Laura Smith – General Council Member

After living for 4 years in Bangkok, I was very honoured to be made President of the St. George’s Society in November.

I was born in London and lived and worked there for the first 27 years of my life. After getting a posting to Guangzhou in China with BP in 1983 where I met Martin, an adventurous and exciting young geologist, I decided that overseas life was definitely for me and we have never looked back, apart from 3 years in Glasgow which seemed as if it was overseas.

We’ve been lucky enough to live in Milan (where I learnt a lot about expensive fashion), Kuwait (Martin learned a lot about home-brewing), Vietnam (we both learned about Asian ‘street life’) and then 11 years in Indonesia before arriving in Bangkok just after the floods in 2011.

I’ve had a fantastic time in Bangkok and made some great friends through the Loyal Societies and the British Women’s Group and long may we stay – if the oil price doesn’t fall any further that is! I’m currently finishing an Open University degree in History and like Martin I’m passionate about mountains and enjoy hiking, climbing and skiing and try and keep fit by running. Most importantly though I do enjoy a good social life of which there is no shortage in Bangkok of course!