Sunshine, Vanessa, Food Fun

The rest of the Vanessa weekend was great.  We went to dinner at our favourite restaurant (Tatonka) chatted about loads, went to a festival and kept fending off the rain.

  A few pre dinner cocktails

 Some pretty amazing grub

 The entrance to the festival that we attended, along with about 8 other people for about 3 minutes.

And again today in South Phuket the rain seemed to want to come but the sun continued to shine on us.  Not long now before the real rain starts and doesn't stop till November :(  Next we will need to go visit Nick and Vanessa in KL, it sounds like a pretty great city!

Vanessa in the House

I love that some of the Ecua family are here in Asia and next year even more!  It is great that airfare and air travel between us is so cheap and short.  I was so looking forward to this weekend and so happy it has finally come.  Vanessa came off the flight from KL with two bottles of birthday bubbles in hand and a big ear to listen.  We had a great night together last night and a wonderful day on the beach today.  It threatened rain all day but we took our chances and it was a beautiful day.

 Best way to end a week, day, month or even hour is with bubbles.

 The entire afternoon it was half sun and half dark skies, but it was dramatic and beautiful and the rain kept at bay.

It is great to have her here and looking forward to a nice dinner tonight and another beach day tomorrow.

Back at It

I cannot believe how tired I am.  The first week back from a holiday, always seems the longest.  It wasn't like I ever slept in on holiday and we were super busy but I think it is the lack of using your brain.  I read a crap novel and that was by far the largest amount of brain power I used in two weeks.  Today is Thursday and I feel like I have been hit by a truck.  A few early morning thunder storms and a trembling Lola has definitely contributed but I do think it is all this work that is making me feel like I have worked 10 hours today at 9:30am!

Luckily I am blessed with a husband who has really gotten into cooking.  I came home both Monday and Wednesday to a fantastic two course meal, a veggie soup and then some other master piece.  I did not take any photos Monday, but here is last night's dinner.

 Possibly the best salad ever, the dressing was amazing.

A risky move by Luis, cauliflower and broccoli soup, one I don't really like broccoli and two I think two strong flavours don't work together in a soup.  But he nailed it and I loved it.

Enjoying this new love of cooking he is developing, and counting down the days till summer!

One Lucky Lady

I had a fabulous birthday and all thanks to a very patient wonderful husband who made it a great day no matter what.  He made a supper Indian meal for some friends and we just had a wonderful time.  

 Was super excited to get this game, I knew it would be a hit and of course I went on later in the night to win it!

 Pre-nibbles and drinks

 A lovely dinner

 Luis even had this wonderful cake made.

I woke up to a big mess but also feeling very lucky to have both my L's is in life. Luis went above and beyond the call of duty yesterday, I am so lucky!

41

I usually love my birthday and get so excited to celebrate it and I must say that this year has been a struggle.  I cannot believe a year ago, I turned 40 with a wonderful party and all things seeming possible.  I wrote my 40 list of things to do, my father had won his battle with cancer, the year seemed like it would be a great one.  How wrong was I.  This morning I woke up with such a deep sense of sadness.  I miss him terribly, I will miss speaking to him today, I will miss his birthday card, well I just miss everything about him.  I know from losing my mum that this pain will ease with time, but it never goes away.  I know I am very lucky and have woken up in a beautiful place with a husband determined to make it a wonderful day no matter how grumpy and unresponsive I am being.  But it still does not ease the pain I am feeling.

Having said that, I had a lovely day yesterday and have really enjoyed our little holiday together.  The weather has been great and we did some paddle boarding and Kayaking.  I am now going to try and enjoy the rest of the day and be a little less grumpy to poor Luis!

Nai Harn beach is truly beautiful, but I am now ready to go up north to see Lola Cola and get my birthday cuddles from her.

The Nai Harn

It was super sad to see the Hopkin/Fisk group leave, we really just had a lovely time.  Luckily, we had The Nai Harn two night stay to help cheer us up.  When we went to the charity event back in March this was one of two trips we won.  I cannot believe how super posh this one is, when you drive up they valet park your car and I think green bean through them for a big loop.   It took a while for the guy to cotton on the fact that we were actually guests of the hotel.

 The last photo of their first time in Thailand

 It is crazy nice, our room is as big as our house.  Our view is amazing and outside space again as big as our house.  They turn down your bed and leave you night time cookies and well just everything is wow.

 We watched the sunset with cocktails on the roof top bar, the views are amazing.

 Then we went to one of their restaurants for the first and last time. Expensive and very average.

After dinner we had a walk and found our new favourtie cheap as chips restaurant, where we definitely felt more at ease.

The second prize we won is pretty amazing and I cannot even imagine what it looks like after seeing this place.  A three night stay in the Maldives, which is pretty amazing on its own coupled with the fact that we were thinking of going there even better.  I originally wrote that this event was a slightly disappointing but have now clearly changed my tune, best night ever!

Aunty Amanda and Last Dinner

I love being Aunty Amanda, not just to my actual family but to all my friends kiddies.  I have not played Aunty for a while so it was great to borrow some kids yesterday and get to be cool Aunty Amanda (not sure they thought I was cool) at Splash Jungle.

 Besides the Fisk kiddos, I also took Sara and Richard's kids who I am not sure were thrilled to go with their teacher!

My fabulous birthday present from the Hopkins!

 Luis decided to cook his meatball and cauliflower special dinner for the last night with the Hopkin/Fisks.  He was so thrilled to have Pip and Jake who were much better sous chefs than I have ever been.

And lucky me, a birthday surprise, my favourite ice cream cake.  It was a great last night to round off a wonderful holiday.  We have had so much fun and I will be so sad to say good bye in the next few hours.