On Monday evening our family had a farewell dinner for us. Tui said she never cooks but she prepared a feast for us. We had chicken soup with egg bean cake (a form of tofu) red curry, fried dried squid (we have not yet acquired a taste for dried seafood that is so popular in Asia), barbequed chicken, fresh stir-fried veggies (peapods, baby corn, carrots), spicy hot mango relish, steamed rice and fresh watermelon and Asian pears for dessert. Tui, Timm, Pa Cha-Onn, Noi and Ai joined us for the festive occasion. As we finished the meal, Tui asked what we would do for the rest of the evening. I said, “First we want to thank our family for all they had done for us. We have a gift of each one of you.” We gave baby gifts to Ai who is due in three months, an orchid for Pa Cha-Onn, a gift of dollars for Noi, a tablecloth and money for Timm and Tum for the use of their car and for taking us tree shopping.

We then went back to the house and started to wrap things up there. In a short time, Tui and Timm were at the door, saying we had given Timm way too much money. We explained how invaluable having the car had been. There is so much we were able to accomplish because we had the car. Everything from going shopping, picking up take out meals, shopping for household items, and on and on. I begged her to take the money and saying it was a small amount to us. I ended my plea by saying, ‘Khun Nattawan (her aunt) had suggested this amount”, assuming that Nattawan has the final say in the family. Thanks Nattawan for your suggestion! Timm then accepted the money.

Neither of us slept that well, probably a little anxious before yet another trip. Always so many details to track and god knows, we’re OLD so remembering those details is a trip in and of itself!! So we gave up about 4:45 and got up and finished covering the furniture with sheets. We do this to save having to dust everything. Tui comes down from Bangkok on the weekends to take care of Pa Cha-Onn and comes to our house and cleans it! She has enough to do so we cover almost all the furniture with cheap sheets we bought in SL to save her some time and labor. We had breakfast, cleaned out the refrigerator, took scraps to the compost, unplugged appliances and pulled together dirty linens for Tui to take to the laundry. Jeap showed up promptly at 7:00. We got out at the big house to say goodbye ad everyone was there: Ai, Tui, Pa Cha-On and Noi. It was very sweet. Pa Cha-Onn who doesn’t speak English said in a very proud voice, “Goodbye” then grinned a beautiful smile. What a blessing this family is to us. Thank you Nattawan!!

So two hours to the airport with almost no traffic. I drifted off for part of the trip. The new Bangkok airport is HUGE and gorgeous. We were struck by how quickly we got through all the lines, including the plane loading. We had a full plane and the woman who sat next to me liked to lift the chair arm so she to have a bit more space that was non-existent. For some reason it didn’t bother me. I liked how casual she was and as she sort of moved into my space and was physically leaning into me, she looked over and said, “Okay?” I said sure. The trip was 12 hours and although it seems short compared to our 26-hour trips to SL, I was weary before we arrived in London. The ibuprofen didn’t offer relief. We arrived in London around 6:30 pm (12:30 am body time) and went to our B&B near the airport. The room was one of the tiniest ever. My favorite was the “bathroom”. From a construction standpoint it was fascinating. It was basically an upright rectangular box that was retrofitted into the existing space. So from a user standpoint, you stepped up into the room. Hence it was easy to install the plumbing underneath without having to do a lot of infrastructure work. There was a toilet, small sink and perhaps the smallest shower ever. It was 18 inches wide and about 30 inches long. I laughed. I was looking forward to a long soaking bath to ease my weary bones but decided to fall into bed as it looked like a shower would be more work than fun. Again we didn’t sleep well. We are off our body clock by six hours and basically went to bed about 3:00 a.m. body time. Again we gave up around 4:45 London time and showered. It was refreshing. We never even opened our suitcases as the room was so tiny and we were so tired that we put on yesterday’s clothes, fixed a cup of tea. Ron worked on the computer and I started reading the Ireland tour book. At 6:00 we left for the airport. We arrived in Dublin and it was 57 degrees and the sun was shining. They have had eight days of sunshine, which is unheard of this time of year. I checked on the Internet and it is due to rain on Sunday so between now and then we will rejoice with the sun.

We had a delightful, talkative cab driver take us to the B&B where we are staying until Sunday when we move into the castle where we are staying for three nights. It costs more than three times the B&B, which is why we aren’t staying there for the entire time. Ron’s ICMA meeting is being held there.

After getting unpacked we headed to town, catching a city bus just down the street from our house. We are quite close to the ocean and got to see lots of shore birds at low tide. Tomorrow we will get up to exercise and walk down by the water. Once we got to town we were starving so ducked into the first restaurant we saw, a Cuban cocktail bar, complete with photos of Hemingway, Spencer Tracy and Fidel as a young man. I had delicious steamed mussels and Ron had fish and chips. Off we went on a walking tour of the area north of the Liffey River that runs through town. We were amazed at how much we got to see in a relatively short time. We went to the Customs House (1791) ,Moore St market with fresh produce and flowers, general post office (1818), St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral (1825) Around 4:30 we stopped for a espresso drink and a pear tart before heading home to put our very tired feet up. At a little after 7:00 we headed down the street to a Pakistani restaurant. It turned out that the restaurant has won numerous awards including Best Ethnic Restaurant in Ireland for 2007! Oh my goodness the food was incredible. We had a vegetable jalfrazi and a chicken dish with incredible spices and coconut cream. Rice and paratha completed the meal. We almost licked our plates it was so good.

We will retire early, as we are quite tired after two sleepless nights and a bit of jet lag. We were taken aback at how small Dublin appears. I had expected a metropolis with skyscrapers but never saw anything over five stories today and most buildings are two stories. We discovered that Dublin and the county have a total population of 1.1 million, much smaller than I had thought it would be. Bangkok by contrast is 14 million in population.

Thursday

We bought tickets for a tour in Dublin. We boarded a bus that makes 24 stops and you can get off and on throughout the day, choosing which sites you want to explore in depth. We saw impressionist paintings at the National Gallery, spent a long time at the Guinness Storehouse where we learned about how Guinness stout is made. You should know we stood in a long line to buy tickets for the self guided tour and paid senior rates of 19 euros. The storehouse is huge, seven stories and you visit each floor to learn about the history of 250 years of making brew. The facility is on 66 acres of land in the heart of Dublin that Arthur Guinness got 45 pounds per year lease for 9000 years! That’s what we call thinking ahead!! No pun intended. It is the largest brewery in the world. At one point they made 1000 oak casks a week to store the brew. The place was packed. We ate lunch in one of their many restaurants and it was delicious. Ron had a so-called complimentary pint (if you pay 9.50 euros to get in how can it be called complimentary???) Then he used my chit to get a second one at lunch. He never got pass drinking the first half of the second pint but it made for a very relaxed afternoon. Next we visited the National Museum where we saw an exhibit of contemporary ceramic artists, the history of clothes and Irish furniture. After the tour we wandered through what is known as Temple Bar (a bar is a riverside path). It is filled with cute shops and quaint restaurants. We had an espresso and came home.

We had another glorious day weather wise. It was chilly in the morning but all we needed was a sweater today. The sun was out the entire day. The flowering trees are in blossom, the tulips are blooming and birds are singing. At last we are experiencing spring. I should mention that we are so far north that it was still light at 8:30 last night. What a treat! That’s it from the land of redheads and rosy cheeks.