Cake and fighting

I just wanted to come and say a very big thank you for all the birthday wishes I got from you all. I had a lovely day and it was enhanced by 21st century communications 'writing on my wall' and 'blog comments.'

This is my birthday cake as made by Daughter yesterday. We're holed up in the apartment for the start of the holiday, and with nothing to decorate the cake with, she used jam! I love it.

Fighting broke out on my birthday on the Thai/Cambodian border over a land dispute. We were going to Cambodia next week - I am beginning to wonder at our travel plans being jinxed - but we've decided not to go. We've changed our plans to stay safe. We'll go to the beach, my three can scuba dive and I can write.

My writing is going well. I sent my first 10,000 words to my mentor yesterday along with a 'sort of synopsis' which was the first time I had managed to cobble together on paper what the plan was. I am really excited about getting some feedback.

The Weekend

On Saturday Husband and children went scuba diving. I went along for the ride on the speedboat, and for the snorkelling.

I floated about on the water and could see for metres and metres, and the longer I stayed still, the more I could see. I saw lots of barracudas, puffer fish, a big turtle, (that’s it for the technical terminology) some pretty blue and yellow fish that seemed to think I was one of them (boy, must they be stupid?) plus lots of others of all colours. There were bright blue star fish lounging on rocks and coral, and some kind of big planty thing that looked like a cobalt blue and black tarantula! Eeek. (Gosh those Latin names are just dripping from my mouth, eh?)

The landscape out in the sea was spectacular. I love those big organic shapes of rocks and islands but I see them as an artist not an adventurer - I have no wish to climb them. I want to touch their texture, look for images in them and in their negative spaces. I want to record the patterns in the rock face and the jagged edges of corrosion.

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On Sunday we had no plans, apart from a booking at the spa for Husband and me in the afternoon.

Daughter wanted to go to the beach to collect litter. (I must have done something right). She dressed in a ‘Global Citizen’ t-shirt she got from a school trip and took a bag to the beach. It wasn’t the cleanest beach ever – nothing sinister was found, just detritus left behind by people who don’t seem to care enough. When she’d filled her bag she took it to reception to ask for another bag, which they gave her. Half an hour later a team of cleaners had been dispatched to the beach. (We weren’t intending to be critical but we were a bit embarrassed.)

I had a lovely facial at the spa. (Although what with this facial and birthday facial last week, I have erupted in spots, so I’m rather glad to be on a remote island, right now.) Husband had a massage. In my relaxed post facial state I managed to fling my contact lens lid into the jungle ravine next to me, never to be seen again.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the resort pool. Husband was brave enough to race Daughter, who is scarily fast, and Son went up and down the water slide.

Phi Phi Island 1

Okay, here are some pictures, then. You can see the weather isn’t perfect, not totally sunny, but for people who spend most of their time in the pollution of Bangkok, it’s pretty darn close to perfect. The gentle breeze is most welcome.

The first picture is the view from the spa over the resort and out to sea.

The second picture is early this morning on our way to the dive centre for scuba diving (Husband, Son and Daughter) and snorkelling (me). It was among the best snorkelling I’ve done.

The third one is the other end of the beach.

I'm back

Well, I'm back. I had the loveliest time in the UK although it was exhausting too. However, I didn't belong anywhere this time. It was all familiar, but nowhere was properly home.

I met two Novel Racer bloggers while in the UK: Jen and Helen. Jen and I made a pact for our launch parties (ha ha ha). Helen has (most impressively) got her first draft done which is very exciting and renewed my enthusiasm for my own WIP.

I was dead tired by the time I came to the end of my Grand Tour of the Beattie/Stevens clan - and climbed on to the aeroplane grateful to be able to stop living out of a suitcase. I woke in the night on the 'plane knowing I should stay awake because it would make the jetlag easier but someone had been by and put grit in my eyes and they wouldn't open. I sat there in my inadequate seat thinking about going home, but for the life of me in my confused and comatosed state, I couldn't work out if I was going to the UK or to Bangkok.

On my first full day in Bangkok I had a spa morning arranged with friends: I d booked a jetlag massage which was lovely, but resulted in my returning to the unconscious state. It meant I was alert enough (or maybe not, considering) to meet Ms Melancholy and her family that evening (see here). I'm still punishing myself for the social faux pas made there...

I woke on Friday morning with a ferocious migraine which meant I had to cancel my (urgent) website lesson and didn't get the (urgent) voting form up on the website before Husband and I came down to Koh Chang (Elephant Island) for me to try scuba diving. The family had done their 'Open Water Diver' training here and the staff were lovely, gentle and encouraging, so as a total coward I decided I'd like to come here for my 'Discover Dive'. I was clothed up in all the scuba paraphernalia, told to jump in and then instructed to submerge... this was my training.

You know what? We can't breathe underwater and my brain and my heart had a stand up (alright, floating) altercation about this fact. I tried several times, but each time I submerged I wanted to run (that's quite hard in water, wearing flippers, a tank of oxygen weighing as much as me (that's a lot) and a mask. He (the instructor) just wanted me to 'go down.' Like it was as simple as that. Anyway, I bottled it. I couldn't do it and I got out. I felt terrible: like a failure and that I'd let husband down who so wants me to discover and share the world of diving. It took until this morning for me to realise what a crap piece of teaching I'd had: or non-teaching. Maybe I'll try again in a pool in Bangkok, or maybe I won't.

Now that I'm back I'm going to have a potter around all my regular blogs and say hello. See you soon.