A Birthday and Fun and Games, Isaan Thailand.

Today I had to go to school again even though it was Sunday, we have had teacher training the last few days so it has meant no break over the weekend.

Today was also a special day, so I had to leave the teacher training early (I was upset) and go out for lunch. It was Miss Noot’s birthday.

We ventured to a lovely little restaurant near our house for a quiet lunch. Miss Noot went ahead of me with her friend as I had to quickly do a few things when she had left for the restaurant.

I speed down to Pepper’s Bakery and Café to pick up her birthday cake. Andrew had her favourite cake ready to be picked up, a pandanus coconut cream cake. I then rushed this home and put it in the fridge.

View Ban Dan Tha Kwlan in a larger map
The restaurant is the knife and fork and is easy to find. Second turn past Big C at the police box where all the mobile phone shops are.

I then motored across to the restaurant to a barrage of questions which I very vaguely answered. It was really good timing as I had sat down for 30 seconds when the first dish was brought out.

This is one of my favourite Thai dishes, it is known as Pak Boong, or another words water cabbage or Morning Glory. It is lightly deep fried and comes with the nicest seafood sauce. It was a great way to start the meal.

Then came out a spicy fish soup, it was really delicious.

For lunch only Annie, Noot’s best friend had came along. Annie lives with us 6 days a week as they are both doing work experience together at the same hotel and same shift.

Miss Noot looked pretty happy for her special day.

The next dish was also another favourite, deep fried pork cutlet.

And the food got better, if this was possible, chicken and cashew nuts.

And to round it all off some deep fried prawns in a tempura batter. The meal as always was great. I have never had a bad meal there. All up with drinks came to 410 Baht.

It was then some more games for me. Miss Noot and Annie were heading to Swenson’s for ice-cream; I had to pick up the last of her present.

A few weeks ago I started wracking my brain, trying to think of what to buy Miss Noot. She doesn’t need jewelry as she doesn’t wear what she has now. I don’t buy her clothes very often as what I believe is fashionable and might look great on her, she mightn’t like.

In the end I decided to do something stupid. Over the past 4 years I have taken thousands of photographs, tens of thousands and they are all stored away on back up external hard drives. We have printed a few but many were used for this blog and that was it.

So I started searching all the folders and pulling out pictures for Miss Noot. I would then Photoshop the pictures that needed it. This ended up becoming a bit of a beast. After a week I had 400 pictures and still so many folders to search.

In the end there are 718 pictures in total. Most were printed at the standard size but I also had twenty pictures, what I deemed would be special to her printed in 12 x 18 inches. All up this cost around 6,000 Thai Baht.

So I picked up the last of her pictures and speed home and then returned to Swensens for ice cream.

The first thing when Miss Noot got home was a photo album, one of four I bought. Then after making her wait for five minutes I got the rest of her gift.

I brought out the pictures and instantly there was a bewildered smile. Once she started opening the small holders, her amazing smile lit up and Noot and Annie were in conversation about times gone by.

The pictures were a gift I thought she would enjoy, and she did. The problem is she only had 15 minutes before she had to leave for work. So this meant many of the pictures haven’t been looked at yet, also I haven’t shown her the large 12 x 18 photos yet.

I am sure the next few weeks or months will involve arranging the pictures in the albums and then changing the arrangements as well.

It was funny when I was looking through all the old folders and the great memories that came flooding back from different times that I had forgotten about, but as soon as I had seen the picture I felt like I was there.

Anyway, it was a bit of a different gift. The only thing left to do tonight is light her candles when she walks through the door at around 12:30am, even though this will technically be the 20th of July and the day after her birthday.

To see any pictures in crystal clear large sizes, simply click on one and go to my Flickr page.

Brunty