Tesco

Local time: Wednesday, 9.13pm

Today we decided to book a taxi with the clinic's help to wander down to the local Tesco for some simple shopping. Taxis here are super cheap - 400 baht for the entire journey, including waiting in the parking lot for you while you're off doing your thing. Other options are the Tut-tuts and motorcycles, which we rejected purely because sitting on a rubber donut with a tender surgery wound on either of them would be less than prudent.

Now Tesco was more interesting than I expected. The Tescos I'm familiar with are members of a supermarket chain in the UK, much like Coles or Safeway in Australia. Groceries, foodstuffs, basic toiletries, that sort of thing. Chon Buri's Tesco is itself a little shopping centre which incorporates the supermarket along with lots of little stores, cafe-type places, beauty parlours, and rather East Asian indoor market areas selling fresh produce.

We had lunch there at a sort of Starbucksy cafe-restaurant place (Black Canyon?), which wasn't bad (mmm, green curry salmon rice in an omelette pouch). Wandered around and picked up a few nick-nacks (gifts for people back home as well as a few other cheap things we came across). I was aching a little as we walked but not unbearably so. Then mum stopped to negotiate having a pair of trousers altered for my brother, and well, the standing pain is much worse than the walking pain. For some reason, standing still seems to place a great deal more pressure on my groinal region than walking does, and it becomes really uncomfortable within moments. Pacing a short distance back and forth helps a little, as does shifting from foot to foot.

But we spent enough time waiting there that I ended up wandering out of the shop and waddling over to a bench to park my rubber donut until mum emerged.

We shopped for a few hours in total without my feeling too tired, which was good. No dizziness either, no thanks to those nutty painkillers. Got back outside, where we were enthusiastically greeted by the taxi driver (they're so awesomely polite and friendly, even while not speaking a word of English whatsoever), and made our way back to the hotel. Was a bit weary after that, but I've managed to get through today without actually napping, which I think is a first since being discharged from hospital (although I was sorta drifting in and out of sleep during the midday dilation session afterward).

I'm thinking from today that I'm gradually regaining my energy, so now it's mostly the surgical site itself that brings discomfort.