An abbreviated beginning.

I know we disappeared for a while, but we're back.

Its hard to believe today is Friday and we've been in Bangkok for almost a week.
Internet access at the place we're staying has been abyssmal, hence our lack of updates. When and if we managed to get a connection, its dial-up speed at best.
During the last few days Georgie and I have become masters at running all over Bangkok via the skytrain system in an attempt to buy a pocket wifi that works (another story in that alone) and at last we had success. We are now connected to 3G anywhere so expect more updates.

While I was waiting for internet access I've been keeping a record of things in a program called "supernote" but can't work out how to copy from there into here, so unfortunately everyone only gets an abbreviated version of events up until now.

So let's start at the beginning.

The flight over was amazing. Nine hours melted away while we snoozed, ate and slept and we arrived feeling like we'd just been on a 3 hour flight thanks to the luxury of business class. How I'm ever going to go back to cattle class, I don't know. I have visions of me resisting as I'm dragged down to seat 175G, all the while protesting......."but I don't belong here, I should be up the front!" We're actually looking forward to catching our next flight (in the upstairs section of a 747) and plan on getting to the airport several hours early because we hear they give free massages and have sleeping suites in the royal silk lounge.

Here is where we're staying at the moment; http://www.homelidays.co.uk/bangkok/studio-86348en1.htm The apartment building and room is nice enough but without good internet access, connecting to the world is difficult so we're pulling up stumps tomorrow and moving here.   http://bangkok-sathorn.anantara.com    Luxury at only $50 pn!!

Our week has been filled with exploring Bangkok by skytrain mostly, we're experts now.
Also river cruising, taxis and tuk tuks; Georgia loves tuk tuks the best as they go crazy weaving in and out  of the traffic. Dental appointments for both of us have taken up a fair bit of the week, and there are still more to come as my dentist "Dr Kim" works his magic on my new, improved smile. Wait until you see the pics!

On Wednesday we did a half day cooking school, it was so much fun. Also have pics for that, but will post them later. We started off by visitng the market to buy the fresh food then cooked about 5 delicious dishes for lunch.
Pad thai; spring rolls; green papya salad; a red prawn curry and coconut coated deep fried bananas. Yummo! Back home for a big snooze that afternoon.

Yesterday Georgia and I had a fantastic 'girlie' shopping day at a massive mall here called MBK. It has everything you could ever want to buy. We arrived at about 1100 and didn't see daylight again until 5 pm. A day full of new hairstyles, new shoes, massages, facials, nail painting and delicious food. What more could a girl want?

We have lots of photos to add later, just need to slow down a bit so I can get time to do it.
Bye from both of us for now.

Our life in a tin can

What a week its been. This time last week I'd just signed up new tenants and we've since packed the whole house up and shoved everything we own in a shipping container that we parked in M&D's backyard. I had the help of two lovely guys on Wednesday who moved everything from Birkdale to Capalaba in just 6 hours, all without a cross word. Well, there might have been a cross word but since they were speaking Arabic, I couldn't understand.  Those two guys worked without a break and the whole time, with a smile.

If you ever need a removalist I can highly recommend Mohammed and Ali.    Get it? Mohammed Ali? I told them they should rename their business as "Mohammed Ali - prize heavyweight removalists"
They had a great work ethic, and you know the most interesting part about them?
They are original 'boat people' like those so often splashed across the front page of our daily newspaper.

There they were, in the flesh, not just some sensational headline in The Courier Mail. These men had piled themselves into a leaky boat that inevitably sank, been rescued then arrested in Indonesia, been in detention for the better part of 2 years, then granted entry into Australia where they're now industriously forging a new life for themselves. After meeting these two guys, I feel embarrassed to have ever thought that our government should turn those boats around. They're all just wanting to find the same as us in life - freedom and happiness. If their work ethic is anything to go by, they'll put Aussies out of a job in no time.

How's our sardine can? It's packed within an inch of its life.

Time for bed now, because tomorrow is a big day. We're leaving!

Screw the lemonade...pass the wine!

Somebody must've felt sorry for me because 48 hours after the original tenants fell through, I managed to find replacements!!  Gumtree, you are a life-saver.

Much celebrating was done that evening, thanks to Barry and Trish's magic re-filling wine glass. If only I could remember the last hour before hitting the sack. Sorry, brain cells.

Alas, not all has worked out as planned and while it is good to rent our house to a large family that really needs a permanent, new home, it means Georgia and I have to cut ties with Barron Vale forever...and when we get back at the end of April, we will be homeless.  But you know the saying....When one door closes, another opens.

The stress of the last week made me want to escape even more, so with work's approval and a very efficient travel agent, Georgia and I have moved our departure date forward by 2 weeks and now we're leaving next Saturday!! I changed the ticket to break the original flight in Thailand for a couple of weeks; it seems to be perfect weather there at the moment, not too hot, so we'll just kick back and get into the swing of being footloose and fancy free. I've rented a nice studio apartment in a high rise building overlooking the river in central Bangkok and will post pictures when we get there - in less than a week.

That means I have to get off this blog and get packing, and everything has to be packed ready for storage this time, not just clothes and toothbrush like we'd planned with the original tenants.

This next week will be a blur!!

....and yet, more lemons.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
- Confucius

The path to lemonade and wine continues to be scattered with rogue lemons and a few sour grapes.

So here we are, just over three weeks away from setting foot on a Thai 777 and turning left towards the pointy end instead of right, everything is going to plan and the end is in sight.....almost. Its all going so smoothly and my luck in renting my house to just the right family for just the right amount of time seems almost too good to be true. How lucky, am I !!

Suddenly, someone heard me say that everything seemed to good to be true and made good with the other half of the saying. Disaster struck and the tenants that were to move into our house this coming weekend pulled the plug, leaving me stranded....tenant-less.....with barely any time to find another perfect family with a convenient $10K to contribute to my mortgage. Bugga.

I spent half of today searching and emailing, searching and emailing...anyone that had the remotest chance of taking over the rental, alas, no luck.
So here we are. Three weeks until we're scheduled to leave and if nothing happens between now and then, nothing will happen after that deadline either. So sad, and quite an expensive exercise so far.
The next 72 hours will tell.....will we go, or will we stay?


Imagine being stuck in a new country with very little money to do anything, or to eat, for that matter.
Doesn't sound like fun to me. Would you do it?

Oh the rubbish we accumulate...

                        When life gives you lemons, make Lemonade.

Our long awaited break from what has been an exhausting couple of years of subdividing, moving, building, an unexpected marriage break-up, more moving, more building and now finally...our chance to make lemonade. 

Georgie and I fly out of Australia in the first week of December and don't return until the middle of April. First stop Spain, then maybe Italy...nothing else planned until we fly out of Paris at the beginning of March for China and Vietnam. Four and a half months of no school, no work, no worries, just buckets of lemonade....and wine, lots of wine. Fingers crossed.

Ten days to go and we have to be out of our house. It's only been one year since we moved in and I'm pretty sure we did a big cull then, and the time before that too. Who would have thought that it was possible to again accumulate so much unwanted stuff in such a short time, or perhaps we had trouble getting rid of it last time and this time around we've run out of excuses. Either way, I'm off to the dump for the second load this weekend because the wheelie bin is over-flowing.

Georgie has been amazing. Just when I think all is lost and she'll never find that neat gene that her grandmother promises is within her, she surprises me with a fully packed room and charity boxes sorted. There's hope for the future. Now if I can only get her to help me with mine.

Bess and Woo know something is afoot...oh, the guilt.

My Georgia looks so miserable in the photo below 'cause she's just finished watching Marley and Me.....she's such a softy. My ''Other Georgia" is on the left, all of us are going to miss her - a lot!