Hospital Holiday :)

We decided to get away before the Songkran holiday, the last time we were in Pattaya we promised ourselves for our next return trip here, we would try to stay at Centara Grand, simply because of the huge water park, and family orientated hotel.

 
 


For this trip (07-09.04.11) we have decided to take our house keeper (Pui) with us, Matt is getting to be a handful so an extra pair of hands means we can enjoy this short break just a little bit more :) The plan was simple, drive down on the Thursday and return on the Saturday, spend as much time as we could in the pool, eat some seafood and then come home... what could be simpler :)






 



















Life is never that simple, it all started so perfectly, Pui was here as early as usual, she helped to pack and in no time we were all in the car heading towards the deep blue sea. We arrived at the hotel around noon-ish, despite what the foursquare tipsters had posted, the checking in experience was faultless.

Usually Matt would have had a long nap in the car, but not this time, so after checking in and a quick lunch it was clear that he was tired, so we decided to go back to the hotel for a quick rest, he pretty much felt asleep as soon as his head touches the pillow, and here is where the fun begins (not).

The plan was as soon as he had woken up we were going to take him down to one of the gazillion pools downstairs. As soon as he had stirred Gio gave out a quiet, and much feared few words, 'I think he has a temperature', Gio is never, never wrong... :)

He woke up with a temperature and diarrhea, things suddenly looked rather gloomy, I was more concern with the temperature and there was no doubt that one was connected to the other. It was terrible seeing him playing and happy then suddenly he was curling over on the floor like a shrimp with both hands in a fist pushing on his stomach... like many parents, we felt awful and helpless...


Luckily the hospital was only a few minutes drive away, everyone was nice enough, but at home we were used to one of those thermometer that you stick in the ear (it takes about a sec to give the result), but here I had to hold a thermometer under Matt's arm for what felt like an eternity, Matt was having none of it and screamed like a busted exhaust the whole entire time.



 

 


          
By the time it was over we came out with a bunch of medicine, including powdered antibiotic that could be mixed with milk, you should have seen my face, I was over the flipping moon, no more holding Matt down and physically force the med down him.

Oh, how life could be so cruel, it all sounds too perfect just like a Ponzi Scheme, it was just too blooming good to be true. After mixing in the powered antibiotic (orange flavoured) and milk, I had a quick sip knowing how particular Matt could be... Gio read my face like a front page news, there was no way in ^%$$ he was going to take that, I can categorically say, it was worst than dog's poo biscuit.

So the first day was over, Matt was snoring away at around ten, so we had some time to relax. We managed to give him the med for his temperature, all the fingers were crossed for him to feel better in the morning. Well, the night was terrible, Matt woke up three times needing the loo, holding him steady on top of the loo and seeing his face in pain was not what I had expected for this short break.
   

The next morning looked a bit better, he was still suffering from the stomach cramp but his temperature was down (yippp ppppeeee), so we took a gamble and asked him if he wanted a swim, it was a pointless question really, the answer would always be 'yes'.

Within a blink of an eye we were both playing in the pool, his stomach suddenly got better, hygiene was on the top of my mind with the swimming nappy and constantly being vigilant we ended up having a great time (including a quick dip in the sea). 


  
 

After the pool we took Matt to the playpen, it was obvious that his stomach was still giving him some trouble, during his afternoon nap I was sent by my CEO (Gio) to the hospital, taking with me an extremely dirty nappy just to get it tested :) After around thirty minutes the preliminary results gave the Doc. no concern, so on this second visit I was given Matt’s usual antibiotic, oh what joy.

On the check out day, we woke up early trying to get back all the lost time… well, we tried our best ;) Got in another swimming session before heading home :)
 
 
 

Well, here we go again :)

Hi

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ don’t you think? Here is a picture of you at about eleven weeks, during the scan you were dancing like mad, quite the opposite to Matt who was quite still during all scans.

So we were thinking that perhaps once you are in our arms you’ll be all ‘danced’ out, unlike your big brother, full of energy, as I am writing this I can hear him dancing/jumping to ‘Because I got high’ (Afroman) of all things :)

Matt gave us such joy so we decided to go for another, by the way I was just as nervous as before, but seeing you there just took me home :) Can not wait to hold you :)

Over the &*%$^#@ moon :)

Since our return from a short break in Pattaya, you were still poorly, running a slight fever and your diarrhea wasn’t that much better, so the only thing to do was to give you the medicine, the much dreaded antibiotic.

The first bout was set for Monday (11.04.2011), as it turned out it was the worst ever, you had decided to grit your teeth which was like 'checkmate' in chess, this time you were in full control, if it wasn't so important and essential to your well being we would have given up, but of course we could not.
 
It must have been about seven or eight minutes in, after constant crying and screaming not to mention the tears running like rivers during a monsoon season, my patience was running thin. You decided to loosen your grit just a little, enough for me to try to inject in the med. of course you spat it all out, so I went back for a refill (much to your disappointment, which brought even more tears and screams).

Did I shout at you this time, 'no', but I was so, so close, the words were firmed and to the point, and I must admit it, it did have 'anger' mixed in because it was so frustrating! I ended up going for a couple of refill before I gave up and hoped that after all the mess, enough of the medicine would have gone down. By the time I was cleaning up my mind was already on the following morning, will it be this stressful again?

As you can guess by the title of this blog, things were fantastic the following morning... Your mother got into her 'hold Matt down position' and I was already in my ‘med. injection pose’, then your mother gave you this question, 'do you want Papa to give you the med or will you take it yourself', there was a very quiet whimper... "Matt do it", of course in my mind I thought for sure that you would spit every last drop out (only 5 cc).

The medicine was in a syringe, so we let you sucked the syringe a little followed by a gulp of water, this went on several times and after a couple of minutes you had swallowed all the med. without a single drop touching the floor. We can not tell you the jubilations and the cheering your mother and I had, the only thing that could bring me the same fantastic sense of joy would probably be seeing England winning the world cup in 2014 :)

‘Blind Spot’ be gone!

It is just a 'repeater' how difficult can it be to set it up!

Since our move into the condo six months ago, we have always had this Wi-Fi blind spot in the far bedroom, although not surprising when the Wi-Fi router modem is on the furthest opposite side of the floor plan.

So it was about time to sort this out, the logical solution was to have a repeater in the bedroom, simple... Although having no experience in setting up a repeater, I wasn't expecting it to be that challenging, so no research was done... What a mistake that was.

Sunday morning, D Day, decided to drive to 'Fortune Tower', instead of the holy grail (Pantip), got there around 10:30, might as well be 3 in the morning, totally deserted but luckily my shop for all things 'network' was already up and running.

 

I was given two choices, D-Link or Asus (1,800 and 1,700 THB respectively) while D-link came with a life time warranty, I decided to go with the Asus instead, purely because it has a dedicated hard switch at the back for 'repeater'. I though 'this is perfect, easier than peeling a banana' (a very Thai expression).

A banana may be one of the easiest fruit to peel, but unfortunately on this occasion I was like a man with no hands whom was given a very raw banana to peel.

First of all, the shop keeper said “do you want to upgrade the firmware?”, who on earth would say no? (especially when they say it would make setting up easier). So off he went with swiftness of a hummingbird and a precision of a kingfisher, the firmware was upgraded literally in a few blinks of an eye.

Feeling pretty great, could not wait to kill that blind spot... It must have been just before noon when I was unboxing it at home.

Time warp... oh, I got it working alright, but it was almost one in the &*%$#@% morning!

Like I said, I should have done some research before hand... well, as it turned out the firmware that was updated by the salesman was a (very popular) third party firmware, although it is quite stable and very usable (seconds by several hundreds users), it has totally disabled the ‘hard’ selection switch (so the repeater choice was voided).

Decided to flush the firmware again, but his time using Asus’s own firmware... And ‘Sod’s law’ once again prevails :) I had made the wrong choice in reinstalling the official firmware, instead of using ‘update firmware’ procedures, I jumped at first option that I laid my eyes on and that was ‘firmware recovery’ (or something along that line).

After some furious fiddling, and praying, somehow the official firmware went in... and with a few tweaks, the Wi-Fi Router Modem (repeater mode) was running like a champion.

A total lapse of judgment

There are a billion quote on ‘hindsight’ and believe me all of them are true :)

Every parents know, never get your kid a drum kit unless you have managed to soundproof your life or you happened to live in the Southern Aitken Basin.

Well, I am sure that the list go well beyond a drum kit now, but just in case it hasn’t been considered before, I would like to add the fantastic ‘Harmonica’ to the list of things never to buy for a 2 and a half year old boy.

He calls it his ‘Moo-nee-car’, and how I hate those three short syllables :) he is so attached to it, like water to fish, totally inseparable. Can you imagine giving a child a shower while he huffs and puffs away, totally tuneless, on the bloomin mo-ni-ca? ‘Painful’ would be the most fitting word, lol, the acoustic profile of a small bathroom doesn’t help either :)

Wow… :)

‎"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

— Albert Einstein

(Got this from PostSecret)

Not a moment too soon :)

While we were on a break in Chiangrai, you felt in love with your auntie’s little Sony point and shoot, so as soon as we got back we decided to get you a small camera.

About a month ago, just by chance we went passed this IT retail chain and saw on one of their leaflet that they were having a sales, it was destiny :)

Got a Sony DSC-S2000, it is still just a tad too big for your tiny hands, but with a little fingers acrobat, you handled it quite well (apart where you kept blocking the lens with your fingers).


 
It is pretty amazing looking at some of the photos, a total fluke of course :)

Noddy Playgroup: Sports day 2011 :)

The photo (left) is a bit of a spoiler… :) your team (Green) won the gold medal! Trust me baby, you and your team mates have no idea how stressful that was. Right from the very beginning, we were told the organiser had deliberately put together a weak ‘Green’ team, as ‘Green’ had already won the cup for the past two years.

There were four colours (teams) in all, Green, Red, Blue and Yellow, each colour was made up of a selection of children from different classes and also from different age group, so you and your class mates were split up between different colours. (By the way, it rained, so the whole event had to be taken in door').












Now getting back to the ‘Green’ being a weak team… right from the very beginning, I knew that this wasn’t so, the older children was taking real command of each game played.

You participated in two team events, winning one and came second in the other, I am sorry that I can not post any photos here, as it just doesn’t feel right posting photos of other people’s children.

The ‘Green’ and ‘Blue’ were neck and neck heading into the final event, the “Tug of Gory Death” (sorry, a bit dramatic here, it was a ‘Tug of War’)… (queue back the dramatic music), in the first semi-final, ‘Green’ had a hard time dispatching the ‘Red’, but they were through to the final, while the ‘Blue’ had no problem getting rid of the ‘Yellow’ in a somewhat one sided match. So, this was it, the very final event will decides who lifts the cup of champions… the atmosphere was intense, the sound of cheering parents were deafening, the passion was overflowing… it was time…

Each team strained the rope, the referee lifted his foot and the match was on! The ‘Blue’ had immediately took charge of the pull, the ‘Green’ was looking in disarray, each team member was swaying from left to right like a set of unorganised pendulum, the ‘Blue’ was fulfilling their deadly form they had shown in the earlier semi-final. You have to see the vdo to understand what I am about to say… like a phoenix, ‘Green’ being a millimetre away from loosing everything, sudden found their rhythm… pulling in unison like a team with a purpose… In a blink of an eye, the match was won… Now I know how the people of England felt in 1966 :) (only kidding).
 
 

2011 Winter Holiday (Part II): First Night in Chiang Rai

The morning came too soon, being a worried soul that I am, I was truly dreading the drive back through the ever winding road to Tak, as there was a very strong chance that you would be sick again. So a strategy was formed during the night (after a beer, so it may not have been the best of plan). Firstly, skip breakfast (you loved this), secondly, let you sit at the front seat, thirdly, make sure you look forward while driving, fourth, to keep the window slightly open so that we have cool fresh air coming into the car, fifth, stop when we can and finally, to drive at a constant slowish speed.

Well, putting all of the above together resulted in us taking almost two hours to drive the eighty km, including one short stop at a sight seeing area (09:17). It was all worth it though, the toughest thing was when we were at about the sixty km mark, you started to repeat the word ‘nom’ (milk) over and over, but it was easy enough to distract you (iPhone) away from your hunger. As soon as the windy part was over, we immediately stop to make your milk.

Mae Sot to Chiangrai is about 471 km, our chosen route took us from Tak to Lampang, then Phayao and lastly Chiang Rai, because we took it ridiculously slow going from Mae Sot to Tak, together with a quick lunch in Lampang, it was around 16:30 when you were once again jumping on a bed at the Dusit Island resort. A+ for your mother, the hotel was fantastic, not the newest of hotel, but the quality of staff, the view and all the bells and whistles were certainly above my expectations.

 

Unfortunately the hotel was really busy and it was fully booked on what was supposed to be our last night in Chiangrai, so for our final night we were going to have to change hotel. The thought of having to pack up all your stuff, move hotel then unpack it all again just for that final night kills me. But hey, that is 3 nights away, your mother was convinced that there will be a room available so that we didn’t have to move.






After we got freshened up, we decided to head out straight away to your mother’s auntie and uncle house because that was where everybody was gathering (including your grand parents who flew up to Chiang Rai a few days earlier), and so this was how we spent our first night, full of food and laughter (especially seeing you and your new friend mucking around), more importantly you had a great time being centre of attention (as always).

2011 Winter Holiday (part 1): Bangkok To Mae Sot

Baby, now that everyone was back at work, it was our turn to take a break :) avoiding holiday madness is one of our golden rule that must never be broken, after an awful experience a few years back.

This time the destination was Chiang Rai, one of the most northern province of Thailand, this is your mother’s ‘home’ province, many of her relatives are still there and they were now eagerly waiting to meet the latest member of their family... ‘you’ :)

It felt like we had taken half of the house with us (we are all use to this by now), the trip started off rather wonky, your breakfast was loving packed into a special 3 compartments flask; hard gorgeous boiled egg, nutritious spare ribs soup and steaming hot rice... unfortunately the egg and soup was ‘lovingly’ packed in the wrong compartment, and so the soup leaked like the Titanic... had to stop the car even before we got on the express way :)




Chiang Rai being over eight hundred km away to the north, it was going to be too much for you to sit through this in a single drive, so your mother decided to stop over night at Mae Sot (on the border with Burma), before driving on to Chiang Rai.

Bangkok to Mae Sot will always be about 476 km (unless the Mayan was correct), on the map it was only 80 km off our intended route, but as it turned out, the 80 km side trip was more curvaceous than Miss Kardashian’s silhouette. You ended up chucking up a couple of times, and I had to drive slower than a lame duck walking up shag hill with a huge rucksack loaded to the brim with house bricks, it took us literally ‘forever’ getting through the 80 km.



After several stops (including a long lunch) and the need to go slow through the winding hills, all in all it took us around seven hours before we were checking in at the Centara Mae Sot hotel, it was just four when we were finally in our rooms.

Lovely hotel, and I am sure it will always be totally fully booked during the holidays, but on this night I think they had three guests and they were all listed on the welcome board, very strange seeing my name of the front door of the hotel though.

We all regretted spending just one night here, especially when the journey was so tough on you and there were so much to do here; deep down I was dreading driving the same 80 km out to Tak then the rest of the way to Chiang Rai, it was going to be another long session tomorrow :)

After everyone had freshened up, It was just the right time to have early dinner, since you had chucked up most of your lunch (by the way, your mother was faster than lightening with the plastic bag, it was amazing the car remained as clean as it had). The restaurant was recommended by your mother’s friend (the friend is from Mae Sot), and talking about WOW... the food was great too :)




 












 


























After dinner, it was time to head back to the hotel, it was around seven/eight when you nodded off... free time for your mother and I :) perfect time to enjoy the chilled night air (almost never happens in Bangkok) and a beer :) and trying not to think too much of the second leg of the trip, from Mae Sot to Chiang Rai.