it takes a village...

One of our friends is on the search for a wife...actually his parents are the ones searching and arranging and he just gives input to his likes and dislikes. When he visited us two nights ago he described what kind of wife he was looking for...Z likes to be very helpful to his single friends and so proceeded with his opinions. Z told him he should marry a woman from a village because they work harder than city women...he then backed up his opinion by saying 'my wife is from a village, see village women are better.' I did not know whether Z was complimenting me or patronizing me ~ village people are not spoken highly of here ~ so I started my rebuttal...'I am from a small city in America where there is a lot of open land, even though livestock outnumber people it is a city...' I then stopped describing my small city in the mountains because I realized that many of our friends here would consider it a village. So now when people ask me where I am from I am simply going to tell them I come from a village in America no need living in denial any longer.

The end of vacations are so sad

...no regrets though, we definitely made the most of 9 days!

• Saw the largest aquarium in South Asia
• Got a facial and foot massage
• Toured the Grand Palace
• Wanted to move into the Grand Palace
• Climbed up then down the 'steepest steps ever'! If you ever visit the Wat Arun temple you will know what I am talking about.
• Almost threw up on the 'steepest stairs ever'.
• Enjoyed Starbucks coffee - we do not have Starbucks in the country we live.
• Went shopping 7 days out of the 9
• Gave both my nieces hundreds of hugs and kisses!

The most fulfilling vacations are the ones spent building memories with ones family.

How lucky can a girl get!

Romantic dinner cruise in the evening...


Sightseeing and adventures by day...

...and semi precious gemstones for gifts...
I mean really how lucky am I...Z is wonderful!

AMAZING!

Being on Vacation means...
Taking leisurely strolls and stopping to smell the flowers...

Ingesting 5000 calories in one meal...

Never knowing where you are going :)

{ Trip to another curryland }

Our vacation destination is to a close by country that also has curry!...which fortunately maintains continuity for my blogging purposes. We leave early tomorrow morning for the airport. Here is a rundown of all the tasks that we have busied ourselves with in order to have everything squared away before we leave. Let me know if this list resembles any of your travel preparation lists.

• Went to the pharmacy and picked up meds for stomach viruses (just in case), congestion (Z has head and chest junk) and deworming medicine - we are ridding tummies of our current curryland friends.
• Z bought new pad locks, chains and door locks for all exterior and interior doors. If by chance someone gets through the three locks on one of exterior doors they still have to get through the locks on the bedroom, kitchen, closet, and bathroom doors to get to our belongings. Our most valuable belongings (which is not much at all!) will be with us...so if some one decides to break into our home they will be going through a lot trouble for clothes, sheets, and towels :)
• We made an itemized list for insurance purposes of furniture and belongings in our home...so the clothes, sheets and towels are insured - woohoo!
• We have to move our washing machine inside the house - I do not have laundry room, the washer machine has been outside this whole time.
• We gave a trusted friend keys to our gate so he can check on the house and pick up our mail, we also gave him money to pay our bills.
• Finally we have to take a language test...mainly for our own reassurance that actually have learned something.

Hopefully in the midst of all these preparations we will not forget important stuff like packing underwear!

Z almost lost his left big toe!

Yup, he did almost lose his toe...I saw the whole thing. I have to give you background info first before expounding on the toe incident.
A couple of months ago we were walking to the store which we regularly do and we stopped and talked with this elderly man because he looked a little lonely. In the middle of our conversation with the cute old man who had hairy ears a passerby on a motorcycle stopped because he was curious about us. This guy was in his early twenties and talked in a really low pitched muscle man voice...it was really obnoxious...Z remained cordial and we ended both conversations and went on our way.
Ever since that chance meeting we kept 'running into' the young guy...in fact I started calling him Z's stalker because every other day he would end up at the same place as us and strike up conversations with Z. We think this stalker kid is on some sort of dope that body builders take...not only does he act weird, but his voice sounds weird and his upper body is weirdly disproportionate with the rest of his frame. So I can understand his fascination with Z, because lets face it Z is a hunk!
A couple of weeks ago we ran into him for like the 15th time in 5 weeks...Z, in the nicest way possible broke the news that it would not be a good idea for them to hang out. Since then we have not seen stalker kid until today...Actually he saw us, before we saw him and headed our way on his motorcycle at a very high speed...We saw him when the front wheel of his motorcycle was on the top of Z's left big toe. Nothing happened to Z's toe, and stalker kid felt horrible...I showed my annoyance with stalker kid and left to do my errands while they talked...I am very happy I left the situation, Z later told me that the guy has started modeling and had pictures of himself to show Z ~ It seems like I am not the only weirdo magnet in this town :)

Ringing in the new year

Our tradition for new years is to hang out with friends until the wee hours of the morning and down non alcoholic sparkling cider...well our friends here do not celebrate new years so it was just us, but we did find a carbonated apple drink called appy fizz.
I skyped with A and rubbed it in her face that we were in 2010 way before her (by 10 1/2 hours)... This different time zone thing has its perks at times.
Z's quote of the evening " 2010 is the year of the cynics, we are very optimistic that this will be our year."