This is the end of our second full day in Bangkok. Kevin has succumbed to a nasty dose of food poisoning courtesy of British Airways so has been confined to the apartment. He hasn’t been at all well.

Which has meant that I have had to do the essentials shopping and sorting out by myself. I am quite proud of the fact that I can find my way (& back) to the local supermarket particularly as it involves a boat ride.

The boat is a free shuttle to the sky train stop but waiting for the boat allows time to admire the other craft on the river. One from a big hotel looks like a house  and is amazing when it is lit up at night.

Another is the long tail boat which is used for tourist rides which looks sleek as it skims over the water.

One of the things I have discovered is that the ticket touts for the long tail boat rides at the pier avoid you if you are carrying a large drying rack! The drying rack is quite an investment but an essential one. Clothes dry there is next to no time. Tomorrow I will venture out for an iron & ironing board.

In the meantime more revision on makerspaces in libraries…

u‘One’s destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things’ Henry Miller

Our apartment is on the 17th floor of the 36 floor Chatrium Residences. The views are incredible. I’d like to share a few here.
From the bedroom we look at the river and from the balcony we see into the city. It looked stunning once the sun had set.

Looking directly down we see the school buildings, playing fields and swimming pools. So not far to travel to work.

We have arrived safely. Knackered but fine. These are some pictures from the meet & greet at the airport. It was all very well organised and the staff from the school were very friendly and efficient.

There were several new teachers with quite young children but they were no trouble on the flight and we even managed to get a (short) sleep.

As you can see our coach was quite splendid! The journey to the apartment took about 45 mins so not too bad. 

So here we are at Terminal 5, Heathrow all packed and just waiting for the flight. It’s been a whirlwind of goodbyes and I hope that we have managed to see or speak to as many of you as possible.

We had a great send off from the family yesterday and we will miss you all greatly. Hope you can all manage without us.

For now though it’s just ‘au revoir’ as we hope to see as many of you as possible in sunny Thailand.

So with all the goodbyes said it’s time to meet our new colleagues and start the ‘hellos’

Next post will be from Bangkok where the adventure begins…

As ‘removal day’ looms and our life here is packed up and put into storage Kevin and I would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has sent us a card, given us a goodbye gift, fed us, taken us for coffee and wished us Bon voyage. It has been an emotional rollercoaster in these last few weeks but lovely to see so many of our good and caring friends.

So after wielding paintbrushes, cleaning cloths and packing tape we are finally ready to go. There were times when I wasn’t sure if we would get everything done in time but I think that we are just about there. Knackered but there.

It is probably true to say that there has been so much to do here to wrap everything up that I haven’t had much time or energy to think about what happens next. Every day has been a huge and growing list of tasks to complete against the looming deadline so the reality of what we are doing hasn’t fully sunk in yet. Relocating to Thailand has so far, been an abstract concept, one that we have been working towards but still far away. But now it’s all becoming real.

We will miss Morecambe and we will miss our friends and family but we would like to say a huge ‘Thank you’ to all of you for being there for us. 

It is said that moving house is one of the mose stressful things that you can do. I would like to add that moving country and NOT GETTING YOUR DBS CLEARANCE THROUGH in time is MORE STRESSFUL!!! Particularly when the visa application s dependent upon having it.

I submitted my online form to COBIS (Council of British Independent Schools) back in June then got all my documents verified at the post office, scanned them in and emailled them to the school as per instructions. I sat back and waited. Once it reached week 5 of not hearing anything I was feeling slightly panicky. I knew that staff at the school were on holiday but sent some ‘concerned’ emails anyway but got no reply. So I took matters into my own hands and contacted COBIS who informed me that my documents hadn’t arrived with them and my application had gone precisely nowhere. Panic set in. I sent my documents by courier to London but even so I was informed that there was no express DBS clearance  service and it would take 2-6 weeks for the certificate to come through. We had days left to apply for the visa so that wasnt going to work. More panic. I have to say that I wasn’t particularly pleasant to live with at this stage so all credit to Kevin for putting up with me.

Then the school got in contact with an alternative solution using ARCO a 4 day police checking system which will give sufficient detail for the visa and we will do the full DBS from Bangkok once we arrive (if it doesnt come in time)…

Phew! Relief and large gins all round. Panic wasn’t quite over though as the online submission had to be submitted that day but just my luck the electrician was in doing repairs to a (fatal) fault on a ring main which meant he had knocked off the router and so I had NO INTERNET!!! Thank God for Costa and their wifi. I squirrelled myself away with my surface and a cappucino and spend over an hours getting everything sorted.

All being well I should get the certificate this Saturday which means that we can do a consulate dash on Monday and get the visa then. It hasnt done my blood pressure any good I can tell you.

I have been encouraged to write a blog to document the adventure which Kevin and I are about to embark on. So here goes…

Redundancy has been a theoretical concept, once which I have been fully on board with until this week when we had our last day at work, had a farewell gift, card and party. Huge thanks to Carne for letting us join her leaving do.

Now the reality has hit home. We don’t have to go to bed early to get up for work the next morning. I don’t have to buy things for packed lunches in the weekly shop. We have technically joined the ranks of the unemployed!!! To be honest it all feels a bit surreal.

Thank goodness we have LOTS to do to keep us fully occupied

Packing

Painting

Sorting out

de-cluttering

packing…

But my dbs hasn’t yet arrived so I haven’t been able to apply for our visas. Stress. I have the plane ticket but NO VISA!!!

Year 3

The T Shirt Story

Reception

Year 3

Off to West End Primary to be an author (& to refresh my memory on how do to author talks) Thanks Anita for hosting my practice run. Had a lovely morning