Making the effort to do at least some exercise, I am trying to take an early walk down the beach each morning before it gets too hot. The heatwave here continues and by midday it’s hitting 38 degrees still and humid. Even people who up until now have been lying out in it all day (not me…) are taking to the sun umbrellas by 11 am. It’s a nice walk along the beach which is a long crescent of white sand with blue sea and a thin strip of white surf, and since the sea has calmed down a lot (although it still has its rough days) the rubbish that was being washed up has disappeared and it’s now nice and clean. The bars and restaurants that line the beach are set well back so the beach is quite wide and clear and in the early morning relatively peaceful. There is the odd dog – they do seem to take great care of their dogs here, and there are loads around that are dyed in various colours (see pic), lots of tiny fashionable lapdogs, and it’s quite funny watching the slightly bigger dogs riding on the mopeds with their owners, their feet planted on the seat in front of the driver and their front paws on the handlebars. Even some lone dogs on the beach who look in less good condition than the pampered pooches of the town all sport collars, so are obviously owned and cared for by someone. Yesterday though, a British/Russian war nearly began at the pool. There was a large Labrador type dog wandering about, and a party of 4 loud Russian men decided to throw it in the pool – you can imagine the Brits reaction – they were more concerned about the dog (no problem I’m sure, they all seem to swim in the sea anyway), but my concern was the germs that said mangy dog was now transferring to the pool – that together with a rather large number of children in there (some in nappies) has now made it completely out of bounds for me! So I thought that the odd loose dog, some big frogs, geeko’s and the local mozzies were my major wildlife concern here, until my morning beach walk. In the near distance I could see some rather odd behaviour as a Thai waiter from one of the beachside hotels was waving a large stick in the air – very strange and out of character for the normally placid Thai’s, until he waved it particularly vigorously and a rather large sand coloured snake flew through the air and landed about 30 metres from me and continued to wriggle along in the sand. Another waiter joined him with a brush and after a few minutes they managed to trap it under the stick. At that point I skirted very widely around them and walked briskly away. Not sure if it’s a common occurrence, but as you can imagine, I now walk particularly carefully through the beautifully planted hotel grounds and am on constant snake watch as I sit in the evening warmth on my terrace. Today is Sunday, and I treat myself, as a true Brit abroad, to a Sunday dinner in the Churchill Pub – actually not a pub but a bar/restaurant. I had roast lamb with all the trimmings and especially enjoyed the carrots, peas, broccoli and cabbage, which I haven’t seen much of on my travels, and of course some rather good roast potatoes. The trimmings were interesting, covering all bases – mint sauce, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing and gravy. I really love Thai food, but sometimes only a roast will do! Snakes notwithstanding, I will need a longer beach walk tomorrow to work it all off. The parade of people here also changes on a regular basis and my new next door neighbour is one of a group of 4 older Israeli guys here for a week. My neighbour is a stage set designer, now retired, but for some years worked in Covent Garden when Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev were performing. He has just stopped by to chat again (think I’ve pulled!) and he was telling me about his hobby of working with a group of people who restore ancient tractors and they have the largest collection in the world. I have learned that Porsche also were a tractor manufacturer at one time – amazing the education you get whilst travelling!
