Thai Coup - Day 1

The first I knew that they’d finally gone ahead with the coup was 6.30 local time when I switched on my i-pad and read the news on the BBC after an evening swim.

Going out for something to eat around 9.30 the big shopping centres and supermarkets were already closed.

A number of restaurants were also closed. Some bars were open but at a subdued level – half lighting and no music. Others were closed.

At the restaurant where I eat my American friend – who has been here since the late 1960s – was most unhappy that none of the two satellite/cable channels he subscribes to seem to be working. This means he’s deprived of the final of American Idol.

The only channel that he could get to work was the Golf Channel – I guess the Generals need something to watch. He says that it’s the first time he’s known one of the coups affect Pattaya – and he’s been here for a few.

Heading home about 10.10 it seems that everything was either closed or was starting to do so. Looking out from my 25^th floor balcony at 10.30 everything looks fairly quiet and the formerly half lit bars and bar signs are in darkness.

Back on my feet

After a week of going to the hospital every night to have my toes tortured by Thai nurses I was finally free of the bandages on Sunday.

However - not wishing to let an opportunity go to waste - the doctors gave me another course of antibiotics.
It seems that part of the cause of the original infection is something to do with my skin and probably a low level between toes infection that flared up when opportunity presented itself.

With the bandages off am now figuring how to walk without a limp again. It was exceedingly painful at times and the area of infection was quite red but at least there's some skin on it and it's starting to settle down. I was able to go for my first swim in two weeks last night.

It's a good job I'm not in the caompany's Indian office any longer as sandals were against the dress code - Thailand is a bit more relaxed about such things.

Rainy season getting into swing here in Pattaya - Beach Road was like a river on Wednesday night and had to wade through foot deep water.

Yesterday afternoon the gap between my toes on the left foot second toe from the left started to hurt - or feel inflamed. Looks like I must have picked up an infection as today it was just a mass of dead wet skin and seeping puss.

Not a pretty sight.

So went to hospital tonight. After an hour or so of various nurses taking a look and checking I had all the right forms (you'd think I'd never been there before) a doctor came along and cleaned it up and scraped off the dead skin. He started without anesthetic but decided he'd better use a local one as having the skin scraped off from between your toes is a mite painful.

They've given me some pain killers and antibiotics - have to go back tomorrow for a fresh dressing. Trouble is also can hardly walk as a result of the bandaging of that and a couple of toes on my right foot they did also.

Have also been told to wear open shoes. I wear sandals most of time anyway so at least that's not a problem.

Hospital

We had a “team building” event on Thursday which involved a few outdoor games and I got dragged into the tug of war.

Going home Friday I felt a bit tired – assumed I may have been affected by de-hydration or after effects of the team building – but later in the evening my stomach started to feel a bit "over full".

I could still feel a bit bloated on Saturday and spent the day mostly asleep. As it hadn't cleared by Sunday I went to the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital.

First a “muscle doctor” checked me but concluded it wasn’t muscle related so was sent to another section. They prodded around, gave me an X-Ray and scan and determined I had a colon infection – the technical term is Diverticulitis.

I was told that they thought this could be cleared by anti-biotics but that they wanted to keep me in hospital for observation. As the consequences of the anti-biotics not working would be a trip to the slicing and dicing department I figured I’d best go along with this.

A drip feed was connected to the needle/injection point that they’d put in my left hand and I was admitted to a room on the tenth floor which had a helpful sticker on the door saying” nil by mouth”.

About every two hours a nurse would take my blood pressure, temperature and pulse – and sometimes pipe in another bottle of antibiotics on the drip feed line.

Monday I was allowed three solid meals of soup.

Showering with one hand gloved up attached to the drip isn’t a barrel of laughs but I managed.

Tuesday I was taken off the drip and allowed soft food – mashed potatoes being a prominent feature – along with fish and things that had been minced. The stomach pain at least seemed to have gone.

Wednesday was more of the same – and finally at about 4.00 pm today they let me out with a load of oral antibiotics and an appointment to see them again Tuesday.

Christmas in Thailand

On the last Friday before Christmas my boss got a call from one of the girls – Tonpeeb – to say there were monks in reception and could he join in to give them food. Off he goes – back 5 minutes later – no monks yet. Gets another call – they are here – so off he trots.

Back ten minutes later – “there’s only so much chanting a man can stand” he says.

Another call – Tonpeeb turns up with a little basket of stuff – will he go down and give it to them? Having been down 6 flights of stairs 3 times already he says he will give it a miss.

So she wanders in my direction. “Why are they here?” I asked.

“Because it’s Christmas”

“But I thought they were Buddhists? Are they singing their song?

“What song?”

“Way hay we’re the Monkees”

Clearly I’m not taking this seriously enough so off she trots to find someone else!


On Christmas Day I was up around 9.15 and down for a swim. The pool is a bit cool at present – there is a breeze that cools it down – so I got it to myself. I do 20 lengths – about 400 metres – every day.

Christmas Dinner was at Greg’s Kitchen. I had home-made vegetable soup followed by a decent helping of turkey, chipolatas, veg, roast spuds and chestnut stuffing. After that Greg’s home-made vanilla ice cream and tart – very good. Cost 850 Baht – about £17.50.

Afternoon on beach reading and listening to “The Spaghetti Western Orchestra” on the MP3.Bit breezy so kept my shirt on.

Back at condo ate the pork pie I’d made a special trip to the other end of Pattaya to get from the “Best Supermarket”. They have Scotch Eggs, Steak pies and other such delicacies there!

In the evening chicken fried rice at BJ’s then off to see the Sherlock Holmes movie – which I quite enjoyed even though it’s supposed to be set in 1891 yet the technology (guns, cars etc.) is more akin to 1911.

Rest of week has been spent in similar vein – must be first Christmas where other than a Jameson’s with BJ it’s been alcohol free! I normally only go to the bar with live music Friday & Saturday – so I’ve stuck to that. Otherwise if you go every night it gets boring and the first beer tastes like the last beer from the night before.

Happy New Year for 2012

Happy New Year everyone!

Sorry there has been such a long period since my last entry - I got made redundant in March of this year and didn't feel it would be appropriate to be writing about it.

However in September I got an offer to come and work in Thailand - so I'm back on old territory in Pattaya.

More of which - hopefully - to come next year.

Setting up in Yarm

Last week was my first in the “cottage” in Yarm that I’ve rented. The main issue on moving in is trying to figure out what stuff I need to buy and what I can manage without - for instance thinking the kitchen reasonably well equipped it wasn’t until I started frying some bacon that I discovered I had no fish slice to turn it with – so had to cope with a wooden spoon.

The place has a large and a small bedroom. I at first tried the small bedroom with the single bed – but after a few nights decided I’d rather have a larger room with more solid furniture and moved to the large room with double bed. This has entailed buying two lots of bed linen – but thankfully there is a “Boyes” store within 100 yards where you can get all that sort of stuff at very good prices.

This weekend saw my first trip back to my flat in Reading. Leaving Yarm about 3.00 pm on Friday I managed to reach Reading by 7.30 in the evening – so not a bad run despite variable weather. My weekend comprised mainly of re-organising my flat back to the way it was before I went to India.

I also rooted out the rice cooker and slow cooker left over from my time in China to bring back to Yarm with me – so I can get back to the serious business of cooking chilli-con-carne at weekends.

I also collected the stack of books I’d got delivered to my mother’s – I had been going to take them to India but decided against it given the hassle one of our number had with the Customs.

So with my Economist, New Statesman, a couple of books on Nelson and the complete set of Flashman novels I shouldn’t be short of things to read.