Keeping Up With The Culveys - 2021

January

So I’m trying a new approach to our blog in 2021, and that is to run a continuous blog through the year with the aim to update it once a month to share what we have been doing in that month! Sounds like a great plan, so let’s see how it goes..

I’ll start with a happy new year!! We were all happy to say good bye to 2020 as it was a disaster of a year and one everyone was happy to move on from. We said goodbye at home with our friends Sal, Chris, and their kids Amira, Elias, and Hannah. We started the year with a jump in the pool, fully clothed, and it was bloody cold! Yes it has been cold in Bangkok. Of course it is all relative, cold in Bangkok is temperatures down to about 16 - 17C! Trust me though when you are used to 30C this feels cold, and it made the pool cold!!

We woke up on New years day with a plan to chill out and relax into the year! We had decided to delay the start of new years resolutions until we had finished demolishing all the seasonal food and treats! That meant we had to get on it and eat them up! That made our first few days at home fun, but not healthy!

In Thailand the whole COVID impact had been relatively minor compared to the disastrous policies in Europe that were destroying all forms of normal life. However towards the end of the year, we had a bit of a ‘spike’ in infections in a province near to Bangkok. This drove up peoples fear, and the Government started testing a few more people. Unsurprisingly we had an increase in cases and therefore restrictions came back. Not too heavy but some limitations to movement etc. As we got into 2021 they announced that the schools could not go back! This was very disappointing as since September the kids had been back and were so happy about it. However, for the month of Jan, it was back to online schooling. My office was also encouraging us to work from home if we can, so I was at home too.

This set the tone for January really as we didn’t get out much at all. We worked and schooled at home, gyms were shut so no boxing, the music schools were shut so no drums for Logan, or guitar for Kai and I. The kids piano teacher was happy for the kids still to go, so at least Indi and Logan could still maintain their lessons.

Following an unhealthy December, Lyra and I wanted to get back to our healthy existence. So we convinced Chris and Tanya to join us in a weight loss / healthy living challenge between Jan and April. So we all got weighed and measured and committed to an Intermittent Fasting plan. This means that we only eat during a small window of the day, say 6 hours. Quite a change from the excess of December!

The kids adapted back to online schooling well, Indi was quite happy as it meant she was delaying her mock AS level exams! It was most difficult for Logan, but with Lyra’s support he was doing well and week by week the lessons become more live on Google classroom which made it more fun for him too!

In between schooling we focused on doing some exercise, getting out in the sunshine, and playing games as a family, a lot of games, everyday!! Much to Kai’s distress!! Our favourite was Rummikub, but it does have a tendency to cause one or two members of the family to get a little emotional when things don’t go well! Mix this in with a bit of Knowledge is Power on the Playstation which is a general knowledge quiz we can all play together and we passed the time at home together, and found a routine that we all enjoyed (well mostly!).

Logan also started to play football with a coach on a Monday afternoons with his friends from school, he was really enjoying the playing, but enjoying the dinner together afterwards even more!!

We did get out a couple of times as a family, Sara, Logan’s classmate had her 8th birthday so Lyra and I went over with Logan to Paul & Su’s to enjoy her party! Lots of dashing about and jumping on the trampoline in between scoffing pizza and cake made it a great party in Logan’s book!!

We had invited Logan’s Buddies Ayton and Elias over for a play date one afternoon / evening. They all enjoyed being together, in fact we had quite a task to get them to give it up and go to bed / home!! The following week Ayton and his family had a BBQ at theirs which was really nice. I had to attend an online meeting so I hid indoors for a while but the kids had a great time running and biking around the gardens and us grown were able to catch up together with some nice food and a drink. Which by the way were all non-alcoholic! Yes was on dry January, in fact successfully completed dry January with ease!!

As January was coning to a close, we got the great news that the schools were re-opening so we were all happy about that and looking forward to real schooling with their classmates, socialising and learning, hooray!!

February

February always brings excitement as it is the start of the Culvey birthday season! And it kicks off with Indi, a serious seventeen this year!! Can you believe it?! In true Indi style of course, no matter how hard we tried to encourage her to go out somewhere arrange to meet up with her friends, maybe even invite them over… Indi decided to do none of the above and celebrate at home! This year her birthday even fell on a Saturday, but it made no difference, she wanted a lie in, and a day around the pool in the sun, so that’s what we did!

Of course we still got her a fancy birthday cake, super fancy actually, made by our good friend Sal it was nearly a foot tall!! Once Indi had enjoyed a lovely lay in, we invaded her room with balloons, cake, cats, and of course presents!! Both Logan and Aurora did their best to assist in the gift opening, and Indi was very happy with her lot, especially the very snuggy rug! Around lunchtime, we coaxed her out of her room and had some fun around the pool. The music was on, snacks all around, and a lot of splashing from her Brothers… not always appreciated! In the evening we had a nice dinner, and then it was time to have a slice of that amazing cake, then all rounded off with a few rounds of Knowledge is Power on the PS4!!

Real life had to bite for Indi though, as straight after her birthday was her mock AS level exams! It wasn’t too heavy though as her Art and Drama didn’t require a mock. As you would expect, she put in the work, and got through them well.

The following week we celebrated Chinese New Year! It was time to say hello to the year of the Ox. Logan had a special day at school so went in dressed up in his red and gold Chinese outfit, he looked like a real emperor! I had the day off, so Lyra and I decided to take advantage and have an early valentines day! We booked ourselves into the very lovely St Regis hotel in Bangkok, had ourselves a massage, and then enjoyed an amazing dinner at a new Swiss restaurant Igniv. It was real art food, delicate combinations which tasted and looked amazing! We had an extra reason to celebrate too, as I got a call from my Boss that afternoon to tell me I was being promoted to our Executive Committee (The operating Board of DKSH)! It is something I have been aiming for since getting the global role so it was great to finally be appointed! We celebrated in style! The next morning had a nice quiet start to the day with a lovely buffet breakfast.

At lunchtime, our peace was shattered as the kids joined us! Fresh from their first night at home alone, just the three of them! We found a nice spot by the pool and had some lunch together before heading off to see some of the Chinese New Year decorations and displays. We had a walk around Emporium and EmQuartier as they always put on a good display. They didn’t disappoint with beautiful lanterns everywhere! We also managed to catch a traditional dragon dance which was fabulous, although you had to feel for the guys in the costumes as it was a very warm day to be inside a Chinese dragon!

The following week was half term, so you would think we would be heading off for a few days by the beach, playing in the sea… we tried, but the kids were set on chilling at home! To be fair, Logan was up for going away, and we nearly did head off just the three of us, leaving the older two behind, but in the end, we just had a staycation at home in the garden! It was nice, and the kids had a relaxing week to recharge their batteries for the next half term. Logan did manage to do a couple of things, he played his usual football session of the Monday afternoon with Petch and Ayton, then on the Thursday Elias and his Sisters came over ours for an afternoon of madness!

For the final week of Feb, it was of course back to school! Which we are very grateful for, we know so many places around the world have not had on on premise schooling for over a year. Kai is deep into his iGCSE studies, with test going on all the time, but he is doing very well with it, Logan just loves his time at school, and Indi has taken to the grown up world of the 6th form like a pro (never doubted it!).

Better start planning what we will do at Easter, it’s only a month away!!

March

March begins with World Book Day! Sadly our older offspring are ‘soooo’ past it, but thankfully Logan is still up for getting involved in these events!! So he dressed up as a character from Matilda. This basically involved him dressing up in his school uniform and then messing it all up! Great effort! But, he looked great!!

Lyra booked herself a little staycation at Empire Place in the city to give her a few nights away from the madness of the Culvey household! Actually she was booked onto a seminar that was being live streamed from the USA so it kicked off at midnight Thai time, staying in the hotel meant she wouldn’t be disturbed by us during the day when she needed to sleep. Her stay crossed a weekend so we all popped down to see her on Saturday afternoon. We decided to go for lunch at the W hotel where they were having a kind of disco brunch! Or at least a brunch with a DJ! The food was great, sadly we had to wear masks whenever we weren’t sat at our table but other than that it was a lovely lunch and great to spend some time with Ly in between her midnight study sessions!!

Logan continued his Monday night football lessons with his buddies at Petch’s place. They had a great time each week, although I think their biggest challenge was little Pitcher, Petch’s little Sister, she is a force to be reckoned with!! Each week the guys have dinner together and do their best to stay up as late as possible! Not the best idea at the beginning of each week, but he loves it, so he is told each week to not be too late… but well, he hasn’t got it right yet!!

And then it was my birthday!! Yay!! 53 years young! Birthdays have changed a bit these days, especially as I’m a non drinker now!! So Lyra took me to a lovely hotel in Bangkok the St Regis (Yes, again!). We were booked in for a fabulously relaxing massage and then dinner in the evening. Just as we arrived at the hotel, my phone rang, I nearly didn’t pick it up as I wanted a day of peace without work interruptions, but of course I did answer. It was my Boss Stefan. He was ringing to let me know that I had been promoted to the Executive Committee (Our operating board). I had been gunning for this for the last two years, so it was a great moment to finally be told I was being officially appointed! A pretty nice start to my birthday!!

The massages were lovely, and I hardly slept at all!! Then it was back to the hotel and decide where we were going to have dinner! To minimise the mask wearing escapades we settled on Zuma, a Japanese fusion place in the hotel. We chilled in the room for a while and got ready and then headed down for some dinner. We had eaten some lunch earlier in the hotel so weren’t feeling particularly hungry, so we opted for a few of their appetisers rather than a full meal. It was a great place, a really nice ambience and great food, we will definitely go there again!!

Thursday morning was my birthday (which DKSH give off as a holiday) and we had the rare pleasure of an undisturbed wake up! A great way to start a birthday. Lyra had bought me a couple of gifts including a very nice couple of t-shirts. We had a late breakfast and then it was time to head to Central World for some birthday present shopping! As we are getting older we find it harder and harder to go off and buy surprises, so the best thing to do is to just hit the shops together!! I did very well, a new shirt, shorts, a pair of linen trousers (been after a pair of these for ages), and a couple of pairs of trainers, result!! On our way out of the mall, we passed the Apple store… I have been having a few issues with my apple watch so Lyra generously offered me to go and check out a new one!! Woohoo!! 15 mins later I had a new series 6 in blue!! Happy chappie!!

We headed back to the hotel and Khun picked us up and took us back home for dinner with the kiddies! Beyond burgers all round (except Logan!), a very nice birthday carrot cake, a few more nice gifts, home made cards and a chill in front of the TV finished off a great day!

The next day, I worked the morning but after lunch we drove over to the school to pick up the kids and we headed over to Pattaya for a weekend away by the beach. Pattaya is less than two hours away so it’s great for a quick weekend getaway. We were booked into the Birds & Bees resort which we had stayed at before. It’s really relaxed, just up our street! They also have a great Thai restaurant so we dumped the bags in the room and headed over. As we did, it all went black! A power cut! Brilliant. We sat with a few candles and the waitress explained that there was a limited menu in the circumstances. As she was explaining what was available, the power came back, we all cheered, and sat down happy to be able to read the full menu…. then it went off again! We ordered some drinks and contemplated going off into the city to find somewhere with power to eat. Thankfully, our indecisiveness paid off as before we had made any move, the power was back, and this time stayed on! Dinner was lovely!!

We spent Saturday by the pool and on the beach, doing what we do best, chilled! As the sun went down, we retired back to our room, and had a few games of Rummikub while we discussed the tough decision of where to go for tonights dinner?? Time went by and we got less keen oin going anywhere so we went back to the resort restaurant for more great Thai!! Worked for me!!

We got up late on Sunday, strolled over for breakfast, and had a stroll on the beach, the boys did some rock climbing, but before we knew it, it was time to check out and head towards home. We had heard about a really interesting temple called the Sanctuary of Truth (triggering lots of rolled eyes from our younger members of the family), so we decided to check it out. We got all the way there, only to find that it was closed (thanks COVID!). Time to head home then…

The weekend we were away also happened to be Mothers Day (for Brits), as it clashed with my birthday getaway, Lyra unselfishly agreed to postpone the merriment until the following weekend, so the kids had an extra week to prepare something lovely for their favourite lady… I reminded them all several times during the week, but the procrastination was palpable! I eventually coordinated that they would make cards, and together we would prepare a lovely cooked breakfast for Lyra… we had a plan, what could possibly go wrong!! Well the gift ended up as a voucher for some spa time (paid for by the kids), the cards were printed and written, all I needed to do was coordinate the cooking of breakfast. Now cooking is not really my forte, and I find a bit of a stressful activity. Getting our three to ‘help’ didn’t make it more relaxing I can assure you!! But we made it, we laid it all out, Lyra sat down, and promptly sent her eggs back as being over done! To be fair she had a point they were like rubber! So I took the rubber ones and re-did her a fresh ‘perfect’ fried egg! The day was saved!!

As we got closer to the end of the month, the fun side of school (for the younger ones anyway) starts to kick in! Logan went to school first as a rock star for a house day, complete with sleeve tatoos! then two days later as a Roman gladiator for Roman day!! He looked awesome and they re-enacted battle scene on the green! Logan loved it!

Logan was invited to his favourite place, Harbourland by Diesel, a friend from school, so Saturday afternoon, Logan and I headed over to Ekkamai for some party fun! It was a 3 hour pass in the adventure park, complete with pizza, nuggets, doughnuts, and of course birthday cake! Then just as I thought it was time to head home for some peace.. somebody decided ‘lets play laser quest’ !! Kids versus adults!! TO be fair, it was a great laugh and the adults managed to destroy those little upstarts!!!

In the final week of school before the Easter hols, Lyra and I joined India for a presentation about applying for Uni! Yes, Indi is a year away from finishing her A levels so it is time to start thinking what comes next! Indi isn’t sure she fancies more education, but it’s an option we keep open, along with an ongoing discussion about the many other options open to her… I feel it is going to be quite the debate in the coming months!!

Any then, school was out, April had begun… it was time for a holiday!!!

April

Yes, April began with the Easter / Songkran break from school so it was holiday time. However before we could head off, we had the opportunity to have a family photo taken as part of the school photo sessions. So Ly and I scrubbed ourselves up and posed away! It was all very amusing and a bit of a rush as we also had Indi performing with her drama class that afternoon. So as soon as the photos were done we headed over to the performing arts building and prepared to watch our Dida do her stuff!!

She had two pieces to perform, a monologue from After Juliet, which was very moving and reminded us of just what a wonderful character actor Indi is. The second piece she did with the rest of her class (All 3 of them!) and it was a scene from How to poison your husband! Very funny!!

The kids had their last day of term as a Songkran celebration, so loud shirts were the order of the day! Sadly the tradition of water fights was ruled out due to the COVID restrictions but it was a fun last day anyway.

As their last day ended, Lyra and I were waiting in the car park with a fully packed car ready to hit the road for our latest road trip. Yep, we were driving south this time to Phuket! All 800 km’s! That day we were aiming for about half way, we had a booked a room at a place called Chomphon. Getting out of Bangkok was of course a bit of a chore, but not too bad, and then it was a long highway drive as sun went down. We made good progress and arrived 400 km’s south after about six and half hours. The resort was nice with a couple of rooms, one for kids, one for Ly and I! Indi and Kai decided they had snacked enough on the way down and just wanted to chill, so we took Logan to the restaurant across the road on the beach. It was a lovely clear evening, and we enjoyed a drink and some dinner looking out to sea.

Next morning Logan was up pretty early as usual so we wandered over to the pool for an early swim, it was really nice, and at that time not too hot! Once the bigger kids emerged we got packed up, and then headed over for some breakfast. We checked out and then wandered down to the beach before hitting the road again. The beach was absolutely stunning, white sand, beautifully clear water, and we had it all to ourselves! it was just heavenly. We hung out for a while, and kicked the footie around, but soon enough it was time to get on the road and complete the trip to Phuket…

For part 2, we decided to take a more scenic route so we headed across to Ranong before driving through the forests, and ‘mountains’ all the way down to Phuket. The road was great, long sweeping turns with view the forests and great mountainous as our view. At one point we had a great moment as we came up behind a pick up and noticed that there was a monkey sitting on the back enjoying the ride!!

By late afternoon we were crossing the Sarasin bridge, we had made it to Phuket!!! It felt great to be back again! We got ourselves checked in, and unpacked, then as the sun went down we walked over to the M beach bar for something to eat and to watch the fire show! The show was great, definitely not the stuff to try at home!! After dinner, we chilled in the lovely evening air and we were treated to some fireworks over the beach. Afterwards it was time to head back and crash out, it had been a long couple of days of driving, we needed a great nights sleep.

The following day was spent relaxing by the pool and enjoying the peaceful surroundings. We got up late and took our time, but eventually we made it to the pool. It wasn’t long though before the draw of the waves pulled us over to the beach.

This time of year the swell is normally pretty good and we weren’t disappointed. The waves were pretty big and certainly threw us around, regularly dumping us back up on to the beach! Crashing in the waves has become a great love of Logan’s, I think he could spend all day in the surf, he loves it, and seems completely fearless when it comes to the big ones!! We need to watch out for this fella I think!

On the Monday, Khun Wan flew down to join us so we all jumped in the car to meet her. Just as we met her at the airport, down came the rain, so it was a bit of a damp welcome!

After a day of letting Wan settle in, we decided to go out and do some adventuring around Phuket. We set off for the Big Buddha in the south of the island. Unsurprisingly it was very quiet. It had also developed quite a bit since we were there last (which was probably a good 5 years ago). Wan took us over to the temple section, and we made an offering to the monks and accepted a blessing from them. Then it was time to climb the steps up to the Buddha statue. The view from the top was spectacular.

As we headed back down, Lyra and I fancied a drink and a spot of lunch so we stopped at a little place at the side of the road. Great views again. We chose a few snacks, spring rolls, maybe a few french fries, and a cashew salad, which the waiter had asked us whether we wanted it spicy or not… we asked for only a little spicy… but when it came, WOW! It blew our heads off! We are pretty acclimatised to spice these days but that was really something!

After lunch we carried on down the mountain, where we saw an interesting art shop. We went in and met the artist and he had some amazing work. Indi came in too and fell in love with some of his paintings. So we decided to invest in a couple. Lyra and I got a beautiful buddha painting and Indi bought an impressive canvas of a male lion’s head with all its mane, really lovely. We picked up a few other bits, for gifts etc, and then hit the road again.

We were heading to the Catch Beach Club on Surin Beach to meet up with some friends from Bangkok. Before that though, Kai has arranged to pick up Snaya (a friend from school) who was going to join us for the afternoon. We found the club ok and chilled out in the rather nice surroundings with Su and Paul, Sasha and John, and later on Clare joined us too! The kids had a great time on the beach, in the sea (although no waves for Logan), and on the big tree swing!

As the sun went down, sadly the rain started so we headed under cover and ordered some food. It was really nice to hang out with friends for the day, we left feeling very well fed and watered!!

When we woke up the next day, Kai was 15!! 15!!! Can you believe it?? He is certainly tall enough! He is starting to even over take me!! We woke him up with balloons, singing, and a nice bit of chocolate birthday cake! Then it was time to open a gift or two… as with all teenagers, what he was after was cash! So he was happy when he opened the card from Ly and I!! He also had some nice gifts from his Brother, Sister, and Khun Wan!

The other gift for Kai on his birthday was to start his open water scuba diving course. Kai and I had been busy reading all the theory for the past few days, but today was our first session, which was a half day in the pool learning some basic skills. The session went really well and we completed all the tasks like clearing your mask under water, telling your buddy you are out of air and then sharing air etc.

While all this was happening, Khun Wan took on the job of playing in the sea with Logan, and that meant fighting the waves! I think it was quite an experience for poor Wan!!

We came back to the room to get ready to head out to dinner and found that the cleaners had decorated the place to wish Kai a happy birthday!! Flowers and petals all arranged across the bed to wish him well and Happy Birthday balloons! Such a nice touch.

The evenings entertainment was at Beni Hana’s, our favourite tepenyaki restaurant, and Kai’s birthday tradition!! As usual it was a noisy affair with lots of laughing!! The chefs are always very entertaining, we had specifically asked for the same chef that we had the previous time, and he didn’t let us down! Lot’s if fire, Indi, Kai, and Logan were all up ‘helping’! Logan and Kai were even fed directly by the Chef as he flicked bits of food at them to catch in the mouths!! You can imagine the mess!! Great fun as always though, Kai’s birthdays do always seem to be quite memorable!

On the Saturday, Kai and I headed off for our next scuba lesson, in the ocean this time at Racha Yai. We left Logan and the girls for a day of peace and tranquility around the pool…

Our dives went really well, we mastered all the tasks ok, and had a lovely couple of dives on the reef. Highlight of the day though was seeing a wonderful green sea turtle swim by us, it was truly magical to see this wonderful creature in its wild environment. One we will remember for a long time.

In the evening, it was the fire show again and we really wanted to take Khun Wan to enjoy it. We had booked a really nice spot to allow us a great view of the show, but all this was scuppered by a storm! The heaven’s opened just as we were about to take our seats and order some food! Never mind, we worked with them to set up a table under some shelter and thankfully the rain moved on allowing the show to continue!

On the Sunday, we all headed out to sea for a day of diving off Phi Phi islands. It was Kai and my last day to achieve our open water diving licence and we had three dives planned, plus everyone else was going snorkelling, a first for Wan!

We got comfy on the boat, it was a two hour ride out to the dive site so we sat back and enjoyed the scenery as we headed East to Phi Phi. The islands are beautiful enough above water with the high rock hongs emerging out of the amazing turquoise water. It was even better underwater! We completed the three dives with a couple of special moments, like a black tipped shark, and a rare stone fish, plus some amazing shoals of fish. Ly, Indi, Logan, and Wan also had two great snorkelling sessions where they saw reef sharks, and Logan amazed everyone by diving down into the depths to get a closer look. He was a bit of a natural!!

Logan made a friend while on the boat, so he had lots of fun with her, playing games, sharing snacks, and they even got to sit in with the captain for a while! We all headed back to port as the sun started to fade, giving us a beautiful sun set to round off a lovely day. Kai and I were now certified open water scuba divers!! Yay!!

Our second week in Phuket, was Songkran! Before we could get into that though, it was time to drop Khun Wan back at the airport as she was heading back to Bangkok. Songkran was subdued due to COVID, so no big parties or water fights, just a few traditional ceremomies if you were willing to get up early enough!

After we got back from dropping Wan at the airport, Logan and I headed over to watch the turtles being released into the sea. This is an annual event as part of Songkran at the Marriott as they run a turtle sanctuary that gathers up eggs laid by the turtles on the beach and ensures they grow successfully (left on the beach, many of them get destroyed or eaten by other animals). It was great to watch them scurry across the beach and into the waves. While this was going on, Lyra and Indi were enjoying a three hour message session at the spa! When they returned, they looked suitably relaxed, you could even say a little spaced out. Not to worry though, half an hour back with the boys soon brought them back to normal!!

For most of this second week we settled into a nice rhythm of getting up, heading to the gym (which we did more than we have on any holiday ever!!), having a late breakfast, heading down to the pool / beach, then making our way to an early evening dinner or playing some games back at the apartment. Just lovely….

One afternoon Indi and Logan got to have a try at scuba in the pool to see if it was something they would like to do more of. For Logan it was always a definite yes (he just isn’t old enough yet!), but for Indi, she was a little more anxious about the whole thing. Credit to her though, she was going to give it a go. They both had a fabulous few hours swimming up and down at the bottom of the pool and successfully completed a good number of the tasks needed to go on and do your open water diving course. Hopefully next time we are down we may see Lyra and India taking their open water!!??

Before we knew it though, we were sat in Cucina enjoying our last evening meal before the big journey home! Cucina had been a bit of a favourite as they did a really nice buffet option where you can select as many taster dishes off the menu as you like until you are full! Indi and Logan cleaned the hotel out of meatballs I think, but we all really enjoyed it!

While we were in Phuket, the hysteria around COVID had accelerated again in Thailand. Largely due to a significant increase in testing, but the up shot was that more and more restrictions were being placed around movement, and the wearing of masks was being insisted on in most places. With that in mind, we had decided that we would drive back to Bangkok in one day rather than stopping off on the way back like we had done on the way down. That was a trip of 800km’s!!

We got most of our packing done the day before so on the Saturday we just needed to load up the car, pay the bill and head off. Or so we thought, sadly though our car decided this would be a good time to get a flat battery! Typical!! Thankfully the hotel were equipped to be able to get us started via a set of jump leads and now it was even more important that we drove all the way back home in a day as we had a car with a dodgy battery!!

As with the journey down, the views, especially in the southern area were breathtaking with steep mountains jutting up out of the jungle giving us a lovely backdrop to our drive. The traffic was not too bad, we were worried that there would be a lot of post Songkran traffic. To begin with it was fine, we just got stuck behind an elephant being transported somewhere! We definitely went through a few stages of pretty heavy traffic, but as the day became evening, thankfully the traffic lightened up and the navigation through the outskirts of Bangkok was all clear. 12 hours door to door, and everyone managed the time well between sleeping, snacking, gaming, and enjoying the surroundings. We arrived back home at about 10pm, got the bags unloaded, gave the cats some hugs then collapsed into bed!!

The adventure was complete!

Early on the Sunday morning (25th) however we did get a bit of a fright… the phone rang at about 5:30 in the morning! It was Chris, our heart missed a beat as we answered, but thankfully it was wonderful news, Gemma had gone into labour early and Faith now had a Sister!! More than a month early, but a lovely surprise!! Theia Hope Stella Peck was a slight 5lbs something and needed a little help to get her feeding but she was healthy and Gemma was doing well too. Fab news! But in future, we could have waited another couple of hours!

Before we could say goodbye to April though we had another important birthday to celebrate, Mrs C!! To ensure this was special, we ran away from the kids on the Sunday morning, left them to do Yoga with Khun Apple on their own, followed by lots of lovely ice cream at Svensons! Our day was spent at our favourite Bangkok getaway, The St Regis.

We got there early and enjoyed an eggs benedict for a late breakfast, then we hung out at the pool (on the last day before they were closed due to COVID restrictions).

Late afternoon we went back to the room and hung out for a while, Lyra got to try out one of her birthday presents, a St Regis robe (which she had raved about the last time we were there), then it was time to head for dinner in the hotel. It was 10 course taster session! Thankfully the portions were small, but it was still quite a meal!! At the end, we had our dessert, delivered in smoke filled glass domes (very theatrical!), then, just as we sat back to recover, they arrived with a birthday cake and all sang her happy birthday!!

We decided to take the cake to the room as we weren’t really ready for more dessert, on arriving back at the room, there was another one from the ‘butler service’!! Along with some flowers and a St Regis teddy Bear!! Needless to say, that went into the fridge too!

In the morning, we had a lazy start to the day, obviously I sang happy birthday (which Lyra quickly recovered from!) then she got to open a few cards and gifts before we headed down to breakfast. We did our best to keep it healthy, but then the singing started again and another birthday sweet treat arrived!! overwhelmed was not the word!!

Later in the day, we checked out and headed home to meet up with Indi, Kai, and Logan for a birthday dinner of veggie burgers and other vegetarian treats, and of course, the two further birthday cakes I had bought!!

We had cakes and treats everywhere!! But the most important thing was that Lyra had a lovely birthday, and felt very spoilt (for once!).

Lyra is (as many may know) very difficult to buy for, so I had been stressing over what to treat her with this year. The kids an I spent a Saturday, masked up at the mall with limited success, but nothing great. In recent times we have reverted to coupons, and this birthday was no different, with me promising to take Ly to a lovely crystal shop once things open up again.

And that was April! Kids back on home schooling, me working from home, and the rains arriving in Bangkok… summer was here!

May

After all the fun and excitement of our April adventure, May was a quiet one. Kids went back to school, but only virtually, as the Government deemed it too risky for young healthy children to enjoy time together…

Indi was taking her AS level exams for English Lit and Psychology. Her drama A level doesn’t have the AS level so she avoided that exam, plus she has decided to drop her Art A level in line with the guidance to focus on only three.

So most of the month was us hanging around at home, working from home, and schooling from home. Starting to feel a bit like ground hog day, but we know we need to be grateful that we live in a wonderful space where we have the space to enjoy each others company, and manage to find a bit a quiet occasionally!

Despite the restrictions, thankfully our friends remained open minded about getting together so Logan was able to enjoy a sleepover with his school Buddy Dexter. They had a great time in the pool, played a game of monopoly and chilled in front of the TV! Next morning it was back in the pool of course before dropping Dexter home as we all had a trip to the barbers!

Sadly our music lessons were halted, so no piano, no guitar for Kai and I, and no drums for Logan. We were also unable to to do our Saturday Thai boxing sessions. Thankfully though, Khun apple was still happy to join us on Sunday mornings so our family yoga sessions have continued.

Late last year Kate, and David Llamas moved to Bangkok from Kuwait, so it was great to finally be able to catch up with them at their place one Saturday afternoon. They are also big animal lovers so Indi and Logan were in their element with three dogs and two cats!! It was great to catch up after all this time and reminisce about all the fun times in the sandpit!

As most of our sports fun has been cancelled currently, Kai, Logan, and I have regular sessions in the garden playing football. Kai and I love to blast the ball at the goal, and occasionally over the wall into the swamp behind! It is such fun wading up to your knees in the bog to get the ball back! Thankfully we haven’t met anything too scary in there! I have to say the days of me being able to out play Kai have passed, our 1 v 1 sessions end up the same way every time now with me on the floor having lost to the big man! It had to happen eventually…

Before the month ended, India celebrated completing her exams by jumping in the pool fully clothed , she had coped with them really well, and feels confident she has done well. Logan enjoyed a play date with Ayton, both at his place, and at ours!! For the rest of us ground hog day continued, although we did enjoy time on our new family Nintendo Switch!

We are hoping for a loosening of restrictions soon as we are only a month away from the summer holidays, we don’t expect to be able to travel overseas, but we would like to be able to get out and about in Thailand without having to wear a face nappy wherever we go!! Fingers crossed!!

June

So the loosening of restrictions didn’t happen. Life started to feel a little like groundhog day, with schooling and working from home. Everyone was starting to tire of it and we were longing for the term to finish. Still we were on the home straight now.

With our life at home, we have started to become a little more self sufficient, to this end we made a second attempt at growing some of our own vegetables. This time we roped in some more expertise, Khun Wan, and her Uncle! They built us a great canopy to provide the plants some shade from the harsh midday sun in a hope that we can have a little more success trying to grow something that we can eat. We have planted tomatoes, peppers, bok choi, and of course cucumbers (in the hope that we can finally give Logan his dream of an infinite cucumber machine!).

While we are on the horticultural front, we have successfully cultivated some amazing lotus flowers now and are regularly getting their spectacular blooms along with our waterlilies (is this excitement around garden stuff a sign of old age??).

Keeping online learning interesting, especially for the younger ones is a bit of a challenge. So the tasks Logan was set were starting to get more and more inventive. One fun one he had was to create a dance routine! Logan did a football themed dance out in the garden! He did a great job and videoed it by himself to share with his class.

Thankfully many of our friends share our views on the over zealous restrictions and are still happy to get together. We hosted an afternoon together for a bunch of Logan’s friends for an afternoon of fun and games, pool madness and lots of pizzas!! Once they had started to run out of energy it was time to all settle down to a movie with lots of popcorn of course!

Once the crowds had made their way home, we had one young man left over, Dexter, he was sleeping over, and both Dexter and Logan were very excited about it!! Of course before long they had to be encouraged into bed. Lots of claiming ‘we’re not tired’ etc. but eventually we go them change, teeth washed and under the duvets! Now you expect a bit of chat, but at about 11:30 i entered Logan’s room, the lights were on, Dexter had a book in his hand, but he still tried to claim he was trying to sleep!!! In the morning the boys were back in the pool spraying each other with the hose and bouncing on the ring. At lunchtime, Dexter parents, Damien and Carly arrived with Dexters Brother Arthur.

For some time now, Lyra has been looking into how best to manage our savings, we have been looking at property but we are struggling to settle on where we should buy, we have funds tied up in managed portfolios but in the last few years they seem to be finding it harder to make the funds really work hard., clearly sticking cash in savings accounts is a waster of time with next to zero interest, so Lyra has been looking into working with currencies and trading stocks. To be sure she is getting good advice about how to approach it and how to read the market, Lyra signed up to a 3 day course to get her started. As per usual the course is on UK time so through the night for her. With the lack of tourists, hotels are so cheap at the moment, Lyra managed to book into the Marriott for 4 nights for less than you would normally pay for a night! Of course we all missed her, but she really enjoyed the course and is now excited about putting it into practice.

Talking of great hotel bargains, before June was out, Lyra and I left the kids at home and headed off to our favourite treat, the St Regis. We had a lovely suite to lounge in, and enjoyed a great ten course meal that evening. It’s a funny thing when you live in a house full of kids and animals, getting away once in a while and be able to wake up late without any disturbances is a great treat. A late breakfast followed and then we had some time to just chill together and catch up on a few things. In the afternoon, Khun Ae brought the kids over and we had pizza in the room and played some games before heading home.

For the boys, there was a saviour to our groundhog day challenges, Euro 2020!! Football everyday!! It started off slow, but as the month went on it started to get exciting, and England were doing well!! Could this be the year our fortunes changed?? Waking up in the middle of the night became the order of the day, but with England winning we didn’t care!! It’s coming home!!

As I mentioned earlier, Logan’s classes were getting more and more inventive! Before the end of term the were challenged to complete their own ‘triathlon’. Logan threw himself into it as usual. He did running in the garden, swimming, cross training, and rebounding!!

Logan and his class were getting ready to say goodbye to Mr Harland who had been his teacher for the last year and half. Logan has loved being in his class and will miss him a lot next year. To celebrate they were given a letter thanking them for being great students, and a watch each to continue to build on learning to tell the time! Logan loved his watch and wore it all the time! Even when he jumped in the pool! Thankfully he noticed quickly and the watch survived and Logan learned to take it off before swimming!

Most summers, as expats we are normally saying goodbye to a few people. With all the craziness of the last year and a half there were a few more than usual including 3 of Lyra’s good friends, Claire, Raki, and Sasha. To ensure they got a good send of during times where you can’t have an evening out with a few drinks, the girls arranged to have lunch and then head to the Marriotts Empire place where they could enjoy some pampering, and of course a few bottles of bubbles!!

Term was coming to an end, it was almost time to enjoy the summer! India had completed her revision, completed her AS level exams in English Lit, and Psychology, she was in full chill out mode (after jumping in the pool fully clothed to celebrate!!). Kai was though his end of year exams (one year to go until his iGCSE’s!), it has been an extremely heavy term for him, exam week was 21 exams over five days!! He had worked really hard, and got through them in Kai’s usual quiet confidence. For Logan, he had finished year three, he had done so well all year, staying focused through all the home learning, we are very proud of them all!!

July was here and it was only a few days before learning was over and the lays in’s could begin!!

July

Lots of excitement was waiting for us as we trundled into July, firstly the school year was done, plus it was Euro 2020 and England was doing well, and we were hoping to be able to go on holiday!!

The end of term was of course a little different than usual, but at least for Logan’s year, we were treated to an end of term play. From home they had all acted out their parts after learning their respective lines, they filmed themselves and sent the footage into school. Credit to the editors of all that input as they pulled together a great virtual, socially distanced version of Little Red Riding hood, a great way to end the school year! For the very last day, Logan was joined at home by Elias and they did their final online lessons together. It was a good job that it was the last day and there wasn’t a lot of learning going on, as they were just having lots of laughs together!

Everyone was so pleased to be able to step away from the online lessons and the long stints looking at screens, sadly of course where we could go to and the people you can meet up with was limited.

Indi and Kai happily said goodbye to their lessons and enjoyed time with their art and FIFA respectively! Indi had one less pleasurable task to get through… she was having a wisdom tooth out! I accompanied her to the dentist, Indi was very nervous and it got off to a rocky start. She needed to take some anaesthetic pills (or something similar), now Indi doesn’t do pills! So they said she could crush them and mix them with water, sadly though they tasted so disgusted she threw them up all over the floor, not the best start. Well they switched to an alternative liquid version and then it was in the chair for the injection and the surgery. Well it was all done in about 20 mins, even Indi was shocked at how simple it was! Needless today, that once the pain relief had worn off it was a different story! This led us back to the pill taking challenge, her pain relief was pills, her antibiotics were pills! So it was time for Indo to get over this phobia, and amazingly, with a bit of coaching and distraction methods, she did it!! Meanwhile for Logan, now that Mr Harland wasn’t his teacher anymore he could build his friendship with Mr Harland’s children, Katie and Luke! He spent a fun day at theirs and then we invited them all over to ours for a day in the pool!

Before that though we welcomed another old friend over, Jeff Smart had taken a break from Alshaya in Kuwait and had spent a few months in Thailand for some well earned R&R. We spent the afternoon catching up on all things Alshaya, Kuwait, friends etc. He had very kindly bought the kids some lovely art supplies, and for Logan a working volcano to build! Jeff stayed the night and spent the next morning chilling with Logan in the pool.

Later that week, Mark Harland (no longer needs to be referred to as Logan’s teacher, Mr Harland) and his family came over along with Sal and her tribe for afternoon play date. While the kids enjoyed their time in the pool we chatted about what plans we had or didn’t have for the summer. The threat of further restrictions was being rumoured so it was very difficult to know what could be done. Sal and co. weren’t planning much, but Mark and his guys were heading down to Hua Hin where they had rented a house for a month. Question was whether there was going to be road blocks preventing people leaving the ‘dark red zone’?? Mark wasn’t taking any chances and was heading down there first thing in the morning before any checkpoints are put in place.

The next day, the increased restrictions were announced and travel outside of the Bangkok area was to be restricted from midnight. Once we had this info we got together to make some decisions as a family, do we head out of Bangkok? If we didn’t go today we might have to stay at home the whole summer. It was agreed, we needed to get out! So we leapt into action, Indi and Kai started searching for houses to rent in either Hua Hin or around Pattaya. Lyra got on the phone to the Landlady that Mark had rented from to see if she could help. Logan and I started packing!!

Within 3 hours, we had decided on Hua Hin, rented a house (on the same Moo Baan as the Harland’s), packed our bags, loaded up the car, emptied the fridge, and were ready to hit the road for a month away!

For a Friday evening, the roads were very quiet, and we were in Hua Hin within 2.5 hours, a great result. The house was lovely, a modern 3 bed with a nice pool, just what we needed, we settled in in no time.

We had a slow morning on the Saturday, took in our surroundings and generally relaxed. Logan disappeared pretty early on as he discovered where the Harland’s were staying! After a couple of hours we thought we should probably go and rescue them so we joined them over at theirs. This turned into a day of hanging out together, very nice.

The Sunday however was a big day, it was the final of Euro 2020 and England were in the final!! That had not happened in my lifetime! The game didn’t start until about 2am but we had it all planned, a little snooze for a few hours and then we would all get up, Mark and the kids were coming over and we would all cheer England towards victory! Things started well, with England going ahead within a couple of minutes and at half time we were still leading! The 2nd half got a lot more tense and eventually Italy equalised and set things up for a tense period of extra time, and those god awful penalties! To help us cope, Lyra knocked up some fish finger sandwiches, but sadly it was not to be. England made a mess of the penalties and Italy took the Euro’s from us…. the hurt goes on!

For the next two weeks, whilst we were in Hua Hin, I was still working so getting out and about was a bit limiting, but in general the kids were happy to chill a bit after the tough school year, and Logan was happy to have any opportunity to go and play with Katie and Luke over the road too! We did have one challenge to get sorted though and that was to have the last of Indi’s stitches out from her wisdom tooth removal. We had spoken to the landlady and she had recommended a dentist to us, so in between meetings we jumped in the car and headed over. Being a different dentist, got Indi a bit worried, but she knew it had to come out so she just went with it. Luckily the dentist was great and the whole appointment was over in minutes, and it cost a grand total of 200 THB (about 2 GBP!).

Late one afternoon, I knocked off a bit earlier and we joined the Harland’s for stroll on the beach. It was of course deadly quiet, Kai had a kick about with the football, Indi decided to take one of the beach ponies for a short ride (first time in a few years!). Mark and I went for a walk and found a very nice restaurant that was part of the Sheraton, but decided it wasn’t the place for us, mainly as they were not serving alcohol I think!! Then we all strolled the other way and found another nice place, and they were serving, so we stopped there for a while!

For about a week at this point I had been suffering some pain in my back after some kind of insect or spider bite. The pain had now spread all across my back an d around my sides. It was time to see a Dr. In these fun COVID times, going to a hospital is not a fun trip. Full mask wearing, temp checking, hand cleansing, and socially distancing was in order… the joy. The Dr confirmed it was a bite and gave me a selection of drugs to tackle it, painkillers, anti-histamine, anti-biotics etc.. Thankfully after about a week the pain subsided.

Our first weekend was a cause for a celebration… it was Kathy’s birthday! We were invited around for an evening of soup and sandwiches! Very traditional, great big doorstep cheese sandwiches, brilliant! We followed that up with cake and a few games of Fibbage, Quiplash, and Drawful (fab online games through the Nintendo Switch! Great fun!

On the Sunday we had planned a quiet day at the house, while I was up at the gym, burning off a few of those sandwiches, Lyra called, we had a snake in our yard! It was about a metre and a bit long, bright green, and very lively! The landlady was sending someone over to try and catch it, meanwhile we kept a look out from a safe distance! Thankfully the guy that came to help did successfully catch it, more by luck than judgement I feel as he looked more relieved than we dod once he had it safely in a bin bag! He then took it over to some fields to let it go.

We meandered into week two, I was still working of course. On the Monday we met another set of temporary neighbours, Dana and Ramman, a couple of American teachers. They had put out a great big inflatable mattress (type thing!) that they used in their PE lessons. The kids loved it! I even got in on the act and had a ‘buggin’ race where you lay on your back with your feet in the air and try to bounce yourself to the other end as quick as possible! Great fun and a good abs workout!! Phew!

Next trip was to Black Mountain water park, I wasn’t able to go as I was still working, but Mark took over the driving duties and they all headed to take on the monster slides! They had an awesome day, they were pretty much the only guests in the whole park so no queuing! It was like they were having their own private party! The slides were a hit, as was the whole park, everyone came home, shattered but very happy from a great fun day out!

While they were there, Katie found a little bird that seemed to be struggling, they saw that it seemed to be having a problem with its eyes. So they managed to catch it, and took it to the vets, got the little thing cleaned up and got some medicine to try to help it. Then it was over to the pet store to get a bird cage, and Katie was determined to help the little thing to a full recovery. It was a tall order as the bird was extremely distressed and sadly the poor little thing didn’t make it through the night. Lots of sad kids the following day, but at least they had tried.

Then before we knew it, the weekend was here again and I was officially on holiday for two weeks!!!

To celebrate we gathered together for a BBQ! As you would expect when the English (plus a couple of Americans) get together for some outdoor catering the inevitable happened, yep, it rained!! Of course this didn’t put us off, we soldiered through and enjoyed the wonder of Mark’s home made burgers plus Beyond burgers for Lyra and I. Everyone ate far too much and it was a great evening that settled into what was becoming a bit of a tradition… Fibbage, Quiplash, and Drawful!! All washed down with a little too much port…

The following day as you would expect was quiet, a fair portion of the day was spent on the sofa, watching tv, and eating snacks and anything easy, and unhealthy!!

After everyone raved about Black Mountain Water Park, I needed to check this out so we all headed over for the day. As before, there wasn’t 20 people at the park (and we were 9!) so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We certainly did a good job on achieving our steps for the day, I lost count of how many times we climbed the stairs to ride the slides. Of course we focused on the super fast ones, all the kids were happy to ride even the fastest ones, it was brilliant fun! Alongside the slides there was a wave pool with boogie boards to ‘ride the surf’ on, An inflated platform in the middle of a pool that you can climb on and push each other off etc, the kids to love pushing me off! We even managed to have a game a water volleyball. By 4pm we were all bushed!

A couple of chilled days followed, hanging at the house, in the pool, or at the bigger Moo Baan pool, one evening we decided to head out to one of the local malls as Logan had seen a great ice cream shop there and was in the mood for a treat! Sadly though the store he had seen was shut! Never mind, we didn’t have to look far to find a Svensons, and ice cream heaven ours! Before we headed home again, we decided to pick up some pizza from a great little roadside place Lyra had spotted before, Rolling Stone pizza was great! Huge pizzas, great toppings, we decided not to wait until we got home and ended up staying to eat them in the restaurant!

We had been told about a local vineyard that you can visit, and they have a decent restaurant, and a small elephant sanctuary, sounded great, we were in, so off we headed to Monsoon Valley Wines! Now sadly, with the current restrictions in Thailand, alcohol cannot be consumed outside the home, so despite being in these beautiful surroundings, we were not able to even sample the wine! As we soaked up the beauty of the view, we watched the rain storms come across the valley and then clear again. Once it stopped we decided to head over to the elephants. They were great and very pleased to see us! I’m sure it wasn’t just the thousands of bananas we had to share with them! It was lovely to watch the kids really connect with these magnificent beasts. The bananas were gone in no time!

All this feeding made us feel a bit peckish so we headed back to the restaurant and had a nice late lunch overlooking the vineyards, lovely! It was great to be out in the countryside.

On our way up to the vineyard, we had stopped at a roadside store to get some drinks and ice cream, It was a great little spot and the owners were really friendly, we ended up staying for a drink at their bar! We also spotted that they were selling replica football shirts and they had a circa 2010 Liverpool top for the bargain price of 250 THB (about 6 GDP!) Kai was very happy to take that off their hands! We had such fun there that we stopped on the way back too! I’m sure the landlord appreciated the business as it is so quiet these days, and we had a fun hour playing UNO with a few beers!!

That evening, we hung out with the Harlands and taught them to play Rummikub, which pleased the kids as they were hoping that we would then relieve them from playing with them!! No such luck!!

As we headed into the weekend again, we decided to spend a night in a hotel. The local Holiday Inn had a big water park, Vana Nava, attached to it, and if you stayed in the hotel you could gain free entry! We had a blast at the park, very quiet again although a bit busier than Black Mountain. We headed straight over to the scary slides! Once we had climbed the stairs to the top, we were about to head down one of the vertical slides when on of the staff stopped me and said I couldn’t ride because my shorts had a small rivet on the pocket. Now to say I was a bit annoyed, might be understating things, but he pulled out a pair of scissors and suggested that he could cut it out of my shorts…. err no thank you!! The only other alternative he informed me was to turn them inside out! So I told him to look the other way, whipped them off, and put them on inside out, right there on the platform!! To say the kids were a bit shocked and embarrassed was an understatement!! By the way, nobody else was up there! Still I got to ride, and it was nuts, so worth the effort!!

The rest of the day was spent up stairs and down chutes! At Vana Nava they had a couple of really big, high rides that you rode down on an inflatable raft, and could ride up to 6 at a time so we could ride as family! These rides included some really big and steep drops which were great fun but did turn your insides upside down! Luckily the kids only wanted to do it about 20 times!!

Once we were done at the park, we chilled in our rather nice rooms before heading up to the top floor for dinner at their Sky View bar. It was lovely to be outside so high up with a lovely evening breeze! The view was excellent and they had a glass platform that stuck out of the building which you could walk out onto the glass! Standing on glass 20 plus floors up was pretty cool and great for a few photos!

We headed in for dinner and decided to have a tabletop BBQ where we cooked our own meet and fish, plus made vegetable soup in the middle. The irony of coming away for a night so we didn’t have to cook wasn’t lost on us as we were placing our dinner on the grill!! It was really nice though.

The following morning we had a nice breakfast and then it was back over to the waterpark for another day of climbing steps and flying down the slides!! Again the park was deathly quiet, but he weather was lovely and we had a blast, again. By 4pm the park closed and we wearily headed to the car and back to our Hua Hin home!

Mark, Kathy, and the kids had clearly missed us as they had prepared an evening of Marco’s pizzeria!! Lovely freshly cooked home made pizza, and an evening of games, a marvellous end to the month!!!

August

It was the last week of our month in Hua Hin, and the 2nd week of my holiday, but our plans were about to be blown… The Thai government had announced that the Hua Hin area was to be locked down under the same restrictions as Bangkok! This was a bit of a nightmare as this meant everything was closed, restaurants, water parks, even the beaches.

We had booked to have a few nights at the Sheraton resort, a bit of luxury, no cooking, washing up, or cleaning for a few days, but the increased restrictions would mean that the pool, the gym, all the restaurants would be closed. SO we could stay in the room, and have food brought to us. We decided that this wasn’t going to work for us, so we cancelled and stayed at house we had rented.

The day before the new measures were implemented, we did head out to a quieter section of beach in Cha’am, it was very quiet, but too hot to wander along the beach, thankfully there was a little cafe on the beach that was open so we hung out there for a while and had a drink. The kids decided to get inventive while we were relaxing, and started to plant a beach garden! They found a number small clippings from bushes and alike a planted them into the beach, who knows, maybe we will go back one day and there will be a whole area of greenery that sprung up from their efforts!!

As it was the last evening before the lockdown we headed out for dinner, and just to rub our noses in things we went to the Sheraton and ate in their beach restaurant. We pretty much had the place to ourselves (which feels a bit normal these days), even so, we had a nice evening. The food was pretty nice, but not spectacular, but it was nice to sitting out with a lovely view. We had brought the Uno cards with us so there were a few games played, in which there seemed to be a concerted effort to pick on me which was most unfair I thought!

The rest of the week we hung out at the house or with the Harlands at their place, sometimes for a special treat, we would head up to the Moo Baan pool but other than a trip to Makro for food, we were pretty much confined to our home space.

In the last 24 hours before heading back to Bangkok, we did a big clean up of the house so we could hand it back to Khun Chanarat in the same lovely condition that we found. One area that Lyra was determined to buff up was the work top in the kitchen. She had noticed a few marks from drinks and stuff. So out came the bicarbonate of soda and lemon! She scrubbed and scrubbed, and as she cleaned it all away it became clear that this had only added to the markings on the surface! Lyra was really upset as she was trying so hard to make it lovely. We informed the landlady, and she was absolutely fine about it, she said she would get on to the manufacturers as it was probably a defect. At least she wasn’t upset with us over it.

On the Sunday morning, we packed up the car, waved goodbye to the Harlands (who were staying for another few days), and we hit the road back home. Thankfully the traffic was light, and by mid afternoon we were back, Khun Wan and the cats were all very happy to see us back again!

Logan heading straight to the pool to cool off, and Aurora flirted around us all to make us realise what we had been missing. We were all happy to be home, for Indi & Logan it was to be back with the cats, Kai to be able to hide away in his room (rather than someone else’s), and for me and Ly, to have Khun Wan’s help!!

Of course, I headed back to work (albeit from home) and the kids enjoyed hanging out and doing pretty much nothing for the last couple of weeks before school started again. Logan managed to swing a play date with Dexter but otherwise it was pretty quiet in the Culvey household. Logan rediscovered his love for his robot lego, he completely dismantled it, turned it into a cat, decided he preferred the original robot so dismantled it again and rebuilt it back to the original set up!!

We also played a fair bit of footie in the back garden, Kai had to venture over the wall at the back and into the swamp to get his ball back! No easy task, during the wet season the water is pretty deep, easily thigh deep, and really quite unpleasant!

Lyra and Indi did get out for a day when they joined our friends Kate and her Daughter Bella for a trip to their horse stables, it is about 90 mins out of Bangkok but well worth the trip as it is a beautiful set up. They didn’t ride, but got to feed and water the horses, and Indi is keen to go back and ride.

While Ly and Indi were out, Kai hung out with Kate’s son Theo, at their place. In the evening, Logan (who had been on a sleepover at Dexters) and I joined them for dinner. It was great to see them again, it had been a while thanks to all these lockdowns. We had such a nice evening we forgot that there was a curfew at 9pm. We must have left theirs at about 9:45 and it was a surreal drive home as there was no traffic at all, we couldn’t of seem more the 2 or 3 cars all the way home (& thankfully no police!), for Bangkok, this was bizarre to say the least.

With virtually nothing open we had to maintain our fun at home, thankfully we had managed to get our yoga sessions going again on a Sunday, and also on a Saturday as we could do our Thai boxing at the gym, our instructor agreed to come to us and we started having our boxing sessions at home! Keeping going with this theme, we are all in need a haircuts too, but all the Barbers were closed! Not to worry, I managed to get hold of my usual barber and he came to us!

We were now on the count down to school starting back up, but with a week to go, Indi was having another wisdom tooth extracted. She was feeling confident this time as she had been through it before, and this time she was even comfortable taking the pills necessary. The operation went well, but that afternoon she found it extremely painful, and we worried that this was going to be a tough few days. Thankfully though, the pain killers did their work and Indi was soon feeling better again.

All was good until the Sunday. Indi woke up and it seemed that she was having a reaction to some mosquito bites as she had what looked like swollen bites on her knees and elbows. We gave her some anti-histamine and it seemed to go down. However that evening Indi came in to see us at around 11pm to say she was feeling very uncomfortable, it was clear that whatever the rash was, it has got much worse and was even on here face. While she was explaining that she didn’t feel good, she collapsed onto the bed! This sprung us into action and it was off to the hospital we went.

After some time in the emergency room it became clear that she was having a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotics she had been taking following her wisdom tooth extraction. She was going to have to stay and be closely monitored, so she was admitted to ICU!

Lyra and I got home at around 3am just in time to get a few hours sleep before getting Kai and Logan up for their first day of school!

Indi was going to be in hospital for a few days so there was no school for her yet, but the boys settled straight into their new school year. Kai of course was straight into things as this was his final year before his iGCSE exams. For Logan, he was now in Year 4, he had a new class, and a new teacher, Mr Richmond. He adapted well to using his new set up on Google Classroom and was enjoying being back to learning.

September

So September has been a real victim of our pandemic status, for most of us it felt like ground hog day as we went through the motions of school at home and work from home. although after the first week, there were a few restrictions lifted which meant the gyms reopened, this was a great news as it meant that Kai, Logan, and I could head back to our local gym for our Saturday Thai Boxing instead of the trainer coming to us. All was until the 9th. I had started to feel a bit coldy, and had a bit of a temperature. The times being what they are, I thought I should probably do a test for COVID. Needless to say, it was positive!

The following day I went over to the hospital for an official PCR test, and yes, it was positive. This is when the trouble began. The hospital told me that it was protocol to be admitted to hospital. As I was really not feeling that bad I politely refused stating that I can isolate at home and take the meds myself. I was told that this hospital didn’t support the isolate at home option and I had to stay at the hospital (worth highlighting that this is a private hospital that would charge in the region of $400 per night!). I still refused, to which they insisted I sign a waiver stating I was refusing treatment (which of course I wasn’t), and then told me to leave and sort myself out. No guidance, no advice, no medication, just COVID positive (so caring!).

Thankfully, Lyra had been getting ready for any of us contracting COVID so we had all the right medicine at home (one of the advantages of being in Thailand is you can get most drugs without a prescription!). So I started taking a Thai herbal tablet that is known to be good with viral infections, plus plenty of vitamins, and a few potions that Khun Wan prepared for me.

As the symptoms kicked in a bit more, like losing my sense of swell and taste (which is a very strange experience), I switched to Ivermectin which seemed to work pretty well. One of the herbal remedies that Khun Wan was giving me was a boiled root that was then mushed and blended in to a drink. To say it tasted a bit rough would be an understatement! It was a battle to keep it down. After about the 3rd or 4th day of taking it, I hit the limit! After battling it down, I started to feel dizzy and all around me colours began to change, it was truly hallucinogenic! I tried to stand up but couldn’t so I ended up crawling to the bathroom to vomit! That was the last time I took that concoction!

I had been isolating for about a week (in Kai’s room, much to his distress!), although, this meant I slept there, but I did come to eat or watch a bit of TV with everyone else, so it wasn’t full isolation. Whilst my COVID symptoms were ok, I did start to feel it on my chest. We used to call this a chest infection, but it seems now it is always pneumonia, sorry, actually it is always COVID pneumonia now! Anyway, with this as well I found it very hard to sleep and started to feel extremely fatigued. I woke early one morning to find my heart racing at 150 bpm! Many of you will know that I have a mild heart complaint called Atrial Fibrillation (Afib) so I wasn’t really surprised. Normally this goes on for about 2-3 hours, but by late morning it was still beating at 150 bpm and above. With this in mind, I decided the right thing to do was to go and get it checked out. At the hospital they did some checks and expressed concern over my heart and suggested I stay to be monitored. I agreed, but of course as I was COVID positive I was whisked away into the isolation area and for the next 5 days only saw people in full hazmat suits, you would think I had Ebola or something!!

The 5 days in hospital passed slowly but the symptoms continued to reduce, and by the end of day two my heart rate normalised, so I was able to negotiate my release on the promise that I would continue to isolate for a few more days. Which was no problem as it’s not like we could go to many places!

The only lasting problem was fatigue really, I found that any kind of exertion be it physical or mental would leave me feeling completely exhausted. Thankfully I was able to take it easy and slowly ease myself back into work and exercise, and by the end of the month I was feeling pretty much back to my good old self!!

While all this fun was going on, life for everyone else continued. As I said earlier, most days blended into one, and with me out of action there wasn’t a lot of getting out and about. Ironically enough however, two days before I tested positive, Lyra did meet a few girlfriends for lunch, just in our village cafe, then of course once I tested positive needed to inform the cafe and everyone we met that this was the case! Lyra and Wan took a test and were both negative, the kids showed absolutely no signs of feeling sick either.

So this was pretty much our September, for those that read this and take a look at our photos will spot that September seems to have been ‘love the cats month!’ as almost every photo taken seems to have a cat in it!!

Rest assured, life hasn’t stayed so quiet and there will be more action in October, especially as it will be a certain young fella’s birthday!

October

Happy 9th Birthday Logan!! Yes October started with a bang as Logan celebrated! It was a school day, but seeing as we are still locked in with home schooling we had a little bit of time to celebrate before lessons kicked off, certainly enough time for popcorn, some cake, and few gifts!

Once the weekend arrived we invited a few of Logan’s friends round for an afternoon / evening of fun. Five of his friends braved the ‘risks’ of COVID and joined us at home for fun in the pool, lots of pizza and birthday cake! Once the evening arrived they played games, watched a movie, and ate more super healthy food!! It was a bit wild, with a lot of steam to blow off as they hadn’t seen each other in a while, but it was great to see them together having fun with each other at last!

Logan continued to manage his home learning well, and he was particularly enjoying their studies on Ancient Greece, just before half term he even got to dress up!

Thankfully half term arrived and gave us a chance to get away (within the restrictions). Indi and Kai had mock exams straight after the half term break so they had a busy schedule of revision planned. We decided that they would be able to concentrate better if the rest of us were out of the way. So we jumped in the car and headed off to an AirB&B just outside Rayong for a few days. We met up with the Harland’s again which was great as it meant Logan had some buddies to play with., and so would Lyra and I!

It was a nice easy run over to Rayong on the Tuesday evening, and no sooner had we arrived when Mark, Kathy, Katie, and Luke turned up on a moped and sidecar!! They had rented it as a fun way to get around. We did a little test run and confirmed that we could get 7 of us on it and made plans to go to a nice cafe by the beach in the morning for a late breakfast.

The cafe, at coca cola beach was called Unplug, and it was perfect. Looking out over the quiet sandy beach which meant the kids could go off and have fun together and we could chill out at the cafe with a coffee / green tea and a croissant, the perfect start to the day!!

Breakfast rolled into lunch and on into the afternoon, the place was just so relaxing and the weather was perfect! Later in the afternoon we managed to get ourselves out of out comfy beanbags and climb back on the bike / sidecar and head back to have a shower and get ready to head up the beach for a pizza and watch the sun go down. There were two rated pizza places, but Mark was certain the one he chose was the premier pizza place so we decided to trust him! Luckily for Mark it was great, ran by an Italian, overlooking the beach, it was perfect!

The following day we decided to get adventurous so we all jumped in the car and headed off to find a waterfall that we had read was a great climb and we could swim in the pools at various stages on the way up. It was a nice day, not too sunny so perfect for a trek! All started well, we found the place and headed up the rocky path next to the river. There are about five main waterfalls on the way up and we stopped at the third one as it looked good for a cooling dip.

The water was lovely and cool so we had a good half an hour chilling out in the water, all was relaxed until somebody looked up and noticed that there was a huge spider (about the size of my hand, literally) sitting in the middle of a web that stretched across the entire river, right above our heads!! We decided that this was a sign to dry off and head on up to the top. As we walked on up, the grey clouds rolled in…

At first it was just a few drops, but before we knew it, it was a proper full on monsoon! Within minutes we were as wet as we had been in the pools! We soldiered on though, determined to get to the top. We made it to the next waterfall and the gentle flow of the river had changed into a wild torrent! The level of water had risen a lot!

We were torn! So close to the top, but the rain was relentless and the path also becoming a bit of a river too! With the kids in tow, we decided to to do the sensible thing and head back down. It was a pretty challenging walk, the rocks were very slippy and there was a lot of water flowing around our feet! About half way down we met the Rangers who had come out to check everyone was safe and to get everyone to head back to the road. We didn’t need any more encouragement!

We eventually made it back to the car, completely drenched but absolutely pumped, it had been a brilliant adventure!! One we won’t forget in a while!

As we headed back to Rayong the rain continued, some of us had managed to change clothing (some of us didn’t bring any…), but we were all a bit hungry though so we stopped at a little cafe that we had spotted on the way and grabbed some food and a coffee / green tea latte! I think it must have been a while since they had seen such a crowd as they were very happy to see us and kept the place open late so we could all dry off a bit and enjoy their food.

By the time we got back, we talked about getting together in the evening but everyone was a bit worn out so we all just had a relaxing evening in.

On our 3rd and final full day in Rayong we had a quiet start, I went for a run along the beach, Lyra and Logan chilled in the house. Around lunch time, the Harland’s joined us and we just hung out for a while. By about 3pm though we decided to venture out to another beach / bar combo called the Drift Bar.

We all jumped in the car and it only took us about 10 mins to find this next hidden gem. Run by a Thai / American family, they have put together a great mix of idillic surroundings, friendly, fun service, with a great selection of food and drinks. The kids were off to the beach and we could relax in the afternoon sun, have a drink and chat about all sorts.

As the sun started to lower, we were set upon by a bunch of hungry kids so they were given the freedom to go and order their own dinners and they did a great job! As for the adults, we weren’t ready for food yet.

Just after sunset, we were reminded that the rainy season hadn’t finished yet, and we were treated to another pretty decent rain storm! Thankfully the Drift bar also had a nice set up across the quiet road where we could gather under cover. It was time to eat. We all had a really nice dinner. It was a great last evening of our little break.

Once back at ours, we settled in for the evening, the Harland’s were also staying at our place as they had left their apartment that morning.

Saturday morning of course was dedicated to packing up and ensuring the house we had rented was left in the same condition we found it in. It had been a great little place to stay at, just what we needed. Once packed up, we all headed over to the resorts pool for a last swim. It was a really nice pool and social area, sadly due to the lack of tourists in Thailand, we were the only people around, but we had a nice swim and hang out.

Before hitting the road, we had decided to check out the other pizza place in town as we had found that it was also owned by the guys that owned the Drift bar we had been at the night before. Well it was every bit as good as the other place (maybe even better!) so we had another great lunch. Just what we needed before we drove back to Bangkok.

We got home in the late afternoon and it was lovely to back home and to see Indi and Kai, they had enjoyed their quiet days at home. Kai had gone out on the Wednesday with Snaya and Jayden. They went to the movies, had dinner, bowled and went ice skating! It was the first time they had actually seen each other for more than six months so they had a lot of pent up socialising to do. We were o happy that at last they could get together.

Indi of course was happy to chill at home and in between her studies of course she drew, and wrote, Indi’s two great loves!

The next day, was getting ready to dive back into home learning. Indi and Kai had a week of mock exams for their iGCSE’s and A levels so they were still hard at the revision. Our hope was that this was going to be the last week of home learning as the school was hoping to get permission to allow the kids back on site from the first week of November. Our fingers were crossed.

Both Indi and Kai worked hard all week on their exams, they were tough of course, but they both felt reasonably satisfied that they had done well. Logan sailed through the week, and on the final day they got to dress up for halloween! Logan donned his zombie outfit complete with flashing devil horns, it was a great last day of home learning as it was confirmed, they were going balk to school next week!! The only negative was that they would have to take an ATK every week. Unpleasant, but they all wanted to go back so accepted that this was a necessary evil.

Talking of evil, as Halloween was on Sunday, we really wanted Logan to be able to do some trick or treating, of course in these wonderful times, this is not necessarily a simple task. Thankfully, the Moo Baan that the Harland’s lived on had a group of houses that were opening up and were welcoming kids to trick or treat. Logan, Katie, Luke, and a few of their neighbours had a great walk around the Moo Baan and were treated to lots of sweets in return for their scaring!! It was a fun hour, and so great to feel like a bit of normal was happening!

After the trick or treating, we were treated to some lovely dinner with Kathy and Mark. We even had some severed finger biscuits, and chocolate brownie graveyard!! As it was a school night, we sensibly headed home around 7:30 as we were back to the early start as they needed to out on those uniforms again, and head into school!!

At last!

November

We started November with a reason to celebrate, the schools were open again!! We were all really happy for the kids to go back, they could see their friends again and get back into to interactive learning (albeit behind the face nappies!), and we were happy for the peace and quiet during the day! Lyra was even happier when I started to do a couple of days a week in the office! The only down side to going back was weekly testing, sticking that swab up your nose is no joke, thankfully we sourced some tests that used spit so we managed to move away from the unpleasant ones.

The kids also had to spend most of their days behind those disgusting and pointless masks, but thankfully some teachers were a bit more relaxed and allowed them to take them iff during a fair few if the lessons.

With the restrictions reducing (‘coincidentally’ just as the holiday season kicked off) it was easier and less disturbing to venture out ourselves. One Friday, Ly and I had to see a notary for some Bulgaria documentation, so on the way home we decided to stop for some lunch. We went to an old favourite place where we could sit out in now lovely, not too humid winter weather, The Gardens of Dinsor Palace. It was lovely. Khun Ae headed off to pick up the kids from school then brought them back to us and they then had their tea at the same place. It was great to be out and about in a relaxed (non-mask) area!!

We had a nice surprise for India that day too, she had been struggling with her phone for some time, and had been looking to buy a new one, so I went over to the tech market at MBK and picked her up a nearly new iPhone 12, she was absolutely thrilled with it! No more glitching, freezing, and switching off randomly, we had a very happy young lady on our hands! She didn’t even complain when it came to paying for it!

In another first for some time, we went to watch a movie in the cinema!! Masks were required unfortunately, but of course, once the lights go down, who was to know that they slipped off our faces! We watched the new Marvel file The Eternals, and we all approved!

The rest of the month was spent getting back into school and re-established our routines of piano lessons, the gym, and even got to the barbers for some much needed haircuts, especially Logan, I think it must have been about 6 months!!

As November came to an end Lyra spent a couple of days away so she could attend an online course on US time, while she was away Logan terrorised me to put up the Christmas decorations, after much negotiation he did finally relent and wait until December arrived!!

December

If you have read this from January, it is no doubt feeling like a long year! Another year locked in Thailand was coming to a close, but we shouldn’t complain too much, we could be much, much, worse off.

Of course, as December starts, so does the excitement for Christmas! And right on time, our very own ‘Boss’ Elf on the Shelf, Belfy, arrived to give us lots of fun building up to the big day. Belfy got straight into the fun by riding Logan’s newly built lego technic motorbike!!

With everyone back at school, it was getting easier to have friends around and Logan enjoyed a fun day with Katy and Luke Harland, from pool craziness to Nerf wars it was very loud, but great fun (for them!!)

We also had the rare experience of going into Brighton College! Under COVID rules this has been a no go zone for parents. However we were given a free pass to attend India’s AS level certification presentation. With all the masking etc. it was a some what stifled event, but we were just as proud of her amazing results once again!

This December was also the month that Lyra and I celebrated 20 years of married bliss! Yes, it doesn’t seem possible that it is 20 years since that wonderful, cold, sunny day at Ansty Hall, where Lyra and I became Mr & Mrs Culverhouse! Of course, we had planned to have a big celebration (more than one actually), but of course all of those plans could not be fulfilled sadly. On the 11th though we did host some great friends at a lovely Italian restaurant in Thong Lor, Di Vino’s, for an evening of celebration. Indi also joined us, but not the boys (too many adults apparently) for an evening of amazing food, good wine (so I’m told), and lots of laughs! It really was a lovely evening.

As we counted down the days to Christmas, Belfy continued to amuse us with his nightly antics ranging from chillin in the pool, praying , playing my guitar, to a round of Uno with a few friends!!

The kids finally made it to the last day of term, they celebrated with a short school day, and got in the Christmas mood with seasonal hats!!

Continuing our anniversary celebrations, Lyra and I headed off to our favourite, St Regis hotel for a night away together, and to wake up peacefully on our anniversary date. We arrived for a late breakfast, and then chilled by the pool for the afternoon, Then we had a lovely evening with a 7 course banquet. The hotel was actually quite busy, and if we are honest, we missed the really quiet times where we were virtually the only guests… we got spoilt a little during those times I think!!! It was lovely to reflect on 20 years ago, and all that has happened since! We really had had 20 years of adventure.

The next morning, we had a quiet start to the day, but just about made it to breakfast before it closed. It was then time to do some more Christmas shopping so we grabbed a tuk tuk and headed to Central World. We had planned to pick up the kids and head out for dinner, but in the end we stayed at home.

And then it was Christmas Eve! Let the celebrations begin!! Well they could from lunch time because Logan had been going to a school Chess and Maths camp all week, so he went off early for his last chess morning! We wanted to give Logan a chance to choose himself a present for Christmas eve so we had this great idea to go to a small mall near home that has a ToysRus and let him choose something. Great idea, nice and simple. I went ahead on my bike to have a look at a few ideas… only to find that ToysRus had closed down!! Disaster! A quick re-hash of plans and we agreed to meet at Emporium as the Department store there had a pretty good toy selection! All went well, Logan picked up something for himself while we picked up the last few bits for Christmas dinner, although we never did find parsnips!

In the evening we were invited round to our friends Beno and Nebia’s for a Christmas drink, we were joined by a few of their other friends only to find they had put on a full Christmas dinner spread, including a roast turkey, lovely! The only problem was Beno had broken his finger so he couldn’t carve the turkey, so they were looking for volunteers…. that’s right, I stepped up!! Actually it was good practice for our dinner the following day… and the day after!!

We couldn’t stay too late, as there was still the last preparations to finish at home, most importantly of course putting out a drink, a mince pie, and some carrots for Santa and the reindeers! Logan sprinkled some magic dust on the driveway to help the reindeers find their way. Then it was time to put their stockings out and get to bed!!

By normal Christmas morning standards we got a lay in! It must have been around 7am before Logan bounded in full of excitement! Santa had been and he was excited about his sack of surprises. We managed to hang out in bed until about 9am before Logan’s excitement just became too much and we had to head downstairs to see what other gifts awaited him!!

Nobody was hungry for breakfast so we got straight down to the presents and we had a family of very happy kiddo’s! Logan was very excited with his new windows laptop, Indi was surprised with a new digital art tablet (that she thought we couldn’t get), but the biggest surprise was reserved for Kai. He desperately wanted a Playstation 5, but they are really hard to get hold of. Running up to Christmas we had convinced him that we just couldn’t get one. He had even tested this theory by claiming he needed a new controller for his PS4 a few days before, which we allowed him to buy to keep him off the scent. So when he opened his last gift and it was the PS5, we had one very happy, and surprised fella!

Attention turned to food, we had a light lunch of appetisers, the kids settled into getting acquainted with their new gifts, Lyra and Khun Wan (with some help from me) worked on Christmas dinner. 

Logan and Kai both got new footballs for Christmas, and all the boys (me included) got new Liverpool shirts, so during the afternoon we headed out into the sun for some Christmas footie in the garden! It was a hot a sweaty affair but great fun, we even posed for some Christmas footie photos!!

After a quick shower to freshen up, it was time to sit down for our Christmas feast! And what a great feast it was, all the trimmings (except parsnips!) and we even managed to rustle up Christmas crackers!! After we had filled ourselves up on turkey etc, we needed a break before we could consider any desserts, which was ideal, as we had a date for a skype with Nanny and Grampy! They were just getting ready to head over to Tori and Mike’s for a Christmas day with their new arrival Robin who was born around the 10th December!! We had a good catch up and everyone said thanks for their presents. We left them to head off to their celebration, while we managed a little dessert and some hilarious games of Pictionary Air, a new game that Logan got for Christmas!!

Boxing day brought us guests, Mark, Kathy, Katy, and Luke Harland, plus Beno & Nabia! We decided to go for a third full on Christmas dinner so we extended the dinning room table and all dived into another marvellous feast (after I had carved my 3rd turkey of the year!). Once we had allowed the food to go down a bit the little kids headed into the pool for some night-swimming, complete with Logan’s lilo in the shape of a giant bag of crisps!! Then it was time for our new favourite game, Pictionary air! It was a mega game that ebbed and flowed but ultimately was one by the ladies!

In the week leading up to the new year, we talked about heading off somewhere for a few days, but the big kids were busy with revision for their mocks in a few weeks time, so we decided to have a holiday at home.We chilled in the pool, took the bikes out to the park, and went to watch the new Spiderman movie - No Way Home, which had been high on the boys list all Christmas! It was actually pretty good. We took the opportunity to take in all the Christmas lights at Emquartier, as they always go to town a little! Then we bought a few treats, and headed back home. The following day, Lyra, India, and I headed back to the movies to watch The Matrix Resurrections, which was also excellent!

One of Logan’s gifts was a Lego Technic Off Road Buggy, that once built was a remote controlled car. He was keen to get it built so he got the box out early one morning to make a start. To his surprise, he did not find Lego in the box, just a couple of heavy magazines! Somebody had switched them at some point before we bought them! The challenge for us was that we had bought it several months before and no longer had any receipts! Luckily, my wonderful PA Khun Jammy, came to the rescue and spoke to ToysRus and they agreed to let Logan come in and swap it for a replacement. He was very happy to be able to get his actual Christmas present, and we must say, he handled the whole thing so well.

New years eve arrived, and for once, we had not arranged to go anywhere, nor have people round! With all the crazy COVID stuff, it feels so much harder and we felt that a quieter family new year would suit us just fine!

During the day, we chilled out in the garden, and messed around in the pool, then for the evening, we decided on a games night. We started with some Fibbage and things on the switch, but of course ended up with a few rounds of Pictionary Air…. I must point out that whoever partnered with me (which was nobody willingly) won!! We can only presume that I am a bit of a Pictionary air king!!

As midnight approached, it was decided (by our younger members) that we would uphold our Thailand new year tradition of jumping in the pool. As the seconds counted down, it was noted that it was a bit chilly! Especially for Lyra, who didn’t have the usual alcohol influenced confidence, hesitated, but in the end took the plunge… with much screaming!!

2022 was upon us, and we all held a positive thought or two for a better, and freer year than the last couple!1 Our fingers are crossed!!