February 26, 2012

First Few Days in Thailand

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 2:02 am

After a crazy long plane ride (20+ hours with a layover in San Francisco and Hong Kong), we arrived after midnight in Bangkok.  The plane ride was exhausting.  Geneveve slept pretty well, but it’s still much harder flying with a toddler that needs constant entertainment.  She did really well considering the length of the flight, but she had some moments that were rough.

With the sleep schedules completely thrown off we didn’t even sleep in that late.  Geneveve has been waking up around 6:30 every day, so we start early even though by the time we eat breakfast and get everything ready to head out it’s usually past 8 am.

On day one we took it easy and just walked around a little and went to the MBK mall to peruse the shopping and excellent vegetarian food court stall.  I was pretty jet lagged and it all seems like a blur.  The first night we met a friend of Kim’s from culinary school, Wariya, for dinner.  It was at a fancy hotel, not at all the kind of place we would normally eat, but good food nonetheless.

The next day Wariya took us around.  It’s always nice having a local to help navigate things.  We went to the giant palace where I had to rent pants to go over my shorts to be proper.  It was hot and crowded.  There’s a crazy little buddha statue in the middle of a room full of way too much gold decoration.  And lots of cool buildings.  Then we did the river tourist thing after lunch, which was refreshingly calm for this frantic city.

The afternoon activity of a Ukulele concert was probably the highlight of the day, in large part because Geneveve was a bit of a star.  People here *love* her.  They’re always waving to her, many try to touch her.  Geneveve was running around the concert crowd and dancing, and there’s probably more photos of her from that than there will be from our entire trip.  When Geneveve cries, people here stop and want to help, offering her food, toys, smiles and kind words.  It often helps, although when she’s really tired she just wants to be left alone.

Today we went to giant marketplace.  It’s a lot like other giant, crowded, market places in other parts of the world we’ve been in:  lots of people, hard to navigate, lots of crap, insane stuff for sale.  For Geneveve the best part was that the marketplace was next to a park with a playground.  She wore me out in the heat running up and down the slide.

I just had a Thai massage and it was the best massage I’ve ever had.  The little Thai woman really worked me to the point I was worried she might break me.  Most massages are far too light for me, but this one involved elbows and knees and arm bars so that sometimes I thought to myself if I was in this position in a fight, I’d be in huge trouble.  And it was for less than $10.  I’ll be doing that as much as possible for the rest of our trip.  Kim’s off getting one now, so we’ll see how she likes it.  I’m keeping Geneveve entertained playing the Muppet Manamana video on repeat so I can type this and it’s working pretty well.

Tomorrow we’re meeting Nathan before he flies out of Thailand, and then we’ll get out of Bangkok.  It’s a fascinating city, but it’s just a little too big and busy for us to stay much longer.  We’ll next head to Chang Mai in the north, probably for a week or so before we go down to the beaches to really relax.

January 22, 2012

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-01-22

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • It's snowing! #
  • I gave blood today in record time. In and out in under a half hour. #
  • I finished my taxes yesterday. That's the earliest I've ever filed. They don't even start processing until tomorrow. #
January 15, 2012

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-01-15

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • @jhelwig I've been using Rivermark credit union for a while, so my BoA account has been sitting with a low balance for years. #
  • Every time I use a sewing machine I'm amazed that someone came up with it. Thank goodness for pictures telling me where the thread goes. #
January 8, 2012

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-01-08

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • I saw a great idea to get more tips – two tip jars labeled "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" and a sign saying to vote. Star Wars was winning #
  • I finally cancelled my Bank of America account. Much easier than I expected, they didn't even try to convince me not to. #
January 1, 2012

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-01-01

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • Geneveve is becoming more of a night owl which is cutting into my night owl time. #
December 25, 2011

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-12-25

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • Christmas carolers just stopped by our house. That's the first time that's happened and it was very nice. #
  • Geneveve blew out her birthday candle on her own for the first time tonight. We put it in an avocado. 16 months. #
  • My dog has fleas. She's had them for a few weeks, we tried shampoos and they didn't work. Now we have medication from the vet. Poor Ubu. #
December 11, 2011

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-12-11

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • Grandma Joan is here visiting, so Kim and I got to go out and see a movie without Geneveve. #
November 20, 2011

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-11-20

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • Our bedroom stays a lot warmer now that it's insulated. #
November 13, 2011

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-11-13

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • We finally had to retire the old dryer and get a new one. #
October 30, 2011

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-10-30

Filed under: General — mmrobins @ 4:00 am
  • We went to the @jasonwebley concert tonight with Geneveve and got to stay for the whole show! There were lots of other babies there too. #