We arrived in Bangkok on Monday, sometime late in the afternoon. Staggering off the plane after a 13 hour overnight flight the warm, muggy, fried noodle air wrapped itself around us and welcomed us back to Thailand. We are already looking forward to drinking Singha beer out of glasses dripping with condensation, eating bowls full of steaming pad thai and lying on a succession of comfortably padded sunloungers squinting out at endless vistas of turquoise sea across the white sandy beach. Blah blah. Jealous yet?

OK, enough of that for now, we're in Bangkok and there's only one reason to stop here for a few days - Shopping. First though we have to negotiate the hazards of Asian taxis, how much, where to, try not to kill us etc.

In the meantime a quick health update - Bri is completely recovered from his almost fatal dose of man-flu he contracted over the New Year. It was, apparently, a particularly virulent strain of MF and one which would have annihilated lesser-men. Luckily because we were coming away he did overcome his gender-related aversion to seeking any form of medical help until something has dropped off and was given a course of antibiotics that have done the job. Hurrah for medical science.

After a great sleep and a huge breakfast where, in the tradition of tourists the world over, we successfully ate enough food to power us up for the mammoth shopping tasks that await (and keep us waddling for the rest of the day) we set off for some heavy retail therapy. First we headed to Panthip Plaza - the place to go for anything electrical or technical, a sort of Asian PC World crossed with that street market in Eastenders (it probably has a name but as a life-long Corrie fan I have no idea what it is.Nor do I care, not so long as The Kabin extends a warm and Norrisy welcome). Brian then spent a leisurely couple of hours confirming his previous lengthily-arrived-at decision as to which software to buy to edit the English Gaucho documentary we filmed in Argentina last year. This is the soon to be realised film starring Dave 'Best Man' Cummings and featuring an odd bod supporting cast of tricksters, layabouts, ne'er do wells and shysters. Ahem, this is a 'working holiday' after all people.

Next we hot-footed it over to the delights of MBK, a huge shopping mecca in the centre of Bangkok, and their 7 floors of retail heaven. MBK is like a giant box of chocolates - shiny stuff everywhere, lots of tempting things to look at, touch and marvel over and all very cheap, cheap. Good price for you madam, lucky lucky price. Oh happy, happy hour. Resolute in my decision not to buy the first thing I see…. ooh look a fake Mulberry bag. I buy, indeed, a fake Mulberry bag. But, dear reader, I am quite strong-willed here and it's actually the third one I see .Oh yes, I am made of stern stuff, of that there is no doubt.

I will draw a veil over the next few hours of frenzied purchasing. I'm sure you can picture the scene, Brian and I darting from stall to stall, stroking, admiring, reasoning, haggling, oooh but the prices are soooo reasonable. And, to be fair, there are going to be very few shopping opportunities over the next two months whilst we languish on a beach somewhere near the Andaman Sea, occasionally applying another layer of factor 30, lazily turning the page of a book or sipping a pineapple be-decked cocktail. Isn't this where we came in? Do I need to apologise again? Sorrrrrry x