Getting ready to leave Phetchaburi

January 8

I woke up with a cranky stomach so decided to skip our walk. Ron had a scheduled call with Mark, our oldest son, so he couldn’t go for a walk either. I took it easy all day. Stayed in a house dress and lazed around.

I got teary-eyed when I thought about leaving. This wonderful family has been so good to us all these years. Since the day we stepped on the property we have been treated like well-loved family members and at times like royalty. I remember when we first moved in and wanted to clean up the construction debris that was littered in the front yard. The family was astounded that we would do that kind of work. I think there must have been some stereotyping going on about Americans. Ron and I have always been ‘Do it yourself’ folks. We enjoy the sense of accomplishment. As we age there are some things I now rather pay for like lawn care, cleaning out the gutters, etc. I no longer try to help move our bed which takes two gorillas to move. Ron believes in big and heavy and he built our bed to those standards.

We are pretty well organized for leaving early Friday for Bangkok. I cleaned out the bathroom cabinet shelves today and organized the items we are leaving behind. I organized my Dopp kit for travel refilling my shampoo bottle and the like. When we did a practice pack our bags were over the weight limit so we are rethinking what to leave behind. Since we arrived, I have been culling our clothes. Some are work clothes and there’s no need to take those home. Some are too big since we both have lost weight and some are just what we call ‘tired’, having lost their brightness and crispness. Today I gave Linn two more of my blouses, a pair of Ron’s shorts and two tee shirts.

I went through the cupboard to sort through what to give to Leslie, our friend in Bangkok and what to give to Linn. Cheese, peanut butter and jam goes to Leslie for example; fresh fruit and soy milk to Linn. It feels good to be ahead of the game in terms of being ready to leave Friday. Tomorrow after breakfast we will pack some kitchen items we plan to take home like the cutlery and some coffee mugs. We will pack our suitcases after the kitchen. We plan to eat leftovers for lunch, what we call "eating down the refrigerator". We want to celebrate our last night here by going to Rurin Boutique and Bistro, the new restaurant we discovered this trip that has fabulous food. Rurin serves international dishes (great fresh seafood pasta) and traditional Thai dishes. There are no $3.00 meals here. The prices are slightly lower than US and well worth the price. Everything is fresh and super yummy.

I am eager to go home. We have a lot going on in terms of our uncertain future. The construction on the apartment we are creating at the home we bought in September is way behind schedule. We have tickets we bought months ago for Mexico on Feb 28^th and would really like to be in the apartment by then and to have rented the house. That may not happen unless the apartment is completed by mid-February. But we know that what will be…will be and we know how to roll with it.

Yesterday Timm stopped by while we were out and left us multiple servings of fresh mango with sticky rice, our favorite dessert. We had our second helping tonight. So far, I have only gained a pound or two but I will need to get back to the gym when we get home. I miss our workouts.