Christmas was looming and I was getting more and more melancholy knowing that this year I would be without my gorgeous three for the first time ever in 26 years, I would miss the snugness of Christmas at home and having my lovely family around me. It sounds really ungrateful I know, after all I was in paradise and doing something most people just dream about but I am and have always been an old emotional softy when it comes to tradition and family and I could feel myself starting to struggle as the day got closer.

Ray and I decided to make it as Christmassy as possible. We bought some cheap tinsel from Koh Chang's 'Tesco Lotus' and decorated our room then we stole a cardboard box from an alleyway behind the shops and set about creating our own Christmas tree. My creative skills or 'best auntie at making things skills' (according to my nephews) didn't let me down. Having cut out a tree shape, covered it in tin foil and made a star for the top we had ourselves a very festive room and a beautiful 'portable' tree!. Throw in a few thin yellow 'shrine' candles and a bit of Byng Crosby/David Bowie on You Tube and we had cracked it…I started to feel a lot more ' christingly' and a very jolly Olly!

We spent most days leading up to Chrimbo on the beach, snorkeling (very beautiful but nothing compared to Oz's GBR) and zipping about on the mopeds, searching for elusive monkies, exploring other beaches and lazing about at the free hotel swimming pools. Unfortunately on one of our zipping days, Ray took a very sharp bend and fell off of his moped into a gravelly ditch. The bike fell on top of him and he scraped the skin off the top of his foot but the worse bit was that a lady boy riding a bike in front of us, stopped and came running 'beautifully' down the road in a pair of gorgeous flowery flip flops to offer assistance. I've never seen a grown man recover so quickly!!

Koh Chang means (Koh) Island, Elephant (Chang) in Thai and of course there are elephants and elephant trekking everywhere. I would have loved to have gone on an elephant trek but I could not make up my mind whether the elephants we saw were happy. For example; one day we saw an elephant chained by the feet, swaying from side to side as he ate banana leaves, but then he was given a lovely hosepipe shower by his mahout and seemed very happy. Then another time we watched as the elephant with 'Merry Christmas' painted on his side picked up a mouth organ and entertained people as he blew air down his trunk and played it??? But the thing that really moved me was watching two baby elephants being led down to the ocean for a swim. Once allowed some free time to play in the water they trumpeted, swam, submerged themselves, stood on their hind legs and sprayed water through their trunks clearly very happy and having the best time of it. Were they having happy lives?..I still don't know but I do know that an elephant should not play the blues on a harmonica!

On Christmas Eve, we headed for the local beach at Kai Bae to watch the sunset. We bought silly Santa hats and chimped about on the beach then decided to create a Christmas message video for everyone at home. Then as these things normally do, our recording session spiraled into complete silliness with Ray running around like a deranged pixie from a Monty python silly walks sketch and dancing about in the sand...(please see video section of this blog). He got some very strange looks but most that were on the beach were totally in the spirit of things and just carried on drinking!!

I woke up on Christmas morning and Santa had been!! He'd found his way to Koh Chang, filled my Santa hat with some little prezzie's and had not forgotten that I had been a very good (but incredibly spoilt) girl all year.

We decided to take all the deckies and homemade tree, some cheeses, bickies, meats and fruit, Thai rum and Thai Baileys and head to the palm trees on the beach for a champagne breakfast. We put the sarongs down between two palms and decorated the trees with tinsel propping the homemade tree up in the sand creating a veritable paradise grotto! We then popped the cork and had another one of those 'am I really doing this?' moments. About an hour later crazy Geoff turned up. We all ended up drinking champers in the sea, in silly hats on Chrimbo morning on Koh Chang Island, Thailand...now that's a surreal but memorable Christmas!!

That night we bought a ticket to a massive Christmassy dinner at Maus's Backstage Bar and listened to some live music.

So Christmas day 2012 wasn't quite the same as our crazy family Christmases where the 5 hour prezzie opening ceremonies of the past saw the tree disappear behind the skyscraper of presents and had me tiptoeing around the house at 2am in the morning desperate to go to sleep but couldn't because someone was still awake giggling, excited and still talking! Or preparing the sprouts with my lovely sister and daughter with a glass of Baileys and the Westminster Cathedral Choir going full pelt in the background... but it was memorable and beautiful and we were happy!! I was also able to catch up with most of the family via the magic of Skype which was a lovely boxing day treat!!!

A strange thing happened on the lead up to New Year. In the bar one night I was approached by Maus who asked if I would do a few songs on stage with him on New Year's eve with Geoff accompanying on bongos. Well, having had a few sherbets and not really thinking he was serious I agreed and spent the next two days stressing. Maus didn't seem worried and didn't talk to me about it again?? Then with a days' notice he suddenly talked about a set list and packed me off with a guitar to practice!! A days' notice!!! ??? Anyway I dutifully returned to our room and practiced until my fingers were sore.

On the night the 'gig' went surprisingly well, we gathered a small but appreciative crowd, some who attempted dancing but were hilariously drunk!....It was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed being up there again. After our acoustic triumph we got a fab round of applause and all headed for the beach and watched the fireworks exploding precariously close to the crowds and wished everyone a very happy 2013.

Back in the bar we drank Mojito buckets and boogied around in the early morning heat until about 3am. Then we said our happy new years to everyone and went our separate ways and sadly that was the last time we saw Geoff. He's another person I would love to meet again and the bonus is that in real life he comes from Croydon but he lives in Crete so there could be another holiday in the offing, one day!!...until then I'll keep practicing....G …L….O….R….I….A……..Gloria!! and 'Closer To The Heart…..but I never ever want to hear 'Freeeee Falling' again!!

We had planned to leave Koh Chang on the 7th January but on New Year's Day we checked our visas and realized that we had to get out of the country by the 3rd. Thinking we had a 3 month visa we were totally gutted that our time on Koh Chang was cut short by a week but we had been there for a month so couldn't really complain.

The next evening we walked along the beach to Porn's tree house and had one last cocktail while we watched the sun disappear into the Gulf of Thailand sea.....the next day we left for Poipet and the Thai/Cambodian border...