Mothering Corner

It’s almost the end of year 2011, and I would say that it’s a “fruitful” year for us. Firstly, kids changed into a new school and they love it. Then we bought our first condo in Bangkok, but it’s still not completed yet. Talk about efficiency!

The biggest event would be Thai Flood 2011, which has totally “screwed” up our lives for almost 2 months. Looking back, I would say that it made me realize that I don’t need that many pairs of shoes to survive! LOL! Just kidding. I really lost 95% of my shoes in the flood.

Most flood victims have returned home by now and it’s all about cleaning back and trying to get back to normal life. Life goes on.

With Christmas just around the corner, I’m in a jolly mood again. As much as I haven’t started preparing the gifts (how late, I know!), but it should be able to be done this weekend. No 2012 gamestop coupons for my kids but I’m going to get them some new toys. Our condo is not ready for the Christmas tree but it’s all about being together as family, as soon as my kids are back from their holiday in M’sia!

For the first time in 3 years, I didn’t prepare Christmas bento.

Hubby and I are busy with the condo these few weeks. As much as we have booked most of our furniture and stuffs, but most of them are out of stock and will only be delivered after Christmas. That’s the aftermath of the worst flood in 50 years, millions of people are shopping for their homes!

If I’m still staying in my post flooded house, I won’t be buying expensive cedar furniture or do any built-in. Who knows if it will be flooded again?

After numerous trips back home by boats, we have had an idea how many stuffs which we manage to save, and what else should go straight to the trash bags. The only thing is, garbage trucks can’t come in easily to our neighborhood, so cleaning up is not as easy as it seems.

Nevertheless, I’ve managed to wash and sterilize my first batch of bento tools, even if I’m not sure if I will use them again. Maybe I will regain confidence in using them after batches of steaming and sterilizing!

In the mean time, we hope that our condo will be ready before Christmas so that we can move in and start all over again. Like most Thais and expats whose lives are affected by the flood, things might be tough for the next few months but I’m sure that we can cope and overcome the hardship.

A lot of businesses struggle to survive, so we should work harder for time to come. I’m glad that I don’t have to resort to finding Resort Clerk Jobs or getting a new job now, but just work on my biz.

Hopefully, I will be able to get back to bento-ing in January.

After the house was flooded for a month, we wanted to go back for a visit but only managed to reach the center part of our gated community. We couldn’t get in further to our house since our kids were tagging along, and the community boat was too small for all 4 of us.

But yesterday, hubby and I went in again as MIL is here to babysit the kids. Water has much receded but cars can’t go in the major road yet, unless you want to risk your car and get road trip medical assistance!

We managed to reach our door step this time, and I almost couldn’t recognized my house. The mess and odor were unbearable, and cleaning up won’t be easy!

The streets are still flooded up to waist line.

Water was up to 80cm or 1m in the house, so everything was afloat. This is what you’ll see after the water subsided in the house:

What a sight huh?

The leather sofa set has mold all over, and the TV rack, cabinets and shelves collapsed. Even my washing machine collapsed and misplaced too.

Some of my bento tools.

I managed to move some tools and lunch boxes upstairs but some were left in the cabinets.  These tools were scattered on the floor now. If you are wondering if I will reuse them, I haven’t decided though. I’ve read up about sterilizing and cleaning up things in the house after flood, so maybe I can still save some tools.

I’ll go back to the house again this weekend for some massive cleaning up!

Kids are still enjoying their 3 months term break and flood holiday. Up to today, their school area is still flooded at 1.55m, so the new term can only start in January. As much as I wish to keep them occupied with activities and trips but hubby and I are too busy, and I don’t feel like spending much on vacations too.

Maybe we will bring them to a resort for horsing riding, which we always visit during school holidays. Both kids are always happy to see the ponies, and there is a trainer here who can coach kids in horse riding. Besides that, equestrian helmets and equipments are up for rent.

Let’s see how things go after hubby and I have managed cleaning up our dirty flooded house.

I haven’t bought any insurance for my kids in Thailand, so we forked out on our own when they were hospitalized last year due to influenza A. Previously, we invested in a health and education plan for them but I canceled the policy after we moved to Bangkok. As much as the college plan might work in long run, but I felt it’s a big ripped off as we can’t use the hospitalization plan out of Malaysia.

Maybe I should find a new plan for them soon, something like  gerber. Both our kids are studying in private school, so the tuition fees can be a burden for us if we don’t plan well. On the other hand, college fees are not cheap either! I am interested to find out more about personal accident coverage too, even if my kids already have a simple plan from school.

But firstly, let us get back to our normal lives first. I can’t wait for the flood to be over.

Honestly, I feel like life has gone upside down since the flood and it’s not easy getting back to our normal lives, especially since we have relocated and living out of suitcases. But then again, we are way much lucky comparing to most flood victims, so we should be grateful about it.

As the water is flowing towards Bangkok, there is a slight decrease of water level in northern Bangkok but it’s not enough to make things easy for us yet. Especially since I still have a lot of work permit documents procedure which can’t be done due to the closure of certain government offices!!! Should I just use spongeables scrub to help them to clean up to get my permit? Argh…

We have a few Malaysian friends here, and even if we hardly meet up, we still keep in touch once in a while. Some of them even invited us to stay over at their places at difficult times like this. We are so touched and blessed. In fact, we spent a weekend with friends in Ban Chang, near Pattaya. Thanks for the hospitality and it’s nice to receive Christmas and Christening Invitations from you guys, maybe we shall meet again after a month.

But since we are just fine here at the condo, we turned down their offers. Our new condo should be ready in a month, and we should be able to move our stuffs out from the flooded house as soon as the water subsides. It might take a few more weeks, but by then, our condo should be ready.

I can’t wait for our lives to be back to “normal” again. In the mean time, thanks to all of you who have called, SMS, text messaged in FB or left comments on my blogs. We are doing fine, really. In fact, we are living too well as we don’t have much to do, except eating and confining in a small condo. Oh boy. That explained why I’ve just gained 2kgs!!!!

I honestly can’t wait to get back to my busy life, which I might have taken for granted.

Under normal circumstances, I would be planning for a few year end celebrations like wedding anniversary, my boy’s birthday and also Christmas! But this year, I’m not so sure if we will have any celebration. Even if we do, it would be a small celebration among ourselves and in moderation.

I wish that I can organize a nice birthday party for my boy, which I have already planned in mind. I have already picked the venue, and the theme, and even plan to design some birthday vinyl banners. It would be nice to have his friends around to celebrate his 7th birthday, but right now, it’s too early to tell if anyone has the mood to attend.

What we really want to do now is looking for a temporary office for our business. We can’t possibly pull a halt on everything for a month, waiting for the water to subside. Yes, the flood might take a month. I might have to look for a temporary venue to run the biz, and print some business banners first.

After that, I might have time to think about celebrations. For the time being, it’s about staying safe and living in moderation. Millions of people need to work hard to rebuild their lives after the flood. By the way, it will take 2 to 4 weeks for the water to subside, so it’s not something that will go off in a few days. We must stay strong.

We had evacuated from our house in Pathum Thani last Friday due to a false alarm (as claimed by the government officer) but we didn’t regret it. In fact, it’s a good move to have evacuated early instead of moving out when the water flow comes in. My neighborhood was badly flooded yesterday, some spot has water as deep as 2 – 3 meter, and a lot of residents had ordered to move out from their houses.

Our house is definitely flooded inside by now, maybe more than 1.5m. Most of things will be soaked and spoiled, but then again, we can’t do much about the loss. I can’t even think about the cost of repairing, or should we worried about the rubbish or stuffs inside the composter. Ewww…

Hopefully, the water will subside soon even if it’s estimated to drag for more than a month. We need to move our things out to our new condo, and I doubt we manage to save most of our stuffs now. But it’s ok, life saving is above anything else.