The Heart Of The Day

It had been Christmas 15 years ago, Josh remembered, when the whole family…Bob, Greg, Josh, Doug and I…had been all together at one place at the same time.

So Bob, retired from his pediatric practice in Salem, Oregon and realizing we weren’t getting any younger, rented a resort villa on the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand where Doug lives part of the year in a rented bungalow with his Thai wife Luk. We chose Thailand because Doug was already there and it was easier than trying to get Luk a tourist visa to any other country.

Josh brought his Cantonese significant other, Polly, from Hong Kong where he lives and works as the Executive Chef at the American Club. (Not that it has anything to do with America!) Greg had taken off a couple weeks of his anesthesiology practice in Las Vegas to meet Josh in Hong Kong and then spend a few days in Hanoi together before flying down to Samui. Bob flew in from Pattaya where golf is his life. In November 2012 I had flown in from Oaxaca Mexico where I live so it was no problem to fly down from Bangkok where I had been sitting in a dental chair for days.

Four whole days together was wonderful but it was just about the right amount of time for resort living. We all had our own villas right on the ocean. Several Thai girls and a cook were at our beck and call. They spread out an elegant breakfast of our choice each morning by the pool. A massage table by the pool was ready for us. Doug and I had rented a pick-up and Josh and Greg rented motorbikes to run around the island. The only decisions we had to make were what to eat the rest of the day.

Sitting there watching the boys in the water I shivered remembering Christmas of 2004 when Doug and Luk almost lost their lives in their bungalow 14 feet from the water when the tsunami hit the Krabi coast. About 8 in the morning Doug heard what he thought was a bomb. Lukily they had the doors and windows closed. When he pulled back the curtains to the sliding doors, the water was engulfing the entire bungalow. When the first wave went out they grabbed their phones and ran up the hill behind the house.

But then Luk wouldn’t live on the Krabi beach anymore. She said there were many ghosts and she wouldn’t eat the fish because she said the fish had eaten the people. So Doug had rented a pickup to move them to Koh Samui on the other side of the Thai peninsula in the Gulf of Thailand. I was in Bangkok at the time and seeing the news on TV I was frantic. But after 30 minutes of trying to get through to them on the phone I heard those sweet sweet voices. A movie about the tsunami is in the theaters now called “Impossible.” I can’t bear to see it.

Anyway, this was the first time any of us had experienced a self-contained resort like this. But as we were all very familiar with Thailand and Thai life, we weren’t sacrificing anything by isolating ourselves. We did remark how sad it is that many people only experience a country in this way though. Our time together ended with “When are we going to do this again?” All of us looking at Bob who footed the bill! LOL

Looks like another week holed up with my son, Greg, and my favorite sweet golden laborador, in Las Vegas. If Las Vegas is invaded I am quite certain I will survive.

I am cooking for the freezer as is usual when I visit him. Split pea soup with ham hocks, lasagna, Oaxacan pork ribs in salsa verde.

Greg has offered to take me to the Cirque du Soleil “Elvis” but just can’t bring myself to watch this dog and pony show of my old raunchy 7th grade love.

I am missing the Day Of The Dead in Oaxaca. I would definitely prefer to celebrate the dead there than to watch the dying off political process in the U.S. of A.

Sigh…

Yesterday got my glasses replaced that son Greg's new yellow labrador puppy ate. Puppy? At 16 weeks he's huge...but oh so loving! And he's so cute when he carries his own leish in his mouth when we go for walks. ... [Continue reading this entry]

You can just imagine the look on my son Josh's face in Hong Kong today as my chair collapsed out from under me in Las Vegas as I disappeared from view in his skype video frame! He he. Fell on ... [Continue reading this entry]

Had an outside lunch with son Greg, his Punjabi surgeon friend, Jody, and his wife Heather, and Greg Smith who was a classmate of Greg's in high school. Playing with Val, Greg's 16 month old yellow lab who is constantly underfoot.  ... [Continue reading this entry]

So the Reds are keeping up the pressure in Bangkok. My yellow shirt friend didn't want me to take a taxi to the airport yesterday for a flight to Hong Kong (taxis being almost all Red because most ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, as expected,  here I am at 2am wide awake on the island of Hong Kong. After a somewhat frenetic 3 weeks with Bob and I taking up Doug's kitchen and entire dining room table in Salem Oregon, Bob has ... [Continue reading this entry]

This is actually kind of funny... My husband wrote me and our three sons an email the other day telling us what he wants done with his body if something happens to him in Thailand...where he lives...where he has regular bouts ... [Continue reading this entry]

Had a heck of a time getting out on the plane in the worst storm in the NW in 40 years! After a two hour trip from Salem to the Portland airport over icy washboard Highway 99 because the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Had a nice long visit with Greg (oldest son) last week. He tells me about the mini triathlon he ran that day...happy that he is back into running, biking and swimming.  And he tells me he misses his brother, Josh, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Oregon is most delightful in summer! Everything is so green. And my mouth has been watering for local strawberries, raspberries, peaches and cherries. And Walla Walla Sweet Onions! Cars obey the rules, garbage is picked up and motorcycles ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, enough of politics and the weariness of world crises. When I couldn't get a visa for a three day trip to Burma (should have used a travel agent instead of going to the embassy myself) and to keep from losing ... [Continue reading this entry]

My son the chef! Here is a picture of me and my chefs!! The two in the grey are myself on the right, chef de cuisine of "One East On Third" Restaurant in the Hilton Hotel in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Wanted to post some pictures of menu items created by my son Josh at the One East On Third Restaurant in the Hilton Hotel Beijing where he is the Chef de Cuisine but am despairing of getting menu descriptions from ... [Continue reading this entry]

I must be getting old. Came across this shocking article in Newsweek describing teen sex taking place openly in public parks in Santiago Chile. Actually I remember being agape at the couples in public parks in Guadalajara Mexico ... [Continue reading this entry]

Have become familiar enough with Asia that the usual things you notice on the surface aren't so eye-catching now. Am learning to adapt to surface cultural differences with less frustration. But adapting for a traveler briefly passing through is ... [Continue reading this entry]

This week Josh and I went to the Beijing Exhibition which is a miniature replica of the city in a huge building. Josh says they have one of these in every major city. Very well done! Then we ... [Continue reading this entry]

The two most impressive Olympic venues are the National Aquatics Center or simply the "Water Cube" and the "Bird's Nest." The "Water Cube," a palatial structure with an area of 80,000 sq meters that is white in the daytime and blue ... [Continue reading this entry]

Chinese New Year's Eve Wednesday February 6 2008. Words cannot do justice to the fireworks we viewed across the city from the rooftop of the Hilton Hotel at midnight so I will just show you here. It was so ... [Continue reading this entry]

Last Friday I went to the Yew Chung International School of Beijing with Amy, my daughter-in-law. Seventy five years ago an optimistic young woman, Madame Tsang Chor-hang, barely graduated from a teacher's school, emerged from a calamitous time ... [Continue reading this entry]

In the airport, while waiting for my luggage to show up, I scanned the crowd of people in the waiting area and had no trouble spotting Josh...three heads above all others. Eye candy for me! This is the first time ... [Continue reading this entry]

Spent last weekend with son #1 in Las Vegas. (He shines so bright I call him son. Sorry, my mother used to say that to the kids all the time.) Great time with sushi and a Lynard Skynard concert. It ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, I had quite a day yesterday. My son Doug, visiting me for the last three weeks from Thailand where he lives, woke me at 1 am. We finished getting his banking set up on the internet. Wrote ... [Continue reading this entry]

Email from my son who is chef de cuisine in one of the restaurants in the Hilton Hotel in Beijing...to his friends and family: On Nov 19, 2007, at 5:24 PM, Ryan Goetz wrote: Happy Thanksgiving! I write this now because in two ... [Continue reading this entry]

My son Doug arrived in Salem from Thailand on Friday November 9th and hit the ground running...cleaning up the farm for the sale and tying up his loose ends in the area before he goes back to his wife on ... [Continue reading this entry]

My one year visa in Mexico expires August 8. After visiting my son Greg in Las Vegas I should be back in Oregon by the middle of August...driving from Oaxaca to Queretaro to pick up my friend Patty who ... [Continue reading this entry]

My sons and daughters-in-law, Luk, Doug, Josh and Amy on Koh Samui in Thailand for a week. Bob, their dad, took the picture. Doug and Luk live on Koh Samui. Greg, in Las Vegas, and I, of course, ... [Continue reading this entry]

My son Josh is Chef de Cuisine of "One East On Third" in the Hilton Hotel in Beijing. He was sent by the Executive Chef to Bangkok last week to check out some restaurants there. Luk, a delightful Thai ... [Continue reading this entry]

Amy's (son Josh's wife) last blog post: "For the new edition of Timeout Beijing they listed the top 50 restaurants in the city. And, yes, you guessed it - One East on Third was on the list!! It was ... [Continue reading this entry]

Went to Las Vegas to spend a week with my son Greg over New Year's. Greg and I went to bed New Years Eve at 10:30...he got called in at 1:30am for an emergency...a four year old had gotten ... [Continue reading this entry]