camera arrives or I will just need to use the camera on my new mobile.

After having some food we went for a walk around and saw a Black and White photo exhibition with many photos of the royal family. There was also a stall set up for taking some photos too so we decided to get a photo of us all and another of Megan on her own. At this time Megan had noticed an area downstairs selling loads of Disney stuff and she decided that it would be better to go there than have her photo taken. We bribed her with a Pooh Bear watch and some stickers and dragged her back upstairs to get some photos. She just was not playing ball and would give a nice smile for the camera. Eventually after about 20 photos we got a half smile from her and that was enough. She wasn’t interested in doing the photo of her on her own so we decided to go to the book shop and pick up a few things while the photo was printed.

The tiredness was kicking in now. It was about 2pm and she had been up since 6am so she was starting to get a bit crabby. At the book shop we got her a couple of Dora books and a couple of Pocoyo videos and went to pay at the checkout. Nok was paying but Megan decided she wanted a lollipop but when we said no she started screaming and shouting. Nok had finished paying and headed for the door, Megan followed with the lollipop in her hand leaving me inside having to pay for it to save her from a stint in the Bangkok Hilton.

We went to the Huntsman bar at the Landmark Hotel in Bangkok for Christmas dinner and she was really happy there just running around and playing.  Me and Nok had the traditional dinner and Meg had some Spag Bol.  It was not too busy in the huntsman so Nok was quite happy as it meant that people didn’t mind Megan running around too much. 

 After dinner we went down to Central World to look at the Christmas lights and to pick up the presents that Santa had left for her at toys-r-us.  There she got a cot for her baby, an aquadoodle for practising her writing and a little doggy. 

 When we got home we did the webcam with Wendy, Craig, Nan-Nan, Auntie June, Granny May and Ruth.  We were just getting ready for bed but they were just settling down to have there dinner.  We all had a really good day and I think Megan is finally starting to like Santa.  You can see photos in my December gallery and also there is a videos of her opening her present below.
[youtube]xYvfaOqGCt4[/youtube] ]]> http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/26/christmas-in-thailand/feed 0 http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/24/merry-christmas http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/24/merry-christmas#comments Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:43:58 +0000 Alan http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/24/merry-christmas ]]> http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/24/merry-christmas/feed 0 http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/15/santa-in-bangkok http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/15/santa-in-bangkok#comments Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:36:42 +0000 Alan http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/15/santa-in-bangkok ]]> http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/15/santa-in-bangkok/feed 5 http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/04/focus http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/04/focus#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:39:25 +0000 Alan http://thaibankie.com/2007/12/04/focus Nok’s sister, Tuk, had a little baby girl on 29th Nov, her name is Focus and she weighed in at 3.2Kg which is more than double what wee Meg weighed when she was born. She is a lovely wee thing with loads of hair and seemed quite peaceful while we were there, sleeping most of the time. Megan was being really cute and touching her really softly but for a while she was completely stuck to her and would stop petting her.

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Rayong visiting almost all of Nok’s family (Mum, Dad, Tuk, Bool, Focus, Min, Malee, Pim and Poom) and stayed with her brother for the night. I have posted some pics in the Holidays section of my photo gallery so have a browse through.

We have been to meet them in Ko Samui once (see pic from 2004) and Hua Hin a couple of times. This time will go over to Pattaya for a couple of days and then we will go and visit Tuk and Bool for a couple of days. we may just get lucky and Tuk will have her baby around that time too.

Hugh has been doing some work in Slovakia for the last 6 months or so helping a company in Scotland make granite sinks. I think he has now finished that and is taking a well earned break before going back and working for them in Scotland. Hugh was my boss at NMB and even managed to get me an additional 3 months work for NMB even after I had been paid off as they needed me to help with the transfer of a few products from NMB to Delta, where I now work. I think it was those extra 3 months that got me noticed at Delta and I managed to convince them that I was a good prospect. Nok was also going to join Delta at that time but couldn’t after we found out that she was pregnant. It was during the first couple of months of her pregnancy that we went for the holiday down to Ko Samui with Hugh and Janet.

Think I will also try to meet up with them this weekend in BKK for some lunch or something. It has been a really good year this year with lots of visitors. First was Angie and Ryan in May, then Ewan and his girlfriend in July(?), then my mum and Bobby in Sept and last was Nicola and Dene earlier this month. There is still time if anyone feels like a trip over to spend christmas and new year with us.