January 2005

Hi all,
While I was updating the website last time, Frosty had escaped to Thailand all by himself to enjoy a few days with 'the lads' in Bangkok and then a glorious weekend down in Koh Samet for Claire and Matt's wedding. How jealous was I of his total freedom from routine, nappies and constant cooking, not that he does all three of those necessarily, I think that's my dream of freedom. From the moment he set foot in Thailand I received phone calls or messages of how great it was to be back. With Mawf's flat still held to ransom from contractors running months late on the renovations, Ron was the unfortunate one to put Frosty up. Frosty described Ron's flat as the typical bachelor pad, nothing in the fridge apart from a few beers and first job was to head off to foodland to pick up essential supplies such as milk.

I don't really have many details of the whole trip as Frosty arrived home 5 days later bleary eyed, hung over and totally exhausted, blaming his sorry state of health on Ranjit mostly, but this is what I have managed to piece together since he came too.

Thursday night was a very late one in the company of Mawf, Ron and Ranjit drinking the night away in a place called Bed on Sukhumvit soi 11. After a couple of hours sleep Ranjit and Frosty dragged themselves into a car and were driven down to Koh Samet for the start of the wedding celebrations.

Friday night celebrations started at 7pm with cocktails hosted by Claire's brother Howie, who gave a cracking speech. It was the first night that everyone was in and friends and family got to meet up before the big day.

Saturday morning it was recommended that you caught the spectacular sunrise and made an early start. I don't think Frosty did either of those. The men and women then split up and the men had to go and raid the village and steel the bride. Frosty always remembers all the macho stuff, I had no reports of what the flowers and decorations were like however. I think the next part was probably the wedding ceremony followed by a blessing by the monks but it all starts to get a bit patchy here in Frosty's memory and you would be better to check out Claire and Matt's website for all the proper details. Guests also added their blessings by pouring water over the hands of the newly married couple. Frosty of course managed to cock this up and tipped the water vessel up the wrong way round spilling all the holy water. Bouquet throwing followed the wedding ceremony and Sandra making a flying leap reaped the benefits of her gym work outs by catching the bridal flowers. Ranjit cowered in a corner face aghast at the scene unfolding before his eyes. Lunch was a lovely Thai meal which according to Frosty then seemed to be followed by a whole day of drinking, massages on the beach and lazing round the pool. He didn't try to hide any of this to make me feel better whilst I was running round after a toddler at home wanting to be entertained every five minutes with a new activity. The day ended with an evening barbecue hosted by all the parents and more drinking to the wee small hours. So quite a typical wedding on the alcohol front. Frosty headed back to Bangkok the next morning and then onto Singapore to recuperate. All in all, his tales of the location, the ceremony and all the people he had met made me quite jealous of all that I had missed out on as it sounded like everyone had such a great time and there will be plenty of wonderful wedding memories to reminisce about for years to come.

A few days later Ranjit turned up on our doorstep. That was quite a nice surprise for me having heard Frosty natter on for days about his drinking buddy whilst away. Not having seen Ranjit for about 2 years he is still the gregarious large hairy man with a presence. (see photo section) Joe took an instant liking to him and we had a surprisingly quiet night in, with a takeaway and very little booze.

Mick was in Singapore for a week at the beginning of Dec. I had promised Joe that we would take him to the zoo as he had been dragged round the shops everyday that week while I tried to do some Christmas shopping. I think he was thoroughly bored with the whole shopping thing so when Mick asked what we were doing he was told: Sunday morning, 9.30am sharp to go to the zoo. We half did not expect a single bloke who had been out drinking the night before to turn up for such an outing so we were pleasantly surprised when he turned up at 9.15am telling me to put the kettle on. Joe soon decided that Mick was great fun because he is completely mad. Actually I think I may to have to ban future outings as he is a bad influence. In the wild forest where butterflies flutter about freely Mick pretended to catch/squash one..... so of course Joe then had to do it. I am surprised we did not get thrown out.

We had a lovely Christmas day again this year. Everything was on the last minute and we were still wrapping presents late on Christmas eve and tidying up the house so it was less of a tip than normal. No matter how much you tidy with kids around there is always something on the floor to trip over. By the time we had put out the presents, the mince pie and whiskey for father Christmas I think I was more excited than Joe! Joe went to bed as usual totally unaware that Father Christmas was coming. I don't expect that will last much longer for years to come.

We got up at our usual time of early! Joe spotted the presents but was not sure what to make of them. He totally ignored his blackboard and easel not knowing what the heck it was. He is like that. If in doubt ignore it or close your eyes and it will hopefully go away. After opening a couple of presents and finding 3 cool diggers and a load of wild plastic animals he was sorted and didn't want to open anything else and happily went off playing while Mike and I opened ours. There are still a few presents sitting under the tree, he is content to open just one a day!

At lunch time we piled the car with baby paraphernalia and headed round to Joe and Rachel's for Christmas dinner. A lovely roast turkey arrived from the Grand Hyatt and along with Joe's daughter Caroline, Alison and her little boy Alex, and newly arrived James to Singapore we tucked into a great Christmas lunch and continued eating and drinking all afternoon in true British style. Joe had a great time with more new things to play with and following Honey dog around most of the afternoon. We even vegged in front of the tv for an hour watching Fawlty Towers just to make the day seem more like a real British Christmas afternoon. Alas no Queen's speech is broadcast here. The afternoon went so quickly and didn't realize the time till Joe started to become grizzly around 8pm at which we bundled him in the car and headed home to get him to bed and phone the families in the UK. It really was a good Christmas day this year.

Mike has now gone to the UK with Joe for his sisters wedding on New Years Eve. I am in Singapore with my friend Marita who has just arrived from Australia. The house is quiet and peaceful and I am doing all kinds of things whilst the pair of them away, you know important thinks like sleeping in till past 7am! Will save all that news for next time.

Happy New Year to you all.
Birdie

Birdie x x x