Merry Christmas from Vietnam Hope all your holidays are jolly and your days are merry and bright. Our second Christmas in the tropics and it's no less weird. It's not that cold, there is definitely no snow, the kids are at school.... But the Muppets Christmas carol is on the tv and I think Santa Claus the movie is on later.... love Kate and Kris ... read more

Well, they finally left the airport. It took a whole week, but eventually after an impossible stalemate, via a political wrangle I don't really understand, the national courts decided that the government should be dissolved and the PM banished from politics for 5 years. As a results there was jubilation in the occupied airports as the PAD had achieved their goal. Meanwhile, on the streets of Bangkok, their red-clad counterparts in the pro-government group, held angry protests. Scandal and mudslinging abounded as each side accused the other of corruption and violence. Nonetheless, whoever threw grenades in Bangkok and whoever fired guns and whoever was corrupt and unjust...there remains the fact that closing down the airport has had a big impact on the Thai tourism industry. I wonder how many people who are taking a 2 week ... read more

The retail district Returning to Bangkok we headed to a different area. We decided to stay near Siam Square right in the middle of the modern, commercial district. There's a little side street of cheap guesthouses (and some not so cheap) nestled in the shadow of the monstrous MBK shopping mall that we've stayed in numerous times before. We got a great big room on the 5th floor of the Pranee Building with a balcony overlooking the city lights for only 400 Baht. A bargain when you consider other rooms on the street were going for over 1000 due to the addition of cable TV. The plan during our stay was to do some shapping at the mll and have a night out in the posher (err...okay, at least more expensive) part of town (no, Kate's ... read more

Meanwhile, back in Bangkok.... So we made it. After a mammoth flight with an 8 hour monster stop over in Qatar, we landed in Bangkok. It was about 7pm and we loaded onto a bus and headed for Khoa San Road. Once checked in to our hotel, despite having not slept in 30 hours - we headed to the bar. We reasoned that this way we would go to bed at a normal time and combat jet lag. Right? Anyway, we spent about 5 days in the big smoke and our predictions were confirmed - it was kinda like we never left! Weirdly, we had a similar feeling about England when we came back after 13 months in Asia. Having lived more or less in Bangkok there was little we needed to see - so we ... read more

Kris While we were still in Madrid we arranged a job in England for the summer - working for EF International Language Schools in Bournemouth. The draw of this, other than money was the free accommodation and the fact that, unlike other language summer school we didn't have to look after kids between lessons. Anyway, the way the summer schools system works is that lots of people from around the world come to study English in Britain for the duration of the summer. Some of them even stay for a whole academic year, but there's a particularly high peak in the summer months. As a result, language schools that cater for this need a lot of temporary staff during this time. Which is good for me and Kate. Think of Bournemouth. What springs to mind? Personally, ... read more