Grubbs n Critters

October 25, 2011

BKK Flood Update 1.0

Category: Thaism

Bangkok is bracing itself for the worst as floodwater is expected to continue flowing into the city (Source: CnnGo’s article)

Central Bangkok is still business as usual with no impending signs of the economic center being besieged by water soon. But given some of the updates we have had in the recent days, I am honestly clueless as to what really is going to happen.

You see, there has been some conflict ing information where one party said nothing will happen to Bangkok, and the other party saying that Bangkok will not be spared. So, until we see the actual gushing of water filling up the sois right in front of our eyes, all we can do here is sit around, twiddle our thumbs, go about our everyday lives and continue speculating of when it will happen.

We now know for sure that some of the areas in Bangkok are already flooded. With it, comes the reality that food and water supplies are in high demand. Already as we know it now, there has been a shortage of bottled water as most of the major water production plants had stopped production a week ago as factories had all gone under. (I actually had this information first hand from a colleague within hours after one of the key players here announced that they told their employees to go home as their manufacturing plants will be closed indefinitely)

The shelves at the supermarkets particularly those which used to shelf canned food and bottled water have all been wiped out. I saw quite a sad sight when I did a walkthrough of the Villa Market in my office building after lunch – a proof that this was not just another rumour. (But don’t worry, other junk food are still available!)

As of this morning, I received an SMS update indicating that Tesco-Lotus will be closing stores nationwide as suppliers were all unable to make the deliver. In short – they have nothing to sell!

A few of my colleagues also mentioned that the few 7-Elevens in the streets of Soi 4 do not have any more stocks of bottled water. Bangkok residents have also been advised by the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority today to start stockpiling tapwater (?) as the tapwater situation will be “worse than expected” …

If all this is true, then the next few weeks will look grim. It is a scary thought that there’ll be no more water available for consumption. Soon.

Silver Bullet shared some pictures from his office with me…and holy shit! The image looked surreal and unbelievably scary!

Entrance towards his main office building – check out the water level on the other side!

View from on the side of the parking lot

As I looked out of the window this hot aftrenoon, it is hard to believe that the skies have been nothing but bright blue with a temperature up to 37 °C in the day, while some parts of Bangkok have been filled with murky water of about 1m high and people have been using boats as their mode of transport.

It was pourign rain when I got home though, and I don’t know what these few days will bring.From what I was told, the next few days will be very critical, as the government has declared Friday and Monday a public holiday.

I’ll have my ears on the grounds for furrther updates as they come along.

Long weekend away

Category: Baby Milestones

We spent the last long weekend away from Bangkok to join Silver Bullet’s parents for a short get-away in Pattaya. I guess it was a welcome break given the frantic circumstances of not knowing what to expect of the flooding situation in Bangkok.

The ride to and from Pattaya were smooth both ways with no signs of imminent flooding in sight.

Spud behaved pretty well in the one and half hour car ride, and we both heaved huge sighs of relief when she dozed off for an hour both ways.

As with any other vacation, we hardly ever rested with Spud around! She is always busy doing something and toddles around a lot; and I guess, thanks to us screwing up her routine, her day time naps were all over the place. She will not nap in her cot, and some days, she only napped once for 20 minutes.

For 3 straight days too, Spud’s all wide-eyed and bushy tailed before 6.30 am and on the day we had to check out of the hotel, she decided that she’ll reward us with a nice wail at 5.38 am, and refusing to go back to sleep! We are, however, glad that we have the grandparents to mind her every now and then when we both were too shattered to chase her around or having to be somewhere else to do other things.

It was tiring with Spud being super active and all, but it was fun to hang out with her and observe her antics for a few whole days. She had a blast playing in the pool with the full attention of FOUR adults, squealing in delight when she got a go in the swimming pool. We also took her to Wiggle Town – some sort of a playground for little tots which opens every day of the week!

While it was great to be on a short vacation and all, I was glad to finally be back home. I have become a creature of comfort these days, and I still prefer our own bed and not having to sleep with the air-conditioned on at night all the time, which screwed up my nose really bad, our own space, our own bathroom as well as really glad to finally be able to put Spud back in her own room!

I don’t know how other parents do it, but having Spud sleeping in the same room as us drives me up the wall! She whimpered in her sleep, I woke up. She moved and the bed creaked (she did this like every half an hour throughout the night every night), I woke up. She did her dream cry for 10 seconds several times a night, I woke up. She woke up wailing at 5.30 am and wanting to be picked up or she’ll raise hell, we had no choice but to wake up! At least, if she is in her own room, we still can ignore her for a little bit – which we always do!

So yes, in that respect, it was nice to be home after a long weekend. Only, I was a little bum that we had to do more work than we bargained for when we arrived at our apartment…

We got home to our bed being used as cat’s toilet as our nanny had accidentally locked Fudge in our bedroom when she came over on Sunday to feed the cats. Before she left, she apparently did not realise that had missed one cat behind a closed door.

Why she closed all the bedroom doors was beyond me…the poor cat was stuck in our bedroom for over 24 hours with no access to food, water and toilet. And, in trying to pry open the door with her claws. Fudge has inevitably damaged the carpet which the apartment has recently changed!
So yes, I was not too happy with the extra work that was created for us to wash and change our bed-sheets which was stinking with pee and poo…plus the damage which we now possibly have to pay for!

On top of that, Fudge went crazy and could not stop meowing for a few hours after that, as if trying to complain what a terrible time she had in the room! (yes, I know it was traumatic for you Fudge, but seriously, Spud’s already wailing, you need to stop this madness!)

She did my head in for a while.

I guess, in the end, it was nothing more than a typical welcome to our own home sweet home.

Here are some shots from the weekend at the pool:

Memories

Category: Food

I was idly scrolling the pictures on my phone and while most moms tend to have some pictures of their kids in their phone, I found this instead:

Mocha, Himilayan Tea and ice-cream consumed on a “date” with Silver Bullet while we were in Singapore. This happened for several nights after we put Spud to bed and left her in the care of my parents for a few good hours.

I reckon, while the food and coffee were a big part of why we were out in the first place, it was more of the memories we have of being able to spend a rare evening together outside, just the both of us, basking in each other’s company, chit chatting and sharing our thoughts on random stuff as we watch the world go by, and without being dependent on the Nanny. We both were knackered from the day’s events, but enjoyed the little solitude we have with each each other.

Funny how certain things just triggers some fragments of memories, don’t you think?