The house we’re staying in has a huge swimming pool, so we’ve been spending a lot of time poolside, Littletree is ecstatic
I even bought her a snorkel so she’s been practicing with that.
Didn’t take her long to get the hang of holding her breath to dive with it and then blowing out the water on surfacing.
There’s plans afoot for an unschooling camp on an island near Bali next year, so we’ll get to practice a lot more! Fun!
Since my friend, T, is feeling a bit better, we went to the beach for the afternoon yesterday.
So nice to enjoy a fruit shake and the sea breeze
Littletree couldn’t choose which kind of fruit to get
Then she went exploring on the beach, finding cool coral and hermit crabs and interesting stuff.
Ah, it’s a hard life!
Since we’re back in Phuket, we had to make our traditional pilgrimage to the Japanese all-you-can-eat buffet place, Oishi. (yep, we love this place, remember it from HERE and HERE). Luckily it’s right next door to the fancy hospital my friend was staying in.
Littletree was so excited, we could easily eat there every week forever and ever!
And she’s really getting the hang of using chopsticks too
Yum!
Littletree and I landed in Phuket, tired after a long day. Thankfully, we were greeted by a driver standing with one of those little signs with my name on it.
We were guided to my client’s suite by an elegantly-dressed concierge who swept through the expansive marble-floored lobby, past the gift shop selling expensive trinkets and overpriced luggage, numerous little boutiques and beauty counters advertising specials on facial treatments or dental whitening, and to the elevators.
The suite was quite large with all the mod-cons and a massive garden balcony. I headed straight for a hot shower in the marble bathroom and then ordered dinner from room service before laying down on the sofa for a rest in front of the big-screen TV while Littletree played on the wifi.
Only this wasn’t a 5-star hotel but a fancy private hospital. Kind of fun for one evening taking care of my client, she is very sick, but we’re back at her house now, and she’s feeling better.
Majikfaerie to the rescue! Just when we decided to change our tickets and go home early, a good friend contacted me asking if I can come to Phuket and help her out. Littletree was really happy at the prospect of spending a week or so in Thailand, especially since we’ll be staying at a house with a private swimming pool. So off we go!
Last night Wasabi, the civet cat – which Littletree, who has been avidly studying a book on South East Asian Mammals, informs me isn’t a true cat – came to visit in our room
She’s such a sweet little critter; apparently it’s really rare to see them as they’re very shy of humans, but Wasabi was rescued as a baby and hand-raised by the owner of this resort, She’s returned to the wild now, but still pops in for visits.
We also had another surprise guest – a massive scorpion!
Here it is next to my size 39 shoe for size comparison
So glad not to accidentally step on that one in the night!
Yesterday I spent the afternoon following Littletree around this magical garden just up the road from us. It’s actually an organic plant nursery, but they have several acres of amazing gardens full of hidden, winding secret pathways.
Littletree loved exploring
And I loved listening in to her conversation with the faeries
Finding amazing things in the garden, like Red Pineapples
And beautiful flowers
and faerie circles
Simply beautiful :)
We spend our days eating lush tropical fruits (rambutan, Littletree’s favourite)
Drinking coconuts (Littletree is learning to climb coconut trees)
Eating durian mmmmmm (well, I eat durian, Littletree hates it)
We walk down to the river for swims
Or jump in the pool
We hang out around the veggie garden, picking fresh greens for dinner,
and we have yummy feasts every night with awesome people
Mmmm Malaysian food
Yep, it’s a hard life alright, but someone’s gotta do it! And still, Littletree is bone-crunchingly homesick. I’m starting to consider changing our tickets to go home early, but it’s really expensive – $450 for both of us – yikes!
Okay, I need help, Quick!
As some of you may or may not know, I’m actually crap at making decisions. I um and ahhh over things for *hours*. okay, for days and days, irritating everyone around me.
My tried and true method of making decisions (other than the multitude of craziness we all remember from when I won the iPad) is to ask my friends. The few friends I now have left will attest to this. I go over and over stuff, weighing up pros and cons ad nauseum.
And in this very moment, I have a massive choice to make… and no friends around to ask! Purple is off at a rainbow gathering somewhere in Queensland, no one else seems to be online… and I’m in Malaysia!
So, I’m asking the help of the internet-at-large: please please please help me design my new kitchen! (not sure if I mentioned it, but while we’re away, our kitchen is getting re-build).
The builder just Skyped me to say there’s a question about the size of the island. Here’s the diagram:
(click to see a bigger version)
The actual walls are in thick black. Don’t worry about the thing that looks like we have 2 ovens – one of them is mis-labelled and will actually be a “dishwasher”, but I’m installing the laundry machine there instead, just because I’m cool and European like that.
The question is about THE ISLAND. (ignore all the faint green lines that indicate the sizes of things, and focus on THE ISLAND! it’s to be 1350mm wide (53” for Americans) (not 1300 as shown) and 2100mm long (82”), and yes, it’s curved on one side, with barstool seating around the curved edge.
So, See how the island sticks out past the dotted line that represents where the edge of the kitchen *was* (there was a half wall and bench here before, but now it’s gone – just lovely open space).
The choice is: Do the island as shown, OR cut out the “300 base” (which is 300mm – 11.8”) and shorten the whole thing to 1500mm (60”) OR change the 300 base to a 400mm base (15.75”), thus making the whole island 2200mm (86.5”).
Less island, which doesn’t stick out so much, but I just loose storage space and seating space, or more island, more cupboards and more seating space, but it sticks out past the “kitchen” space and into the “living/ dining” space 640mm-740mm (25”-30”).
I can also change the configuration of all the cupboards in the island, but let’s don’t go there!
Help!!!
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