Hi, hope everyone had a good christmas.

We had a pretty good day, after opening our hundreds of presents (as if!) and eating a huge free breakfast at our hotel we had a few hours on the beach (the weather was really good the whole time we were in Samui luckily) and then went and had christmas dinner at a bar down the road. We were really impressed as it was massive and had all the trimmings - including brussel sprouts Michael was very pleased to see! I was more happy with the minced pie and ice cream for desert although i can't believe i've had to go another whole christmas without christmas pudding and cream - gutted!

So depressing to have to leave our gorgeous hotel yesterday, from daily fresh sheets and towels to no sheets and towels and a questionable bed sheet in the bungalow we had to stay in on Koh Tao last night! Nasty place that we had booked so we luckily went straight out and found a nice hotel room just around the corner for the same price and moved there this morning thank god. From what we could see coming into the island on the ferry yesterday it looks gorgeous and we are staying for at least the next 5 nights so looking forward to being in the same place for a while for once. I've even emptied my bag and put clothes in the wardrobe which is a novelty! I expect there will be lots going on for New Years Eve as there are quite a lot of tourists around. The main thing is that everywhere does buckets of thai whisky and red bull/coke so Michael and Graham will be ok. I've yet to sample the local delicassy and as i haven't drunk any alcohol for over 2 months, new years eve could be interesting! Good job we don't have to get the boat anywhere the next day thats all i can say...

So looking forward to some lazy days on the beach now as long as the weather holds up, it's actually monsoon season here so there could be some downpours but we've seen nothing of it yet. Fingers crossed.

Sandra, we were all captivated on christmas morning by the calendar - very funny!

Love Nicola and Michael xxx