I love shopping online for any number of reasons, of which a big part is that I kind of feel like i am not spending any money. It is true, perhaps at a store with such a big cart I would feel guilty and put half of it back. But online it feels like I am getting things for free.

But another reason I love it is because when I need something like 1st communion gifts for girls, then I can not only buy them, but ship it direct, no matter where I am in the world. And I trust the post back home much more than here to actually make it somewhere in time.

Even better is that I have a huge selection of products, where most of the time if I go shopping for first communion gifts I get to choose from very small selections in any number of stores.

Emails are going out very shortly, as will a more detailed post, but meet the newest addition to our family.

He is afraid of waves and other dogs but I like to think that adds to his charm!

We are on an over 48 hour ride from Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand, to Koh Tao, an island in the south ( well more south than Bangkok anyway, and once you get to the long arm of Thailand I think south is considered to have started).

The problem, we have left our bikes in Chiang Mai as we will return there in 2 weeks. Since the boys want to do their rescue diver course we figured we would hitch a ride backpacker style. Oh the freedom of having your own bike! I do not know how I ever traveled long term as a backpacker!

The good news: 12 hours in Bangkok with nothing to do other than shop! An before you think I have indulged in presents only for myself, titanium watches men were on my list for a present.

Sometimes being stuck in a city known for its shopping is not so bad at all.

And at the same time I love that Oogy found a family and was rescued. Just his little puppy dog face makes me cry and I want to squish him and love him. How anyone can be so cruel as to engage in any type of animal cruelly, let alone dog fighting, is beyond me.

I taught students “Im after going to” as a form of the present perfect for a long time….

I have the dog, that was a major breakthrough. I think a pygmy goat will be easy after how long it took to get a dog!

…. and use it to their own advantage! They are more likely to approach people they saw sharing with others to beg for food!

Just how I go about it I have to figure out.

Wild camping on a motorcycle trip starts as an idea to save money, and then becomes such a part of the trip that you camp even when you have the money. We love our tent. The best part about it is that it does not matter where we are, our tent is always there with us. The countries change but not our tent!

Then there is also the fact that as long as we have a tent we have a place to sleep. Despite it being so cheap to have hotels in South East Asia, if it is about to get dark and you are miles away from anything, it feels pretty good to have your tent with you, knowing that you are never desperate with it! Which is why when we went back into Bangkok we picked up our tent from storage at the guesthouse there. There is so much freedom with your tent! I love kelty products!

There are typos and there are typos. I admit that some of my mistakes are typos, and others are just plain disregard of the rules of the English language. However, in particular for my book I jumped through hoops to get the thing without errors and typos and they still came in. I like to think that the fact that I spent almost a year on it made me blind to the mistakes, and I hope that the others who missed it missed because they were a little wrapped up in the story. But this, what is this? Two words, there is no excuse!

Unless there really is such a thing as a shap curve that I am unaware of!

… for overindulgence. Or so I am justifying my present meal. I am not really all that hungry, but given that I have spent a week in the jungle without eating, AND its the eve of Christmas Eve, I want to eat! Plus being in Vientiane means culinary delight for even the most discerning of palates. And so while the German lies in bed sick, I go from place of taste delight to taste delight making up for everything I missed in the past week as well as everything I am missing by not being in either of my German or Canadian homes this Christmas. Full? Not going to stop me. The German jokes that I am addicted. When it comes to sugar I just might be.

But if overindulgence tends to extend past the season (particularly of the alcohol variety or ever of the drug), you might want to consider a place like malibu rehab treatment center. Reading it about made me think a little about Rachel’s Holiday, a Marian Keyes novel that is really wonderful. It looks at alcoholism while still managing to make you laugh, at the same time it never belittles the alcoholic experience. Keyes is a recovered alcoholic herself, so the book brings some of her experiences in.

Every time I look at this picture I just break out in a smile. It is going to be my rainy day picture in the future. When you have a bunch of puppies charging you in such joy how can you stay grumpy?

Or I will watch this video. I too will have dogs and pygmy puppies!

My e book Iceland: A Stormy Motorcycle Adventure is up and out on Amazon!

After being without Internet for almost a week, getting to catch up to friends and family today was fantastic. It also brought home how much I miss them, especially this time of year. But even without the Christmas season, this trip has been wonderful, Cambodia was amazing, and now we are ready to start exploring Laos. But what it really drives home is how lucky we are. While my friends are talking about getting last minute renovations up to scratch for the season and installing things like sienna sinks undermount sinks, I wonder if they appreciate how fantastic it is that they can just go to the sink and twist the tap and voila, clean drinking water. A luxury we are not greeted with here.

Now you know why it just does not click:

If you think monkeys are cute, you might want to think again. Or maybe it is just my luck! Either way check out Welcome to the jungle, my newest Chasing Summer article.