The View from Nongkhai

Part 30

Published

10 March 2006

Visit to UK (contd)

In episode 29 I paused the tale of our visit to UK when we were with Dan in Broadstairs.

We spent the next 10 days with my parents at Hollyfield, preparing for, enjoying, and getting over Christmas. In the week before Xmas, Dott and I took the tube to London. Our first destination was the London Eye. We had carefully chosen the day with regard for the weather and were rewarded with splendid views of London and the surrounding counties when we were at the top. We took a lot of photos, here are some of them.

just started, looking east   towards the Jubilee footbridge

about half way up looking west to Westminster & Lambeth bridges

Houses of Parliament, Big Ben &  Westminster Bridge

Buckingham Palace & The     Serpentine

just over the top and starting to descend

the view of the 'Eye' from the Jubilee footbridge

Once we had completed our 'turn' of the eye, we walked along the South Bank to the Jubilee footbridge, where we crossed over the river, meeting Eric Bristow (an English darts player) and a film crew in mid span. From the Embankment we walked north up Northumberland Avenue to Trafalgar Square, where we took more photos until the camera battery expired.

Left Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column, while above Dott sits on the base of the Column

From Trafalgar Square Dott and I walked north to Leicester Square where we stopped for a fish and chip lunch, then through Soho, passing by Chinatown and through Berwick Street market until we reached Oxford Street, arriving just as the illuminated decorations were being switched on at dusk. We visited a number of well known stores, but all the walking had tired Dott, and she had little appetite for shopping (part of my cunning plan). To conclude our visit, we walked back along Oxford Street to Regent Street, then down Regent street to Piccadilly Circus where we got the tube train back to Cockfosters. The drive from Cockfosters to Hatfield takes you through Potters Bar, so we stopped for our evening meal at a Thai restaurant there with the name 'Thai Rack'. This is actually a very clever play on both words in both the English and Thai languages.

 The food was excellent, so good in fact that we went back a couple of weeks later. This guy (left) seemed to be in charge, shame on me that I can't remember his name, but what I do remember is that he came from Udonthani, only 55 km from Nongkhai, and when he presented the bill he gave us an unsolicited discount, probably because we too came from Issan. The chef (right) also came from Issan, but somewhat further south, as she came from Buri Ram. 

For many years my mother and father have spent their Christmases staying with their very good friends Joan and Roy. Sadly Roy died just before Xmas 2004, so it was inevitable that Xmas 2005 would be different. When I visited my parents in May/June last year (part 19) my mother told of her plan to invite Joan to Hollyfield for Xmas. I thought that it was an excellent idea, but was worried that at 82 (and my father at 87) she would be taking on a lot of work. So we jointly agreed that I would come in December with Dott, and the five of us would spend Xmas together, with Dott and me undertaking as much as possible of the chores, leaving mum to organize while enjoying her rôle as hostess. It worked very well, and all five of us enjoyed our first Xmas together. For Xmas day Dott and I wore traditional festive Thai clothing, right, complete with glass of champagne.

Saturday had been spent doing most of the preparation, so that Xmas day we had only to do the cooking. We had so much prepared and cooked that we didn't need to cook again for three days.

l to r Mum, Dad & Joan raise a glass         

the Xmas table       

     flaming Xmas pudding

I offered a choice of wine on Xmas day, hence the two bottles on the table. Joan and Dott went for the Medoc, while Mum and I went for a St. Emilion. It had been a gift from Mark and Linda when we visited them some two weeks earlier. It was the last Chateau Moulin St. Georges from Mark's cellar. I have to say thank you Mark, it was wonderful, Mum and I managed to make it last until Boxing day. There was a sprinkling of snow on the ground (below left) when Joan went home on Tuesday, so Dott and I delayed our journey to Bury St Edmunds until Wednesday. This turned out to be a good decision as on Wednesday the roads were clear, and most of the fields had no more than a 'dusting' (below centre). That changed as we approached Bury St. Edmunds, where there had been a heavy snowfall (below right).

In Suffolk, Dott and I once more stayed in Chris's house, but spent most of our time with my daughter and her family. We did appreciate the freedom afforded by Chris's absence, and repeat our thanks for the use of his house and his car during our stay. When I visited UK in May and June last year, my daughter decided it would be a good time to move from the village of Laweshall to a house on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds. This time she decided to move from the outskirts of Bury St. Edmunds into the town centre. Below in the old house, Anisa (below left) demonstrated how a tiara should be worn, while centre her parents Jacq and Pras have a laid back style and right Chandi just prefers to hold hers.

Jacq wanted to be in the new house for the New Year, so we planned the move for the last Friday in December. We woke to find Bury St. Edmunds in the middle of a heavy snowfall, with strong winds. Effectively a blizzard. Not withstanding the atrocious weather conditions, we agreed we should proceed with the move, and drove very carefully into town to hire a van. Our decision turned out to be the right one, as the snowfall eased, then stopped, then turned to rain in the course of the next hour. We were able to complete the move that day, although there remained a lot of organising to do.

Left Anisa and Chandi ready for bed in their new bedroom in the new house.

to be concluded next episode........

Discovery

"A company that will go to the ends of the Earth for its people will discover that it can hire them for about 10% of the cost of Americans."

I didn't find this as funny as some of those previously included, but I especially wanted to include the picture.

Nongkhai visitors at The Outback

Friday night is music night at the Outback, alternating between a country evening and a rock'n'roll evening. Last Friday was the first rock'n'roll evening and was attended by some English visitors who turned out to be from my old hometown of Folkestone. I lived there from 1988 until 1999 when I came to live in Thailand. Below left are Dan and Emily, while centre is their friend Neil demonstrating an interesting way to smoke a cigarette, he doesn't light it. Below right a group photo, Neil still sporting the unlit cigarette.

Hooray I am soon going to be very very rich!

To be continued......

I've never taken an IQ test, but there is one available at www.tickle.com so I gave it a try last week. I did my best but Dott was wanting to go out and eat, so I rushed it a little, and was disappointed to get the answer to one of the 40 questions wrong. They gave me an IQ of 140 which seemed to be fairly good, and said that my type is Visionary Philosopher. Well now we know. OK that's enough for this episode. Apologies to my friends and family in the UK not yet mentioned, but in the next episode I will conclude the tale of our trip to UK, write about Glen's Beach Party, preview a surprise at the Meeting Place, have photos from Micky and Oui's wedding and the current festival in Nongkhai, plus of course anything else that I think might amuse or interest you.

If you want to write to us, but you don't know any of our other email addresses, you can email us at mail@nongkhai.co.uk 

Best Wishes to all our readers 

Tony and Dott 

P.S. Doughnut says 'Woofs to all readers' and special kisses to Kim.

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