Skip to main content

2016 a cataclysmic year of shock and change…

2016 started off as a normal year for our family. However looking back there were signs even then of what was ahead. From the moment we sweltered through an uncomfortably sticky New Years Eve, it should have been apparent that the year of the fire monkey was going to have me hot and bothered!



Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Mr Wren also known as Monkey man, on account of his zoology background studying red colobus monkeys, was bored. Ready for a change. Yep, oh my golly gosh all the signs were there: fire and monkey. I was just head down, bum up, enjoying life, and rather blindsided when the Company announced our move to Bangkok, before I'd even been to look at the City of Angels. I call that a bit rude, he calls that effective business planning!

Our January showed little signs of what was ahead. I was finishing off in my locum Social and Community Development role with the wonderful Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and preparing for our last family holiday together in Myanmar. Daughter Number One was packing to leave the nest for the London Good Life.

And there was the Tennis! We'd had a thoroughly amazing time, our seventh year hosting for the Australian Open tennis and indeed in 2016 I was well on my way to the Fan Slam having also loved being a tennis groupie at Roland Garros and Wimbledon before the proverbial rain stopped play! 

Our family travel in 2016 was at an all time record. The kids all living up to their parents wanderlust tendencies. We've covered a bit of the globe between us: Australia, New Zealand, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong & Macau, Malaysia, France, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Croatia, United States of America, Cuba, Guatemala, Belize and more I'm sure I have forgotten.

In July a surprise return to work, was a welcome distraction from cataclysmic world events like Brexit, mutterings of an international transfer and a whole heap of kids sports related injuries - if you can count jumping of a cliff a sports induced injury...

So 2017 will see us jumping into a new life in Thailand. I won't say we are leaving the 2016 World's most liveable city, the bestest of friends, or my favourite job ever to do this... I know we would have never had all this, if we didn't leave the last most amazing city Hong Kong, or Brussels before that...

And of course I wouldn't dream of leaving before the tennis, so don't get too excited to see Bangkok as we have a whole lovely Summer of tennis ahead. Roll on the Australian Open!

Happy New Year to us all!!!












Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hello Summer 2023!

Hello Everyone I hope you are having a wonderful July whereever you are in the world. As it's been a wee while since I stopped by I thought I'd fill you in.  The last three months have been epic. Here is my flight schedule alone: Phuket --> Bangkok --> Singapore --> Melbourne --> Gold Coast (overland to --> Brisbane --> Sydney --> Phuket --> Bangkok --> London --> Paris (overland to Montpellier) --> London. As they say I haven't been everywhere yet but it's on my list! April ended up being an incredible month as I returned to Australia, thanks to a wonderful invite to attend a 7 night Detox at Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat in Queensland. Here is a little excerpt:  Gwinganna Detox Program I’ve been invited to join a  seven-night detox program  at Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat. They are winners of the  World’s Best Eco Spa Awards  (2022 World Spa Awards) and it is beyond exciting. Well, until I read the small print… So it’s no gluten, dairy,

Autumn Spice and everything nice!

Hey, what ever happened to Summer? I hope yours was lovely, mine was pretty amazing! It feels like my whole year has whizzed past in a flash, how about yours?  I've had a year of saying "yes" to everything offered to me. It has been exciting to put it out to the Universe to see where I should be. We feel very fortunate to be able to do this in my husband's early years of retirement. I'm just back in Asia from the US. I never feel my year is quite right without seeing British daffodils in the Spring and a pumpkin and the leaves turning in Autumn. Yay, the world nailed it this year, thank you.  Read on to find out what happened when my ultimate yes occurred on a trip to Montana to meet Ruth, an IG friend. I know Bloggers will smile and not be at all concerned, we've been meeting up around the globe for years, haven't we...?!  But let's just say some of my family and friends were, you're doing what?! But first some Little Wren updates! France I had so

It's a funny old world!

Welcome to Racha Island Hello everyone and greetings from Phuket, Thailand THAILAND THOUGHTS Thailand where we have now reopened the country and are ready to welcome international fully vaccinated arrivals without quarantine to our beautiful island.  For all the details check out  Phuket Sandbox: Would you, should you, could you?   This month another southern island Koh Samui followed along. There are slightly different arrangements with guests to stay within their arrival hotel for three days before supplying a negative Covid test. This gives freedom to roam the island, after 7 days, visitors can also visit the islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. For all the details check out: Welcome back to Thailand via Koh Samui plus All this as Thailand records the highest Covid numbers and death rates ever recorded and stricter measures have been released across the worst affected Provinces.  There is a plan for more of the country to open and the idea was for Thailand to fully reopen to vaccinat