For this trip away we are taking things a little more easy, more relaxed and for me more pain. This trip is all about pain really, after all it has been paid for as a direct result of an accident in the work place where I was hit on the shoulder by a very heavy box that slipped from a badly stacked pile and hit me on the neck.
Carol has been amazing she has once again planned and booked us both a trip that we can enjoy and in which I can find the treatment I so badly need on my fucked shoulder. My first treatment was last night and to describe it as relaxing, enjoyable or refreshing would be a lie. Instead it was painful, hard work and I cried through much of it, but once again a Thai medical physio therapist and masseuse instantly found where the damage was in my body and set about putting it right. Imagine if you will a very petite tiny Thai woman in her early to mid fifties with a gentle nature and a kind face and that is her. However you can then imagine her putting me through my paces and how my tears flowed.
This morning waking up at six was not in my usual silence, it was with a gasp of pain and a cry for help to Carol to get me my pain meds. Today I can barely move, the pain in my back and shoulder is a combination of over worked muscles and my fucked shoulder and yet I have a great deal of movement in my injured bits. Once the pain meds had kicked in and I was able to move, we walked down the ten metres of beach and waded into the warm sea. It was seven AM... I was floating in the sea at seven in the morning while Carol swam near by. After a little while I to was able to swim a little, but I tired quickly and we both retired to the beach hut and a warm shower.
We have at last found paradise, the sea is so close to our hut that it soothes us to sleep at night and wakes us in the morning with its gentle lapping waves. The hut itself is elegant and cool, tiles floors, a real shower and bed so comfortable I could stay here forever. This is paradise, but it comes at a cost and I know that once our money runs out, paradise ends and our flights back home take us into a new reality.
Carol and Steve from Bridge Motors are planning on setting up a training school for motorcycle riders, so once we are back home the hard work starts again as once more a new venture is started and a new way for us to make our living is tried. It is going to be hard work and I know that Carol will be tired as she works every day training people to be safe on the roads. For me. I do not know what the future holds, the money I was awarded is running out fast as we spend a lot on this trip and treatment and my bike back home is modified for my increased comfort.
Yet where do I find myself in Thailand once again? Sat on a hired motorcycle, this time a fully working Honda CB500 which as it turns out is a fantastic little bike. No word of a lie, it is nippy, fun and rides with a character that the CBF600 I had some time ago lacked. It is no where near as refined as my precious Suzuki, but then I have spent a great deal of time and money making Sylvie into the machine of my dreams. She is no longer the entry level sports bike she once was, but rather a mixture of genres, half sports bike, half touring bike and all mine. It is true that I miss my bike while I am here, but the other truth is that Sylvie is too much machine for these roads on Koh Samui. Here her power is too much, the roads filled with other people many of whom have a death wish. I would not want to ride Sylvie on the roads of Koh Samui because she would never get out of third gear and the fear I have while riding would be amplified with her sports heritage shining through, so a plucky little CB500 will do me for now. Would I want one back home? It would make a very friendly training bike I suppose, but with the small size and lack of thrills, I think that I would tire of it very quickly. Sylvie is my road Queen of which I have no doubt.
As for Carol, she is riding a Kawasaki ER6, a lovely machine in looks if not comfort. The seat felt like a paving slab to me and the engine was just a little too lively for my liking. Carol though make it look like a push bike with the way she can throw it around on the road and push the bike to its edges. Watching her ride is a sublime experience, she does not so much as ride down the road as slink like a big cat, cool, watchful and with the sudden roar from the exhaust she is the tiger of the road.
I am loving this trip for everything that it differs in from our last visit here. This time is more relaxed, more gentle and yet it still has the hard purpose of wanting to do things. We are not just here to slob around on beach until it is our time to fly home, we want to visit the friends we made last time, we see the places that we missed on out last trip and most importantly of all, we want to do it together. This trip also happens to be the aniversary of Carol and I starting our partnership, six years together and yet i feels like only yesterday that we met. Our love feels like the supportive roots of the giant tree that is our relationship and I could not be happier right now than I am with my Darling Carol sat with me on this beach. Fuck the pain, I only feel love today.
Carol has been amazing she has once again planned and booked us both a trip that we can enjoy and in which I can find the treatment I so badly need on my fucked shoulder. My first treatment was last night and to describe it as relaxing, enjoyable or refreshing would be a lie. Instead it was painful, hard work and I cried through much of it, but once again a Thai medical physio therapist and masseuse instantly found where the damage was in my body and set about putting it right. Imagine if you will a very petite tiny Thai woman in her early to mid fifties with a gentle nature and a kind face and that is her. However you can then imagine her putting me through my paces and how my tears flowed.
This morning waking up at six was not in my usual silence, it was with a gasp of pain and a cry for help to Carol to get me my pain meds. Today I can barely move, the pain in my back and shoulder is a combination of over worked muscles and my fucked shoulder and yet I have a great deal of movement in my injured bits. Once the pain meds had kicked in and I was able to move, we walked down the ten metres of beach and waded into the warm sea. It was seven AM... I was floating in the sea at seven in the morning while Carol swam near by. After a little while I to was able to swim a little, but I tired quickly and we both retired to the beach hut and a warm shower.
We have at last found paradise, the sea is so close to our hut that it soothes us to sleep at night and wakes us in the morning with its gentle lapping waves. The hut itself is elegant and cool, tiles floors, a real shower and bed so comfortable I could stay here forever. This is paradise, but it comes at a cost and I know that once our money runs out, paradise ends and our flights back home take us into a new reality.
Carol and Steve from Bridge Motors are planning on setting up a training school for motorcycle riders, so once we are back home the hard work starts again as once more a new venture is started and a new way for us to make our living is tried. It is going to be hard work and I know that Carol will be tired as she works every day training people to be safe on the roads. For me. I do not know what the future holds, the money I was awarded is running out fast as we spend a lot on this trip and treatment and my bike back home is modified for my increased comfort.
Yet where do I find myself in Thailand once again? Sat on a hired motorcycle, this time a fully working Honda CB500 which as it turns out is a fantastic little bike. No word of a lie, it is nippy, fun and rides with a character that the CBF600 I had some time ago lacked. It is no where near as refined as my precious Suzuki, but then I have spent a great deal of time and money making Sylvie into the machine of my dreams. She is no longer the entry level sports bike she once was, but rather a mixture of genres, half sports bike, half touring bike and all mine. It is true that I miss my bike while I am here, but the other truth is that Sylvie is too much machine for these roads on Koh Samui. Here her power is too much, the roads filled with other people many of whom have a death wish. I would not want to ride Sylvie on the roads of Koh Samui because she would never get out of third gear and the fear I have while riding would be amplified with her sports heritage shining through, so a plucky little CB500 will do me for now. Would I want one back home? It would make a very friendly training bike I suppose, but with the small size and lack of thrills, I think that I would tire of it very quickly. Sylvie is my road Queen of which I have no doubt.
As for Carol, she is riding a Kawasaki ER6, a lovely machine in looks if not comfort. The seat felt like a paving slab to me and the engine was just a little too lively for my liking. Carol though make it look like a push bike with the way she can throw it around on the road and push the bike to its edges. Watching her ride is a sublime experience, she does not so much as ride down the road as slink like a big cat, cool, watchful and with the sudden roar from the exhaust she is the tiger of the road.
I am loving this trip for everything that it differs in from our last visit here. This time is more relaxed, more gentle and yet it still has the hard purpose of wanting to do things. We are not just here to slob around on beach until it is our time to fly home, we want to visit the friends we made last time, we see the places that we missed on out last trip and most importantly of all, we want to do it together. This trip also happens to be the aniversary of Carol and I starting our partnership, six years together and yet i feels like only yesterday that we met. Our love feels like the supportive roots of the giant tree that is our relationship and I could not be happier right now than I am with my Darling Carol sat with me on this beach. Fuck the pain, I only feel love today.
