Wednesday, May 25

We're being honorary grandparents at the moment, looking after Madeleine's half brothers who are having a sleepover with us.  Madi's baby is almost upon us and the doctor has tipped that this weekend will see it happen.  Everything is chaos at Madi's so the boys have been farmed out to take off a little pressure.  I'm quite happy to have them stay but someone has put the idea in their heads that I would like to be called Grampa.  Grampa!!  Do I need to start chewing tobacco and mangling my words?

This afternoon, we watched TinTin in 3D.  We've had the right equipment for a while but never got around to trying it out.  I have to say it is quite impressive.  So good, in fact, that we called in to Video City to hire another Bluray in 3D.  This one is called Tron and seems to be a waste of time. The kids like it.

We had our first sub-zero temperature overnight so the winter is upon us.  It seems to be only a few days since I was complaining about the endless summer and now I'm having to deal with frost in the morning.

It's just over 4 months until our big trip to the Philippines and I've started to look at getting an extended visa to cover the 65 days we'll be away.  Nera suggested that it might be just as economic to have a quick trip out of the country instead of buying the visa.  That's what the ex-pats do:  make a quick trip to Singapore every couple of months instead of going through the hassle of applying for a visa.

We've had a look and have decided we will fly to Bangkok where we can get accommodation through our timeshare.  The airfares are cheap and it's only a short flight.  I'm keen to see the bridge over the River Kwai but there is a lot to see in Thailand.  The highlight will be the last few days when we will take a long-distance train trip from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur including a night trip in a sleeping compartment.  Trains have always been a passion and if will be good to see what they are like in Asia.