Hoping it will be just another phase

For the past few weeks your eating has gotten so much better, but a couple of days ago we noticed you were chewing but ended up spitting out all of the food rather than swallowing it. Yesterday and this morning you have decided to go back to square one, refusing all solid foods.

Not exactly sure why this has come back, we are all hoping it is just another phase you are going through, both your mother’s and my patience were running so thin yesterday, going back to square one was quite hard to take and so frustrating. However, this morning our senses have returned, at least you are still taking you milk.

You are now on your Christmas break, so to keep you entertain, we decided to enroll you into another half day nursery, it is so much better than having you cooped up in the room, as this nursery is only across the road, we decided to walk across the overpass rather than driving. Walking and carrying all your stuff took some getting use to but as of now it is all running like clockwork :)

Marble Tripitaka

 

Not wanting to take you to same old places especially when Phutthamonthon is such a huge place, there was this landmark that I have been meaning to visit but never did.

On this day your mother decided to stay home to make her infamous soap, it was just you and I this time…

Tripitaka Marble Shrine (actually not quite sure if is correct to call it a shrine) totally took my breath away, unfortunately didn’t have a chance to take a pic of the Tripitaka itself (ran out of light juice), just imagine a tall man height marble slab, at about one and a half to two meters in width and about 15 cms in thickness. On it are etching of Buddhist canon. But there wasn’t just the one, there were hundreds of these, all laid out in a circle surrounding the centre shrine architecture (these pics).

It would have made a really good location for a ‘Lara Croft – Tome Raider’ game (by the time you are old enough to understand this I am sure Tomb Raider would have already been totally forgotten).

It was obvious that I found this place far more interesting than you did, being only two and a half all you wanted to do was to play hide & seek, and in this place hiding (your job) was easy, seeking (my job) was frighteningly super difficult… :) However in this serene surrounding it was totally inappropriate (although I was awfully tempted to have a quick game).

And now for something completely different…

 

During this past long weekend there was an event in Lumpini Park, International Street Show (in Bangkok).

There were 12 stages plus some roaming shows all around, what a nice change of pace, it had a real festival feel to it, unfortunately the weather was far too hot and humid…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

With everything that was going on, I had only managed to take Matt there late one evening while the event was winding down, walking with a pram against the hoards of people coming from the opposite direction was like swimming against a land slide, after a couple minutes and 2 cms later, an alternative route was taken… Managed to get to station number 11, a show from Laos, “Kabong Lao”. 
 
It was a great change to see a performance that was not based on physical strength or agility, but an actual performance-performance… We had already hit a real Gem with our first stop.

After a few minutes Matt was getting a bit restless, and that was a signal to move on…

The next stop was a pair of acrobats from the Netherlands, “Bencha Theatre”, talking about a ‘Wow’ factor… it had a flying hoop and everything (leaving the rest to your imagination). Matt was mesmerised, but now it was my turn to get a bit restless, people dangling from hoop and ropes was nothing new, the choreograph was actually very good, and I must say seeing it live did hold my total attention for a while…

The night ended with a huge balloon and a ‘multi coloured flashing light stick’ thingy for Matt… and now we are having trouble taking both away from him :)

THAT’S A WHOLE LOT OF LOVE :)

What perfect timing, yesterday (December 5th) was our beloved King’s Birthday because it felt on a Sunday thus the ‘9 to 5ers’ were given Monday off as a ‘catch up’ holiday, making this a much needed long weekend.

6th of December was also set for your year performance, no costumes and no props, the average age was only 2.7 years old so it was just a show to give you and your friends confidence. It starts off with a group song, then each class would come to the front to do their own little piece, you were in the ‘green’ class.

In the beginning all parents (including us) were very polite and sat perfectly still in rows (quiet chit chats here and there of course), you can feel the anticipation and excitement building at every tick of the clock…

Then the curtains were pulled back, revealing about 50 children, sitting, fidgeting with startled faces everywhere, as most of the parents stood up (some at the back even stood on their chairs), laughing and smiling all around…

The performance was perfect, of course we would say that, all the teachers and assistants have great voices… haa haa haa, the whole morning was absolutely adorable :) Can not wait to show you the video :)

She just can’t get away… :)

Now that we’ve moved your Little Gym class to Sunday, for this class parents are not allowed to participate in the lesson.

So your mother has about an hour to do whatever she wants… Since she has so few chances to have free time, I had assumed for that free hour, she was going to be off, shopping or sipping hot cappuccino or visit the hair dresser or anything…

Instead, she chose to be sitting outside the gym watching you play :) and it was my job to trot off and get her that hot cappuccino. She wasn’t reading any magazines, playing with the mobile phone, talking to friends, she just sat there laughing (quietly to herself) and smiling at your every move… I just wanted you to know that :)

What will this be?

For the past few weeks, this structure was (and still is) going up (bit by bit), I am still trying to figure out what it will turn out to be.

The location is quite unique, as it sits above one of the major crossroad in Bangkok, Sathorn – Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra, it links the BTS and BRT (‘sky train’ and ‘special bus service’ respectively).

A motorcycle taxi told me (as he screamed his thoughts while we were travelling at warp 9.9, dashing between cars stucked in traffic)… “IT WILL BE A FOOD COURT!” Imagine that, it  would be the funkiest food court in Bangkok, but it would be a real surprise if it did turn out to be what he had told me.

What will this be? Will it be some bold and fantastic art? Or just another waste of tax payers’ money… :)

Time to dress up :)

 
For Loi Kratong festival, the school left a note for all parents to dress up their children in a traditional Thai attire, of course the first person we turned to for advice was my mother… and she did not let us down :)

Unfortunately she did not see you all dressed up first hand, but the video I took gave her a huge smile. It must have been destiny, but the traffic was non existence, so we arrived at the school well before it starts (which is a rare occasion, haa haa haa), and to see all the kids dressed up was just  amazing.

In the afternoon, all of the children went over to the pool and each class’ paired representatives would ‘loi’ the ‘kratong’, V and Angie were chosen to represent your class, and for your mother and I, it was a good decision (V and Angie were always calm and well behaved when we saw them) you sat at front all smart and salivary… haa haa haa.
 

That’s a lot of concrete :)

The composition was kind a obvious, I just wished there were more cars beneath it, to balance it out a little more. This is Siam BTS station (aka Sky Train), probably the busiest station in the whole of the kingdom :)

Not quite sure how the structure is lit at night, but it could be an interesting shot, with less cars and display lights coming from the various stores.

Good to be back…

It has already been three months since we’ve moved, but for the past few weeks we have been going back and staying over the weekend at the old place, your mother loves it because she is into making soap at the moment, and so she needs as much room as the Space Shuttle needs before she takes off for the stars.

I think you love it as well, with all that space to run around, and a garden with 5 taps all connected to a huge water pump meaning you can be totally soaked in about 5 seconds, it also gives us opportunities to be back to Putthamonthon…

All in all it is certainly good to be back… :)


 




















 

Loy Kratong 2010

 
“Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November.”

Wikipedia

The moon was certainly full that night :)

Here was an attempt to capture the bright full moon with no tripod, not too bad, well it helped having the camera jammed up against the wall.

To be honest here baby, I think you have the view out of all of us, not that you care of course, being only two and a half, you are now more interested in jumping fully clothes into the bath full of water.

Anyway, this was your only second loy-kratong and there was no way we were going to stay in, we had to go and ‘loy’ the ‘kratong’ (a direct translation would probably be ‘float-basket’). Usually the place to go would be the riverside temples, so that the kratong can be floated down the river. However, another popular place is ‘Suan Lum’s (huge) lake’.

We decided to head for Suan Lum, simply because we wanted to take you on the sky train…  (and it was close to our house)
 
 
  

Somehow you have forgotten how to walk, you now come in two modes, ‘sit’ or ‘run’, both are really tiring for both your mother and I, because we ended up either carrying you everywhere or chasing after you at full pelt (running towards moving cars seems to be your specialty).

The one station BTS (aka Sky Train) ride was a hoot, the crowd was not that bad and you were all bright eyed and bushy tailed :)
     
   
  
It was a good walk from the BTS Silom station to the main entrance of Suan Lum (there is large statue of King Rama VI), the street hawkers were out en mass, the delicious smell of food cooking filled the cool night air, while the colourful kratong added eye candy to the normally peaceful but plain square.

    
  
  
Not to repeat the same mistake we made last year, this time we bought our kratong early, we basically stopped at the very first hawker we saw, you chose the kratong, then we made our way through the gates.

It was a mistake letting you carry the kratong, no need to go into detail here, (after a minute most of the flowers were on the floor :) )

 

 
 
  
The organiser decided to re-create old bangkok, with people dressing like the olden days, there were also stalls selling traditional food, I quite liked the display boards explaining the past.

By far the stall with the longest queue was the ‘fortune teller’s’, anyway, after a couple of minutes we decided to ‘loy’ the ‘kratong’ so that we would have more hands to look after you :) Of course I no longer carry a lighter, so we had to borrow it from a ‘farang’ (a polite slang for caucasian foreigners) to light the candle and the joss sticks.

  
   

After the kratong peacefully floated away (we totally forgot to put some coins in the kratong… aaahhhggghhh). Your mother and I decided to have a walk around, there was quite a lot to be seen, but you were having none of it… so we decided to call it a night.









 
 
 
Before going home we decided to stop by Chester Grill (Thailand own QSR), then you decide to drop your special #2… haa haa haa, without a spare nappy, it was the correct decision to make a quick exit :)

 
  
In stead of going back by BTS, we decided to catch a ‘tuk-tuk’ instead, I never haggle (because I am just terrible at it), so in no time we were sprinting through Silom and Narathiwas. Luckily the traffic was very light, with all that fresh air it really helped us to forget that you were totally filled up with #2 :)