Day 7
I cant believe i am on the plane back to bangkok then London already! What a whirlwind. planes make great enforced focussed places to write.....
I just inadvertently deleted my draft blog entry here in note pad so I will skip detailed accounts of the last four days activities. Essentially there has been many many cocktails, lots of swims in the sea and in Luke's resort pool ... A gorgeous long tail boat ride to a nearby island for snorkelling and kayaking (which being hotel mgr he managed go get us on for free as an 'inspection' for future guest referrals!!!).... Running with the local, hash house harriers in the jungle, followed by sculling beer from coconut shells in the circle... And eating bucket loads of fresh delicious out of this world thai food.
LUke has hooned me around on the back of his bike and whisked me to jungle salas with cocktails and and more yummarama food and I have blown my own hair right back with copius amounts of my own hooning around the island on my own little scooter. I love it!!!!
Just to top it all off, a thai massage most days just to keep the body in good shape!!! :)
Which now brings me to my present state sitting now at bangkok airport.... I think I cried the whole way from koh samui. Somehow i have managed to finally let loose a fair bit of pent up emotion ... And I can still feel a lot of it inside waiting to come out. Finally i am hardly thinking or stressing about work and am in the flow....
Which brings me to another noteworthy event yesterday ..... going to say hello to a hugely significant man in my life called Ole. If you are reading this blog you will either have been to or heard about the Experience seminar that has had such a deep and significant impact in my life and Ole is the man who wrote it over thirty years ago. He was just in the throes if retiring from facilitating it when I showed up just over ten years ago in England and had the rare opportunity to have him partly facilitating my GIT.
My overall experience of him is this is a man with eyes who see straight in to and through me with a knowing that is disconcerting yet incredibly loving and kind.
to cut a long story short (yes, I just wrote a bucket load about this and will save it :) ... we met, and spent a lovely hour together... He was so very very kind and what really got me was just how present he was with me. LIke, he was totally intent, interested, leaning in listening completely, and that in itself I got emotional about ... The gift of really listening. It still makes me tear up for some reason just writing about it now and I have no idea why. Perhaps it may seem apparent to those outside of me?
In parting my biggest thank you and love to Luke for taking such amazing care of me this week, for your unconditional love, and the long, lovely honest and accepting chats.
Loads of love to you all
J
Ps i just woke up on the floor of my long lost friend margie's south london flat to send this on ... Ooooh I love London More soon. Xxxx
Pps feel free to comment here.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
To Barbara Sher's French Retreat: Samui is working it's magic ...
Day 2
Oh my god i am in love with this place!!! so many things to share or talk about because it's soooo lovely and so Thai!!!
my second day here began beautifully after an intensely deep sleep. I hit a wall about ten pm our time which is one am oz time. I was just beyond it ... I was asleep before i hit the pillow.
i awoke before seven, and Luke suggested we meditate together on the balcony... He knows i have my ten minute daily agreement. It is so still, cool and peaceful out there in the morning with the view of the water.
as for my day, Luke fixed me up with wheels! Whoo hoo I have been hooning around thenisland all day!!! whilst i am aghast and highly amused at the lack of road rules and the chaos everywhere when driving ... I could absolutely not care less for my safety ... I feel free, and random, and in the flow of chaos. I love the randomness of it. Mind you i did buck the local trend and take a helmet. Six years of working in road safety has given me some common sense in this area thank goodness (mind you i discovered today another purposes for the helmet .. I was riding along and nearly got hit by a flying coconut ... Jeese those things are heavy ... Then the toothless And very old Thai guy laughed at my look of horror as his cheeky monkey descended from the tree! They were harvesting coconuts)!!
...have I mentioned I love this place yet?
I have no idea what else to say really except, i have a nice sunburn, i have now consumed in the space of two days .... Two margaritas, one caprioska and two mojitos ... Numerous glasses of wine and a singha beer .... Two of the above beachside. The wines on luke's balcony before he whisked me away to dine in his resort restaurant by full moonlight, and others at the club we went to for hjs Aussie friend's birthday last night .... Complete with head banging local thai band thrashing out Acca dacca side by side with Robbie Williams angels! We had a little boogie ... And lots of fun . the thai people are sooooooooo warm and lovely and full of fun... It's nice to have days to myself to chat with everyone and then have Luke in the evenings to share long chats with and dinner.
he is taking his two days off tomorrow and Monday and I hear he has booked us in for massage and also a boat trip around samui ... Have i mentioned yet that i am in heaven?? He he he he he he he he he.
oh and oh my god. Thai food is already my favorite food in the whole. Wide world... And so this is just Ike being gastronomically exgravaganzad at every whiffy street corner and every bite from my plate. i chose a little out-of-the way open air eatery local place yesterday. only five things on the menu .. A sweet woman emerged from behind her wok .... To prepare chicken chilli basil. i watched her mince the chicken on her chopping board, expertly grind the chillis basil garlic in her mortar and pessle (which was about half as tall as she was!) then plucking other fresh ingredients from her leafy outdoor kitchen, it was delicious and all for eighty baht which is 2.50 aud. Then gave me the most divine bowl of garlic chicken broth to wash it down as a gift. She was so sweet. I am filled with joy actually just smiling and playing charades in very Thai sounding English with the people here. they are so happy, with so little. Humbling and wonderful and fun. "Good sanuk" It's contagious, although I feel a lot more like the real version of Janine right now. able to be spontaneous and in the flow. feels good.
love to you all, especially my little spunk muppet :)
J
Oh my god i am in love with this place!!! so many things to share or talk about because it's soooo lovely and so Thai!!!
my second day here began beautifully after an intensely deep sleep. I hit a wall about ten pm our time which is one am oz time. I was just beyond it ... I was asleep before i hit the pillow.
i awoke before seven, and Luke suggested we meditate together on the balcony... He knows i have my ten minute daily agreement. It is so still, cool and peaceful out there in the morning with the view of the water.
as for my day, Luke fixed me up with wheels! Whoo hoo I have been hooning around thenisland all day!!! whilst i am aghast and highly amused at the lack of road rules and the chaos everywhere when driving ... I could absolutely not care less for my safety ... I feel free, and random, and in the flow of chaos. I love the randomness of it. Mind you i did buck the local trend and take a helmet. Six years of working in road safety has given me some common sense in this area thank goodness (mind you i discovered today another purposes for the helmet .. I was riding along and nearly got hit by a flying coconut ... Jeese those things are heavy ... Then the toothless And very old Thai guy laughed at my look of horror as his cheeky monkey descended from the tree! They were harvesting coconuts)!!
...have I mentioned I love this place yet?
I have no idea what else to say really except, i have a nice sunburn, i have now consumed in the space of two days .... Two margaritas, one caprioska and two mojitos ... Numerous glasses of wine and a singha beer .... Two of the above beachside. The wines on luke's balcony before he whisked me away to dine in his resort restaurant by full moonlight, and others at the club we went to for hjs Aussie friend's birthday last night .... Complete with head banging local thai band thrashing out Acca dacca side by side with Robbie Williams angels! We had a little boogie ... And lots of fun . the thai people are sooooooooo warm and lovely and full of fun... It's nice to have days to myself to chat with everyone and then have Luke in the evenings to share long chats with and dinner.
he is taking his two days off tomorrow and Monday and I hear he has booked us in for massage and also a boat trip around samui ... Have i mentioned yet that i am in heaven?? He he he he he he he he he.
oh and oh my god. Thai food is already my favorite food in the whole. Wide world... And so this is just Ike being gastronomically exgravaganzad at every whiffy street corner and every bite from my plate. i chose a little out-of-the way open air eatery local place yesterday. only five things on the menu .. A sweet woman emerged from behind her wok .... To prepare chicken chilli basil. i watched her mince the chicken on her chopping board, expertly grind the chillis basil garlic in her mortar and pessle (which was about half as tall as she was!) then plucking other fresh ingredients from her leafy outdoor kitchen, it was delicious and all for eighty baht which is 2.50 aud. Then gave me the most divine bowl of garlic chicken broth to wash it down as a gift. She was so sweet. I am filled with joy actually just smiling and playing charades in very Thai sounding English with the people here. they are so happy, with so little. Humbling and wonderful and fun. "Good sanuk" It's contagious, although I feel a lot more like the real version of Janine right now. able to be spontaneous and in the flow. feels good.
love to you all, especially my little spunk muppet :)
J
Friday, September 24, 2010
To Barbara Sher's French Retreat: Getting there ... The j9 has landed
Blog entry 1
Will i Ever get out of here?
I was still sitting with a to do list item remaining in the lounge just prior to boarding ... Emails. The effort it took to get this sim in to my iPad was inordinate, with treks across the airport in an attempt to find one, then insert one then, activate one. I think by the end the universe was telling me to "enough with the technology already!!" . i do feel that i have become umbilically attached to the Internet ... Although I'm deciding that is ok in balance .. I love writing and I love sharing!!
I'm feeling at this point tired and exhausted and wondering why on earth i am doing this!!
flight to bangkok is boarding ....
At Bangkok ...
I have had very high hopes for this trip for some time ... And the initial excitement of it quickly became replaced with a to do list the size of texas, and the stimulation of throwing myself into two substantial isa events ... The september edition if the newsletter and organising a Weekend social adventure in December for up to 100.
so now I have found myself here in bangkok airport transit waiting samui flight hoping the excitement will hit me soon. I very much hope six days is enough for the island life to permeate my bones and enliven my spirit, with a catch up with a dear friend and sunshine.
And ready for the delights awaiting me at barbara's retreat. I have a book to read!!!
Ok ok now I'm on the plane to samui....
Flying to koh samui I am now feeling intimidated by the intensely good looking people on this plane. So well groomed stylish Slim tanned and gorgeous, I feel under dressed and blobby ... Mind you my ankles look like huge round beads threaded over my legs with nothing other than my feet to stop them falling off ... Ugly man!!!
They have fed so much food fo me in a very short space of time and I have not refused any of it.
Sigh.
the coffee club coffee at the airport was damned fine.
I watched Mother and Child last night, my own personal movie screen on thai airways,and it really was so well done, and I cried and cried... Annette bening was brilliant. I still have a lot of emotion around mum. Even a conversation I had. With a guy on the dog beach brougt up a big ball of emotion the other day.
Bfn bout to land.
LANDED!!!
Wow this place is beautiful. Hatched wooden open air airport was gorgeous.
Luke took time from his job as resort manager for what I later discover is a stunningly beautiful resort, and picked me up. Such a kind soul.
I am now officially excited!!!! Yeeeeee harrrrrrr, that took about 5 nano seconds after stepping off the plane in to this tropical sunny island air, to get in to the groove ,,, and Luke tells me that, motorcycling, kayaking and a boat trip are all kn the agrnda .... he he he very happy.
so we are driving from the airport when he takes a work call ...
"Paul .. Yah mate ... Be back at my computer in about thirty minutes ... Yeep ... Well essentially we can do everything you have asked us for, with one exception. we just can't do the elephant on the beach I'm afraid, (he turns to me and smiles as he realises how funny that probAbly sounds) ... Yeah i mean id like to. One day, and Its just a bit hard to organize with 8 days notice."
I am definitely i n thailand now!!!!
An hour later ... I am now settled in to lukes little apartment, with my bed in the lounge and a view past the balcony to the bay just a minutes walk down the hill ,,, the beach apparently beckons with a forty minute walk to lanai the local town and many a beach bed cocktail and massage on offer in case the walk is a bit long.
so I am now showered and off to walk the beach, h ave a swiim and maybe buy some clothes.... In my effort to pack light i realized when looking for something to wear in this intense heat, that I havent got anything to wear!!!!
Ok off to explore it is 11 am.
Xx
Will i Ever get out of here?
I was still sitting with a to do list item remaining in the lounge just prior to boarding ... Emails. The effort it took to get this sim in to my iPad was inordinate, with treks across the airport in an attempt to find one, then insert one then, activate one. I think by the end the universe was telling me to "enough with the technology already!!" . i do feel that i have become umbilically attached to the Internet ... Although I'm deciding that is ok in balance .. I love writing and I love sharing!!
I'm feeling at this point tired and exhausted and wondering why on earth i am doing this!!
flight to bangkok is boarding ....
At Bangkok ...
I have had very high hopes for this trip for some time ... And the initial excitement of it quickly became replaced with a to do list the size of texas, and the stimulation of throwing myself into two substantial isa events ... The september edition if the newsletter and organising a Weekend social adventure in December for up to 100.
so now I have found myself here in bangkok airport transit waiting samui flight hoping the excitement will hit me soon. I very much hope six days is enough for the island life to permeate my bones and enliven my spirit, with a catch up with a dear friend and sunshine.
And ready for the delights awaiting me at barbara's retreat. I have a book to read!!!
Ok ok now I'm on the plane to samui....
Flying to koh samui I am now feeling intimidated by the intensely good looking people on this plane. So well groomed stylish Slim tanned and gorgeous, I feel under dressed and blobby ... Mind you my ankles look like huge round beads threaded over my legs with nothing other than my feet to stop them falling off ... Ugly man!!!
They have fed so much food fo me in a very short space of time and I have not refused any of it.
Sigh.
the coffee club coffee at the airport was damned fine.
I watched Mother and Child last night, my own personal movie screen on thai airways,and it really was so well done, and I cried and cried... Annette bening was brilliant. I still have a lot of emotion around mum. Even a conversation I had. With a guy on the dog beach brougt up a big ball of emotion the other day.
Bfn bout to land.
LANDED!!!
Wow this place is beautiful. Hatched wooden open air airport was gorgeous.
Luke took time from his job as resort manager for what I later discover is a stunningly beautiful resort, and picked me up. Such a kind soul.
I am now officially excited!!!! Yeeeeee harrrrrrr, that took about 5 nano seconds after stepping off the plane in to this tropical sunny island air, to get in to the groove ,,, and Luke tells me that, motorcycling, kayaking and a boat trip are all kn the agrnda .... he he he very happy.
so we are driving from the airport when he takes a work call ...
"Paul .. Yah mate ... Be back at my computer in about thirty minutes ... Yeep ... Well essentially we can do everything you have asked us for, with one exception. we just can't do the elephant on the beach I'm afraid, (he turns to me and smiles as he realises how funny that probAbly sounds) ... Yeah i mean id like to. One day, and Its just a bit hard to organize with 8 days notice."
I am definitely i n thailand now!!!!
An hour later ... I am now settled in to lukes little apartment, with my bed in the lounge and a view past the balcony to the bay just a minutes walk down the hill ,,, the beach apparently beckons with a forty minute walk to lanai the local town and many a beach bed cocktail and massage on offer in case the walk is a bit long.
so I am now showered and off to walk the beach, h ave a swiim and maybe buy some clothes.... In my effort to pack light i realized when looking for something to wear in this intense heat, that I havent got anything to wear!!!!
Ok off to explore it is 11 am.
Xx
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