What a week!

Having had a fantastic time on Koh Chang, we arrived back on Sunday to be given the keys to our new home!  Now I know this comes a bit out of the blue, but have I got a story to tell you.  Sit back and relax, this may take some time....

When we first arrived, we coveted the apartments at the back of our house.  We met the owner, Pang, through Tom at the corner shop.  The house, given to us free by the school, was a little depressing at first (though much brighter than the first house we were let into) and we could never imagine it as home.  Pang has 15 apartments and there's a list to get in because once in, people rarely move on.  So, we asked him to let us know if one ever came free.  He's a really lovely guy and his niece married an Australian and lives there so we had a tiny bit in common and this gives him moderate English.

I've mentioned before that we have three new teachers at school this term and one is a couple.  They were put next door to us.  He is American and she comes from the Philippines.  Now, before I say anything else, let me make it clear that we have some lovely American friends who we wouldn't be without.  Next door, however, is your "a typical" American.  Very loud, very obnoxious, very self-absorbed.  We occasionally hear some entertaining statements such as the water bill being 130 baht, the neighbours aren't very worldly!  But mostly we hear a lot of noise, proper swearing (even though they are church goers) and it feels like all the happiness in our house is sucked out the minute they get back from school.  Of course Mr John also has to put up with this during the day, so pretty much 24/7 for him, and he's been getting more and more short tempered over the last six weeks.

So, one Friday morning (two weeks ago today), when Pang popped his head through our open window to tell us there was an apartment free - we pretty much bit his hand off.  It will mean some adjustments on our part now that we have to pay rent - like maybe Koh Chang every four months instead of three, but we can manage.  So let me tell you all the fun stuff.

 Firstly, it's concrete and soooo quiet!  As you can see, there's parking underneath so I won't get a burnt bum when I get on the bike.  It has a hot water shower, so Mr John is a very happy man.  Once you're up the stairs, which were a little scary at first, everything is on one floor and there's a good sized balcony at the back.   And being high set, we wont have to move any of our furniture up onto desks during the rainy season!

The minor down-side is it's not furnished, but things are cheap enough here.  Of course the up-side of this is we bought a king-sized bed which is just heavenly and much better than two singles pushed together!

The lovely Tom helped to move the heavy stuff when Mr John came home on one of his extended breaks.  He lent us their trolley and I'd done a couple of loads before the big stuff was moved.  How to move house Thai style!  It was a pretty hot day but we managed to get all the key things in.  There's only the internet left to move, which our friend Kob is helping us with, so I'm writing this sat at the table in the old house with nothing much around me. 

Though we weren't impressed when we first arrived, it is sad leaving this house.  We managed to turn it into a home and who knows, we might have turned Pang down had we had different neighbours (somehow, I'm not sure they'll be here that long though).

I haven't yet put the Christmas decorations up at the new house, but a big thank you to those who've sent care parcels with some fabulous things - I'm especially looking forward to putting up the fuzzy felt tree!  And don't worry if you've posted something in the last week - the postman already knows we've moved and where to find us.  I'll update the "Our House" page when the internet has been installed so you can see it furnished.