Day 7 - Paddling in Calm Waters
December 16, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
After a decent sleep, we had a hearty breakfast of omelette, toast, cereal & fruit. The Thais that had descended on the island the previous afternoon had all but disappeared and the beach was empty again.
My planned activity for the morning was to paddle a kayak out to a rocky peninsula that juts out from the end of our beach. Unfortunately the tide was high and the water was way to choppy, we didn’t want to die trying.
Instead we resumed our position at our private pool & took the occasional stroll up & down the deserted beach.
Lunch consisted of a couple of Leo’s at a table & chairs in the the shade of a big leafy tree, which having now got my ear in, I’ve discovered is a favourite haunt for the hornbills. During lunch we booked our respective accommodation for Christmas and New Year. We are yet to work out how to get to them, because it seems that some of the bus services have stopped running on our intended moving dates. We don’t know whether this is to do with it being the Christmas period or Covid.
After our liquid lunch, we decided (some might say ill-advisedly) to take a kayak out for a spin as the waves had subsided. We heaved it down the beach now at low tide & paddled out to the peninsula & back without incident.
Yet again during the afternoon the beach & resort started to fill with new Thai tourists and the old ones returning from boat trips.
We returned to our room when the sun sank below the trees & we both took a mandatory Day 6 Lateral Flow Test that had been provided to us by the Thai authorities at Phuket Airport. Both of our tests happily came back negative, but ridiculously the test results did not have a QR code or other means of recording or reporting the results. We took a photo of the result as evidence.
That evening we decided to give ‘36’ a break & we returned to the ‘rustic’ restaurant, I now like to think of as ‘authentic’. Jackie had the crispy fried pork she ordered last time, but I had to eat & I had fried chicken with curry. It was not particularly cheap, but it was delicious & we will definitely be going back.
Song of the Day: Die Trying by New Model Army.Read more
Day 6 - A Thai-Dal Wave of Tourists
December 15, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We both slept for a minimum of 8 hours - hallelujah. Ironically the only thing that disturbed me was my doctors surgery ringing for me to make an appointment.
I was on the verandah with a coffee, briefing myself on the current Covid situation in the news, when all hell let loose in a tree a couple of trees down. I grabbed my camera & raced down the path expecting to see a raucous troupe of monkeys, but no, two hornbills flew up & away before I could draw my camera. I chased after them & managed to spot them in a distant tree.
At breakfast we discovered that 2 German lads were also at our hotel. They told us they were on the last day of their 2 week holiday & that they had been banished to a room down the road because they played their music too loud! We also booked a further 5 nights on the island at the next door resort.
After breakfast, we settled down on sun beds at our private pool & listened to the excellent new James album on my bluetooth speaker. It was a perfect morning during which we walked up & down the beach a couple of times to keep our steps up.
At lunchtime, we walked to the nearest store & purchased some cans of Leo beer for lunch. We had come to the conclusion that we didn’t have the willpower to order just a beer in the restaurants. As I walked back to the beach with my lunch, I espied a couple of hornbills fly into the tree above me. Luckily I had my camera to photo what turned out to be 5 hornbills in the tree. We definitely don’t need to go now to Ko Chang to see the hornbills.
During the afternoon more and more Thai holidaymakers started to appear at our resort and on the beach in general. It looks like the solitude and tranquility is about to be shattered.
We left the pool at 5.30pm with our bodies an array of different colours & shades from white, pink and red through to brown.
That evening we went to a pre-planned fish restaurant for dinner, only for Jackie to decide she didn’t fancy fish. After a ‘discussion’, we moved on to our old favourite ‘36’, where I had a beef Massaman curry & Jackie had fried pork & basil. It didn’t disappoint.
Song of the Day: All The Colours Of You by James.
Recover by James.
Both songs from the new James album & about Covid & lockdown, which seemed apt having read the recent spiralling figures in the UK. The first cases of Omicron were detected in Thailand three days ago.Read more
TravelerSo loving your posts .. they are cheering us up - I’m day 6 of self isolation with Covid AGAIN! Andy is sleeping in the lounge! Your trip sounds amazing .. we are very jealous! Enjoy yourselves … I do love a bit of James - Andy has just played some of their new album to me and we will listen to more x
Simon and Jackie AnnalsOh Teresa, what a nightmare. At least you’ve had the benefit of not having to sleep with Andy. Glad you are enjoying my ramblings of a madman. Hopefully you will be clear in time to enjoy Christmas x
Day 5 - Easy Rider and a Technophobe
December 14, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Still waking up too early & in fact my watch has informed me that I have had an average of just 3 hours 58 minutes sleep per night over the last week. Not nearly enough.
Today we planned to hire a scooter & explore the island of Ko Phayam. As I was getting my bag ready for the day, I found at the bottom of my rucksack my SD card reader. Hurrah, I could now upload photos from my camera.
Before breakfast, I had coffee on our veranda & chatted with our Thai neighbours who tipped me off that the island of Ko Chang was a good place to see lots of hornbills.
At 9.00am we went for breakfast, which was included in our reservation, and had omelettes, toast & coffee. Certainly nothing to write home about.
After breakfast, I visited the surly chunky transgender lady & enquired if she rented scooters. She did for 200 Baht per day. I knew that back in the town centre they were just 150 baht per day, but for speed & ease I decided to splash out on one of hers. As soon as I agreed, she rang the cheaper scooter company in town to deliver one of theirs to us. I had to wait 10 minutes for it to arrive and after I had paid the man, I saw him giving her a backhander of cash she stuffed into her tips jar. I was irritated, but then reminded myself it was just an extra £1 for this delivery service & they would also pick it up.
After filling up with a bottle of fuel, we hit the dusty tracks on our new metallic blue 125cc Moove Urbanion. Our 1st stop was Aow Ko Kyu beach, which we had to walk down numerous steep leaf strewn steps to a rather underwhelming beach. We took a couple of photos and climbed back up to the bike.
Next stop was the southern end of Aow Yai (Long Beach) which was a massive expanse of white sand. Despite there not being a single person on the beach, it had an inviting bar and restaurant. It was too soon after breakfast to imbibe but we vowed to return for a day. More photos were taken.
We then negotiated our way round to the northern end of Aow Yai beach, where we located approximately 10 assorted persons most of whom were involved with a surf school. The waves were sufficiently high for proper surfing. I took some more photos.
Next stop was Aow Kwang Peeb beach by accidentally taking a wrong turn. The road had come to an end, which required us to have to park up & walk the last 300 metres with monkeys crashing around in the treetops above. The beach was a cracker and appeared to be the private beach of Aow Kwang Peeb Resort which was deserted and apparently abandoned in a hurry. I went for a swim, whilst Jackie snooped around the derelict buildings including a bar with alcohol bottles on the shelves. She found paperwork including laundry receipts dating back to 1962. It made no sense to us. I took lots of photos of what truly felt like a ghost town.
It was now lunchtime, so we headed to the final beach on the island, Aow Khao-Kwai (Buffalo Beach). There were no obvious paths to the beach so I gambled on one & drove through a series of bungalows down a steep path. When the path came to an abrupt stop, we abandoned the scooter & walked to the beach only for a uniformed Thai man to start shouting at me to move the scooter. Whoops.
We continued to try to locate Buffalo Beach & came across an intriguing sign ‘Beautiful Rock by the Beach - Ko Phayam’s Top Attraction’. We followed it’s directions to the beach and encountered 2 tractors pulling trailers loaded with elderly Thai tourists. Luckily they were just coming away so again we had the beach to ourselves. The arches were nice (Not Arches National Park, Utah), but lent themselves as perfect frames for our photographs of each other.
With some classic photos in the can, we set off for lunch and before we knew it we were back at Aow Mea Mai, having completed a full circuit of the island. We found a more ‘rustic’ restaurant overlooking the sea and ordered a well earned beer. Jackie ordered crispy pork & rice, whilst I ordered a spicy 🌶 🥭 mango salad. I had visions of plump juicy orange mango flesh laced with a sprinkling of chilli, but what I received was a large bowl of thinly sliced green mango & some grey scraps scattered through it. I was suspicious of the grey scraps so I gave one to my taster to check if I could eat it or not. Jackie declared it was a cashew nut, so I popped one in my mouth & swallowed it. I immediately started to wretch, when I came to the realisation that it was actually dried fish skin. Jackie is now trying to poison me!
As a result we had to swap dinners. Jackie’s fried pork was very tasty if I didn’t look at it, because it was chunks of meat that were one third pork & two thirds fat! I think this was a step too ‘rustic’ for my sensitive palate!
We returned to Nitiporn Resort around 3.30pm to discover that we were now the only people staying at the resort & that our room hadn’t been made. Jackie marched off to remonstrate with surly chunky transgender lady, who said she would get it sorted without word of an apology. We spent the remainder of the afternoon dozing & reading around our very own private pool.
Whilst getting ready to go out to dinner, I attempted to upload my 51 fantastic photos taken that day from the camera SD card to my iPad. I selected them, then before I could stop myself I hit ‘delete’. After a lot of furious tapping on my iPad & ranting & swearing & googling, I had to resign myself to the fact that I had lost them for ever. Jackie didn’t mention it again that evening!
Dinner was back at our favourite ‘36’ for Thai green curry & Tom Yum soup.
Song of the Day: Ghost Town by The Specials
Wishing (If I had a Photograph of You) by A Flock of SeagullsRead more
Day 4 - Slow Boat to Ko Phayam
December 13, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Spoke too soon about our bodies now being adjusted to Thai time. We were both awake & reading at 3.00am, then fitfully slept for the rest of the night. We certainly couldn’t blame it on our air conditioned room which was very comfortable.
Breakfast for me consisted of an instant coffee & a small pack of Dewberry jammy dodgers. At 9.00am we checked out of our hotel & the receptionist took us down the road to a bus stop & explained to the driver we wanted to get to the ferry port. It seems fairly straightforward, but there are two, one for speedboats & one for the slow boat (ferry). It seems everyone assumed that we wanted to catch a speedboat to Ko Phayam, but no, we had set are minds on catching the 10.00am cheaper slow boat.
The receptionist told us the fare would be just 15 baht each, however the bus driver told us it was 30 baht each. Jackie felt quite aggrieved until I reminded her that the fare was less than £1 each. The bus journey took us all over town with other passengers getting on & off, including an old man who gave us a running commentary of the sights, mainly temples.
Half an hour later we arrived at guess what? The speedboat port. We tried to explain that we were in the wrong place and eventually with the assistance of the other passengers we drove another 50 yards up the road to a ticket office for the ferry. Here we paid our 200 baht for the ferry fare and were taken by free taxi to the slow boat several miles away.
At 10.20am, laden to the gunnels with provisions of every description, our slow boat chugged out into the open waters of the Andaman sea. Once at cruising speed Jackie had her breakfast of a ‘Pocket Sandwich’ containing a fishy substance & between us we shared a couple of beers.
At 12.15pm, we docked at Ko Phayam pier & disembarked. We were due to be met by a representative from our hotel, but no-one identified themselves to us, so we had no choice, but to hike (like proper backpackers) the 600 metres to Nitiporn Resort. When we were a sweaty mess and just twenty metres from the resort, two employees appeared on a motorbike combo and insisted on carrying our rucksacks the rest of the way. Thanks a lot.
In reception, we were met by a chunky transgender lady, who after the usual checking in formalities informed us that our room was not quite ready and their restaurant was only open for breakfast. I understand why they haven’t opened their restaurant, because they appear to have only 3 rooms currently occupied, which begs the question ‘How the hell have they not had time to get our room ready?’
We walked back towards the pier, where we found a sea front fish restaurant for lunch. Jackie had a seafood Tom yum soup which apparently was delicious & I ordered spicy pork & rice. Over lunch we really started to chill out & embrace the slower pace of life on the island. We have already started talking about extending our 4 night stay. An added bonus is the wearing of masks don’t appear to be enforced on the island.
After lunch we half unpacked our rucksacks in our concrete & glass cube of a room. The remainder of the afternoon was spent sunning ourselves on the pool beds looking out to sea.
That evening we found a restaurant called ‘36’, which had a couple of tables occupied by westerners. Jackie had a Thai green curry and I had chicken with cashew nuts, which was the best meal we have had on our trip. The ambiance had been just right and cemented our plans to stay on the island longer.
Over a Hong Thong nightcap, we tentatively looked at accommodation options to extend our stay and discovered that our Nitiporn Resort was fully booked in the week leading up to Christmas. Further research would be required.
Song of the Day: Slow by The Fratellis.Read more
Day 3 - Off the Beaten Track in Ranong
December 12, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Our body clocks are now pretty much operating on Thai time. We actually slept in to after 5am.
Old wounds were reopened, when we went to the cafe next door for breakfast. I had identified The Naiyang Cafe as my preferred place to eat the previous night, but Jackie had rejected it purely on the basis it was ‘just a cafe’. Jackie ordered a frappe & toastie, whilst I had a mango smoothie & French toast. The food was superb and beautifully presented, which made it all the more annoying that Jackie had dismissed it because the menu for evening meals looked delicious & reasonably priced. We pledged to return on the way home.
We packed up & paid up at midday, then waited in reception for our taxi. The very helpful receptionist even made us a coffee while we waited. At 12.40pm the taxi arrived & drove up down to Phuket Bus Terminal 2. We had visioned the bus terminal to be a hot, crowded, chaotic affair, but it was quite the opposite cool, empty & organised. There was was even a machine that admonished me for not wearing my mask properly!
It was a pretty much full bus, when at 2.32pm, we pulled out of Phuket Bus Terminal. We were two of just five westerners aboard the bus. Around two hours later, the other three westerners got off at Khao Lak, which is a tourist resort. The bus continued up Highway 4, officially stopping at Takua Pa Bus Station, but it did stop on multiple occasions to pick up or drop off locals. After Takua Pa, the bus had thinned out sufficiently that we were able to have 2 seats each right for the remainder of the journey. About 40 miles south of Ranong we encountered a military road block, where a soldier boarded the bus and inspected all the Thai passengers Covid phone apps & our passports. I actually also showed him the QR code on my Thai Covid phone app, but he didn’t seem overly impressed.
We arrived at Ranong Bus Station at 8.45pm, a journey of 184 miles, which cost us just £6 each. Our taxi from the hotel to Phuket Bus Terminal had cost more!
At Ranong, we were accosted by a lady Tuk-Tuk driver, well actually it was a motorcycle & sidecar, who seemed to be the only driver on duty. When we finally identified to her where we wanted to go, we accepted her fare of 50 baht each (just over £1) & climbed aboard.
Five minutes later, she delivered us to Sino Mansion, a colonial style hotel costing just £19 a night. The receptionist didn’t speak English, but Jackie managed to converse with him to the extent that she had discussed our eating options for that night (not many) and our transport in the morning.
We then dumped our bags in the room and went to the street food market over the road where we ordered a chicken Pad Thai each on the grounds that that was the only dish we were confident the ladies would understand. I grabbed a couple of beers from a 7-11 to accompany it. It was very nice, although I didn’t like to think too hard about my chicken I was eating. After paying just 50 baht each for our meal we called it a night.
We didn’t see any other westerners in town & I would hazard a guess that we ARE the only westerners in town.
Song of the Day: Strange Town by The Jam.
I didn’t anticipate that my 1st four songs would be 2 by The Jam & 2 by Angelic Upstarts.Read more
Andy and Teresa MaysYou see - all my constant pushing of Weller on you has finally stuck. I bet you actually feel embarrassed about those first four tracks. Glad you are both well and the trip is still progressing. Song for today - Joe Jackson . . . Fools in Love
TravelerVery educational. I looked up 'Angelic Upstairs', they come from a place used to know well, my Dad came fro South Sheilds.
Simon and Jackie AnnalsMate, actually I don’t. I always try to pick songs I like, just never imagined fitting an Angelic Upstarts song into my blog. I’ve already picked today, but any good song suggestions I’m always grateful for.
Simon and Jackie AnnalsEvery days a school day Jane! Maybe he went to school with Mensi
Day 2 - A Day of Plotting and Planning
December 11, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Woke up very early to the sad news that Thomas ‘Mensi’ Mensforth, legendary singer with the Angelic Upstarts had died from Covid. Followed soon after by the depressing, but unsurprising news that England had capitulated and lost the 1st Test in Australia.
We should know better, but out of laziness we had the American Breakfast at our hotel, which seems to be the same throughout Thailand - an insubstantial plate of cold bacon & eggs with pale toast & jam. The only bonus was the free unlimited coffee.
After breakfast, we booked a taxi and a bus for tomorrow to take us just over 200 miles up the coast to the town of Ranong which has a ferry port for the Thai islands in the Andaman Sea, just south of Myanmar. We also plotted our onward trip, identifying locations and hotels we wanted to stay at, now the world (Thailand) was our oyster. I booked a hotel for one night in Ranong for £19 through Booking.com with £1.90 cash back (wow) via CompleteSavings.com. CompleteSavings.com then refused to play ball whilst I was trying to get my 10% cash back on more substantial accommodation bookings.
We then headed out for a stroll to:- 1. Visit Mai Khao Beach for a spot of plane spotting; and 2. To buy an SD card reader which I stupidly forgot to pack. The stroll was totally unsuccessful:- 1. The beach was part of the Sirinat National Park and there was a 200 baht (less than £5) fee each for foreigners to enter. We were too tight to fork out for this which as I write I am already regretting and 2. After traipsing round the streets I was informed that the nearest shop I might get one was 15km away. For the meantime I won’t be able to upload my photos from camera.
We returned to our hotel and sat on sun beds around the spotless swimming pool. I read a book, whilst Jackie read a Thai visa Facebook forum with news that some Brit had tested positive for Covid when they landed at Phuket & were now confined to 10 days quarantine in the local hospital. This prompted a panic with several people deciding to cancel their Thailand holiday for fear of spending Christmas & New Year stuck in a Thai hospital. (It sounded like the Bangkok Hilton). Thank god we were both negative!
I was in charge of lunch which was intended to be a couple of beers from the 7-11, but they apparently don’t serve alcohol until 5.00pm. I’m not sure if this is a Covid thing or what. So instead I returned with a selection of snacks including Spaghetti Bolognese Baked Corn Snacks & Cheese Choco wafer. Hopefully I won’t be trusted with going shopping again!
It was a lovely 30 degree sunny afternoon as we chilled out on our sun beds under the the gently swaying fronds of a palm tree 🌴. I tried & failed to secure any cash back, whilst Jackie continued to read her Facebook forum which had turned sinister, with a husband & wife seeking a Thai lady for a sexual relationship. This seemed to give the green light for sex tourists to add their penny’s worth, then genuine tourists started giving them a torrent of abuse for misusing the forum. It sounded much more interesting than my book!
At 5.00pm on the dot, I dashed down to a local supermarket for a couple of cans of beer & upon my return I managed to book 4 nights onward accommodation via CompleteSavings getting us £14 in cash back. That would more than pay for tonight’s dinner. Right result. I celebrated with a Spag Bol snack that tasted of Spag Bol, but a very sickly sweet version of it.
Jackie was hungry and decided she wanted to eat locally rather than walk a mile to some restaurants we had kindly been recommended. We ended up back in the same restaurant as the previous night, which was disastrous and we later found out was due to alleged staff shortages. Our dinner took over 90 minutes to arrive & was nowhere near as nice as the previous night, in fact despite ordering exactly the same dish I got something completely different. To add insult to injury, the bill was more expensive because despite not having a pancake for afters, we had drunk more beer waiting for the food to arrive.
We both unwarrantedly blamed each other for this perceived debacle, which led to a tetchy nightcap on our balcony eating the disgusting Cheese Choco wafers. (As I write it feels like we both somewhat overreacted. I put it down to jet lag. 1st world problems, hey!).
Songs of the Day: Last Night Another Soldier by Angelic Upstarts.
Mr Politician by Angelic Upstairs.
(My Tributes to Mensi that do seem topical in the current climate)Read more
Day 1 - Never in Doubt
December 10, 2021 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Fed up with the miserable English weather and having self diagnosed as suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, Jackie and I decided to head to South-East Asia for Christmas and New Year. After much research, the only country in that region was Thailand who was opening up it’s borders to foreign tourists from 4th November 2021.
Apart from drawing up a broad itinerary for our 56 day trip, I can take no credit for all the planning & form filling that had to be done to make the trip possible. Jackie booked the flights, applied for Thai visas to allow us to stay over 30 days, then applied for a Thai Pass to prove we were double vaccinated and sufficiently insured. She also had to book a Covid PCR test to be taken not more 72 hours before we flew, a Thai Covid PCR test for when we landed and an approved Thai hotel for our first 24 hours in Thailand whilst we awaited the result the Thai Covid test results.
If this wasn’t stressful enough for Jackie, I added to it by announcing that I had three gig nights in a row on the weekend before we were due to fly, which was potentially the worst thing I could do to enhance my chances of catching Covid. A positive PCR test would have meant cancelling our entire trip, but there was no way I was missing a 40th anniversary New Model Army bonanza of 60 songs over 2 nights. (The other gig was Nine Below Zero).
Two days before our flight we duly had our PCR test & if we thought there was any chance of cheating the system, we were sadly mistaken. We had to show our passports as proof of identity & the staff actually performed the test on us through the car window. We were told we would be emailed the result at or before 10pm the following day.
At 10pm the following evening we still hadn’t heard a thing. We went to bed an hour later with Jackie fretting like a good’un. I fell asleep, however my email confirming a negative result arrived at 0005 hours. Jackie, by now nauseous & hyperventilating, was apparently up emailing the testing company until after 1.30am, when they finally sent confirmation she was also negative. Hurrah!!
At 3.30am the alarm went off & after a taxi & coach ride we were all checked in & in the airside bar at Heathrow Airport just five hours later. Heathrow T2 was virtually empty and absolutely no queues anywhere. A very pleasant experience.
Our Thai Air flight TG919 on a Boeing 777 was only half full and the only thing I want to say about it was that the inflight service was very minimal - a small meal at either end of the 11 and a half hour flight with just one drinks service of wine or beer.
It was around 6.40am local when we landed at Phuket International Airport and we discovered that we were the only flight in. Only half of the passengers on our flight were disembarking, the remainder were flying on to Bangkok. This made for a speedy dash through Arrivals, producing our reams of paperwork to the Health Authority, Immigration, Customs & then the Testing Centre, where staff in full Hazchem outfits performed another PCR test on us. Less than 40 minutes later, with all the formalities completed we headed to the exit with our rucksacks and were herded into a taxi to take us to our Phuket Airport Hotel just 600 metres from airport to await this latest PCR test result. Easy!!
We spoke too soon. The taxi driver dropped us off at the Phuket Airport Place, but he was insistent it was the correct place. He then drove off without payment. We were gutted because it was a shithole, but luckily for us the receptionist confirmed we were in the wrong place & very kindly summoned the taxi driver back to take us to the very nice Phuket Airport Hotel. We still didn’t pay the taxi driver.
The exceptionally helpful receptionist at our hotel, sorted us out with downloading the Thai equivalent of the NHS Covid app to our phones, explained how we would be informed of the PCR test result, then sent us to our room with a large bottle of Chang each.
We slept until 3.30pm and discovered that shortly after 11.00am we had been emailed confirmation that we were negative & good to go to enjoy our trip. The final hoop had been jumped through.
We celebrated by getting up for a cold beer with a late lunch. Our hotel didn’t serve food other than breakfast, but our exceptionally helpful receptionist ordered us a takeaway of chicken, basil & egg fried rice which he recommended. It arrived about 10 minutes later by moped and our two portions cost us a total of just £3. It was very nice AND very hot.
We were still tired so went back to bed for a couple of hours before popping out in the evening for dinner. Our chosen restaurant, just around the corner, did not have an English menu and after several attempts we managed to order a Pad Thai & a chicken & cashew nuts with rice. This together with a banana & chocolate pancake for pudding and all washed down with 4 beers came to the princely sum of £10.
The evening was finished on our balcony with a Hong Thong & Coke, whilst tentatively identifying our accommodation for Christmas Day.
Song of the Day : So Sad About Us by The Jam.Read more
Simon and Jackie AnnalsThanks Emma, it was a relief when the test results came back negative!
Simon and Jackie AnnalsHi Pam, hope both you and Tony are well. We couldn’t wait any longer to get away. I trust you have been enjoying your camper van travels when restrictions have let you
TravelerReally enjoying your daily posts - they bring a bit of much-needed cheer! Ko Phayam looks great...
Simon and Jackie AnnalsThanks Steve. We are now currently slumming it according to Jackie! Hope all is well at home
TravelerI wish I was slumming it like you two! All good here thanks - just a bit cold and grey...