More photos from the Maldives

My darling took this photo for me, cute eh.....no florist here on the island, so it's the next best thing, very special guy I have.
My new job as artist's assistant is coming along nicely;I just have to resist the urge to take up the brush and finish off other people's work..heeheehee....
Where can you get solitude like this, oh, I know, the Maldives.
That's Christopher arriving back on the island, the one in the sea-plane and that's me in the lagoon, soaking up the rays.

More from The Maldives

Well, it's been awhile since I have blogged, not that I have been busy just consumed with trying to find myself under all of the weight of my life over the past few years. Mostly it's the physical weight that I have been working on. I think that finally I am coming out of the mist, hey okay fog, and yes, there are things that I miss from my previous life but all in all I am understanding myself a little better.....and it was with a bit of luck that I found a fellow from Sri Lanka who works at the resort gym here. With his valuable advice and a lot of effort on his part, I have re-discovered my arms and legs and am finally gaining something resembling a fitness level.

I have also found my will-power. Because I had lost it, gone somewhere, don't know where, but it has been sadly lacking in my life for sometime now. I think that I lost a far bit of my will-power between feeling elated that I survived cancer and on the other hand not really caring that I was over-indulging in the finer things of life. I realise now, that I have had a pretty short-term view of my life, but now I am starting to think longer-term. Which is a more positive outlook I can tell you. Am I raving, I think I am but I am also sitting in a great location, listening to good music, surrounded by holidaymakers enjoying themselves with my wonderful caring husband just up the stairs painting away creating another one of his masterpieces that has already been sold to the GM here, she of course has good taste! The weather here today is unbelievably bad, driving rain and strong wind gusts, so I am stuck here in the bar but I have lots of company, so that's all good.

Now some photos from the past few weeks to keep the record of my travels...........

Pics from Paradise in the Maldives

Home-made street lights on the beach. Amazing ideas.
Little blue fishing boat in the Maldives with dinner!
Another sunset in Paradise mitt boys playing footy on the beach.
Whose been fishing!

Paradise

Our new camera is working just fine. love this shot.
Great times, fun in the sun, had family over from Bangkok for a week and really had a wonderful time playing with the boys in the sand. Well finally got the little one on the sand.
Looking healthy and tanned and on the way to total relaxation mode, I love my new life. Miss the grandkids heaps, so will have to make some adjustments as we move forward, but hey working on it.
Adda in the Big Chair.

The Maldives

Sun, sand and shells aplenty here in the Maldives. I am feeling so good that I think I will have to go for a snorkel. Just had a wonderful breakfast of smoked salmon and creamy scrambled eggs yummy paradise.
The Pandanas forest on Kihavah, they are a real feature of this island and I love that the resort has preserved them, building paths that allow you to wander in their shade on hot white sand. Great planning, love that!

Kihavah Huravalhi

Some of the staff, great guys both originally from India and we share many tales about our travels to that wonderful country with them. The guy in white was at the Lake Palace when we stayed there in '07, can you believe that.
Sunset from our villa, Baa Atoll is amazing, see the little uninhabited islands running off to the left of the photo, lovely little sandy snow white beaches and lots of shells, adding to my collection everyday....but I will be leaving them here in there home when I leave, the little hermit crabs need new homes more than I need a shell collection.
The new spa building overwater, luxury when it opens, there is a reef close so going to have a snorkel when we come back at the end of the month. Meet Sue, the Spa Manager, she's English and lovely, her husband Max is great too, really welcoming people.

Warm Welcome

My Maldivian girls, they are from the local island and as usual I say 'hello' to everyone and they have adopted me which is lovely, they look out for me when I go for my daily walks thru the construction site and point me in the right direction if I even look a bit lost. Dear girls, the younger ones speak English and are getting over their shyness with me. Every time I meet any of them it is a handshake and a smile, how are you today....followed by lots of giggles....cute, hardworking ladies.
Yesterday we had a welcome for 22 new staff members so it is really gearing up for the opening, very exciting to be here at this stage.

Kihavah Resort & Spa on Baa Atoll, Maldives

We're up at Anantara's brand new resort & spa in the Maldives and it is going to be a beautiful resort, very stylish, great architecture, stunning villas and sunsets over their huge lagoon.

The pre-opening construction is in it's final stages and there is an excitement evident in the faces and voices of the staff and construction workers here. Christopher is doing murals on the Kids Club and loving the experience of working as part of the team.

Everyone is so friendly and open; all working together and I am enjoying the companionship of like minded people, interesting and intelligent...loving it and will be sorry to leave. But we will be back at the end of the month for a week so that Christopher can start a new project here which will be very exciting and the first of it's kind, certainly in the Maldives.....stay tuned.

Here are some random pics from around the resort island and our villa. Enjoy.

The Maldives - Our new island in the sun

My first seaplane flight over the Maldives was magnificent; had a few hiccups getting on the flight as we were on stand-by, but eventually it was our turn. My artist in residence husband had been called to 'introduce some colour' into a new resort still under construction in Baa Atoll. With paintbox and panama on head, he and I arrived at lunchtime, met the chaps and were invited to lunch in the staff canteen. I am in my element, a construction site, at last! We were given a site tour after lunch and we are really enjoying being part of a team, exciting, and Christopher has some interesting and innovating ideas, so watch this space.

Pics from Paradise in the Maldives

Been a little while since I updated by blog; but been busy, at the gym here on the island 6 out of 7 days a week and finally, started a diet. It's time.

I have been roving the island resorts and taking a few pics, I hope you enjoy them.

The Maldives

This resort in the Maldives is PARADISE, it's official.

Although the weather has not been kind to us since we arrived last month, every other little thing is excellent. My artist husband had a birthday, the resort went over the top with wonderful touches like a special birthday cake and birthday table, then it was his birthday bed...all set out with a towel 'fish' and birthday wishes, and then to really top it off, a birthday bath; what could be better than that. I think the way that these resorts do the towel folding into little towelling elephants, swans, birds, flowers, etc, etc is so eclectic and I hope that they never stop the staff doing these little things for guests, really other than excellent service there is very little other than these personal touches that they can do. So heads-up!

My days are simple, breakfast, followed by lunch, followed by dinner, some computer time, some swimming time and more lately some gym time. Could not be better, days that I have dreamed of and nights where sound sleep easily finds me.

Warish, our villa guest services man, he is excellent, he's Maldivian born and interested in a lot of things, asking about Christopher's art and we talk, in between his busy work making our villa ship-shape. He has told me that he has a wife who is a teacher on a local island which is only 10 minutes away and I showed him the pics of the art classes that Chris and I have been doing with the local school children and orphans in Thailand and we will be looking to go and do some work with the local community here in the Maldives.

My place by the sea

This is fun, sitting reading a book by the sea. It's been raining and very windy here on Dhigufinolhu, South Male Atoll, for almost 10 days straight, so I have had time to look back over my blog and I find that I have missed a couple of critical events. Where we had lots of fun, so here goes.

Just before we left to go back home, Christopher was launching his new wine labels in Hua Hin, Thailand. He took a master of class for the journos and the actual launch party was a big social event and also lots of fun, Here are a few pics in testimony to that fact, well I had a good time and that's the most important thing.

It's Monday it must be the Maldives!

Actually it's Tuesday and it is still the Maldives.
We arrived on Sunday night from a whistle stop in Bangkok.
Haven't really settled in yet, but it has potential here, the staff are wonderfully friendly and very easy to communicate with, so should have a lot of time to relax.

Art

The Sea Turtle painting, it sold as soon as it was finished; to a guy from Townsville. Can you believe that......painted by an Aussie from Cairns FNQ while he is in Thailand and sold to an Aussie from Townsville NQ while on holiday in Thailand....is there a book in this anywhere?

Our Villa by the golf course

This is our place, a lovely suite with a view the golf course here and bonus, it has a small kitchen that allows me to whip-up savoury treats when we are not feeling like getting dressed and going out to dinner. Here in Thailand, like most of Asia, eating out is not a reward but a norm. Most houses do not have full cooking facilities at home and eating in small cafes or take-aways from the food market stalls or street vendors is what the locals do every day, it's social and there is a wide range of interesting foods available.
We get to dine in all of the wonderful restaurants here at the resort complex, some 30 I believe, and we spoilt for choice most of the time I can tell you. But sometimes we venture out into the streets of Phuket Island and have not been disappointed with the food nor the people we meet.
Recently we went on a quick visit to see John Underwood's studio on the bypass road into Phuket, he's a wonderful Australian artist and sculptor working in metal and used objects to create fascinating useful artworks and mosaics. Clearly, Australia exports some of it's best artists. We were very pleased to have meet his wife, Judy and son, Zak, what wonderful unassuming Australians...I hope we see them again soon.
We were trawling thru Central shopping centre the other day, have to go there to buy canvases and art supplies, try to keep from looking in the other stores because we just do not need to add to our baggage; and bumped into the head chef, an Aussie, from our last resort, he and a few of his culinary crew were having a few drinks and some food at a local restaurant, join us he said, so we did. It was like a scene out of Quentin Tarinto's cult movie 'Dusk to Dawn'. We ordered a couple of beers, they were served with ice cubes in less than clean glasses and within minutes a couple of platters of curried crab and soup with strong Thai herbs was placed in front of us. 'No,No' we chorus'd, we're not hungry, but by our third beer or was it our fifth, had decided that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and dived into the curried crab and were rewarded with the nicest crab dish we had enjoyed for a long time.

What do I do with my days

Not sure where to start today, it's been quite sometime since I had the time to sit and write anything. The gallery seemed like such a good idea, but it does take my days now as I am manning it while my artist in residence does his thing.
The high point of my day is the visit by the baby elephants, sometimes there are two usually only the one little girl. I give her bananas, which I peel for her and she gives me sloppy banana wet-kisses.

Phuket Painting

I just cannot believe that it's been nearly a month since I blogged! There has been just so much going on that we don't even seem to get much time for sightseeing. But we have hired a car since we came down to Laguna Phuket, so that has freed us up a lot. I think that I will say the last few weeks in photos........


Another wonderful bed towel-toy, so real I decided to feed it some bananas!









Little lamps made from sea urchins down at the beach market at Rawai Beach













Late lunch at Rawai Beach at one of the Thai seafood places...the food was lovely and we were entertained by an old Thai guy who was so drunk he was funny!










These little Thai ballet girls reminded me of Carmen. Her old ballet teacher, Miss Dawn would have approved!














We were shopping at Patong and came across this ridiculous scene in a shopping mall; people having facials in shopfront windows....the blackhead removal technique was not even funny.