The last few days

It's not easy trying to cram everything you want to do into the last few days and I didn't manage to do half the stuff I wanted to!! (I didn't have time to do my last minute handbag shopping (I know.....I was horrified too but JJ said that she will do that for me) which was probably a good thing as I don't think we could have fitted one more thing into our suitcases!! What we did manage to do was to have a very boozy farewell get together!!

We decided to have it in The Bull's Head as it's close to the Skytrain so easy to get to and Louise sent out an invitation on our behalf a few days before it. I was thrilled (was going to say over the moon but I don't think she would have been happy if I'd jumped over her!!) when sixteen people came back to me to say that they were going to come along!! I was organised (for me anyway) and went in the day before and told Billy, who manages the place, to reserve a table.

We were good and actually managed to arrive before anyone else but after about 10 minutes (and much gaffawing from Louise when I told her I'd booked for 16 people) it was clear that the table was not going to anywhere near enough!! We actually took over the next floor up and Billy ended up having to open another bar for us.......there were about 60 people....I couldn't believe it!!! I was doing really well (not red faced and snottery at all) till Louise gave a speech and presented us both with a big card signed by everyone along with John Lewis vouchers and a gorgeous necklace (for me not Chris) chosen by JJ......after that I struggled!!! (To be honest....I sneaked off to the toilet and had a good cry).

The following day we met up with Moon and her sister Mai for lunch. We went to Crepes and Co and had a lovely time hearing all about her new job. She's working for Sven one of Chris's old colleagues and is aparently causing much hilarity because she can't pronounce his name and is now calling him Seven!! She also told us that his two boys (7 & 9) have discovered that she is really jumpy and are constantly thinking up new ways to scare her (I can't tell you how pleased I am that she's happy....it would have made leaving ten times worse if she'd not been settled....saying goodbye was hard enough!!)

We had a lovely night at Louise and Gordon's for our last night in Thailand. It was absolutely perfect....good food, good wine and good company. Louise had prepared an Indian feast (I've got the recipes) and we had a lovely chilled evening....although in hindsight staying up till 1.30am when you've got to be up at 5am was probably not the wisest thing in the world to do but hey.....

In the morning their driver picked us up and took us to the airport which was a godsend!! We were very very concerned about the weight of our luggage so I decided to distract the check in guy by pointing out the torn ligaments in my ankle. It was just as well I did....both cases were over 30 kilos and I don't even want to think about how heavy our hand luggage was!! Anyway, we got away with it and all too soon we were sitting on the plane watching Bangkok get smaller and smaller then finally vanish beneath the clouds.