I've never been one for huge birthday parties, I like to keep it quiet and enjoy it with friends and family, so instead of organising anything in particular I just had a quiet drink with Caitlin, Joe (another foreign teacher we're good friends with) and his girlfriend, Lamai. Caitlin was lovely and bought me a cake, which was actually very nice! Birthday cakes in Thailand aren't the same as the ones in the UK - they are usually very, very soft with lots of very "creamy" icing (although it's not real cream). Mine had huge flowers, a dog, swans and two angels all made of icing on the top and looked very pretty. Usually, although they are nice, they aren't brilliant to eat, but this one was one of the best ones we've had!
When Kru Nid found out that it was my birthday she went out to rally up P.Noi and P.Jim (two other English teachers) and came back with cards and presents which was lovely! I got quite a large, fluffy Hello Kitty toy, a t-shirt and a skirt from them. I'm not entirely sire how I'm going to get the Hello Kitty home, I'm hoping she'll fit into my hand luggage so I can use her as a pillow. The teachers sang Happy Birthday to me too which was suitably embarassing, as all renditions of Happy Birthday should be! :P
The evening was spent watching films and eating party rings (thank you mum!) until Joe and his girlfriend came round, when we had some food from the market and a couple of drinks. The market in Na Kae is brilliant - every day different stalls are set up selling all sorts of food and is very cheap. One of my favourites is Lap, which is a spicy meat dish made of minced meat (best with duck), lime juice, several herbs, several chillis (or several hundred chillis...), garlic and I'm sure there's lots more in it! We keep meaning to ask Pippa's parents to teach us how to make it, and I definitely want to be confident in making it by the time I get home, so fingers crossed!
While I remember, there are a couple of interesting (well I think they're interesting) stories that I forgot to put in my last blog.
While we were cleaning our house, one of the nieghbors saw us outside rinsing out feet. Because it was hot we were wearing the bare minimum, and probably should have put on something a bit more respectable. However, we thought that as we were only outside for a second and we were still within the boundaries of our house, it would be okay. Unfortunately , the neighbour who saw us phoned Kru Nid, and the rumour is now that we both shower outside at the garage. We're unsire how us rinsing our feet mutated into us showering in public, but gossip is huge in Na Kae so any opportunity to create an interesting story to spread around will be taken, and unfortunetly us foreigners are often at the centre of such stories!
When we found out that Pippa was leaving for Germany, Caitlin and I both made her good luck cards. I spent a great deal of time over mine, trying to make it as pretty as I could, and spending hours making sure that all the Thai I had written made sense. One time while we were up at school, I decided to take our microwave back home (it was at the school for a while). I put my good luck to Pippa on top of it along with a packet of sparkly gel pens and a few sheets of paper, and started to lift it. I wasn't ready for how heavy it was, and it started to tip backwards. Terrified that I was going to drop the microwave out the window behind it I took my hand off the top and quickly supported the back, letting go of everything on top of it. Fortunately, the microwave didn't go out the window. Unfortunately, I steadied it just in time to watch everything on top of it float swiftly out the window and onto the roof of the building below. I needed to get my card, pens and paper back, so I did the only thing I could think of - climb out the window onto the roof, and with Caitlin's help, all was retrieved! Thankfully I don't think anyone saw this!
While we were staying at Pippa's before she went to Germany, we decided to watch a horror film we'd brought called "Orphan". Pippa loves horror films. It was bought in Bangkok so had both Thai and English audio and subtitle, so we watched it in Thai with English subtitles so that Pippa could understand it. We were a bit concerned at how she would react to some parts of the movie. However, the sex scene came about and she didn't bat an eyelid. The little girl swore and again, no reaction. A woman was beaten several times with a hammer, and not even a flinch. Then, the mother closed the dishwasher with her foot. Pippa jumped, gasped and squeaked all at the same time! In Thailand feet are considered the lowest and dirtiest part of the body, so to use your feet for something is a no-no here. Still, I found it quite funny that this would get a bigger reaction that other parts of the film!
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