My new job - impressions

So, i'm in my third week with the new workplace and i have some initial impressions about working in the UK. (All of which are coming back to me after I spent my year in London in 2004).

1. Regardless of the fact that Australia (or the australia that we know) was roughly based on the Old Country, the culture is vastly different - people have a different approach to everything - relationships, work ethic, morals. I'm not saying that Australians have it better.... But things really are quite different here.

2. I've been told by my 'mentor' at work that she once had a stalker that her brothers went after and broke his legs. I realise she's from birmingham but that even seems a bit harsh for for the Midlands really!

3. One of my colleagues speaks baby-talk at work.... and she's 39. Hmmmm.

4. In the Birmingham accent, you say "Mair-eh" for Mary. It's quite an amusing accent.

5. I'm struggling with the job and feel a right fool most of the time, starting from scratch. But i think they expected this, and are being quite tolerant of my mistakes, but it's been a long time in a job since i haven't known what i'm doing.

6. The pay in this country is dismal - i'm getting paid about half of what i got in australia. That's going to be hard to come to terms with.

7. Commuting on a train for an hour each way allows me to catch up on my reading. I hope the next book is better than the one i'm currently reading!

Home Finally

Well, again it's been a while since i've updated the website but i'll try to be better. Stable Cottage is the name of the new house - it's absolutely lovely and so nice to come home to.

Home. Such a strange concept for Tom and I. Since we've met, we've commuted between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, lived together but with Foo and renovated a house, travelled to India, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, lived with his parents, got married, honeymooned in Turkey, lived with Foo and Sharna, got married again, honeymooned in Rarotonga and the US, lived with Sandy and Francis, lived in a tiny studio and lived with his parents again. It's nice to have a home.

We loved opening boxes, revealing treasures from our travels and lovingly placing them in their new spots in our new house. I loved visiting the auction house, and blindly bidding on a £2 lot and finding that i'd bought two lovely tables for our new spot. I loved going to the flea fair yesterday and impulsively buying a chair which has proven to be the most comfortable chair IN THE WORLD. Probably because it's 40 years old and pretty ugly. But really comfy.

I'm loving coming home. Every time i step into the front door, I'm pleased all over again. I love it, and i love more than anything just being here with my husband. In our home.

Sitting and waiting

A photo from the restaurant at Coral Bay, Koh Pha Ngan, one of our favourite places in the world. Typically, the sun didn't shine all week, and this was the view on our last day, moments before we had to catch a sangtheaw (ute-like transport in thailand), a boat, a sangtheaw, a bus, a minibus then a cab - a nine hour odessey to get us to the airport in Phuket this morning. Such is life when we travel!



Well we're in Changi airport in Singapore again for the 5th time in the past 12 months, and spending our time reading, blogging, eating and drinking some booze to relax us for the flight. We did something we've never done this arvo and that was to hire us a sleeping pod in an airport lounge. For $40, we got a bed for 3 hours and a shower and all the trimmings. Money well spent, as we're feeling much refreshed. Or at least we were when we got out of there. That was almost 4 hours ago, and we're still waiting for this damn plane (11 hour stopovers are no fun, even at the best airport in the world!)

But we do have free wi-fi, and i've done a bit of emailing etc, and we've even found a place to plug our computer in, in order to charge it up, ready for the bus trip at the other end, so we can watch a movie or some such!

This trip to thailand was vastly different from the last time. On our last trip, we'd just come from India, so we were used to cheap digs and no bathrooms etc. This time around we sprung some extra cash and made it a bit more comfortable for ourselves, which i liked very much.

I love thailand mostly for the warm people that you meet. One fellow at our favourite place, Coral Bay, a young man 23 years old and eager to please, tried desperately to find our favourite song from last time around. When he found it, he triumphantly placed the CD in the player only to find it so scratched that the first few bars of the song played only. He dejectedly came to apologise, and we assured him that he was wonderful for trying so hard on our behalf. On our last day there, Tom bought the CD, and some extra blank ones, in order to do a copy for him. When presented with the CD, Max was so happy, he gave Tom a hug! We ended our stay at Coral bay with beers with the warm staff, each one of us desperately trying to understand each other in order to be better acquainted for next time.

And i hope next time is not too far away. x

A Bungalow on a Beach in Koh Pha Ngan

A pic of a pig and a dog, playing on the beach in Koh Pha Ngan - they're mates really!


Well, we were going to stay on Koh Samui for a while, but it wasn’t really our scene, so we decided to come back to our old favourite, Coral Bay. And Coral Bay has a rare accolade – it’s the only place we can think of that we’ve returned to stay a second time. And it is not disappointing!

Unfortunately, the weather is not too good, but that doesn’t stop us from having a lovely time. It rained a few times today, and the wind has been howling, but we have a lovely restaurant here on site, and a balcony with a hammock, so we’re all set! And despite the threatening clouds, today we hired a scooter and bombed around the island to explore, my arms tightly locked around Tom’s waist, the wind in my hair. Because it’s the low season here, there is little traffic, and the only thing we concern ourselves with on the road are stray dogs, stopping to scratch themselves on the tarmac. A toot of our horn warns them of our approach, yet they usually don’t move, so engrossed are they in getting that elusive spot behind the ear.

Thailand in the low season is curious, but peaceful. Everyone seems a little more mellow than when we were last here, and I’m even less cranky, not having to deal with idiot tourists farting about the place and getting in my way. I consider myself a thoughtful traveller, and try as much as possible not to put anyone out too much, and when I see morons doing the opposite it makes me cranky. But who am I to complain?

Anyway, the tan is still coming along nicely – despite the clouds, my skin is turning ever browner!

Nothing more to report – except that Tom has man flu and is a bit fractious, but he’ll be ok shortly.

I actually took this photo with my new camera

Gorgeous Thailand - Koh Phi Phi



Are you jealous of my talents (and the fact that i have this view to wake up to in the mornings?)

I don't want to write too much when i don't have much to say, but we DID go out snorkelling today and DID see a sea snake only metres from us (well, i saw it and Tom was too busy trying to figure out whether the bag he was looking at was, in fact, an octopus!) So that was exciting.

Off to have a Chang beer. Then tomorrow we go to Ko Samui for a few days before back to our beloved Koh Pha Ngan. This is living people!

Koh Phi Phi Island

Hi there readers (all two of you!)

I write this from a funky smelling internet cafe in the main town on Phi Phi island after a very hot walk here from our place on Long Beach (called Paradise Pearl Bungalows). Our room is lovely and clean and air conditioned, and only $40 or so a night so we're living in a lot more luxury than last time we were in Thailand! It's absolutely wonderful to come out of the turquoise sea, covered in salt, and walk to our room, undress, shower and wash that off. Then wonder "am i going to have a nap this afternoon?" The answer this afternoon will be yes!

Yesterday, we hired a long-tail boat for 3 hours and he took us over to koh phi phi leh, the smaller of the two Phi Phi's, to show us the sights. We saw the beach from the movie "The Beach" (a little disappointing as it was rife with pasty white german tourists and buoys and litter. It's a shame the Thai people can't understand that keeping their places of interest clean will help out with tourism!)

We've been eating wonderful food (my breakfast this morning was fried rice with chicken, chilli and basil, and a fried egg!) and drinking loads of chang beer. The weather has been better than we expected - all the weather reports have been telling us for weeks that it's cloudy and thunderstorms every night. And whilst last night we did have a thunderstorm, I doubt it rained for this morning dawned bright and sunny. It's actually nice to have some clouds every now and then to block this roasting sun. Our skin is red and turning brown slowly.

All in all, it's wonderful here. The best thing, though, about holidays like this is spending all this time with each other only. We connect more, talk more, relax more, and do other stuff ;-) more than we do in our every day lives. Which is what a break like this should be about. Travelling with Tom makes me fall in love with him every day again, and life should be like that, really, shouldn't it?

A Shout Out....

....to David Cole, who (amazingly) commented on my last post after an absence of so many months. Thank you David for keeping an eye on it! I'm flattered! And I hope you and Ruth will make one when you're travelling - I promise I'll be watching! (And to answer your question, we're still not sure. Can i get back to you?)

I just thought I'd write a list of all the websites I follow, just because it's interesting to know what people look at every couple of days.

http://lifeinla.typepad.com/chicago/ - I've been reading this for going on 4 years. And she's just had a baby. I feel like I know Claire personally, even though she is a complete stranger to me. She writes wonderfully and from the heart.

http://palinstravels.co.uk/ - I love Michael Palin's travels.

www.bbc.co.uk - gotta check the news in the UK

www.couriermail.com.au - ditto for Australia

http://ulrica-foreignbabeinhk.blogspot.com/ - my brother, Kris's girlfriend in Hong Kong. It's interesting to see what she's up to, and I've gotten to know her a bit better through her blog.

www.perezhilton.com - I'm shameful but I love hollywood gossip. You didn't know that about me did you?

http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/ - more of the above. In bad dresses.

http://www.topphotos.net/ - dreaming that i'll one day take a photo this good.