Quinn can eat with chopsticks

I was taken out for a Chinese meal when I was 6, and have enjoyed it since. I think I learned to eat with chopsticks at my second visit, and still have that set of chopsticks - the waiter let me keep them.

Quinn became keen to try when I started using them to eat noodles and Chinese take aways before our Thailand trip, and I explained that that is how people in Thailand eat. I let him try, and he picked it up pretty quickly... considering most westerners in Thailand were amazed that I could
eat with chopsticks, I am impressed with him :)

We have moved....

The boys are LOVING their new school, especially Griffin. He shouts 'YAY! My NEW school' every time I mention it, or especially if I tell him we are about to go there. I am so pleased that it seems to have been a very good decision.

We visited their old school on Friday afternoon, to say hi to the children and teachers. It was nice and sweet, and teachers were so warm and loving with my boys. When we left Quinn said, ' This school is yucky, my new school is MUCH better'. I was partly pleased, because it shows he really does like the new school. But I explained that it's not yucky. It was a lovely school and they teachers really loved him, and he had loads of friends, but he was ready for a new school.

Anyway the move is done and we are already about 80% unpacked, all the main stuff (kitchen, clothes, linen, kid's room & bathrooms) is done. Now we need to do decorating and connect up the hi-fi etc, and unpack books etc.

I'm exhausted, and it still feel very strange, and I only got 4.5hours of restless sleep, but the house is great.

Pending Move and New School

Things are a bit hectic here with work, the kids starting their new school today, and packing for the move on Monday and sorting out the pool to be covered at the new house etc. Plus Richard had to fly up to JHB this morning. He'll be back for Sat, Sun & Monday but then has to go up again for at least 2 days next week, and then may have to go to France/Switzerland in the first week of Feb....

Also my project is in chaos. The solution does not work properly and we have had to uninstall it all and start again, so our contractual deadlines with our client are going to be missed. I was told by our senior management to send an official company letter to our vendor expressing dissatisfaction with their service etc.. So we are in the middle of a dispute with them now,
which I am mediating... It's a character building time for me ;)

Quinn was a bit nervous about starting the new school today, and although each time we visited he liked the look of the place, I think he is most nervous about the new children and not really knowing anyone. I am sure he will be fine though. Yesterday I said to them that something exciting is happening today - they are starting their new school, Quinn said, ' I don't think that's so exciting...'. Griffin was very excited, and kept shaking a fist and saying 'Yay, I'm going to a NEW school!' this morning. After I dropped them off I asked them both if they wanted me to stay with them for a bit, or if I could leave and go to work. Griffin immediately said I should leave, Quinn asked me to stay a little longer, which I did...

As school only starts officially next week, they will be together for the next few days, and will only separate into their classes next Wednesday, so they will have full access to each other for now, which is good....

I am glad they have managed to start there a few days before the move, because it would have been harder to take them for their first day on the day of the move, when I'm sure I'll be more stressed and hurried etc....

Richard's parents will be coming down from Durban and staying with us for 2 weeks from the middle of Feb, so I estimate I will be able to relax again sometime in March ;)

Christmas is over, another year starts and Quinn is 5...

It's hard to believe that Quinn is 5 now! He has really grown up so much, and is so observant. He is especially amazing at being able to recognise things and realise how things are the same or different and how they fit together. He spots people in magazines from movies and can tell that someone in one movie is the same as someone in another movie, even with different hair colour... He is especially good at spotting Jackie Chan... and while that might sound easy because he is distinctly oriental looking - he can spot Jet Li too now.

He also knows Parkinson!? He saw him in the Sunday Times Magazine and said ' That's Parkinson' when I asked how he knew he sassily replied, 'I've seen the adverts on TV!'...

One funny anecdote, on Christmas Day he said to me ' Mom I know why Father Christmas comes down the chimney...', when asked why, he replied ' Because if he opened any of the doors the alarms would go off...' I though that was quite a good reason actually ;)

Shame, the poor guy didn't have a wonderfully exciting birthday, except for 2 families popping by during the day, the rest of the day was spent packing some of his toys (for the move), counting out his money box money, and taking it to the bank, going to the doctor - to get his sore ear checked out , and shopping at Pick'n Pay... He did get a nice cake though, and R85 from his money boxes, which he is going to spend on pool accessories after we have moved .

He got a big metal digger truck and a hulk figurine for his birthday , and another 2 bionicles. So he now has 1 big one and 2 smaller ones. .

Our Christmas was also pretty hectic, with us hosting & catering Christmas Day for the first time - whew hard work! I'm not sure I'll volunteer again soon. I was actually quite glad when it was all over.We also did a lot of visiting, having people staying over and going out for meals etc.


We went to a friend's place in Imhoff (near Kometjie) for new year. They made mussel soup, and crayfish and water melon salad for dinner , which together with champagne made quite a feast! Yum. We also stayed over, which was a good thing because we only went to bed at 4am! It's taken days to recover, but sadly work is back in full swing. I never had much leave just the days around each week-end since the 16th, so I had 3 4-day week-ends in a row, and had to work the middle of each week.

It's now just under 2 weeks to our big move, I have started packing and already have quite a lot done, so the task doesn't seem quite so monumental anymore - yay...

Thankfully I was kept on here at work. I nearly lost my job due to retrenchments... as a contractor I would have just been told to go (and not even have got a package!). It boiled down to my manager's decision. His job became redundant. So they offered him a PM job - basically my job. If he took it I would have been gone, but he opted for the package, so I am still here. So my contract has been renewed for another year *sigh of relief* . I only got the final news on 24 Dec, and my contract was due to expire on Dec 31st, so they kept me on my nerves for a good few weeks! . I also got a nominal increase, but it's hardly worth mentioning. I was so happy to be kept that I didn't even think of negotiating! There's no guarantee that there won't be more cuts down the line, so I am staying on my toes...

I also finally managed to get my tax return submitted just before Christmas. I did have an extension to the end of the year, but after being audited this year I was quite nervous of doing another return. But I think it's going to be ok.

Kruger Park trip

We went to the Kruger Park for a week, returning last week Tuesday. It turned out better than I expected it to be. I was actually not looking forward to it much at all.

A whole crowd went up to celebrate a friend's 40th over the week-end. Most flew. Others took and extended holiday and spent a whole week in the park. We didn't have the luxury of lots of time or money, so we drove up with friends and their 2 boys in their mini bus.

4 adults and 4 boys - under 5, in a mini-bus for a week and doing over 4000km! It didn't seem like a brilliant plan to me, but I thought it could be an adventure...

Everyone was amazing in the car and the kids played quietly together most of the time. We swapped them around a lot, so they had a different partner after each stop, and a different supervising adult too, and I think that was the secret to keeping them entertained and out of each other's hair.

We had activities for them to do. A box of small toys, a box of books, and a work book each with pictures of animals to cut and paste and crayons and colouring in pages. That kept them busy for AGES. They worked in their books everyday. I was actually amazed at how much attention they gave their books, and how well they looked after them - even the little guys both just about 3 years old now. We also had lots of interesting snacks (nuts, raisins, oaties cereal, fruit, caramel pop-corn, lolli-pops, crisps, dried fruit, biscuits etc).

Even though we were in the car for more than 7 hours each day they handled it fine, and in a whole week we only got 2 requests to stop to wee other than at our designated stopping points. We managed to get most of our mileage done early in the day, so that they had the afternoons and evening to run and play at our stop over spots, so that worked well.

We took 2 nights to drive up and 2 nights back and only had 2 nights in the park. The children also enjoyed the park and game spotting more than I expected, and Griffin (luckily) really enjoyed Impala spotting, and was excited every time we saw one, he'd yell "IMPALA!", and then tell him self "Well spotted". Luckily there are literally 100s of thousands of Impala, so he was continually amused. The park is VERY dry at the moment, and there actually wasn't a lot of game to be seen. Nearly all the rivers are dry, and apparently most of the Impala are losing their pregnancies :(. We were lucky to see Lion twice and Cheetah twice, both times quite close, all the boys loved that.

When we were looking at 2 ground-hornbills on one side of the vehicle, I caught Griffin dangling his arm out the other side to another ground-hornbill he'd found singing 'come bite me, come bit me!'. I had to explain that that was not a good idea! I think he was trying to make things more interesting.

Quinn started drawing really sweet pictures of the animals he'd seen in his book on the way home, and his ground-hornbill is excellent Everyone has recognised it.

So I think it was a wonderful worthwhile trip in the end which we all enjoyed. It was nice to spend so much time right with the children , and not have to do anything other than interact with them for most of the time.

T's and A's gone.

Well Griffin had his surgery on Friday.
We arrived at 7am as requested, in the aftermath of the Cape Town flood.He was calm and cheerful, and didn't seem to notice that he'd been given nothing to eat or drink. I took him straight from bed and left him in his pyjamas, so I think he was still quite sleepy. He was quite excited about being at the hospital, and would happily tell anybody he saw that he was at the hospital because the doctor was going to make him better.

We went into the children's ward observation room and the anaesthetist came through to check his breathing and lungs, and pronounced him to have the healthiest sounding chest all week. He was weighed at 15.3kgs. We went into the ward, where we were to be 3rd of 4 ops by our ENT.

The 2 girl before us were getting grommets, and the little girl after was also having tonsils & adenoids removed and ears drained. Griffin was second youngest, but they were all under 4. He was very chuffed and happily settled into the Jail-like cot hospital bed. He lay down and got under the covers and everything.

After a while he was given 'Stopayne', and I was told to keep him still. Of course he then no longer wanted to be still so I took him to the play corner where he started playing. He suddenly got very clumsy, and started falling over and stumbling etc. I realised the 'stopayne' had been spiked with something stronger, and put him back in his jail. By this time he was really drunk, and was giggling madly. This got me laughing, and we both found each other very funny for a while. A nurse came past and said, ' I also want some of that', to which Griffin giggled and said, ' I ALSO want some of that!'. It was all quite silly.

We were eventually called to go up to Theatre at about 9am. I was allowed to carry him up while a porter brought his bed along. While waiting for our turn the nurses gave him a balloon, each child gets a balloon with their name and an adjective on it. His was 'Cute Griffin'. After nearly dozing off from the pre-med he perked right up and started playing with the balloon. Eventually he was out the bed and running around like a lunatic...


We were called in just before 9:30,and I carried him into the theatre and sat on a stool with him in my lap. I was told to put the mask over my face to show Griffin, and the anaesthetist then did the same - I had visions of both of us passing out on the floor like in that bed advert! I then placed the mask over Griffy's face, he sat still and smiling, and 'smelling the mask' while the gas was cranked up slowly until he quietly closed his eyes and drifted off. The doctor said, 'if there was a textbook way of doing that, that was it!'.

I was asked to lift him and place him on the operating table. The ENT told me to kiss his cheek, and then he took me out telling me exactly what he'd be doing and what was going to happen. He told me to go have some coffee and come back at 9:55, which I did. I must say the whole process was made very calm and friendly.

Pretty much on the dot of 9:55 the ENT arrived back saying he was done, and everything was fine. He said the tonsils and adenoids looked pretty bad, and were very fibrous. He said Griffin had had more infections than I realised. He also said his ears were filled with thick, gooey, fluid and took some time to clean out. He told me they were waking him up and making sure everything was fine and then they'd bring him to me.

Sure enough 2 minutes later a nurse appeared holding him in her arms, he was crying and sounded very miserable. I gathered him in my arms and sat on a chair and rocked him. He was clearly not happy and his first words were, ' Mommy I want to go home'. It was heart-breaking. I carried him down to the ward and sat in a lazy boy chair. After 10 minutes he fell asleep and had a good sleep. He woke up once or twice and cried a bit more and then asked to sleep in the bed. He had a long sleep. At 2pm he was offered some ice-cream and jelly. He was not interested in either at all. The nurse wanted him to eat or at least drink something before we went home, and preferably wee too. We offered him juice, yoghurt, and custard, but he still wasn't interested...

Then he suddenly said, ' I want some bread', and he was adamant. So the nurse brought him some buttered bread, which he wolfed down and then demanded tea! They were very surprised...

The doctor declared him fine and sent us home. That night he ate 2 more slices of bread and half a roll of rolos. He does get sore if he goes too long without Myprodol, but once he's taken it he can eat pretty much anything. He is already breathing better and sleeping more soundly at night, and after hearing how 'vrot' his tonsils were I am very glad we went ahead with the op.

I must say spending the whole day just being with him was lovely too. I literally just sat and held him for hours, and that night Quinn was away sleeping over at a friend so I just sat and held Griffy on the couch, with no bedtime or any routine, just being. It was lovely.

My baby needs surgery...

Ok the topic was a bit dramatic, but as we generally stay away from the medical profession as a rule and stay very healthy on the whole anyway, my children haven't seen very much of doctors in their lives. So having to send one for surgery is a bit of a shock to me.

Quinn has had antibiotics once (which I don't think he even needed), and Griffin has admittedly had them a whole 3 times, always for bacterial tonsillitis. Our family doctor, who we see once or twice per year at most (I hope she doesn't go out of business because of our lack of support!) told us when Griffin was still quite little that he has 'kissing tonsils' which we'd need to keep an eye on. I didn't really know what that meant, but after some reading have found that it refers to tonsils which touch in the middle, normally because they are enlarged.

I have recently noticed that his tonsils look HUGE, they are big fat spongy red things that are really obvious in his throat, and they are like that all the time. That in itself wouldn't really bother me, but we have also noticed that since he has been close to a year old he has suffered from sleep apnoea. While asleep he breathes in a laboured deep husky way. Slowly his breathing gets slower and shallower and then stops altogether for a good few seconds (feels like ages!). He'll they GASP and take in a big deep breath, and then start the cycle over again. This causes him to sleep very restlessly, because he actually has to partially wake up with each gasp. We
now let him sleep propped up on 2 thick pillows, which helps to keep his airways open, but we still don't think he gets enough restful sleep though because he can sleep for a 3-5 hour stretch in the day time.

Apparently is severe enough this can cause restlessness, ADD symptoms, learning disability (due to impaired concentration from tiredness), failure to thrive, and general ill health. You need to get enough deep sleep to really function properly. I remember how I felt when I wasn't getting any good deep sleep stretches with new borns, you are like a zombie eventually...

So all of this has been adding up, and I have started to suspect we were going to have to take some action. We finally took him to an ENT specialist yesterday. Who pronounced that his tonsils are indeed 'very big' and 'not normal'. We had an adenoid x-ray taken and his adenoids are also way bigger than normal, and are further constricting his airways. It was also found that he has fluid on both ears, in fact the doctors thinks he must be battling to hear clearly at the moment. He thinks the ear problem is a reaction to the excessive swelling and infection on the tonsils and adenoids.

So he has recommended we do 'T's & A's' meaning a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, as well as draining the ears. He doesn't want to put grommets in, because he thinks once the ears are drained and the T's & A's done, his ears will settle and stay clear.

So I have to take my baby for the op next Friday. I do think he needs it, and I am sure it will help in the long run, but I know it's not an easy op, and it's really painful and takes quite a while to recover from. I wish we didn't have to send him at all. At least the doctor is lovely, and has a great manner with children. Griff really liked him. He has also said I can be with him right into the operation theatre, and I will only need to leave once they have sedated him.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Amazing Thailand - Part 8 - Taboos, FantaSeas and Goodbyes

So after breaking my most strictly enforced childhood rule of not riding motorbikes (sorry dad!), and feeling suddenly rebellious at the ripe old age of 30, I decided to go completely wild...

We wound our way over the hilly pass between Patong and Karon to return to our neighbourhood, and there to rendezvous for my appointment with ... a Tattoo artist!
I had been toying with the idea of getting a tattoo for several years, but could never quite decide what, or where, and had never got to the point of actually doing it. I didn't want anything big or aggressive, and new I needed something that had meaning for me, and that I wouldn't hate after a while. Plus I had never seen any place that I'd want to have one done at. Somehow all the tattoo parlours I have seen in South Africa are seedy, biker-type joints, and just didn't feel right to me.

I had been discussing the possibility with Richard throughout the trip, and we had actually been into a few to look at their pictures and see some in progress. Richard has a stylised Gecko on his left shoulder, which I have always liked. I also found myself fascinated by the geckos in Thailand which are really cute and are everywhere at night. I was also buying little toy geckos as gifts for children etc. During our Island day trip I had sketched a design with two geckos in a kind of yin-yang shape, to represent my 2 boys.

That night we took the sketch to one of the local Tattoo shops, and showed it to the resident Tattooist, Nom. He went and sat down. We meanwhile started looking through his albums, finding various designs we liked... 10 minutes later Nom appeared and showed me his vastly improved design based on my sketch, and I thought he was just sitting back waiting for me to chose something from his collection! I mentioned colours and he again wandered off. He returned having shaded the picture beautifully. I liked the picture so much that I told him I'd do it - but I felt it was a little big. He promised to shrink it for me, and I arranged to meet him the next night.

And so there we were back at the designated time, swigging red bulls (which cost only Bt12 there (R2!)). Nom as promised had shrunk his design and showed me versions at 80, 70 and 60% the original size. I opted for the 60% one. I was slightly nervous about the pain factor, as I had heard people say it's excruciating. I asked him about it, saying 'If I have given birth with no pain relief I should be ok, right?'. He just smiled and shrugged. I thought that was a bit ominous, but I think he was probably thinking, 'How the hell should I know lady?'.

My chosen spot was my right shoulder so I straddled the chair, while Nom traced the design onto carbon paper. Having been told it would take about 1.5 hours I was mentally preparing myself for the long haul, and braced myself. Nom is pretty meticulous about hygiene, and everything is carefully sterilised and covered etc, so there was no problem with that. He started by tracing the design onto my shoulder with the carbon paper, and then got us to inspect it to make sure it was exactly the way I wanted it. It was. He then lifted the tattoo gun thingy-magig, or whatever it's called, and I prepared myself for the worst.

Ok it *IS* sore. The feeling is a combination between being sliced with a scalpel and burned with a soldering iron - but it gets to a point of pain and no further, and I found it quite bearable. I do think I have a high pain threshold though, and I am quite good at being able to zone out and breathe through pain. So I was focussing through it, while Richard was bouncing around taking photos. I told him he could stop thanks, as that was getting distracting!


After a while I noticed the TV in front of me and asked for it to be turned on. Nom chose the DVD 'Kill Bill' to watch, which I thought was a bit macabre under the circumstances. Once watching TV I was actually easily able to distract myself from the pain of the tattoo, and was fine. Then in no time he was finished! It only took 30 minutes. The quoted 1.5 hours was total time for chatting, tracing, cleaning up - everything. So it was actually over really quickly.

So there you go, I am now sporting 2 green and blue geckos on my right shoulder...

That left us with only one more day and night of our holiday. The next morning was our birthday! I officially turned 30 and Richard turned 40. It was a perfect warm and sunny day. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast, and then went out to enjoy the last few hours of our bike hire. We rode up to the look out pint on the way to Chalong, and took photos of the view of the beaches. We also went past Kata and Kata Noi beach, and generally just enjoyed being in the area.

We had arranged to go to the Phuket FantaSea show that night to celebrate our birthdays and to enjoy the last night of our holiday in style.
"Inspired by Thailand’s rich and exotic heritage, Phuket FantaSea not only showcases the charm and beauty of Thailand, but also enriches ancient Thai traditions with the wonder of cutting edge technology and special effects. The result is a stunning 140-acre theme complex, packed with a multitude of activities and entertainment: a festival village with carnivals, games, handicrafts and shopping; a 4,000-seat restaurant offering a grand buffet of Thai and international cuisine; A breath-taking Las Vegas-style theatrical show, where state-of-the-art technology and special effects enhance the beauty of Thailand's Myths, Mysteries and Magic in a wondrous extravaganza certain to delight everyone."
This was in fact the most expensive thing we did the whole trip (relative to the other prices, costing Bt 3000 (R500) for both of us), but only one of few very touristy things we'd done, and we thought it would be an exciting and entertaining experience. Also having seen the African Footprint production in Cape Town earlier this year, we thought it would be interesting to see the contrasting cultures and heritages in a similar show.

We collected at our hotel and taken through to Kamala Beach (the other side of Patong) where the Theme park is situated. We met some young British honeymooners on the way, who were telling us how they had managed to avoid being ill by eating only 'safe' food like spaghetti bolognaise. I could not believe it, and I reckon you probably have more chance of being ill by eating non-local food anyway! Twits.

On arrival at FantaSea the sky opened and the rain came pouring down, there was a bit of chaos and uncertainty after that with people scattering all over. We followed a crowd and soon found ourselves in the Huge Kinnaree Buffet restaurant. While there was a huge a mount of food on offer, and it was fairly varied, and we certainly ended up eating far more than we needed, it was interesting to note that the food was neither more elaborate nor better tasting than the cheap food we had been eating from the bungalow restaurants and street vendors. So the rule that more formal and expensive is not necessarily better definitely holds up here. Never the less it was nice to be able to sample some weird and wonderful things including sweet black jelly lumps covered with crushed ice and corn kernels, as well as sushimi and roast duck with the head still on etc!

To be honest I wouldn't recommend this restaurant, and it's better to take the option without the meal (which is a bit cheaper), as you can get reasonably priced drinks and snacks out in the general theme village area. However since it was bucketing with rain when we arrived, the buffet was actually probably the best bet on that day, and once we staggered out with full bellies, the rain had ended and the evening was becoming quite lovely.

We wandered around the games, entertainment and shops in the 'village' until it was time to go in for the 'Legend of a Kingdom show'. This is strictly controlled and all cameras etc have to be handed in before entering the theatre. The show was brilliant. It was very varied and very professionally produced. There are were loads of animals involved from 30 elephants, to water buffalo, goats, donkeys, doves and even chickens (I still don't know how the chicks were trained!). They showed the history, heritage, dance and skill through a series of re-enactments of battle scenes and dances, as well as some circus, magic and comedy type acts. During the battle scenes there were flashes so bright you had to close your eyes, and massive booming explosions, as well as people flying in on chords and people shooting through holes that appeared and disappeared in the stage floor. It was really impressive and that fact the elephants could stand there dead still throughout was amazing. They are extremely well trained, and from what we saw, very well handled too.

After the show and waiting in line to get our cameras back, we again mingled in the village area, and this time the young elephants from the show where out on display. I think they like them to socialise with people to get more tame and relaxed etc. Both Richard and I got a chance to sit on a 3-4 year old elephant, which was fun. I was afraid of standing on the poor things leg with my shoe, but they assured me that it wouldn't hurt him. Again people were amazed at seeing this. It really does seem that South African people are most used to and comfortable with trying new things, as most other people seem to just stand back in fear. I felt privileged to be allowed to sit on such a big and majestic animal, and didn't find them at all frightening.

I think a lot is said about the elephants in Thailand. They are used a lot, and they are very much part of the Thai culture and work force. They are used the way horses and mules are used in other countries. Apparently in some place they get over worked, neglected and abused, but all the elephants we saw seemed to be well looked after and well treated. While being fully used in daily life these huge animals are also very much celebrated and revered, and elephant tributes can be seen everywhere. They definitely play a big role in the Thai heritage, including mythical tales of flying elephants and strong friendships with elephants who save their young friends, or who lead their riders to victory etc.
"There is a strong bond between the Thai people and elephants. Elephants hold a revered place in society, because of their symbolic importance to monarchs, religion, and the nation as a whole."
"THE ELEPHANT has been a cultural icon of Thailand since ancient days. Inhabiting the lush mountain forests long before the rise of the first civilizations in the land that is now modern-day Thailand, these intelligent pachyderms (as zoologists insist on calling them) were found apt to domestication by man. Their great size and enormous strength were harnessed in many ways, and they became man's ally in labour and warfare. It is doubtful if the abundant teak trees of the northern woodlands could have been exploited so fully without these leviathans to haul the trunks (pardon the pun) to the rivers that were the highways of old. Elephants played their part too in the numerous battles fought between the armies of Thailand and Burma. Towering over the field of combat, fully panoplied and girded for war, they must have been an awesome sight.
But the elephant came to mean much more to the Thai people than a mere beast of burden. It has become a symbol of fortune, and the superstitious will pay to pass beneath the animal's body and receive a share of the luck that it carries. White elephants, through their very scarcity, adopted an importance of their own, and became the rightful property of the reigning monarch. This led to the super imposition of a white elephant on the red field of the national flag of Siam, as Thailand was once known. Early Siamese coins featured an engraved elephant, and their images can be found in abundance in the compounds of many of the older temples.
The Asian elephant, the species found in Thailand, is renowned for its intelligence and is known to actively think about its actions, rather than merely memorise instructions. The creature also has a fine memory and the expression "An elephant never forgets" entered the English language long ago. The term "White elephant", meaning something given that is not wanted, entered western speech many years back, and it is reputed that this originated in old Siam. It was the custom of the monarch to bestow the highest praise by giving a royal white elephant to a courtier as a mark of especial favour, together with a tithe of land to support the animal's needs of grazing and forage. The same gift could also be given by these shrewd rulers to show displeasure, as no land would be provided, and the gift that could not be refused had to be fed at the offender's expense.
Nowadays the elephant is more fully occupied entertaining the multitude of tourists who visit Thailand, but its magnificent image lives on, advertising many modern events or attracting visitors to the numerous shops and factories that cater to their demands."
So ended our last evening in Thailand.
The next morning it was time to pack up, and get ready to say goodbye to a country that had always held a great amount of magnetism and intrigue for me. I had already fallen in love with the place, as so many people do, and was torn between wanting to stay there forever, and been keen to get back home to my children.
We spent the last few hours waking around one last time, and spending the last of our cash. Richard also decided to get a small yin-yang tattoo inside the curve of his gecko's tale, so we visited Nom, who was happy to accommodate our last minute request. The last hour before our airport transfer arrived I indulged myself with a last Thai massage, and I floated back to the hotel just in time to find the minibus packed and waiting for me. Telling myself I'd be back. We waved goodbye to the Andaman Seaview, and then Karon Beach and then Phuket and finally Thailand as we headed back to Kuala Lumpur.
We had a long wait in Kuala Lumpur airport, as our plane had been delayed. We shopped until the shops closed and then stretched out on some very uncomfortable chairs, with some endless Malaysian soap opera being televised from every direction. It got freezing cold, and then just as I managed to doze off we were called to board our flight. It was already 2am. The flight home was fairly uneventful. We had a 1-hour wait in Johannesburg, where we wasted no time phoning home and waking the kids at 6:30 am. It was the first time speaking to them in 2 weeks. I half expected them to cry and be upset. Instead they spoke calmly and both sounded really mature and grown up.
We arrived back in Cape Town about 2 hours later, and I virtually ran through customs to get out to see them. Sadly due to a mix up and oversleeping, our friend did not fetch us as planned, and no one was there at all! That was the last straw for me, and I burst into tears. Richard quickly got a taxi to take us home, and 30 minutes later there we were. The boys greeted us calmly and happily and were more keen to tell us about their adventures than hear anything about us... they did want their presents though!

So that was our trip. I'm now working hard, and hoping to be able to save enough money to go again, and hopefully take the children along with us next time.
THE END.