Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

Where women blow and men plunder, or even chunder! Mr Wren was away last weekend with his new Bangkok work colleagues. It was the annual office team bonding event. I had to smile in sympathy when @verybritishproblems tweeted their four-word horror stories:  Team Building away day  Tell us about yourself  We’ve run out of milk! At this event, every new employee is invited, the sort of invitation you don’t refuse, to introduce themselves to the broader team of over 250 people, in an entertaining manner.  My Wren failed the audition to join an existing group of newbies who clearly were going all out to make a great first impression. They politely told him he wouldn’t have the time to catch up as they’d been working on their performance for months. Which considering that most Thai’s will never say no to anything, was a gutsy move!  So poor old Mr Wren was in a right flap. I was sensing he’d be more comfortable standing on stage announcing a 2017 50

Well here we are at the end of our second week living in Bangkok... 1.  Barely in Bangkok: We've found somewhere to live! At the moment we're living it up in a serviced apartment. This picture sums up our current life: two bears alone in Bangkok. The bears were given to us at a Valentines Day dinner and the flowers are in an old Perrier bottle as all our worldly Bangkok-bound goods, with the odd vase or two, are currently bobbing around on the high seas between Melbourne and Bangkok. The place is quite spartan as you can see, but we do have the luxury of having our beds made up each day! From next week now I'm all sorted we start travelling, watch this space! 2.   Bird in Paradise : I spotted the birds of paradise flowers in our local market, and of course Little Wren aka bird in paradise or so I keep reminding myself had to have them. There was a conversation that started with ' not for sale '...The flower lady refused to sell them to me, as she said &

Life is not about finding ourselves it is about creating ourselves! George Bernard Shaw Cooee! It's me calling in from Thailand. Sorry, it's been a while, it's been a tad busy. Still, we've not done badly. We've moved into our temporary apartment and are well on the way to finding something more permanent. We're overlooking the American Embassy compound, which is acres of impressive greenery in amongst the high rise buildings. I love it, I can even hear the little birds sing in the morning. Outside our new apartment. So welcome to my new life as ....  drum roll please , Hmmm actually, I  have no bleedin’ idea, so how about Bangkok Blogger for now? How would you feel if you were to arriving in a new country, where you know no-one, and you're not even sure what your life will entail? For me, it was a feeling of excitement, crossed with a rolling of the eyes, a smile and my 'here we go again' expression.  Of course, this al

Generally, I'm fine with our upcoming move to Bangkok,  but there is a big elephant in the room, in the shape of the Crazy Poodle.  Our seven-year-old Cavoodle did not score a ticket to Thailand.  Leaving him will be really hard, even though I know it's for the best. He's not good with change, hates all suitcases  and our lovable velcro dog displays all the hallmarks of canine separation anxiety. You'd think he'd be used to it with the amount of travelling our family does, but as soon as those suitcases appear, he goes into full-on poodle sulk! Without a suitcase in sight, he's a different beast, happy as a pig in mud.  Content and relaxed, he sleeps at our feet without a care in the world. However the moment he is left home alone, he is on guard.  Alternating between being on surveillance with his nose and all four paws perfectly aligned under the gate.  Or, patrolling the perimeter fence  checking for likely possu

. .. or the Year Of The Cock-up? Maybe it wasn't an auspicious date to be planning to move house during Chinese New Year?  Those born during the year of the Rooster* would be amazing to have as friends.  The Rooster is they say almost the epitome of fidelity and punctuality  and come to think of it, should have been part of my selection criteria for the whole team involved in getting us to Bangkok.  So things did not quite go according to plan but hey we made it! 1. Firstly our removal company rescheduled our move without our agreement or knowledge.  So Mr Wren and I, having run around like headless chooks on Australia Day, with not even enough time to fly our Aussie flag as in previous years,  were sitting there in splendid isolation on what we had thought was our big packing day...  Waiting, waiting... 22 Now, this would have been an ideal time to practise all those new skills we need in our new country. Like being relaxed, happy, keeping our cool, avoid