Phuket Villas

Great celebration here at Anantara Phuket Villas with my artist in residence husband working with the wonderful staff here to make an enjoyable day of learning to paint for some of the local school children. Senior staff joined in and painted a 10th Anniversary painting as well.

A link to the photos that Phuket Index has posted on their website:

http://events.phuketindex.com/gallery-10th-anniversary-169-en.htm

Our Sunday Brunch at Indigo Pearl

Brunch is a big thing over here in Asia. They do it very well up in Shanghai where we have had some memorable brunches but our all time favourite is the Marriott Riverside Resort & Spa in Bangkok. For the past several years our family and I have made it a must-do when we are in Bangkok. They have a Trader Vic's at the resort and their cocktails made by Mr Shaker are to die for. But, it now has competition, have to get that confirmed by our kids, who are the gourmet-ganets of brunches, but I think Indigo Pearl here in Phuket gives the Marriott a serious run for our money!

Here are some pictures from last Sunday (and it will not be our last, they are in serious trouble especially their oyster bar) we loved the place. We really must see the resort in the evening as the light-fittings look stunning and that's just by day.

We love the resort, period, love the architecture and especially love the arty-interior design, all designed by Bill Bensley (who was actually there bonus meeting him) and John Underwood, a great Australian sculptor and designer making some outstanding pieces of art. Good art and good food, a heady combination. Enjoy!

Phuket - The Good Life

There was a British TV series called The Good Life and I loved to watch it, interested in hobby farming and homemade canned laughter. At the time we had a great little old Queenslander, with a dozen ducks, three pigs, a couple of cows usually with a calf or two living down on our the creek-flats and a great swimming pool. We had lots of visitors who would welcome a drive out into the country. We would always somehow, be the ones hosting Sunday family luncheons where our timber kitchen table that lived on the veranda moaned under the weight of roasts and my famous potato bake. The best part was our pool which was lined with black Japanese tiles, very swish at the time and had big boulders imbedded into the sides and a large railway sleeper sunbaking deck where we would all gather under the mango tree and talk until we were blue in the face and mostly too full to move far. Ah, those are good memories of a good life and we are making more all the time. Now I think of the good life and up comes memories of our new life, our sea change. One of my dearest friends now has a farm, or 'property' is a better description, with a growing herd of cattle, last count over 10, so that's a herd and it is lovely to hear her say how much she loves that life. I love her place too, so I'll have to go sit on her verandra when we go back and take some time to watch the cows and her horses wander around the bottom paddock. But I think these days, that this will do me for the country life, I still remember the work it takes to make a country house a home and all the mowing.

Now it has been nearly a month since I posted to my blog, so I think that I will fill it with photos of our day-off here in Phuket, mostly that's when we are off and about, finding new places and making new friends. So enjoy! The pics of the little old teak house reminds me of our Kopps Road farm, had to put in a pic of me in the English pub in town and Anantara Phuket Villas.

Chinese New Year

Phuket Villas

Miss judged the time it takes to get from the city of Bangkok to the airport and sat in the airport for 5 hours - domestic terminal - no duty free even - but found the bar, good job.

Our villa was waiting for us when we arrived and I had truly forgotten how beautiful this resort is, the bath was filled with still warm water (and it was 1 am) and topped with rose petals and orchids, nice touch.

My artist in residence husband and I luxuriated in the tub for an hour before falling into the best bed in the world, gee Mark and his team do it well here.

The Big Picture....A picture is worth a thousand words...

The adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" refers to the idea that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

So more photos for you to enjoy!

The Big Picture

Well what a time we have had here at Anantara Hua Hin. As usual all of the staff are warm and welcoming and I have relished the time spent walking through the wonderful tropical gardens of the resort. When guests at the resorts ask me what my favourite resort is always say this one because of the gardens and the staff from the Land of Smiles.

Last week my artist in residence husband had a huge job, when he was asked by the GM to create a painting that reflected 'The Big Picture'. A painting that would mark the start of the year long celebrations for 10th anniversary of the resort group and this resort. He told me that he took his inspiration from the magnificent gardens of the resort here in Hua Hin, he defined what he saw in the big gardens as being an excellent way to start his big painting that he ultimately designed in a collaboration with Asaya Kongsiri, Head of Marketing and Design, Khomapastr Fabrics here at Hua Hin, using some of the wonderful printed fabric produced by Asaya, to produce a wonderful contribution to their 10 year anniversary celebrations here.

The GM added an interesting twist by introducing the idea of all of the invited guests to The Big Picture dinner participating by painting a panel of the painting, so my artist husband worked well into the night marking out the panels and the day of the event took art classes for all of the invited guests, all in all a very big undertaking, but also lots of fun. The art class was an amazing event in it's self, the GM had invited a group of writers and celebs, so the talent pool was just bubbling with inspiration. I had a wonderful time, working side by side my artist husband and we make a lot of friends very quickly, it was just awesome.

Then came the party and much excitement with the unveiling of the painting 'The Big Picture' and the announcement by the GM that the painting would be auctioned as part of the The Kings Elephant Polo event in September, so that was very worthwhile and we are all looking forward to reading all about that event.

The glamorous stars and celebs where so excited and posed for a myriad of photos and everyone was very happy with the painting. A great night of food from the great kitchens here and fine wines from Siam Winery, it was just great to see my husband's art on the 'Monsoon Valley Art Series' wine labels, on the wine bottles as well...all in all a wonderful event...surrounded by Christopher Hogan's macro-images and lots of people enjoying the experience and above all having a great time.