It has taken me four weeks to get my brain in gear so here goes… I have taken up the gauntlet thrown down by Lorna @ Gin and Lemonade…I myself prefer tonic with mine…lol

The prompt…People Watching!

A phone call in the middle of the night shattered our hearts, our lives. Our beloved father was gone, the victim of a hit and run accident, never to return.

Our lives are torn apart, my brother, my twin, my soul mate always so fragile retreated further into the recess of his mind.

Being the strong one I was thrust slap bang into the middle of corporate life. Now chair lady of the board at just 19 years old.

Such hostility I had never met in my life, I worked hard and became a daughter my father would have been proud of. My life, however, was not my own any more. My enemies always there, always ready for me to make one slip, one mistake, they were like vultures, circling.

My brother always the sickly one spent more and more of his time at this tiny, little-known retreat in the heart of Thailand. Gradually he became better, more able to cope but always yearning for the simple life. There was not a corporate bone in his body although his mind, sharp unlike any I had ever known, he was so like our mother gentle and fragile who left this world and us when we were only 5 yrs old.

10 years later.

A balmy, slightly hazy day, waves gently lapping on the white sand. Lovers walking hand in hand without seemingly a care in this world. Local fishermen casting their lines from the shore, long tail boats in the background. The only sounds the waves and the soft murmur of indistinct words as they catch the gentle breeze. To an onlooker an idyllic life, the reality often so different.

Like life, appearances so deceptive.

Myself, beautiful I am told, the perfect woman with the perfect life…Ha Ha. Today was the day; everyone thought I was staying at a 5-star resort with every imaginable luxury to cosset madam. How wrong they were…

The reality is that once a year for a month I take my hammock, rucksack and board a plane to my beloved Thailand.

My suitcase goes to that 5-star resort; the staff are given strict instructions that I am not to be disturbed. My meals are bought to my room, the empty dishes left outside my door. Inside the TV monitors are trained on a boardroom and its members.

My brother, my soul mate, my friend and confidant who walks the beach, sleeps under the stars, changes places with me.

For a month he watches and listens!

By Carol Ann Taylor.

I hope you enjoy my interpretation of people watching…

Until next time have fun and laugh a lot xxx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients that I cook with have to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

 

Until tomorrow and Fang-Tastic Fridays xxx