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Published: November 2nd 2008
Where's that...?
Sydney Harbour Bridge perchance?
No. The Wear Bridge in Sunderland Tyne and Wear. It's similar though. They may have the opera house, we have Sunderland Empire and panto."How can they be tired of England?" - as sung by Dirty Pretty Things
Well, this is it. We have now been in this green and pleasant land since July the 1st and it's been a blast. After our well documented stay in Bournemouth we have since spread our time around the North and the Midlands with stops in various places including Brewood, Staffordshire (Kate's parents), Horden, County Durham (Kris's parents) and Leeds (mainly at our mate's Mark and Helen's). It was slightly longer than planned, due to the fact that Kate broke her foot on the last day at work in Bournemouth. And no, she wasn't drunk. Walking out of work, she went over on her ankle and fell off a kerb, breaking her fifth metatarsal in the process. That's a cool footballer injury made trendy by David Beckham. So instead of the month visiting family and friends, it turned into 2 months of hobbling around in a comedy built up shoe. But she's all better now so off we go. It's been fantastic to see everyone for such a long time and we've really appreciated everyone's hospitality! We've loved being back.
But...in 45 minutes a taxi is
picking us up bound for Manchester airport where we will be catching flight to Bangkok. We had no idea we would be in Thailand again so soon - it's less than a year, we flew home on the 6th of December last year. But we have really missed Asia so we're off to seek more work in cities where it's fine to ride on the back of a moped and call it a taxi, where people eat fried insects on the street and you lose sweat by the pint.
Some folk we caught up with while back will be pleased to hear this, as we are told that our Spain blogs just aren't as exotic as the Asia ones.....By the way, all those of you who read these blogs quietly, hows about you put some comments on this time??!! We can't actually see if anyone reads them, we just see numbers of times the page has been clicked on. We sometimes forget that we write them for people to read at all! It's been great to hear from everyone who has been reading and enjoying our ramblings, so let us know if you do!!
Anyway, apologies for the
Making toast to Rach's new house
Dr Rachel Munday and Dr Kris Kirby - toasting Rach's newly purchased abode in Loughborough with a chilled Bucks Fizz. heading. We aren't really tired of England. That song's just playing on my iPod.
There's some things you never tire of. In poetic style, here's a summary:
....real British pubs, Mum's/Mam's Sunday dinners, crisp walks in the country (in a climate where you're unlikely to die of heat exhaustion, at least before finding a pub anyway), landscapes of rolling fields and hills dotted with little stone houses and fluffy white sheep, nights out with mates we've known for years, nights in with those same mates, fish and chips, British seaside resorts with a pier, rock in the shape of fried breakfasts and the wind so strong it knocks you over and gives you wind burn, beer with silly names like Piddle in the Waddle and Bishops Knob, good old British quality tv (e.g Fat Doctor, The Restaurant and endless soap operas with unbelievable plot lines - I mean, Jack is dead but not really dead but living in the loft ala that bloke from Seaton Carew, but then his schizophrenic foster son sees him and thinks he's going mad, before Jack saves a whole family who have been taken hostage in a church by their brother who was put up
for adoption....only on Hollyoaks), going to the pub with our Dads, jacket potatoes cooked in the oven with lots of cheddar cheese, sherry, people talking about the weather, sleeping under huge, warm duvets in our own beds, being up to date with everything our families are up to, playing with our pets and being able to say things you don't really mean - or in fact mean the opposite of - and people understanding that that's "comedy" (eg. one man says to another man in a howling gale - "Nice weather, isn't it?" Comic genius)....actually, just people understanding you at all.
Going back to Bangkok/Vietnam/wherever...
So we're off teaching again. The plan is a stop over in Thailand for a while and then on to Vietnam. Watch this space to see how it develops.
If you've seen the news on Thailand lately you'll know it's been a bit troubled. There have been protests in the street demanding the government step down (including the obligatory tear gas at one stage) and there've been skirmishes at the border between Thai and Cambodian soldiers over a territory dispute. Nonetheless, life by and large appears to continue as before. When we
The newest Kirby
While we were living in England Kris's folks got themselves a new family member, a yellow labrador puppy called Bob. So hours of entertainment were had as he grew up first planned to move to Thailand there was a military coup. In fact, tanks rolled through the streets of Bangkok just as I handed in my notice at my job and told everyone I was moving to Thailand. There was a horrible period when we though we'd have to abandon our trip - tanks on the streets and the army ousting the prime minister never boding well in my sheltered British perception of the world where politicians just tend to mud-sling and encourage our tanks to roll into other countries and not London (steady! No political backlash please). Anyway, the coup was bloodless but the dissatisfaction in Thailand continued throughout our stay pretty peacefully.
We'll see what happens when we're there.
Images of home
Okay, this blog is really just about putting up some photographs from our time back home so sit back and enjoy such spectacles as the Wear Bridge in Sunderland and my mam and dad's dog Barney dressed as Batman.
Watch this space for our update from Krung Thep (that's Bangkok by the way. I'm so cultured...).
Postscript thank yous!
While we were in England, after Bournemouth we were actually technically homeless!
Thank you to all the friends and family who looked after us and fed us during this time. Massive thanks obviously go to our families - who bear the brunt of us being weird wandering gypsy types. THANKS!
Also, big thanks go to Mark and Helen who saw us at their place quite frequently over the last weeks. In our last visit I broke it to Mark that far from being wandering teachers visiting home, we were actually happily living in our Leeds house down the road and holding down England-based jobs. The reason we went round his every Friday, ate his food and drank his beer was in aid of a cunning money-saving tactic in light of the recent "credit crunch".
I was joking of course. But I pretended I wasn't. He knew I was joking even though neither of us laughed. He went along with it but still gave me a beer. That's British humour I think. Quite odd when you analyse it...
Anyway.
We will return.
Watch this space!
Kris and Kate x
PPS I'm finishing this off in Doha airport waiting for our connecting flight to Bangkok. They
Bob the dog
Close-up.
A rare quiet moment. have British-style plugs and to my right is a Costa Coffee. Who'd have thought it....
PPPS We shared this blog and I didn't write the above about all the soap opera stuff. That was Kate, ok?
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liz penny
non-member comment
Happy Birthday Kate
Hope that you enjoyed your birthday. Glad to hear that your foot finally healed and you managed to set off on your travels again. Good luck and keep the blogs flowing