Crikey, if I don't finish writing up the end of my trip to Thailand soon I'm sure I'll forget half of it - and I don't want to do that! That being said, I was away again this weekend and between coming back from Thailand and going away this weekend it feels like my feet haven't touched the ground! I went a bit mad and made a ton of appointments - you know, the kind that keep getting put on the "to do list" and then nothing gets done about them. Well eventually I get mad at myself and must have made 10 appointments (winter tyres, dentist, optician etc.) in the space of 15 minutes. That'll teach ..read more

Anyhoo, the next day - whenever that was - we left the islands and made our way back to mainland Krabi, where we would spend our final few days in Thailand. While Krabi was not nearly as pretty as the islands, it was more of a resort town so I guess if you were looking for entertainment this was the place to be. Our tour company was offering a tour of the Phi Phi islands, but C and I decided we wouldn't bother as I think we were pretty tired by this time. Later that evening we went out to dinner with R, who had taken the tour but he said that while it was indeed very beautiful, it was sooooo c ..read more

They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, and it's certainly seeming that way at the moment. We've got howling winds, especially in the evenings and throughout the night, and then the next day the weather is relatively stable - well stable enough for me to be out pottering in the garden anyway! And I'm really enjoying pottering about after a fairly hectic few weeks!  I mentioned previously that life wasn't being quite as kind to a few people I care about. There've been a couple of incidents with people ending up at the emergency room, and while things are seemingly muc ..read more

It's been a few days since I last posted but things have been pretty hectic here. There's been some horrible news affecting a few people - thankfully not my immediate family, but people I care about nevertheless - so I didn't feel much like posting. I wanted to write about the rest of my trip to Thailand before I forgot it, though, because, as I've said before, I want this blog to serve as my online diary for later! So, I can't even remember which island I'm on at the minute but as they're all very pretty I don't suppose it matters much, does it! Anyway, on this day - whichever one it happene ..read more

The longest stay we had on any of the islands was three nights - I guess it depended on how much our tour operator thought would be of interest to us on each island. I'm getting a bit mixed up with how long we spent where but in the end it doesn't matter does it. Suffice it to say that our next port of call was to be the island of Koh Lanta - a trip which involved another, less stressful tuk tuk ride, an hour's speedboat journey and then a short trip by truck to our next hotel! Well that was the theory at least. Problem was, about 30 minutes into our boat journey the engine suddenly cut out. O ..read more

I've been home five days now and I'm finding it a bit weird that I'm still waking up around 5 a.m. and getting up around 6 a.m. (although long may it last). I go to bed around midnight as usual but surely jet lag should have worn off by now? Who knows, but in any case I'm quite enjoying it! After yoga on Monday I went grocery shopping and when I came back I decided to check my engine again. And wouldn't you know it but the bloody weasels had been back visiting my car while I was away - or at least that's what I'm gathering from the chunk of baguette I found where the two slices of brown bread ..read more

After our trip down the canal, our guide spent some time explaining more about Thai customs - the do's and don'ts if you like - and then setting out the programme for the rest of our trip. She also collected a smallish amount of baht from all of us in order to tip various people along the way. This actually made life easier for us because who knows what is or isn't an appropriate amount to tip the guy who carries your suitcase for you in a foreign country? The plan for the afternoon was to visit the Grand Palace so on the way there we got to know each other a little better. As I've mentioned b ..read more

Well the world's slowest renovation project is still ongoing and I'm starting to get really fed up of it, to be honest. I had thought that at least the big bathroom would have been finished last week but unfortunately the plumber couldn't install the shower door pane as he needs the tiler to come back in and build him a proper vertical wall on which to attach it (I'd guess none of my walls are particularly straight). Unfortunately (for me) the tiler had to dash home to Kosovo for a few days so that's where I'm stuck at - so close and yet so far! On a positive note, I now trust both these men e ..read more

So the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos is finally over, having accommodated up to 150 private jets per day in order for a group of unelected billionaires to tell the rest of us how we need to cut our carbon footprint. Yes I'm talking to you, little old lady at the back there - how dare you expect to be able to heat your home and eat. The nerve of some people, eh Klaus! In other news, I'm not really sure what's going on with next door's divorce, although it is apparently common knowledge now as the husband has seemingly told everyone. As for him moving into his daughter's empt ..read more

Well after feeling all gung ho and getting so much junk out of the house last week, I kinda ran out of steam somewhere mid-week and took a few days off. Mind you, the bloody awful weather - constant rain - is enough to make anyone pull their hair out, I reckon. I've never really minded rain and positively love the cold, but this non-stop drizzle is bloody awful. As I've mentioned before, both my neighbours have problems with water coming into their basements so I hear their pumps working constantly. And then of course we have the downed trees and landslides, as the water obviously has nowhere ..read more