Little Scarecrows

Throughout the villages around here, little scarecrows have been appearing on peoples gateposts. They are to ward away a female ghost, who is after men who were born on Tuesday or Wednesday (some say Thursday). Unfortunately I dont know which day I was born on. The girl in the picture is making one for her brother.

Lottie

She is now walking and nearly always smiling, but she has just realised if she screams/cries if she doesnt get her way, it may make a difference. She loves going out around the village, in the morning she plays on our bed until Paa says "by dtea-o" (go visiting), then she gets very excited. Comes back for a sleep at about 11am, a bath which she loves and eating rice congee (thick rice soup with finely minced pork). All the other children make a fuss of her, as do all the women in the village, and many of the men. She is a very happy child.

Pattaya to see Craig and Terry

Unfortunately Craig and Terry didnt have too much time so werent coming to visit me, so I had to visit them while they were in Thailand. We did the usual, went to the island, went to the big Buddha on the hill, we went down the coast to a beach at Sattahip, eating seafood at Bang Seray, and also drinking excessive amounts interspersed with breakfast and dinner, and playing a lot of pool. It was really nice to see them again, I hadnt seen terry for 5 months and craig for a year and a half. Aussie Paul hooked up with us as well. And a couple of other friends Jamie and Roger were around so we had a great time.

My Fishing Pond

I have been wanting a fishing pond behind the house for two years. However my mother in law said that it is unlucky to have one behind the house, even though many people have them behind the house. She finally relented however. After some negotiation and Paa showing a lack of bartering skills, I managed to get a digger organised.

Lottie's First Birthday

From a small party, suddenly we had a sound system, marquee, monks coming round to eat and bless Lottie and us. In Thailand any excuse is good enough for a party. I felt that we should just have a small party for Lottie with children and cake. Paa wanted to feed everybody and have a lot of drink as well.

Childrens' Day

Thailand has a Childrens' Day, the local school, put on a show. Various people sponsored various things, my friend Ron from the next village did the ice cream, I paid for a few hudred packets of crisps and various other people sponsored other things.

Paa's Brother becomes a Monk

To bring good luck to the family, boys around 20 years old sometimes become a monk for a week, weeks or month/s. Paa's brother did so this year. So after a party, he went to the temple.

Huai Rat Kite Festival

Other than me living here, Huai Rat is famous for its annual kite festival. How they get the wind to blow i don't know its not been windy for months, then we went to the festival and the wind starts. Anyway, some of the kites are seriously massive, the pink one in the photo is bigger than the blue one next to the truck. Each school in the "ampur" (county sub-division) sends a dance troupe, people fly kites, eat etc. Notice the power lines very close by!?

Lottie (obviously)

Here she is in her paddling pool. In the house, and helping Paa's mum and aunty to make rice, peanut and banana cooked inside coconut fronds. She is still no walking unaided, but can stand on her own for a short while. She is now 11 months and 4 days.

The Patter of Tiny Hooves Again

One of our buffalo had a baby, taking the number of buffalo to 7. This one was very small, but has survived with no problems. Here it is with Paa's dad.

School Sportsday(s)

Ban Ket School, our local school took part in the 3-day School Sportsday. There was football for the very young girls, hilarious because they all attampt to get the ball at the same time. So its like a swarm following the ball around the pitch. The parents are shouting, screaming, cheering, clapping and laughing.

Our school did very well (second) at "dat-grow", I don't know how to spell it. It is like keepy-uppy in England with a medium height net. The ball is made of plastic and is very light, it looks like it was probably made of bamboo historically. Two teams of three a side.

But the girls volleyball was the highlight, Ban Ket school came first. Our village (Ban Lum Puk)and Ban Ket took loads of people to support, more I think than any other village.

Bananas

The two large bunches of bananas started to turn yellow I cut them and strung them up in a three or four days they had all gone yellow. Lovely, slightly more custardy than the ones that one can buy in the UK. I think there are about 9 species or something grown in Thailand, we grow probably 5 different sorts but I am not sure about that, not being an expert banana spotter or taster.

Loy Kratong

This year we went to (the Buddhist festival) Loy Kratong, at the local school, this involves floating candles and josh sticks on banana leaf boats. There was dancing from some of the students and Thai boxing (which started very young). There was a "May Queen" or Loy Kratong Queen chosen from 4 hopefuls, Puy, Paa's cousin from our village, one from Ban Prow Wing, and two from Ban Ket. Ban Prow Wing won, although I think Puy came second, even though she should have won.

My Village

I realised that most of my pictures were of us doing x or y. So this morning I went out and took pictures of the children playing shop.

The village shop (with Lottie out front with her grandmother, Puk), which sells a few packets of crisps, pop, beer and vegetables in the early morning. Not much really.

The road almost opposite, Charlie's (after Charles Bronson) house, Boon's house and Lord's house can be seen.

And the local cafe, which is opposite our house. A bowl of noodle soup is 10bht (15p).

Rice

The rice harvest is in full swing, we had help drying the rice from some off the village kids. Almost everyone dries the rice on half the road (some dry it on the blue mesh in their gardens), the road is hotter, you may have to leave the rice for a couple of days to get it to the correct moisture content. When I took the rice to the place where they buy it, it all had the correct moisture content.

The interesting thing around here is that rice can be left (even in sacks) over night, no one will steal it even though it would be very easy. Which is great because it means that no one needs to stay with the rice overnight.

Holiday in Pattaya

These pictures were lost for almost a year, I had had them put on CD so that i could take more pictures. Last year around Loy Kratong (annual festival, reoccured last week) we went to meet Mike and Tariq in Pattaya, we visited the Big Buddha on the Hill.

We took a speed boat to an island called Ko Lan.

Went to Nong Nooch, a botanical gardens type place, Paa was obviously pregnant at the time.