Thursday 28th November

Today I learnt to cook Thai food; Grren curry, fish cakes, noodle soup and stir fried vegetables. YUM! I went to Pum's Thai place for 5 hours of market shopping, learning to cook and eating my creations. I took fish cakes and curry back to Matt (to ensure he didn't waste away). Tomorrow we are going to Phi Phi and then heading to Koh Lanta.

I have taken the job at Hendon Prep school.

That's all for now!

I forgot to mention (how could I???) that we went to see Harry Potter 4 when we arrived in Bangkok. We did it in style and went to the VIP showing (comfy seats, a blanket to keep you from freezing in the air con and the option of beer if you want it, all for 250 baht (about 3 pounds fifty) each). We enjoyed it but wish we'd re-read the book first to see what was missing. Plus the Weasley twins are looking too old for school now.

The other news is that today I have been offered a job, covering maternity leave in a reception class for 2 terms at Hendon Prep school. This means that the real world would be ready to greet me on our return to the UK! A bit of a scary prospect!

Thursday 24th November

We left Sydney - it was strange and sad to go - and have arrived safely in Bangkok. It is funny to be back here again after a year in Oz. Today we are sorting out our trip down to the islands, geting fitted for more tailoring and just hanging out, may even have to spend the afternoon by the pool. Will get around to emailing people soon!

Monday 21st November

Today is our last full day in Australia, we fly to Bangkok tomorrow afternoon. It feels very strange to be leaving here and be beginning the journey home. We have booked ourselves into a nice hotel in Bangkok and after a few days there we'll head down to some island or other for a proper relaxing beach holiday! Just to make sure that we really are brown when we get back!

Today we're making sure that everything is packed, ready to ship home etc etc and are then heading to the Aquarium (to see platypusses/platypi?) for our final bit of touristy stuff.

Monday 14th November

We have had a pretty busy week getting everything sorted with the van so it was ready for the car market. On Saturday we set up the van, all made up and looking good with the signs we'd got from the people we'd bought it from. By 10.30 we'd had one guy showing an interest and was coming back for a look with his girlfriend. By 12.30 they had come back for a 2nd look, gone for a test drive (more scary than skydiving Matt says as the guy had never driven a right hand drive car on the left hand side of the road before!!!) and offered us $4000. We accepted (obviously) and are meeting up today to sort out the paperwork. It is a bit sad to say goodbye to our home of the past 4 1/2 months but we're glad that someone else will get to enjoy it.

We have also had a good weekend seeing Nat and Jez, showing them the sights of Sydney. It's been great having familiar faces around (but a little strange, it felt like we'd only seen them yesterday) and catching up with news from home.

Today we are hoping to change our flights to Bangkok so that we can spend a month in Thailand. See you all at Christmas!