Play Room

This little room, on the top floor of the Airport Plaza mall is a parent's godsend. 20 Baht, about 30p. or 50 cents per child buys you from 30 minutes to an hour or more of blissful peace and time to catch up on book or newspaper over a coffee or beer in the food court next door.

The Maids

I think it is possibly time to introduce the Mae Bahn, our maids at home. This is Pa Na, the head honcho, and Godfather/mother of the South Chiang Mai - Mae Bahn Cosa Nostra. She seems to control who works where, which employers are permitted to hire home help and which are blacklisted. She seems to receive a phone call, on average, about every half an hour. (I never answer the phone at home now!) She has constant reports from maids on good or bad employers, and requests from harassed housewives to find them help. However she is exceptionally competent and very hard working. We could not function without her and her other half.

Pa Pan is Pa Na's husband, wife or other half. She has a heart of gold but seems to be terrified of me. Ann says it may be because I am so much larger, have longer hair and bigger breasts than her, although I dispute the last contention.
Pa Pan is arguably the dumbest sentient being on the planet, with a cognitive capacity somewhere between that of a concussed, lobotomised sparrow and a desiccated pond snail. She almost makes GWB …. Well, best not go into this type of comparison. However, she adores the children, and her presence here keeps Pa Na happy. Not many homes would be happy to employ both of them, so we are lucky in this regard.

Pa Pan has occasional relapses and has to spend a week or few in the Chiang Mai psychiatric hospital. She used to compete quite successfully at Thai Boxing, and was severely concussed a few times too often. Pressure builds up on her brain about once a year and she needs to have an operation to release it.

Sun Dried Tomatoes.

I purchased about twenty Kilos of beautiful ripe red plum tomatoes from Muang Mai market, the large wholesale market in town. (Total cost about £3.00 Stg.) Half of them I have made into tomato juice and 9 kilos of the most delicious Tomato Sauce known to man. It is now bottled and in the refrigerator. The other half is seen here being laid out to be sun-dried.
One day in a mildly sunny day and they were almost done wnen along came our dear Lion & Tiger, the Filas. They scoffed the lot.