Turning 2 & motorbike

It was our second son's 2nd birthday. We celebrated with just our family at the local pizza restaurant. Unfortunately he didn't get a big party like his brother. I think we were worn out by the last party. Next year...

Today I bought a motorbike. The main reason is that I can get almost 50km per litre of petrol on the motorbike and only 10km per litre in our car. With petrol prices being so high the motorbike will pay for itself before too long. Also, there are very few places to park in Lampang (and most of Thailand really), so having a motorbike can be quite convenient. I just hope I can get the bike registered as my work permit is for Bangkok and we are now in Lampang and that seems to be a problem. The only other time in my life I've riden a motorbike was on our honeymoon and then I went around a corner too fast and fell off with my newlywed sitting behind me (admittedly that was on a dirt track). Hopefully I'll avoid an accidents with this bike. So many missionaries have accidents on their motorbikes and I don't want to be included in those statistics.

No show

Unfortunately it was an empty classroom for the beginning of our Easy English classes yesterday (9:30am and 7:30pm classes). We have two other English classes scheduled for the weekend so we hope there will be students there for those classes. We have been handing out more flyers about The Lighthouse this week and we have had calls of interest for the babies and kids programs.

Learning about dogs

When we first received Phayu (our golden retriever) dogs started to turn up to our front gate we just thought they were curious and that they were just checking Phayu out (or was it that she was just a good looking girl). Day after day though these dogs would come and whimper away at our front gate wanting to get in. We were told that Phayu had not been fixed so we were careful not to let her out in the street. We didn't want to take any chances. There was no way we wanted puppies as well as a new baby in 2-3 months. Anyway, we left for Chiang Mai for a couple of days and when we returned we had the shock of our lives when we saw this big black Doberman? in our front yard sniffing away. I thought that our househelp might have left the gate open and the animal had sneaked in but then I saw it jump over our front fence and run away. The next day the same dog was in our yard trying to copulate with our Phayu! Then it hit us. Phayu was on heat! We had booked Phayu for an operation to get her "fixed" the following week so that she couldn't have any puppies but now it might be too late already. The vet when she found out Phayu was in heat wouldn't do the operation any more but we have to wait another two months. I'm learning about things I never new about here in Thailand.

4th birthday for our eldest son

Our eldest son had his 4th birthday this week. Unfortunately, Luca was quite sick and wasn't in a very good mood and this made it very difficult and embarrassing for us as he was rude to some of our neighbors bearing him gifts. We learnt from his 2nd birthday that when he's sick he doesn't blow out the candles (that time many members of our church and Lisa got quite sick - Lisa hospitalized). We were so thankful to have Rich's parents around to help with the birthday preparations. With two sick children (our youngest was sick as well) it was very difficult to prepare and then get through the party. Our neighours were very gracious about our son's behaviour and helpful when we didn't have enough chairs for everyone (we got some from our neighours). We were amazed that all the neighours we invited came (3 families) and one woman took home some tracts about Christianity.

The next day Luca was so sick we took him to the local private hospital. The paediatrician wanted to admit him into the hospital but we were booked into hotels in Chiang Mai with Rich's parents. The paediatrician ordered a chest x-ray and then prescribed a very strong antibiotic.

Both children are finally recovering but we got the shock of our lives when we came home and saw a big black dog (doberman?) in our front yard. More about this in our next blog update.

Go Golf

My neighbour, Lt Colonel Pratuang (centre), plays golf with his friends in the top photo every Mon, Wed and Friday at the break of dawn. I join them once a week and I enjoy it a lot (apart from getting up at 5am). This is the most golf I've played in my life and I must say my game is improving slowly. This morning I had two "pars" (over 9 holes - it is only a 9 hole course). Apart from being fun, I am speaking Thai and learning words which you wouldn't hear from respectable language helpers. Fortunately, as a member of the course the green fee is only about AU$2.30 (plus caddie fee of $2.30 and an unspoken rule of about $3 caddie tip). It was through one of my golfing grandfathers that we rented our current ministry centre.

Can anyone guess what day it is we are playing from the photo? Each day in Thailand has a special coloured shirt.