Loads has happened and so straight to it.

The biggest events have been a long anticipated visit from Ed, Issy and her friend Justin and our trip to Thailand. It was sheer class to have visitors around again and a great spur to get some living done and give them a taste for Singapore life. No one ever really got over their jet lag so the visit consisted of afternoons and nights. The first full afternoon was spent on a speedboat cruising a perfectly calm estuary in the north and finding out that Issy's a natural wake boarder and that anybody can learn if they just keep picking themselves up and trying again (Justin!)

Nights were spent remembering what it's like to go out with some old English mates with a bottle of vodka or two in tow. The Saturday night was the funniest- a tour of 7-11s followed by tearing it up in a couple of clubs in town before an early morning roti prata and a dip in the pool just before dawn. Issy in particular was necking the scratchy with a carefree abandon for which she, and poor Justin, would surely pay the price the next morning when they tried to catch their train at 8.30. Sure enough, come time to get up and pack an hour after her collapse, Issy could barely be raised and when she was it was unclear whether she had sustained brain damage as she wandered around the room organising her possessions at glacial speed. Needless to say they missed their train, the fact that it was by just 4 minutes was miraculous enough. Luckily they managed to get on a bus and catch up with the train by the time it left Kuala Lumpur that evening.

Ed and I caught up with them on a beach in Thailand a couple of days later after an eventful KM8 session on Sunday night. While narrowly losing a downing competition to a heavily tattooed, 6'2'' Icelandic nutter Ed noticed one of the bar staff picking his phone off the floor and disappearing. It turned out that rather than keeping it safe behind the bar he denied all knowledge= Ed not a happy bunny. Despite this the music and girls just about made up for it! The final twist in the tale came when the above-mentioned nutter picked up a 'friend' of his and threw him in the pool. This wasn't a good plan since, naturally, the guy dragged the Icelander in with him. The problem with this was that the walking tattoo canvas hadn't thought to take his phone from his pocket and leave it somewhere safe before playing with the water. He didn't quite see it this way and immediately convicted his 'friend' of ruining his phone and repeatedly sentanced him to death if a phone wasn't restored to his possession within 24 hrs- twat.

But anyway- Thailand. Tonsai beach, southwest Thailand. Perfect turquoise waters, dramatic limestone cliffs, no cars, access only by boat, delicious food, islands to explore by kayak, sheer cliffs rising from the sea to climb and jump off, Climbing Tom about to show us around- lovely but over all too quickly after but 3 nights.

Ed and I left Issy and Justin to return to Singapore as they moved on through the rest of Thailand. There was time for one more big night out in Singapore with Ed before his return to Blighty, but this didn't exactly go according to plan. We were going out late anyway, having just got back from Thailand and both of us feeling pretty tired and Ed feeling a touch under the weather, and 10 minutes into our first bar and Ed was already trying to find Ralf in the toilet (shouting Ralf? Being sick?) and things went from bad to worse. Ed suffered a tragic night in (and out of) bed, sick as an Englishman in New Delhi. By the next afternoon it was clear that Ed was going to miss that evening's flight but needed certification from a doctor that he was unfit to fly. With clearance from Ed's travel insurer I got on the phone ordering the finest medical attention Singapore has to offer and within an hour a doctor was at his bedside, shaking his head at the 39.5C reading on his thermometer and recommending Ed get in the ambulance downstairs and go straight to hospital! After a couple of nights of care and attention and litres of saline and drugs dripped into him Ed was pretty much as right as rain. The funny thing about the whole affair is that Ed was clearly in a much worse state in Indonesia where the doctor didn't even take his temperature and left him to 'sweat' it out from Bali to Flores.

The real blow came when 4 hrs before his £1,200 re-arranged flight Ed got a call from the insurer to say that they had misinformed him and that he was only covered for European travel after all, but it was ok because he could still take the flight. And they would bill him for it later. And the medical expenses. Ed not happy. At all. Despite using all the know-how gleaned from one of his all time favourite reads- 'How to Complain Effectively'- the bastards wouldn't budge. Ed's response was to get the same flight for £450 himself and write a 'very strongly worded' letter straight to the CEO and I'm pleased to say that it worked and he got his money back- all's well that ends well.

In the meanwhile Climbing Tom had turned up in Singapore 4 hours after his flight to India had left! While waiting for his rearranged flight a couple of days later there was a great chance to catch up with him on all his travelling tales and what everyone's up to back home before waving off my last visitor for a while.

Since then I've finally been paid a decent chunk and have had the opportunity to pay down a few debts, or to buy a motorbike and gear. If I pass my test tomorrow I pick up my beautiful Kawasaki KRR on Friday! Mmmmm…

Other than that I've just returned from a long weekend in Kuta, Lombok (the island next to Bali). The place is heaven- beautiful weather, friendly people, cheap as chips, chilled to the max and best of all- incredible surf. I took a board that I bought over here six months back and have yet to use and was intensely looking forward to seeing if I could handle it- I'm pleased to say I can. It was definitely the best surfing I've done- pristine 5/6ft waves and the ability to catch them despite almost a year off. I was also searching for some land to buy which involved some epic motorbike rides around the island (Ed, Gaz, Nick- you know what I mean) but didn't find any that did it for me. I'll be back for another look somewhere else since I've now got this dream in my head of a big patch of land miles from anywhere with a cheap local villa on it where I can go with my friends to play at surfing, sailing, riding and partying- live the dream.

Standby for news of biking success- no news means failure and no bike until late January I expect- boo!

Summary:

• Visits from Ed, Issy, Justin and Tom
• Trips to Thailand and Indonesia
• Been paid
• Bought a bike, but yet to pass my test