Sicknote

I shagged my knee playing footy on Tuesday night, well someone else shagged my knee on Tuesday night to be more precise...actually that's not very precise at all, perhaps I should rephrase that...

Anyway, I did a bit of damage to my ligaments so there is a small chance that I might not be able to take part in the Rachawadee Lady Boys Extravaganza! I did a practice on Thursday with a Zimmer Frame but that didn't go too well...I am more hopeful than Wayne Rooney of making an appearance, but unlike with him, the rest of the guys are going to make an embarrassment of themselves whether I'm there or not!

I wonder if a Thai massage will help...Since I've been here I've had two - both at a Blind School down the road from work...it's the (blind and partially sighted) guys at the school that do the massage, it's a good way for them to make money and it's pretty good value as well...I can't remember exactly how much it was but it was in the region of a couple of quid for 2 hours...I have to say that the 2nd massage I got has put me off for life though - you know that when someone digs their fingers into a really painful place between your muscles and you can't bear the pain for more than a couple of seconds? Well imagine that for 2 hours...

I have considered going for a more watered down massage since but it tends to be cute Thai women doing them and I don't really fancy thinking about Ann Widdecombe for 2 hours!

There's a little island just across the river from where we live called Koh Kret...it's quite unusual for the area because there are no cars at all on it...it's populated by Mons (an ethnic group from Burma) who dominated the central region of Thailand between the 6th and 10th centuries...the main attraction is "kwan arman" which is a style of pottery for which the people of the island are famous...they've been making such pieces for hundreds and hundreds of years in the ancient traditional style...here is a typical example I saw the last time I visited: