Wedding Thai Style - am I married?

Here I am at the beginning of June, wanting to update you on my exciting life in Phuket, Thailand. I have remembered to come back to my blog - impressed??

Truth is, May was a quiet month consisting of marathon training, more marathon training and even more marathon training. I am sat at my office window now with my left leg up on a chair because it has been killing me. I find myself thinking to more exciting Mays gone-by. I don't have to think far back... 22nd May 2011 marked the one-year wedding anniversary of a couple of Mik & my closest friends, James & Ning. I never blogged it then and I should have so here it is... A Thai wedding where I may have even ended up married myself!

As background, Ning (who you see 2nd from the right, sitting next to me) was born in a small village near Loei in the Isaarn (North-East) area of Thailand. As is Thai tradition, when she agreed to marry James, the ceremony was back in her home town among family, close-friends and the entire village! Mik & I were most touched and honored to be invited along, with our roles tenuously explained to us as 'kind-of' best man and maid of honour.

We went with the flow... so here I am in my traditional Thai 'wedding dress' (yes, the confusion certainly began here!) and Ning's sister is preparing my hair and make-up.

 

It all began about 0530am! Preparations were made for the monks arriving from the local temple - this included lots of food arriving! I seem to remember the monks arrived about 0700am and the proceedings began.

There was a lot of chanting by the monks while James, Ning, myself and other members of the 'congregation' knelt on the floor with hands and fingers pressed together as though in prayer. At certain points during the chanting we were meant to reply but my Thai being somewhat embarrassingly useless meant that I just tried to look the part rather than get everything right verbally! At this point, James & Ning also gave alms to the monks directly.

In the above picture you can see the Head monk is chanting and, with what looks like a bunch of flowers in his hand, he is tossing water at us all. This followed water-pouring by Ning & James which is a very important part of the ceremony as this is the point where they are officially made husband and wife, and their marriage is blessed.

Next up was the big feed - quite amusing to see the community drinking bottles of 'Chang' beer at 0800am! I waited until about noon before I could stomach it. All good fun :-)

Then we returned to Ning's family home for the presenting of gifts and the dowry, before we - Ning, James, Mik & myself - were asked to be seated in a line so the village community could come to tie the pre-blessed string to our wrists and donate money for our futures together.
Yes... This is where the confusion really hit. Why were the villagers giving money and string to Mik & I??

The final step was for James to parade the village before entering the family home and sweeping Ning off to the nuptial bed as prepared by the 'elders'. Enough said ;-)


All being told, this was a wonderful day, a wonderful experience and something unforgettable. I was made up to be a part of it. As for whether I am now married to Mik or not... Who cares? It did lead 3 months later to a ring being presented with the words, "Well, the string won't last forever". Awwwww...

I'm back... 2011 is my year of blogging!

I know what you are all thinking... Famous last words! I can't make any promises but I can give you an update of life so far in 2011... I'll keep it brief .

January & February kind of passed me by. It was the middle of high season and I couldn't tell you what was going on. No idea!

March was more eventful. For starters the Formula 1 season began again. Yey! Unfortunately most of the races were day-time here in Phuket which meant that I was at work but I did manage to follow most races on the official F1 website.

Here I am proudly in 2nd place complete with trophy!

Then there was the Kata-Karon Beach Marathon in March too. This was my first competitive running event and while it was just 10.5km, I came 2nd out of all the females in my category so got myself a podium place. Funny!

Perhaps the more pertinent question, looking at that photo, is why on earth I seem to have run in only my pants! Not that it is much better, but I am in fact wearing a nappy. Mik & I both ran the race wearing nappies, bibs and dummies having been successfully sponsored by our good friends to raise money for a baby girl that had been born recently here in Phuket with a terrible affliction; her right knee-cap was on the reverse side of her leg meaning without expensive surgery (beyond the means of her parents), she would never walk again. As I write this, Baby is in Bangkok receiving treatment but Mik & I are pleased to say our running raised enough awareness that one day we hope to see this little girl running alongside us! Here are photos of us after the race, and me with Baby 'Ginger' and her parents (taken just last week)...

L to R: Marc (Instructor at Sub Aqua Dive Center), me & Mik

 
Also in March was my birthday and I turned 29 with a terrific celebration. An evening at a local E-san food restaurant with a few bottles of whisky on the table, Mik, staff at Sub Aqua Dive Center, and many great friends. It was an unforgettable night! The lack of photos is probably a good thing!

Then on into April... The weirdest thing to happen in April was definitely the telephone call I received asking me to participate in Miss Songkran 2011. I went along to see what was involved and rather amusingly was dressed head to toe in traditional Thai clothing and then told to parade about on a stage in Patong as part of Phuket's famous Bike Week. Apparently it was aired on TV worldwide but I didn't go trying to find out! Below is a picture of a friend of mine here in Phuket, Kaye Smith, and myself after we had finished in hair/makeup. Check out that quiff! That back-combing took some getting out, I can tell you...

Miss Songkran 2011 - try getting a motorbike helmet on that!

 

 

So that brings us safely into May 2011 and half the year has almost passed already. We are 'officially' into Phuket's low season now (but don't think that stops us from diving!). Right now, Mik & I are training hard for Phuket's Marathon on 12th June 2011. This morning I got up at 3.45am to run solidly for 3 hours! Only 5 weeks until Marathon day... If I survive, I will let you know! Until then... hope you enjoyed my first posting of 2011!

September already?

Time seems to have been flying. We left August behind and entered into a wet dreary September. Needless to say, business has been slow but we are fast-approaching the high season and this can't last forever. In fact...

Mik's birthday has just passed and the sun is shining again. To be honest, his birthday seemed like

a 3 day long session and i am now hoping to get back on a level playing field. I can see strict vegetable-only meals and lots of running coming up in the next month or so!!

It was good though. On the 19th September we visited the new Tandoori restaurant in Rawai - so nice to have such good Indian/Arabic food right on our doorstep... finally! Then we did a few beers in Freedom Bar but we were both shattered so called it a night. This was all made up for on 20th September with the usual shenanigans at Lek's Bar in Kata... and Easy Riders... and Mee Bar! (Yes, it would appear i am dancing on the table in the photo!)

Happy times but i could still sleep for a week... In a pretty much still-drunk state, we staggered to Coffee Pot for bacon, eggs, sausages and beans on slices of toast that are correctly named "doorstops". Brilliant... and then i slept... and i am sure to sleep more... enough is enough. I'm getting too old for this!!

And to finish up, here are a few pictures of our not-yet-complete-but-certainly-better living room after we painted it red and bought a superb 32" flat screen Sony Bravia TV :)

In the words of Yazz...

The only way is up! Looking at my last post, things seemed to spiral downward as just a couple of weeks after my beautiful motorbike burn, i passed out and cracked my head open! 4 stitches and one hell of an egg-shaped lump on my head... Much of the following weeks have been spent "in recovery". As a promise to Mik who went over and above expectations in taking care of me, i quit the gym (and yes, i am biting at the bit to go back!). I have also seriously upped the food intake after losing a considerable amount of weight in the past few months. It may be pure coincidence but i have to rule out possible causes to decide what on earth is going on. It's not fair to Mik or to myself or to anybody if i am miserable all the time (been really down for a while) and i have to get myself sorted. So...

I'm trying. I have started running/walking with Mik 3 times per week but i am still banned from the gym! I am eating sensibly - starting to feel fat but will persist for a while longer... And actually i do feel better. I have now had the stitches out of my head, the lump is getting smaller, the burn on my leg is almost healed and i am feeling rather chuffed to have had a fairly healthy week this week... so much so that i may have to treat myself to some new shoes that i saw in Patong last week :) On 13th August i have to have a tetanus booster injection and i will chat to the doctor then about blood tests for diabetes etc - i still keep having faint spells so have to take a bit of care.

Oh well... If the bump on the head did one thing, it smacked me back to reality! I have to get myself sorted and start enjoying life again. So far so good... Watch this space...

Feeling like poo and thought i'd share it...

Really, i thought i would have been back here before now. Always the case! In all honesty, i was hoping to have got more of the house decorated and sorted before now so i could post some nice pictures. I don't want to put the before-pics on when i'm expecting the after pics to be way more impressive!

Alas, i still have no house pics. But i am feeling down in the dumps with sore throat, cold sweats, and general under-the-weatherness. This has been exacerbated by the fact that 3 days ago i

pulled up outside our house on the motorbike but failed to put the stand down properly leading to injury! Yes, i have lived successfully in Phuket for almost 6 years without injury/scarring from motorbike. This clean record is over! You can check out the damage in the photo to the right... Motorbike fell to the floor and i leaned the red hot engine (or whatever it is!) against my calf to lever the bike back upright; So stupid and so annoying and so not helping me feel good.

Still, i have had some good times recently and i thought sharing these here would alleviate some of the stress of the last few days.

Here's a picture of me with bride Aoy, and bride-groom Gary, and the secretary at Sub Aqua Dive Center (where i work). Gary & Aoy used to live with Mik and i in our house in Kata. We all went our separate ways but these 2 tied the knot on Sunday 28th June! Crazy people!!

And i do have a day off tomorrow where the plan is to complete phase one of our DIY in the house... and pictures will follow :) Keep watching!

My new job...

Had a bit of a problem with my camera lately which sucks. Went off round the Hilton Hotel (where i work) to take some pictures for you all and when i uploaded them to the computer they were all messed up and corrupted. Will try again at some point but just to let you know where I'm at now after 19 days back in Phuket...

With the manager of Sub Aqua Dive Center (Phuket) away in Italy on 'sabbatical', I am currently base leader. It's great to be part of the Sub Aqua project here in Phuket. To help you understand, let me give you a bit of history of the company i work for. Is this the historian coming out in me again?!

Anyway, for over 35 years now Sub Aqua Dive Centers have been established around the world - Sudan, Maldives and Galapagos to name just a few locations! The Sub Aqua Dive Center based at Hilton Phuket Arcadia Hotel is the newest project (began in September 2008). Our Head Office is in Germany but with Sub Aqua being setup in a number of Hilton Hotels around the world it was a great opportunity for my manager and friend, Annalivia Cercarelli, to set one up here in Phuket. Sure, i was working on MV Philkade in the initial stages but with Annalivia now in Italy, i've stepped in to keep things running in her absence... and i love it!

To find out more you can see Sub Aqua's Official Website. But here are a few pictures that did turn out alright until the rest come along so you can see roughly where i'm at and what i'm up to.

Don't forget, if you come to Phuket, come diving with me!!!

Eurotrip!

We did it. It only took me 5 and a half years but i finally ventured across 6000+ miles of airspace arriving at London Heathrow on 6th March. With pretty much 30 hours passing without sleep there was only one thing for it... Down the pub with our mates! So we hopped on the London Underground (a frightening experience in itself), got off at London Bridge and by 6pm we were sat supping pints with our mates Gary & Lindsay!

It was bloody freezing! Really didn't think the cold dry air would make me feel so rubbish. I was constantly shivering. But that weekend we did manage a bit of the tourist trail with a walk around London visiting Tower Bridge etc and buying myself some warm fluffy gloves at a genius 3 quid!

But we didn't have time to relax for too long. By the end of the weekend with our bodies just about adjusted to the horrific time difference, we were off on our 'Sleezy Jet' flight to Alicante bound for Mik's parents.

We had a lovely time in Spain and while it wasn't exactly what i would call 'warm' the sun did come out to shine and if you wore a jumper and sat in the sun on the roof terrace, then yes, it was quite nice :)

It felt more like a 'proper' holiday in Spain too. We became the ultimate tourists with Mik taking pictures of everything as Mik's parents were kind enough to take us to Mercia and Elche. Beautiful cities. And we even joined
in on one of Mik's dad's classic car runs. Hugely entertaining as we had a police escort around Villajosa (visiting a chocolate factory... mmmm...) and then the most amusing lunch i've ever had. Rather like a scene from Faulty Towers, everybody's order got messed up and Mik and i nearly fell off our chairs watching the carnage ensue. Think 50 pensioners all waiting on food, drinking wine in the meantime - unorganised chaos!

Among other things we drank cerveza in a sunny square in Mercia, we took a train, we visited old towns and churches, we ate a lot(!), we enjoyed many a menu-del-dia and we had a great day out to Cartegena to 'the guns'.

Up until the late 90s these guns were still in use but now they are abandoned and Mik's Dad did a great job of guiding us round... even inside the guns themselves!

After a good relax in Spain, on March 19th we were on our way again, this time to St Athan in Wales to see Mik's brother and finally meet his lovely wife, Bev, and children Kieran, Kelsey, Jamie and Jessica. It was a bit mental but only because we are not used to having 4 kids around us but it was fun too. I hung out in the tent in the garden and played for a while (awesome!), and we went to the beach and had a carton of chips with mushy peas at Barry Island.

I loved it - more of playing the tourist since 'Gavin & Stacey' is filmed at Barry Island. For those of you who don't know it, Gavin & Stacey is a brilliant comedy/drama series from the UK. You should all watch it!

But again it was time to get moving and on March 23rd we headed 'up north' to Leeds. Dad picked us up at the bus station and we were soon settling back into Yorkshire. Great to see my Dad and to see his house. He moved their a few years ago now and with us never visiting England i had yet to see it. Bless him, he's kept all my things in perfect condition and he's really well which was good. Won't leave it as long next time!

No trip to Yorkshire would have been complete for me without two things: reuniting with my family and having at least one crazy night out with Linz! Thankfully i managed both. Unfortunately i didn't have my camera on any occasion that i met with my mum, Sheena, Charlotte or Daniel but i am glad that i finally saw them again and smoothed things out so that we can communicate better in the future. Huge shock to see how grown up all my siblings are these days but so so happy to be back in contact with them all.

It was actually all very overwhelming and since it had been my birthday, we had one night to let off steam. Huge thanks to Rich and Linz for allowing us to do just that. We had a lovely day at Bolton Abbey complete with pub lunch and obligatory ales before meeting with the Mennells in the evening and finishing up with a ruby in Rich and Linz's kitchen. Next morning there was rice everywhere and i'm sure they are still finding bits of it now. I blame the alcohol and these pictures say it all. No regrets... It was fantastic to see everyone again and just what i needed.

Other highlights from 'Up North' can be found below. Jeez, those fish n chips were gooooooooooood. I miss them soooooo...

After being up North and seeing everybody, we headed back South to London and to Gary. Much in need of a couple of day's rest before we headed back to Phuket, a weekend with Gary was perfect therapy. Walks in the country, ales down the pub and plenty of relaxing... At the airport while waiting for our flight back we even managed to sneak in an ale while watching the football, keeping England close to the point we left!

All in it was great to be back in touch with my family and to see some friends. Of course, it was impossible to fit everyone in and keep everyone happy but I've promised not to leave it quite as long next time. Thanks to all of you that seemed to go so out of your way to see me
(even flying into England from different countries!). It made me feel very special, was much-appreciated and great to see you. You know who you are and i can only apologise for time being so pushed this time.

Stay posted for my next post including our arrival back in Phuket and new jobs :)

Big changes...

You saw in our last post... Mik and i were fast growing tired of Philkade - not the boat, not the diving but the bosses mainly (don't get me started...) and we needed more time for us, our friends and our family. Sooo...

After our trip to the Andaman Islands, we quit. In this couple of pics, I'm cooking banana cake in the on-board Galley while Mik was taking his turn to drive the boat. It was non-stop cruising for almost 3 days and 2 nights to get from Phuket to the Andamans!

To cut a long story short though...we are now in Phuket out of work but enjoying a bit of time together on land. All this time means Mik finally has had some good opportunities to take some pictures of where we live! I went for a run along Chalong Pier at sunrise (yes, sunRISE!) the other morning while Mik took a walk with his camera to get these beautiful shots.

We leave for the UK on 4th March to make the much-needed worldwind European tour to see people! Family and friends, here we come...

So useless...

I really am quite rubbish at keeping everyone up to date but the internet is so slow here and i haven't had the time to play. I have been busy back on MV Philkade. Honestly, i have... Mik and i are both looking to NOT be on a liveaboard boat next year. It's tiring us out!!


Here are a couple of our Christmas and New Year pictures that were taken on the boat. Huge thanks go to my fantastic Dad for making our Christmas by sending Christmas Pud from Marks and Spencers and a packed to Birds Custard. The man's a genius!

Happy New Year Everybody!

Indonesia Pictures - 1st instalment...

Well, no great surprise to hear that i still haven't completely got my ass in gear but we have been back off holiday for one week now and i have been working for all of that! I know, excuses, excuses... Anyway, i didn't want you all switching off so here is a beginning...

Please note that all of these 'land' pictures were taken with Mik's new Digital-SLR camera he got for his birthday! I let him have it on the 2nd day of the holiday (while we were in Bunaken, North Sulawesi) so that is where our holiday will have to begin...

Here are my dive buddies - Mik & Gary (Mik's mate from England)...

And here i am... Oh yes, girl on holiday. Sooooo relaxed...

The place we stayed and dived at was called Two Fish Divers. Nice enough place but very basic so don't expect the Ritz! But then we were there for the diving anyways. Owned by an English couple Tina and Nigel. It works well and they offered us an amazing 50% discount for being working instructors in Thailand which made the holiday far more affordable!

Our cottage was basically like this on the outside... complete with hammock :)

And then it was like this on the inside...





The resort in general was very well maintained and Mik got some lovely pics of it for us... Here is general resort area, our diving boats, dining area and some randoms we met along the way (dogs at the resort, random Indonesian man complete with fish on an exploratory walk along the beach)...






Then we would dive...








And our dive guide, 'Bull' or 'Char-lez' depending on what you feel like calling him! He was called 'Char-lez' but then all the Indonesian's think that he looks foreign and not like a local indonesian at all. 'Bull' is similar to 'farang' in Thai, kind of meaning 'westerner'. He found us lots of weird and wonderful stuff on our dives!!
Then we would sleep...

Then we would drink...

And here are a few added others to show just how spectacular the scenery was in Bunaken... The water was knee-deep for a good couple of hundred metres out from shore but then with one step further the reef shelved away steeply creating the most amazing wall dives to hundreds of metres. (We did not go that deep! But it did give me vertigo on a couple of the dives!)



On the land here you may just be able to make out a church. Indonesia is always thought of as a Muslim country but on North Sulawesi it is predominantly Christian so you see lots of churches and crosses. Rather amusingly, the in-house instructor at 'Two Fish' was telling us about the local Muslim-Christian football match. It all went off and the one policeman on the island was drunk, didn't know what to do so just stood in the middle of the pitch and let his gun off. Genius - only in Asia!

With breath-taking views like this one of the local volcano, it is no wonder that they give thanks to God! So beautiful...

Stay tuned for my next post where i will introduce you all to our 2nd week of holiday in Lembeh!
Love to you all x x x