Another beautiful sunset - from the market

Foundations completed

The digger came back yesterday, and covered the foundations with dirt again! Then today the builders marked out where the rooms will be (although this photo makes it look a bit like a dirt bike track).

I'm taking lots of photos at the moment, because it seems to be changing so quickly (and also for Ian, because he is still in Singapore). I figure the changes won't be so noticeable once the walls and roof go up.

After a busy day I had planned a quiet night in - but I got a last minute invitation to 'Club 44' to celebrate Toy's birthday. They always put on a free BBQ and yummy Thai food whenever the staff (or the bar) have a birthday! :-)

T.

Furry hard hats in China

My Dad was passing through Singapore last week (on his way to China for work), and met up with Ian for dinner one night. It really is a small world!

Anyway, I thought I'd share this photo that Dad sent me today - of him wearing a "furry hard hard" at the oil rig in China. It looks colder than London!

T.

Pilates by the beach

Micki Mayo - a Pilates instructor from Brisbane - was visiting Samui for a couple of weeks, and was leading classes down by the beach. Unable to resist the idea of exercising outdoors - looking up at the sky, with the sound of the waves hitting the rocks in the background. How cool is that!

That's me posing with Viona and Irit - friends from the "hill".

If you want to do Pilates in Brisbane, check out Micki's website;
http://www.mickimayopilates.com

Advanced concrete trafficking

I was on-site today when the concrete truck arrived, and so I was able to watch as they poured the concrete into our foundations!

It was a very technical set up, with the concrete truck being up on the road (probably 3-4 metres above the foundations) and pouring it into a 'chute' made from old bits of metal.. and the guys directing it with another piece at the end.

Having not built a house before.. I don't really know what they do in other countries, but I thought this was a pretty cool set-up.

Given that it's pretty boring watching concrete dry, I went to the beach this afternoon and indulged in a foot massage. :-)

Sunset on the plot

Sunset view from sub-basement level. The steel frames sticking up in the air will be part of our foundations!

Foundations

After the excitement of the digger, there was not much action last week. However, the guys were back on site yesterday and have started to mark out where the concrete footings will go...

Last week I had quite a few social engagements. On Tuesday, I went to the Quiz Night at "The Elephant & Castle (yep, an English pub) with the crew from the hill. The pub puts on a BBQ & Quiz Night every month... but this was the first one for me (since they stopped during the quiet/Monsoon season). It was a good start - because we won!! :-)

Then on Wednesday, I went to the monthly "Sisters on Samui" lunch with the ladies. This time it was at an African restaurant.

Ian was home again on the weekend, and we spent most of Saturday lazing on the beach! Our friends Viona, Wendy and Roger came around for dinner on Saturday night - and we tested out a few new recipes... Chicken marinated in a Mango Lime sauce, Greek Salad, and Feta Cheese in a Lime, Garlic & Oil Vinaigrette (all ingredients fresh from the market). Yum!

On Sunday, we drove out to Bang Po... on the north west of the island (around 30 minutes away), and had seafood lunch on a quiet beach: crab cooked in a light curry sauce, steamed fish with lime, and veggies! Aroy Mak (which means 'very tasty').

The Thai people who manage the complex where we live are really friendly... and have started to cook some tasty Thai food for me. Last week I had dinner with 'Mom', 'Nut' and 'Sai' - we had spicy Gang (hard to describe, sort of between a prawn-langoustine-moreton bay bug), and some curries. This morning, 'Nut' brought me some crab with glass noodles (leftovers from their breakfast). They are even teaching me some Thai phrases, which I will hopefully remember.

The security guard in our complex is also really nice, his name is 'We'. He does odd jobs during the day, and is the 'security guard' at night. He has a cute little nickname for me 'Tamalin'... which is actually how the Thai's pronounce 'Tamarind'. He's such a cheerful guy, works so hard, and has very little. The other day I saw him shaving in front of his motor bike mirror... puts everything in perspective. Life is good!

T.

Day 1 - we've started !!

Today is the official start day for our villa - an important milestone! If all goes to plan, we'll have a house by mid-August!

I can't describe how exciting it was to see the digger on site today. It's a shame that Ian's working in Singapore, and wasn't there to share the excitement.

In this picture you can see the digger on our plot... digging a big hole for the footings (foundations).

T.

The start of something special.....

We formally (and finally!) signed a contract with our builder today, so work is commencing on the plot!

In the photo BJ (our builder, a Scandinavian guy who has been building on the island for years) and Ian are admiring the wooden stakes that will be used to measure out the land for the big digger that should be coming next week.

Our land extends to the grey electricity meter in the middle of the picture, the fate of the big green tree to the right of it is currently a hot item of debate - the site managers want to keep it, but we have heard that this type of tree drops reddish berries which stain anything they land on, unfortunately in this case our pool terrace...

We also discovered today that the electricity meter (which also houses the phone cables) is hosting a colony of ants, we are currently calculating how much rent to charge them.

Rainy day in Samui

We were out exploring in the rain today... and found some very pretty Frangipani flowers!

Ian & I went out on a "date" on Friday night to Peti's 'Pangaea Bar' in Cheong Mon. Fab cocktails and great food. Loved the frozen margarita's and the lobster hokey-pokey! :-)

Lazy Saturday morning at home ... a walk along the beach... followed by a BBQ at Dean & Irit's place - a gathering with our neighbours from the "hill" to farewell Olivier (he went back to Bali today).

We had lunch at the One Dollar Cafe today, before dropping Ian off at the airport (en-route to Singapore again). I then went to help Wendy set up her classroom at the pre-school where she works... new term starts tomorrow... so I was tasked to make bright poster boards. My presentation skills coming in handy - but this time cutting coloured paper and double sided tape, rather than cutting/pasting in MS Powerpoint.

Quiet night in - burritos for dinner and watching CSI with Wendy & Roger!

T.

Our house (or should I say resort ?)

At last, some photos of our new rental house (we moved in on 24th Dec). And yes, I picked the sunniest day to take the pictures!

We're here for atleast the next 6 months - until our house is ready!

I think it's a cute 1BR house, built Thai style... which means our bedroom and kitchen are separate lockable rooms only accessible from the balcony (ie. you have to walk outside to get from the bedroom to the kitchen). Fortunately there's an ensuite bathroom. The locks are very simple - padlocks!!

Since we've been going through the plans for our new house (the one we're building), I learnt a cute name for the hose that's next to the toilet - our builder called it a 'Lower Shower'... and yes, all Thai houses have them. Totally irrelevant, but interesting nonetheless...

The swimming pool

Just a few steps from our house... ahh!!

:-)

Our balcony

The rest of the complex

Ian bought me an orchid for Christmas!

Surat Thani - our province

Koh Samui is located within the province of Surat Thani, and I just read that Surat Thani means the City of Good People! :-)

Happy New Year !!

We weren't sure what to do for New Years, and decided to check out a new-ish groovy bar overlooking Chaweng Lake... called 'Q Bar'.

www.qbarsamui.com

The bar is perched up on a hill, and has great panoramic views around the Chaweng area. Needless to say, we spent most of the night on the balcony.... a fab place to to see all the fireworks and lanterns.

It was our first big night out to a hip bar since we left London - so it was quite an exciting experience. We normally go to small Thai bars, or just have a few drinks at friends places (yes, I know ... we should get out a bit more, ha-ha). We think we got home around 3am, after stopping for a late night snack of chicken and chips (made freshly by Graziano, the Italian guy who runs the 'Roast Chicken' joint in Bangrak).

Today (1st Jan) we went down to one of the beaches on the south of the island - where they do Kite Surfing. We thought it would be fun to fly our little kite - but unfortunately after a 1 hour drive, there wasn't enough wind... so we just chilled out on the beach. We stopped for a yummy lunch on the way back - at a great little restaurant called 'Beverly Hills' - which is perched up on a cliff overlooking the sea. Great views, and very yummy food - we had Red Snapper cooked in a spicy coconut sauce, along with Kan Kong our favourite Asian vegetable (aka 'Pad Pak Bung Fai Deng' in Thai). Mmm..

We have also reached an important stage in the house project. We got the final drawings from the architect (Yay!), and our builder gave us the quote! We spent a few hours going through the pricing with the builder on Saturday - getting it to a more affordable level. The next step is for our builder to tweak the bill of materials, and then we're ready to sign the contract and hand over a big wad of cash! We should get the contract signed this week, and building should start a few days later! Exciting times!!! :-)

After such an exciting weekend - we are in need of a quiet night in.... in fact, Ian is already snoozing (snoring too) on the balcony!

We hope you all had a wonderful (and memorable) New Year's celebrations... and look forward to catching up with some of you later this year! :-)

T.

Fireworks, and view from Q Bar

The lanterns - up, up and away!

Drinking champagne at Q Bar