A Sad Farewell

Friday 29 September

It was a very emotional start to the day. Jean and Ray were returning home today after spending two weeks as our next door neighbours, and it was very hard saying “Goodbye, see you in April” – at least on our part. I was more than a little bleary eyed after they had left – but they have lots of exciting things to return to, not least, all the preparations for Elaine and Darryl’s wedding, just two months away now. I hope they have had a good journey home and their transit through the new airport at Bangkok goes smoothly.

Having seen them off in their taxi, I had my “early” morning swim, before breakfasting and blogging. Today was again extremely warm, with blue skies and white fluffy clouds overhead, and we had to find shade or burn – Colin even turns red in the shade, so has to be very careful of his little lobster chest! Compared to yesterday, when the world and his wife seemed to have visited our pool, it was quieter this morning and very peaceful again. Juz and Dave had hired another jeep for a day to revisit some land they had seen before on the Choeng Mon peninsula and also look out for any other beach land was for sale. We lunched at Coffee Junction – the streets were absolutely burning by this time and a cold Singha was definitely called for.

This afternoon we relaxed on the balcony as the temperatures soared. A gardener planted some small banana trees on either side of our bungalow, so we are now even more surrounded by lush greenery.

Juz and Dave arrived around 17.00 ish. They had seen a couple of plots of land that were of interest and have a date with a man tomorrow to see some more. Just as we decided to leave for dinner, the rain started (it was dark by this time we had not seen the approaching dark clouds), and this was obviously no passing shower, as the thunder crashed in the distance and flashes of lightning lit the sky. We grabbed the umbrellas and made a dash to Starfish and Coffee, halfway along the high street. Juz wanted to stop at “Adolph’s Tandoori” as it was closer, but we have planned to go there on Sunday, after the Grand Prix – and we can’t take too much of the jack-boot treatment.

The sunken courtyard inside the restaurant was a paddling pool, several inches deep, by the time we arrived, as rain poured off the surrounding roofs as well as in from the sky. We were tempted by a variety of Thai dishes, including some scrumptious spare ribs. No “bloody wine” though, just beer tonight. It was still raining when we left the restaurant and Colin and I performed our “Singing in the Rain” routine along the flooded road, back to Smile, while Juz and Dave took the drier option of the jeep back to their hotel. Will we be needing canoes to get to breakfast in the morning?