Keeping up with the Culveys - 2022

January

2022 started a little differently than most new years… we actually did something. We got up and got out! Ok, it was only to our local park, but still compared to NYE’s of the past it was a thoroughly active day. It was a beautifully sunny day so we took a walk across to the park to hang out, have a few snacks, play a bit of basketball, climb on around the playground, and then indulge in an ice cream on the way back.

The wellness continued to the 2nd Jan too as Khun Apple joined us for our 1st yoga session of the year. However, this was followed up by us all going to the Bangkok Trading Post for lunch where being healthy wasn’t top of mind! We sat out in the sun and had a great lunch, after lunch we took the opportunity to pose for some Christmassy photo’s in the lobby!

One of Logan’s gifts this Christmas was a Lego Technic remote controlled car, he was very excited to build it and the morning he opened it up he was saddened to see that inside was no lego, only two glossy magazines!! Clearly somewhere along it’s journey to ToysRus it had been tampered with and the contents swapped! We contacted ToyRus via their customer service website and they promised to look into it. At the same time Khun Jammy my PA at work contacted the store directly. They were superb and very apologetic. They asked us to bring it back to the store and they would swap it for a new one! Logan was so pleased we headed down that weekend, rest assured, we opened this one in the store to check!!

Much like the year before, school started at home. There had been a lot of people travelling over the new year so despite all of these apparently effective vaccines and the endless testing, it was ‘safer’ for everyone to stay at home for another week just to be certain they weren’t carrying COVID! Thankfully it did turn out to be only the week, and all three of them happily returned to in school lessons in the 2nd week of term. Of course the crazy masking and distancing was still in place, but at least it was a step in the right direction.

This was good news as both Indi and Kai had their mock A level and iGCSE exams so dod not want to have to do them from home as they are simply not a good practice for the real thing. Both Indi and Kai got through them well, it was tough, especially for Kai as he had about 20 different exams do across 7 school days, pretty heavy going.

On the Friday, Indi celebrated completing hers but for Kai he still had another weekend of revision as he had another five to do the following Monday / Tuesday. To help him concentrate we decided to head off to a short one night staycation with Logan, and our friends the Harland’s to the Empire Place Marriott apartments. We headed over in the afternoon and got settled in the place and then spent a while around the pool. The adults tried to chill but Logan, Katie, and Luke were hell bent of running and screaming all afternoon so it was not as relaxing as you would hope, but still it was nice to be away from home and be able to enjoy a change of scenery!!

That evening we had booked to go to a Greek restaurant that had been recommended to me as a great experience of Greek fun and hospitality! As soon as we got there you could sense it was going to be a fun evening, there was music blasting out, everyone was sitting on benches, so all very casual and friendly. The food looked amazing, and we ordered a nice selection. They then handed out a bunch of plates which the kids could decorate.

During dinner, the lights dropped and restaurant manager came on the microphone to introduce us to some traditional Greek entertainment. Which largely involved everyone getting on their benches and dancing to the music. For those who were celebrating birthdays they were pulled to perform a special dance!! And then the best bit (certainly according to Logan) you took tour plates and smashed them on the floor!! The kids though that was amazing and were quickly looking for any that had not fully smashed so they could throw them again!!

Alongside the entertainment, the food was simply wonderful, and it really was a brilliant experience! Once back at the apartment the plan was to play some games but everyone was a bit bushed so we got the kids to bed. Mark said he was going to lay down for a few mins, so we didn’t see him again until morning, and that left Kathy, Lyra, and me, to chill out for while and listen to some great tunes and have another drink…

In the morning we took it slow, the plans we had made to head over and have a big buffet breakfast somewhere just didn’t happen, so in the end we just ordered in a few pizza’s which were devoured in minutes before packing up are things and heading home again!!

On the Monday, Kai was ready to tackle his last but one day of exams, but while they were at school it became apparent that Khun Wan was not feeling good. So she headed off for a PCR test. It was not a pleasant experience for her and the hospital were far from helpful, but the up shot was she had caught COVID and would need to isolate at home for the next 10 days. That also meant that the kids would need to isolate too, so they were back to online learning, Kai missed his final day of exams, and we found ourselves back where we had started the term, all stuck at home.

We were hoping that the following week everyone would be able to get back to school, but before we knew it, Indi, Lyra, and Kai all started feeling crappy too. So they headed to the hospital, had their test. Lyra and India came out positive, but Kai still showed negative despite having all the same symptoms (go figure!). So this kicked off another 10 days of home isolation!

A wonderful end to January 2022…

February

Excitement was building, this February marked a very significant moment in our Culvey history… Indi reached the grand old age of 18!! Parties were planned but… bloody COVID got in the way again! Indi, Kai, Lyra, and Khun Wan were all enjoying Omicron so the party had to be postponed and it was family only for the birthday celebrations. We still made a big fuss of her though, lots of balloons, a rather lovely cake, and of course a pile of lovely presents!!

Indi has been a bit mixed on becoming an adult! She likes being away from the limelight, going under the radar and all that, and she really had a thing about once she was 18 she would need to be grown up, and serious (like she hasn’t been both of those things for most of her life!!)! I had told her that it was time for her to start contributing and paying rent! Although, in reality, I think that is fair way away yet!!

As we couldn’t go anywhere, we let her have a nice lay in, then we piled into her bedroom, with the cake, and a hearty rendition of happy birthday was delivered. Once she had recovered from her ear bashing we convinced her to shower, get dressed etc on the promise of presents!

All in all, it was a pretty quiet day, Indi enjoyed some homemade (by Khun Wan) lemon tart, her absolute favourite! Then more Khun Wan favourites later in her wonderful lasagne! So not quite the 18th birthday we imagined, but her buddies were on hold for when she was feeling better, the party will be held… just not yet.

Thankfully (and unsurprisingly) nobody’s COVID suffering was more than an average cold so it was just a case waiting to finish the isolation period and ‘normal life’ could resume! And that normal life was half term holidays!!

We had booked to go to our old favourite the JW Marriott in Phuket. We had been on tender hooks as to whether we would be able to pass the stupid tests needed to get on the flight and had considered driving instead. However, us boys all did our ATK’s without any issue, Lyra & India both received their recovery letters which meant they were exempt from taking the tests. So hurrah, we were good to go!!

We had also invited the Harland’s to join us as they had recently decided to return to the UK in the summer so it was a good opportunity to spend some quality time together! We flew Saturday lunchtime, and the Harland’s flew a few hours later, but we all made it and checked into paradise for a week of chilling out!

As you would expect, we headed straight to the beach for some fun in the waves before the sun went down, it was just like we had never left! We then strolled over to the M beach club for some dinner and the weekly fire show, we just caught the fire show but sadly it started to rain so we retreated to the JW cafe and ordered some of their classic burgers and shakes etc! Later in the evening the Harland’s checked in, and we met them in their apartment and chatted the evening through with a few drinks and plenty of snacks.

Sunday, as you would expect was a slow start, we slept in and enjoyed having no fixed agenda to meet. Around lunchtime we made it to the pool and found Mark and Co. already settled in and hanging by the pool. Within minutes, Logan, Luke, and Katie were off in the pool having a blast which left us to chill, read a book, lovely…

Sadly, on Monday I had to be up at 4am to catch a flight back to Bangkok. Our Chairman was visiting and I needed to meet him and accompany him on his tour of our key operations. So I was back at the airport and on a flight before 6am! The day went well, it was really great to see Marco again after two years of only virtual meetings. By 2pm we were done and I was heading back to the airport to fly back down to Phuket to continue the holiday!

It was important to get back as quickly as possible as it was Valentines day and I was looking forward to an adult evening of fine dining, and low lights…. sadly though Lyra, Mark, and Kathy had been chatting and had decided to go to the Bill Bentley pub for some ‘pub grub’ and a game or two of pool!! Not a particularly romantic evening, bit it was good fun, despite the horrific Disney romantic hits they were playing all evening!!

Through the week we rotated between the pool and the beach and worked our way around the restaurants! On the Wednesday night we went back to the M Beach club and got to watch the fire show again, Logan even got to take part!! The sky was clear so we were able to chill out and have dinner too! Logan also got to have a sleepover with Luke and Katie in their apartment leaving the big Culvey’s to have a quiet morning without our little ball of energy!!

We had been chatting about taking out their Hobbie cat sailing boats, and on the Thursday Mark could wait no more so he took the kids out for an hour sailing up and down the bay, they loved it so much that they booked it again for later in the day and this time I went with them too. There wasn’t a lot of wind but enough and it was great fun!

Another Phuket Marriott tradition is the fire and water dance that takes place at the reception’s infinity ‘pool’ so we took our seats by the Sala bar, ordered a cocktail / mocktail and enjoyed the masked dance! We even got to get some photos together the with the dancers.

Last time we were in Phuket, Kai and I had passed our open water diving course so we wanted to get out again while we were in Phuket. Sadly though we were a little too relaxed about organising it and we found we couldn’t get on a boat until the Saturday and as we were flying that evening we couldn’t dive (you need to wait at least 24 hours after diving to get on a plane). We were both really disappointed and annoyed that we hadn’t arranged it earlier in the week, a lesson learned.

On our last evening, we decided to all go to the Andaman Grill Steak and Seafood restaurant. It is a lovely open air place and the perfect place for our last evening together. We all had wonderful steaks and fish, although it was a good job we weren’t in a hurry as it took along time to get our meals. It didn’t matter though everyone was enjoying the atmosphere and chatting about what a great time we had all had.

Next day it was time to head home. Mark, Kathy and the kids were heading off pretty much first thing so we said goodbye to them, and then got packed up ourselves. As we weren’t fly until late in the afternoon we had arranged one last meal, our old favourite the teppanyaki! What was Kabuki, is now Benihana but still a great fun experience! We made it a late birthday surprise for Indi (complete with a cake) and as usual it was a lot of laughs with the kids trying to catch food flicked at them by the chef!! But pretty much missing each time!!

After lunch though it was time to grab our luggage and head to the airport, all went smoothly and before we knew it Khun Ae was waiting for us outside the airport to take us home…

The rest of February was quiet with no big activity, the kids went back to school, got sent home due to people being infected, then back into school, and so the madness of COVID resumed once again….

March

India’s delayed birthday bash kicked off March for us! It was a beautiful day so Charlotte, Poppy, Davis, Luke, & Eunis joined us and quickly dived into the pool with Logan as their play thing!!

Once everyone dried off and tucked into a pile of pizza’s it was time for another birthday cake tower! Complete with original art by India herself! Despite her wishes against singing we all sang happy birthday and tucked into the cake mountain!

Then it was time for a few rounds of the hilarious Pictionary air! It’s a modern take on the old pictionary but rather than draw on paper, you draw in the air and it comes out on the TV, via an iPad! There were lots of laughs and in the end it was a very politically correct draw between the boys and the girls!!

Just before my birthday we were treated to a performance from Indi and her fellow A level drama students. This was the first time we had seen her perform in at least a year. It was a performance called Behind Closed Doors, that they had written and put together themselves based on interviews they had carried out on their parents regarding the strong societal roles and pressures on women. It was an excellent and thought provoking piece with the added twist of hearing some of the comments we had made in the interviews.

After many months of discussions regarding how COVID was impacting us all in Thailand and especially the kids schooling we decided that we needed to make a change and look to settle ourselves somewhere more acceptable to our feelings regarding living with COVID. This meant that I would no longer work for DKSH. I had discussed this with them for sometime and in the first week of March we made an agreement for me to leave in the summer. So we are now making plans to move on to something new during the summer, at this stage no clear destinations have been decided so watch this space for news!

Then before we knew it, it was my 54th birthday! I took the day off work, and had a nice slow start to the day, then Lyra took me to a really nice open air restaurant in Bangkok. It was a lovely courtyard and their menu was full of very natural food, it was fabulous!

Once everyone was home from school, I was treated to some lovely home made birthday cards, some which had even been printed out (thanks Kai for showing me yours on your phone!!!). I also got a big box of Dad treats, including black truffle crisps, and lots a matcha green team treats!! All mine…. as everyone else hates Matcha!!

The next day we all headed out to the Londoner, our local English Pub for a pub lunch! It was great, and the milkshakes were simply awesome!! They even had chess (as long as you were willing to be innovative with some of the missing pieces) and Monopoly, so Logan ‘the obsessed’ insisted on playing!

Later that afternoon, Lyra, Logan, and myself, left the big kids at home and headed off for a night at the Anantara Riverside Resort! It was great, reasonably quiet, so we almost had the pool to ourselves! Logan and I played ‘the pushing in game’ and we all enjoyed chilling at the swim up bar!

Once the sun had gone down, we headed over to the bar by the river and had something to eat and drink before heading back to the room to chill and play more monopoly (I wonder who’s idea that was!!)!!

After monopoly, we crashed out for a nice relaxing sleep and a lay in with no reason to get up early!! That was until about 3 or 4 in the morning when my phone started to get lots of messages. As usual I didn’t hear them but they woke Lyra up. It was Indi, the fire alarm was going of in the house and Indi couldn’t get it to stop! On top of that, Kai had locked himself into his room, and it appeared that no amount of knocking would wake him (good job there wasn’t really a fire!). She couldn’t reach it as the ceiling is quite high so in the end she had to put on her noise cancelling headphones and allow music to drown it out… I think she managed to sleep in the end, and we crashed back down for a few hours!

After a nice lay in we headed over to Trader Vic’s for a lovely breakfast buffet! We got a really nice table outside by the river and tucked into some lovely food. Once we had filled our bellies and sat around to let it go down, it was time to collect our bags and head back home!

The following weekend, Logan invited his buddies around after school for some pool madness! Ayton, his Ali, plus Elias, and his sisters Amelia, and Hanna all joined for a very loud afternoons fun!

As if that wasn’t enough fun for one month, before we crawled into April it was the Brighton Collage Senior Prom! Despite COVID restrictions doing their best to disrupt the evening, the evening did go ahead (with masks…arrghh!!). Of course getting prepared for a prom takes organisation. Thankfully Indi sorted out her dress a few weeks before and rented it from a shop with the bizarre name of Rent Sheep!! So she was sorted, but for Kai the challenge was greater… we couldn’t find a place to rent a suit, and as you may know, he is a little tall these days so buying clothes in Thailand has become more challenging! To find trousers long enough, and suits with long enough arms but at the same time fitting him around his blooming narrow waist was not easy! We though we were going to have down the made to measure route but thankfully we found one where the trousers just about met his shoes!!

The prom was taking place at the Eastin Hotel, and the Mum’s were also meeting there for drinks and dinner. To keep things simple, Lyra, Indi, and Kai booked themselves into the hotel. Logan was staying at his friend Diesels place as it was his birthday, so I was at home all alone for the evening, it was weirdly quiet!!

Both Indi and Kai had a great evening at the Prom it was so nice for them to be able to have an evening of fun with all their school mates, it has become a rare occasion these days so we were really pleased that the evening was such a success. Lyra also had fun with the Brighton Mum’s!!

Logan had a blast at his party, they had a wild sleepover with a lot of Nerf battles, on the Saturday morning they went biking at Peppermint Park which has a great off road course for them to ride around, then it was back to Diesel’s for treats and water fights!!

April

Well this was quite a month, so strap yourselves in!!

We started of course with our next significant birthday, Kai hitting the grand old age of 16! As he was in major revision mode for his GCSE’s there was no trip away which has been our tradition for the past few years. Kai’s request was to go a watch The Batman at the cinema. As this was a new, very dark, gritty version of Batman that was definitely not for Logan, so we went to an evening showing and left Logan with Khun Wan at home to watch the Sonic 2 movie!

We started off with dinner first, at Victoria, at EmQuartier, for Kai, I’m sure it was a big burger, followed by something big and chocolatey!! Then it was time for the movie, it was very good, but I have to confess I had a bit of a nap during the 3 hours it ran for!! Kai really liked it though, so that was the key mission.

On his birthday he woke to a room full of balloons and a large inflatable number 16 to recognise this key birthday! He enjoyed opening his gifts, but as usual for this age, much of it was in the form of cash!

Once the present opening was done, we all headed out for a birthday lunch at the newly re-opened Londoner pub, for some good old English pub grub! It was a fun lunch, we played a few games, ate well, and then headed home for more chocolate birthday cake!

We don’t celebrate Easter in Thailand (officially) but it is always a holiday around this time as we have the Thai new year, or Songkran celebration. Sadly the traditional dousing of each other with water is still suppressed due to Thailand’s obsessive fixation on not letting the country normalise after COVID meant that these celebrations are still not really allowed. However, we did manage a traditional ritual where the kids poor water on their parents hands and share their appreciation for all we give to them, which was a nice thing to do and thanks to Khun Wan for showing us what to do.

During the break, Logan was lucky enough to be able to go and stay with his best friend Ayton at their new house in Bang Kapi, close to the school. As usual he has a fab time, and we joined him on the Friday evening to have a kind of house warming party for Cici and Arm’s new abode.

Over the past couple of years, visitors of course have been non-existent, bit this April, our curse was broken and we had some overseas guests to entertain! We hadn’t actually met them before, but our good friend Anna from Kuwait’s Sister Lisa, and her husband Steve were in Bangkok for a few days before heading down to Krabi. So we got to play hosts for the first time in quite a while! We took them for a nice Thai dinner at our old favourite Cabbages & Condoms, it was a really nice evening and we all got on famously. Then on the Saturday, we had arranged to meet them and go on a Tuk Tuk tour around the old city, and experience Thai street food!! Indi and Logan joined us, but Kai was still deep into his revision so he stayed home..

We were in 3 tuk tuk’s and we headed off first to a local temple, from there we walked through some of the small back streets, saw some greeat street art, and came to a nice little local restaurant where we had a drink and looked out across the klong (canal) at the traditional housing. While we were there, we were visited by a nice and big monitor lizard swimming along and climbing around under the houses!! We then took another little walk and ended up at an unscheduled stop at a local homemade ice cream shop!! Logan made sure we didn’t leave empty handed, the ice cream was lovely!!

From there it was a short walk to our first street food location where we enjoyed a selection of Thai appetisers, all very nice, and no I can’t remember what they were!!

As the sun went down it was back into the tuk tuk’s and we headed off past a few of the famous sites, and stopped at my personal favourite temple, Wat Arun, the temple of the Dawn. It is closed at this time of the evening, but they light it up so it was great to see it against the dark night sky. While we were taking it in, one of the monks came over to say hi, we got chatting and he let us come in and take a few photos inside the gates (lucky us!). Then it was back on the tuk tuk’s again.

Next stop the main dinner! This was a kind of on table pot of boiling broth with meat and vegetables, washed down with a few beers / sodas depending on your preference! It was great food, but the heat coming off these on table BBQ’s was intense so it was a pretty sweaty affair! After another short ride we stopped for a few Thai desserts, which Logan did not really enjoy, too much coconut, not enough chocolate!! It was then on to the flower market, which was amazing, you cannot believe that this many flowers can be bought and sold every day!! That concluded our tour, it was absolutely brilliant, hot, sweaty, and completely exhausting, but we all went home well fed, and really enjoyed the experience!

The very next day was Easter Sunday, and against all the odds, the Easter bunny did visit and was good enough to hide the eggs in our air-conditioned living room! He really is a very thoughtful bunny! With our chocolate stocks fully replenished, the kids enjoyed a chill out day with the odd choco snack stop along the way.

Just a week later, it was the event of the year!! Celebrating the 50th birthday of Lyra was a big pressure, at 40 she was pregnant with Loggie so we always said we would make it up at 50…. but then COVID happened so big parties were out! Lyra really wasn’t sure what she wanted, which just made it worse for me! How do I make it just what she wants when I have absolutely no idea how she wanted to celebrate!!?? Anyway, as the date go closer we just had to go for it, so as her birthday fell in the middle of the week, we declared the Saturday before her key celebration day!

The day started early, with a delivery of balloons arriving at about 7am, we secretly brought them in and set them up in the living room, they were all big helium balloons and looked great… then we waited… for Lyra to come down!

When she did it was a great start to the day as she loved her balloons! Luckily (for Lyra) we had decided to go out for lunch so there was no need to make a bad attempt at cooking breakfast (the Mothers day debacle, still hurts!). Logan was off out for the day at KidZuna with Elias and the gang, so it was just us big ones left to entertain Mum!

For lunch we headed to El Mercado which is a favourite of ours, it was a lovely day, we were able to sit outside and we all ordered a late breakfast. All very civilised. After lunch, we headed home and enjoyed the afternoon hanging out in the pool. As the afternoon went by, Loggie came back and joined us in the pool.

As it got dark, we headed in, and we played some games, especially for Ly we played Rumikubb, a favourite of us all!! After we had run through a few rounds, we announced that we had a surprise for he in the garden… We headed out and I nipped down the garden and lit the firework collection I had bought, which I thought would be a great surprise for Ly. Well it was definitely that and then some! The fireworks were pretty full on and you could say a bit too much! Ly was very worried about the neighbours, and worried that the fireworks might set the house on fire, so to say she enjoyed them would be pushing it somewhat!! Kai and Logan thought they were awesome, India was scared out of her mind. All in all it is fair to say I had miss judged this pretty badly and left the birthday girl feeling very tense and on edge. Not the desired effect at all, lesson learned, don’t surprise Lyra with fireworks in the garden!! Oops.

In an attempt to recover from this situation, we brought out the birthday cake! I’m sure a bit of a sugar rush did the trick to bring people back into a happy space!

The next morning, I arose early to assess the carnage in the garden from the fireworks, Aurora had already had a good look around and made the burnt out structure her own! Thankfully all was well, no damage anywhere, just a lot of bits to pick up from around the garden!

Part 2 of Lyra’s 50th started on the Monday (the day before her birthday) we packed an overnight bag and headed off to our very special haven in Bangkok, the St Regis Hotel! The lovely team at St Regis had done us proud by upgrading us to a lovely suite over looking the Royal Bangkok Sports club, and had decorated the room with flowers in the shape of a ‘50’ on the bed, and a selection of chocolate treats for her to tuck into! This was feeling more like the birthday surprises Lyra digs!!

We spent the afternoon by the pool with a cocktail or two, then as the sun went down we got dressed and headed to the restaurant for our banquet 7 course dinner! Before dinner, we had a drink on the terrace and they brought us some complementary snacks (not the bast idea before a 7 course dinner, but we ate them anyway!). Then we started on the lengthy dinner process!!

Luckily each course is fairly small so it is not a gratuitous as it sounds, but there is no doubt by the end, you are very aware you have had a big dinner! It was lovely though and great to hang out with Mrs C without the never ending distractions of home!

In the morning, Lyra’s actual birthday morning, we enjoyed a nice lay in, I serenaded Ly with a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday to you… and once she had recovered we wandered down for some breakfast, despite not feeling hungry at all given the previous evenings eatathon.

We made it back home in time for Khun Ae to head off and collect the kids and once they were back we got ready for a nice birthday dinner at home, and the present opening!!

Buying presents for Ly had been quite a stressful task as she had no idea what she wanted and no guidance whatsoever! I have never considered my a particularly imaginative person, especially when it came to gifts for Mrs C, so there were a few fraught shopping trips where I wandered the malls aimlessly desperately searching for inspiration… well I managed to conjure up a few gifts so Lyra had lots to smile about as she opened them, at least for once they were a genuine surprise!!

More cake and candle blowing followed of course, but before we knew it, it was bed time. School nights don’t mix with late nights, even on birthdays!! And suddenly, I realised I had made it through Lyra’s birthday with a happy wife who felt special and loved, phew!!

May

With the crazy birthday season complete, we could kick back and relax for a bit… Ha Ha! No chance of that! Now it was time to think of our move to the UK, it wasn’t happening until August, but there is just such a huge amount of organising and sorting to do, so we git kicked off by pulling out all of our storage areas and clearing out anything we didn’t think we needed.

A little belated, but Lyra had arranged a couple of boat trips in Bangkok to celebrate her birthday. She had such a wide variety of friends, that she had to do it twice!! On both occasions she had a really nice time and saw Bangkok from a very different angle then normal.

As Indi and Kai headed into study leave, we were preparing for a month of iGCSE and A level exam fun! They were both working so hard and really putting the effort and time into being ready.

Then in the middle of the month something happened that hadn’t occurred in two and a half years…. I got on a plane, and left Thailand for a business trip! I was off to Switzerland for my final board meeting. It nearly didn’t happen, as I had messed up when the flight was going, in my head i was leaving Saturday morning, but late Friday night as we were turning off the lights, Lyra asked a couple of questions about the flight and it became very clear that rather than being on Saturday, my flight was in about 45 mins!!I As I was laying in bed it was clear I wasn’t going to make it! So I hit the phones, called my assistant and asked her to look for the next flights while I called the airport to let them know I wouldn’t be making the flight! My wonderful assistant Khun Jammy, managed to get me on to a flight at lunchtime on Saturday which meant with a change to my connection in London I would still arrive in time for the start of the meeting! Phew!!

The flights were ok, I managed to resist the pressure to wear a mask and it was strange, but it was nice to land in Heathrow while I waited for my connection to Zurich. Sadly the wait was nearly 12 hours which made it a pretty long day, but I got my connection, landed in Zurich, and then a short 90 min car trip and I made it to the hotel late on Sunday evening!

The meetings went really well, and they gave me a nice send off and we even had a great day out e-biking in the Swiss mountains!

Before I came home, I did something I hadn’t done for nearly 3 years, I visited England!! I landed back in Heathrow in the evening and made my way to the Premier Inn for a few hours sleep before getting up early and heading off to pick up my hire car. Day one was about heading up to Loughborough to take a quick look at where India was going to be at University. Loughborough looked to be a nice town, quite quiet, and dominated by the huge university campus! Next was a short drive further North to look at a potential house to rent. I relly liked the place and the area seemed great, just to the south of Nottingham. We decided to make a bid for it but sadly, they had another interested party that had agreed to take it straight away so we lost out on that one.

Later that day I returned down the M1, stopping off on the way down to complete my horrible COVID test to be able to get my Thai Pass that allowed me entry back into Thailand! Then it was onto Heyford to see Chris, Gemma, Faith, and for the first time, Thea!! It was so nice to see them, Auntie, and Grandad Peck also came over so it became a great little reunion! We had a nice dinner and caught up on all we missed. Seeing the girls was lovely, it was great to be able to catch up with Auntie and Michael, and many thanks to Chris and Gemma for the lovely hospitality. It wouldn’t be long until we would be more local again, and it was a wonderful quick re-introduction!

I slept over at Heyford, then the next morning I headed down to Mum & Dad’s. The previous weekend had been Dad’s 82nd birthday so we were meeting in Bradford on Avon for a birthday lunch! On arrival I had a lovely additional surprise… Sue and Simon were also there!! Being able to hug Mum and Dad after all this time was such a joy, and to be able to catch up with Sue and Simon too was a lovely addition.

After lunch, Mum, Dad, and I went on a little tour of our old stomping ground, we ended up in Iford, which is such a beautiful little spot with a great bridge over the river. It was a beautiful afternoon and such a nice way to spend a little time with Mum and Dad.

My few days back in the UK had been really lovely, and it was so nice to meet everyone face to face after all this time, but it was time to get home and start the process of our move back to England!

With clear sight of when we were going to be leaving Logan was making sure he used every opportunity to see his buddies. He loves spending time with Ayton, and Elias, and all their families. Just before the end of the month we invited a bunch of his friends over for a day of craziness around the pool! It was a brilliant afternoon going mad in the pool, sliding on the water slide down the garden, playing archery, and then feeding their faces with endless pizza!!

For Indi and Kai, it was crunch time, exams had started, Indi had about 6 or 7 to get through, but Kai had a long slog of 20 exams to fight through. They had been preparing for months, but it all came down to this! They were ready, and hot it head on with a determination to do all they could. We had no doubts that they would conquer it all.

June

We kicked off June with a weekend away in Pattaya with our great friends, Cici, Arm, Sal, and Chris, plus all their kiddos. From our side India and Kai stayed back as they were deep into exam revision and appreciated the quiet house while we were away!

We headed up to Pattaya on the Friday afternoon and stayed at a Healthland resort (don’t be fooled by the title!!) We had some time when we arrived to hit the pool and hang out for a while, but then we all headed out to a great Italian restaurant for a night with more pizzas! However, we had a busy day ahead on Saturday so it was a well behaved evening.

We were up pretty early on the Saturday and made our way to coast where we had hired a boat for the day to take is over to an uninhabited island just off the coast of Pattaya. We all piled into the boat and headed off. Arm took his jet-ski and followed us. It was a fairly choppy sea that morning and Arm had a blast on his jet-ski while we all watched, duly impressed with his skills!!

The morning had started overcast, pretty typical for the rainy season, but by the time we reached the island the clouds parted a treated us to a day of beautiful sunshine. It was fabulous being able to come to the island, we had the place to ourselves most of the day and had great fun swimming, and blasting around the bay on the inflatable sofa pulled by Arm’s jet-ski.

We had packed a nice lunch which was enjoyed by us all…. and one of the stray dogs on the island! The cheeky mut grabbed one of our bags and ran off into the bushes with it!! We gave chase and managed to retrieve it, minus much of the lunch! Somewhat ironically, that morning we had handed over a huge bag of dog food to the island rangers to help them look after the dogs on the island!

As the sun was setting, we jumped back on the boat and headed back to Pattaya, Cici decided to ride with Arm on the jet-ski which must have been a bit of a white knuckle ride as the sea was pretty rough and it was pitch black by the time we got back. Everyone made it back safely though!

We were all tired, but had had a fantastic day, we headed back to Bangkok that evening for a quite Sunday at home…

By the middle of the month, Indi was through her exams and could kick back and relax having completed all her A levels! She was pretty happy with how they had gone, she had put a huge amount of work into them and deserved the rest that she could now enjoy. Having said that, a few days later the school held the 6th Form graduation ceremony so Indi has to get her gown and motor board on and join in the fun!

The ceremony itself was nice with each of the kids being brought up on to the stage and congratulated for completing the course, then it outside for a million different photograph opportunities. This is not Indi’s idea of a great afternoon but she entered into the spirit of things and enjoyed the afternoon.

That evening we were hosting a graduation party at our place for Indi and her friends. All the parents had been invited too and contributed to the celebration. It was a great evening, and it was so nice to see Indi hanging our with her friends after so long. There was a graduation cake, and there was even a speech given by Lyra,! There was a lot of reminiscing, this was the end of their schooling, there lives were changing! Logan did his best to inject himself into the mix and everyone played along to make him feel very part of everything!

The evening ended of course with a lot of tears as Eunice was heading off to Turkey the next day, so it could be a long time before they were all together again! Lots of hugs were given, lots of photos taken…

Next morning was a nice cooked breakfast, not too early, then they were heading off to Koh Samet! Full on post exam chill-out on the beach! Khun Ae took them over to the ferry, then they had 5 days all to themselves!

While Indi was away, Logan had a day at Kidszoona with his buddy Elias! They went mad in the play pen for hours! Followed by McDonalds of course!

As this week came to an end, Kai finally finished his exams too! There was palpable relief when he arrived home, he was ready to relax and get in to the summer! He had a few treats (Subway meatball sub, Bundaburg Ginger Beer, and a Starbucks cookie to finish!) to help him slip in to his post exam world, he smiled for real, which was the first time for a while!

Before the month ended, we thought, why don’t we have one last get together with Logan’s buddies! These parties are always completely crazy with kids everywhere but they are also great fun!

Logan’s crew were all there and they had a wild time in the pool, on the water slide, and with the archery! Many pizzas, and a lot of cake was consumed and by the evening there were a lot of tired out kids crashing on sofa!!

We ended June with me finishing at DKSH to start my two months gardening leave. It was a strange feeling, but it felt like the right move, and we were going to head on to new things.

July

The 1st of July was officially Indi, Kai, and Logan’s last day at Brighton College. Even though Indi and Kai had already finished they all went in for their last day.

It was an emotional day for them all (even if Kai didn’t show it!), with a lot of goodbyes for both their friends and their teahers. They all left with amazing memories of Brighton College, even with all the problems of COVID etc. Indi and Kai both reached critical points in their education and Logan established himself as a very capable and social student with an amazing bunch of friends. Leaving was proving very hard…

At the end of the day, Lyra and I picked them up to take them for a celebration lunch. After all the hugging and crying, Logan decided to go home with Ayton to carry on the last day fun, so we took Indi and Kai for lunch at the Londoner, out favourite British Pub!

As we all settled into our summer hols we spent a few fun days hanging around and in the pool! We have been so lucky to have such a great environment to live in, oh boy we were going to miss it. We also made an effort to go to a few restaurants that we love… there were so many places we loved around Bangkok, everything was going to be so hard to say goodbye too. We really needed to make the most of this time.

This was also the first time we had been to the movies since before COVID, and to mark the occasion we all went to see The Minions 2 - The Rise of Gru! A quality movie for sure! Actually it was pretty funny!!

The challenge we had was despite all these things we wanted to do, we had a major move to plan, organise, and complete! Before we got to serious about this though, we had some friends to say goodbye too! The Harlands (Logan’s ex-teacher and his family), they were off to England and before they left we all went to stay in a hotel on the river for a few days.

Lyra, Logan and I were staying at the Chatrium and had a great room up on the 26th floor with amazing views up the river. We spent the afternoon at the pool with the guys and then we headed down to Asiatique for dinner. After dinner we took a look around the park. We started with the big wheel, it was a great view of the park from there and we did some serious posing for photo’s together!! We then headed over to the ghost train, which was a little lame if i’m honest.

The following day we met for breakfast and then it was back to the pool for more sun and splashing! Logan, Katie, and Luke had such a great time together, they were going to miss this for sure.. Later in the afternoon we got together for a few drinks before grabbing dinner together by the river.

Despite all the fun we were having together, Lyra and Kai were off to England for a couple of weeks for Kai to visit some of the colleges / schools in the area to see where he could study his A levels, to take a look at the house we had rented (without visiting it) and to say hello to a few members of the family that they hadn’t seen in 3 years!!

They timed the trip perfectly to coincide with the hottest heatwave the UK had ever experienced with temperatures above 40C! Of course they are pretty used to the hot temps, but in Thailand we have air con to give us some rest bite, in England, not so much, not even in all the hotels!

Being able to see friends and family after all this time was high on the priority list for Ly and Kai. They managed to spend time with Grandad Peck, Auntie Irene, and of course got to meet Chris and Gamma’s latest addition Thea!! I know it was a highlight of the trip see the family that we had been separated from for so long, but there is no doubt see Faith and Thea was a great moment!

Seeing friends was also a priority so the chance to catch up with Abi, Keira and Cam was not to be missed! Keira even kindly lent Lyra her car so they could get around while they were over. So appreciated!!

Soon after they arrived though it was time to head up towards Stratford to see where we would be living! Ly & Kai had an appointment the following day to visit the house, but could resist the chance to have a sneak preview the day before! They drove up to the house to have a quick peak but then the owners came out of the front door so they had to beat a hasty retreat!!

The next couple of days was a run around the three schools that we had highlighted as potential for Kai’s 6th form. Chipping Camden and Stratford High were all seen but when it came to seeing Alcester Grammar both Ly and Kai were down with colds! Feeling pretty ropey and knowing how nervous people were since COVID, they decided to postpone visiting Alcester until they felt better. Luckily they had managed to see the house and meet the owners of the house, which went great. The house was nice, well looked after, and most importantly big enough!! The owner was also a very nice lady, all was looking good!

While Lyra and Kai were rushing around in England, India, Logan, and myself were keeping ourselves busy in Thailand! I took Logan, Elias, and Amira to see Minions 2 (yes, a second time for me!!) which was fun (for them!) and then we had the packers in to pack up the first shipment. It was the smaller of the two planned shipments but key to get some of our big furniture over as early as possible so we have things to sleep on and sit on as soon as possible! As it always is, it was a bit of a whirlwind few days, trying to ensure they pack the right stuff, and that they do it in the most space efficient way. Sadly the team we had been allocated were not the best and sadly the job they did was mediocre at best, then when they loaded the items onto the container at their warehouse, they left of part of Logan’s bed, half the sofa, and other key items, despite us providing them with a very clear list of items that we were ok with them leaving behind if space was short (all of those we highlighted were sent!).

Thankfully after a couple of days Lyra and Kai were feeling more human again so they headed over to see Bi and Co. again and had a fun day in the sun. Pedlos at Rushden lakes and a BBQ at Abi’s all made for a great few days!!

Then it was back to Stratford to visit Alcester Grammar school. Kai was very pleased they made it there as it was his clear favourite. IF he could get his predicted grades, he would have a strong chance of getting a place.

Indi, Logan, and I decided that following all the packing madness we would head out for dinner together, we decided to go to a new local italian place. It turned out to be a great find, yummy food, nice staff, and even served non alcoholic beer for me!! Result, and all in walking distance of the house.

Just a few days before Ly and Kai were due back, we got a clear reminder that the rainy season was upon us. Significant rain fell overnight and we woke up to floods all over the place. I was due to attend a physio session so Khun Ae picked me up at we headed off, what was normally a 15 min journey took well over 90 mins! There were areas where the water was about 18 inches deep!! Lots of people riding along on motorcycles with very carefully with very wet feet and legs!

Lyra and Kai did one last quick round with Grandad and Auntie, then it was back to the airport, take a pointless COVID test, then on the plane back home to Thailand!!

Soon after getting back we had a Sunday, post yoga session lunch with Khun Apple. We went to our local British pub, The Londoner (again!) and had a great brunch together.

As Lyra and I were deep into preparations to leave, we needed to occupy the kids as they were all now on holiday! This generally involved Indi and Kai heading off with Logan for a day of fun! First up was Kai, who took Logan to Bounce for some major trampoline antics! An hour or so of this certainly gets a sweat on, and also drove a hunger in them so then it was off to McDonalds, and Svensons ice cream parlour! You can imagine the feast they ate!!

Despite being so, so busy on the move prep, Lyra and India took the opportunity to get some clothes hand made with some fabrics they had bought from a market some time ago. There were a number of ‘fittings’ needed, this seemed excessive until I learnt that the lady had a bunch of cats that she looked after… then it all became clear!!

August

August, out last month living in Thailand, makes me want to shed a tear. We were certainly feeling very reflective during this time. We knew we were doing the right thing moving to the UK, but there was, without doubt, some tears for what we were leaving behind. However… there was lots to do!

Selling things was a big part of this month, we knew we needed to shed sone items as we had too much for the container, and the house in England was simply smaller than our house in Thailand!

Beds, desks, cabinets, sofa’s, they were all up for sale on facebook groups and I was busy answering never ending questions about the items. It was certainly tougher than selling things in Kuwait, there, they went like hot cakes! We did manage to move on most of what we really needed to, and to be fair we wanted to give some things to Khun Wan, and Khun Ae as we know they would make really good use of them, and it would help them to furnish their family homes.

Even Logan got in on the act, we had bought him a set of digital drums a couple of years ago as he was taking drumming lessons and enjoying it. Sadly he never really managed to progress too far with it as his lessons were constantly interrupted with COVID restrictions so he never got to that loving stage. In the end, he decided to sell the kit rather than bring them to England (which we felt was a great decision!). The day he sold them, he was so happy to have the pile of cash in his hands, he felt like the richest guy in the world!!

There were many things we wanted to get done before we left (practical things, the list of experiences and places we still wanted to go would take years to tick off!!). New glasses for all, Kai and I were getting tailor made suits done, and Ly and Indi were still working on their tailor made clothes (cat hugging!).

We were also finalising the travel plans for Aurora and Blade, our Prince and Princess cats! Getting the right documents, with the right translations, and the right travel boxes etc, etc. Thankfully we had found a great support to manage the process in Khun Boat. Soon they would be on their way.

Another key activity was of course saying goodbye to people. There was an endless list of people we wanted to see nd spend time with before we left, there was no way we could do everybody, but we did the best we could and saw as many people as we could.

One of the first was Khun Jammy and her Husband Khun Ae (not our driver!) Khun Jammy was my Assistant at DKSH for the whole time I was there and has been an incredible support for me and the whole family, we would miss her terribly. So we met for dinner at the Cielo Sky Bar, where we had come to celebrate my promotion to the Exec Committee four years previous! It was lovely to spend the time with Jammy, and everyone loved the views. Logan especially loved the glass floor section that you could walk across and look down 40 floors!!

As well as shedding furniture, Ly and I were also on the hunt for a few pieces of Asian furniture to bring back with us, so while we were out hunting in the markets at Chatachak, Indi and Kai took Logan to Seaworld, then Madame Tussauds (which Logan continues to refer to as Madame Tuesdays!), and then of course a slap up meal at McDonalds (for a change!). They had a great day together and there were a lot of laughs in Madame Tussauds posing with all kinds of celebs and superheroes!

Kai and I picked up our tailor made suits, and to our surprise we were asked to appear in a short video to advertise the tailor! As you would expect it was a Instagram hit!!!

Logan has yet another party with his Buds at Kidzoona, there was a whole bunch of them going crazy in ball pits etc. Joining Logan was of course the usuals… Ayton, Elias, Petch, of course, but we also saw Dylan, Cyrus, and Dexter. It was a pretty mad afternoon, with a lot a sweat and snacks!!

As we focused on sorting the house, Logan focused on spending as much time with his friends, so at every opportunity he was at Ayton’s!

Just before the packers returned to the big pack up, Lyra and I decided to get away for one last night in luxury. We booked ourselves into the Shangri-La down on the river. We arrived early afternoon, got checked in and chilled out by the pool. We were even joined by a friendly monitor lizard!!

That evening, we met up with Jenny and Alex. Lyra had met Jenny just after we arrived when she was promoting support for a cat rescue charity. Alex worked with me in DKSH. We met them at a boutique mall as we really wanted to take a look at some crystals with the potential of making a purchase or two… The Agata store was breathtaking with crystals the size of pool tables! They were a bit much for us, and I don’t think we could have squeezed them into our shipment. So we went for a slightly smaller, but still stunning couple of pieces. One was part of an Amethyst geode, the second was a slice of an incredible crystal formation. Absolutely amazing.

After our purchasing we headed down to the river for some dinner and reminiscing of our time in Bangkok.

The Logan ‘friendsy’ with a trip down memory lane at Harbourland in Mega Bangna with Ayton and Petch. Lyra and Cici took the opportunity to have lunch together while I kept and eye on these maniacs! They spend a couple of sweaty hours in the play area and then we headed for a slap up lunch at…. yep you guessed it….. McDonalds! I managed to resist the temptation but the other guys dived right in! After that it was time to have a special dessert, on e that Ayton has told Logan was the best ever!! They tucked into a serious looking chocolate brownie and piles of vanilla ice cream like their lives depended on it! Dreamland for sure!

We topped of the afternoon, with a LOOK in the Lego store while we waited for Mum and Cici to find us. Needless to say the emotional blackmail was in full flow as Logan the Lego obsessive was working on getting an ‘I am Groot’ model. He won, but at his expense!

A long outstanding date for Indi and Logan was to visit Jenny and her many cats (18ish I think!!). Indi and Logan had a few hours of seeing life in an house where the cats out number the people!!

Whenever we got the chance, which at this late stage, wasn’t too often, we were in the pool or out in the garden soaking up the place, we know we have been very lucky to have this incredible haven for the last few years and we were going to miss it big time! So every day we got to hang out, we did!!

So then it began, the packers arrived, over the next five days, everything needed to get into the container!

At the same time it was results time for Indi! Her results were mixed, and for drama, shockingly low. This would kick off a process that would see two of her three results be reviewed and improved. For Drama, we remained disappointed that she didn’t get the top grade she deserved, but we had to accept the limitations of the assessment process. Happily though, she had the results she needed to get to her first choice Uni, Loughborough! Now that was a reason to celebrate!!

A couple of days into the packing, we moved out of the house and spent our last few nights in Empire Place Apartments. To keep us company Cici and family, and Sal and Family came and stayed there too! It was great to be able to finish a day of packing in a nice calm apartment! Khun Wan came with us too, so we could spend as much time with her as possible before we left.

We were working hard alongside all of this to get Wan a visa to the UK so she could come over and spend some time with is once we got to the UK. It was not simple but we would do all we could to make it happen.

The last day was focused on loading the container. Everything was packed, and confidence was high. We had given a number of items away and happily the whole thing went in, with a about 4ft to spare at the back of the container!! Happy days, it was all done. next time we would be in Long Marston, hopefully before Christmas!!

With all that done, we now had some time to kick back and enjoy the company of friends for the last day or so. For our final night in BKK we all hung out together in the apartments, ate pizza, and laughed a lot about all the fun of the past few years and how the kids had changed, yet stayed so close together!

We woke up the next morning (our last day) and headed to the pool! We were going to miss always having pool weather, and always having access to go for a swim whenever we fancied it, so we all had a fun couple hours around the pool Who knows when we do that again!

In the afternoon, we headed back to the house for a few hours in the garden and pool together. At around tea time, Ayton, Elias, and all their families arrived, we were having the last, last, celebration together before heading off to the airport to catch our plane to England!

There was one more surprise for Logan, Petch arrived!! he would spend his last couple of hours with his three best friends. It was getting emotional.

More junk food arrived, we ate, we jumped in the pool, but mostly people hugged, and she a tear, it was the end of an era.

We said our goodbyes to everyone, and then it was just us, Khun Wan, and Khun Ae. We were all going to the airport together. Khun Wan’s Uncle was bringing our 11 suitcase’s! We made it to the airport in good time, then it was time to say goodbye to Khun Ae. He had been with us for 4 years, and had been such a wonderful support for us, and really like a member of the family, we would miss all his help. We wished him the best of luck in his next job, and hugged it out, took lots of photos, and then it was time to go.

Khun Wan came in with us while we checked in, which all went smoothly, then it was time to go through security. We all hugged Wan and promised ot see her again (soon hopefully) and then that was it, we headed into the airport and our Thailand era was done. Time to look forward’s to our next adventure in England…

The flight all left on time and we settled down in our business class beds to get a few hours sleep before landing in Dubai feeling a bit bleary eyed. We had a couple of hours to kill in Dubai so we headed to the lounge, had something to eat, and generally lazed around. Lyra managed to muster up the energy to go and have a look around the shops, but that was too much for the rest of us! Flight two to Birmingham also went without a hitch and before we knew it we were standing outside of Birmingham airport with 4 trolleys of luggage waiting for Uncle Chris and Abi to arrive with the cars!

They arrived a few minutes later, Abi was driving our new car which was exciting to see, we tested out it’s capacity to carry luggage and it did well, all 11 cases in the boot (with the seats down!). Then we were off, first we drove down to Long Marston so we could take a look at the house. It was empty now, but we were not going to move in for a few more days. We had rented a place in the Costwolds, Broad Campden to be precise so we could rest properly in a comfortable place (with furniture). For the next month or so we would be living yet again with minimal things. Just the essentials to get us by until our shipments arrive.

While we were in Broad Campden we decided to go and take a look at the local pub, The Masons Arms. It was a great village pub, with a really nice couple running it, Adam & Derek. They had been running it for about 8 years and had turned it around from a failing pub to the centre of the community. I think this was going to be a place we would get to know well! we had a drink and some food, it was excellent, just what we needed.

The house in Broad Campden was lovely, really quaint, perfect after our long, long journey. We settled in straight away, and all hot the sack pretty early!

Chris came back up the following day with Gemma and the girls so we could spend some time together and they could see the house. We hung out at the house for a while, but the lack of furniture eventually drove us to the pub (again!). It was a lovely day so we could sit out in the garden, Logan, Faith, and Thea had a blast on the bouncy castle!!

Over the next few days we focused on organising things for the house, we had a number of deliveries to accept, beds, sofa beds etc. Plus Chris and Abi had lent us a whole pile of duvets, blankets, cushions, kitchen stuff and tools to help us manage until we got our things.

We spent some time in Stratford as well, getting to know the place. It seemed like a really nice town. Of course there are lots of Shakespeare references, and lots to discover in our new home!

September

On the 1st of September, we moved in to our new house! We didn’t have much, but we had taken delivery of a few beds and a sofa bed so with the items that people had lent us, we had enough! We were finally in our new home!

Logan was very keen to check out the playground just down the road from the house, so we went and checked it out! It had a swing, some climbing frames, roundabout, and a pretty awesome re-bounder sunk into the floor! We got some great action shots of Logan bouncing!

To help us settle in, Abi, Kiera, and Cam came over to see us for the day, it was so nice to see them all, Ly and Kai had met up with them in the summer, but fro the rest of us we hadn’t met up since they came and visited us in Thailand, and that was Easter 2019!!!

Of course we ended up in the pub again (we might be getting a reputation!!) and had a really nice dinner together with a lot of laughs!

Next day was Saturday, and our first opportunity to watch football live during the day! SO we were in the Mason’s Arms for the 12:00 kick off! Sadly our excitement was somewhat dampened by Liverpools performance… a poor 0-0 draw against Everton.

Before we knew it, the big day had arrived… it was time for Logan to start his new school at Bridgetown Primary. Starting a new school is a big deal, but I have to say Logan took it all in his stride. He was calm, relaxed, and all smiles when we arrived. We met a boy outside the gates, Ollie, who turned out to be in his class, so that was a great start. We met the head at the gate and she welcomed Logan to the school. While we were chatting to her, Logan simply asked, ‘can I go in now’, and that was that, off he went, didn’t even look back!!

When we picked up at the end of the day, he was all smiles again and happily sharing the fun he’d had and friends he had made. We couldn’t have asked for a better start!

The following day it was Kai’s first day at Alcester Grammar. Kai was taking a bus into school, we had offered to take him on his first day, but he was determined to go it alone, so Logan and Lyra walked with him down to the bus stop and waved him off from there.

That just left Indi to go, but we had a few more weeks to get ready for that as University doesn’t start until October. Indi had plenty to get ready with though, opening bank accounts, registering with Dr’s, getting an NHS number, and NI number…etc!!

There were many changes that we have had to get used to coming back to England. One of them is not having the lovely Khun Wan to help us in the house (god we miss her!!). This means we all have to get stuck in with the hoovering, the cleaning, and the cooking! One of Logan’s new jobs has been to pick up the fallen crab apples from the trees in our garden! Almost every day there is about a bucket load to pick up so that kept him busy for a while!!

The nice thing about moving to a new area is the discovering of places to go, things to see etc. Stratford is a great town with all the history of Shakespeare to see. There is also an abundance of great places to eat out at! We have enjoyed getting to know a few of them! The Four All’s in our next village, Welford on Avon is a firm favourite and it’s right on the river, so it is lovely to sit outside.

We are only just over an hour from Northampton now, so going down to see family isn’t too difficult as it is easy to get there and back in a day. Once we had the basics straight in the house we made out first trip down to Northampton.

Our first stop was to see Auntie Irene. We brought lunch and had an indoor picnic with her, and for Logan and Indi it was the first time they had seen each other face to face for nearly 3 years!! It was a lovely lunch and catch up with Auntie, Logan kept her highly amused and enjoyed playing in her recliner chairs! Lyra couldn’t resist having a poke about, and found a stash of Prosecco that looked like it was pretty vintage!! Auntie suggested we take a few and maybe bring a bottle down to my Mum & Dad when we visit next. We thought we should probably open some to see what they are like, and needless to say they were flat and gone to vinegar!! So sadly they had to be trashed!

After a couple of hours we had worn Auntie out so we left her to have a nap while we headed to Abington park to meet Chris & clan, Tanya & clan, and Grandad! It was actually a really nice day so the park was pretty busy. We found a seat at the cafe and got a drink, then waited for the crazies to arrive…

It was an amusing afternoon, as it always is when the Pecks get together. The boys were off running around and playing frisbee, the rest of sat around and caught up on everyones news. As the sun was out it seemed only right that we should have ice cream, so we all dashed over to the cafe to make our choices, yum!

As if that wasn’t enough, part three was a short driver over the The Greyhound at Milton Malsor to ,meet Abi, Nick, Kiera, and Cam. After a bit of catching up, the real reason for meeting at The Greyhound was declared… we wanted to recreate a classic photo that was taken there about 12 years ago! It was hilarious trrying to get the four of them in the right poses, but I think we got there in the end! Once everyone was happy we had caught it right, we then had to add in Logan ho was not going to be left out!!

Since being back, I had started to put together my consulting business, and part of that was to get out and network. SO i had a few trips down to London to meet up with old colleagues and virtual colleagues that I wanted to actually meet for the first time. Each time I went down I had great meetings, and came away with some leads, or new contacts, or had attended some great discussion sessions, it was really fun, and was really helping to build the network. this was going to be essential for me to be able to attract enough work to make the freelancing thing work for us!

2022 was Nanny’s (My Mum) 80th birthday. It was great to actually be back and be able to celebrate it together! Sadly Dad’s 80th wasn’t celebrated until he was 82!! Mum had organised a lunchtime party at a restaurant in Bradford on Avon. Sadly though it coincided with the cats arriving from Bangkok so Lyra had to stay home and look after them. The rest of us headed down on the Saturday morning and joined the fun. It was great to see so many of the family together. Sally (Mum’s Sister) was over from New Zealand, Rob was over from Germany, Rich and Jan were there of course, Sue and Simon, Gav, Rach, and the kids, but Andy was (as far as Mum knew) not able to come… but, you guessed it, she made a surprise entrance to make Mum’s day!

It was a nice lunch, Indi, Kai, and Logan hung out with Tori, Mike, Charlie, and Robin, along with Lucy, and Alice. While I was at the older end of the table with Jan, Rich, Rob, Sue & Simon, and James (not that he’s an oldie!!). Lunch was a very nice Italian. Once that was all done, we jumped into cars and headed back to Mum & Dad’s for a cup tea and a slice of birthday cake, plus the chance to get some photos of the four generations of the family all together, which doesn’t happen often!

Once the festivities were done, we headed over to Sue & Simon’s who were kindly putting us up for the night. We had some good laughs remembering all sorts of fun in the old days!! Then the following morning before heading back to Mum’s for lunch, Logan really wanted to see Westbury White Horse! So we headed up to the top of the Salisbury Plain to show him it in all it’s glory!

It was a lovely sunny morning, a bit chilly in the wind but a perfectly clear day, you could see miles from the top! Logan loved it, and ran all over the place, normally chased by Kai! We even climbed partly round the horse itself.

As we headed back to the car, Logan spotted an ice cream van, so despite the chill in the air was all had a celebratory ice cream!

Then it was time to meet Nanny and Grampy for lunch before heading home again. It was lovely to be able to spend some time with them in a quieter atmosphere than the day before. However, soon enough we had to hit the road and head back home to Lyra and the cats!

As we were heading closer to the end of the month, we were counting down the days until Indi set off on her Uni adventure! Before she went though we wanted to have some quality time together as a family. We headed into Stratford one Saturday to have a wander around and have lunch out. Again the sun was shining (we had some amazing weather the first month we were back in England!). Had a walk around the parks by the river then stopped for fish and chips al fresco! Logan discovered that just out side the RSC theatre they had set up a game of giant Guess Who! So we had a few games together, Logan was not happy when I beat him, but he got his victory against Kai!!

On the Sunday (Indi’s last before Uni) it was her special dinner, and she chose to go to The Four All’s in Welford, great choice, we had a lovely Sunday dinner there, indoors this time as the evenings were getting a little chilly now.

And then the day arrived… Indi was off to her Halls of Residence for Freshers week in Loughborough! There was no doubt she was anxious, but she was ready, had done the preparation, so she faced it bravely, and coped really well with all that had to happen.

We filled the car and all came along to see her into her new digs. When we arrived we saw that she was staying in a fantastic old building that looked straight out of Harry Potter! Indi loved it, and loved her room, which from my experience was a palace compared to the average 1st year rooms!

She got unpacked and then we headed down the road to the Toby for some dinner, Indi enquired about jobs there as it would be a great result to be able to get some work so close to where she was living, sadly they didn’t seem to be needing anyone (which was quite remarkable really!). It wasn’t long though until we had to say bye and let her get on by herself… She was all smiles when we left (after quite a lot of hugs and photos), and we left her getting ready to go to the Freshers launch party later that evening!

We drove back, but kept in touch with Indi to see how the party went… to nobody’s surprise, after arriving just after 10pm, she was home by about 11pm!! Too noisy, too many flashing lights, and too many drunk people for our girl!! These are not things that Indi seeks out, and she was done with the partying!!

She spent the next week getting used to the area and where her classes would be, as well as getting to meet her flat mates. She was cooking herself, getting the shopping done, even a bit of laundry. So just like that, Indi was living away from us… she was a University student, and ready to hit the lectures!!

October

We all know what October brings! Yep, Mr Logan Fynn’s birthday! However, the weekend before was the Stratford Food Fayre! So Abi and the gang came up for the day and we headed into town to check it out. There were lots of amazing stalls with small specialist vendors showing off their stuff. Lots to try and capture contact details from for future reference. We managed to resist buy too much though which was a rare surprise!

On the 4th though the celebrations began! Logan had reached double digits, 10 at last!! It was a school day so there wasn’t much time in the morning, although he did manage to open a present or two while scoffing pain ‘o’ chocolat! One gift was a very welcome beanie with the phrase “Normal people scare me” on the front. Perfect for the day as at school they were off on a trip around Stratford to learn more about what makes the town famous! There was also another bonus surprise for the trip as Mum was going to be helping out!! It was a great day out looking at the sights and leaning more about Shakespeare.

Once back home it was present time! Logan had a very nice array of gifts including the ironman infinity gauntlet from Avengers End Game to build in Lego! Another surprise for him was a lovely gift from Elias, hos bud from Thailand. They had sent over a set of plastic soldiers! Elias and Logan had loved playing them together, and now they both had their own set!!

All other celebrations were planned for the weekend to come as on the very next day after Logan’s birthday, our first shipment was delivered! The next few days were busy unpacking and arranging the furniture that had been sent over on shipment 1. This was mostly quite big items of furniture so not too fiddly and we get ourselves straight Sadly a number of items couldn’t be used as the packers had left key parts off in Thailand so these just had to be stored in the garage until the rest arrived.

On the weekend we had The Harlands down and we started off with a morning rendition off happy birthday with a chocolate caterpillar cake that Logan had chosen. In the afternoon we headed out for a walk down the Greenway to work off some of chocolate cake calories! We made it a fair distance, posed for some great photos and then headed back home.

During the following week it was Devon’s birthday and we had been invited to join Devon, Jane, and Hamish for dinner at a Thai restaurant in Leamington! Logan cam with us, but not Kai as he had homework to get done. It was really nice, very authentic surrounding and great food, Devon even got a birthday cake thrown in!

Next weekend saw us head down to our old stomping ground Binfield to see Joyce and Jim, and Nat! We were staying with Joyce and while Lyra caught up with them, Logan and I took a trip down memory lane at the Jocks lane play area. It was great fun, Logan loved the zip line and blasted down many times as well as dashing around all the other rides! it was great to see it again and brought back a lot of fond memories.

That evening, Nat joined us for dinner and we had a lovely evening catching up on all of the gossip and life in general for Joyce, Jim, Hannah, and of course Nat too!

The following day we were up early as we were meeting Khun Apple at Heathrow. She was over from Thailand for work so we agreed to meet up and spend the day together in London. The original plan had been that she would fly with Khun Wan and they would arrive together when Wan came ot stay with us for a while. Sadly though, Wan’s visa was turned down so she was not able to join us. We were all deeply saddened that she couldn’t come, we miss her terribly.

We met Apple at T4 and headed into the city. We found somewhere to park close to Buckingham palace and headed for a coffee first to warm us up! Once we had had that fix, we started walking. Our target was to walk across to Covent garden. As we cam around the corner to Buckingham palace we were amazed to see huge crowds gathered. outside. We strained to see over everyone to see what was happening. Wondering whether our new King Charles was making an appearance? He wasn’t, it was the changing of the guard and apparently always draws a big crowd, especially on the weekend!

We kept walking and crossed Green Park and along Piccadilly. We stopped for a morning ice cream 9as it was just that appealing! In Leicester square we sat with a bronze statue of Paddington Bear, and Logan tried to bite his marmalade sandwich!! We had a tricky moment when we passed the Lego store, Logan is so obsessed with Lego these days, he was desperate to go in, but there was a queue of about 20 people waiting outside so that was just not going to happen!!

We made it to Covent Garden and was immediately drawn to a dinosaur that was hanging around! Logan enjoyed getting up close and personal with him, thankfully he didn’t bite!

It was time for lunch, so we headed down into the centre of Covent Garden, thankfully we managed to get a table so we could have a drink and some Sunday lunch! While we had lunch we were very happy to see that there was some street entertainment on, right by where we were sitting. Firstly there was a theatrical singer, he was great fun and got everyone singing along, secondly it was a folk band, who were also fabulous and again engaged so well with the crowd!

Once we were fed, watered, and rested, we needed to think about heading back to the car. However Mr Logan hadn’t satisfied his Lego / toy shop desires, so we agreed to walk over to Hamleys! You can imagine what Logan thought of the 10 floors of kids heaven! There was a whole floor devoted to Lego and Logan was loving checking out all the amazing sets and display pieces! He posed with the Queen, and drooled over a huge Millennium Falcon! We managed to just about convince him not to buy anything while we were there as it is such a rip off, priced for tourists without a doubt, at times 25%-30% more than you could buy online!! However, before we left, he did manage to convince us to buy a micro drone that was on promotion!

Lucky Logan was very excited to get started on a lego gift that he received from Devon, it was a Lego art portrait of Ironman! He did a few hours a day for about a week and he completed it with great excitement! I looked amazing and took pride of place on the wall in his bedroom.

Logan’s party was arranged at the local leisure centre, it was called Tag Active, which is a huge adventure playground with loads of challenges to complete to earn points! Logan had a bunch of his friends with him, and Katie and Luke from Stafford, plus Cam and Kai!!

They logged in and had an hour going mad over the arena! Once they were worn out they crawled up to the party room for some unhealthy food and cake!! After the food had been munched we put some music on, Logan chose a few tunes that reflected that he has older siblings, with some hardcore rap tunes that certainly surprised his guests! Then somebody put on Livin’ on a prayer and the whole place burst into song!! It was a great moment!

Once the party was finished we took a walk into town to have a walk around the MOP fair (nobody seems to know why it is called that!) which is a fair in the centre of town with lots a fair rides! Logan decided he wanted to go on one ride that rises up above the houses and spins really fast. I thought it would be fun to go with him… oh my god, what a mistake that was! I used to love these things but it was horrible, I had to focus really hard not to vomit! it couldn’t finish quick enough! Age does not make fair rides more fun!!

Lyra was on too and she felt the same!! Next he wanted to go on another ride that spun you around and around sideways..Ly and I were a big no, but Can and Kai were happy to go, as was Katie. All was good until it got going and Logan’s face made it very clear he was not happy! We desperately wanted to stop it and get him off but we couldn’t. Once it finished he put on brave and said it was ok!!

Following that it was ice cream time then back home to open a few gifts!

The end of October brought us another birthday, Princess Faith was 4!! We headed down to Heyford to attend her party in the village hall. Before we the party we took the opportunity to visit Crazy Nana’s grave. It was coming up to 10 years since we lost her so it felt like the right time to go and see her grave and spend a bit of time thinking about how much we miss her.

The party was a loud and colourful affair! We had forgotten how crazy these little people parties were… there was even a bouncy castle!! We managed about 30 mins before we retreated to the pub over the road! We met Tanya, Steve, Kyra, and Isaac, there, along with Auntie Irene. It was nice to be able to spend a bit of time with them, but of course we had to get to noise soon enough!! It was pretty clear that Faith and Thea were having a great time, they were definitely party kids!!

Post party we all headed back to Chris’s to hang out for a while and see Faith’s teepee! A lovely day, but we had to get back home..

Of course halloween closes October! It was a cold and wet evening, but Logan was determined to get out there and trick or treat the neighbourhood! We headed out under the brolly and hit the houses in the area. There were plenty of houses decorated up so we called on them all. Logan got himself a pretty decent haul of sweets!

November

Guy Fawkes is always the kick off for November, and this year we are actually in the right country to be able to enjoy it! Our local Pub The Mason’s Arms holds a Guy Fawkes evening and we had been told that it was always a great night and gets really busy!

Kai had just been taken on at the pub, so this was going to be a big test for him as they were expecting something like 500 people to come!! It was a very chilly evening, thankfully dry though, Les, Kasey, & Tristan were with us for the weekend, and Chris, Gemma, and the girls, as well as Jane and Devon, came up to join in the festivities. Kai was working very hard in the cold pouring pints for the endless stream of customers. I don’t think he had the chance to be cold!!

There were a few stalls selling plastic crap for kids to bug their parents for (which Logan did successfully) and they had a nice selection of hot dogs, burgers, and pulled pork rolls to keep everyone warm!

The fireworks were great, really well done. Logan and Devon had gone right to the front and had to dodge a few of the spent fireworks landing around them! Well worth the wait in the cold for sure!

Once they were done, we headed back home for a warm up, sadly we had to leave Kai there as his shift wasn’t over until 11:00!

Les & Co. stayed for the weekend, and we enjoyed catching up after what must have been nearly 10 years since we last spent time together! There was a fair bit of game playing, especially Fibbage, Quiplash, and Drawful on the Nintendo Swicxh!!

A few days after they headed back home, we had some more visitors, from the removal company with part one of our shipments from Thailand!! This was a 20ft container that had a bunch of furniture that was planned to be with us for when we arrived back. Sadly though because of the joyful global shipping challenges it arrived 6 weeks after we did!

It all went pretty well and after a little bit of debate and struggles we got it all in the house in the right places!! The next one was the big one, a 40ft container with a lot more boxes of all our belongings!! We were a little scared to be honest! Still, who know when that one was going to arrive!! It felt really good to have a few things of our own though. It really gave some of the house a more homely feeling.

The following weekend, we had Indi back from Uni to check out the house with a bit of furniture, and to take back some more of her things, including the electric piano which she was setting up in her room so she could keep up her playing. It was lovely to see her, although she seemed more interested in the fluffies than the humans!!

My networking efforts continued to promote my new business, I headed down to Reading to meet an old friend and colleague to share what. iwas doing and to see whether they were in any need! It was a great meeting, so nice to see Dave again, and I came away feeling confident that we could do some things together in the near future! Fingers crossed. I also really enjoyed the drive down, it’s that time of year where all the trees are turning golden with Autumn. Having not seen it in a good few years I thought it was stunning to see and kept wanting to pull over and take photos!!

In a clear sign that Christmas was coming fast and furious, we had the Stratford Christmas lights big switch on to attend on the 19th. Indi was back again so she got to enjoy it too. We wrapped up warm and headed into town ealry to beat the rush and have some dinner before the countdown. We found a nice little Italian place and had a great dinner. When we came out we were amazed at the amount of people that were gathering to watch the lights. This is going to be quite something we thought… We stood around a while waiting for the show to start. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, and without warning, the countdown began! !0, 9, 8 etc, then at zero (of course) the lights came on (well all accept the centrepiece Christmas tree which remained dark for another 5 mins), and that was it, all over!! Not quite what we expected to be honest! Once they were all on, they did look nice though.

Just before the end of the month it looked like my networking was paying off! Not in paid work, but an invite to a hospitality do at Twickenham to watch England v South Africa! I hadn’t been to a big rugby match in so many years so it was a great evening. Sadly England were well beaten, but the company was great, a few old friends, and some new ones too. Well worth the trip down!

Alongside building up my business, I had also been pursuing a possible interesting role with a fast growing customs business, and at the end of the month I was invited over to Amsterdam to meet the CEO and COO to discuss th role and to get to know each other a little better. It was a long (& cold) day, but I really enjoyed meeting them, and it felt like it was a fruitful trip. I was hopeful that this might turn into a good opportunity for me.

As we were saying goodbye to November, we received our 2nd, and big container of stuff. Getting through this one was a really tough week. there was just so much of it, and sadly the crew we had seemed to have a problem for every challenge we faced, so that made it even tougher. We were glad to say goodbye to them after 3 days, but we were left with a mountain of boxes to unpack and find places for all our things. there was just so much, it was really quite overwhelming. All we could do was keep at it. By the following weekend we had a few rooms looking ok, so that felt like progress, but it was hard to see the end of it.

It did mean we had our Christmas things, so we got them out and ready to put up as soon as we hit December!!

December

1st of December means the coming of Belfy and therefore the start of Christmas!! And when Belfy arrives, so do the advent calendars! Which makes everyone happy! Despite the house being far from straight, we turned our attention to the Christmas decs. The tree went up, and so did about a million fairy lights! Switching them on and off each day was quite the task!

The following day, it was back to the Masons Arms for the big lights switch on! Kai was working again, but this time he bagged an evening behind the bar indoors, so no freezing for him! We on the other hand were out in the freezing cold! We were well prepared though, with all our winter gear! Indi joined us for the weekend and also donned her winter gear for the evening.

There was quite a build up to the big switch on with a live crooner signing carols Sinatra style and a great soundtrack building us up… then, the lights went out, and ‘The Greatest Show began blasting! It was time…

The lights came on, fireworks blasted, fake snow shot out across the lawn, and dry ice blew across us all. The light show was like something out of Las Vegas rather than Long Marston, but it was pretty impressive all the same!!

Not long after everything calmed down we headed back home as it was blooming freezing!!

Whilst we thought that was cold, as we headed further into December, it just got colder and colder, the frosts each morning were get harder and harder.. not just around freezing but getting down to the likes of -6C!

Our friends Louise, and Chris (or Clark to Ly) lived pretty close to us now in Broadway, and Lyra had arranged to go to a Supper Club with Louise, at the very nice Daylesford Farm. The evening before though, the farm shop at Daylesford was running a pre-Christmas promo with discounts on everything! Too good to miss, so Ly and I headed over and bought lots of yummy things we didn’t need!!

The following night we picked up Louise and I then dropped them at Daylesford for their supper club. While they enjoyed the evenings delights, I found a pub not far away and had a quiet dinner by myself.

Since joining Bridgetown, Logan had been performing as part of the school chior, and they had the opportunity to sing at the Christmas fair. Lyra went along to watch them and they sang brilliantly and got everyone into the Christmas spirit!!

We had been invited down to Milton Keynes to celebrate our old friend Alan’s 70th birthday, so he really was an ‘old’ friend!! It was a Friday night so we picked up Logan, whizzed home quickly so he could change and then headed down to MK. Again it was a very cold night, so we were all happy to have the heated seats in the car!!

The evening was a lot of fun, we even ended up having a dance!! They had put a wonderful spread on, that was barely touched! A the end of the evening people collected up the food and were about to throw lots of it away. Then in swept Lyra! A little tipsy from the party, she decided that we would bring great swathes of it back with us!! So the next few days all we ate was egg sandwiches and falafel!!

After a quiet day on Saturday, we woke up on Sunday morning to about 4 inches of snow!! Logan was the first to spot it and you would think it was Christmas, he was so excited!!

After bouncing around for a while, Logan finally drove us out of bed, dressed and ready to hit the snow! Within seconds the snowballs were flying! Mum took pictures from the warmth of the kitchen while we started to build a snowman… Logan’s first ever!

We eventually coaxed Mum out into the snow too and it wasn’t long before she was embroiled in a full scale snowball war with Kai and Logan! It was fair to say that after the snowman building and the snowball fighting, out garden did not look quite so picturesque anymore… still we had to get going, we were meeting Jane, Dev, and Hamish at Red Hot Mama’s, the pizza restaurant in Leamington where Hamish worked!

It was a really funky little place, and made fab pizza too! After a great lunch, we took a look at their secret garden out the back which had a whole bunch of brilliantly decorated sheds with heaters where people sat and ate even in the sub-zero temperatures, it was amazing!

After lunch we headed back to Janes to hang out for a while, I had never seen Jane’s place so it was really nice to be able to see it at last… It was very Jane, classy, and very tidy!! Next it was time to go and check out Devon’s recently purchased apartment. What a great place, you could really see Devon and Hamish being very happy there!

The freezing weather continued through the week, we had to get better prepared, Logan got himself some new walking boots so he could get around without slipping everywhere, and we were wearing pretty much everything we owned to stay warm!

On Kai’s last day of term, I had agreed to pick them up at lunchtime and take him and a few buddies into Stratford so they could hang out for a while. I headed out and before I even left out street, I was skidding on the ice! I tried to steer the car around the corner but I hit the kerb side on with the front wheels and the car dash lit up with warning lights and the car would not drive properly. I wasn’t sure what I had done, but I wasn’t going to be able to drive the car far.

I called Kai and told them to get a taxi, then drove the car very slowly and carefully to the Hyundai garage in town. They put it up on the rack and could see that I had bent the steering rod. The whole steering rack was going to need to be replaced. Nightmare, insurance job!

It was at this point that we found out that taxi’s were like precious metals around here! Lyra needed to get to a Doc’s appointment, couldn’t make, I needed to get over to the school to pick up Logan, but was having no luck, every taxi firm was fully booked! Eventually, after a lot of trying, then cancelling, I got an Uber and made it to Logan’s school. However, he wouldn’t take us home. Couldn’t believe it!

We walked into town to catch the bus, after waiting at the stop until about 15 mins after it was due, we thought, it is not coming, the snow and ice has obviously thrown the schedules out completely! Tried taxi’s again, nothing, tried the few people we knew in the area, nobody was about… I was just thinking that Logan and I were going to have to stay in a hotel overnight, when I saw our bus pull into the stop about 25 mins late. Logan and I sprinted down the street waving our arms at the driver to get him to wait, but he pulled away… and then stopped to let us on! We made it on, and eventually made it back to Long Marston, what a nightmare day!

The next day, we had a car arranged to get Logan to school and me to the car hire yard to pick up our courtesy car. When I got there, all they had was a 3 seater van! it was hilarious, but it would have to do.

That evening Lyra and I were joining Logan at his school’s Christmas Carol concert at Stratford’s Holy Trinity church (Shakespeares resting place). Before that though, I had agreed to help escort the kids from the school to the church in the afternoon for them to do a rehearsal. The only challenge was it was -5C, and all the roads and pathways around the school were covered in iced / compacted snow!! Now controlling 50 odd 10/11 years olds is ‘fun’ at the best of times but in the freezing slippy conditions we had, made oh, so much more fun!! However, we got them there, they did the rehearsal, and we got them back to school again!!

That evening Logan, Ly, and I squeezed into our (Postman Pat) van and headed over to the Holy Trinity. It was an absolutely lovely evening, and a great way to really kick off Christmas!

Next day, I took the van up to Loughborough to pick up Indi for the Christmas break. It was Logan’s last day too, so he finished at lunchtime and jumped in the van with me to collect her!

Indi was hugely impressed with our new wheels! The good thing was that on the way back, Travis from the car hire centre called to say he had a car for us and we could pick it up later that afternoon, great news!

We got there about 5pm, to find that our new car was a micro Hyundai (i10)! Honestly it was tiny!! I expressed my gratitude for him finding us this, but we were going to need to continue the hunt for a bigger car, as 5 of us were simply not going to be able to fit! Especially not 185cm’s of Kai!!!

On the weekend, we headed into Stratford to do a bit of Christmas shopping before heading to Chez Rouge for a warm up and a hearty lunch! What a great place it was, a really cosy atmosphere and we loved the food too! After lunch we headed up to our favourite cinema, Everyman, to watch the long, long, awaited release of Avatar 2! Well we weren’t disappointed, we all thought it was an excellent follow up to the original (they had taken about 13 years to make it, so they had the time!!). Kai did have a little nap during the movie, he tells us he did it on purpose as he was coming to see it with his girlfriend Alex in a few days time!!

The following day, Lyra and I headed off for a couple of days of chilling out, leaving the kids to fend for themselves (I know, Indi and Kai are hardly kids…). We had a huge amount of Marriott vacation club time to use up (as COVID had prevented us for so long!) so we had booked a couple of days in a lovely Marriott hotel near Chepstow. Lyra stayed there once about 20 years ago with Tesco so we went back to check it out! It was a lovely setting and we had a nice room around the courtyard which looked amazing with all the Christmas Dec’s. The hotel itself was in need of a bit of TLC here and there but in general was pretty nice. We had plans to do a fair bit, and see a few people… we did get to the pool and had a swim and a sauna, we did have a trundle into Chepstow to have a look around and mail some stuff for Christmas, but other than that we did some proper chilling!! Sadly we didn’t get to see Stephi as she had a horrible cold, and it just didn’t work out right for us to get over to see Les either. Never mind, it was lovely to get away, just the two of us for a little while, and our little car held up well too!!

On the way back we took a little detour and stopped off at Tintern Abbey, which is a ruin that I visited while I was in Junior school , so about 40 years ago!! Lyra felt she had also visited it while she was at school but wasn’t certain. It was great to go back there and reminisce!

A few days later we were off again, this time with Indi and Logan too! Kai was staying at home to look after the cats, but the rest of us were off to London! We squeezed into our very compact car and hit the road! We were meeting up with Abi, Nick, and Cam down there so it was going to be a fun couple of days!

The journey down was good and we found the hotel St Ermins without a problem. It was a stunning old hotel and we were given a fabulous suite to stay in! Abi and Co. were coming a bit later, so we headed on out to see some of the sights. The hotel was just around the corner from Westminster so we passed the Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament, took in the statues of Churchill, Mandela, Ghandi, and others. Logan in particular was loving it as he hadn’t really spent any time in London before. From there we headed to Trafalgar Square which was full of Christmas food stalls selling everything from mulled wine to bratwursts! We tried them all!! Well only Lyra had the mulled wine!!

We walked on and made it across to Covent Garden, we found a table at our favourite place in the market and waited for Abi and Co to arrive!

Once Abi, Nick, and Cam arrived we had a drink together then headed back to the hotel as we had dinner reservations to make. We stopped again at Trafalgar Square, some had more mulled wine, and more Bratwursts, and then we walked on to the hotel to get changed for dinner.

Once we were all spruced up we headed down to the restaurant for our first Christmas dinner of the season!! It was a lovely place, and the food was amazing. Quite a modern take on Christmas dinner…especially the appetisers. India had pate which came with a macaroon. I thought it was a bit odd to have a sweet macaroon with the pate. India then offered me a bite of the macaroon, this was when I discovered that it had pate as it’s filling!! Sorry, but it was an unpleasant surprise, for me anyway! Indi and Lyra seemed to really like! The rest of dinner was lovely, right down to the Christmas pud to finish off!

After dinner we did some posing for photos in the beautiful lobby before heading up to our room for a nightcap before crashing out!

In the morning, we slept in, for a while, and then it was time to eat (again!) as we had booked the buffet breakfast! Again, it was lovely, but it left us all feeling a bit full, and lazy, so we just hung out for a while and played Yahtzze in the room! There was a moment of tension as we kicked off Yahtzee as we discovered Abi and Ly had played with different rules! Thankfully with some skilful diplomacy on my part we found a way through it and had a couple of great games!

Then it was time to get our micro Hyundai from the valet and head north again, back home.

On the way back, we spoke to the hire car place again, and they had another car for us, another upgrade so we called in on the way home. This time we got a Toyota Yaris, so a little bigger, but still a long way short of our 7 seater SUV!! But, it was a nicer car, so we gladly took it and headed home to see Kai and Nanny& Grampy has arrived for Christmas!!!

This was actually our wedding anniversary too that day, and in between all the fun in London, and getting back home, seeing Nanny & Grampy, Ly and I did exchange cards and a moment to reflect on our 21 years of wedded bliss!!

Then suddenly it was Christmas eve! We had a few chores to do in the morning to pick up the final bits of food for Christmas dinner, but then we were back home and getting ready for the big day!

It was great to have my Mum and Dad with us, we hadn’t been together at Christmas for 10 years! So it was great to be together again. We celebrated by heading to the Mason’s Arms as Kai was working and we all fancied getting out for a drink. The Mason’s was rocking, which Dad loved! and Nanny & India really did not!! We had a couple and then headed back home so Logan could prepare for Santa to come, his beloved Belfy (Elf on the shelf) to head off and wake up to his exciting presents!!

Christmas day has a habit of starting pretty early! This year was not too bad, Logan joined us about 8:00 with his Santa’s sack, followed (surprisingly) soon after by India!! Let’s just say they aren’t going to need any more sweets for a while!! Next it was Kai’s turn… he didn’t come to us, Logan went to him!!

Once we got up, we joined Nanny & Grampy downstairs and the preparations for the day began…

We started off with some pate and crackers, but there was considerable pressure form the youngest member of the family to get into the lounge and start the present opening!!

Logan played the Christmas Elf and handed out the presents, clearly that created a big pile of pretty big gifts for him and he couldn’t wait to get stuck in!! It was definitely a Lego Christmas for him, with a World map, The Friends Apartments, and the Guardians of the Galaxy Spaceship all to be built! He’s one lucky fella!!

Kai was very pleased to receiving his provisional driving licence, along with some clothes, Indi similarly was very happy to get a bunch of super warm clothes to keep her snuggy through the winter!!

Nanny & Grampy enjoyed watching everyone opening their presents and were pleased with the gifts we shared with them too.

After all the fun of gift opening, it was time to get cracking on the Christmas Dinner! Lyra was whizzing around the kitchen, so we joined her and set up a game of Trivial Pursuit (2010-2020) in the family room so we could ‘help a bit’ but also Ly could be part of the game too! We paired up (mostly), Grampy with Indi, Nanny with Lyra, Logan and myself, then Kai played solo! The game went on for hours!!! We had to pause several times to eat!! But eventually, Indi and Grampy came out the winners!! Who would have thought!

Christmas dinner was amazing, Lyra did it pretty much single handedly, I think she felt that our help was more of a hinderance to be honest!! We had a Brie en-croute as an appetiser, then a couple of hours later we sat down together and had the main Turkey, with so many trimmings, which was fabulous, and left us all feeling completely stuffed, then I think we managed a bit of dessert at about 7pm!! It was truly an all day affair!

Once we had gotten through it all and then tidied up, we were all pretty much done for the day! We chilled out in the living room for a while, but eventually all crashed out, feeling happy, and stuffed full of Christmas cheer!!

Boxing day took us down to Chris & Gemma’s for a Peck gathering (minus Les), Auntie was there, and so was Grandad for a while but he didn’t last long (too much fun the few days before we think!!), Tanya’s and her tribe joined, so it was a pretty noisy affair!! The boys were out in the garden most of the afternoon with Faith, and some of the time Thea too. They certainly blew off some steam. Then it was time to tuck into another Christmas Feast!! In the early evening the football was on as it was Liverpool v Villa. As is the standard at the moment, it was a torrid match to watch with Liverpool going behind, but thankfully they came out on top, with a 3-1 win!

The following day was the last day Nanny & Grampy were with us, so we took them out to Broadway in the Cotswolds for a walk to blow away some of our Christmas cobwebs! It was a pretty chilly day, it has to be said, we did try and go into a couple of places for a drink but they were all really dull, so we swung into the The Kings Arms at Mickleton on the way back for a drink instead, which was really good.

Nanny & Grampy left us at lunchtime the following day, then on the Thursday we headed over to Leamington for lunch with Jane, Devon, and Hamish. It was lovely, very civilised (of course), we even ended up singing Kareoake too, even Jane!! A great fun afternoon all round!

On the 30th we hosted Abi, Kiera, and Cam for the day, as always when they are with us, it was filled with a lot of laughter, and good banter! We would have loved them to stay for New Year, but sadly Abi had to work, so this was our new year together!

Then finally New Years Eve was upon us. We hadn’t made any plans to go out, but Kai invited Alex (his girlfriend) and a few of his friends round for the evening. They had a great time playing cards against humanity, devouring pizza’s, and generally have a good laugh togehter. Sadly a good few of them needed to head home before midnight, including Alex, but D’angelo, and Ben stayed for the new year countdown and pretty much without realising it… it was 2023!! Certainly a bit of different one for us compared to the last few years, and I think Lyra is going to pretty keen to do something bigger this year, but i have to be honest, I liked being at home!!

I think I may be getting old…. Anyway, Happy New Year!!!