July 1st, 2015
it’s a wrap…..
Ok folks, I am back, I am refreshed and inspired and ready to get back at blogging. Due in no small part to reading this gal’s blog…..
https://cocotraveller.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/an-ode-to-the-bum-gun/
Hilarious and SO true….
Literally had the best time vegging out in Chiang Mai. I do so love that city and the friends we have there. Riam, Ian and Tee, Richie (currently AWOL in the UK) and Landon who departed yesterday for sandier parts of the world (AKA Saudi!) many tears shed over that departure. He is actually spending a few weeks back in the USA sorting out his visa situation before heading to Saudi to teach English lit to 8/9th graders for two years. Working on making a visit happen! Not sure but it would be wonderful…
We did not do much at all other than get massages, eat, walk about, eat, sleep, eat, visit, visit visit. It was literally exactly what the doctor ordered, given the year we have had and the year I have coming up with my own schooling!
I was up and bright eyed at 9am for a “new student orientation” webinar for my school this morning. Yikes, that was not only the most boring thing I have done, but a total waste of 90 minutes of my vacation I’ll never get back. But it had to be done regardless. After that we checked out and got a taxi with all our bags etc over to Ginny Cafe so we could have our last lunch….before we settled down to that, we popped over to say good bye to Riam and she gave me a huge sack of mangoes! What a treat as they are from her garden and “near to her garden” 😉 as she brought me two different kinds. Can’t wait to dig into those! So I am a tiny bit worried about being able to take these with me to Laos as I know where we live, we can’t even take a stupid apple across the border without a national inquiry, actually even WITH the national inquiry, there is still NO taking the apple across the border? Here I am planning on getting onto a plane with 3 kilos of mangoes? Riam assures me “no problem, it ok!” I’m like really? 😳 So when we get back to Tee, I ask her and she is like “yes, no problem”. Super stoked! What ends up actually being the issue at the airport is my mango jam. I can take fresh fruit, but jarred jam? That raised some eyebrows and warranted a full bag search/consultation with a coworker. I got it through, but it caused a tiny fuss. I fell in love with the Baan Bakery by the Chiang Mai gate house where we stayed the first week, and they would put out fresh homemade mango jam every day, so one day I was there in time to buy some, 70 baht ($2.10 usd) for a decent size jar. Probably a 16oz jar or so. How could I not? I sense I am rambling a bit, but this is what happens when I don’t blog every day, the story gets jumbled. Anyhow, I bought two jars…so sure enough no problem with the mangoes and they sit right on my table in the room waiting for me to get into. I just need to figure out how to peel them….as I don’t have a knife. Maybe I can sweet talk the hotel into lending me one? 🙏
Love these two!
Gonna go get some supper ATM, will upload this so as to not lose it, and will send more when I get back!
