After a week I am starting to come out of my shell a little and I am finally almost back on to proper Thai time. I stayed up til 10.30 tonight and felt like a grown up. But I think I needed those seven days of sleeping, lounging and relative solitude to get back on an even keel. Weirdly although I have actually succumbed a little to post Edinburgh lurgy and have a bit of a cold, I have started to feel well in myself and a little more outgoing, chatting with a few of my fellow holidaymakers today.
It was the worst weather since the day of arrival, starting to rain at about 11am and then carrying on pretty much til bedtime, so I sat in the bar reading (I am on Mark Haddons A Spot of Bother now, which is all right, though theres a bit where a character performs surgery on himself with some scissors that made me literally flinch and feel sick I have a very poor tolerance to things involving blood and I would say its a testament to Haddons writing how unhappy he made me feel just through words. Usually I would need to see the blood to feel like that. I am not the kind of idiot who faints in an audience, just because a comedian is talking about blood spurting out of a penis).
But the day reminded me of all those wet days on family holidays that I had as a kid, where youd try to get through the boredom by playing pinball in the camp site games room or the pre-bought rainy day games would be brought out by your parents. Except that now I am old I just sat in the bar drinking beer and watching a film that the staff were playing on the big screen. I ended up chatting to a couple of Aussies who Id seen around a few times. Nothing like wet weather and booze to bring people together.
There was no point in going up to the sunset bar as the clouds were too thick and the rain too heavy, but I felt safe living my business in the hands of the frogs and /or insects. Its not often that youll hear that sentence.
With luck the weather will be better tomorrow and I think I am going to try and go on a trip as I now only have four full days left, though my flight doesnt leave until late on Sunday. Theres only so much hibernating that you can get away with, but I am very glad I used the first week to recuperate. I have also been doing a fair amount of writing, just for fun, which is a good sign. Its good to remember that I actually enjoy the thing I do for a living and I hope that I will return full of beans and focused rather than slipping back into my slothful ways. Though its easy to be optimistic in paradise, even if its raining.
