Crisis averted!

Yesterday started off well enough - had a good morning, then brunch with Angela (whose chicken pox spots have cleared up, hooray!). It was pouring with rain when I got home, which in hindsight I should have taken as an omen for what was to come.

I rang the powers that be to see if there was any news on Ernie, spoke to two of the PTBs and was left none the wiser (to be fair, it wasn't their fault either). I spent the afternoon undertaking the messy and pungent task of treating my clothes with permethrin, and then got a call from one the PTBs at 4:30. Here is a potted paraphrasing of the conversation that followed:

PTB: Hello Q, do you have time to talk?
Q: Yes of course [feeling vague sense of impending doom from the "we need to talk" vibe]
PTB: Unfortunately I don't have good news for you.
Q: Oh?
PTB: No, we've heard from the NGO but there's problem with one of the legal agreements. The lawyers are talking about it, but we're trying to work out a way to get around it. Plus your police check isn't through yet.
Q: Oh. Um. Okay. What does that mean?
PTB: Well what it means is that we have to...[insert protracted paragraph of mumbo jumbo involving lots of acronyms, names I didn't recognise, nebulous turns of phrase and very little actual information]...and then we just have to wait and see.
Q: Um. Okay. What is the worst case scenario?
PTB: Well, obviously the worst case scenario is that you don't go.

[cue internal brain explosion]

So poor Nome and Mon had to put up with my furious/frustrated/disappointed rantings last night over Malaysian takeaway and cab sav (must say, ranting is much more pleasant with good food and wine), we watched Desperate Housewives (which I have never watched before), and then I went home to an annoyed sleep.

This morning a rep of the PTB rang and told me that it was all miraculously sorted, that he hadn't thought it would be (yes - I could tell. You could have just said so.) and that now as soon as the Feds get my check done, it's hellooooo, Chiang Mai!

Naturally my first thought was, "Excellent, now I can buy a digital camera."

Anyway, so I spent most of today cooped up in the house in an attempt to begin packing. God it is DULL. How many pairs of long pants do I need? I reckon 3. Mum reckons 4. I can only find 2 that are suitable. When was the last time I had insufficient clothing for my needs?

If I ever actually make it to Chiang Mai, this is where I'm supposed to be staying:









Mildly compound-like from the outside, but the inside looks pretty good. Apparently there is high speed internet and air conditioning, so it's much plusher than anywhere I've stayed in SE Asia before!

After the horrors of Sunday morning, it was comforting for me to discover that Phil and George also had hangovers from hell. Makes it sound like a little club, actually. Much more cool than being the sad chick who can't hold her drink (which I can! I CAN, damn you!).