Rain On

The rain continues to come down. I was going to play football today. The regular ex-pat game is going again in Patong after the latest tournament finished. My usual injury problems are currently clear. Unfortunately, it has poured down all day so I gave it a miss. The school holidays have started now so at least it is easy for me to get to the weekday games. My legs only really hold up to one or two games a week so I will wait until Tuesday.

There is no sign of the rat. I think it must have slipped out somehow. Pon thinks it might have died inside the cooker but I think we would be able to smell it by now. I still feel like replacing the cooker - it is very old and two of the hobs don't work anyway.

Ben has been suffering with a runny nose for two or three months. We have taken him to Phuket International Hospital a few times to check it out. At first, they thought it was sinusitus and gave him antibiotics. After that didn't work, they sent him to the ear, nose and throat doctor. He reckons Ben has developed some sort of allergy. The only way to be sure is to give him allergy tests which apparently are quite painful. For the moment he is on a nasal spray to quieten it down. I wonder if he might be allergic to the rat -- I blame everything on the rat.

We had a great meal at a new restaurant yesterday. There is a guy called Jamie Monk who runs a good blog about all things Phuket, outside of the main tourist places. He covers a lot of the sort of places I like, so I sometimes find myself following his recommendations. So we headed to the Pak Naam Seafood restaurant, just north of Phuket Town. It was a fabulous meal of really good Thai food, friendly service and nice setting. I wish more tourists could see these sort of places as they are so much better than the restaurants they will experience in the tourist resorts.

We had a great meal for four (plus two kids), we were all stuffed and the bill came in at 1,000 baht. To get to the restaurant, drive north out of Phuket Town on Thepkrasattri Road and turn right at the traffic lights just after Mission Hospital. The restaurant is about 3km up this road on the left hand side.

The football season is now in full flow and Spurs continue to prop up the league. At least Hull made my weekend by beating Arsenal. It is a bit sad when your main source of sporting satisfaction is seeing your rivals lose but that is what I am reduced to. It is a bit like being Scottish. Anyway, time to settle down and watch Spurs struggle at Portsmouth.