Training has gone a lot better over the last 2 weeks and I’m back into the swing of things I trained every day in week 19 and then had 3 good days last week. I did a Visa run to Burma on Thursday which involved 12 hours driving and a 2 hour boat trip. Thursday was a long day so I took Friday off.

Finally, chest infection has cleared up and I was able to get back in the gym. I trained in a local gym on the Wednesday as it was cheaper than paying to train in the Muay Thai gym then felt good enough to go back to the kick boxing on Thursday. So good in fact that I ran down to the gym. After the session I wasn’t 100% happy with my leg so I decided to take the rest of the week off rather than risk being out of action for another 3-4 weeks.

The following week went much better and I trained 5 days. Not sure where I got the energy from but I trained really hard all week and can’t really understand why I didn’t seem to miss being out of the gym for 5 weeks or so. I have lost around 16 kilos since I arrived here though so that is obviously making a difference.

A few weeks ago 3 of us moved from the Happy Elephant together before the prices go up in high season. We’ve been really lucky as we’ve found a house with a pool in a quiet location and it’s only just a bit more expensive than I paid for myself in the first month in the Happy Elephant. Split between 3 of us it’s a really good deal and we’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t move earlier. I’m just happy to be settled because I’d been in 4 different rooms at the HE and then for the last two weeks we were there I was sleeping on the sofa. That was all to save money after my move nearer the beach in August hadn’t gone according to plan.

New house in a quiet location – Hmm!

For the first two weeks it was really quiet then Aase went to Kuala Lumpur for 2 days on a Visa run and left Declan and I to fend for ourselves. It had been raining quite heavily and on the first night we heard a really loud noise in the distance. There’s a Mosque down the road and the two of us just thought it was coming from there so didn’t think too much of it. 2 hours later it was still going on and getting louder. “What the f*@k is that noise” I said? It was a constant moo maw, moo maw, moo maw. Similar sound to a cow mooing or someone blowing through a pipe of some sort. The two of us sat in the living room discussing what we thought could be. It sounded like there were two guys blowing some sort of instrument. Maybe a Thai Didgeridoo? “They must be knackered” I thought. Their mouths must be killing them blowing all that time. Maybe they’re sat there thinking “for f*@k sake can we stop now”? Declan and I laughed but it was really getting irritating and louder and louder. At one point we had a power cut and came to the conclusion that it was definitely either two guys or they had a UPS over there in case of a power cut so that’s why it kept going while the power was out.

Declan went out to pick up his girlfriend and when he came back he told me she said it was the Gods wanting Boom, Boom. “Why don’t they just go down the local nightclub like everyone else” he asked her? It went on for nearly two days before it finally stopped. It was almost impossible to sleep and at one point it was so bad I considered jumping in the car in the middle of the night and driving away from the house just to get some respite from the noise.

Aase returned from KL and when we mentioned it to her she thought it was probably to do with the end of the Phuket vegetarian festival. That only happens once a year so we were happy enough that that was the end of it.

One week later and it rained really heavily again. I was sat in the living room watching tv, Aase and Declan had gone to bed and a similar noise started. It wasn’t as loud initially so I didn’t really think much of it at first. Then as it got louder it dawned on me it was the same noise again. Oh no, not another 2 days please! It wasn’t long before Aase was back downstairs and as she walked into the front room she said “What is that f*@king noise? She wasn’t happy as she was having trouble sleeping anyway and this noise has to be heard to believe how loud it is. After a bit of a discussion she said she thought it was coming from the house next door. There’s a 20ft wall between us an next door so we can’t see what’s over the wall but we knew the house was empty. Anyway before I had a chance to say anything Aase is outside throwing stones over the wall and I’m sat there with my head in my hands waiting for one of the windows to go through. However, low and behold it went quiet, for a short time anyway. This went on 3 or 4 times over the next 2 hours before it finally stopped for good. Declan’s girlfriend must have said frogs and he completely misunderstood her. Talk about lost in translation! The next day the three of us were discussing it and Declan said “Yes, but I heard it at the gym too”. Maybe that’s because all frogs in Thailand don’t just live next door to us!

Well, I've been here 3 months now and had to do my first visa run last week. Basically depending on the visa you have all foreigners (farangs) need to leave the country and re-enter to get their passports stamped to extend their stay. Failure to do so results in a 500 Baht per day fine for every day you stay outside your visa period. As usual I left it till the last minute which isn't a problem because there are so many organised trips but I thought I had until Sept 9th before I was talking to Aase on Skype. She was in Chang Mai for 2 weeks with a friend who'd come over from Australia. "When does your visa run out" she asked? "Er, 9th of September" I said. You sure? was Aase's response. "Yeah pretty sure" I replied. "So, you can't even be arsed to get off the sofa and walk to the safe to check"? Good old Aase, straight to the point. "Oh, hold on a minute I'll have a look". Oops, shit, it runs out on the 6th, tomorrow! Of course Aase knows what I'm like and that my brain shut down months ago. I quickly got on the net and got a good deal to fly to Kuala Lumpur and stay in the Tune hotel in Downtown KL. £90 for 4 nights. Happy days! The hotel which is part of Air Asia was basic but a roof over my head. I was pleasantly suprised at how easy it was to get around in Kuala Lumpur. Very useful as I'd turned up without even having the address of my hotel written down. I knew I was in Downtown KL and the name of the hotel but not much else. I did have one hiccup at the airport though. On the way out I purchased a ticket for the KLIA airport express train into KL which involved getting a shuttle bus from LCCT airport to the train station near KL international airport then the train into KL. All very easy you'd think but not before one of my usual little adventures. I spotted a Tune hotel shuttle mini bus in front of the airport shuttle bus so naturally thought to myself it would be much easier if I just went direct. Problem number one, the driver didn't speak very much English so trying to explain that I'd already bought a ticket for the other bus and asking was it possible for me to use the same ticket to get the hotel shuttle bus was getting me nowhere. Eventually he said you sit up front with me and then when we were in the van said " You pay me 1 Ringit". Seemed a bargain as the other ticket had cost me 12 Ringit. Anyway as we drove around the corner I could see why. Tune hotels also have a hotel at the airport . Not to worry I thought, maybe he goes on to the other hotel next. Unfortunately that wasn't the case and realising the mistake I smiled to myself, thinking I've done it again. "I come back with you when you go to airport" I said to the driver. "1 ringit" he said. Cheeky git! I'd recommend KL. From what I saw it's a city that comes to life at night but after 4 nights on my own I'd had enough of my own company. I still had a good time and crammed a lot in. Ate some lovely Chinese and Indian food and had my first McDonalds fix for a long time. I would love to go there again but with company. Some pics …here….

Well I’ve been recovering from a calf strain so I wasn’t able to train over the past 2 weeks. The good news is my leg is feeling better and I’m hoping to be able to start training again on Monday.

The gym don’t give refunds and I’d already paid half of the monthly training fee on the day I picked up the injury. Luckily they have put everything on hold for me so I’m in credit. I thought it will be wise to ease back into it so I went the gym this afternoon to find out if I could use the credit to pay on a session by session basis rather than as if I would be training 6 days a week. I haven’t managed to sustain that level of training since I got here so it’s highly unlikely I’ll be doing that over the next few weeks. It was nice to walk into the gym and have the trainers asking how I was. Ling Lom, who I’d had some VIP sessions with was shouting Andy, Andy from the back of the gym which made me feel like a bit of a celebrity – lol. At least they haven’t all forgotten me.

I wanted to weigh myself as well as I’d asked Aase to weigh for me when she went into the gym a few days ago and she reckoned I’d put on 6 kilos so I was a bit concerned. No need to be worried though, I was actually another kilo lighter. I have no idea how but I’m not unhappy about that so I’m currently at 96 kilos.

Hopefully I can shake off the cold I have because I’m really looking forward to getting back into things on Monday

As Swansea v Wigan didn’t even make it onto the board I had to take action to ensure the next game wasn’t missed. You can’t quite see it but I wrote that Swansea v Sunderland was the only game on just before I left the bar so the owner would see it the next day. Apparently someone came into the pub and said “I see you have the football on. Is that the only match on this week”?

Training hasn’t gone too well over the past two weeks and with stuff going on at home I did lose focus. I trained once in week 11 & then could only train twice last week due to a calf injury. As I kicked something went pop in the back of my left calf (Ouch!) so it’s not a minor injury and may keep me out for a couple of weeks or more according to some estimates I’ve read. It happened 4 days ago and although the pain has gone my calf is still very tight. Maybe by the end of this week things will be a lot better so I’ll just have to see how it goes.

Unfortunately the weather has improved over the last few days after more than a week of constant rain. Today is another beautiful sunny day so I might just have to laze by the pool soaking up the rays. It’s a hard life I also need to do a visa run this week so that will give me a chance to take it easy as well.

I noticed people buying bags of bugs at the market and wandering around eating them like you would a bag of Cockles or mussels so I thought they can’t be that bad. I wanted to try just one but they wouldn’t let me so I had to buy a bag full. They were actually ok although I didn’t quite manage to eat them all.

A truly lovely man. Thank you for many wonderful childhood memories.

Sorry to everyone that I cannot be at the funeral but you are all in my thoughts.

Love from Thailand.

Andy xx.