Well there’s nothing like coming back from 2.5 weeks in 40 degree heat in Thailand to a house where the boiler’s broken and we practically had to crack our way into our frozen rooms..
Yep, even that isn’t enough for you to forgive us for being somewhere hot while the cold snap descended here, I know..
We had a v good trip to Phuket, even though it’s not the loveliest bit of the country, but it does have 3 very nice hotels that we stayed at, and even though there was more rain and grey sky than there should have been there was still plenty of warmth and more than enough humidity for my hair to resume its ludicrous vertical position in the style of Louby Lou. Cue the hair straighteners twice a day – a losing battle..
On the animal front, we had a couple of good water monitor encounters, plus various monkeys (not my fave) including ones that swim, who knew?..
Not surprisingly we spent most of the time moving from one meal to the next – Thai all the way from the amazing breakfasts (street food, noodle soup, curry, dim sum, the full monty) to ‘light’ lunches and mega dinners – must have sampled every dish on all the menus, plus the various ones in little restaurants out on the beaches.
Bloody delicious – it remains my favourite food and the little google translation I carried on my phone ‘please cook as if we were Thai people, not tourists – we love flavour and spice’ brought a smile to several faces, as they whacked more chillis in and we quenched the fire with another Singha or mai tai.
Had amazing accommodation at the Slade hotel and the Six Senses – we felt hugely fortunate and spent a lot of time in both rooms/gardens, H even read 2 books!
And we got over the initial mini disaster soon enough. We managed to–have a car accident within 1 hour of hiring it – a moped undertaking us as we signalled left in the left-turning lane – though it did make us even more wary about the mad bikers once the first car had been replaced by one which still had both wing mirrors..
Loved the market night in Phuket, lady boy bar staff, rain and all, and the couple of times we ventured out into little villages on bikes. And then pottering in the car from beach to beach in the SW of the island where the sands are best and the water turquoise.
We had our best half day out on a longtail boat, visiting the islands from the Man with the Golden Gun Bond film – which we then watched with martinis and a fab dinner in the hotel cinema room that eve. Was meant to be on the beach but the rain had other ideas, ah well. H even got to drive the boat, as we scoffed a huge (Thai!) picnic, swam and reminded ourselves why Phuket isn’t known for its snorkelling!
In a nutshell, all good (well, there was a large ‘mouse’ incident one night and a few slightly hairy jungle-y moments) but it’s still lovely to be home as well and be thrown into the 10 days to Christmas mayhem.
Collected Maddie from the breeder’s brother’s wife in Reading – she hasn’t stopped weeing since – all over the house, herself and even our bed – in her delight to be home. Mojo returned from her first ever cattery stay yowling loudly and has been glued to me since, rather nice..
Christmas ahoy – we are doing endless laundry and got the tree up yesterday as we’re on catch up. Can’t wait to see people pre-Xmas and beyond!
Much love to you all. x