Thailand

Same same but different
May 14th, 2007

Wanting to rest from making 13 dives in 4 days I decided to head for Koh Lipe. A tiny island all the way down south, which lays right next to a nature reserve. The arrival was very promising, passing gorgeous green islands and white beaches, we finally came to Koh Lipe which was just like that. So after landing a bamboo hut near the beach we chilled out and I scored a hammock, cause this really seemed the place for it. Somehow I landed conjentivitis (?), however and spent most of my time on Koh Lipe in my hammock (man was I glad with my latest asset) or in bed.   

I did go to the local festival, where the sea gypsies offer for the new fishing season and the boys become man. Which apparently just meant that everybody in the village got completely wasted. Even the grandma’s (see picture) where just to wasted to walk back home and just went sleeping right there. Calculating I realised that it was actually Queens Day back home and looking around me I started laughing. With food stalls, music and a stall with some game and a whole bunch of drunk people, I suppose that “same same but different” really is true sometimes .  

And grandma always taught me to beware of sharks!
April 24th, 2007 

One of the few things I knew for sure I was gonna do on this trip, was a dive-trip to the Similan and Surin Islands. Well, I just did and it was even better then I expected it to be! Having boarded the Andaman of the Seadragon Dive Center, we headed of from Kao Lak for a 4 day, 4 night dive trip of 13 dives in total. We saw loads and loads of beautiful coral reefs, an enormous variety of reef fish, turtles, nudie branches, ghost pipe fish, barracuda’s, triggerfish, trevallies and with every dive the list just kept growing. And in between dives both the Thai- and dive-crew spoiled us to pieces with wonderful food, trips to remote beaches and islands and beautiful snorkling sites. To make it perfect, nature pitched in and sent us some dolphin entertainment as well!

My highlight, however, would definitely be day 2. Setting out for the second dive of the day, we were told that we “might” be able to see a Manta Ray. Well, we definitely saw Manta’s! Barely in the water the first Manta showes itself while we start our descend. Before I could get over the astonishment of sheer beauty and grace these enormous animals have in the water, the second Manta shows up. And this would pretty much be the scenario for the entire dive. Every two minutes somebody would be banging their tank, because the manta’s just kept showing up. Even during our safetystop they popped by!

Thinking this day is not gonna get any better, I just enjoyed the 3rd dive of the day as towards the end of the dive a leopard shark swims right by! Gorgeous! And to top the whole thing of a grey- or white tip reef shark shows up during the safetystop of the nightdive!

Now I know I’ve told my grandma over and over I’d watch out for sharks, but I don’t think that getting into a cave to see a sleeping shark (it was a nurse shark – but I didn’t know that at the time ) was exactly what she meant. Sorry, Grams!

Hooked!
April 19th, 2007 

Spending over two months travelling through Laos and Cambodia, I finally returned to Thailand to do the climbing I’d planned. We decided to skip Bangkok or any other familiar places and go straight for Ton Sai Beach in Krabi. Our plan was to climb like crazy for a couple of days and then head for one of the islands for some well deserved chilling.

Well as usual when travelling our plans changed. We met up with a sweet Dutchie, some really nice Canadians and a couple of crazy Tjechs. We’ve spent our days here combining climbing the gorgeous limestone peaks, with beach barbeques, serious partying and some chilling on the beautiful beaches of West Railey and Panang. Even though the partying sometimes interferred with the climbing, we’ve managed to climb six out of the ten days we spent on Ton Sai Beach. Reaching the top of a route is a little kick normally, but reaching the top looking out over lush green jungle, lime stone cliffs, white beaches and a perfect blue sea, will do the trick. Suus got started and loves it, I got completely hooked now. I left Ton Sai with a pair of climbing shoes safely tucked in my backpack!

Easterbunny???

Being away from home is nice, but you’re also completely oblivious to the special days. With 3 Dutchies there, we decided not to miss out on Easter, so asked the woman of our bungalows for 20 hard-boiled eggs. She looked completely puzzled, but figured – what the hack? They’re paying for it.

Now as it turns out we had some very special Easterbunnies, because when we were climbing Corinka and Patrick painted and hid the eggs at our favorite hangout. So after dinner we rounded up everybody we’d been hanging out with and made a complete fool of ourselves doing an Easteregg-hunt. An 11-year old kid (who happened to have gone for a drink with his parents) was the only one of appr. 16 people who didn’t look completely rediculous and had the night of his life.

After about an hour of searching, we still couldn’t account for all the eggs, so asked for the usual “warm & cold” suggestions. Unfortunately, our bunnies were as lost as we were on the whereabouts of the eggs. So the Easterbunny does exist? Not quite. As it turned out the Thai guys at the bar really liked the weird game the “falang” were gonna play. But they did feel that our bunnies hadn’t done a very good job, with all the eggs showing just a little here and there. So after Patrick and Corinka left, they had spent over a good hour to rehide all the eggs! Since explaining the “warm & cold” rules was useless, I’m pretty sure that there will be a very distinct but bad smell in the bar by now!

Back to the beach
April 3rd, 2007

After two very enduring busrides of 27 hours in total Suus & I have safely arrived in Krabi, Ton Sai Beach (Thailand). Now I know I’ve promised this before, but pretty soon I will take out a day and update you guys on all our (little) adventures so far & will off course put up the requested pictures . Unfortunately I have run into some really bad internet connections in Cambodia & Laos, which made it that much harder to keep you guys updated. Promise, promise I’ll make up for it!!! But not right now… after 27 hours of straight travelling I think we deserve a beer. 

February 10th, 2007 

Change of plans, change of scenery 

After chilling and partying in Pai (and a foodpoisoning of which I’ll spare you guys the details ) it’s time for a change. I know the original plan was to head south from here, but since I am already so far up north and it’s sort of “in the neighbourhood” I’ve decided to head for Laos and make my way back down south that way. Tomorrow I’ll take the nightbus to the border. I’m gonna do a trekking and something called the gibbon experience, which basically means I will not be “online” for a week or two.

If I can I’ll put up a picture up tomorrow, so you can look at me if you miss me !!!

February 6th, 2007 

Exciting nights, and their still cold too!

Last Friday after visiting a Kayan (long-neck) village I have changed my surroundings a bit . From the quit peacefull town of Mae Hon Son I went over to the backpacker/hippie walhalla called Pai. And I have to admit… I don’t have a clue what to write  

The past 5 days I have done absolutely noting but chilling, hanging around campfires, drinking beer and dancing! Boring for you guys… but trust me great for me

February 1st, 2007

Exciting days and cold nights

Last Thursday I set off to do a 3 day trekking. First we went to go on an elephant ride, since we were with 9 people and had 4 elephants, one person would have to get on the elephants neck… Guess who??? Me and my big mouth!

In the afternoon we made a pretty though hike up to a Karen village where we would sleep. After walking around and dinner, we settled ourselves near the campfire. Our host was trying to impress us with his local liquor…. But he hadn’t counted on Josef, an Austrian guy, to bring some schnapps. It was hilarious to see our guides and host’s faces after drinking the real stuff! They kept calling other men to try… It didn’t take them the whole bottle to get really wasted though!

The next day 6 of us doing a 3-day trek, went for a beautiful hike through the jungle. After a nice relaxing afternoon by a waterfall we headed for our next “hotel”. Spending the night by the campfire again and more hiking the next morning. After lunch we went for some bamboorafting…. where – thanks to our guides – we got completely soaked

The trekking, bamboohuts and cold nature shower were quite an experience, but the freezing nights didn’t suit me as well So I really enjoyed my hot shower and warm bed the next day.

After Chang Mai I headed for Mae Hon Song. Here I had the brilliant idea to have a haircut. Back home I decided I wouldn’t do that .. but Tante Kee convinced me that everybody could trim it a little. At first it seemed to go well… she showed me what she had cut off and asked if that was OK. Yes, OK. Well I shouldn’t have said that! Pretty soon she was using a raiser, siccors and who knows what else! The result is that my hair is reduced by half in both length and volume. Thanks Tante Kee, remind me never to take your advice again (hvj hoor!)

In my hotel I had met Lala, singer in a Thai Nightclub. She invited me to do some sightseeing the next day but not before 14.00 pm. Since I had the time, I thought I’d tuck my hair away as best I could and go see her band preform. Well, I must say this morning I understood quite well why she didn’t want to leave to early

I treated myself to breakfast in bed, so after the slow start I was feeling a lot better. We have spent the afternoon visiting a fish cave and went over to a mud spa afterwards. The mudfacial looked stupid but felt great and the massage to kill the time untill the mask was dry was amazing on my still a little hangover body To finish of a very nice day we had the local version of fondue.

 January 24th, 2007

The road to enlightenment…. 

 

Do I need to say anything about this picture???

The monks were doing some siteseeing as well at the Royal Flower Expo 2006. Naturally this was at the Dutch Pavillion! For the rest, the Expo was nice, but not spectacular. It was a fun day though.

Meditation retreat/Introduction to Buddism

Tuesday I went to the Wat Suan Dok, after an introduction to Buddism by a master monk, we were taken to the Buddism training center (apparently woman are not appreciated for sleep-overs at the temple).

Let’s see, walking around in an oversized nurses outfit, not being aloud to talk, trying to have little food, going to bed by 9.00 pm, waking up at 5.00 am to chant and do yoga (and having to do this before getting breakfast) ….. Those of you that know me pretty well must be wondering if I was planning my escape already 10 minutes after I arrived!

 Wrong. It was really an amazing experience! The combination of learning about Buddism, meditation and yourself made it unlike anything I have done so far. It was interesting,  challenging and enjoyable all at the same time. Adding to the experience is the fact that the monks do this solely on the bases of their believes. The center and the food have been build up from nothing other than donations only, yet the atmosphere is very warm and welcoming. Now I am not going to tell you anything about Buddism (buy a book!), because there is no way I could have gotten a 2500 year-old religion in 2 days. But I will tell you this. In these days of agressifness, terrorisme and people not willing to give eachother the light of day it is nice to learn about another way of life. About a religion based on nature, respect for all living beings and where the basis is the belief in the goodness instead of hell and damnation. Monks teach you out of respect and willingness to learn. Nobody is trying to convert you and nobody will. All I can say, if you’re going to Thailand and you’re planning your trekkings, beachdays and other excursions, take out the 2 days to experience Thailand in a different way. Apart from it being interesting, it will also help you on your travels through Thailand, because it gives you more insight on the Thai people and their believes.

If you’re interested, check out www.monkchat.net (where pretty soon there will also be pictures of our retreat ). 

January 21th, 2007
Travelling, Cooking & Climbing

At 11.30 am I was picked up from my hotel, brought to the ferry and after the very enjoyable ferrytrip, dropped of at the trainstation in Suratani. From here I took the nighttrain to Bangkok. Thanks to my brother calling me in the middle of the night on Monday, I fell asleep somewhere around 8 pm. Thanks, Guid for that! Because it turns out they wake you up at 4 am on the nighttrain, so I was quite happy to have gone to sleep this early. After my 3 hour wait on the BKK trainstation, I was really ready to go. Unfortunately the train was delayed.. oh well what’s one hour? Wrong. The train did come after one hour, but then broke down three hours later, and then broke down again and then couldn’t make it up the hill, and then it broke down again… Get the picture? In the middle of the night I arrived in Chang Mai after a forty hour trip by a genuine “boemeltje”!

With two Dutchies I met on the train I went for a nice daytrip the next day. We visited a temple and a “traditional” hill-tribe village. Well it was as traditional as Volendam and the “hill-tribe” people went back to their homes in Chang Mai by the end of the day. We did however enjoy a really beautiful sunset over the mountains, which was a little less enjoyable when we realised that with the sun the temparature also dropped! It seemed like a good idea at the time to buy some shirts for the motorcycle ride home through the hills….. well see for yourselves….. Meet the three stootches Back at the hotel all of us forgot to change, so I have to admit that we actually went to dinner looking like this

When I got up the next morning, the Thai rose from the night before nearly convinced me to skip my cooking class, but like a true “bikkel” I went for it. And I am so glad I did! I will show of my new skills when I get home (blond as I am I will have forgotten that by the time I get there  

With my tummy steadily growing I felt I needed some sports… so I went rockclimbing yesterday. Even though it has been a while it was really good fun (tell that to my muscels this morning

This week I have a 2 day visit to a monastry planned (don’t laugh) and make a three day trekking…. I’ll let you know if I’m converted next week!

After being chaperoned by Tanja  and from there heading straight into Ed’s big strong arms, being on my own is quite different! The past week I have spent some days by myself and others with other travellers I meet (a lot of which are eather German or Swiss, so my German is getting less “rusty” by the day). Even though I will miss them both a lot, I also find it very exciting to be on my own and to discover how that is…. although I must admit my first week hasn’t been as much fun as I expected it to be……….

In Koh Tao I have made 4 dives. The first two were pretty bad – thanks the the rain the visibility was no more than 2 meters. I must say I didn’t really mind. Since the last proper dive I have made – except when “diving” for Guid’s wedding ring – was 2 years ago. It was good to have some practice again and we had some good fun with our small group. The next day we made 2 more dives with the same group. The visibility was already much better (8-10 meters) and since we saw a huge variety of corals and fish, both dives made for good fun. My camera was playing tricks on me and wouldn’t go at all…. so here even though I wanted to, I haven’t taken any pictures. Hopefully one of the guys I dove with will send them to me and I will upload them later.

After the dives I was really excited and since some of the group were going to do their advanced course, I really started to doubt my plan to go kitesurfing. But a quick call to the kite center made me change my mind. Apparently good winds were coming and if I could make it there the next day? So off I went – boat to Koh Samui, minivan to the kite center and still completely packed with everyting I have – heading for the kite center. Coming there the guy I spoke to the day before says the winds are not so good and they will be better next week. ????? Sort of puzzled, because I specifically explained the night before that I also wanted to do my advanced diving course and could also come to Koh Samui next week, I look at the guy with a big question mark on my face. To make a long story short…. this has kept on going for a couple of days and yesterday I have asked for my money back and just decided that even though I really want to learn kiting, I really don’t wanna do it with somebody who will say anything to make money.

The only good thing about the kite center was that I ran into Daniel and Chantal again, a really nice Swiss couple Ed and I have met about 2 weeks ago. Apparently they have been having the same experience with this school and they also are finished with paying money for a bunch of crap. The remark of one of Mui Ne’s kite instructors that, KBA kite centers care more about your money than about you learning how to kitesurf, was based on solid grounds.

Since I am not kiting I really don’t see any reason to stay here. If I could have arranged it, I would have been out of here today already. I know it’s probably not very good of me judging this island after I have only seen so little of it, but I really don’t feel any urge to go and explore this place. This is really, really not my thing. The only visitors are eather men – of whom a big part is over 60 - whose sole reason for coming are the Thai girls and the rest are people covered in tattoo’s with a nice set of “Kinkerstraat-krullen” (haircut: short on top and long in the neck), naturally accompanied by the “Anita” style women . On the beach I feel like I have gotten on the wrong plain and ended up in Benidorm and at night after dinner I go and get a beer in the supermarket, cause I really don’t feel like walking into a bar where, apart from the barely dressed Thai girls, I will be the only woman there.

If I do any exploring here, I will probably end up paying for tourist traps or be accompanied by probably about 50 other people at least. That is why yet again I have nothing but text for you, but so far I haven’t seen anything worth taking a picture of here

This morning I have arranged my “escape from Benidorm” and feeling that after so much tourism a change of scenery might be good I will head straight for Chang Mai in the north of Thailand. To kill the time Daniel, Chantal and me decided to go bowling tonight !

Januari 9th, 2007

Since there was nothing much to do, we lazed about most of the time. Doing nothing more then reading, eating, drinking and sleeping. Although I did feel sorry for Ed not having some sunshine the few days he was here, I didn’t mind so much actually. The “doing” nothing is catching up and I have no problems at all getting used to my new rithm

 This afternoon I have waved Ed goodbye. He went of to Ko Samui to fly from there to Bangkok. For me this means for the first time now I am on my own. Even though I had a littly knut in my stomach as I said goodbye to Ed, I am also looking forward to the travelling by my self.

 The next 2 days I will still stay on Ko Tao to do some diving. After that I’m gonna try some more kitesurfing in Ko Samui and then head north to discover the “colder” part of Thailand!

Hope to show you some beautiful (sunny) pictures soon!

This is more like it!

On the 2nd of January Ed and I set of for Chumpon. This is a small town on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand. Chumpon is mainly visited by travellers trying to make their way to one of the islands in the gulf. We decided to make a little stop there, because it has a small stretch of beach. Here you can kitesurf pretty well apparently….. Well of course for that you need wind… and where I had to much wind in Mui Ne, I had to little of it on Hat Thung Wua Laen Beach. Even though we didn’t get to kite surf, I am pretty happy we made this stop.

As we arrived on the 2nd it was pretty busy with local people having a holiday. But the next day it was amazing! Except for a couple of kite surfers waiting around for some wind, there was nobody there. So we just enjoyed a day of lazing around on the beach with hardly anybody else there (check it out… this picture shows pretty much how we spent our day).

The next morning we took the boat to Ko Thao. Of course if they say its 1,5 hours, they forget to mention that the getting you to the boat and all is gonna take you 2 hours, but who cares? We got here in time to see the sunset and that’s all that matters!

After having some trouble finding a decent hotel (and therefore one night in a pretty bad one), we have landed a bungalow right near the beach this morning. So let the lazing about begin!

 

 

 

 

All dressed up and no place to go! 

New year’s eve has been quite the experience. Just as we were all dressed up and ready to go – we’d made reservations for a table at the biggest count down in BKK on Central World Plaza – one of Ed’s friends called. She told us to stay in the hotel because there were bombs going off in Bangkok. Now I don’t know about you guys but this is not the usual start of a good party night for me.

Within 15 minutes 2 more people
had called to warn us. Since there was nothing on the news yet, I went to check the internet. Yep, there it was, 7 bombs went off in BKK – 2 people killed and 20 wounded. We quickly decided that going to the biggest count down might not be a very smart move. Just as we had decided that, there it was on CNN – the reason our plans were cancelled.

Not coming from a country where bombs go off
regularly, I was really flabbergasted. We waited
 about an hour for more news to come. Then Ed’s friend Mod called us, they were going to a part of town, well away from all the popular tourist area’s, where only Thai people go and we were welcome to join them. We figured this was our savest bet, if we didn’t want to stay in the hotel all night.

Going out on the street I felt really weird and anxious.
 Inspite of my budget I refused to take the skytrain
or subway, so we took a taxi instead. As we arrived, I immediately noticed we were the only two “white” people there, so my nerves started to calm down.

The place was called Zeed and was some sort of really trendy hip-hop R&B joint. It was great! We really owe Ed’s friend a big thank you.

They absolutely made sure we had everything
we needed to have a great New Year’s Eve. Taxi’s, food, drinks… they took really good care of us.

When tried to go back to the hotel, again we realised how strange this evening was. Police and military were on the streets, skytrain stations were closed.

In the street where we stay the bars otherwise only visited by old guys looking for young girls were
now packed with people, even families.

Apparently they were one of the few places that did open after all events were canceled. We have been quite lucky that thanks to Ed’s friends we didn’t notice any of the commotion once we got to the party. This morning I learned that we’ve made the right choice. Checking Nu.nl for news, I learned that another bomb
went of and 10 people were wounded. This one went
of on the square where we were heading for! The last
news we saw, was that 3 people died and 38 got
wounded.

All and all it was a very strange and to me quite scary experience. Even just now as I was walking to the internet cafe, I noticed that the big hotels increased security and were checking with mirrors under cars looking for bombs. It gives me a very disturbing feeling and even though I do my thing, I don’t feel completely relaxed. I’m pretty glad we are leaving tomorrow for Chumphon.

A bit Christmas, a little sightseeing, big coincidences and a lot of lazyness!

The past week I have been doing a lot of …. well nothing actually. Lazing about, reading, uploading pictures, so I can finally properly update my website and show you something other than my boring stories! We have had good fun though!

The second night I was in BKK we went for dinner and drinks. As we were heading back to the hotel, Ed sort of dared me to check out one of the bars near our hotel. First I’ve got to tell you in the area where we stay the only Western people staying there are old guys buying – oooohhhps I meant – trying to get the attention of young Thai girls.  Curious of course I immediately went in. The guys were completely astounded – you could see the questionmarks as they were asking themselves: Hey, do they have these little women in blond versions now as well? The girls were looking at me like I was crazy… but after their first suprise, they found it quite amusing. So I ended up dancing with a girl with quite a questionable profession. The next day as we passed the bar, they were waving. And when we went in again later this week (it’s the only place that’s got some decent music sometimes) we got our own seats. Of course this was very helpful to get the picture with the girl in the Christmas outfit  !

For Christmas I wanted to look halfway decent and somewhat like a women. So I dragged Ed around all the markets I could find. To make matters worse for him Erwin’s friends Nam & Mim were quite happy to help me out finding as many markets they could think of.

With a little shopping, a decent hot shower and the help of the little make-up I brought I actually managed to pass as a women for one night! Which was a good thing, cause Ed took me to a traditional Thai restaurant. The ambiance, the cocktails, the food, the wine it was amazing! We really had a great Christmas dinner.

   

Somewhere this week Erwin was supposed to go out with his friend and I would go of on my own. As we were having coffee Ed’s friend canceled, so we changed plans and went to do some sight-seeing. We visited Vimanmek Mansion, a palace completely made of golden teak wood. Since we were in the neighbourhood anyway we decided to go to Khoa San road, which is the backpacker area of BKK. As we were having a beer, I ran into Jolanda who I met in Vietnam. After about an hour of catching up on eachothers travelling experiences, we went looking for a nice pub. But we made a wrong turn and were a bit lost. As we were passing a very small alley to get back to a road we knew, I saw terrace of a restaurant over the fence. Just as I tell Ed I think this is only a restaurant, some Dutch guy replies: “but it is a very nice one”. When I look over the fence to see who the smart mouth is I give a big yell just from the suprise! It’s Okyay, we grew up together from the age of 2. It really is amazing. The whole day was one coincidence after another… resulting in Okyay and me finally having the drinks we’ve been trying to meet for in October back home! 

Oops, I did it again!

We visited Ayuthaya, the former capital of Thailand, Saturday. There are many old temples and ruines to see there. The only thing is, they’re quite far apart…. so we rented bycycles. I must say that going through traffic and trying to remember to stay on the left side were quite a challenge for me, but maybe I am finally getting the hang of this!

The trip was great. Scattered all over town are ruines of temples and decapitated Buddha images – a reminder of the Birmese occupation. We cycled from one to the other, I must say it was a pretty impressive place. There was some sort of beautiful contrast in seeing a reasonable modern city develloping around the ruines dating back to the first millenium.

We ended the day by watching the sunset on one of the most beautiful pagoda’s.

Culture shock!!!!!

The flight from Saigon to Bangkok took me only 1,5 hour. Now those of you that know Erwin (Ed), understand I had no trouble finding him at the airport As usual Ed swooped me into the air for a big hug … it didn’t seem to matter to him that I had my backpack and everyting on!

Bangkok was a complete culture shock for me after 4 weeks Vietnam. Ed had arranged a hotel in the new center of the city and after the peace and quit of Mui Ne all the skyscrapers, cars, skytrains and noises of the city made me feel like a complete country girl seeing a city for the first time in her life. Now to add to my confusion Erwin took me to the poshest mall of BKK, where they even managed to have a complete luxury car level (at the 4th flour and I was too shocked to figure out how they did it).

Then…. the good times started!!!! It turned out they have a complete food court on a different level (this they do on the ground floor and the cars on the 4th????) After 4 weeks of flied lice and flied noodles I felt like a kid in a toystore! It took me 15 minutes to finish a double bacon cheeseburger, a hotdog with mayonaise and ketchup and a big piece of chocolate pie!

   

At night we went to the local night market and ended up in the food court. Here we swapped all our war stories and Ed even managed to see all the 1000 pictures I took so far. 

The next day we went for breakfast with Ed’s friend Nam (to be quite honest I went for a second breakfast). After that we did the tourist thing and went to see the Grand palace and a few temples along the way. It was really beautiful and we had quite the enjoyable day…. just until I felt like eating something again by the end of the afternoon. Now before I tell you this story I have to explain that 4 weeks of drinking beer and all my double breakfasts are starting to show. I have a little tummy growing steadily and my lovehandles are growing accordingly! Naturally I am very proud of this and it was probably the first thing I was showing Ed as I arrived in BKK.

Anyway after our site-seeing we found a nice riverside restaurant and ordered a late lunch. When I was finished a was very happily rubbing my little (to my opinion) tummy, when the women very enthousiasticly askes me: Baby?? 3 months?? As I say no, she goes: Yes! Meanwhile, pointing at my tummy and then again askes me 3 months?? 2 months?? ………. I figured this was the time to tell Ed he is becoming a daddy

But seriously…. Trust me I am quite proud of the fact that I gained some weight, but this is it! I am going to exercise or on a diet or whatever - if people are starting to think that I am actually pregnant - that’s it for me!! It is now one day later and I am still in shock! Ed of course cannot stop rubbing this in my face … hence the nice picture we took yesterday!

Okay, Ed is dragging me away from the computer … I will update the rest tomorrow!