Children's Day

In the west we have Mother's Day. Here in Thailand they also have Father's Day and Children's Day. Of the three, Children's day is the most important. The Thais give great importance to looking after, entertaining and teaching their kids, they are the future of the country.

Children's Day is the second Saturday in January. They make a great effort to give the kids a good time with special events all over the country. The schools normally do something on the Friday before. At Ben's school they kept it quite simple. The kids were allowed to bring in cake and they were given little presents. Just toy cars and dolls but it is amazing how much these little things make the kids happy. When I arrived to collect Ben the boys were in a state of delirium pushing and chasing their little cars around.

I continue to be impressed with Ben's school (Darasamut). They seem to get things about right. They even did a little school trip to the airport last week. Ben loved it - the best bit as far as he was concerned was going on a bus. He loved the bus.

Huwy sends his two stepkids to the local Thai school which is very cheap. However for Children's Day they arranged a school trip to the zoo and a party - cost per child for the parents, 1,300 baht. That is a quarter of the average Thai monthly wage just for a school trip. This seems way over the top even for Children's Day and I'm sure beyond a lot of the Thai parents.

I would have taken Ben and Jenny out to one of the events yesterday but we had a football match against the teachers at BIS. We only get this game about once every month or two and it is great to have a runout on a proper grass pitch. It is one of the few things I miss from home - running out on to a proper football pitch with the lads. Of course, I am a little too old to really get around the pitch anymore but I still love the feel of it.

It was an easy 5-1 win. We were never really pushed and it was a bit of a stroll around. I even did a 20 minute session in goal and never had to use my hands.