Wednesday, March 12th 2003

Immunisations

Another trip to the doctors for scheduled immunisations for Felicia & Zachary. I get strung along due to the distress of hearing the poor babies cry when they get all those needles. Felicia had her favourite doll in the car with her, but she says, "I will leave baby in the car, otherwise she will get needled". The truth is, she doesn't want the stress of her (voodoo) doll getting the same pain she is. So she gets her needle + mandatory jellybeans, big woop. Zachary gets all of three needles plus an oral vaccine. That quite deservedly gets more than mere lollies, a breastfeed calming down the whole process nicely. So they scream a lot and have to be roped down into position like a psychopath refusing his mental health medication, but I don't think it unnecessarily cruel :-). Can you remember your early vaccinations?

Lessons from the Past
Ways of saying hello

It took a while but the questions that strangers on the street would ask, were actually greetings - somewhat akin to Australia's Howareyougoing? Alright? (in some cases we aren't really interested in how you are). In Hawaii when we passed through it would be "Do you want some Pakalolo (Marijuana)?". In Thailand it was "Where you go?". When a Thai policeman asks you that on your way past an intersection, one can take it quite the wrong way, but they are actually just trying to be friendly!

You are stuck in Thailand for another few days after having sorted out your re-entry visa. Do you

a) Head for Chiang Mai, a beautiful touristy haven in the mountains. Cost effective also given the weakness of the Thai currency.

b) Go visit some "Fine Signoritas" like nearly every other male your age seems to do in Bangkok. Very cost effective also.

c) Head for the border with Laos. Thailand is currently having a reasonably fierce border war with them at the moment and we could cause quite a stir by trying to sneak across the border. Almost free.



Bye for now