Journey from Crick to Bangkok

As October progressed, the departure plans were shaping up nicely. Chris was returning from Bangkok on the same day I was saying a tearful goodbye to my Halfords colleagues, and we had various other farewells to make over the weekend. We had managed to find tenants to rent our house & they were keen to move in a week before we were flying to Bangkok, so we saw this as a rare opportunity to take a relaxing break with the dogs. We booked a little cottage in the South Northamptonshire countryside and looked forward to a week of long walks on crisp winter mornings, the dogs taking in new sights, sounds, and smells; and then us all snuggling in front of an open fire, exhausted from our adventures. We’d arrive in Bangkok impossibly fresh and ready to experience what would, in all reality, be almost the complete opposite of our week in a cottage!

Time to Say Goodbye

Everything was going to plan on Monday; we moved the last of our possessions out of our house although this did ultimately involve slinging random stuff into our cars, so we would not be in the house when the tenants arrived. We took a slight detour to scatter the ashes of our much loved (yet now deceased & cremated) dogs Maisie & Milo in their favourite park – yes, we are those kinds of people! We could never bear to part with them before but as we weren’t allowed to take them to Bangkok it felt right to finally say goodbye, although I think Charles may have inhaled quite a bit of Maisie so maybe not?

Country Life

We then headed to the cottage, via winding country lanes with Chris leading & enjoying the twists and turns, and me following trying desperately to keep up in spite of my elderly lady style of driving. The village seemed deserted but after a bit of ingenuity, we managed to gain entry to the cottage. It was perfect in a basic sort of way and not too pokey so the risk of fatal head injury to Chris with his 6ft 5” height was much reduced.

On the first day, we planned a nice little circular walk to a neighbouring village and back – I even drew a little map to guide us. As we crossed the first style we were confronted with a horse, and then more horses in the next field, and then sheep beyond. We’ve got history with livestock having nearly lost Siale to a herd of cattle in the first week we had him. Having got ourselves stuck in a field with cows in front and cows behind, for some reason we’d decided to divide the duties with Chris guiding the dogs to safety, and me taking on the cows. As Chris got the dogs through the gate, Siale slipped his collar and ran back into the field. Time seemed to slow down, and it felt like an eternity that we stood in the triangle formation of me, Siale and the cows at each corner. I’m not sure how it happened but I somehow managed to beckon the now naked Siale close enough to me to grab him by the scruff of the neck and drag him through the gate, where we all collapsed in a panting heap. So, it was clear to say that we weren’t up for taking on any more animals!

We turned back and took a different path, my carefully crafted map now rendered completely useless. In the end, we managed to carve out a pleasant, livestock-free walk with nothing more than a few squirrels and pheasants for the dogs to chase, dragging us along with them.

The Routine

In the afternoon, I swanned off to the hairdressers for what might be my last proper haircut for a while – I’m not sure what the Thai hairdressers are going to make of my curly mop! Chris spent the afternoon indulging in daytime TV and the dogs slept off their morning exertions. The pub in the village opened infrequently and only served food at the weekend so we became connoisseurs of the various ‘Dine in for 2 for £10” deals the supermarkets were offering.

The week continued pretty much in this way, more walks in the countryside including one particularly exciting meander through the woods, crunching through leaves, climbing under and over fallen trees but then having to crawl under some barbed wire and briefly trespass on a golf course when I got scared!

Change of Plan!

For various boring administrative reasons, it became clear that one of us was going to stay behind to tie up some loose ends. As one of those ‘ends’ was my Thai Visa and Chris needed to start work in Thailand it had to be me. We were able to change my flight pretty easily and also, we put the dogs' flight back by a couple of days meaning we would all be arriving in Bangkok separately – at least Charles and Siale would have each other though!

We still went ahead with the dogs being collected on Saturday as planned. As my parents had kindly agreed to put me up for the week, we didn’t think their cat Stanley would be too happy about sharing his home and all available human attention with two lurchers, so the boys would spend a few more days in the kennels in Windsor waiting for their flight.

Bye Dogs!

On Saturday morning the van arrived to collect them, and we saw the crates that they would be travelling in for the first time – they were massive! We’ve never crated the dogs before so didn’t really know how they’d react and, on reflection, this could have been a bit of a showstopper. Charles saw his crate and jumped straight in – no issues there. Siale then followed suit, but unfortunately jumped into Charles’ crate instead of his own. My heart did break a little bit when we had to take poor little Siale out and put him in his own crate. Secure in their crates and with some manky towels thrown into “comfort” them, we waved them off, knowing that the next time we’d see them would be in Bangkok.

Without the dogs we were at a loose end, so we headed down to Franklin’s Gardens to watch the mighty Wasps beat Saints in their own back garden, showing a major step up in form and giving us a nice send off. We bumped into our buddy Lawrence Dallaglio at the pie van, and as it was late, pies were free! We broke the news that we were moving to Thailand although Lawrence seemed more interested in getting some gravy for his free pie. Please note, we are not really buddies with Lawrence Dallaglio – he just asked us for advice on pies.

Bye Chris!

It was Chris’ turn to depart on Sunday and nicely fuelled with my Mother’s roast lamb and a load of red wine, he was deposited at Heathrow and I returned to my childhood bedroom! Divide and conquer was the name of the game so whilst I made trips to the Thai Embassy and went back to Crick to pick up an important document, Chris focused on moving into our new house and getting things ready for the arrival of the dogs, with a bit of work thrown in for good measure.

Dogs Arrive in Bangkok

The dogs were due to fly on Thursday afternoon and just before lunchtime, I got a message to say they were fine and had been checked in for their flight! At this stage in the proceedings, there was not much I could do about the dogs who may or may not have been wondering where we were and what on Earth was going on?! I knew they would be delivered to Chris at around 14:00 Thai time which was 07:00 UK time so I went to sleep hoping that when I woke the next morning it wouldn’t be long until I got the update that they’d arrived safe and sound. I did wake to a message from Chris to say that he’d had word that they had landed, were fine and had been taken for a walk – so good so far.

And then it came, what I’d been waiting for all along, a photo of the dogs in our house in Bangkok, having already managed to bag themselves a sofa! This was swiftly followed by another picture of them both fast asleep.

Obviously, we’ll never know how they found the flight, Chris said they did both seem shell-shocked when they arrived, just not quite themselves. He even said he was close to shedding tears of relief when he first fed them, and they wolfed down their food!

So, with 3 out of 4 of the unit now in Bangkok, it was just me left behind and I couldn’t wait!