By the skin of our teeth

It seemed that luck was on our side when we not only avoided the fire at Heathrow last week, but also managed to take off from Bangkok airport just 5 minutes before the earthquake that devastated Myanmar and brought down a building in Bangkok. We didn't know anything about it, of course, until 12 hours later when we landed at Heathrow and everyone's phones started pinging with anxious relatives checking we were OK.

The coaches worked for us too, with the 7:30 National Express delayed by an hour and a half, so we were able to catch it and get home just after midnight.

Let's hope our luck stays.

Now we're back in Poole, enjoying the sunshine, catching up with Ben and Ellie, and trying to remember what we eat, where things are and how things work! Our "to-do" lists are massive. And how did everything get to be so expensive!?

Damian and Da joined us for a farewell pizza and beer before we left.

It's 70 years since the revolution in Laos so The Party was celebrating with big neon signs on the old bridge. We have no idea what it says

Front garden is coming along.

D&D brought round a set of automated sprinklers to look after the watering while we're away. April is very hot and the air quality is horrendous. We packed all the potted plants into one area at the side of the house and set the sprinklers to come on for 10 minutes during the night.

The wall and steps were completed in 3 days. Incredibly skilful workers.

It changes the feel of the garden but will be fine once we've planted up with climbers.

The umbrella is a temporary measure to stop mango flowers and fruit falling in the pond.

I love these little mantises.

The steps lead up to the new house next door but we'll have a gate to stop the chickens.

Highlight of the month was the long awaited gig by popular local expat band FFGS (French Fries and German Sausage). It was at a venue just 10 minutes from our house which suited us well.