The Thai consulate in Birmingham have really surpassed all expectations. We sent the visa applications on Monday morning and they returned them complete on Wednesday morning!!! How about that? No more worrying whether our passports would be back in time. The CRB forms for Plan International are still away and it is probably a stretch to hope for this week even.
Because it is not nearly busy enough we wanted to complete the upstairs lick of paint approach to redecorating so we can put the house on the market when we get back. So we are doing our room, paint, lighting and curtains. Should look lovely once ready but a complete bombsite now so we are sleeping in the tent. Good practice for the rooftop chalet we have booked in Bukit Lawang. This looks awesome.
We now have an itinerary that we are happy with. It has involved setting some things in stone like going to Sumatra because the flights (no ferry from Pedang any more) had to be booked. Still this has made the malaria tablet calculations massively more simple.
I watched the bridge over the river Kwai last night. Seems odd that we will be there in not too long. I have no idea what the kids will make of it. I don’t know what I make of it.
We have set out what clothes we plan to take so we can establish what we don’t yet have. It is a bigger list than we thought and several early purchases look very utilitarian and we may relax into more surf style for the remainder so as not to look like someone from the bridge over the river Kwai!
Totally fed up with the weather here and cannot wait for some consistent heat. This is going to change when we get there and end up hunting for air con I am sure. The grass is always greener.
Feelings about work being too much to handle are fading away when I contemplate that in 3 weeks we will be at the airport. Life will go on and no amount of preparation will stop all the plates I have been spinning from crashing to the ground. Maybe I can just describe which will fall first?
Thats all for now. Will update the map and present the itinerary later.
