Steve & Cream in Thailand

1st flight for donkeys years...

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:31:48 GMT

Steve in the air for the 1st time in Donkeys years. My oh my was this fun - The best fun you can have with your clothes on, I reckon.

Only 50quid and hour including instructor and fuel. Just another 39 hours to go for the PPL. Now all I got to do is hide the plane from my wife....

Laura's 1st birthday party

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:27:10 GMT

Laura is wondering if anyone has noticed that the cake is on fire. Mom & Dad are too drunk to notice. Only 4 more years and the little raskal who's stopped mom and dad's cuddles for a year will be off to get her nose stuck into books. Happy Birthday Laura

daddys girl in the flowers

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:46:36 GMT

As Thailand's tourist season fell on it's ass in 2007, and rusty shipwrecks got to sleep in peace for a while, a surprised family got to steal dad away for a well needed rest - (daughters thoughts...) Dad really needs to leave the beer bars and lie on the beach to get a sun tan after 11 years in the far East...

November 2006 - Laura 8 months old

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:41:09 GMT

Getting Cuter by the day, Little Miss Laura gets a night out with mom & dad to a nice BBQ restaurant.
Now with her own bed, in a room at icy temperatures (just as she likes it) she's sleeping soundly.
Mom Cream with a new smile, having just moved house is also cheerful and in good spirits.
Dad looking forward to getting into some good spirits as soon as they're both tooked up in bed...

4 months old midnight waking baby

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:23:50 GMT

Hmmm.. Mom & Dad have had far too much sleep already tonight. If I had more energy I'd start rolling about thrashing and grizzling and wake them both up... decisions decisions. I know, lets wait a little bit longer, I don't feel hungry enough to work up a propper crying fit yet

Happy mom & dad with sleepy baby.

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:23:39 GMT

I not sure if the smiles here are relief or happiness from completing the 850km drive back home across Thailand from the Laos border. Little Laura is still in dream land no doubt still sleeping off the huge car drive. I can't decide if I want to get drunk first then sleep or just sleep on the chair in the bar. Cream is so shattered from the 2 hourly feeds during the last month, she'd be happy with anything as long as she can close her eyes for 40 winks without the breast feeding alarm going off. Ah the joys of new parenthood - again.

4 month old Laura with Uncle Wayne.

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:23:08 GMT

Just a couple of hours to go before Wayne has to head on back to the UK. Wayne’s new pool looking nice in the late afternoon light as 1000 mosquitoes wake up in search of blood...My ankles have never been so popular with the local wildlife.

On my feet at last

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:22:55 GMT

Always a happy waker, after half an hour rolling backwards and forwards kicking mom and dad in bed, it's time for Laura's favorite activity...bouncing up and down supported by a tired dads hands. The big smile says it all - This is fun!

1 Week old well fed baby

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:22:33 GMT

Just about to head off to work in the beach resort of Pattaya located 2 hours South of Bangkok. Mom Cream and baby Laura will wait 'up country' for another month or so, to gain strength ready for the big 16 hour 850km bus ride I will make tonight.

Goodbye chat with dad prior to the big bus journey back to work

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:22:00 GMT

With so many women helping mom take care of her, it seams that only dad has the golden touch to talk her to sleep. A lovely picture. I can imagine what's going on in her mind her...."Dad, if I'm as pretty as you same I am, then you didn't pay way enough for my moms’ dowry, you scoundrel" It'll be great to see them both in a few weeks time. I wonder what she'll look like then? See you soon cutey, Dad.

Hmm, that tastes nice

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:21:46 GMT

Baby have a wonderful nipple rooting reflex. Simply stroke the cheek of a hungry baby and it will turn towards your hand with mouth open moving around trying to find a nipple. Mom’s milk is now 'well on stream'. By the time Laura wakes up from her in-between-feed naps, moms nipples are dripping with milk ready for the next innings. I wonder if one is the main course and the other the dessert? Both seam to have plenty of vitamin zzz in them though!

Happy Dad - Baby Laura 1 month old

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:21:35 GMT

Having just completed an 850km 12 hour straight drive, it was good to get back home to Pattaya. With the air-con set to full blast, baby Laura slept solidly through it all apart from a few tugs at mom’s nipple. Hopefully in 18 years time when I'm 64 years old, she can drive the #%*ing car and I get to sleep the whole journey...apart from a few tugs on a bottle of beer.

Happy Mom Cream - One month on

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:21:18 GMT

I had not planned on traveling up to my wife's home near the Mekong River for at least another couple of weeks. Happily during our daily telephone chats, she told me she was ready to travel back home to Pattaya, and so with my friend Wayne, who was also the best man at our wedding, we rented a couple of cars and thrashed the b*&%ocks out of them all the way up to the boondocks to collect Mom and baby. Miss (now Mrs.) Cream looked like a million dollars as usual with big smiles all round. Happy girl

Isaan girl's thoughts

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:21:03 GMT

So tell me dad, it cost 10 baht and took 30mins to get my Thai id card, and everyone says I’m a pretty girl... but it will likely cost you a thousand times that, with weeks of bone grinding admin before you give birth to my British passport...Then guys will say I’m fat, ugly, and bad tempered and don't know how to take care of a man! Is it worth it?...

What a give away

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:20:54 GMT

Like any home around the world, a full washing line is a sure sign that a baby has just arrived. Disposable diapers along with bottle fed babies are a mystery here.

High tech jungle nursery

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:20:46 GMT

All families like to assist in the event of a birth. Isaan is no different. But local custom considers any preparation prior to the birth as attracting bad luck. So just after the birth a swift nursery building party occurs. Here's ours. This will be mom and Laura’s home for the next month. It is in every way an outdoor barn, with straw roof, dogs and chickens in the yard, two open bonfires, smoke and natural air con holding the area at an uncertain 35 centigrade 100%humidity. There is a complete selection of tropical diseases present both insect airborne and in the unfiltered Mekong well water which we are all drinking. By modern thinking we should all swiftly die...Instead, the karaoke music plays louder defying all rational celebrating the birth. Small pieces of spirit string around mom and babies feet and hands ensure that against all odds their souls do not leave their bodies.

At last...

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:20:34 GMT

After a shaky start, with hardly any milk but a clear fluid coming through for a couple of days, new jungle-mom cream throws a big smile as baby passes out 'full up' after her first big feed. Gentle pressure now causes milk to ooze from mom's nipples. To baby Laura, it might as well be a knock out drug.

Drowning a cat..

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:20:23 GMT

If you've ever tried to bath a cat, those bathing a newborn child is very similar! It's just as noisy, but with on claws and teeth. Plainly all newborns babies have it programmed into them to scream the house(or in our case barn) down when enough of their body gets wet. As soon as they're dry, the screaming stops.. By which time after all the effort crying they're hungry again.

Thank god that's all over

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:20:11 GMT

I could have sworn that lady was going to drown me. Now she don't seem too bad after all.

That's better...

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:20:00 GMT

Bathed and all dry again. Time for a chat in English and Thai with dad and a feed and a chat in Laos Isaan with mom. Them I can never remember what happens next since I always fall asleep at this point. . .

Photo Album: Family & Friends

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:23:31 GMT

Family & Friends

Laura & Cream aged 1

Laura aged 1

Grandma Sanders and Laura

Bath time for Laura with Cream

Cheeky girl !

Grandad Sanders and cheeky chops

Dad hard at work with twat-the-cat trainee

At Nong Khai Beach 'Hat Jomanee' under the Thai laos Friendship bridge

Mom and Dad on the banks of the Mekhong River, Thailand

Uncle Wayne, being good for a change

More Photos...

Custom List: Language

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 03:42:59 GMT

Language

Custom List: Steve's web sites

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 04:36:54 GMT

Steve's web sites

Scuba Servicing Techical Data CD
A complete CD containing all servicing information, parts lists and drawings of all major makes of scuba regulators, high pressure compressors and high pressure cylinder manufacturing data.
Thai Shipwreck Diving
Ship wreck diving in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea.
Scuba Equipment Service & Repair
Providing the skills, approved training and technical resources for those wishing to qualify and work as technicians in the diving industry.