Lazy Sunday
Good Morning Everyone!
What have you got planned for today? A lazy Sunday is on the cards for us. I’ve just made a light breakfast for us of scrambled eggs and bacon on toast. Josh is now playing with his lego, Rachel is asleep and Steve is doing his make-up…. no, only kidding, Steve is in the shower. A perfect opportunity for me to blog.
We had a lovely day yesterday. I met a friend in the morning, Thess, who lives down my street. She has a little girl called Lucy. So we took the kids off to play and we had a good chinwag together about everything under the sun. I didn’t get my 2 hours of peace to read in the afternoon (I got 20 minutes!!!!) but never mind, Josh and I made popcorn together and then sat and ate it on the kitchen floor. Steve was out flat hunting. The lease on our apartment runs out in July, and we would like to move to somewhere bigger. We have lived in the same place for 18 months, which is a long time for us. We get itchy feet really quickly. It’s a lovely apartment, but we also need to move nearer to Josh’s school. I took the kids out for a walk in the evening to see if we could find any cats in the street. Josh didn’t want to go, but as soon as I proposed to look for cats, he couldn’t get out of the door fast enough (meaning he suddenly wanted to go and nothing could hold him back)
We’re off to look at flats again this morning. Sunday is usually a quiet day in Bangkok, so we are going to take the car out in a little while and drive up and down some streets that we have targeted. Then we’ll have a snack for lunch in a little restaurant we know. One of our favourite dishes is gung chair nam plaa, or raw prawns marinated in fish sauce, and this place does it particularly well. They serve it with slices of garlic and fresh lemongrass. Delicious - if you like raw fish, otherwise, it’s probably your worst nightmare of a dish.
We have a new lady joining our team tomorrow. She used to work on our team, then was tempted away by a glamorous new marketing job in a different company. But, she was later told that the department she had moved to was going to relocate to Singapore. She didn’t fancy the move to Singapore, so she asked us if she could come back. She is going to help us with all the team administration, so I will have more time for teaching.
She is called Pichaya, but her nickname is Noon. Most Thai people have nicknames. Thai names are traditionally very long, so most people use their nicknames in daily life. Some are really interesting. For example, there is a guy at work called ‘Foremost’. Now, Foremost is the name of a brand of milk in Thailand, so we (me, Sam, Rob and Tom) were very intrigued to know if there was any connection. Sure enough, there was. His mum used to drink Foremost milk when she was pregnant, so she decided to call her son Foremost. Some nicknames are obvious. Another guy at work is called ‘Neung’, which is the Thai word for ‘one’, so he is the first born of his siblings. Nicknames like Top, Best, Champ, King, and Win are popular as they have positive connotations. But there are some more intriguing names, like ‘Q’ (is this from James Bond?), ‘Pod’ (like pea pods?), ‘Klang’ (a noisy child?) and ‘Apple’ (parents addicted to fruit?). In one team, there is a ‘Boy’ and a ‘Man’, which can be amusing when they refer to each other.
Josh and Rachy have nicknames. Josh is called ‘Nong Jom’, which means ‘warrior’ and Rachel is called ‘Nong Moo’. Moo is the Thai word for pig, and Rachel was born in the year of the pig, but she was also quite a round baby, so the nickname ‘little pig’ suited her quite well. Moo is quite a common nickname, as is ‘Pla’ (fish) and ‘Gai’ (chicken).
There are a lot of conventions surrounding names and their use. ‘Nong’ is the word you use to refer to someone who is younger than you, or who is lower in social rank. The way to get the attention of a waiter or waitress in a restaurant is to shout ‘Nong, ka’. The equivalent to use for someone who is older than you, or who is your superior at work, is ‘Pi’. So going back to Neung, he is a team leader so most of his team call him ‘Pi Neung’. People only use these forms of address once they know the people quite well. If you don’t know someone, you would normally use their full name and address them as ‘Khun’ which is a way of showing respect. So everyone refers to my boss as Khun Chris, even though he is a westerner.
I don’t have a nickname. Do you? Do you like it? Do you have any special rules concerning names in your country?
OK folks, that's all for today. Speak to you soon,
Anne.
xxx
Down my street – in my street
Chinway – a talk, chat
Everything under the sun – lots of different things
Flat hunting – to look for a new flat to live in
Itchy feet – the desire/need for change
Siblings- brothers and/or sisters
Comments
Hi Anne Hope you are fine. Nong Jom and Nong Moo are very nice nicknames. The stories behind nicknames are quite amusing. We also use nicknames in India; generally don’t have related stories and exact meaning. Parents, relatives and villagers use nickname while official name is used for office purpose only. A funny thing is that some parents in our village use their children’s name to call when they get angry.
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Hi dear Ann , I hope you have enjoyed your lazy Sunday . My weekly off day on Fridays sounds like that but most of the time I just stay at home and I try to catch up with house chores and doing my English homework on Bank holidays and … I keep my finger crossed for your flat hunting . Moving to another house is a big Ardous tough job for me . It 's a long time that we have been stuck in our flat ( seven years ! ) and I think moving to another home and settling down is a big nightmare for me .One of reason is that I have bought lots of life applicant over this seven years and my husband and me have been storing some useless stuff for future use although some of them never come to hand . Anyway about name and nickname , in Iran it 's not common to have nickname and when some one don't like her/his name usually choose a nickname ! And usually parents choose their kids name depending their believes .For example it 's most common to choose some of Islam saint name such as Mohamad ( our prophet name for boys ), Fatemeh ( the prophet daughter name ) and Ali ( the prophet son in law name ) , Hosein and Hasan ( the prophet grandchild ) and so on . All of them are Arabic and they all have beautiful meaning . On the other hand , many beautiful Persian , Turkish and etc names are on the board nowadays because there are different races . And you know each age has got it 's own top names . But I have realized that in overseas some times parents choose some name because they like just the sound of the name . It 's a good idea but it 's rare here and in Iran we can’t choose overseas names although I love some of them . And I think some of name are international and I wish I could choose such a worldwide name for my kids . I have to stop being long winded as usual . Have a nice day . Kisses
Anne The weather has been fantastic and every single spring flowers have been blossoming in my neighbours’ gardens. Most of the people who live in our street have green fingers and they look after their garden very well. On the contrary I am not good at gardening and I don’t like gardening as well. So I call it a messy wild jungle garden. Luckily we have four cherry blossom trees which i don't need to give special care all the time in our garden and whenever gentle breezy is shaking the flowers it comes down like pink snow. The only downside is that it doesn’t last long. Talking of nicknames we call our son ‘racer or sprinter’. The reason why he is called that he is so competitive, and he runs everywhere, and he is actually pretty fast for his age. Every morning he wants to get to school first and if he loses any game he will be in the doldrums. We took our son to a seaside and kicked a ball on sand. Our son loved larking about on the beach and had a whale of a time. By the way, what age do children start to school in Thailand and is Joshua going to school for foreigners or Thai national school? I must sign off now and thank you for your enjoyable letter. Take care and see you xx
Hi Ann and everyone: I'm learning a lot of English with you blogs, but I don't write in because my English is not enough good. Today I want to do it for congratulating you and for telling you that "we also are here", those who don't dare to write. Thank you very much and good luck. Best regards.
Hi Anne, Yersterday we got up very late, had a brunch and then in the afternoon we invited my mother in law to have tea at Madero Port. A new cafe was opened there and they serve all kinds of tea. I tried a special one (green tea with peaches, damascus, orange petals and white roses of Pakistan). Needless to say I've never tried such a tasteful tea. Anne, I hope you find a good flat to move in. I know that sometimes it's tiresome looking for flats and the moving out can be very stressful but it seems that you like changes: a change is as good as a rest (I love this expression). Have a nice day. xxx Cris
Hello Anne after a long time :). Hope you are good. I was not sending any comments because i was suffered from jaundice and had lot of pain in my stomach:(. But by the grace of God im fine now :). As far as nick names are concerned in our country we also have nick names which dont have any meanings like papu, munna, etc lol. Tc and bye.
Hi Anne! How interesting to know about Thai nicknames. Well, here in Brazil we don´t have any special rule concerning names. Apart from that, I do have a nickname. My friends call me Aninha ( short for Ana). Best wishes, Ana Paula.
Nice to know that you had a calm and quiet week end. I did post a comment Last blog but I don’t find it anywhere. I wonder where that went. Any way the message was clear for xuan. We expect your motivation will help her. But that Certainly, increased my desire to become a student blogger. Cheers, Praveen Raj
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