Hi Gram,
I woke up this morning before my alarm, feeling much better than when I fell asleep last night. I was glad, because I had a lot scheduled for today. Natiya joined me for my walk this morning, and I think she’s building up some stamina. She was able to keep up with me a little better than last week. We didn’t chat much during the walk, since the translator is needed to bridge the language barrier and it’s difficult to use while we’re walking, but we enjoyed each other’s company.

I think this language barrier is teaching me some things. I’m used to filling every moment when I’m with someone with talk and banter. I feel guilty if I’m not engaging in conversation, providing entertainment or discussion. That’s just not possible when we don’t speak the same language, so we rely more on body language like holding hands, facial expressions, pointing and hand gestures. Or, most of the time, we’ll just sit and think our own thoughts, giving each other a glance from time to time or walk, observing the world around us and just contemplating the world. It’s nice to slow down and not feel like I’m always on stage.

We chose a route with a lot of stairs, followed by more stairs then a wonderful view. We snapped a few pictures together, then wound our way back down and through town to the hotel. I changed out of my sweaty shirt, then made and ate breakfast while doing some brain exercises before heading to Klausfit. While I worked and tired my muscles, Natiya did some laundry and cleaning up. I got home to a fresh smelling room and the relief of knowing I had one less chore to worry about. We snuggled a bit, soaking up the sunshine before Natiya caught the bus north and I headed off to lunch and yoga. She’ll be gone for a few days visiting family, so I’m going to try to get a few things checked off my list to pass the time in the next few days.

One of these tasks was heading to the hospital to schedule some tests. The hospital offers a bundle of checkup tests, depending on your age range, and they’re on sale for Father’s day. Father’s day and Mother’s day here in Thailand fall on the King and Queen’s birthdays, and father’s day is sometime this week. The healthcare here is very thorough, efficient, and affordable and I haven’t gotten a full body check in a while, so I decided to sign up. The signup process was very simple. I told them which package I wanted, paid them, then they handed me a coupon to bring back anytime in the next month. The tests would take 6-8 hours and required me to fast from midnight the night before. I was a little surprised that they’d be ready for me on a walk-in basis, but I took them at their word and headed back to the hotel.

Around 5:30, I headed over to meet Klaus at Palapon for a check-in. I stepped on the scale and went through the same body analysis that I’d done when I first got here, then compared the results. I’m down about 4kg, mostly fat. My muscle tone has improved, my arms and legs are more balanced side to side, and some of the other stats were unchanged or improved. It felt good to see numbers representing how I’ve felt better over the past 5 or 6 weeks. I filed the results in my phone, then headed to grab some dinner and back to the hotel. I texted with some friends a little, then went to bed early.