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.