Keeping Up With The Culveys - 2018

Waking up on New Years day 2018 was in a strangers home. No not because it was a heavy night and we didn’t know where we were, but because we had left our home and were spending our last days in Kuwait at a rented apartment. Still it was a slow start to the day as it was a late night! This was our last full day in Kuwait, we were embarking on a big new adventure.

Getting our 10 suitcases all ready to go took up most of our thoughts, but the 2nd January was the day, and as the sun went down, we headed to the airport in convoy with Jackie, Carl, Karim, and Jeff all providing logistical support to get our heavy load to the airport! Once we arrived and unloaded, we descended on the check in counters and rendezvoused with the IVH who were supporting the animal export. We created quite a commotion, especially with Izzy in her huge cage! Check in must of taken about an hour! Biggest concern was getting Izzy weighted and x=rayed as she didn’t fit on the machines!! Not sure how they did it, but with Karim helping to keep the officials calm, somehow we were all done and ready to go!

Lots of hugs, kisses, and tears were shared, photos were taken , then it was time to go through… Padema was with us, so we had more tears, and photos on the air side of customs too. It was so sad to be saying goodbye to Padema once again. We had looked at her coming to Thailand with us, but unfortunately the visa process had beaten us again. With one final hug though, it was time to climb aboard the plane, and say goodbye to Kuwait for possible the last time…

The flight itself was great, which was a bit of a surprise, as it was on Kuwait airways! However, plenty of space, the food was pretty good, and on their new planes, plenty of entertainment for the kiddo’s! A few hours of trying to sleep, and we were landing in Bangkok! All the luggage came through ok, but we were a bit confused regarding the animal collection and ended up on the other side of customs without them!! We found our drivers that were there to pick us up, and we loaded the luggage and everyone except me into the vans. They all headed off to our new home, and I worked my way back through customs to meet our agent and collect Izzy & Co. It took a little while, but eventually, I was on my way too in an open pick up towards Moo Baan Panya, and our new home!! It had taken so much organisation over the last 5 months, but we had done, we were here!!

Before Christmas we had arranged for a company to deliver some beds, mattresses and a table and chairs. This was the some total of our furniture! Of course this is not the first time we have experienced living without furniture, and this time we had a lovely garden a pool to hang out in!

The following day I started my new job with DKSH. First day went well, lots of induction stuff and meeting the team. Within a few days I was getting stuck into to some of the challenges, all was good. At the same time Lyra and the kids were getting ready for school, buying uniforms and equipment. Before they knew it, it was time to join Brighton College Bangkok!

We all travelled together to the school, Indi and Kai were very happy  to make there way to their classes and just get on with it, so Lyra and I went in with Logan. He was definitely nervous but his teacher, Miss Leask was so welcoming and the kids in the class welcomed Logan form the very moment he joined the class, he was very quickly involved and we left feeling very comfortable that he was happy.

Everyone came home from school full of smiles, the biggest hurdle of the move had been successfully navigated, 3 kids happy in school! 

Only a week after arriving we had a tickets to see Imagine Dragons, everyone was very excited. The only problem was it was a school night! Which means a late night then up at 5:30 the next day! That morning was tough, but it was totally worth it, they were brilliant, great sound, great energy, and watching the kids really getting into it was brilliant. Being somewhere artists come to play was such a bonus!

The first few weeks flew by, we got our visa’s and my work permit quickly, and we started to discover our surroundings. On our Moo Baan (our village), we have a gym, pool, tennis courts, badminton, and a restaurant. It was a great facility, and one we would use extensively. Beyond the Moo Baan we were enjoying Bangkok and all of it’s madness!!

At school, Logan had started Taekwondo, and was loving it, and two weeks in both Indi and Kai headed off with their friends in each year for a week long residential! India headed north of Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, to the Bridge of the river Kwai, the Death railway, and the wonderful elephant sanctuary, Elephants World! For Kai, he headed East to Chonburi, where they went hiking, swam in the rivers, did some community work with local kids, and generally had a great time!

When we weren’t out and about, we loved just hanging out at home. Having our own pool was just lovely, and in the heat somewhere we spent a lot of time! We had found our own oasis.

In January we welcomed one more member to team Culvey! No, not a new cat! Khun Wan came to work with us. We had met Wan a few years ago when she worked for our friends Andy & Annie in Bangkok, so when we found she was available to come and work with us we were over the moon. Khun Wan quickly became part of the family.

As usual, before we knew it, it was our incredible India’s birthday!! Also as usual, no matter how hard we tried Indi didn’t want to have any kind of party or gathering with her new friends... so on her birthday she had to settle for any early sing along, and some sweet treats! At the weekend, we did manage to drag her to the movies! She was a fully fledged 14 year with the attitude to go with it!! 

Next it was Valentine’s Day, and Lyra and I had an evening out at the Dinsor Gardens Palace. It was such a lovely atmosphere out in the gardens. Interestingly, we did feel a little like the outcasts though, as we seemed to be the only straight couple celebrating!! It was great to be in an open culture once again!!

Feb was also Chinese New Year, and the school celebrated it in style. Everyone dressed in traditional Chinese dress and there was a special new year celebration assembly at the school that Parents were welcome too! Logan was performing in the assembly and sang a traditional Chinese song with all his classmates. We celebrated in our own style with a trip to the IMAX to watch Black Panther in full 3D.

At the weekend we went to try our something new.. surfing, in the middle of Bangkok! Yep, it’s called the Flow House and is a very cool surfing experience. With the exception of Lyra, we all had a go, and it was great fun, even Logan did a great job despite being the smallest there by far!  It’s fair to say we all had a great time, but one of us was truly hooked, Kai loved it, and this would be the first of many, many visits!

And then the wait was over... our furniture arrived! As usual it was a few days of total madness. The moving team were great, but they always have very different priorities to you. Their task is to get it in and unpacked as quick as possible, ours is to make sure the big stuff is in the right rooms, get the furniture built, then just open boxes, move them into the right room then bigger off! Anyway, within a few days we have a reasonable handle on things and we could say goodbye to the moving team. Having done this far too many times, we can honestly say this was the best one by far.

Another great help was that Khun Ghee (our Driver) and Khun Wan (our lovely home help) took the boys to the zoo the keep them out of the way!

Once those few mad days were done, I had to head off for a few days as my business travel had started and we had a regional team meeting in Hong Kong for a few days so I had to leave Lyra to it! At least this time i was actually there for the container arrival...

As soon as we had our things in a reasonable place we were welcoming our first of many planned visitors! Yes, Chris and Gemma were our first official visits, just 8 weeks after we had landed! That has to be a record! 

A very exciting time for everyone especially the kids who loved having Uncle Chris to play with instead of just Dad! Many hours of jumping on him in the pool followed over the next few weeks! Chris and Gemma were also lucky enough to see Indi, Kai, and Logan perform in their sports days. Now many of you will know that India considers any kind of sport child cruelty so having an audience for her antics didn’t really fill her with joy. Having said that, there is one thing you can always say about Indi, she gives it a go, and she is a great team player who always gives great encouragement to the rest of here team! Kai did well and one a few medals, high jump, and the javelin spring to mind (but it was over a year ago!). Either way, the one thing we couldn’t forget is that Chichester won the cup!! Go Yellows!!!

Logans sports day was at a different time, and indoors (with air con!), but we were all there too encouraging him on. Logan was a very enthusiastic, and fully committed participant, and it was great watching him compete in all the games. It was pretty crazy, and to be honest, I have no idea who won, but they all seemed to have a fabulous time!

Now there was another reason the Chris and Gemma came when they did, in early March, and that was because it was some old boys 50th birthday! Yep, i reached my life’s mid point, and celebrated my half century!! Lyra had questioned me a lot over the last few years regarding what I would like to do for my 50th, but in all honesty, I wasn’t really up for anything big, I just fancied a few days with the people I love. So I woke up on my 50th to a lovely family celebration and I loved it! 

I had was treated to some wonderful presents, including an amazing Thai statue to replace our beloved Buddha that we had to leave in Kuwait. I also had a very nice, very gothic, although rather dinky birthday cake with the now infamous photo of me in full leathers, and a blond Mohican! Brilliant!

We spent the day at home, and we were also celebrating Mother’s Day as it happened to land on the same day, so we were all making sure Mum felt the love too! Then in the evening we headed out for dinner and drinks at the Marriott, then up to the roof bar for what turned out to be a quick drink as Mr Peck (despite suggesting it) got a bit queasy being so high up.... no words!!

I took the Monday off too, and we had a day being tourists in Bangkok, we fought our way round the Grand Palace with the millions of Chinese tourists, then enjoyed a much more serene experience at Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn), and Wat Po (The reclining Buddha) before taking one of Bangkok’s famous long tail boats for a river tour! A great weekend all round!!

Chris and Gemma were around for a week or so more after my birthday and they spent some time away at the elephant sanctuary and other nice spots like the floating market. But before we knew it they were off again. A memorable trip for sure, and one where we had to carry a secret for a while after.... we knew they were having a baby!!!

No sooner had they headed home when visitors number 2 arrived... Auntie Irene and Uncle Michael! As always there was a lot of laughter and a lot of playing gong!! On the Sunday we had a plan to take Auntie & Uncle for a brunch to meet with xxxx. We arrived but she didn’t! We tried calling but no luck. Anyway, we had a great brunch, especially Logan when he discovered the chocolate fountain. In fact he loved it so much, he pulled up a chair and started tucking there and then!!

We found out later that xxxx had got her days wrong and she wasn’t arriving until the next day!!  However she did manage to catch up with Lyra and all the following day.

Kai showed off his body boarding skills at Flow House, Logan showed off his Taekwondo skills, and then Indi and Kai paraded their medals after a day at a Tournament of minds contest at Bangkok Prep School.

Auntie & Uncle  filled there time by visiting the Floating Market a few palaces and Wat’s, then an evening at the famous Cabbages and Condoms restaurant which amused Auntie enormously!!

After they left, we enjoyed a great night out at the Banyan Tree with Andy we & David, then met up with Mel, Mentesh, Leah and Kayan for. Great evening at our place, before planning to meet up with them in Phuket over Easter. Then before we haded off for a week in our favorite resort the JW Beach Club, Millie, zzzz, and thingy came to say hi. We hadn’t seen Millie since we left Korea, so there was planets of catching up to do!!

As part of Brighton College, Indi and Kai were getting all kinds of great opportunities. The latest one was for Indi to take part in the Model United Nations. Indi was able to take part in political and moral debates. It was an intense experience for sure but she seemed to enjoy the challenge.

April arrived and it was the end of Indi, Kai, & Logan’s 1st term at school. To celebrate, we headed to Phuket for a week of chilling, and of course to celebrate Kai’s 12th Birthday. Before we headed off, I received a rather big surprise, my new Boss had resigned, and I was asked to take on his role while the search for his replacement was completed. I was also informed that I was considered to be a potential candidate for the role on a permanent basis. Not something I expected, but I had to say it was an exciting prospect. My first challenge was to present our Supply Chain Strategy to the Executive Board in Switzerland in 6 weeks time… no pressure! I can tell you now, it all went very well.

 Being able to reach Phuket in a couple of hours was brilliant, I think we will be there pretty often! We settled in immediately, and enjoyed the wonderful surroundings.

Within a few days it was Kai’s big day! He woke to presents, balloons, and a nice breakfast. Then it was off to John Gray’s Canoes to meet with the Mentesh’s and enjoy an adventure on the water. What an amazing day we had together. Canoeing the Hong’s is always breathtaking and as usual the guides were great fun. One in particular had all the kids in stitches, they were convinced that he was the Black Panther, and he made their day unforgettable! As well as the canoeing there was plenty of time to dive in off the boat, run the gauntlet on the upturned canoes. We ended the day making and launching Kratongs in the caves at night, then watching the effervescent plankton, which is always stunning.

The following day, Kai’s celebrations continued at his favorite restaurant Kabuki. He loves the Japanese tepenyaki, so we had a great evening together, and even shared a birthday cake!

The following days were spent around the pool or down the beach, the boys and me even took the canoes out in the bay. It wasn’t long though before it was time to head back home. Back home though there was still fun to be had as it was Songkran, the Thai water festival, and Buddhist new year. It is traditional to take part in a water ceremony, which these days is one big water fight! We headed to Lumpini Park and had great fun all dressed in their Songkran shirts!

Once we recovered from Songkran, we welcomed our next guests, Anita & Alan on their way back from Australia. While they were with us we found ourselves back at Flow house again, this time it was for Kai’s birthday party. Everyone enjoyed the body boarding and they all fought on the water and many laugh, and many a crash was had!! After all the high jinx, they sat down to eat, sing happy birthday to Kai, and enjoy his birthday cake!!

All of Kai’s many celebrations finally finished just before Lyra’s birthday was upon us! As it fell on a school day, the celebrations were held off until tea time, but Lyra still got to enjoy a few presents. It didn’t last long though as the following day ~Avengers: Infinity War came out and the kids had been so desperate to watch it,so... Lyra’s birthday treat was an evening with super heroes!!

Just as we hit May, we received our next guests, Nanny & Grampy were on their way back from an epic journey to Australia and New Zealand so Bangkok seemed like a great stop off on the way home! And they arrived just in time to join Lyra’s actual, non Marvel birthday celebration! We met up with some of our new friends for a Greek dinner, which was really nice. We then said good night to Nanny and Grampy, and we went on to a live music club to party some more!! It was a great place with a really good live band, and as the evening went on and the dancing started, it soon progressed into getting on the stage and singing with the band!! Great night though, lots of laughs! I think Lyra had a fab time.

No time for hangovers though as it was time to take Nanny & Grampy on our tour of Wat’s! Well one Wat really, and then admiring another from across the river! We took them to Wat Po, the reclining Buddha. It is a lovely temple and the surrounding grounds are also really nice to wander around,m and it tends to be relatively quiet, certainly compared to the Grand Palace. After wandering around for a while we made our way over to our favorite riverside restaurant that overlooks the wonderful Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn. It’s a lovely, small, relaxing place where we had a dinner, and watched the sun go down by the temple. Lovely.

Nanny and Grampy strayed for about another week, and took themselves off on a few visits, and even went on a 2 day tour that took them inland for a look at rural Thailand.

No sooner had we recovered from that visit when our most notorious guests arrived.... Jackie and Loopy Louise!! Now to say there was a little intrepidation regarding this visit would be a fair description. Two middle aged ladies arriving from Kuwait to Bangkok with an obsession about the Hangover movies... what could possibly go wrong!!

So lots of ideas had been discussed regarding recreating a ‘Hangover’ experience for them, but I will not be a part of any of the darker side of Bangkok’s  lady bars etc. So thankfully we found that there was actually an official Hangover tour, that takes you to some of the places where the movie was filmed and shows you the dark side with an experienced guide. Perfect, I could let the ladies head out, without too much fear that they may not return! 

The evening started quite civilized with cocktails on the rooftop sky bar at the Lebua hotel. However, this is where I said goodbye too the three musketeers as they were met by one poor Thai girl and a driver that was going to have to keep there three crazy ladies alive for the next few hours! I wished them good luck and returned home...

Well it seemed like they had a great night, with lots of laughs. They experienced the seedy side for sure, and left a little fascinated, but mostly disturbed by it all. But, memories of a lot of laughing and fake face tattoo’s will mean it was an evening that will be remembered for a long time!

Next day, Lyra scared the boys with her face tattoos, both Kai and Logan had a moment where they thought they were real!! Fair play to Indi, she was having none of it from the moment she saw it!!

Life at Brighton College for the kids was going really well, they had made nice friends and were enjoying the learning and the fun side of the school. Logan was enjoying his Taekwondo, Indi was getting involved in all sorts of activities and represented the school when they went to meet younger Thai students and helped them with their English by reading to them. Kai was also taking every opportunity to help with the development of the school and was interviewed for a promotional video, and helped out during open days,

In June, Indi and Mum jetted off to Kuala Lumpur for the international round of World Scholars. Her team at Brighton had qualified in the local round so a team of 9 students took on the challenge. They had an amazing week of challenging tasks and had a whole lot of fun in between. They were staying in the heart of KL, right by the Petronas towers and got to see more of Malaysia with a day trip to Melaka. India’s team didn’t quite qualify for the final round (at Harvard) but the senior team did, and they all came home happy with Al Paca’s in hand!!

Straight after getting back, we had a night out together as a family as we went to see the latest Cirque De Soleil which was based on Avatar, what an incredible set, and a spectacular show.

As we headed towards the end of the school year, it was a busy time. Logan had an open morning where the parents came to see what they had been doing, Lyra and I had a fun time seeing Logan in his class and joining in with some of his lessons. We also attended India’s Senior Formal, yes, parents were allowed to come, and Indi was cool with us attending so Indi, Lyra and I got dressed up, yes, Indi wore a dress! One of her Mum’s, now that she was as tall as Mum! It was a really fun evening, they had a nice award ceremony, which Indi won ‘The most likely to ....’ and they played games, including the World Scholars favorite, Al Paca balancing on you head!!

Then it was time for the big end of year show. This year it was Bugsy Malone! Both Indi and Kai had been heavily involved, Indi had taken on a few roles including waitressing, and a contortionist (which drew grasps from the audience!) as well as supporting the Director, and Kai played one of the starring roles as Dandy Dan! The professionalism and the performances were mind blowing, it was truly amazing. Both Indi and Kai played their parts brilliantly and we all (including Khun Wan and Khun Ae) had a fabulous time. We even got to keep a life size cut out of Dandy Dan which now has pride of place at home!!

In the last few weeks of term, we had been enjoying the World Cup too, and with a degree of surprise, England were doing really well! So as the quarter finals fell on a weekend we decided to make a little party out of it and invited a few friends round to watch the game. Great fun, and England won (although then sadly lost in the semi’s).

In the last week of school, Logan passed his first grading at Taekwondo, so came home beaming with pride, a new belt, a certificate, and a medal! At the final assembly, Indi also a special award from the Headmaster for outstanding effort, which was a wonderful way to end the year. Did Kai also win?

Then all of a sudden it was the school summer holidays!! Yay! No more 12 weekers like in the Middle East though, Thailand was much more like the UK, with only 6/7 weeks off. We kicked off the summer break, with, yep, another visitor!! The very wonderful Olenka caught up with us. We hadn’t seen Olenka for almost 10 years, since out ill fated encounter with the Ukraine. Olenka was a teacher at Indi and Kai’s school while we were in Dnepropetrovsk and we had always kept in touch, it was lovely to be able to catch up with her again. She hadn’t changed a bit, still a wonderfully bubbly, happy, and always very colourful! 

Before Lyra and the kids jetted off to Europe for the summer, we had a few days in Rayong, which is about 3 hours East around the coast from Bangkok. We had a lot of fun, spending most of our time on the beach. As is typical in the summer here, it is generally quite cloudy, although still very warm, but it was also quite windy, which had whipped the sea up and there were some amazing waves to play in. Indi, Kai, and I had a blast in the surf, and after awhile, even Logan joined us getting bash and battered by the waves. Lyra decided to be the official photographer for most of this period!! We also had some fun on the beach especially burying each other. Now Logan isn’t too much work, and even Kai was ok, but they decided to take on the biggest challenge, so they buried me! It took a while but they stuck at it and eventually I was just a head, with a sand body, and boobs, a la Joey style too!!

Once we got back to Bangkok though it was time to say goodbye to them for a few weeks as they did their tour before I came over to join them.

The England tour started in Binfield and Reading, staying with our wonderful friends Joyce, Jim, and Hannah. We are always made to feel so welcome as we arrive with oh so many suitcases and noisy-ness!! While we were in Berkshire, we had to go and visit Thea and Jasmine (Indi’s bestie from TES) after they had moved back to the UK earlier this year. Sadly Dave was away working so no chance to catch up with him but Lyra and the kids did get to meet up with Jeanne, plus Louby Lou and Susan who were also back for the summer.

Then it was in the car and off to Northampton. As you would expect, it was time to catch up with Abi, Kiera and Cam, the kids always love spending time together whenever we are back. They also came with Ly and the kids to meet up with one of  Logan’s best Buds Sam. As Sam was staying Manchester we agreed to meet between the two at Sandwell Country Park. All the kids had a blast running riot around the park while Zoe and Lyra caught up over a coffee!

Lunches with Auntie and Uncle to catch up on all that’s been going on in their busy lives, as well as a lunch date with Jan of course.

Then before you knew it, I arrived! We were all due to head out to Sveti Vlas for a couple of weeks in the sun, but before that we had to have a day out with Uncle Chris and Gemma.

Bulgaria beckoned though and we jetted off together to our apartments on the Black Sea. The days were of course filled with time in the pool, especially when the wave machine was on, down on the beach (while the Russians were taking siesta), and off course many a game of air hockey!! Lyra being a little competitive, and Kai almost as bad, you can imagine how much fun we had!! Most of the resort did to be fair!  A big part of our time in Sveti Vlas is enjoying the lovely restaurants, we always spend time at the beach restaurant as it is such a lovely place to watch the sun go down, but there are so many great places to have dinner, we always make the most of it. Our holidays in Bulgaria are never complete without a day on Nesebar, the old town over the causeway is a fab day out, wandering the cobbled streets, finding secret funky cafe’s and bars, and of course, lots of ice cream!

All too soon though we were heading back to Blightly for some more family time.  First up was a trip to Bristol to see Tori and new Nephew Charlie! We all enjoyed having a few hugs with the man of the moment and it was great t catch up with Tori and hear all about the joy of being a new Mum!!

Next it was down to Weymouth to meet up with Nanny & Grampy. As they had sold their house in Weymouth earlier that year, we all stayed in a lovely B&B. One our first day on the South coast we were blessed with beautiful weather, scorching sunshine! We needed to the sun cream to hang out on the beach and watch a bit of Punch & Judy!! While we were on the coast, we took a day trip over the Lyme Regis to meet up with Hilary & Brian for a beer and rather creamy hot chocolates for the kiddies. Sadly the weather wasn’t quite as lovely, and by the evening when we were joined by the Clapp crew for fish & chips we had to hide under the brollies in a beer garden to munch our fish and chips. All good fun, and it didn’t dampen our spirits, we had a lovely evening catching up with everyone…. It had been so long!

While we are in Weymouth we had to get out to Portland Bill! Logan desperately wanted to go up the lighthouse, so made the climb right up to the big light, what a great view, and an interesting tour. Outside of the lighthouse, it was a bit fresh, and very breezy. As we left the gift shop after buying some rather nice stones (!?) Kai was very pleased with himself, sadly he was still holding the change he had got from his purchase and the strong wind took him by surprise… and off flew the tenner, and a fiver!! Ly’s quick reactions got her foot on the tenner, but the fiver was lost to the wind! Our boy was not pleased!

Anyway, we soon got over it as we climbed all over the amazing rocks, and even went and had a look at the pulpit, although we managed to resist the temptation to climb it! Once back in Weymouth, we met up with Nanny & Grampy again and had a go at crabbing, Indi and Kai had done this many times with their trips down to Weymouth, but Logan had never had the chance so today he got his net and went search ing for the crabs! It took a while, but we achieved success, a crab was netted, I was so pleased, I even gave it a little kiss, much to the kids distress!!

Sue and Simon had come down to say hi too, and we had a nice walk along by Portland harbour. Then as we got back to the cars, we had a problem. I couldn’t find the keys to the hire car! Nightmare, I checked through all of our bags, no good, did we lose it on the beach, did kai lose them when he went back to car to get something? Nobody had a clue! We spent a long while searching all around the rocks where we had been crabbing and everywhere in between, but no luck! I spoke to the hire car company but they didn’t have spares to hand and said if we had to break in we would have to pay for the damage (assuming the keys were in the car somewhere?? Eventually we accepted that the hire car company would need to rescue the car and take it to Bristol, where they could sort our a new set of keys. A plan was hatched  and we all headed out for a well deserved dinner, to try to laugh about the ridiculous situation. Then Sue and Simon headed back to to Trowbridge with Mum and Dad, so we could bring their car back up to Bristol I the morning  to pick up another hire car. We waved goodbye to them then settled into the B&B for one last night.  As we packed up everything ready to go in the morning, Lyra made a discovery… the car keys!! They had fallen into a multi pack of cheddars, and I hadn’t searched THAT thoroughly!! We quickly called the hire car company and told them we had found them and that we would pick the car back up the next day (and pay for the rescue…). 

So in the end, we made it back to Heathrow in the right car, and all worked out well. Following all that fun, it was a bit of a relief to get on the plane and head back to sunny Bangkok!

Back home in the sun was lovely of course, but getting home also means getting ready for school to start. We had a few days to get ready but then it was back to the 5:30 starts and back to Brighton. Indi was embarking on her iGCSE course in Yr 10, Kai was rocking Yr 8, and Logan was starting school for real as a member of Yr 1!

Soon after the kids settled in to school it was time for me to jump into the limelight. As I had mentioned earlier, I had been standing in as the Global Head of Supply Chain since my Boss left. In September, I was back with the Senior Exec Team in Japan, and also meeting the Exec Board for final approval of the strategy I had shared with them earlier in the year. The sessions all went well and achieved the sign off for my strategy. Following the meeting, I was also informed that I was being given the Global Head role on a permanent basis. It had been crazy 6 months, but I was over the moon to be appointed officially!! Even made the Bangkok Post!

To celebrate this news, Lyra and I jetted off to Portugal to enjoy our annual detox at the Juicy Oasis Retreat. We even enjoyed a bottle of bubbles to celebrate… San Pellegrino!

This is usually a very active week, and it was for Lyra, sadly, I had injured my knee a few weeks before and was waiting to have surgery so I had to sit and watch this year. Nice to relax, but I really missed getting into it all. Lyra threw herself fully into it of course and bounced, meditated, stretched, and volleyballer herself through a fun and healthy week in the sun!

We stopped off in the Uk as always on the way home, we had a lovely evening out with Dave & Lee Emerson, then we picked up Grandad and all headed to Bangkok together.

As you would expect Grandad took no time at all to settle into life in Bangkok. Chilling in the pool, lunches at the Marriott, it was like he had been doing it for years!

While he was living it up, I headed into hospital for my knee op. All went well and after a night in hospital I was back home but hobbling around on crutches for a week or so.

However, there was a big event that he had come to celebrate and that was our Logan reaching a mighty six years old! The 4th Oct was a school day so it was an early start but that didn’t dampen his enthusiasm! A quick brekkie of Nutella crumpets and there was time for a couple of presents before he headed off for the day.

Later on Lyra and I surprised Logan at school just before home time with cakes for the whole class and a very loud rendition of happy birthday! Then it was time for a session of footie at Kiddie Kicks before heading back home for more presents!!

Of course the real party was reserved for the weekend. We had arranged for the Logan and his buddies to have a couple of hours of bouncing at Amped and then as much unhealthy food as they could stuff inside them, along with a rather large Avengers birthday cake! They all had a blast and believe me it was a sweaty affair!!

To round off the day, we took Grandad for a look around one of the night markets, thankfully he didn’t want to wander too far as I was still on my crutches, but we managed to see some interesting sights, including a full size stormtrooper!! Plus a couple of beers on the way round… although not for me, as I had made the decision to give up boozing once and for all!

For the next couple of weeks we took Grandad all over Bangkok! The Grand Palace, the reclining Buddha (Wat Po), the floating market, and many, many dinners out, including a great evening on the 45th floor of the Marriott overlooking the city. Then before we knew we were back at the airport saying goodbye as he headed back home to Northampton.

To help us recover from all the partying with Grandad we decided to take a short staycation in Bangkok, so we checked into the Anantara resort for a couple of days by the pool (with it’s swim up bar, so not the same as at home), and a lovely dinner out together.

Before we could say ‘quiet weekend’ more visitors arrived! This time it was The Dodd’s!!  And that means more evenings out, more craziness in the pool, a visit to a few temples… and of course a trip to Phuket to enjoy a few days on the beach at our favourite spot!! We all settled into the JW quickly, and had a great time at the pool and down at the beach. We even introduced them to Kai’s favourite restaurant in the world, Kabuki. It was a hilarious evening with the kids having lots of fun trying to flick eggs up in the air and catch them again without breaking them… needless to say each one smashed onto the hot plate!!

No trip to Phuket is complete without a trip out with John Gray Sea Canoes! So we all piled onto the boat and headed out with the fun team to visit the sea caves and hongs.It was a fabulous day as always and great to spend it with Anna, Will, and Logan 1! As well as enjoying the canoeing we also had a lot of fun battling by standing o the canoes trying to knock each other off!

As if this wasn’t exciting enough, Louise and Chris also arrived for a whirlwind visit! It was so wonderful to see such great friends from our days in Kuwait. Too quickly though we all had to head home.

The end of October is always exciting as it is the first stage of getting to the year end with Halloween, well now we have a new reason! We now have Faith Peck!!  The 28th October is now the latest date in our diary’s for celebrating! All things went well, and we were all over the moon to welcome her to Planet Earth! 

Our 1st Halloween in Bangkok was pretty epic, we all dressed to scare, even Wan!! It all started at school with Zombies and Skeletons, than Logan took it to his friends where they scared all their neighbours for sweets, then Logan and I headed our around our Moo Baan to trick or treat (well treat really) all the residents we could in exchange for lots of sweets, and there were lots of sweets!! The rest of the gang were at home to scare all visitors 9and there were many!) and challenge them to apple bobbing!!

As we raced through November, the Boys started Thai boxing at the local gym, Logan got his next belt in Taekwondo (Yellow), we had another day at our favourite surfing venue, Flow House with Kai’s Best Bud Oliver, but then we had to say goodbye to Lyra as she made her pre Christmas run to the UK for all things Christmassy!! And of course this year, Lyra to meet the lovely Faith!! It was hugs all round at every opportunity!! Of course Ly also made the run down to Bracknell to see the Binfield Posse, well Joyce, and Nat at least!!

Meanwhile, I was managing the home life (yep, really), we managed some serious Christmas shopping, attended the School Christmas concert, and then before we know Mum was back!! Just in time for the Brighton Christmas Fair!! We were well into December by now, but we also had a our friend Tony’s 50th, which was a raging rockers party!! We went fully dressed up in Iron Maiden t-shirts, tattoo sleeves, Mohawks, and blue lipstick (only Lyra went blue!). At the Do I was convinced to join Tony on stage to murder the Radiohead Classic, Creep, which was fun!!

The real stage stars though were Indi and Kai who had been rehearsing endlessly since September for their school production of Beauty and the Beast! Indi played Mrs Potts wonderfully (she so suited this bossy character!!) and Kai and endless run of different characters to master, I lost count of how many costume changes there were for him!! 

During December, we are visited by a certain Elf on the Shelf, Belfy! He started his visits in Kuwait, but he seemed to follow us to Bangkok too. And this Elf likes to get into trouble, he arrived bringing chocolate advent calendars, and then created havoc every night. We had snow angels, hanging from fans, stuck under pomelo’s,  being taped to mirrors by cats, to partying with Santa and the snowman, including monopoly, snacks, and beer!

The final run in to the big day starts with our anniversary, and we decided to spend the night at old favourite Bangkok hotel The Sukhothai. It is the hotel we stayed when we first came to Bangkok together, back in 2001! We have always loved it so it was wonderful to go back again after all this time. We booked a lovely room, and then had a beautiful Thai dinner, followed by cocktails in the bar. The next morning the kiddo’s joined us for a Christmas Eve lunch of cake, cake, and a bit more cake!! All while chilling in the garden in the winter sun (it was about 28C!!)…. and then….

It was Christmas Day!! It was just us on Christmas Day, and we had a fab day. It started early as usual with the kids waking us up excitedly after Santa had left them well stock sacks at the bottom of their beds!! It was then downstairs for a lovely breakfast before sharing all the lovely gifts between us! The most exciting gift they got was an inflatable bull that went in the pool and served as a bucking bronco!! Spending half of Christmas Day in the pool was a new experience, and Christmas in the tropical heat was a new experience too, but we had a lovely day, a lovely dinner, and then chilled together, happy, and full of turkey!!

During our final week of 2018, we met up with Clare, Sanjay, Ryan, and Hanna to play a mystery, clue solving game around Bangkok called Go Snoop! It was set in the old town and you had to follow clues to solve the mystery and beat the other teams to the final destination. It was great fun, and an excellent way to see a part of the city we hadn’t really spent time in before, thoroughly recommended! T round things off we had a girls v boys tub-tub race back to the car, which the boys proudly won!!

And that just left New Years Eve… We had decided to go on a boat trip in the city together. We had checked into a hotel downtown so we wouldn’t have to fight our way home after, and then headed to our boat. It was a great evening, with a nice dinner, a few drinks (yes for once, just a few!. We got to see some of the key sites of Bangkok’s old town all it up in the night,  and then at midnight we were in prime position on the river for the fabulous firework shows put on by the big hotels along the river, it was spectacular!!

And all of sudden it was 2019!! What would this year have in stall for bus all….

Happy new year everyone!!

With love, The Travelling Culvey’s

Dan, Lyra, Indi, Kai, and Logan xxxxx