You might not think that a Christmas should be celebrated with flowers – but I think differently. I was brought up to love flowers – Mum has always loved her garden and in later life, flower arranging – both doing and teaching and if you ever want to give me anything (apart from the diamonds of course) flowers would be great!

I was up in Chiang Mai for the Christmas weekend – the air was cool (but still not cold enough to warrant a jacket) – staying in the slight excentric family run hotel which overlooks the river Ping and does great breakfasts – and even better has no TV – so I forced myself to get outside and to explore.

I am in Chiang Mai for the marathon – no not to run 42km just the 10km, but I am taking the opportunity for the first time to visit the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2011 – a celebration of all things horticultural and flowered! I catch the shuttle bus out of the city and arrive a huge car park where queues of people are waiting patiently to get through the gates – armed with an entrance ticket and one for the big wheel, I find a map and plan (yes I am planned) my route. I don’t look at my watch for another two and half hours.

First the Orchids for me (and my mum who would love it) – I am still amazed at the beauty and variety of flowers, which in the UK are rare and expensive – large bunches of blue, small yellow, red spidery ones, huge majestic white single stems. Heaven. There is even an orchid jungle – each orchid linked to an animal – cats, deer, snakes….I sent photos to mum!

I want to go on the big wheel, to see the views, but I decide to look at the country gardens first – what kinds of gardens do Kenya, Omar, Netherlands have? Well, Netherlands is tulips and cows and the other deserts and grasses – I like the Nepal and Japan gardens best – simple, fresh. It’s strange; on entering each garden from a country I know I was immediately transported to that place – by smell and texture..

The the big wheel, I share a pod with two Thai men who lean over the rails excitedly taking photos – they then take one of me ….the view of the Royal Pavillion is wonderful – the driveway, the gold and bright red from the poinsettia. I take a closer look when I am on the ground again.

I finish off my visit  in a blanket of sunflowers beaming yellow smiles at all who visit

What a wonderful afternoon!  - I did my run the next day – not in a personal best, but it was satisfying to know I had celebrated my Christmas with flowers and a run before most people had even woken up!

This week we celebrated 6 months as Asia region - to recognise our achievements, get to know each other better  and plan together we had a regional centre retreat at the Thamasat University Learning Centre in Pattaya – the theme of the 2 days was ‘Stories of Success’.

We learnt and enjoyed together – from a teasure hunt, to MBTI (google it!), to vision and strategy – we are learnt about each other as a team and planning together helps!

But one of the things I enjoyed the most were people’s stories – long or short, complex or straight forward – everyone has contributed to the success of the new region – we came away motivated and inspired.

 Here I am telling my story (hope you like the apron!)  – the picture is me celebrating – arms in the air – and the story is about  how after leading the change process for 6 months – leading from the front – at the last RegionalManagement Team meeting  I felt for the first time that I had a team in place that I could trust, could delegate to, who were ready to lead alongside me!

We followed up the story telling theme with a webinar on Thursday (see the link for a recording of the session) where we explored the power of stories and how we can use them to get our message across -  Asad told us his child so loves stories that they have to tell stories as often as they eat – hence rice, fish and stories……

We talked about having a story of the year competition as a way of learning from each other as well as us all developing our story telling skills…watch this space

In the mean time I look forward to hearing more of YOUR stories!

As always food plays an important role in any visit to a Country Programme – I was travelling north in Sri Lanka to Vavuyina, once the heart land of the occupied territory and now a thriving town full of optimism.

I was last in the north 5 years ago and certainly the context has changed a great deal and our Oxfam programmes are doing their best to adapt to the new situation – maintaining relevance whilst building on our relationships and partnerships.

It was great to see how the diary project has developed – we visited a Milk Collection centre, fresh milk was arriving in all sorts of containers to be tested for quality and added to the farmers running total of milk for the month. The cooperative adds value to the milk by making ghee, yoghurt, toffee and ice cream.

The members have seen their income rise and they have plans to expand their products and markets.

It was only 9 am and I had already drunk 3 cups of hot milk and eaten a big slab of toffee!

The communities are hugely resilient – families are getting on with their lives – kids are going to school and women looking for sustainable ways to increase their incomes.

Families are also moving back to their land – some of which has not been used for 30 years – Oxfam and partners are renovating tanks – large lakes made 100s of years ago to irrigate farm land and already the first paddy crops in 30 years are growing . I opened the first irrigation gate – cause for celebration.

So after more milky tea ( a missed meeting the Government Agent), a Chinese dinner with the team, we set off in the early morning for Colombo and of course had to stop for breakfast on the way – fresh fresh string hoppers, all the trimmings , all on a freshly picked lotus leaf!