The 2 1/2 week itch

Phil left yesterday morning, so the whirlwind of activity (and consequent heat rash :((((() has died down considerably. I spent yesterday evening slacking off in my room with the aircon on, eating large amounts of food. It was even medically indicated - a certain dermatology registrar told me that the best way to get rid of my itchy scourge (sounds so appealing, I know) was to sit in air conditioned rooms as much as possible.

Don't worry, I am not going to post pics of the rash. Ew. Suffice it to say I looked like I was wearing a massive red collar. Grosssssss. If someone gave me a choice between having that rash again and death, I would pick death. Hands down. Nothing to make one long for death more than itch - although perhaps itch PLUS hunger, constipation and cold?







Photographic examples of bad Thai soap. I wish I'd had the camera out when the weird bat-thing made the girl in the middle go demonic with red glowing eyes. Note the royal insignia in the top left corner of the screen.

I'm off to a hilltribe village about 2 hours away tomorrow for a 3 day/2 night hilltribe homestay. Nong (marketing manager at the language centre with wickedly sarcastic - esp for a Thai girl - sense of humour) has decided to come along "just for fun". We have a pack of cards at the ready. It's going to be good. PLUS it will offer some night-time respite from the heat (she says, with the aircon thermostat set at 23 degrees); they told me to bring a jacket.

I don't even have a jacket!

My weekends are pretty much all filled now. This weekend it's this trip, the weekend after that I'm flying to Bangkok to see my friend Gam (a doctor working in Nakhon Si Thammarat, we met at a conference years and years ago) and then the weekend after that I'm planning to spend a day planting trees on a mountain (one of the AYADs is getting a group together for her work) before moving my little Thai life 350km west, to Mae Hong Son.

What happens then is a complete mystery. The more questions I ask re job, the more nebulous and brief the answers become. This is a strange aid world phenomenon. Maybe I won't be training medics. Maybe it's all a big conspiracy. Who knows?

Anyway, I'm in good spirits, no doubt assisted by resolution of the itch that was stealing hours of sleep earlier in the week. I'm sure the calamine, local anaesthetic cream, antihistamines and topical steroids did nothing whatsoever to assist, but they made me feel like I was doing something. Because I'm like, a doctor, right?