Have I Been Transported Home?

Thursday 5 October

Another hot sunny morning, and where better to spend it than round the pool – especially as today we could make believe it was “our own personal swimming pool in our villa gardens” - no one else around at all.

I did manage to contact Fujitsu in Bangkok by telephone, and found out where to take my computer to get the “backspace” button fixed – it came adrift when I lifted it to remove a crumb, so will be trying to find their address on Saturday afternoon – the company is open from 08.30 – 21.30, Monday – Sunday – a bit different opening hours we are used to.

Lunchtime, and we needed to visit Tescos again! – this really is becoming a habit – as we needed a few supplies for our jungle trek. It was the same bustling place as at the weekend – lots of people doing their family shop with huge laden trolleys, almost a big as some of the Thai women themselves. We quickly found what we needed, both here and then at Boots – it sounds more and more like England every minute. It was time for a bite, so to continue the “home” theme, we visited KFC for some “finger-licking good” chicken and fries. The coating on the chicken is different to home – not sure what it was, but it was very crispy, crunchy and knobbly with a hint of chilli! It was quite tasty and would satisfy our hunger pangs till dinner.

On the way back, the tut-tut would only take us to the top of the village road, not down to Smile. As we alighted we saw a jeep, immediately opposite the junction, with several people still sitting in the back. One of its front wheels completely missing down a hole in the road where the new drain cover should have been and the other front wheel at a 30 degree angle to the road! Whoops!!! They are putting in a new set of traffic lights at this junction, as well as the new drainage system that has meant on-going roadworks from outside the Bandara towards Chaweng, ever since Juz and Dave arrived a month ago, so the road was constricted by cones. I guess the jeep tried to pass a vehicle turning right and just went too far left – into the hole! A couple of men were outside the vehicle, scratching their heads and looking under the jeep, while the other passengers looking non-plussed about what they should do, – stayed in the tilted vehicle, waiting for a solution to the problem. A large digger stopped in front, the driver got out, said a few words and drove off. No one else stopped at all, although several of the nearby shopkeepers and stallholders were all laughing.

By the time we returned to the bungalow, the weather had clouded over, but was still very hot and sultry. I blogged – and read Juz’s comments about her journey home, and amended the date on yesterday’s edition – before settling down to reply to some emails. It is great to get news from home – keeps us in touch with the world.

After another game of cards, we went to dinner at La Sirene, and shared a meal of our favourite dishes there – Colin chose the carpaccio of prawns with garlic and chilli (they were extremely hot tonight) with garlic bread (overdosing on the garlic – it’s a good job it’s the best thing to put in your mouth according to the experts) and I, of course, chose moules and frites, with pina coladas on the side. The restaurant was surprisingly empty when we arrived – other restaurants along the strand seemed busy – but soon a couple of French families with noisy children arrived (I don’t suppose they were any noisier than our three grandchildren playing together in the garden – but this was a restaurant at nine o’clock at night, and they just seemed to shout all the time) and the calm, romantic atmosphere whilst sitting by the sea shore was broken. Soon more people turned up, so it wasn’t long before it was bustling anyway.

Back at the bungalow I found some more tennis on the television, which I watched (I’ve seen more tennis on the tele here than ever I do at home), before reading and turning out the light to await our last day here tomorrow!