I’ve been working in Paris too long. Time to return to the origins of this website and report something more exotic than my exploits in Clichy for a change. Time for a report from Thailand.

Two days and two massages into my latest trip to Bangkok, and I remember all the reasons I love Thailand. Great food, great service, friendly people, and warm weather.

I flew on Thai airlines from Zurich on Saturday afternoon. The flight was perfect. My colleague made the rookie mistake of ordering the western meal (filet mignon – always sounds great but ends up dry as boot leather when cooked in an airline oven) and looked on jealously as my pork curry came out – it tasted and smelled even better than it looked. After dinner, I settled in for some sleep, and managed to squeeze in eight hours of good sleep before being woken for breakfast about an hour before landing.

We arrived at 5:30am Sunday morning. Our driver was waiting and we were at the hotel about thirty minutes later. We dropped off our bags, took an hour to have some breakfast and grab a shower, then headed out to explore the city. We started with a little shopping, then had Japanese for lunch – and ordered so much food that they needed to bring a second table (Gina, if you’re reading this, you’ll recognize the situation from our Japanese meals in Singapore!). When the food is this cheap and this good, it’s hard to resist.

I passed the afternoon with a little snooze, a few hours by the pool, and a massage – just about the perfect way to pass an afternoon in Thailand in my book. Another of our colleagues arrived on the evening flight, and we all headed out to dinner at Ruen Mallika, a Thai place I’ve eaten in before and still one of the best that I’ve eaten in Thailand.

Despite asking the waitress to warn us if we over-ordered, we…you guessed it…over-ordered. Fish cakes, spring rolls, tom yum goom with prawns that were as big as lobsters, then red duck curry, more jumbo prawns in garlic, fried heart of palm, chili beef salad, fried morning glory, rice, noodles, and more. Moral of the story: never order when you’re hungry. I had taken charge of the ordering, but I had two willing assistants cheering me on from the sidelines… “Ohh, let’s have one of those, too!” Delicious fresh mango to finish it all off, and the ubiquitous Singha beer. (Apparently, it’s the formaldehyde that gives it the unique taste.)

It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it…

Today was a quiet day. Slept well overnight, had a late start, then a little more shopping, more pool, and more food. Took a few hours out of my afternoon to visit our office in Bangkok where I’ll be running workshops for the next few days, then off for another massage.

We’re just about to head out to the Seafood Market for dinner – you choose it, they kill it, they cook it, you eat it. My kinda dinner.

Not quite sure how I managed to land this job, but it’s not a bad way to make a living…

Life, as always, is busy here and I haven’t gotten around to updating my blog as frequently as I would like. So there are no pictures or entries of my recent trips to Boulder, CO or Pennsylvania, where I met my parents for dinner. Nor are there any pictures of recent outings with friends here in Paris, mostly because (much to the relief of my friends) I have been leaving my camera at home.

We have just returned from a week in Egypt, which seemed like a good excuse for a blog entry. Eight days in El Gouna, outside Hurghada, right on the Red Sea.

I arrived at the airport to discover myself sitting opposite the guy I share an office with – luckily for me, we get along well, because we realized that we were on exactly the same holiday – same flights, same hotel, same everything. Fabrice was travelling with his wife and two young daughters, Mathilde (3) and Tiffane (1). Over the week, Mathilde and I became great friends.

Basically, we had a week of sun-and-sand, although the high winds meant that we spent the days by the pool instead of the beach.

I managed to squeeze in a day of diving while Aude snorkeled. Warm water (23-24C), but the diving was disappointing – there was very little to see. The highlight of the dive was an octopus, although another couple on the boat told us they had seen dolphins two days before. I guess it’s sort of luck-of-the-draw, but for me it wasn’t even close to the diving I did in Asia.

I had to suffer a fair bit of teasing on the dive – having forgotten I was already certified, I had booked myself in to do the full certification course over a couple of days. Sure enough, went back to the hotel room to get my logbook and discovered my certification card – I had forgotten I’d finished it when I was in Mauritius a few years ago. Cue a rather-embarrassed Matt having to walk back to the dive centre and asking for a refund. And cue plenty of ribbing from the dive centre staff.

The other highlight of our trip was a 4×4 trip out into the desert – 30km into the desert to visit a Bedouin village, where we at dinner and watched dancing.

Aude in El Gouna, heading out on the dive boat

Matt getting ready for his first dive of the trip

Matt and Mathilde, his new best friend

Matt all geared-up and ready to dive

Fabrice, Matt’s office-mate and dive buddy for the day, gets ready for his first dive

Mathidle watches Matt and Fabrice go

Matt helps Claire set up her gear

Matt on the dive boat

Looking out over the lagoon — this was the view from our balcony

More lagoon shots

Red Sea beach

Kite-surfing on the Red Sea. These guys were absolutely mental — they were regularly being picked up by gusts of wind and pulled 15 feet out of the water

Umbrellas along the beach — unfortunately, too windy most days to spend much time actually on the beach

One of the many pools at the hotel

Our villa at the hotel — four bedrooms opened onto a common lounge and shared balcony. We even had our own pedalo and kayak, if we were so inclined.

Aude in the desert

Old-school Toyota Landcruiser. I looked at the odometer and our 4×4 had over 750k kilometres on the clock. They may not be comfortable, but these old Landcruisers are certainly well-built and robust.

Aude and Matt in the desert. Not much to see except a lot of sand.

My new ride. What you can’t see in this picture is the fact that my camel spent basically the entire trip leaving a trail of manure behind him. (Which, after a week of Egyptian food, is pretty much what I did, too)

Aude riding a camel. Trickier than it looks.

Aude, Matt and a camel. You can decide who’s who.

I’m guessing our Egyptian cameraman did not get to see women very often.

Aude poses with her new ride.

Bedouin man

A camel making faces at us.

Baking bread over a fire made of dried camel dung. For the flavour, apparently. Mmmm.

The evening’s entertainment in the camp. Not quite American Idol.

Fast-moving dancers!

OCD? Me? Never. I prefer to think of myself as very organised. I’m a Virgo, after all.

Life hasn’t been all hard work, though. I was invited to run a five-day training course for some of our recently-promoted graduates, based in Alicante, Spain. Since I only had a week of vacation, there was no way I could turn down a week in the sun.

There were over 400 participants involved in the training, and we managed to take over the entire hotel. The weather was great, with temperatures in the high twenties and low thirties, warm water in the pool and lots of sunshine. My biggest regret was not bringing sunscreen – even though my time outside was limited (as I was preparing classes), I still managed to find enough time in the sun to burn myself. I spent the rest of the trip doing my impression of a lobster.

Delegates playing ping-pong by the pool

Relaxing by the pool

Cruising on a dolphin…

Flying fish!

Playing in the pool

They really laid on a lot for the guys. They had chartered a plane from Paris for all the French delegates, and there was a real party atmosphere as we headed to Alicante. On the second night, they rented an amusement park exclusively for us. On the third day, they brought in all sorts of games around the pool for a team-building afternoon. My two highlights of that day: first, the rest of my team-mates assuming I was a recent graduate (haven’t felt quite that young since I was carded at a bar in the US) and the second, someone coming up and complimenting me on my good English (I was the only native speaker involved in the training!)

The class itself was a lot of fun to run – I have run similar classes before so didn’t have to do much preparation. The delegates do most of the work themselves, and present back on the final day (after spending all night in a nightclub we rented for their exclusive use. Many didn’t get back until 6am, but they still managed to be up and working at 8am despite being told they weren’t required to start until 10h30! That’s a pretty dedicated group.) Here are a few pictures of them giving their presentations…

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

Students presenting their case studies

And here are a few team shots as we presented the awards…

The most important moment of the week – the winning scores are revealed!

Student team

Student team

Student team

Student team

Student team

Day 3 of our vacation in the south of France. We put Jerome in charge of cocktails, and I was put in charge of the barbeque. Aude’s father was put in charge of killing the bees, and Aude’s mother was in charge of the couscous. Aude volunteered to be in charge of sitting by the pool.

Look out — the bee killer is poised and ready for action!

 

Limes at the ready for mojitos

 

Experts at work making the cocktails

 

A consultation in the kitchen

 

Jerome wonders if he should use the entire bottle

 

More drink-ology

 

By the pool

 

Cats are very clean animals. Minouche gets ready to take her shower.

 

Minouche watches all the action from beside the pool

 

Aude takes her job of relaxing by the pool very seriously.

 

Matt is on barbecue duty — merguez sausages at the ready!

 

The couscous is a success!

 

Relaxing in the pool…

 

My first real update in more than a month. Needless to say, August has been very, very busy. I am spending most of my time right now travelling between my client’s various sites around Europe, and August has meant trips to Ireland, England, Switzerland, France, and Spain. Deadlines are looming and people are becoming more and more stressed.

Early in August, I did at least get the chance to take a week off. Aude and I spent a week with Aude’s parents and brother in the south of France. It was my first real vacation since we went on our honeymoon nearly a year ago, and even the few days of sun were a welcomed break.

A nice swimming pool and view over the houses

Aude takes her first dip in the pool

Relaxing by the pool

More views over the swimming pool. I could get used to this view every morning.

Flowers

More flowers

Aude in front of the pool

Matt begins to relax by the pool

Aude’s parents are beginning to plan their trip to the US

Preparing dinner

Beginning to relax

Ah – it is because she has a cocktail in her hands!

In the kitchen

 

And now some pictures for those of you who are more visually-minded (or don’t speak English, or are just too lazy to read all the way through this entry).

Just back after four days in the south of France, where we enjoyed some truly superb weather and managed to sort out a lot of the final details around the wedding. The menu is chosen, the photographer is booked and briefed about what we’d like, we’ve seen the band and we’ve met with the DJ. Incidentally, apologies to anyone coming to the wedding – the DJ was a mandatory requirement of the Chateau (apparently he makes sure the place doesn’t get destroyed) and let’s just say that we don’t exactly share one another’s taste in music. I think we’ll sit Julien next to the DJ and hope for the best…

I also learned that the Mediterranean sun in the middle of the day is a little stronger than we’re used to in the UK. Which is why I mostly look like a lobster in these pictures.

There may be a million pictures of this view on my blog, but that doesn’t make it any less pleasant…

Aude clearly enjoys sitting in the summer sunshine. Much nicer than the cold, rainy weather in England…

Even the busy duties of planning a wedding can’t wipe the smile off Aude’s face!

Aude and her mother outside on the patio

Every family has one joker…

Clearly enjoying the fun…

The family in front of the pool

Aude about to go over the edge of the infinity pool…

This is why your mother always told you to put on sunscreen. What you can’t see in the photograph is that my nose is redder than Rudolph’s!

Back at work now, and the treadmill is turning just as fast as it ever was… I’d put my nose to the grindstone if it wasn’t so sunburnt!