Week 29 - 18 December 2015 to 24 December 2015 - Koh Samui, Thailand
Koh Samui, Thailand
Friday (18 December 2015)
Waking up, still stiff from the massage of yesterday, but feeling great and having had a very deep sleep, I turned around and the pain returned in the form of specific pressure points on my back where Mr. Pong worked out the stresses of the last decade or two.
A few days ago I reported that the rainy season had passed but this morning Adri brought me coffee with the news that outside it looked like Magoebaskloof in SA, misty and rainy, and it was just after that the rain intensified and continued for the next few hours. Wow, what more could one ask for to rest a weary body.
It was still raining when I prepared the second cup of coffee and started working just after 09:00. Christmas is quite big in Koh Samui with all the expats and tourists around. As for the Thais, being mostly Buddhist, Christmas is just another money generating opportunity and quite rightly so for them. So I was quite amused when I walked into the Central Festival department store the other day and noticed all the attendants wearing these polystyrene deer horns, which by the way Rudi would have been ashamed of, clipped onto their temples (no pun intended). It did look a bit odd but cheerful and fun nevertheless, a good way to get tourists to part with their baht.
There was ham in the house so we had an uitsmijter for breakfast adding olives to the mix as well, which was followed by a banana omelette made from the last two bananas which had started changing colour, just slightly you see. Man, this was great and just what was ordered to get the muscles energized after the pummeling they took yesterday.
I continued working throughout most of the day and published the blog at around 16:30.
We were not sure where to go for supper, the choice here is unlimited, so we took a drive down the Chaweng beach road and by chance found the Poppie's Resort where we will be going for Christmas supper, not Christmas eve, with Tim, Steve and Marina. The five if us would have gone to the Secret Garden on Christmas eve but those plans got amended somewhere along the way. The weather looked ominous, the sky was dark and moody, the wind was blowing impressively, but somehow the rain never came. When we reached the Poppie’s Restaurant, which is situated right on the beach, it was high tide with big waves breaking close to the restaurant, the beach totally covered by the sea surge. The ocean looked angry, not sure what he/she was all about.
We retreated back to the beach road, walked back to the bike and on the way stuck our necks into a few restaurants to check what was on offer, the stomach was starting to grumble, it was feeding time. By the time we reached the bike, Adri had made her decision. The Mexican buffet at the Scandic Restaurant was the answer to the question that nobody asked. We were seated at a table where the fan was located below the light, so, the shadows from the blades kept going round and round, making these dizzy puppies even dizzier. Not sure why people even contemplate such an arrangement, for heaven’s sake, install the light below the fan. We did manage to get the table next to us which was just perfect.
When my Chang reached its halfway mark, we made our way so the start of the buffet, which essentially resembled an assembly line for a burrito, taco, fajita, chimichanga, quesadilla, enchilada, flauta, chalupa or toastada, whatever you wish to call your masterpiece. At the start of this line there are plates which you load up with a tortilla. That is followed by a multitude of small bowls containing lettuce, diced tomato, shredded onion, shredded scallops, sliced gherkins, black olives, green olives, fresh corn kernels, grated cheese, some kind of a hummus as well as a kind of mayonnaise sauce, freshly prepared tomato and onion relish, the rest I do not remember, my mind went a bit foggy. At the end of this line lies the jackpot, actually two pots, one containing a flavourful lightly spiced chicken dish as well as a flavourful slightly spicy ground beef dish. Thus, depending on whether you want a beef or chicken burrito, or whatever you’re making, you dip that spoon into the required pot and smother the pile of ingredients on your plate with your selection. I started with a chicken, then had to try the beef, returned to the chicken just to make sure is was as good as I thought it was. Man, was this great or what. And just for good measure there was a separate dish with boiled spare ribs which fell off the bone, simply delicious. Let me make it clear, I will be back.
I have not been exposed to Mexican food much in the past and thus eating my burritos were a bit messy, not that I or anybody else minded, but I thought there must be a better way because, as you fold the north and south sides over to meet each other at the top, as you bring that puppy to your mouth to be devoured, one invariable tilts this submarine thingy and stuff falls off the back. The trick I learned afterwards is to use your little finger to lift up the east side, then fold over the north and south which creates a kind of a coal scoop, after which you can attack this thing from the west.
What an evening. Before we left we went through to the kitchen to thank the owner who is either Austrian or German, seems like a real nice guy. By the way, people that opted out of the buffet and went for the ala carte menu options could not have been disappointed judging by the plates that passed us.
We rolled out of there and onto the bike, rolled back home, but only after we bought Adri one of those pancakes from a street vendor she spotted earlier on. With banana and coconut shavings encased within a pancake, dripping with chocolate sauce and condensed milk, this was not for the faint hearted, and apparently Adri wasn’t feeling faint.
Saturday (19 December 2015)
Woke up this morning with the Pong pain still prevalent, but I gave it no thought as I did not need any distractions today, our move day had finally arrived. After a boeretroos (coffee or farmer’s comfort) or two we ambled down to reception to pay for our new apartment and fetch the keys from David. After a good old chinwag, as always, we set off to the villa for one last time, to pack and move our belongings. As Adri was packing I moved the packed stuff out the doorway, left down probably some 30 steps to our new apartment, literally about 30 metres away. Needless to say, I was sweating like a steamer at the time I ran out of track. Five trips was all it took which of course were five trips too many.
While Adri started unpacking I made a quick dash to the Family Mart, we had just run out of milk. Adri wanted coffee and she despises Coffee Mate creamer, she wants milk in there. I on the other hand despise milk, I want Coffee Mate creamer in there. On the way back I also stopped off at the water dispensing machine to fill up our plastic water bottles with 10 litres of water. Since we’ve been in the villa we never used the water dispenser and merely bought new bottles of water. Man, you cannot believe the number of plastic bottles we have thrown away during the last six weeks and one cannot help but think that they are filling up mother earth somewhere, making her increasingly sick as time goes by. So to be earth and green conscious we really do prefer to re-use the bottles we have by refilling them as and when required, which would normally be every five to six days.
Adri was still unpacking when I set up all the equipment with the relevant wifi and passwords, also set up the Apple TV and tested Netflix, Sky news etc, and all seemed to be happy with their new apartment, also Adri and I. This is a really nice and comfortable place, so thank you David.
We were both pretty tired, not used to so much manual labour anymore, so after a shower we decided to go out for a quick supper. We ended up at the same Thai restaurant that we went to a few weeks back with David and Jenny. Their food is really great, the service is great, and one of the waitresses speak pretty good English, quite a pleasure to talk to her. We found out that she had a cold and was not feeling very well, yesterday she slept for 20 hours straight and felt slightly better when her husband woke her up just to make sure she was still alive. She had two sons, one of six and the other nine, and she was expecting their third in June next year and she was hoping it will be a girl. All this information received while she was serving a few other tables as well. As I said, her English is pretty good.
They had Bacardi Breezers on the menu so Adri ordered a lemon flavored one and I ordered a Chang… and a Chang. We shared dishes of shrimp spring rolls, a pad thai and a stir fried chicken with cashew nuts and steamed rice. We had a truly great evening out making sure to drink a toast to our new home.
Sunday (20 December 2015)
We woke up early-ish, had a coffee and a read. Must admit, we did not sleep very well but then we know that the first night in a new place is never great. It is a new unknown environment, there always new sounds, new bed, new pillows to get used to… Oh, in this instance there were no new pillows to get used to as we brought the ones from the villa with us which are, not the best, but better than the rest.
I checked out the US Democratic presidential candidates this morning, there just seems to be much more hope for intelligence amongst this bunch than the Republican bunch led by Trump.
We, OK, let me rephrase, I, forgot to give the keys of the villa to David yesterday and as we were about to get onto our pony, another pony pulled up alongside us. The face was a familiar one, it was Pierre who works with David, and as I recognized him I took those keys out of my pocket and handed it to him, we were just on our way to deliver them to reception. With one stop less to make we zipped out of there to the beach.
On the way to Maenam beach we stopped off at Tesco, we needed a chopping board and an egg lifter, the reason breakfast could not be prepared this morning. "No egg lifter, no breakfast", Adri commanded. Breakfast was to be at the Black Canyon at the Tesco shopping centre. Weather-wise today was not a particular exciting day, warm, a bit windy and cloudy, but if we worked with what we were dealt with we could still turn it into a great beach day. On the way to Maenam we stopped off for that wonderful breakfast at Black Canyon, and an egg lifter at Tesco, the chopping board available there was no good.
Getting to Maenam we made a quick detour to check whether Lood’s Rasta Baby Pub was open yet for the season, sadly it is still deserted, but a lady from behind the pub peered out of her doorway thinking we were visiting her, and confirmed that maybe Rasta will be open around New Year. We checked out the beach nevertheless and found than the wind reported on earlier was coming from the north, thus Maenam was not a good beach bet today.
We decided to go to Chaweng Noi which would be more protected from this northerly wind. On the way there we stopped off at Big C, no chopping boards, not even one. At Makro they had a whole range of the stuff. We chose one of those plastic ones, Adri’s favourite. Now at least I can expect breakfast tomorrow, not sure why the chopping board was required for breakfast, may have to do with some other chopping I am not yet aware of, I should take care and sleep lightly.
So, off to Chaweng Noi and we settled on some beach chairs of the First House Resort… Man, this was holiday mode. After a while of just “nothing” thoughts, listening as the breakers broke upon the beach with the body in overdrive relax mode, the call of the breakers became too intense to ignore so we took a stroll into that lovely blue yonder.
Back in my resting position I became aware of an urge slowly overtaking all other urges so I ambled off to the beach pub ordered the standard Chang and Sprite, and of course received the wifi password… we were in business.
What a lovely relaxing day, we enjoyed our beach time tremendously, felt much better after our fitful sleep the previous night.
Monday (21 December 2015)
I got coffee in bed just after 08:00. Must admit, the sleep was much better than the previous night’s. Also, my Pong pain had receded, not altogether gone though, but mostly.
Work did not come easy today, in fact in did not come at all. We did a yoga session, the first one in the new abode. There is quite a lot of space in the apartment so we tried a few different places to lay our mats but eventually settled into the lounge area which seems to fit the purpose perfectly.
After yoga we gathered all our dirty laundry and biked off to the laundry lady. We used the same machine as the last time which worked just fine. We were not going to hang around the laundry place watching the washing go wishy-washy for an hour so were on our way back home when we passed a Thai primary school. Adri demanded a left turn into the school grounds where I had to duck and dodge all the kids busy running amok as it was their break. Adri went up to the school office to enquire whether they would allow her to volunteer to teach English, in order to practice what she preached during her TEFL course. She stayed away quite a while and that could be good or bad. Good if they understood her, bad if they didn’t, many of the teachers do not know much English at all. Not having wifi while waiting I could not read anything really so I made a mental note to download some books to the Iphone so that in future I can entertain myself when waiting around in such situations.
Anyway, Adri appeared and she ended up speaking to the newly appointed English teacher, hails from the UK, who took her details and promised to speak to the school’s director about her request. Then there was another surprise. Another bloke had just started working there, and would you believe, he is a Greek guy from South Africa, from somewhere in the Bedfordview area, called Paris. So, we’ll see what transpires out of this lot.
We got home after fetching the laundry which were duly hung out to dry and then I watched a bit of news and 10 minutes later I could not keep my eyes open. Adri went outside for a minute and when she returned I was sprawled out on the bed, fast asleep. I lost just over an hour of time and for my effort I received a mug of tea.
It was now late afternoon and we needed some fresh veggies for supper tonight so biked off to Tesco for a few things. On the way there Adri went for a quick bike riding lesson after which the shopping produced milk, coconut milk, potatoes, tomato, and also a Lindt dark chocolate (85%), Adri’s favourite.
After a wonderful supper of Thai yellow curry I worked a bit, or tried to, gave up and watched a few episodes of House Hunters.
Tuesday (22 December 2015)
I got to bed just past midnight, Adri only got to bed at around 02:00 as she was chatting away to her nieces, Maria and Lisa.
Just after our first cup of coffee we had a power failure, so no electricity which translated into no water, no wifi, no TV, no nothing, pretty much stuck. We contemplated doing a few yoga tricks but decided against that, no way to take a shower afterwards, and believe me, one needs it. Testament to that is last week when David visited us in our villa just as we finished up our yoga session and commented “Wow, I did not know yoga made one sweat” and after a brief pause he finished his sentence with “that much”.
So we listened to some of music on the Ipad and read, I could have gotten some work done of course but I was just too aggrieved to attempt that in my fragile non wifi state of mind.
Then the phone rang, missed it the first time around but on the second round of ringing Adri picked it up and the conversation was all in Thai, on the other side of course, but she could make out that the Thai on that side wanted to speak to a Thai on this side. There was no Thai here so Adri hung up. The phone rang for a third time, so I picked up. This time it was a lady wanting to know whether I am Mr. Tertius. Now I used to get so sick of unsolicited marketing calls in SA that my immediate response was “who wants to know”. It turned out she was from the courier company and they wanted to deliver my Quality Street sweets to me!
Now you may wonder what this was all about. Well, you may recall that I reported last week Monday that “This will be the first time in decades that I will be without my Quality Street fix during the Christmas period. I will get over it... maybe.” Well, my good friend Lood heard my plea for pleasure and decided to help. He gathered the necessary quantity of the good stuff and couriered it over to me, hence the call from the courier company. Thanks Lood! The outcome of the conversation was that the courier company was based in Bangkok and that they will send the goods via Thai Post to Koh Samui. Now you may remember that we had a very good experience with Thai Post earlier in the year when we ordered a book for Adri from Bangkok, so I was full of hope. In anticipation of this sweet event my sweet tooth was sharpened, my taste buds were standing to attention, my drool was drooling...
So we had a few things to get from Tesco and when we got there I made an off the cuff remark that went something like “we must not forget to go and see Start Wars: The force Awakens” and before I had time to breath in and continue with “sometime this week”, Adri said “yes, let’s go and see it now”. The next show was in 30 minutes so the ticketing deed was done there and then. Oh the joy of making my own decisions… yea right.
We both enjoyed the movie somewhat but one was still left with a feeling that there should have been more to the story. Some of the acting was also very ordinary like the characters Poe played by Oscar Isaac, Kylo Ren played by Adam Driver and General Hux played by Domhnall Gleeson, and others. Oscar Isaac was particularly ordinary I thought. I must admit that I am not a Star Wars aficionado but I really expected much more from reading all the hype that surrounded this movie. Reading some of the comments on IMDb confirmed my feeling about the movie, there are so many reviews ranging from 1 to 4… and that is out of 10. I read with interest that when the movie opened in the US people camped out in front of the movie houses for days just to make sure that they got to see it first. Reminds me of when Apple launches a new product people do the same, having to have the product first. Not sure what motivates those people, what difference does it make…
After the force was awoken we decided against doing shopping, after all it was getting late. As we hastily exited the shopping centre we retreated as quickly back inside, it was raining a storm out there. We backtracked to the Black Canyon where Adri had a Café Latte and me an Americano to wait out the storm. Man, these people know how to make good cups of caffeine.
After coffee we again tried to go home, but again failed, the rain was still storming down. We overturned our last decision regarding shopping. We bought some stuff, proceeded to the checkout counter and had those puppies scanned for all they were worth, with the total purchase amounting to around 300 baht. As I opened my wallet, sorry, our wallet, and flicked out that 500 baht note, I noticed that on its way to the receiving hand it turned into a 50 baht note. In my defense, the 50 and 500 baht notes both have quite a bit of blue in it, not the first time I have made this blunder. No problem, let’s flick out the real 500, but there were none, that 50 was the only lonely note lying in the folds of that wallet. Anyway, I proceeded to pay with my credit card without a problem though it did worry me a bit that I did not have to provide my pin… Oops. But I did have to sign a piece of paper though, like in the good old days, so all OK I guess. We have been working strictly with cash since we’ve been here, this was the very first time I paid by credit card, so happy to report that it at least still works.
We pushed our purchases to the exit and would you believe, it was still raining, and the mist was still as thick as thieves against the slopes of the mountain. It seemed as if the rain was not going to let up soon so we did the brave thing, we braved the rain. We donned our al cheapo raincoats and off we motored back home. The electricity thankfully was back on again, life was back to normal, life was good.
Our yoga instructor was getting on the stale side so I decided to shop around for a replacement on the Apples Itunes app store. I found a few that looked great but the one that stood head and shoulders above the rest was Yoga Studio at a once-off cost of $3.99. Another one called Daily Yoga also looked good but has a subscription charge at $4.99 per month. The decision was made, Yoga Studio it was to be. The app contains some 65 readymade yoga classes, each ranging between 15 and 60 minutes. One also has the ability to amend these classes to suit your own requirements and there is also a facility to create your own brand new classes by adding the various required poses from a selection of some 280 poses. Great.
Now there was just one little problem, my Itunes account is linked to the US store but I cannot link my SA credit card to it, it has to be a US card. One way would probably have been to switch back to the SA store, add my card details, buy Yoga Studio and revert back to the US store. The chance through that this particular app would not be available on the SA app store was pretty good, the US store have a vastly more extensive selection, the reason I moved to it in the first place. I spent the rest of the evening researching ways to acquire the app but eventually sleep overtook my enthusiasm at around 23:00 and I switched off everything for a well deserved sleep, while the rain was still gently pattering against the window. Peaceful.
Wednesday (23 December 2015)
We woke up this morning with the rain still making its way down from above, the peace continued. News followed coffee at just after 08:00 and then suddenly I remembered with a tormented thought that we started to experience a problem with our toilet last night, the worst kind, it did not drain. I wrote a quick email to David who dispatched somebody almost immediately. After the two guys left I sent the following email off to David: “The guys were here for quite a while and they said there still is a problem. The toilet does however drain now but very slowly, so when doing number 1 it may be OK, but doing a number 2 you're left with 'n drol in die drinkwater (a **** in the drinking water).’
To which he replied “thanks for putting it so eloquently” and he will have it seen to, the toilet, not the ****.
The rain continued…
Now we were ready for yoga but I was still not amenable to attend the current teacher’s class, so I continued my research from last night. In the end I decided to keep my Itunes store on US and bought a $10 gift card through a web site called itunescarddelivery.com. They purchase physical dollar Itunes gift cards in the US and when you order one, they open it up, take a picture of it, and e-mail the image with the activation code to you. This web site proclaims to take payments either via credit card or Paypal, but even the credit card payments are processed via Paypal, which you can use as a Paypal guest, without having to have a Paypal account. I could not find this guest option and the company’s helpdesk confirmed that this option is not available in all countries. I have never really had a need to sign up for Paypal but now it was time to bite that bullet, which I did, and the process was pretty painless.
The rain continued…
Now it was back to itunescarddelivery.com where I duly placed my order for a $10 Itunes gift card, which I paid $12.99 for to compensate them for their trouble, no problem with that. I paid via Paypal and almost immediately received my order confirmation. Exactly five minutes later I received the image of my gift card. I was pretty impressed with the experience. Now back on the Itunes app store, I proceeded to enter the gift card’s serial number and voila, I had $10 credit. I purchased and downloaded Yoga Studio, and we were finally ready for our yoga session with the new teacher. I must admit, the quality of the video and the instruction is so superior to the one we had, one actually cannot even compare it, there is nothing to compare. I have not yet had time to play around with all the features but thus far I am very impressed.
The rain continued…
Breakfast followed yoga and work followed breakfast. This was once again a funny old week and we were so busy doing not much at all, that we did not get that much done at all, which goes without saying, I guess. So it was time to jump into work and sit skouer aan die wiel (put shoulder to the wheel).
The rain continued…
The Burmese cleaning lady came to clean off our patio which had a mild affliction of some algae on its edges. Actually, she did not come to clean it, Adri hijacked her as she walked past, so while the lady was scrubbing away Adri was carting water from outside the apartment to assist in her cleaning endeavors. The two of them scrubbed away while I was scrubbing away at my keyboard. Needless to say, they finished before me.
The rain continued…
Wayne, a South African from the Fourways area, who owns a house just up the road from us, popped in late afternoon to invite us for some wine, South African of course, he confirmed. Twenty minutes later we walked up the hill to their house and were introduced to Wayne’s Joy, so to speak. Wayne and Joy had been coming to Koh Samui every year for the last 10 years and a few of those back they decided to buy their villa, this is where they wanted to spend their holiday time. We requested a tour of the house and man, you must check this place out. Indoor outdoor pool coming right into the large lounge, great deck where we had out beers and wine, beautifully appointed kitchen, three large bedrooms mostly en-suite, and if that was not enough, there is a self contained studio apartment as part of the house. What a wonderful and interesting couple Wayne and Joy is, we had a good old chinwag and the glass of wine turned into a number of glasses of wine and just after 20:00 we tore ourselves away from there for supper and a sleep.
The rain continued…
Thursday (24 December 2015)
The rain stopped…
Somewhere along the night’s passage the rain stopped. I opened my eyes, peeked at the Iphone, it was just past 09:00. Wow, that was a great rest after the restful rainy day of yesterday.
This morning we had our second experience with the new yoga teacher, Yoga Studio, we did the same routine as yesterday, and we were still impressed. This app offers so much and we will use it to its full potential as time, and us, progress along this yoga journey.
Before breakfast Adri insisted on washing a few pieces of clothing, just because it was such a nice sunny day. Once you’ve lived in the tropics you appreciate that sun, as drying clothes here is always a struggle, not so today. While Adri was working I tackled some work in the good company of Billy Squire performing his Greatest Hits with rock classics such as The Stroke, Everybody Wants You, In The Dark, She's A Runner, Rock Me Tonight, Eye On You, Love Is The Hero and (L.O.V.E.) Four Letter Word.
My train was derailed when I got a call-up for breakfast of oats and yogurt, it had to be a quick brekkie, there was shopping to be done. As I moved my chair back to sit down for breakfast I asked Adri whether she heard that. “What?” she said perplexed to which I replied, “Exactly”. The chairs of the breakfast nook/island used made an awful annoying scraping noise when pulled out to sit down and even worse when on it and maneuvering forward. We had bought some of those felt type fabric discs, with the one end as sticky as hell, to be stuck to the feet of noncompliant chairs. I did the surgery yesterday afternoon and today we were spared that soul grating sound.
What would the festive season be without Christmas music? So during the afternoon we listened to an album called A Very Special Christmas Volume 1 with Christmas song contributions from The Pointer Sisters, Eurythmics, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, The Pretenders, John Mellencamp Run-D.M.C., Sting, U2, Madonna, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi,, Alison Moyet and Stevie Nicks. The one specific reason I bought this album from Amazon, apart from all the great artists and tracks on there, was for the version of Silent Night sung by Stevie Nicks. I heard this song a number of years back on radio and had to have it, it is a beautiful haunting raspy rendition that leaves one wanting to hear it one more time, every time. Take a listen to it, you will not be disappointed.
We were invited to Andre and Thea for Christmas eve and we rocked up there on our sleigh at around 18:45, 15 minutes late, oops, sorry. We unloaded the gifts and the drinks and soon sat down to supper. There were Andre and Thea, their sons and daughter in law, and friends and colleagues Roger (UK, Caribbean, Zimbabwe etc.) and Miriam (Singapore), Colin (UK) and Jeremy, a madcap happy go lucky Frenchman, always ready to make one laugh. Once we were all seated, the food started arriving, in installment after installment.
Man did we have a six star supper, yes, six star. The first starter, yes the first, was delivered with two prawns on top of each other, now don’t get any ideas, covered in a wonderful sauce and also on the plate was a seafood treat with mango and bacon bits and... Next came the second starter, a creamy mushroom soup. Now let me tell you, I have eaten mushroom soups and then some, this was the best I have ever had, no doubt about it. Then it was time for main course, or was it? The next plate arrived filled to the rim, or the brim, with goodies such as bobotie, spinach and feta quiche, and… it was at this point that my stomach warned me that he’s being overloaded and I should take it easy, so I opened another Chang.
But the end was nowhere near yet. The true main course arrived containing beef with a Jack Daniels sauce and also on that plate were lamb with mashed up cauliflower and pumpkin fritters. Divine. My stomach rolled its eyes heavenward when dessert arrived, or shall I say desserts. One bowl with malva pudding served with a homemade ice cream and the accompanying bowl containing an individually created trifle. Man, was that a six star supper.
We were each asked to buy a small gift, a man for a man and a woman for a woman. Between the last main course and dessert it was time to find new owners for the gifts. Each gift was given a number and each person was given a number, receiving the corresponding gift. Adri got some jewelry which she loved. I drew the gift that Jeremy bought and as it was handed to me he said he hoped I liked to spend time in the loo. I questioned whether it was perhaps a portable toilet. It was in fact a fat little book called Cool Cars, and cool it is. It contains a short write-up and pictures of the coolest cars around such as the E-Type Jaguar, Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari Testarossa, Ford Thunderbird, Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport and about 200 others. This book, I was assured by Jeremy, was required reading while in the loo…
We had a wonderful time, wonderful wine and song, wonderful conversations with wonderful people, a great evening was had by all. It was after 22:00 that everyone said their goodbyes and we were off on our merry Christmas way back to our abode. We read untill around midnight after which we crashed out with a heavy stomach which made rolling over an effort, it felt like crossing an obstacle course.