Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

 As Christmas approached, we had to get our priorities in order. First on the shopping list were the ingredients to make mulled wine! Ellen and I did a pretty good job even if I say so myself! A not so expensive red wine heated with star anise, cinnamon, cloves and slices of fresh orange. Apparently, a dash of rum doesn't go astray either. 😜 Christmas day with the family. Nice to have a white Christmas. A very special time for us all. 💖

Christmas is not far away and what better to start preparations than with a Christmas tree. Daniel, wearing his moose hat, is getting into the Christmas spirit! On the night of the 11th Dec, we were treated to a wonderful blanket of snow that gently fell all night. The night pictures are from outside Daniel and Ellen's flat, and the day pics were taken just around the corner in  Clapham Common. That snow teddy was the best 'snowman' ever!  Someone was very clever and he lasted a long time.  Approaching the winter solstice meant that daylight was limited. The sun was setting at 4.30pm around this time. This was the highest the sun got during the day. It rose from the left-hand side and set to the right-hand side of the pic.  A bit eerie when you're not used to it. Feels like you're too close to the north pole. Oh, wait...  

London - UK We were so glad to see Daniel after being on opposite sides of the world for the last 8 months. It was a shock to the system to come from Thai weather (30 deg every day) to zero and sub-zero temperatures, but we got accustomed to it fairly quickly. We got ourselves a nasty flu from the plane trip, which had us wiped out for about 3 weeks. We were so grateful to be able to stay at Daniel and Ellen's place for a couple of months in Clapham to recuperate and then start to explore London. Clapham is a nice town having many places to have coffee and a general shop. We have noticed that the price of supermarket goods are pretty much on par with prices in Qld however restaurants and coffee shop prices are significantly higher. Accommodation is extremely expensive. The local pubs are very individual and have a warm traditional pub feel. Pub meals are expensive, though, with a modest lunch for 2 with a drink will set you back AUD 120. The Prince of Wales is in Clapham. Just up t...

We couldn't get on the plane quick enough.  Being in business class on an A380 meant we were upstairs on the plane, merely staggering distance from the bar!  As mentioned in a previous post, it would be difficult to go back to Economy class after this! It certainly makes long-distance flights easier. 😁

The two months in Thailand gave mainly me the opportunity to see how the locals are. I tended to stay away from tourist areas as we have been here many times. Here's  a pic from a locals' market.                                        And a mainly tourist market in old Phuket town.                  Beautiful effigies made from banana leaves made for a festival celebrating water. Locals wearing masks would have been at about 99%. Thais are a lovely people and to the liking of authorities, very compliant. This photo says it all. No helmet but mask intact!  You'll often see a family of Mum, Dad and two or three kids occy strapped to the adults 🤣. But the masks are on!

We spent the next 2 months at the HOMA hotel while Max recuperated. The streets in Phuket are not designed to move wheelchairs around and Max found herself room-bound most days. Also, Phuket was experiencing monsoonal weather with no respite. So many areas were flooded and with many areas tiled, this was a minefield for slipping and sliding. Crutches weren't possible. She was a trooper though and coped with it better than most.  The staff were very kind to us so the extra two months we had to stay on was as pleasant as could be. This is Kuado. He was a Thai/Italian blend, lovely and the perfect manager for the Italian restaurant atop the Homa residences.  View from the infinity pool on the rooftop. The best facility of the hotel was that it accommodated pets and we all know who likes dogs... This little furball was owned by an Asian girl, of course.  It didn't look real. 

Unfortunately, Max had slipped on a sloped path near our room and did serious damage to her lower leg. She broke the fibula bone and scraped all skin off the inside ankle bone and damaged ligaments. The hotel called an ambulance and I insisted they take her to the best hospital on the island, which happened to be The Bangkok Hospital.  Staff there were brilliant and got her comfortable within no time. We took out insurance which of course would cover this situation, however, being a Friday afternoon in Australia, I found it just about impossible to get in touch with anyone.  Once I did talk to someone, they said they'd get back to me soon.  The hospital had booked an operating theatre and was insisting Max needed surgery that day.  We did not hear back from the insurance so we gave the go-ahead to the hospital, having to pay for the operation ourselves. The insurance company did pay up eventually, but there is a chance that even though insurance is taken out, you mig...

The Pullman resort was nice enough but a bit far away from other places we wanted to visit so we changed our booking to a place in Karon beach. Covid restrictions had hit Phuket very hard and tourism was only starting to come back so it was eerily quiet in Karon. This resort had pool access to the edge of the apartment. Max was in her element... Until she broke her leg!

We decided to buy ourselves business class fares to Phuket, Thailand, as neither of us had flown in "the pointy end' of the plane before and it was my birthday!   A word of warning. You can never go back to "cattle class" after that experience!  We flew on a Boeing 777 to Phuket. Plenty of legroom. We booked two weeks in the Pullman Resort in Panwa which is in the very south of the island. Yeah, it wasn't that great.  Supposed to be high-end via a friend, but our room barely fit our suitcases and there were no "extras" that we were expecting. Found somewhere else.

Over the last two and a half years we have realised how life can change right under one's nose. Even though we were living in what we consider one of the best parts of the world, we both realised we want to see other parts of the world while we are still fit and active and while we were still 'allowed' to travel.   The phrase 'Life is too short' was going through our minds daily as we watched our freedoms slowly erode over time. Selling our wonderful property was not easy. Our neighbours, friends and the location will be missed as well as our families, of course, in other parts of Australia. Our son Daniel relocated to London to work and that was the clincher. So, where do we go? Who knows? We thought we'd go to London to see Daniel with a stopover on the way in Thailand for two weeks. Plenty more posts to come.