Shopping and Sailing

It's been a pretty hectic week as we prepare for our wedding guests, but we have found time for some retail therapy. We have managed to buy practically all of the furniture we need for the house on Samui [something that would not have been possible six years ago when Tammy first came here as many things simply weren't available).

The local prices are a bit higher than Bangkok, but after taking into account transport costs and the reduced risk of miscommunication/logistical mess ups, we were happy to pay the premium. The fact that we sourced some of the stuff from "Khun Yot", who has helped furnish many of our neighbours over the last few years, meant that we got a pretty good deal, plus he already knows where to deliver.

We have been on a food and booze shopping spree today because we are off for a few day on a sailing trip with our great friends Dave and Michelle from London tomorrow. This should be a real blast as we have around 9 months of to catch up on!

Ian's parents arrive on the day we get back and then it will be full on into the wedding schedule - hope we find time to keep the blog updated!

Finishing touches

Here's a new snapshot of the house. We're hopeful that it will be finished in around 6 weeks time (early August). The builders are busy working on the finishing touches now - there's lots of plastering to smooth the rough concrete edges, the windows might start this week, and the tiling soon after. The windows are 'made to measure' - and apparanty the window making guys come on site with their aluminium supplies and set to work. It will be interesting to see.
















This is not the piece of modern art that it may appear to be - in fact, it's the infinity edge and overflow tank for our swimming pool.




















Tammy went to the monthly 'Sisters on Samui' lunch at Poppies resort yesterday - indulging in very yummy (and yet healthy) food down by the beach. After the lunch formalities and chit-chat was seen to, the girls headed to the 'My Friend' spa for some pampering foot massages (of course, this helps with the digestive process!). Following that, it was off to the tailor to help Wendy decide on a dress, and finally a stop off at Pangaea for a cocktail with Peti (it was her last night working there as Manager).

We are going sailing with Michele & Dave for a few days next week, so we probably won't be updating the blog until the end of the month. Till then....

T.

Wedding preparations and furniture hunting

We get married next month and we are busy finalising the details and preparing to greet all the friends and family who are coming over. As we are having a casual affair in a small resort the actual day itself has been very easy to organise - however we are also planning some events in the days leading up to the wedding which need a bit more work.



In Tammys case this gave her an excuse to go on a day trip to Koh Phangnan and check out a spa (not "hard" work by anyones definition!). This gave her a chance to take an updated photo of the hill with our villa now visible (white walls brown roof middle of photo).

The school where our friend Wendy is a teacher is moving location soon and they held a furniture sale at the complex they have just bought. We jumped at the chance to get hold of the pictured sofa at a knock down price.

Aubergine acrylic

Tah-dah! Our painter has started doing his stuff... and the walls now have a few coats of paint. Here's our purple feature wall in the bedroom.

We had a very tiring, but exciting day yesterday - we met with our builder to choose the tiles and bathroom stuff. The first hour was fun... but it got a bit tiring after a while, deciding on the less exciting toilets, sinks and taps in the second hour.

It's hard to believe that our house 'should' be finished in less than 2 months. The electrician is busy making holes in the ceiling ready for the lights to go in, the swimming pool steps are being built today and the overflow tank for the swimming pool infinity edge is nearly finished. Progress is good.

Like watching paint dry...

We chose the paint colours for our villa about 2 weeks ago. We've decided to go with a fairly conservative Gossamer (off-white) on the exterior walls. Inside we've chosen Silver Plume for most of the walls and a very extrovert Dark Triumph (aka Purple) on the feature walls. So, it came as a bit of a surprise when the painter (who doesn't speak English, and we don't speak Thai) came up with a bucket of paint the other day... the colour was Custard Cream... the label said it was Interior Paint... but he was indicating that it would be painted outside!

Fortunately we were able to break through the language barrier - and show him our little paint strips, to explain that we didn't want Custard Cream coloured walls! Although he seemed quite surprised with our choice of Dark Plume (Purple) for the feature walls. To me, it was a case of the Pot calling the Kettle black!

In our neighbourhood, there's several Thai owned houses and buildings which would look really nice if they were painted white, or something similar. But, seemingly after an alcohol induced decision (or perhaps a promotion at the hardware store), they seem to end up painting the outside of their houses brilliant shades of apricot, pink or green! It doesn't seem right that someone who probably lives in an Apricot house can pass judgement on our soon to be Purple walls ;-)

Luckily the Gossamer paint arrived today, and the outside walls are starting to assume their new colour.

Another year older

It was Ian's birthday on Saturday, and I surprised him with a special brunch at Padma (the beachside restaurant in the Karma resort). We were really spoiled with a private table on the pool deck, right by the shore.















We haven't been out for breakfast since we left the UK, so we took the opportunity to indulge in Eggs Benedict along with a bottle of Italian Prosecco. After the meal, we snoozed on one of their 'double sized Sun Loungers' for an hour or so - then once we'd woken up, a swim in their pool. In between naps and laps, we could see the Samui Regatta yachts racing on the horizon. A beautiful way to spend the day!















In the evening, we invited some friends for 'Sunset Drinks' at our half completed villa. Despite the lack of home comforts (like electricity, chairs & tables) people seemed to enjoy themselves and stayed for a few hours after sunset. It was full moon this weekend, so after everyone had left - we had a quiet drink basking in the moonlight. Ah... young love ;-)

Doggy day care

We've got a new friend called Sammy! His owners Jacquie & Dave have been busy with the Sailing Regatta this week - so Sammy's been hanging out with us.

One of our future neighbours - Cat - has also been busy in the kitchen, baking home-made dog biscuits. Sammy loves them! Thanks Cat!

Look what you can do with a bit of concrete!

There's been quite a few new additions to the house over the last month. The first I'll mention is our new 'feature wall' (pictured below). We decided to add this to give the pool area more privacy from the street. Yet again, our builder's plastering skills impress us. We're not able to communicate much with the guy who does this work, but fortunately we know how to say "Pretty" in Thai (Suay).
















This is supposed to be our 'water feature', but we're not sure how it will turn out. For the time being we're keeping an open mind - otherwise, we'll just fill it with pot plants.




















This is one of the worker's kids. Although she's very shy, she let me take this photo yesterday.
















This shows the infinity edge of our swimming pool. They are currently building the concrete structure for the overflow tank.

A road trip to the mainland

We went across to the mainland on Wednesday - to collect the camera from the repair shop. So it seemed appropriate to take a few photo's during the day.

This shot was taken in the Big-C supermarket carpark. I've never seen so many pick-up trucks (m.affectionately called Ute's in OZ).
















We then stopped in Donsak for a late lunch. Evidenced here by the dishes of seafood that we ordered. The next photo shows the river view from the restaurant - very much a fishing town.































And finally, we had to wait 2 hours for the ferry back to Samui. We forgot that it was a public holiday the next day- and the ferry queue was very long.