Sultan/Sultana Junior

These are the first photos of our new baby, taken on the 24th April when (s)he was about three weeks old. For the sake of ease, we are considering April Fools Day as his/her birthday.
He needs to be fed by syringe at three to four hourly intervals from dawn till about 9 or 10pm and takes almost 10% of his bodyweight at each feed. (He weighs 300 grams here.) Food consists of a ground up mixture of nuts, grains and pulses mixed with a small amount of spirulina, some hot water, vitamin suppliment and commercial (Heinz) baby food. It has to be made fresh for every feed.
He lives in a tupperware box lined with a Tesco's nappy and paper towels. Towels are changed at every feed and the nappy once daily or when it gets soiled. (Nappys are very good for little birds. They give the bird grip and stop them becoming splay legged.)

Robin's Proud Moment

Robin is here receiving a special "Student of the Month" award for the month of April. The person presenting it is his teacher, Mr Joe.

This did not go down very well with the school authorities as it occurred about a week after the owner of the school started litigation against me, sueing me for two million Baht! This was because I have been trying for almost three years to get the school to serve healthy nutritious food to the students. After a final meeting with the owner and being told they would consider adding wholemeal bread to some meals, I got fed up and wrote an open letter to the directors and staff of the school. I was then sued for blackening the name of the school.
It had the required effect though. The children are now being offered fruit, vegetables and salad with every meal! These are things they never saw before.
I am led to believe the teachers voted Robin as student of the month to show their support for the stand I have been taking here.

The litigation is continuing.

Happier Times

Dear little Santana enjoying a night out with friends.
The bottles in the background are all ours.



He didn't touch a drop, I promise!

The picture below was taken quite late on in the evening,
when it all became a bit too much and he couldn't stay awake any more.

Unfortunately, shortly after the photos above were taken,
I made the mistake of taking him to have a check up
with our local "Exotic Animals" vet.

The vet killed him by giving him a worming dose sufficient to treat 80+ adult birds.
He died within two hours of being given the first pill of four he was supposed to be fed
on consecutive days
This being Thailand, the vet accepted no responsibility.

May Santana rest in peace.

Holiday

April is the Thai New Year, Songkhran holiday. So the school is closed for a fortnight. (Thai schools are closed for a couple of months now.
We went away to Rayong, on the Eastern Seaboard. Cheap and cheerful, the hotel we stay at every year is only a little over £20.00 per night for our own chalet directly on the beach.

Our chalet. Beautifully cool under the trees.

Little ones loving the surf.


We had a fun visit to a fruit orchard, where we pigged out on all types of tropical fruit. Ann was inj seventh heaven.
My concer was whether a durian would fall as I took this photo,

Ann too loved the water. This was taken on the evening of our last day, when the wind got up and some clouds rolled in for the only time throughout our entire holiday. We had 3 1/2 days of sun and rain almost the whole journey back. 

Santana

These photos are the first ones I have taken of Santana. A month old Moluccan Cockatoo chick I am presently hand rearing. He needs hand feeding every three or so hours and takes about 10% of his body weight in food each time. (Almost 50% of his body weight per day!)

This is a bird with attitude. He sits in his nappy-lined plastic box as I work on the computer, watching everything and singing along with the music he likes. As befits his name, he tends to like moody guitar solos and bobs his head, squeaking and squawking, totally out of tune.

The cats seem to be afraid of him. The dogs eye him with great interest.

Book week

The school held a book week where different people were invited in to read from favourite books. I read an old favourite from Kipling's Just So stories. "How the Elephant Got His Trunk".
On the final day, the children were asked to go as a favourite story book character. Tommy won special mention for his costume as the Chief of Treasure Island. Robin dressed as T. E. Lawrence, (Lawrence of Arabia,) in a jallaba and carrying a rifle, although one of the most anally retentive teachers in the school took the gun away from him, provoking an attack of tears and moodiness.

At the end of the assembly, Tommy was presented with a silver medal for his efforts in the Under "8" Shot Put.

Concert

Robin and Tomy played their piano pieces in front of an invited audience at Payap University. (All their teacher, Kru Pim's students took part in the concert.)
This was their swan song with Kru Pim because they will now be going to learn at the Korean academy, run by a Korean Mission, in the same building as the Tae Kwan Do dojo.
Robin is also taking up the guitar there, and Tommy will become a drummer.
(We bought a seconf hand drum kit a few days ago. It is now set up in the music room which turns out to be less well insulated than we previously thought!

Paper Making

Robin's class was taken on a field trip to visit a hand made paper factory, making Saa or Mulberry paper.
They were shown the whole process and even had the chance to make sheets themselves. Unfortunately, they were not given any samples.

I was somewhat upset by the field trip, because the non-Thai owner happily admitted he paid money under the table, rather than installing any equipment to clean his effluent discharges. The business uses lots of nasty chemicals, which are discharged straight into the local water.

Sports Day

The children took part in an Inter Schools Athletics Meet at Prem International School.
Tommy put the shot and threw the discus, while Robin put the shot and ran the 400 meters.
Robin's first, practice shot was almost out of the area, but it wasn't counted because it was only a practice throw. Later throws were only half hearted. He came in fourth overall.
Tommy threw 3 good puts. two of them shattering the previous under "8"s recird. He eventually won a silver medal for that.
Neither of them placed in the discus and Robin at least finished the 400 meters. Not bas as he was running a temperature by then.

Egg 'n Chips

Galen bought an Ostrich egg from Tawachai's gardens. He insisted I cook it for him and make a scotch egg.
Three kilos of minced pork and assorted herbs and spices later, the egg was cooked.
Pity was, none of us could face eating it. So I cooked fish and chips instead.

Ann took the egg to the office the followiung day, where I gather it was consumed with gusto.

Biking home

This was, for a short while, the method of transport to bring the children back from school. Motorcycle in front, towing a trailer with up to five children. Bycicles towed behind.
We are now cycling to school to save petrol and get some exercise.
(The trailer now has racks and carries one bike each side.)

Family Fun Day

The team sets forth. Robin Tommy Carrot and Galen, with yours truly on camera set off on the school's Family Fun Day treasure hunt. The prixe was eventually won by a group of teachers.


Total Exhaustion after a long day's treasure hunting.


Just found, (and re-hidden) the final clue.