Bang Tao Beach

After a long day of meetings and workshops there is nothing better than heading down the road to our local beach, Bang Tao.  I love this beach, it is huge and empty.  We can have whole sections to ourselves, and Lola just loves it.  As it is the rainy season the water is rougher than Lola is use too, but she is definitely still keen to go in as much as she can.  I cannot wait till she sees the water really calm in November, I think we will never get her out.  We spent a lovely evening in the water and walking on this beautiful beach.

Pretty sure this is how we intend to spend most evenings and weekends.  We are all definitely hot climate people!

Settling in Update and Wedding Video!

This week the entire staff have been at work, so a chance to meet all the people that I will be working with.  It has definitely been a week of a lot of information and name learning.  I can say that this is definitely an excellent school.  The people are so happy, they appear super organised and structured and I love love the Head of the school.  There is a bit of worry and concern as the school is in the middle of a take over.  But the people who are potentially taking us over have promised no real change, but of course one never really knows.

Overall, so far so good, well better than good, I can see that we will be very happy here.  Of course, this takes time and it will be a while before we settle into a proper routine and find our way around.  I think once we move to our new house in two weeks we will feel more settled.  For now we are enjoying loads of yummy food, meeting some new people and the beach.

Lola has also got adjusted to the weather and our new home, although she is going to have readjust all over when we move again!

I have also been busy catching up on all the technology I have not learnt in the last ten years!  I made my first IMovie over the weekend.  Our wedding video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfZiCAIbjlY
Do not judge me it is my first one!

Patong Beach

Last night we went to Patong for a night out.  Our thinking is that right now it is probably the safest place in Thailand.  Loads of security and I think it is pretty unlikely there will be a follow up bombings there anytime soon.  Well let's hope there are no more follow up bombs anywhere anytime.  Obviously many other people felt the same way as it was packed out with people.  Patong is definitely a unique place, that is really the only way I can think to describe it.  It is a place that I will definitely not frequent, probably only when we have guests here that want to see it.  Bangla Road is packed out with bars, night clubs, people offering you ping pong shows and loads of other various things.  We also saw lots of other parts of Patong as we went from hostel to hostel to get one that would take Lola (a taxi there and back would have cost us at least $50, a hostel for the night $10), I think it is a place I could be fairly frustrated as the age gap of most of couples we saw at bars down the side streets made my skin crawl.  But that was not a surprise, I have been to Thailand before.
Having said all that we did have a great night.  We went out with our new friends Jackie and Brian.  Jackie is also new at the school and her boyfriend Brian is also a trailing partner.  We went to a few bars and then dancing for a bit.  I cannot wait for our next night out, hopefully in near by Bang Tao, as we drove through and looks more our vibe.

 Our new friends :)

Luis's first bucket, which has helped contribute to our very lazy watching TV Sunday.

Bombs in Phuket

Yesterday morning I woke up to a phone call from my Dad, we chatted for a bit and he mentioned he read there were a couple of bombings in the South of Thailand.  Although I had not seen the news yet I assured him that most of the past violence in Thailand has not been targeted at tourist areas so Phuket would be fine.  I got off the phone and checked the news to find that, possibly during our conversation, there had been certainly one but possibly two bombings in Patong (a popular tourist destination in Phuket), a short drive from us. In fact we spent some time on the beach there last weekend.   Thankfully, we are fine and actually I am not even sure of what the damage has been in Patong, and I am not sure we will find out any time soon, as we are sticking to our local quiet beaches for a bit.
These seem to be in response to the referendum that was held here last weekend.  The result has given the military quite a lot of power for the next few years.  Having been here only five minutes and knowing next to nothing about Thai history and politics I have no opinion on the result.  But I do know that I will not have much to say on Thai politics on here, I am not sure it is a wise move.

Our New Home

After a week in our current home I was beginning to get quite fond of it.  It is actually really lovely, I think just not ideal for a non-family.  We really wanted to be somewhere we could walk to local places and where Lola could go on long walks.  So a beautiful place, just not one hundred percent us.  
Our new house is definitely one hundred percent us!  We spect the last few days driving around looking for our hidden gem home.  Today we found it!  Off the main road, great location, closer to the beach, great place for Lola, still close to school, just a million times better.  Oh and did I say house, I meant houses, we have two two-bedroom villas, with a pool!  The owners decided it would market better as one villa (still the same price as the one we have now!).  So people when you visit you will have your own private house that is attached to ours.  We are pretty excited about it :)

We cannot wait to start entertaining, come on visitors book your flights.  Once you are here it is cheap as chips, wait till you read my upcoming food blog!  I am going have to be an exercise queen not to gain a million pounds. Super yummy!

First School Days

I have just finished my second day of school, not real school, orientation school. Basically learning about the school, the newbies and how to use a Mac (apparently I will be a convert in days).  The school is properly amazing, actually a bit scary, I have never seen anything like it.  The facilities are like none I have seen before, these are some lucky kids (not to mention I will now be their teacher!).
The newbies seem great, of course everyone is one their best behaviour and full of smiles.  I suspect I will get to know them better after our welcome party when they have a few glasses of wine in them.
Luis and Lola have been doing well, organising the house and learning new things about Phuket.  Of course, it will take us ages to get our head around things here.
Here are some pictures of my new school.  Pictures of the house to follow, it looks like we will be relocating soon so I may hold off on those for a bit.

It really is quite stunning, I have not even included the ridiculous sports facilities, swimming pools, gym, tennis courts, a dozen football fields oh and of course a golf course.  I am so nervous to teach!

Friday Food Market

Luis had definitely died and gone to heaven. As we drove in I knew we were going to be there for a while. It was packed out with people, food stalls and other things for sale. It is our local Friday night market and it is pretty special. Lola enjoyed what Luis decided he was not fond of, which to be fair was not much. I think in total he spent under 5 dollars and ate like a king.

 Decisions Decisions

 Six pieces of sushi, one dollar

A lovely way to spend a Friday night. As we have no internet or tv (how did people survive!), it was a great find.