Christmas celebrated, New Year anticipated

The Norwegian Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square
 this year is surrounded by children's poems 

After my flying visit to England in December, I returned to the "Juniper Tree" just in time for our busiest period. The decorations went up in the Office, Reception & Dining Room and we hit Makro for the veg. order for Christmas dinner! Not a Brussels Sprout to be had, so we settled for snow peas, carrots, roast potatoes, mini sweet corns and green beans. The turkeys were collected, still hot, from the supermarket who cooked 2 of them for us and along with hot stuffing and with "pigs in blankets"; our Christmas Feast was amazing! The Tables in the dinning rooms had holly, tinsel and candles and the extra green table cloths transformed it's usual rather functional appearance; making it truly special.

Extra, temporary, staff were needed for the Festivities!

Danger men at work!

The next challenge was to get 2 large turkeys, two large rolled turkeys and 2 large hams carved before they went cold. Ben was a willing volunteer and together we managed to supply the 70 plus guests with a choice of neatly sliced (by Ben) or rather mutilated meat (by me!) No one complained about the taste, and following the meal, Joan and I persuaded the kitchen Staff to come into the dining room for a well deserved cheer; this turned into a spontaneous standing ovation with compliments shouted in at least half a dozen languages that I could hear.

Cool?

Of course, the hi light for us was having Emma with us for Christmas. Being on duty, we couldn't get out and about much in Chiang Mai, but we did escape to the water-falls near Doi-Sutep National Park.
Here, by a rock pool we enjoyed a lovely cool off, as the temperature during the middle of the day was around 32 deg.
Emma really only has two major fears one is sudden loud noises; fireworks, in particular and the other is creepy crawlies. These we were able to provide in quantities. A nightly routine developed of banging the wooden walls of her house before returning home each night! Only one persistent Gecko, managed to disrupt her sleep. As for fireworks, one of the guests has persuaded us to have some on New Year's Eve- so it's probably good that Emma is safely back in Egham; as Thai fireworks seem so much more explosive.

Another excursion was to our favourite food venue. The official name of this restaurant is "Lemon Grass" but the tag line for their advertising says it all: "No View, but Tasty!" The walls, you will notice are covered in genuine graffiti messages about the amazing food that is not only very inexpensive but arrives quickly, is hot (not always thought to be a virtue here) and the staff seem genuinely pleased to have you in their establishment!

Wot, no chop-sticks?

Messages can be read from visitors from every Nation, celebrating all kinds of events and of course many on holiday but they all have one theme, They want to come back!

That explains that, then!

 Of course the real gems in the Chiang Mai catering world are Ouan and Phet, our Cooks at the Juniper Tree. Pictured below, on Christmas morning, they remained calm and smiling throughout the long job of providing three full meals. They do get the day off on New Year's Day and this will give Joan and I an opportunity to get into the kitchen.

One of our guests, a former baker, suggested we make Pizza for our evening meal at New Year. He and others quickly offered to join in and so we are planning a pizza feast! We expected to make breakfast and soup for lunch but now we are going the full hog and taking orders for various toppings to get from Makro tomorrow! (Where would we be without Makro?)

On all the big occasions  everyone here wants to skype/facetime etc to their families around the globe, It's fascinating to watch as people calling different time zones gather and disperse in hourly groups. We had a little of this as we fixed to contact both Richard and Joanne at 10 O'clock their time, Richard being with Andrea's family in Berlin meant that we had a hour with them before speaking to Joanne and Jon in Reading. Some of guests, however, had lists of people in many time zones to fit in. The technology is great an it really helps you to feel less far away after these calls.

Christmas Thai Style!

Suk San Wan Christmad! (or Wishing you a Happy Christmas)
The lessons go on.... however recently other matters have interrupted our progress. I made a flying visit  back to the UK mid December for the best of reasons; to attend Joanne's Masters graduation. The flights this time went: Chiang Mai to Bangkok, Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur to London. I had to buy a tee shirt at KL, the air-con was so efficient I was freezing! 
Arriving at Heathrow in the early hours and tubing to Boston Manor was straight forward, however looking at the bus times it looked better to walk the 1 1/2 miles to Hanwell rather than stand for 20 mins in the -2 degrees. Three of the urban fox population were the only ones disturbed in my brisk walk through the deserted streets.
I enjoyed a restful few days in London staying with Carolyn before the graduation, meeting with Richard one evening, and visiting the National Library & The National Gallery, as well as a look at platform 9 and three quarters at King's Cross Station

The day of the graduation was superb! I met Emma at Royal Holloway and we made it to Joanne and Jon's in good time to meet Jon and to walk down to join Joanne at the University. Joanne graduated with an MSc in Geo-Archaeology. Reading Uni did a good ceremony with a well timed and genuinely interesting speech from the new Vice Chancellor. We then enjoyed a drinks reception with the Department in the Museum of Rural Life; a part of the University. This takes place amongst various wooden, horse drawn carts and farm implements which interests me at least!
After these celebrations there we went back to the flat to continue the party until it was time to meet with Richard and Andrea at Browns for Dinner! It's a rare and precious time when we get all three of our children together and with such good things to celebrate! Jon has recently started a new job with the Guardian, Richard has just had a paper published in a scientific journal on top of starting his new job with a London sustainability consultancy, Andrea


has started working as a School Nurse; saying goodbye to shift work! Emma continues to attain good marks in her course and to enjoy the productions of her Musical Theatre company; she has also recently started doing a radio show on Insanity Radio (103.2 fm) with her friend Lewis. It's on a Friday at 12.00 till 2.00, you can get it on radio player if you don't live near Egham. (like most of us!). Joanne's Graduation, however, was our focus that evening and it was a truly memorable day As I am writing this blog Emma is only 800 miles from Bangkok, according to the Eva Airlines web site, she will be with us by about 6.30 pm (Thai time).

We toasted absent friends!

After the excitement of the graduation I drove North for Lancashire. I had various essentials to track down; missing glasses, a tax disc and supposedly redirected post. I was successful in the main, but who knows where my newly repaired specs have ended up (they got broken in an over-enthusiastic hug as we left the UK!)
I made a very brief call to see some old friends at Witton Park, stayed over night with my brother, had lunch with him and my brother-in law and then on to visit neighbours and friends around Higham and Sabden. It was lovely to see everyone  even though we've only been away a few months. I preached and led the Carol Service at Sabden Baptist Church and then drove off into the setting sun to return to Thailand.

Once back here it was only a matter of days before Simon, Melanie and Family set off for their first Christmas in the UK for 11 years. We have also rapidly filled up with guests until now we are probably as full as we can get until late Feb. We are really into the Christmas Spirit now here. We took the stable on the roof rack of the Juniper Tree car to erect in the grounds of the Gymkhana club in readiness for the Christmas Pageant that is held each year. Around 2/300 hundred people came to watch the spectacle of various Church dignitaries and children putting on a traditional nativity play under a massive rain tree that grows on the golf course. Paper lanterns hung from the branches, we all held candles and sang our way through the familiar carols and songs of the season. For me, a bunch of marauding angels made the evening, their only competition were the 3 Kings riding some seriously comic cut-out camels. The right blend of gentle humour and participation with the profound truth of the story told made it memorable for many reasons. This group of shepherds were seeing whose candles made the best wax drip shapes!


We had a showing of the Muppets Christmas Carol when a pile of children lay on cushions and the adults sat on sofas enjoying Dickens Christmas classic retold as only the Muppets could! We are having a Christmas Eve carol service and a good number of families have signed up to take part.
Yesterday, Lilly, the Office manager, invited Joan and I to join with the Thai staff who were having a party for Christmas. Lilly was cooking fried fish and we gave the staff their Christmas gifts from the Juniper Tree. I can see why the staff all want lily to cook fried fish! The red grouper fish have fillets cut from them and are fried in tempura; the remaining whole fish are fried separately and the meal is built on top of this, using the body of the fish as a bowl to hold the fiery chilli based sauce and deep fried lemon-grass, kaffir lime leaves and mixed veg. I expected to say grace for the party but didn't expect to play Father Christmas and then give a vote of thanks(in very broken Thai).
I've gone on too long already, more later!

She has 3 bananas and a bag!

Learning to speak Thai has started in earnest now. However there is not much you can say when your only vocab is a few fruit & veg and basic numbers! Of course, we have very important stuff like the the consonants (please Bob), vowels and, vitally, tones to learn. To be honest, anyone listening in on our lessons, would think we were enrolled on a farmyard noises course; rather than language lessons but that's our poor pronunciation of this beautiful language!
We have been enjoying getting to know our local area too. We have walked past a bar/restaurant near

to the Juniper Tree called the Antique House. It is along side the river and looked quite authentically Thai but accessible to Westerners. We called the other day and were delighted to find that there was live music just starting. The performer was about our age and was tuning an electric guitar. He had a keyboard player behind him who was clearly controlling some backing tracks through the system.
He started with some folky sounding songs in Thai but then went into a variety of classic tunes including "The minute you're gone" Cliff Richard, the Bee Gees, various Elvis numbers and so on. He sang very well and played an accurate, if sparse, counter melody against the track. It was amazing and very enjoyable. Some phrases in the lyrics were strangely re-interpreted but compared to our efforts to speak his language we were humbled! We returned on the evening of our day off to eat and there was a  young female vocalist singing with them, this time all Thai songs but wonderful entertainment all the same.
We went to visit some waterfalls this afternoon. We walked, supposedly, 1 kilometre up a track to eventually find amongst a deeply wooded area a gorge with waterfalls cascading through the trees. Luckily for use the area was devoid of snakes and such like, it looked like it should be teeming with
beasties!
Concerning our work here, we have to be circumspect in what we say. However it is true to say we have found ourselves plenty to do and some work with the guests who have been in very difficult circumstances has been much appreciated. We have enjoyed fellowship with people from all over Asia and beyond and found that attentive listening and friendship has been the key to helping many of these people to find their way to a "better place" than when they arrived here.
One family we have got to know well have 2 wonderful children; a boy and a young girl. The Dad is a university teacher and she a speech therapist. The whole family light the place up and have that wonderful gift of seeing the best in every circumstance. When we had the power cuts they were first to offer to help in any way they could. Another couple we have found inspirational run an employment agency for Phillipino girls in Hong Kong. They provide safe, legitimate jobs for many girls who would otherwise be at risk from exploitation and they have such a positive, loving attitude to their work. Joan has found many avenues to allow her to gather a group of eager learners around her, most recently revamping a world map to show the places all the visitors here have come from. The kids have loved to talk about their home countries and their adopted homes too. They have printed out flags, population statistics and all sorts of interesting facts, whilst at the same time giving their Mums and Dads a few minutes peace and quiet!
Another nice event was the Staff Christmas Treat! Khamsi, the handyman, had sold a load of scrap wood for 3,000 Bt (£62) this was used to pay most of the cost of all 20 of us to go to the Holiday Inn in Chiang Mai, where they do an excellent buffet lunch. The dining room seats 100's in great style and there is a massive range of hot and cold food. (Eat as much as you like!)  As it was the King's birthday many people were wearing yellow or pink (The King's colours). It is also Fathers Day in Thailand, so I suppose we were fortunate to get in! Everyone agreed this was an excellent way to enjoy the run up to our busy season before it gets too hectic. We are virtually ram-full through Christmas and until March now.
I have been gradually updating the electrical wiring of some of the houses on the site and also installing a system for the Site Watchmen to use on their patrols to record their rounds and any issues with them like open windows, intruders or water leaks etc. Both Day and Night Watchmen can now be seen strutting around the site with an air of great purpose as they log their visits to the security tags at strategic places. They both seem to have grown a couple of inches taller!
Simon and Melanie the long term managers here go off home to the UK for Christmas soon and we will be left in charge. It's very hard to believe it's so near to Christmas, given the unbroken sunshine and heat here and even though we have a Christmas tree in our house and sang carols at Church on Sunday it is very bizarre!
Tonight we even spent an evening eating Christmas cake (a gift from a guest) to help us get into the Spirit.

Loy Krathong

Yesterday Joan and I were picked up by our new Thai Teacher. She drove us to her "School" a ground floor room, presumably under her house. The teachers were her husband, mother-in-law and another helper. We were the last of 15 or so to arrive and it was a special lesson about the history and culture of Loy Krathong; a Buddhist festival that happens at the full moon at this time of year.

After a talk about how Loy Krathong started (no one is very sure), and what it's all about (this varies too); we got to make a traditional Krathong, see opposite.
These krathongs are made of a slice of banana stem, decorated with folded banana leaves and flowers. They usually have incense sticks in and candles on. Some people put bits of their finger nails or hair clippings in; which represent casting off negative thoughts and attitudes.
The whole thing seems to be about thanking the river goddess for the year's harvest and appeasing her for polluting the river as they use it.

As the full moon rises the people in Chiang Mai go down to the river Ping and put these kranthongs into the river and, as you can imagine, that's only the beginning of the celebrations! Here they also celebrate Yi Peng at the same time. This involves sending off thousands of paper sky lanterns and fireworks. The sight is absolutely spectacular. A huge procession of musicians, singers and dancers; along with fire breathers and assorted others join in the fun.The whole City centre grinds to a halt and it can get a bit scary as the fireworks are monsters and many younger men are none too bothered about where they set them off!Below are some pictures of the evening's entertainment. Getting home was a challenge, we had to abandon the tuk-tuk and walk!

Thunder bolts and lightning, very very frighting!

An unusual few days here in Chiang Mai. There has been a Hot-Air Balloon festival at the Gymkhana Club (1/2 mile down the road). We awoke on Saturday to see half a dozen balloons flying over our site. It was strange to see the BT logo floating overhead so far from home!

We had an early start because we were having a Board Meeting with the Thai Trustees and the Staff from the Dolphin Bay Juniper Tree. Before that, though, we were meeting early out on the "New Land" to dedicate the site for 2 new houses that we are starting soon.

L/R: Muriel, John, Tim, Simon,Gill, Casper, Ajaan Kapaan (pastor)
Paul,Dr Kressenai, Melanie, Joan, Liz, Khun Pythun (Builder) Joan!

The Chairman of the Trustees is Dr Kresseni, a Surgeon and University Teacher who also chairs the Covenant Foundation. It is the foundation that enables us volunteers to work here in Thailand and they have many projects. One new project, of interest to us is a school, that will aim at providing academic rigour for students who haven't access to good schools.
The meeting went on all day, but there was lots to discuss considering the size of the two Juniper Tree operations now, and the number of staff involved.
The photos show a beautiful, sunny day however, this was to change very quickly! As the fireworks started at the balloon festival that evening, lightening soon upstaged the whole show. A tropical storm swept in and torrential rain, violent winds and thunder made the most amazing noise! 
In the morning one of the gardeners took me down the land to see a very sorry sight. The winds had brought down one of our beautiful rain trees. 

As you can see, the tree fell the right way! The only damage was a small concrete chess table. One thing about Thailand is that instead of paying someone to take the tree away; someone pays for the privilege!
Our little tree was nothing to the next tree related surprise.
Just down the road is a Monastery and next to it is their Holy Tree. The wind sent this monster crashing down onto their water tower, toilet and shower block. As if that wasn't enough, it also took out a string of six or seven electricity pylons and dozens of cables. This meant all the electricity in a mile or so radius went off. The roads around us were all blocked and of course with no electric pumps; we had no water from the taps.
We spend Sunday morning running around buying buckets for water, torches and a generator to power the water pumps. One of the stranger interludes in the generator saga was when we ran out of cash for the extra plugs and wires the lady who runs the best tool shop in Chiang Mai brought round one of her many young helper's to take me to the nearest ATM! This meant getting on the back of his 

motorbike, no helmet, just sandals on my feet and clinging on as we wriggled our way through the cars on the Super Highway and then a short-cut back to the shop, going down back alleys that make a Lancashire Ginnel look like an "A" road! The weight involved was probably like this Thai rider's payload!


We were just congratulating ourselves about getting every thing sorted out, when the Electricity Board stunned everyone by getting the power back on by the end of the afternoon.

The monk's expressive gesture says it all. Another thing is that no one is bothered about stepping around the cables, branches and rubble.
Pleased to say, by the following day things were right back to normal. Bright sunshine, no wind and the only noises being the many fireworks that are starting to go off in anticipation of the festival starting tomorrow. Perhaps we will have a quieter few days for the rest of the week?

Tim's new workshop & Management by Carrot Cake

3 Weeks in and we are starting to find our way around in every sense. Learning to speak enough Thai to get beyond a cheery greeting will be the most demanding thing to start with; when the same word can mean 5 different things, for example, "mai" can mean mile, wood, not, new or silk; all according to the tone of your voice!
The words for today are: sa-bai dee mai (how are you?)

Current Houses 19 & 20

Presently we are anticipating a meeting of the Thai Board Members here at the weekend. We will also meet our counterparts from the "Juniper Tree" at Dolphin Bay. As we are planning to build 2 new houses here during the cool season there will be a lot to discuss including how to raise the outstanding money to pay for the second one by the time they are finished! (Not our problem, the Trustees will do this) The new houses will be smaller versions of the 2 newest houses we have.
As one of the new ones is intended for us we have a vested interest in the success of this project! The Thai Lady who runs the building company that are doing the job is very dynamic and seems to be very well connected with the Authorities so we hope that by April, the whole project will be completed.

Note the Hi Tec kit!

Simon is keen that I get my notice board finished before Saturday; a feat that wasn't looking likely given that working the tough teak-like wood is like carving a turkey with a penknife! I have set up a temporary workshop on the verandah outside our house and now that I've put a fan through the window I can work for most of the day.
Khamsi, the handyman, seems to have a sixth sense about what tools and equipment I'm going to need and provides it from some mysterious store.
The grounds staff are sinking two wooden posts into the concrete path outside the office and the notice board will go there shortly. I'm glad they are breaking up the concrete, it looks very deep and tough!
Last night, when the kitchen was empty, Joan did a late raid to bake the first Thai-Carrot Cake of perhaps many. Helped by a lovely family from South Carolina, it became quite a social event. It was left in the fridge for the local staff to share today, on our day off. We're  sure they didn't mind Joan using the kitchen, but she tried very had to leave it as found, with even the small tribe of Geckos that provided a screeching sound track to enterprise, left undisturbed!

Here's Joan "working" with her i-pad; a leaving gift from the friends at Nelson and Colne College. This desk is in the corner of our little house and looks out over the gardens and pool.

Paul and Rachel

Just behind Joan is another vital part of our life saving kit- a printer to allow daily access to the Guardian Crosswords!

Over the last week we have got to know a couple from Simon and Melanie's home Church, who came out to see how they are doing. Paul and Rachel turned out to be great fun and a real encouragement to all of us. Here is a picture of them at Simon and Melanie's house one evening. Paul works in the radio industry and Rachel is a practice nurse and teenage sexual health advisor. Below is a small selection of wildlife pictures taken by a guest who made it his mission to find as many types of snakes, amphibians  insects etc. He told me his Dad was a zoo keeper! As he and his wife live and work in a very deprived area of India, I suppose living close to wildlife is more mundane!