Bakeboy does not know how to slice bread! When I unwrap my sliced sourdough this morning, it looks like a Hasselback potato, it’s sliced until the bottom crust, and for lack of a decent chopping board or food scissors, I’m forced to tear the slices apart. There ain’t nothing stopping me from eating my sourdough bread!
After breakfast, there’s school work. There’s a collective Ugh from all four of us, the girls are dreading “back to school”, even though “school” is usually still in PJs, I clear the breakfast plates and we bring computers and workbooks out. Joe and I try to encourage the girls to do their own learning, but there is a lot of hand holding. Back in the “good old days” in the Osaka AirBnb, Joe could go upstairs and work out of my closet office. In Hua Hin there were chairs on the balcony, which made for a great little “office” with a gorgeous view. Here? We all in the same room, at all times. (Except for tomorrow morning, I wonder how that will go…)
We also do laundry. Our washing machine is on the balcony! Like our Japanese machine, this one also has an “air” setting after the clothes have been washed, which helps them dry faster once it’s hung. It feels less wet than with only the spin cycle. In Hua Hin we had a proper clothes rack and clothes pins, here we have hanging space only, but luckily with enough hangers. Hence the need to run out to grab the round clippy hanging thingy on the first day.
After school work is all done, we put together a quick lunch at home, and then head to the beach. Joe and the girls go down first, I have a cold and do not feel great. I am blogging up a storm, trying to catch up and give myself the three day buffer I’m used to having. Once I’m caught up to where I want to be, I walk down and join them. They’re having a blast in the waves! They’ve also been busy with sand creations this afternoon, and are very proud to show me what they call their “turtles”:
I feel like I’ve been on a chair in the kitchen all day (because I kind of have been?), so I decide to take a walk along the beach. Téa comes with me, while Maylin stays by Joe to play more in the sand. Téa and I walk allllllll the way as long as there’s sand to walk on, and then turn around. The beach is PACKED at this hour, and the sun loungers we used the other day are all in the shade now. Our building complex casts an enormous shadow.
We see families playing in the water, we see kids of all ages running around, covered in sand. We see two ladies sunbathing, heads away from the water and toes in the sand. We watch as the waves come within a few centimetres from touching their toes, and they have no idea the waves are coming closer. We walk past them and then turn around, sure that any second now, the next wave is going to splash their toes and they’ll scream! But no such “luck”, no entertainment was had, and we walk on. It feels good to walk and wade and “climb” through the sand.
After their swim, they all hop in the shower, and I try to prepare an afternoon snack for when they’re out. We bought these almond cookies the other day, and we’re looking forward to them, but they are frustrating to open! I open the first plastic package, only to find another. When I open the second plastic package, I find that they’re STILL sealed in plastic! It makes me wonder, how much plastic is enough? I have seen more single use plastic in Thailand and Vietnam than I would like to ever encounter again, and ponder how the countries can change their habits?
One good thing to come from these very well wrapped cookies, is that Maylin gives me her very first confident “you can use this for your blog, mom” toothless smile!
This evening, once again, we don’t know where to go for dinner (we miss you, Tamarind night market!), and not everyone’s stomach is having a great time, so we want to stay close-ish to home (no 15 minute taxi, that’s for sure). I find a promising restaurant two blocks up, and we head there through alleys and streets we haven’t explored yet. We’re the first ones to arrive, and despite plenty of staff, service seems slow. Almost as if one table isn’t worth showing up for?
Waiting for our food gives us time to take in our surroundings, and I notice what our chair legs are! Do you know what this is?
The food finally arrives, and as with all the restaurants here and in Thailand, each dish just comes out whenever it’s ready. The norm is definitely not to serve all the food at the same time, they just start whatever dish first, serve that, and then return to the kitchen for the next dish.
Unfortunately, despite the potential of the beautiful restaurant with plenty of staff and several floors of empty tables, we had yet another disappointing dinner. But I think that’s just Joe and I. We’ve gotten so used to fresh and delicious Vietnamese food, so when faced with dishes made with more haste than care, we sulk. The girls are better at seeing it as “just another meal”, and they order what they are pretty sure they’ll like. Do Joe and I need to readjust our expectations?
On our way back home, we take a different route, this one straight out towards the ocean, and then south along the beach. This brings us to one of the other market stores (same name, same company, different building, slightly larger than our nearest one, so more selection but only of some stuff). Téa and I duck in to grab some snacks for movie night, and the others go upstairs. Here’s what we found:
My first introduction to breadfruit was a long time ago. I read about it in a children’s book when I was a pre-teen, and always wanted to try it. My first chance came when Joe and I honeymooned in French Polynesia, and my first try was steamed breadfruit. It tastes kind of like bread, mild, not sweet, and soft. Next we came across it fried, when it was served looking like what half a pineapple ring looks like, but tasting more like French fries, all fried until crispy on the outside, and salty and warm. Today, when I get to introduce the girls to breadfruit, it’s more like a combination of potato chips and banana chips. Harder than a potato chip, with a mild, fluffy middle.
Would you try breadfruit?
I learned to sew on a treadle sewing machine like that.
I think I saw first Singer “sewing machine” table around 20 yrs ago. In one restaurant I could still move the pedal. No sewing do
It’s so cool, and yet kids these day have NO idea what it is!
I’ve never seen one as a table before, but we were fully able to move the pedal! No machine, just food up top.
Slikt et deilig tannløst smil fra Maylin 🙂
Ja, endelig!! Både at tennene er ute, og at hun lot meg ta bilde…