Week One - done

We have made it to the end of a very lazy week one! The kids are now fully adapted and settled. Their swimming is coming along fantastically, after a couple of cautious days Joey is now loving the pool, we put him in a little rubber ring and float him around and he kicks along! Ellie also spent a cautious couple of days with armbands but the kids pool is a great depth, it comes to her chest to she is now in and out, always with goggles on, generally with her bum in the air exploring underwater activities! Picking up stones, looking at whoever else is wearing goggles, stuff like that as you do when you're three and three quarters! (She'll tell literally anyone who'll listen) there is a toy box by the pool so you can leave your old toys when you go home, so there's a nice selection of buckets and spades, boogie boards, lilos, boats and balls. It's nicely shaded so if you get the rights seats you can duck in and out of the shade. 

Joey's started to become a little mimic, he'll copy a lot of what you do, from brushing teeth to putting goggles and sunglasses on, I think he's starting to say the odd word, we're working on the dreaded "ta" at the moment as just constantly being given stuff by him! He's trying to walk some days but I reckon he's at the same level as when we got here, I really thought he'd be up and going by the end of Thailand but I think that will be kept for Australia (maybe he's waiting for some softer landings). He got locked in his bedroom the other day, it has one of those door handles you press the button in to lock from the other side, this has become Ellie's new obsession, I closed his bedroom door for him to sleep, he didn't so five minutes later I tried to get in and it was locked! This is different from the standard and needed an actual key! So had to run to reception to get a key, it was awful! He got in a right state :( 

Part of our daily routine we have is at the end if the day we take a walk into Bang Thao village and do our chores, so we drop / pick up our washing from the lovely laundry lady, this is 60baht, just over £1 and she washes it, and flattens/presses it, folds it perfectly and wraps it in plastic to send back smelling fresh as a daisy - brilliant!  We go to the little shop that's essentially the front of this guy's house, he sells fruit, lager, water and crisps. Shoes come off, go in, fetch a couple of singha (not Chang, decided it gives us the sh@*s,) and some water, come back out, shoes on, carry on our business. Depending on what else we need we go along to the 7/11 by the beach or the general store. To get to the general store you walk past the seedier part of this village. The bit that plays on my mind the whole time we're here; where white men sit in groups chatting to giggly young Thai ladies or girls in bars, the girls outside massage parlours are dolled up to the nines, I find it so predatory, embarrassing (to be the same nationality) and sad all at once. I drive jim nuts as I just assume all mixed thai / western couples here are of that nature when I'm sure they aren't, but you can't help wonder. Out and about the men always hold the girls hand or have an arm around they're shoulder, either "showing off" or controlling, it's horrible. So I'm not a fan of going past. Once home, we crack open a bottle of lager or two, jim actually cut his hand really badly the other night when a glass slipped, it seems to be healing ok but was very nasty at the time and then head on for our dinner. I'm loving the Thai food and not suffering as much "food fear" as I have in the past!

We are also keeping a journal for Ellie, given to her from Aunty Boo, so we have decided to keep that to scrap book and drawing, week one of that is done and looks fantastic. Next week we'll do something!!