Happy New Year!!!

We wish everybody a Happy New Year!

We wensen iedereen een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

Nous souhaitons une Bonne Année à toutes et à tous!

Wir wünschen allen einen guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!

(Photo: Grand'Place with Christmas Tree, Brussels, 28/12/2008, -1°C)

Goodbye Singapore & Merry Christmas!

We got back to Belgium on Friday after a long journey from Bangkok via Frankfurt, from 29ºC to 4ºC in 15 hours... Attached some atmosphere pictures from Singapore, where Christmas decorations have started appearing in October already (!). The only thing missing is snow and cold temperatures, as there is sharp contrast (for us) between the European-style decorations and the tropical heat (30ºC as always) and exotic plants. To bring the Christmas atmosphere to Bangkok (where Christmas is commercially celebrated), we hosted a Glühwein-evening at our place last week. The warm mulled wine was a strange concept to our Thai friends but it did not take long convincing them... Tom has now moved permanently to Bangkok, so the above pictures are also a bit of a goodbye to Singapore where the last half year or so was spent. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!!!

Bangkok back to normal

The situation in Bangkok has returned to normal: all airports have reopened and even the more than half-year occupation of the Government House in the city has now ended. Last Friday (5 December) was the King's birthday and this important holiday in Thailand helped to bring things back to normality. You can read about the latest developments in the complex Thai political situation on several news websites. If you want an "inside" view, you can check out www.bangkokpost.com, one of the English newspapers in Thailand. Tom managed to get to Bangkok this weekend (last week's attempt had failed) and is now preparing to move his remaining things from Singapore to Bangkok next weekend, before we head to Europe for the Christmas break.  The impact of the political unrest is estimated to be quite serious (next to the direct damage caused by the airport occupation), several companies have put potential investments on hold and the image of Thailand has taken a serious blow, but the country has recovered from setbacks in the past. More news in our next posts.