Thailand Revisited

We are taking the opportunity presented by Tim and KM’s forthcoming wedding in Koh Lanta to see some of the sights of Thailand, before heading down to Lanta for the wedding itself.  Most of the places on our itinerary are ones that I have previously visited during the 12 or so years that I have been working in Thailand, but which are new to Alison.

First off, a day and a half exploring Bangkok via the Chao Praya river, including a long tailed boat ride around some of the canal system that criss-crosses the city.  A good way of seeing the other side of Bangkok life.

We stopped off at Wat Arun, which has been significantly restored since I last looked around it over 10 years ago.

Doha

Back here again for another project implementation. It's at least a couple of years since my last trip and quite a lot of new building in evidence, not least the new airport, which is a vast improvement on the old one.  But still nothing to do in the evenings, which is made even worse on this trip by the fact that we are staying in a serviced apartment, with no bar to retire to after work.  So I will be taking the opportunity to update this blog for the whole of the last yer to fill in the many gaps.  Expect to see a load of very out of date posts appear in your mail box if you are a subscriber to this blog.

Topsham Ash Scattering

NOS Alive - Lisbon

Alison's 60th, Devon

Muse at the O2

From the intimacy of a Hanwell pub to the expanse of the O2 arena in the space of one day, but then I can't imagine Muse playing at the Inn on the Green somehow.
As usual with Muse, the show was on an epic scale and featured drone orbs to fit in with the theme of their latest album, plus the inevitable sci-fi themed visuals.  The set included all the standard Muse favourites plus a few songs from the Drones album, with the crowd singing along in all the right places.  

Hanwell Hootie

In spite of living just down the road from Hanwell for over ten years, I had never attended the Hootie, which is very similar in principle to the somewhat better known Camden Crawl.  Basically all the pubs in Hanwell, plus several pop-up venues, each host a selection of live bands for the afternoon/evening.  Judging by this year's event, it has now become possibly too popular for its own good, with most of the venues being absolutely rammed with capacity audiences.  We enjoyed a couple of bands before calling it a day.  Well worth the effort, but hard work!