This week felt like a long week. Our weekend trip put us in holiday mode and these last few days were hard to get through. But here we are on the lsat day before our break. It was also the last week of Year 13, this year group one of my favourite of all times. I was actually teary in our last lesson. We finished the term with a Songran celebration and I am ready for the holiday!
My choice beach is always Bang Tao/Laguna as that is where we lived. However, Phuket is now so busy the once 1/2 drive from the airport has easily doubled and I have found a new love for Nai Yang. It is five minutes from the airport, has a lot of nice restaurants now and is certainly easier for a weekend trip. Monday we went to the beach early to enjoy it before heading back to the concrete jungle. Even a few horses galloped over to enjoy some of our coconuts and rice.
Sunday we all went to Splash jungle. The third time for me in Sebastian in six months and the first time he was the height to go on lal the slides, even the Toilet bowl. He was so excited and we went five times. We spent the entire day there. Sage, Lorelei and him were best buds for the day. It was so sweet and they were so happy.
Wednesday night Luis had a major stomach ache and was sick all night. I brushed it off, suggesting food poisoning. To be fair food poisoning is no joke and the few times I have had the real deal I was very sick. But Thursday morning his colour was gone and he looked awful. He decided to go to the hospital just in time really as he had appendicitis. Later that afternoon he was under the knife and his appendix was removed. Sebastian and myself were meant to go to Phuket Friday for a long weekend but delayed it till Saturday to ensure he was back home and comfortable. Then Saturday we were off.
This reunion was planned months ago and it was fabulous to reconnect with Sebastian's baby bestie, Lorelei. Aloni and her family came in from Singapore and we have the best day Saturday at the beach. Their other baby bestie, Sage also came and they all had a blast.
Sunday morning we were all up by 4:30am, I was so tired. I think the events on Friday and long drive that night had finally gotten to me. We were all not feeling our best and were pretty nervous about the event. There was probably 1000 people at the event in all the different categories and it was fairly overwhelming. Nadia was first up with the swimming, while me and Janelle waited in the transition area with the over teams. Looking around, I felt pretty nervous as there were clearly some good athletes. However, we never had any goals rather than just completing the race. But by the time Janelle finished the biking I knew we had a good chance of winning. This made me more nervous as I also knew I was the final leg, I was the one who could mess it up! But I finished and I knew it would be close (there are loads of people all starting and finishing at all different times so we would not know the results until the times went up).
When they went up, we saw we were still registered as a mixed team (originally Luis was meant to do the swim), and in this category we came third overall. We were thrilled with this as most mixed teams were two males and a female. But then I saw that we actually came first overall female team by a significant 6 minutes. As it was their mistake for not making the change we told them about ages ago I went to fight for our gold. BUT they not only did not let us go in the women category they then disqualified us for not having a male and took our third place result and trophy away for the mixed team category. I was so angry, we all were, we were so excited and the kids were so excited about our win. We did far better then we ever expected, not ever did we think we would actually win. Therefore, I was not going to let it go. So after arguing, politely, and showing the confirmation about our category change and then the to say that even if they kept us in mixed category they could not disqualify us as thee rules simply state we must have at least one female (nothing about males) and we had three, we got our trophies. It was not the exactly the way we wanted it to happen for but we are all mush happier!
Friday night we battled traffic to get out of Bangkok. We did not do this to avoid after shocks, but I think we would have tried to leave anyways. One terrible earthquake is enough for one lifetime. We were always leaving as I had my first team triathlon. We got there eventually, I think it took 7 hours. But it was easy as Sebastian slept almost the whole way. We woke up to a beautiful beach. I was so surprised. We rented a house with my other team members and it was just beautiful. A tiny little town, now one of my new favourite's. The kids had the best day playing in our pool, the hotels pool next door, watching Hugh and Zemi compete in the children triathlon, and then drawing pictures together. We were all in bed early for the big race the next day.
