As I sit here listening to the birds chirping outside and I feel the fan blowing intermittently on my neck, I realize how much life has changed.  We live such an outdoor life now, with windows constantly open unless we have the AC on in the bedrooms. We swim in the pool every day, eat outside at night, either here at home or at a restaurant and visit beaches almost every other day. I compare this to our year in Chester where for a large percentage of the time we were shut in with the heating on, wrapped up in layers and layers of clothing. Even when we wanted to go out it seemed such an effort to drive somewhere for a walk. Going to the movies required almost a 2^nd mortgage (not that we had one of those, a mortgage I mean!). There always seems to be something to do here that doesn’t require money or much of it anyway.

Another thought is that we eat much healthier here. Lots more fruit, smoothies for breakfast etc. Salads galore and no pasta, no cheese (It’s very costly here), not nearly as much bread as we used to eat, just rice dishes and the occasional pizza to satisfy our western needs.

We took the girls to see Alice in Wonderland on Monday night. Lara in particular had been dying to see it and we had already gone the previous evening and been very disappointed to find that we had missed it. Fortunately we found another cinema on the island that was still showing it and for just 120 baht we sat in air conditioned luxury in seats so comfortable that had the movie been boring we could have fallen asleep.  For 500 baht you can have a reclining seal with a blanket and pillow with food and drink delivered to you while you watch!! Anyway we all loved the movie apart from Nick as it wasn’t really his ‘thing’. Mr Depp had seriously strange eyebrows and emerald green eyes but was his usual wonderfully talented self.

We went out on the ministry yesterday for the first time. Richard took us on some of his calls to ease us into it gently. It was nice to see so many out. There is a lovely French family here for a few months from Toulon who don’t speak much English so it has been great for us to practice our French.  We went for lunch at a Thai restaurant with a family from the Thai congregation. The setting wasn’t so great, near a busy road but the food was awesome, probably the best we have had yet. The lady who ran the restaurant had tiny twins and Richard told us that two days after having delivered them by c section she was back working in the place. That is how hard people work here.  There seems to be a much greater divide now between the rich or well off and the poor. The Thai brother we ate with works a 12 hour shift for just 600 baht (£12).

We are off to find a hidden beach this afternoon. Apparently it is one the tourists don’t know about, just the locals. We also need to go to the market for our fruit and veg.

Don’t  forget to check out the photos I upload regularly. Just click on the link to the left of this page that says ‘travel photos’.