PUT A PIN IN THE MAP!!

Ray and I packed our rucksacks once again, had our last breakfast of freshly picked mango on the beach, said goodbye to our tent and Geoff and caught a moped taxi back to the port. We hopped on a slow boat back to Ranong and then a night bus back to Bangkok.

We arrived back at about 5 am in the morning and trudged up and down the Kao San road looking for cheap accommodation and finally found a small hostel who were seriously cashing in on us weary tourists arriving off of the early buses..." solly we full....but may have wan loom for a million baht"......ok we'll take it!!

Our penultimate day was spent prezzie buying for the family..t shirts, chocolate's, handmade bags, bracelets, and wooden croaky frogs...( we were ruthlessly followed and hassled by an old woman who had the most peculiar brown teeth…well tooth!!.... Who kept croaking the frogs in our faces ....finally we gave in and bought two so she'd leave us alone!...wooden frogs...no use at all!!)

We came across a back street Thai boxing ring where about ten people of varying ages were kicking and power punching the life out of the nothing in front of them, building up an amazing sweat that gathered in pools on the floor which they then stepped in and skidded about...they created a very smelly, sweaty, mesmerising and balletic, Torville and Dean type display with a smattering of violence thrown in....very interesting to watch but I didn't really get it??

Back at 'Hostel Extortionate'...we put on our jeans for the first time in months, zipped up our back packs for the last time, said goodbye to the quirky little streets off of the Kho San road and caught the Sky Train back to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.

As we queued to check in our luggage it all seemed a bit surreal. The trip that we planned so long for, the journey that we'd been on from South America to Australasia from Thailand and across South East Asia, the personal stresses and worries of whether I could actually do it and be away from Tom, Louise and Joe and the family for that length of time, the weird illnesses, the crazy adventures, the wonderful people we'd met along the way and of course the bloody spiders!!!!....was over.

We flew back via Hong Kong, back to Heathrow; we caught a National Express coach back to Portsmouth harbour and a number 21 bus back to Copnor Road. How strange that we were suddenly back in the drizzle and dank of England when just hours before we were walking in flip flips and shorts, fighting off mosquitoes and desperately trying to stay cool!!!

We got off the bus and on the opposite side of the road where Rays parents lived we saw his dad, cleaning the car.....he looked up, saw us and simply said..." well I'm blowed...GRETA!!!! Look who just turned up!!!"

The next day was my sister's birthday and luckily most of my family had met up in a restaurant. Ray and I lurked outside and we could see them all nattering inside as we peered through the window...there they were, my gorgeous family...we went in and chaos ensued as soon as they spotted us, tears, squeals, picking up and swinging round, shouty shock, squeezing and frenzied hugging....just brilliant!!!...god I had missed them.

So there we are....I'm writing this last blog a year on...we spent the summer working with my brother turning our hand to any odd job; painting and decorating a bit of gardening, bar work anything for a bit of spare cash. We reformed our band 'Big Bad Wilf. My lovely bruv turned 5o and the band played at 'Ollyfest' which was the most fantastic weekend and the highlight of the summer. Camping, bouncy castles, ukelele's and a wonderful collection of the old standards played my incredible dad on his oakey cokey 2000 piano!!

While we were away, Tom got a deputy manager's post in retail and Louise got a promotion and became a team leader. We went to Greece taking a detour to Crete to return the surprise and visit the lovely Geoff. The memories of that visit are jaded by copious amounts Raki so not much to say except it was fun!! (Or so I'm told!)... And I visited Joe in Iceland. While we were away he had decided to have his own adventure he moved in with his girlfriend and was living on the edge of glacial lake three hours' drive from Reykjavik surrounded by waterfalls, volcanoes, geysers and lava fields, !!...So could my kids survive without me??.....erm.....most definitely!!! (This was one of my biggest reservations about going on the trip! ….foolish woman!!)

In September both Ray and I managed to secure good jobs and in October we bought a house on the border of the New Forest. I spent the best Christmas in my new house surrounded by my three children and amazing family. Since we have returned we have had two new additions to the family. Both baby girls, both named Isabel. Oh and we have recently rescued two enormous but beautiful moggies. Mia and Murphy (yes of course they are my replacement children!!!)

I didn't go to the interview that bought us home. I wasn't ready, my head was still on a desert island and I was still in lazy hippy mode!!

When we decided to go travelling it was a decision made from a need to put a very tough few years behind us, reflect and recover from all that had happened and start a fresh as well as seeing what this amazing world had to offer.

For me, our Great Grinaway Oliver adventure ticked all of those boxes and more. We returned with a new outlook, a new take on what life is really about, an understanding of our incredibly blessed we are to be here, how incredibly safe and lucky we are , what an amazing planet we live on and how precious it all is.

I have a wonderful family and a wonderful life and I'm happy......

Everyday I think about the places, I think about the people who are carrying on, going about their daily lives; the old ladies carrying bundles of corn up the Andes, the Uros people living on their islands of reeds, the old men playing chess under the trees on the harbour in Barra deLagoa, the people dancing in the market streets of Buenos ares, Mr Pistachio, my wonderful relies in New Zealand, captain John, Geoff and Mouse in Koh Chang, Bunthorn in Cambodia, the looney moped riders in Vietnam and the crazy, crazy Brazilians and I know that some time in the not so distant future we will do it all again......

So with my horizons well and truly broadened, whats my advice to those who are feeling a bit lost with their lives???? ......close your eyes, put a pin in the map and get going!!!!!

Lor - January 2014