Thunder and Lightening. Very Very Frightening!

Although the rainy season doesn’t officially start until mid May, it arrived a couple of weeks early this year – and with a vengeance

accompanied by some very sleep disturbing storms and a significant drop in temperature. Today, it’s predicted to only reach 26c. It’s extraordinary how, having got used to daily highs in the upper 30s, 26 feels quite chilly. In UK, such a dizzy height would prompt media headlines about Basking Britain etc. It’s a funny old world!

After nearly 3 days of almost continuous downpours there is large scale flooding and what used to be the tiniest of streams directly behind the perimeter wall of our house has turned into quite a raging torrent

which brought the opening lines of Robert Browning’s ‘Home Thoughts from Abroad’ to mind; ‘Oh, to be in England now that April’s there- or in our case- May! And on that note:-

There are 26 countries in the European Schengen area. There are (currently, at least!) 4 countries in the UK. It took 4 days for Nokky to get her Schengen visa. It took 7 weeks to get the UK equivalent! Am I missing something? It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the incompetence of a certain UK government department and, in particular, the Minister in charge, could it? Anyway, we now have both visas so our trip planning has started in earnest – not only the logistics of the trip itself but also making sure that everything here in Thailand runs smoothly in our absence. The latter is not such an onerous task as our good friend and manager, Ton, is well capable of looking after most things in our restaurant/bar while we are away. One thing he hasn’t yet learnt, though, is how to make a Bolognese sauce. In comparison with our pizzas, we only sell a few spag bols so, whilst the heavens opened yesterday, I busied myself making what I hope will be enough to satisfy customer demand whilst we are away.

As we plan to be in Europe for 3 months, there’s a lot to be thought of and arranged. Most important, of course, is to make sure Nokky has enough of her Thai favourites

until- hopefully- we can find a Thai food shop! Then there are flight tickets to be bought (already sorted; we arrive in the UK on 24th May), transport and accommodation to be arranged etc and also there’s quite a complicated jigsaw to be completed to ensure that we can meet all our family and friends plus fit in some sightseeing for Nokky. So, much to be done before we depart but all good, exciting stuff after such a long time away.

Somewhat unbelievably it is 4 years since our bar opened here in Hua Hin (not yet 2 years since we added the restaurant). So, certainly cause for celebration, especially in these dark economic times which have seen so many business casualties.

And what a night it turned out to be!

It was very late (or, more accurately, ‘early’) when the last guest departed having been splendidly entertained by our usual DJ

who had to endure some not so splendid karaoke singing.

It was a time to renew old friendships

and even have some semi serious discussions

albeit fairly early on in the proceedings! All in all, a memorable night.

And finally: A week or so ago I was asked to resurrect my long forgotten bicycle assembly skills and put together an electric scooter which had been supplied in bits. I got there in the end, not helped by the somewhat bizarre ‘english’ building instructions. I managed to just about navigate myself from A – E but was completely stumped (and amused) by the final step!

So, lots more to be done before we depart but we’re getting there and thoroughly looking forward to our European adventure.

Until the next time.

R