Before the guests descend…..

Aaarrrggggg……Sadie and Margaret arrive on Monday and we’ve not got their Christmas Presents yet!!!

So, on Saturday morning Chris and I got up bright and early (ok, fairly early) and headed over to Chatuchak Market to get the presents sorted out. We arrived there about 9.30am (everyone says that you need to get there early so we made the effort and were surprised to discover that a lot of the stalls were still shut or just setting up – everything was open by the time we left) and spent a very pleasant morning meandering along the narrow lanes of the market trying not to spend all our money (It really is so inexpensive that the temptation to spend is rather overwhelming). We ended up getting Sadie an absolutely stunning table runner with matching coasters which we thought would match her décor in the lounge (Natural fibre with beautiful stylised green flowers embroidered onto it) and we got Margaret a small wooden mirror that has painted doors that close over it and three small round vases with paper Orchids to go in them (They are really nice – my description doesn’t do them justice!). We also treated ourselves to a wooden carving of a Chinese dragon to go on the wall of our bedroom (which will probably sit propped up against our bedroom wall for the next few months till Moon gets fed up and gets the handyman downstairs to put it up).

We headed back to the apartment after a lovely lunch in Toh Plue, across the road from the Market (I can highly recommend the Chicken in pineapple), and I got cracking on finishing the wine charms that I was making for Margaret as part of her Christmas pressy (The photo on the right is of the necklace I made for Sadie and the one on the left is of the finished wine charms). I wrapped everything (Chris watched Terminator 3) then we got ourselves organised and headed out to a wine bar called Bacchus on Ruam Rudi (Walking distance from Phloen Chit) which we had been told was really good. We were not disappointed!! It was lovely - We sat in really comfy bucket seats on a raised platform at the bar, ordered a reasonably priced bottle of red wine (reasonable for Thailand anyway) and, to treat ourselves, a selection of French cheeses. Divine!!

On Sunday it was Chinese New Year so everywhere we went there was a sea of red t-shirts (Makes a change from yellow or blue). It is good luck to wear red on Chinese New Year so Chris wore his red Hong Kong Fooey t-shirt (well….it’s red!!) and I wore red shoes and a red necklace. We grabbed some breakfast…..Ok, had a fry up in the Dubliner……we are starting to do that waaay to often – actually we discovered that you can get a discount card so we can now get 10% off all food and drink that we order (Happy Days!!). Then went along to Emporium shopping centre and had a look round the Chinese New Year exhibition that they were hosting. Then we headed home, met up with Moon and made our way over to Siam Paragon to see the second part of King Narusiuan. Aaaaarrrrrggggg……there are not two parts to the film…..there are three…..and the next one doesn’t come out till the 5^th of bloody December!!! Why oh why oh why didn’t they release the films later in the year?? Part 1 in January, Part 2 in February, Part 3 in, oh…lets make the buggers wait till the Kings Birthday, December. (I want you to know that I am throwing my hands up in exasperation). On the plus side – the film was actually really good but I’m not going to say anything else as I know that Tom is waiting with bated breath to find out what happens and I don’t want to spoil it for him. (Tom you are going to have to wait a little longer than I had anticipated for your DVD box set – sorry mate!)