Finally it's that time again, and I am very excited. Not about Xmas you understand, but in 24 hours I can open and eat my mince pies....
The hotel decided to get into the holiday spirt by hosting a Xmas Eve Extravaganza, well a do in the beachside restaurant. We were promised good food, alcoholic beverage, cooking demonstration, the juggling bartender (and old friend these last few years.....) and unspecified games... I have palled up again with Tina and John, party pals and blog readers extraordinaire who I met here last year at Xmas. It's so nice to see them again.
So we all pay our money for the do but I think Mr cock up visited the booking process and it was not as well attended as it might have been. In total we were we were an eclectic mix of three Brits, four German girls, two Swiss couples and one very bemused Russian couple. There was also one random single man whose nationality we never did discover but what we do know about him is he was "feeling no pain" and we were relived the next morning not to discover his body in the pool. And a lot of empty tables... On a positive note that did leave lots of of extra food for us and no queues for it! The bbq went down well. Another positive for the hotel it also left lots of leftover salad for the breakfast buffet... But like the Titanic the band played on, as usual it was Angel who does this very well. There was also a new lady singing who I have not seen before in a rather fetching Xmas outfit...
John got the dancing started with a good tune or two. He was also wearing a rather special Xmas outfit, the tropical version of a Xmas jumper...
Then the juggling bartender appears. Someone, somewhere on this island drinks lots of Malibu as empty Malibu bottles, fabricated into Molotov cocktails by the addition of a diesel soaked rag stuffed in the neck are what he juggles... Health and safety eat your heart out. Tina, John and I knew what was coming so slowly moved back out of the line of fire but the poor Russian couple were taken somewhat by surprise as the lethal, flaming glass bottles were tossed about with gay abandon, and unusually for Russians seemed to be too polite to move away... As soon as he started one of the staff appeared at the edge with her dustpan and brush at the ready - not much confidence there! But I think he's been practising this year as he only dropped one. I know I make a lot of fun out of him but he is quite good in his own way and very entertaining just perhaps not quite in the way he means to be! The cooking demo and games were cancelled though for not enough participants, which was probably not a bad thing so the band played on.....
It was a really good evening though, well we enjoyed it it, just such a pity for the hotel that it was so sparsely attended. We were looked after by a staff ratio of more than that of the best cruise ships. Today they are already sorting the bookings for the free New Year's bash on the beach so that should be a bit livelier. The fact that it's also free may make the difference too!
Having had all the celebrations in the European mode on Xmas Eve, it left little festive cheer for we three Brits come Xmas Day. But in the absence of a turkey dinner or even a turkey stir fry we meet up early afternoon in the hotel restaurant. Picture the azure blue sea, white dotty clouds, gentle beach breeze and slowly swishing waves on the pale yellow sand.... Now picture the reality! Huge waves leaving very little sand, the wind and storms of the last few days have washed up enormous amounts of seaweed and detritus which cover the little sand there is and the wind whizzes in with a real wind chill factor under steel grey skies. But undaunted we Brit's are at the seaside for Xmas Day so we struggle through hamburgers, chips and chicken sandwiches. Followed by a mince pie from my P&G hamper (note to hamper suppliers, change them next year they weren't very nice) and a Ferrero Rocher bought from the 7/11 all washed down with diet coke. We know how to live it up! It really did feel like we were at Southend or Scarborough. I was so cold I had a sweater on and there was that smell of seaweed that you get at home. But it was fun I enjoyed it. Looking at Facebook though, we had swapped beaches with Wales where they really did have gently lapping waves, blue skies and little scudding clouds. World weather eh! The local dogs think it's cold too, they're all wearing their vests!
As it's an ordinary day here in Thailand everything goes on the same and it was Walking Street in Mae Nam. I took a Xmas evening stroll around but it was generally same, same but with Santa hats.
The other reason for wandering around was to find some wiffy to Skype or Viber home. It had been hopeless most of the day so I thought I'd try elsewhere, but no luck. Then the monumental thunderstorms starting at 10 pm and going on through the night (the rain was so loud and heavy you could hardly hear the great claps of thunder through it) put paid to any wiffy hope for a while. It was off completely first thing this morning (Boxing Day) but has now come back on for a while. But when the power goes off which it has, the wiffy goes off before the generator kicks in. I managed to get a walk this morning before the rain restarted but now sit by the pool under cover with a towel round my shoulders to keep warm watching the rain fall into the pool. It's such a shame for people only here for a short time, this weather really is unseasonal, by now it really should be gentle waves and little scudding white clouds. The storms do seem to have blown away some of the wild wind however, today the sea is much calmer and at there was even some activity at the boat pier where there has been none for the last few days. I do hope so, the season is quite short here in Samui and every day with no boat trips or beach bars open is another day less business for the locals who depend on the tourist baht.
But wiffy permitting later I will be doing what most Brit's do today, lolling about in front of the telly, all I'll be missing is the leftover turkey! Enjoy...
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