I've done and learned so much since I last wrote in this space. I've also been sick with a cold and nasty GI stuff for over a month. Hopefully on the mend now, 3 doctor visits and 3 rounds of antibiotics later! I get triggered a bit by being sick for so long. Breast cancer likes to spread to the colon and I had polyps removed about 6 months ago. It's probably not that, but being so wiped out for so long, with such persistent symptoms reminds me of being sick with cancer. I kn

The last three weeks have flown by, and it's a shock to think we only have a week left in Thailand before moving on. We continue to love Thailand and Bangkok, in particular the low stress culture, kindness and generosity of the locals, the beautiful weather we've enjoyed here over the winter, and just all there is to see and do. And I am SO fortunate to have Matt to share it all with!! Thailand is largely Buddhist, Hindi and Muslim so Christmas isn't everywhere you look here,

Bangkok. Wow. It is hard to know where to begin! Matt's metaphor for Bangkok is an amusement park ride that is all set up, being used by millions of people, then you realize it was never safety inspected. It is full of paradoxes: old yet modern, chaotic yet rooted in tradition, exciting yet terrifying. We LOVE it! I have felt truly safe everywhere I have gone - regardless of the time of day. People are incredibly helpful, kind and patient. It is a very culturally diverse city

Singapore is an amazing place. It is like being in a botanical garden everywhere you go. The weather during our stay was a perfect 80-degrees F with a slight breeze. The infrastructure is first-class. We could never afford to settle there! Below is a picture of the world's tallest indoor waterfall...and it's at their airport. This is a city worth visiting! We only had a day and a half in Singapore and we spent the majority of our time at the Botanical Garden, and especially i

We flew from Sydney to Perth on November 14, 2025. As you can see, the harbor is a bit smaller! Actually, Elizabeth Quay in Perth is on the Swan River and not a big ocean harbor like Sydney so it is necessarily more compact. The pic below shows the pedestrian walk on the right and a walking bridge connecting the two sides of the 'harbor'. You can take cruises up and down the Swan river and they even have swam-shaped boats you can rent and tootle about in. Below is a pic from

The most interesting excursion we had while in Sydney was, for me, the Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park: Home - Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park . Our tour stop was for 2 hours and it wasn't enough. I would have liked to have spent at least another hour there. Above is a short=beaked echnid = a monotreme (egg laying mammal) like the platypus. Below are some of the little penguins endemic to Australia (thinking of you, Barb!) Below is a wombat sharing a drink with an Australi

Greetings from abroad my friends and family! Today is Thanksgiving in The United States and I'm writing this on Black Friday in Bangkok. The time zone is pretty brutal for reaching home. There are only a couple of hours in my morning that are reasonable to call the US in your evening, especially with my kids on the east coast - but we are managing to stay in touch via WhatsApp. I have a lot to catch folks up on and it goes almost without saying that I am grateful every single