My Big Four Ohh

I think I stopped counting after 21 but this one is hard to avoid mentioning. I am blessed to have Donncha and Iman, Jack & Ayden, my loving and supporting parents, sisters, nieces and nephews. And not to forget a wealth of friends some of whom are like sisters to me - and who all tell me that 40 is now the new 30 but probably only because one or two of them are well on their way to 50!

Thank you for all the lovely presents. A MacBook Pro that is still in the box waiting to be taken out (Iman already claiming the MacBook), a beautiful necklace from my parents, new Pandora charms from the neighbours, and other wonderful presents from friends including a lovely candleholder, a set of intricate napkin holders & a sewing kit that will need some further thought and research before embarking on a project. And some beautiful flowers too - thank you all. Not to forget the Facebook messages from friends new and old, near and far; that kept coming in all day - thank you all for making my day a special one.

I started the day with the gym, lunch with Donncha by the Brunei River, followed by the JIS poolside and ending the day with a hotpot dinner with the family minus Donncha and my parents who are still away - thank you FaceTime. A simple day with my loved ones.

Our Iman is 10

I won't go into the details of 10 years ago, some memories are best kept in the past. But it all ended well and we found ourselves with a baby 2.23kg baby girl! And that was the first night of many unbroken sleeps - sleep has never been the same again and I wonder if it will ever be normal.

Our not so baby girl is 10 today. There was huge excitement when Iman open her presents this morning. There was a Pandora bracelet from Aunties and Uncle in Ireland, swim togs from Granny and Grandad - thank you. Ayden and Jack gave her a mini speaker and the main present was a Samsung Phone - which is giving Jack and Ayden some serious aspirations for the future.

We had a party in the evening with all the cousins. More presents - thank you for M'ah and M'Pah for the Fuji Poloroid - she loves it. To her PipiNana for the perfume, to Fatin, Zahra & Ma'Ann for the bag and dress and to Nini U for the toys.

And thank you for Donncha for perfect chicken and burgers off the barbie. We had M'ah and M'Pah on FaceTime for cutting of the cake - we missed you both.

Koh Lanta Boat Trip

On Christmas eve we went on a trip to the Four Islands tour off Koh Lanta. It wasn't the sunniest of days and we came across rain and a storm and the trip back was not the easiest but it was nevertheless an enjoyable day out. The snorkeling was fantastic and it was just great to be swimming in the lovely blue waters of the Andaman again.

A highlight of the day had to be the swim though the Emerald Cave. I had at some stage read about swimming through a cave to get to a beach but did not think we would be up to any of that. We pulled up to a cliff face and the boat man handed us the life jackets, pointed to the cave and said "Swim!". I then gathered in my elementary command of Thai that it would be a 10 minutes swim and its going to be dark - hence the head torch he was putting on! YIKES!!

The water in the shade was very cold and very deep. I normally hate other tourists around at these spots but believe me it was very comforting at that point. The swim through the cave was not for the fainthearted. It was not straight through and we were in between groups so it got very dark in there.  I somewhat felt like I as in a queue for a Disneyland attraction waiting for the ride to appear at any moment except that the adrenelin was magnified 100x and there were no cast members showing us the way. And it was a relief seeing the light emerge on the other side and to come onto an amazing white beach with crystal clear water!

And coming out again on the other side. Where's our boat gone?!!

And with all that swimming it was time for lunch. Here's our boatman carrying our lunch onto an island which name I don't know.

Now that's lunch with a view!

And after lunch it was more snorkeling and jumps off the boat