19th February - Yacht Haven - Phuket - cats

Wednesday 18^th February

from the marina cafe 

Pete is better but still a bit tender around the tummy… I keep making him drinks, icy and delicious (the blackcurrant juice supply is going down down down) and he isn’t showing any sign of enjoying the rehydration process…

Pete & fan

But…he is up, awake, and scanning the internet, planning the next few months, worrying about the dirtiness of 2XS so all is back to normal.  Almost!  Thank God we are connected to electricity and therefore able to plug in the fans. 

Cats in Thailand are plentiful and so very beautiful.  Plump, glossy, opinionated.  Miaou MIAOU! They say, not holding back one bit.

This particularly beautiful cat had a LOT to tell us

We did a Mad Dogs and Englishmen thing yesterday, sauntering out into the blistering sun around noon, after a morning of Pete catching up on computerstuff… We could only walk slowly because Pete is still fragile, and it was so very hot.  It was all very interesting, and very peaceful, walking down to the nearby village.  Lots of low-cost housing

A quaint petrol bowser

And interspersed, grand mansions with glittering gates

Back at the marina, we were very impressed with this little red boat – a sea-going fire engine, how nifty, and practical, is that??

 On my first stroll along Patong Beach with Bron, I was thrilled to bits to find this bag:

A magical expanding suitcase!  Katy had I have looked everywhere, in both Hobart and Melbourne, for this very bag.  I bought one in Santiago and have unaccountably lent it to someone without (a) bothering to remember who it was or (b) ask for it back.  (Oh dear…have just realized (b) is just a bit dependent on (a) but never mind…the meaning is clear…)  I ran towards the bag vendor, money aloft*, and then trotted briskly along the street to the post office, to send it to Katy.  It arrived within three weeks and…she was just as elated to receive it as I was to send it!

* I later found I could have bought it for half the price…but by then it was all wrapped and stamped and on its way to Tasmania.  Never mind!