PHOTO WRAP-UP

Originally posted on January 8, 2007 at 01:20

I haven't posted any photos in a few days so I thought I'd put some up from earlier in the week.

I take a lot of photos of bridges, but rarely do I get a nice reflection in the water like on this one — a bridge on the north side of Chaleomparkait Park.

Gaow takes an interest in my 1000 Top Tips for Mums & Dads book; unfortunately, he didn't earn any points with papa when he suddenly ripped out a handful of pages!

After our "fun" in the park, we made a trip to the south-eastern part of Phuket Town to the Saphan Hin area.  Tim and Gaow searched the rather rocky beach for sea shells while I tagged along behind, removing the still living shells from the bag.

Gaow spent the past several years living with a father who never told him "no"; he didn't have a bedtime, he was allowed to run wild and fend for himself.  As a result, he's extremely spoiled and will scream and cry when he can't have what he wants.  This is a face we see quite often...

Unfortunately, this is Tim's usual reaction to Gaow's temper trantrums.  As soon as she caves (which is usually in a matter of seconds), the tears disappear.  My philosophy is reflected in the title of The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want."  Plus, I believe if we just leave him alone when he begins crying eventually he will realize that such a tantrum doesn't work, that it doesn't automatically means he wins.  Tim's slowly coming around but I really wish I could find a book such as 1000 Top Tips for Mums & Dads written in Thai.

Gaow riding in the blue seat of our motorbike sidecar.  He had just thrown another temper trantrum after we decided it was time to go home.  Of course the tears were partially because another young boy had bit him after he asked what his mother fed him to make him so fat!

One of Tim's friends bought Gaow a small fish tank and about 20 fish to fill it with (her friends are constantly buying him toys, junk food, and giving him money).  While I enjoy looking at fish at professional aquariums or pet shops, I've never liked having a tank as they are A LOT of work to maintain.  They pretty much jumped the gun on this one, filling the tank and dumping all the fish in without any type of pre-conditioning (I tried to explain the "fishless cycle" so bacteria can form so the fish don't die from a build-up of ammonia and nitrates but that fell on deaf ears).  Plus, everytime I turn around more food is being dumped in.  As a result, in the past two days I've changed the water twice and flushed a total of ten fish!