Disaggerating

We have come up with a new word - disaggerate. This is what I do all the time when I underestimate how long it may take to walk somewhere...meaning that Michelle has to trudge along hoping we'll get there in the end...!

Try as we might we haven't been able to get away from the Northern Line...let's hope that when we catch this Northern Line tomorrow night it is a little bit more on time. We'll end up seeing the Bridge over the River Kwai...but can't remember the name of the place for now....

We're off for a Thai massage now....hope they are a little less intimate than the standard oil ones!

gorgeous!

Ed has finally nagged me enough to post a message so here I am..
I have been happily sat in the local cafe whilst ed has been blogging but looks like that might be over soon!

Have had great time in Chiang Mai.. much more relaxed but ready to move on tomorrow to go and see the death bridge and hopefully spend some time in a national park swimming in the waterfalls... finally get to find some water!

Will leave you with this thought provoking picture x

Mr and Mrs Lamp

In our hotel they have taken to calling us the "Lamps" which Michelle of course finds very funny as that makes me Head Lamp with a silent H!

A new venue for Thames Tour?

With us struggling to find somewhere cheap enough to stay for Thames cricket tour each year, perhaps Chaing Mai may be an option? 6.4% beer, cheap cheap rooms and apparently cricket is set to take off in Thailand, Afghanistan and Malaysia according to this article...

Thai Cooking...

Having got rid of our monster hangovers with a few Panadol we were ready for our Thai cooking course. It was run by a bunch of friendly nutters...www.madmaninkitchen.blogspot.com.

We were taken round the market and then cooked various dishes, some of which they gave us to take away with us and have for dinner. We couldn't make ourselves eat our own cooking so we went round the corner for a meal instead!
It didn't seem to matter how bad we were though - we still got certificates for "passing"!

No swimming, but lots of drinking...

On Sunday we decided to find a nice swimming pool as it was pretty hot and it seemed like a good idea at the time! We forgot that University's can be big places and got the tuk tuk driver to drop us outside. After a couple of miles walking and asking several people, we eventually found the Olympic size swimming pool - it looked amazing and there was only about 3 people in it. But the woman letting people in said that we had to be members - that's not what it said in the Lonely Planet guide...!

So we got a tuk tuk back to near us and went looking for a nearer pool. The nearest we got was the tiny one above - it was more like a paddling pool so we gave it a miss. We had decided not to drink for the next couple of months but all that walking left us with a thirst....so we started to drink at half 3 and several 6.4% bottles of Chang later, we were in the mood for karaoke. (That was after I'd persuaded Michelle to watch the Ryder Cup with me - initially her comment was that golf was "even more boring than cricket"!!)

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there was such a long list of people wanting to sing we didn't get the chance, but this young lady doing the V signs loved her time there, as she sang nearly all the songs...

Chaing Mai

Michelle bravely decided that she'd go on the coach (she gets travel sickness on coaches) as the overnight train we'd planned on getting couldn't get through to Chaing Mai due to floods. We arrived in one piece although it's not that easy to sleep on coaches...but easier than planes!

We got here at 8am and had a leisurely breakfast before finding the Sumit hotel to stay in - 300 Baht a night (around 4 pounds we think?!) for a double bed, a fan and hot water in a private bathroom. After a sleep we then went for lunch where the meals were 30 Baht each - you can do the maths...very cheap!

Chaing Mai is such a nicer atmosphere than Bangkok...we're now really looking forward to seeing the rest of Thailand...after 3 days in Bangkok we were a little concerned...or at least I was!

We're booked in for a Thai cooking course tomorrow...fingers crossed we don't poison ourselves! I haven't remembered to use bottled water for cleaning teeth and we've had lots of ice in drinks, but so far no ill-effects.

Oh yeah, and by the way we both had our first massage yesterday....very enjoyable if slightly concerning at times - the masseurs seemed to have no inhibitions about nakedness at all! Michelle was asked if she wanted her breasts massaged (by the woman masseur) and the man massaging me must have touched my privates about a dozen times in 1 hour...just fluke/bad luck??? :-)

Should Michelle leave a few posts of her own?

As most of you know this was initially set up as a place for Michelle and I both to leave blogs detailing our experiences as we go round the world...but Michelle has got cold feet and doesn't seem very keen!

What she really needs is a bit of encouragement from you lot to start leaving her own posts...

The Grand Palace

Having made our way past the many people that told us the Grand Palace was shut until "x" o'clock (we got a little suspicious when we were told that it was shut for lunch and reopened at 1,2 and 3pm - why didn't we go with them to see something else?!), we found the Grand Palace. Grand it certainly was - there seemed to be endless palaces and temples for miles around...

More fine dining

The previous evening we had a nice meal at the posh restaurant at the Lebue where we were staying. We were going to be sitting outside at the Sirocco restaurant but had to eat inside as it seemed like it was going to rain...

Michelle almost had a "Sarah Austin" moment with her dress just hanging on until we got back to the hotel room!!!

Saying goodbye to Bangkok in style...

We're now out of Bangkok which I've got to say is a bit of a relief! We had a great time in the posh hotels where they treated us like royalty but we (well I) also got a tad annoyed with the constant attempts to rip you off by anyone in the streets. I stopped in the internet cafe for 20 minutes and a guy treid to get Michelle to handover 5000 Baht for a magic trick she hadn't asked for him to do. And we did that stupid tourist thing of believing someone who told us there were no more public boats after lunch time and we'd have to get a private one...nice boat trip but 10 times the price we needed to pay! Still, it was a con worth about 25 pounds and in london the other day I felt I was conned out of 75 by the van company who charged me for the flat tyre that I had to endure due to their faulty van! (The company is called Sixt by the way, don't go near them!) At least it's cheaper being conned in Bangkok!!

Our last night in Bangkok was amazing - Paul, Simon and Parki from the cricket club had paid for us to go to a Thai meal and see some Thai dancing at the Oriental hotel. We turned up and they said that the restaurant we were in was the other side of the river so we got a short boat trip into the bargain. They knew it was our honeymoon so we were treated like royalty (not that everyone wasn't) and the food was excellent. We couldn't resist having another bottle of wine and finished it off sitting overlooking the river after the show had finished.

A superb evening - thank you again Parki, Simon and Paul.

The view from our room...

...on the 58th floor of the state tower and the somewhat less impressive view from ground level!

A coup

We went out for a bite to eat last night and then found that there has been a military coup. The local TV stations went off for a bit and then started playing short 2-3 minute "karaoke" movies with backing tunes saying how great the King is.

We have been totally unaffected so far (except for the loss of the odd TV channel) and it's amazing how little it seems to have affected anyone here. We've been on the monorail here and the underground (both spacious and with air conditioning) and we haven't noticed anything looking abnormal.

Above are a few pics from what was on TV and also Michelle reading the headlines in the morning paper. I took a movie of the video being played to the Thai people last night but as it's 750MB I can't really put it on the blog. It was like a karaoke in that as each word was sung the word changed colour at the bottom of the screen! The tune said "He's the sun, the moon, the stars so his people ner and far, millions of others can not compose, our greatest King Bhoumiphol." It went on "The greatest king of kings in all our times, heavenly gifts to all mankind" etc etc. What came across was that this coup was for the people with lots of shots of holding hands etc.

Apparently the 3 military sections and the police have koined forces for the coup and have times it well as the PM and deputy are both out of the country. The coup leaders reckon that the PM was guilty of "corruption and chronyism".

This morning there was something a little surreal about sitting by a pool in our lovely hotel reading about a coup that apparently happened in the same town we were in - they seem to be getting used to coup's here as there have been so many of them!

Paignton at night

Having gone out for a meal with Michelle's parents we made it to the local pub for a couple. There was some very strange dancing from the locals.

Michelle tried to hustle me on the pool table but I scraped through with a 2-1 win...the picture above shows her "cheating" by using the rest!

We also found the perfect spot for Jonny Walter (amongst others) - bullshit corner. If you are ever in Paignton then you need to visit The Coach House Jonny...

Hospitality

If you need any hospitality for various occassions then take a look at the site Michelle just put together quickly for our friend Dean...having been round for dinner and can guarantee the standard of the food, wine and service!

www.justhospitality.co.uk

Clothes going to Oxfam?

Bags ready to go...when I left the flat this morning it was 5:30 and I was feeling very lazy so I just left a load of clothes that I didn't need in the wardrobe thinking Raf wouldn't realise until I was abroad!

But the text came through at 9:23 this morning (which must be about when Raf gets up) saying "Buddy. On inspection, you left some shirts etc. Not sure if you have plans for them."

I have plans for them - to stay somewhere in England - anywhere - and then for them to magically reappear when I get back for me to wear again! I think that may involve me buying them back from Oxfam!!

Ever wondered what Raf eats in the evenings?

Yes, when he comes in a little bit late and a little bit drunk, it turns out he eats...

Cold beans and breadsticks. All washed down with a nice bottle of IPA!

Cricket stuff

So we were relegated last week and had to have a cricket committee meeting to cover off end of season issues. Will I miss those committee meetings now that I've resigned? Not really - I'll still have the same conversations over a beer, but we won't have an official time that we're meant to be discussing things. And best of all, none of it will be even slightly my responsibility!! Congratulations to Katzy who is taking on the 1st XI captaincy next year at OMTs.

Just having a quick break from what looks like being a very late one at work - probably the first of two like this. Why is it that some freelancers work past 6pm? I've seen some crazy hours put in by freelancers at Syzygy (Debs!) and now I'm doing it here. It's easy when you know you'll be in the air in 122 hours on your way to Bangkok I guess!

We nearly had a crisis today when we realised that you can't get malaria tablets over the counter without a perscription, but hopefully we've just about avoided any nightmares...we both have doctors appointments for Monday morning now so that we can then pick up our malaria tablets and be on our way to Heathrow.

Back to work...

Random old man...

What was the name of this old man who we were drinking with on Saturday night at the Brondesage in Kilburn? Slight memory loss...all good fun though!

Painful...

painful describes the weekend just gone...lots of drinking and not enough sleep - all great fun at the time but painful afterwards!

Painful would also be another way of describing the feeling of listening to Michelle sing....this is her belting out a tune a few months ago. Just had to make the photo public...!

Beer

For anyone that would like to share a beer or 2, Michelle and I will be here tonight:

Fitzroy Tavern, 16 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 2NA.

Directions for the pub can be found at the following link... http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/70/703/

Louise Isham will have just finished her Viva thing for her course if you know her, so we're helping her celebrate there too...she'll be there around 6 and Michelle and I will be shortly after that.

Cheers - see you later if you are coming...

Ed

The weekend part 2...

Having slept off our hangover and eaten a fry up I took the van down to Paignton where all our stuff has gone into a huge storage crate. It's not for just our stuff - Michelle's family are going to use if for lots of their stuff too which is just as well when you see how much space was left...

Managed to do the trip back from Devon in less than 3 and a half hours so I'll expect some speeding tickets...fortunately Raf was still up to let me in when I got back and I had a very comfortable night's sleep on the living room floor before getting up early to get the van back before work.

I'm not sure what time Raf gets up but so far I've left both mornings before 7:30 and he's shown no signs of even being awake. It must be nice having a job like that... I've now progressed to having my own bed as Matt has moved into his new house and Raf's spare room has freed up, so all looking good.

Had a drink with Raf and Cathy last night so not feeling exactly spritely today...

The weekend...

We managed to move out of the flat on the weekend...all a bit of a hassle but we got there! Having picked up the van at 8 on Saturday we filled it up to the max with all our stuff. The tropical fish were a little confused I'm sure as they got taken to Beaconsfield cricket club and then on to Cathy's for a couple of days before being picked up by my sister for safe keeping in Putney over the nex 8 months or so.

Driving a van was hard enough with no rear view mirror (how are you meant to reverse safely?) but it got harder when I drove over a kerb very slowly and the back left tyre burst! Michelle was already at Sam and Dean's party but that made me very late down to Worthing. I needn't have worried - they'd saved a crate of John Smiths and arriving at 11:45pm still left more than 4 hours drinking time until we crashed out....

Thank you...

As far as I know no-one is looking at this blog yet but I just thought I'd say thank you to everyone that is helping us out as we sort ourselves out! In my usual style I'm coming up against a few last minute problems and all my friends are helping me out. Michelle doesn't have these issues because she is so organised! So thanks to Cathy for looking after the tropical fish temporarily, Ness for looking after them while we're away (and the plants), Raf for putting me up for the next couple of weeks, and Steve for the use of his rusksack (well maybe, he doesn't know about that yet)!!!

I had a comedy moment this morning when I realised that in packing various stuff into boxes for our move this Saturday I had packed one of each of two pairs of shoes! Rather than go to work with odd shoes, I decided to un-tape the box I'd packed and find a pair! At least I knew which box to look in...