And... it's John Dancing Again!

This time at the new HomeWorks store, which is huge. Not sure of the reason for the dancing, but we enjoyed it anyway!



And a few photos before the dance began. The kids love to have fun, John has really enjoyed the first year of Kindergarten, will be a shame to move him to the English school in May!

 

Christmas 2008

Christmas here is not like Christmas of old back in England. I mean, for one, Christmas is not an old celebration/tradition/religious festival like it is in England. Thai's have caught on to the idea of presents, but I believe if you were in a provincial town like Mam's home town of Chumphon you would hardly notice it. There might be some decorations up in a few shops or in the Ocean mall, and the kids at school might have a little Christmas "something", but compared to the 2 months of endless Christmas marketing in England, nothing! Plus of course, it's not cold here, it does not get dark at 4pm, there are no Christmas TV shows, there are no mince pies (well, there are if you can find them), no carol singers, no Queen's speech... However, being that I am English, we do try to make something for the kids. We put up the tree on Christmas Eve. We have accumulated some decorations over the last few years. The fake tree cost about 50 Baht in a post-Christmas sale a couple of years ago. On Christmas Eve, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring.. Mam and I wrapped some presents and put them under and around the tree, ready for the magical Christmas morning...



The scooters were rather hard to wrap, so John and Jessica enjoyed them first...



 

Then we had some frenzied present unwrapping...









 

 

21st December at The Beach Bar

A few days before Christmas we had a kids birthday party, which the parents decided to hold at The Beach Bar, one of our favourite places. Cheep and Chearful.... something like that. While adults sat and ate and drank (yeh, I had a few beers, but our friend Willy was seriously falling over drunk on the beach.. and he weighs more than me... would have taken 4 grown undrunk men to move him!)

Kids had a great day - here are some photos of ours and some friends kids - I had more friends kids photos, but they are not really for this blog, rather for emailing to friends!

I tell you, I could go to the beach bar every week. Love it.



 



 





 





 

 

With John in Phuket Town

So Jessica got a bit sick in December for a few days. On my day off from work on December 13th I took John to Phuket Town for a walk, just as I had done with Jessica the month before. I wanted to "blog" a temple in Phuket Town (and did : Wat Mongkhon Nimit).. we also wandered around, ate some lunch and got John some new shoes in a shop near the market. I like family time, I also like the chance to have some time alone with my boy; with my girl; with my wife. Some quiet time with no interruptions, time that you can really "bond".. "quality time", you know.

 

 

Safety First

Before last year I never had a new car. Now we have 2. Well, here's the problem - we have one car, but Mam will always need this for taking the kids to school. My ride to work is 20km each way, not ideal, but we are not likely to move house. I might change job in the future, though have no plans now. So at the moment that's 40km per day on a moped. Phuket traffic is not so bad, but 95% of accidents involve motorbikes. I have been riding to work for 6+ years. We decided we could afford the payments and so... welcome to the family a car nicknamed "JJ" by Jessica:





It's a Honda City, small engine, good car for the daily commute. We all feel a bit more secure now.

 

John Dances Again!

Johns kindergarten class had another chance to dance on 5th December - dancing for the Kings Birthday - I (Jamie) had to work, the dancing was in the afternoon, but Mam and Jessica were there to see it...

And a couple of photos of John in his dancing clothes there will be more dancing later! He was dancing again on December 28th.

 

And so December comes...

Yes, I know it's approaching February in real time. I was very slack updating the family photos in the last few months.. keep scrolling down the page for more pics, mostly of the kids, coz they are more photogenic than us old folk. :)

Here's John and Jessica on Chalong Jetty, 4th December. We go for walks sometimes. The jetty is 800m long, so we can walk a mile out and back. Has to be done just before sunset to avoid the heat and the dark.





 

Jessica later decided to tape a broken magnifying glass to her face. Then told us she was Captain Jack Sparrow. Not seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? .. See them!

 

More November Photos

Photos of the kids at The Beach Bar - we like this little place on the beach in a quiet part of Phuket. It's very.. unpretentious.. is that a word? Looks like a jumble of letters. The Beach Bar is a place we can relax.

 



 



And a couple of photos of the kids at Koh Sirey Temple. Koh Sirey is east of Phuket Town and the temple is on a hill. You can see more at : Sirey Island or Koh Sirey Temple.