I'm here right now in 2 pairs of socks, tracki bottoms, wooly jumper, scarf, hat, and gloves whilst Mr T is snoring away in bed, clutching a hot water bottle. Every so often I peer out of the window at the all too familiar views of The Finchley Road. Am I dreaming or am I really sat here typing our last ever travel journal in Golders Green, North West London? Is it really all over? . . . . . . . . . . . . IT IS NOW!
TOMMO & SUGGERS ARE BACK - BIGGER THAN EVER (mainly due to literally eating and drinking ourselves round the world)
Ok so it's all a bit sudden, yes we should have warned you all... let you down gently with a build up to the end in our journals. But we have an excuse - you see Mr T's parents and my parents and having their annual get-together this weekend and still believe we are flitting round the arse end of Vietnam somewhere. How wrong could they be? What a surprise they will have when we “pop in” on Sunday!
Anyway, so, although it seems so final, and yes you're let down and upset that you haven’t had an adequate number of weeks to get over the fact that you won't have anything to rush to work for first thing on a Monday morning, this has been the plan for some time. That, coupled with... we simply are broke!
Our final days were spent in Bangkok. We celebrated the beginning of the end with a Ping Pong show (nothing to do with table tennis!) in a very classy establishment in Patpong, hosted by very oddly shaped girls entertaining us with light bulbs, and razor blades, and you guessed it, ping pong balls. No imagination needed! After that we proceeded to knock back several dozen tequila shots and vodkas in a bid to have one last night of pure obliteration. The following and final day; reserved for hard core shopping, was a right off, and after spending most of it with my head down the toilet, I managed to drag myself out of our room at 7pm to indulge in a chicken tikka masala. Waste of money that was because within half an hour of eating it that was joining the vodka and tequila in the toilet bowl.
Wednesday was the beginning of the end, and with the first flight of the long and tedious journey back to Heathrow departing at 5pm, we had a few hours to rush up and down Kao San Road in a bid to purchase as many snide trainers, jeans, handbags, T shirts, DVD’s, cuddly toy, fridge freezer, garden sheds etc as we could possibly get our hands on… you name it, if it was fake, we bought it! Immediately after we rushed to the airport and boarded our Bangkok to Mumbai flight at 5.50pm. We touched down in Mumbai, on came several Bin Laden look-a-likes with dodgy rucksacks, and the 3 hours to Dubai were spent thanking god for a great life so far and requesting a nice place in Heaven. Luckily we weren’t subjected to any acts of terrorism and we landed safely in Dubai at 11pm. At 3am we boarded our Dubai to Heathrow flight and after our 4th in-flight meal of the evening, we landed in London at 6.30am on Thursday. Flip flops and shorts weren’t probably the best attire for a frosty March morning in London and it wasn’t long before the all too familiar sight of the M25 at 8am in the morning was in full view and the regrets set in.
For those of you who are interested, the final scores on the board for all ‘Tommo and Sugger’s World Tour’ competitions are as follows:
Gin Rummy
Suggers -129 games won Tommo – 91 games won LYNDSEY WINS!
Shit Head
Suggers – 112 games won Tommo – 91 games won LYNDSEY WINS!
Chess**
Suggers – 15 games won Tommo – 32 games won Iain wins
Pool**
Suggers – 71 games won Tommo – 95 games won Iain wins
Monopoly
Suggers – 3 games won Tommo – 3 games won Draw
**Lyndsey forced to consume large amounts of alcohol by Iain before competitions on a number of occasions to allow him to win.
What’s it like to be back?
Freezing… I want to be back in Asia, we promise we won’t moan about the heat.
We are already sick of having to relay our travel stories over and over to those that want to question us in-depth on every tiny detail, so we are currently putting together a CD of answer of all expected questions.
(All your travel questions answered – Just Ł9.99 including postage and packing – send stamped addressed envelope to either of us)
I’ve managed to knock back 15 cups of English tea in as many hours, and Iain is on his 25th slice of toast and peanut butter. There are no familiar faces on Eastenders or Corrie, and apparently Take That have won a Brit Award and Britney has shaved her head! I’m told that the latest fashion is bright coloured tights and I’m taking lessons in order to walk again in high heels. Wembley is practically finished and David Beckham has left Madrid for an American Team…It really is amazing how the important things in the world change and develop in just nine months.
We’ve only been back 48 hours and already it seems like a long and distant memory. As you’ve read, we’ve had some trying times and upsetting experiences; We’ve been robbed not once but twice, we’ve had to endure seriously disgusting conditions, we’ve seem children living in terrible conditions, we’ve been on the verge of killing each other and on several occasions and had some pretty impressive rows, both public and private, some even involving the hurtling of hard objects. And after spending 9 whole months together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (the most we were apart was about 3 hours) to be back, together, really is a great achievement. However, all the bad experiences pale into insignificance when we remember what truly amazing times we had visiting many breathtaking sights in some magnificent countries and experiencing wonderful and diverse cultures. We’ve visited some of the world’s most impressive ruins and wonders, had private polo lessons in Argentina, played football in the Amazon, swam with Sharks in Belize, played with tigers in Thailand, climbed Glaciers in New Zealand, taught the hoki coki to children in a Cambodian orphanage, had a boob job in Brazil (That’s me, not Iain!) and got engaged on Copacabana! I’ve leant that I can live without my hair straighteners and I can use a squat toilet if I really have to. Iain’s discovered sushi and we can both say at least 3 lines in Spanish! But most importantly, we have become the best of friends, have spent hours talking about everything and anything, have oodles of fantastic memories together, and are completely at ease with one another (probably too as ease in some respects – Mr T really does have a flatulence problem!).
We really hope you have all enjoyed reading our weekly updates. It’s been hard work sitting in an internet café for 4 hours every Sunday desperately trying to make our experiences sound entertaining, wasting valuble drinking and time, but we have had some amazing feedback, and your encouraging comments about how much you have loved reading our updates, some of you even saying you actually look forward to getting into work on a Monday morning to read them, are the things that has made us take time out to update the journal every week. We have even had people from across the globe subscribing to the updates and personally writing to us telling us how much they enjoy reading it!
Thanks again for reading our blog and see you all soon, time to go out and buy wedding magazines I think! And of course let’s hope our parents are pleased with our little surprise!
Lots of love
Lyndsey & Iain
xxx
A few final words from the man himself:
Well, where do I go after such an amazing final blog from Lyndz!?!? Well firstly, lets clear up a few inaccuracies . . . . . . .
* The various scores for the competitions, (incl. Lyndz` victories) . . . . . . . . I was being generous!!!
* The “flatulence” issues mentioned . . . . . . . . . . hmmmmm . . . . . . I think Lyndz`s friends know her well enough for me to say very little on this subject!!!
So, as Lyndz has said, we left Bangkok for our flights home, little did we know that our 3hr stay in Dubai International Airport would turn out to be yet another ex-Gleeson MCL employee’s reunion!!! Yep that’s right, after wandering around the airport for a while I heard a booming voice from behind and was treated to the sight of Mr Neil Coker, in full glory, and then treated to a few pints of the strong stuff, . . . . . . . . well, what else do you do at 2am!?!? What???? After Neil had departed we were waiting the chance to check how Arsenal were doing in the FA Cup (extremely badly – AGAIN, as it turned out!!) and were once again greeted by someone calling my name, this time it was Deon Coetzee!! After a quick catch-up, he had a plane to board, we waited for the next pal to arrive, but this time in vain!!!
Well, we`re back home, I`ve picked up a company car from Gleesons . . . . . I mean Morgan`s, or whoever I work for this week?!?! “Have we been bought again yet!?!?”. We visited Laura, for much needed hair-cuts (we were looking like Cousin It, from the Munsters!!), and are preparing for another week of alcohol abuse, but this time with friends and family, it should be a GREAT WEEK!!!!
Tommo.
PS
Because of the positive comments towards our blog, we plan to keep you up to date with the rest of our plans, as you know, we have testing times to come what with finding flats, wedding plans, and new jobs, and Im sure there will be plenty more stories and scrapes in the World of Tommo and Suggers. (If you don’t wish to receive any more updates from us please remove your email from our journal). We hope you continue to enjoy reading about the world of T & S!
PPS - has anyone got the number for AA? (Not the breakdown company... you know what we are on about... what time is it? Must be beer o clock then!)
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!
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