Health update

After a couple of rounds of tests the doc has been unable to find exactly what was up with me. However the good news is that I don’t have dengue, malaria, any variety of flu, glandular fever, hepatitis of any letter, giardia, internal parasites, flukes, worms or a variety of other Asian exotica. The odds are I picked up a viral infection of some kind which knocked me about pretty badly, but there are thousands of viruses out there and as I seem to be on the mend the doc doesn’t see the point in trying to figure out exactly what it was. I just have one more blood test to go, which I’ll give next week to make sure my various out-of-control liver readings have reduced back to normal.
I’m still not 100% - I get tired quickly and apparently turn a slightly greenish colour if I overdo it - but it's good to start to feel normal again. I have a very lazy weekend planned, but I will slowly start to increase my exercise and get back out there again! My only worry is my feet - one of the symptoms was shedding skin and my feet have completely peeled a couple of times in the last week, so all my carefully built-up barefoot running callouses have been relocated to the bottom of the couch.....

An unexpected souvenir

Looks like I picked up an unexpected extra when I was in Thailand. On Tuesday I started to develop a bad headache and muscle aches, and by Wednesday the symptoms had developed to include a really prickly skin, a peeling rash over my upper body, constant nausea and backache. And incredible fatigue as well.

I went to the doctors on Thursday and after sighing about my lack of travel jabs he reckoned it was probably just a bad flu, but decided to get some tests done to check for anything more exotic (Tonsai is notorious for dengue fever). That involved a throat swab, a nasal swab, a blood sample & a stool sample and lead to me passing out and then throwing up. Yeah, I've had better weeks.

I get the test results on Tuesday so all I've been doing since then is sleeping - sometimes up to 18 hours a day! I've also lost about 5kg and over an inch off my waistline as I've hardly been eating. Things are on the up now, I'm still sore and can't eat much but I'm starting to feel a bit more like myself again.

Longer term prognosis depends on the test results - more news as it's made......

Being that guy

My knee was playing up when I was in Thailand, especially after spending a day climbing in & out of boats, and so climbing wasn't an option. In fact at the end of some days it was pretty sore after just walking around. I took my Vibram Five-fingers with me in the hope that I'd at least be able to fit a run or two in but sadly that wasn't to be.

I did get to walk around in my Five fingers a lot though. I tried to alternate them with my regular shoes - my knee would hurt a little less but my calves would get stiffer. They didn't seem massively out of place in Tonsai

although they are a pain to wear at the beach - putting them on once you have sand on your feet can be time-consuming and a little raspy.

They got a few more looks & comments in Patong

I'm starting to find them really comfortable - wonder if I can wear them in the office? Maybe only with a dark suit.

After a very lazy long weekend at home I've just done my first run in a month and comfortably managed a barefoot km, so I think the constant walking around hasn't set me back much. Sadly I'm only around for a week before flying to KL for a week on business and I won't get the chance for many more runs in the next fortnight. That 5k fun run will have to wait....

Ice cream sandwich

Geek alert!
Just put 'ice cream sandwich' on my HP Touchpad. The tablet was designed to run with 'web OS' but it was a flakey operating system that was starting to irritate me. So let's see if this is any better.....

Hmm - first hurdle. The text above was written and initially posted via the tablet but it wouldn't let me link to a Picassa photo. So I took the pic on my phone & uploaded it, wrote the text & posted it on the tablet and then logged in on the PC to append the picture. Seamless.

New neighbours

I got back yesterday to find that we had got some new neighbours - a flock of honeyeaters have moved into the tree behind the unit block

They're a pretty lively bunch and I think they're courting, hence the elaborate wing-porn being displayed above. But it's very relaxing to lay in bed in the mornings, or sit outside and listen to them

Not sure how long they'll stay, but they're welcome for as long as they like.

Full Moon Brewery

Patong is also the home of Phuket's only microbrewery - 'Full Moon Brewhouse'. This is tucked away in the corner of a shopping centre, 'behind the ship'

They offer three beers (a lager, a darker summer ale and a wheatbeer) brewed on the premises using a combination of local and imported ingredients

(note the Cyrillic on the menu - Patong is also a mecca for Russian tourists so that's not unusual)

This is the wheat beer - light, very drinkable, a little fruity

and that seemed to be the case across all three beers. Refreshing but  a little bland and expensive at 200 Baht per pint - around $7 AUD, which would get you two tallies of the local lager at most of the Tonsai bars. The beer nuts were 'Thai-ified' as well with the addition of lemongrass and slices of fried garlic - unfortunately this meant that they dominated the taste of even the strongest of the beers. I would have loved to have tried their take on an IPA or a porter - something with a bit more balls to it to differentiate it. But the place was empty every time I visited (admittedly always mid-afternoon) so I guess the market isn't there for that kind of beer - yet.

If you're in Patong it's definitely worth dropping in to sample a drop.

Checkout day

It's always a bit odd when your holiday wraps up. How do you spend your last few hours? I had a bit of a swim, a green curry from a street vendor and a can of Chang left over in the fridge. Now I'm pretty much packed, taxi is ordered and I'm just waiting waiting waiting. Probably the only good thing about being away from Liz for so long is that as the holiday comes to an end, I get excited about going home to her.

I've got the US Fox news on in the hotel room and it's an eye opener as to how unbiased Australian news is - the entire channel is completely dedicated to bashing Obama. Presenter after presenter comes on to tell the world how badly he's doing, and there is no attempt to balance it. Occasionally they hold polls such as 'Do you think the irresponsible president is doing the right thing?'.