30th December (My Birthday🎂)

After Christmas Day this was the next day I was really looking forward to, partly to make Rob suffer like he had made me suffer on his birthday but also, since I have started planning my own birthdays, I always have a really good day.😊

The morning started very well with lots of presents and a trip to a lovely Catholic Church service in Bophut. The congregation was a very welcoming mixture of Thai people and Westerners and although most of the service was conducted in English there were some lovely Thai touches, for example the sign of peace was hands together as if praying and a bow. The songs were all lively Christmas ones and the highlight of these was the end one which was Feliz Navidad. Rob had never heard of it until we had to explain what it was when his brother sent him this. We then heard the song everywhere we went, it was a question in both quizzes that we took part in and was now being sung in our church service. It will definitely be our theme song for this Christmas.🎅🏼

When we arrived back to the villa we had Birthday cake🎂. Since I left home in October I am pretty sure this is the first piece of cake I have had as neither Africa or Asia are particularly au fait with gluten free cakes. Ellie had mostly made it but had left Tom and Joe in charge of its baking while we were in church. Despite it being slightly burnt on top and gooey in the middle it was delicious and much appreciated.After a play in the pool, to help burn off the cake, we went to my favourite place, as I think I’ve already mentioned, The Treehouse. We had a lovely late lunch before Joe and I went for the most amazing massage on the beach. It was extremely relaxing and the chilled feeling carried us along as we walked a beautiful stretch of the beach from The Treehouse to W. We were heading here for their happy hour cocktails and to enjoy the sunset.W is a very exclusive resort. If you want to go and use their facilities in the daytime you can for about 3,000THB (£75). For this you get a towel and use of their sun beds, swimming pool and seated areas. Rob and I found all of this out on our first evening on Koh Samui when we visited here, admired the facilities, location and sunset and were charged nearly 400THB (£10) for two cokes. We also discovered that if you come after 4pm you can use the sun beds and seating areas and enjoy their lovely location while drinking 2for1 cocktails during their happy hour. So on my birthday that’s just what we did.After walking back along the beach we hurried back to the villa to watch Charlotte’s web.A pretty good end to a perfect day!