Here is the news........

Gary arrived home early Wednesday morning - yay!! 

The ceilings of our house are concrete and at the moment the builders are doing all the work to box up for them, then they will pour them.  They want to get all the ceilings done before the rainy season starts in May.  During the time they are doing the ceilings, they will also take 2 weeks off for Thai Songkran Festival .

('Songkran' (from the Sanskrit word Sankranti, signifying the sun's shift from one zodiac to another) heralds the beginning of the solar year and is the most important festival for the people of Thailand. The festival is an annual event, and this year marks the beginning of the Thai New Year 2556. It is a joyful occasion centred on family, community and nature. The festival is celebrated over three days, 'Mahasongkran' on the 13th of April marks the end of the old year, Wan Nao (14th April) is the day after and April 15 is Wan Thaloeng Sok when the New Year begins. Sonkgran is akin to the Indian festival of Holi and the Chinese festival of Ching Ming. Though it is celebrated all over Thailand with great gusto and enthusiam, it is in Chiang Mai that the Thais hold the very important ritual of bathing the Buddha and people from all over come to be witness to this event.)  On Thailand New Year's Day, Thais pray to the Buddha, clean temples and houses, offer alms to the monks and sprinkle scented water on elders as a mark of respect. The pouring of water is symbolic of the cleansing of the spirit, mind and body. The water is also supposed to wash away bad luck - so consider yourself blessed if you get drenched! Happily, Songkran falls during the hottest time of the year and the water is a welcome relief.

Gary decided it was a good time to come home for a visit so we're going to do a few things here around the house and get it ready to rent out when we move over there to live.  We were going to go back to Thailand around 17 April, but as the roof won't be finished until middle of May we won't be needed there until then so we'll probably stay here until then.  Then we get to go back and do all the exciting things like picking tiles, bathroom fittings, kitchen etc - all the good fun stuff.  Here are some photos Gary brought home with him.  Our project manager, Holger, will send us weekly updates so I'll post some of those on here to show you what's happening.

across the pool to the dining room

drilling for the bore at the bottom of our block

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter break and didn't eat too much chocolate.