Most nights we ended up at Thomo's bar where a small band of musicians who were unknown to each other had come to the island to get away from it all had created a band. Thomo advertised every night as an open mike night but it was mostly these guys who 'headlined'.

We sat on bean bags, candles all around in the still warm Thai evenings listening to these guys playing together, mainly JJ Kale stuff well into the night and as the faint smell of pungent almost certainly illegal cigarettes came wafting over from the hammocks swinging in the trees, we listened and occasionally jammed with them until the wee small hours. Every now and then we would see Mika sat on a rug chatting up a big breasted earth mother….

On some days the sea around the Andaman islands behaved very strangely. You would be swimming or waiting for a wave to surf in on when suddenly you'd get stung, not a big painful sting but a little irritating sting a bit like a mild stinging nettle, looking down there was never anything to see and then you'd get stung again, you'd move to another area of water and carry on swimming only to be stung again, it become quite annoying and we weren't able to discover what was stinging us. Rumour has it that it was jelly fish larvae…or practising man o wars's…..little irritants!!

The days blended into one on the island we spent time riding bikes, hiring mopeds, searching for Hornbills , geckos and snakes, dodging sand flies on the beach and filming the little rock crabs who were always up for a fight when we pointed a camera at them. We befriended the dogs and played silly games like hopping onto shadows of the palm trees where it was cool to get back to our tent as the sun on the sand had caused such intense heat that it melted our bare feet.

After a few weeks it became apparent that (and I know this is going to sound ridiculous) a human being really shouldn't spend every single day lounging about on beautiful beaches in paradise. We both felt that our routine of waking up at 7 am with the geckos , getting out of the tent before it sauna'd you to death, going for a swim, having breaky on the beach, going for another swim, reading, teaching Ray how to play back gammon, doing a bit more reading, having another swim, walking a bit more along the beach, lunching under palm trees, more back gammon, cracking open the Thai rum and sitting on the beach watching the sun going down into the sea, or being mesmerised by the lightening storms on the horizon then returning to the tent to sleep before the electric went off was actually no good for us at all!!!!!.... (Ok you're not convinced!)

When we were in our hotel in Bangkok I had a bit of a grown up reality check and remembered that I did actually have a life in England and would need to get back to the real world very soon so while Ray was out shopping I applied for a job online and completely forgot that I had.

About a month before we were due to go home I checked my emails at the local restaurant and found that I had been invited to an interview at the Hampshire Autistic Society.

It was a bit of a bitter sweet moment, it meant that I would be getting back to the kids and my family who I still missed terribly and back to the imminent arrival of two more babies to the family but it also highlighted the stark reality that…'it' was nearly over….. L

After a lot of soul searching and discussion about the realities of life and how we really should be sensible and how this wasn't real life and could nt last for ever and how it would have to end at some stage…. Ray and I arranged an early flight home…….

Three days before we left with the monsoons and a despondent mood approaching and just as Ray had thrashed me again at Back Gammon for the 170th time ,we heard a familiar voice behind us doing a Bruce Forsythe impression……it was a bit like when Burt spots Mary Poppins's shadow on the pavement…"I'd know that silhouette anywhere"…GEOFF!!!!!

Geoff had left Bangkok to come and find us… …our last few days on the island and the last few days of our world trip were spent with one of the most amazing characters we had met on our way round. We took him to Thomo's, where he played the drums and sang along to the open mike night and got so plastered that he couldn't find his resort.

We swam, chimped and thoroughly mucked about like kids …..Ray and Geoff challenging each other to the 'Bruce Off' competition at the dinner table…"rice to see you, to see you. Err rice"…. Brilliant.

Saying goodbye to Geoff, the dogs, the gecko's, the beaches, Thomo and Mika was so tough but… we were going home.