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Yesterday I had a very nice massage.  It still was not the traditional Thai Massage I had in the past, but it was a lot closer to the real thing.

I last had the real thing in a Thai massage clinic in Paris.  It was really superb to get the full treatment which starts out with a gentle foot washing with a warm cloth and then go through all the motions with precison and total professionalism.

So, I did feel better after the recent massage.  She was very gentle with my wrist and did not cause me any pain. I let her use a medium deepness on my legs and back, with just some gentle stretching.  I think this is as traditional as I will find in my neck of the country.  We have already booked her for next week.

I found another Thai lady who sounds good as she was actually taught at Wat Po, whereas the last masseuse was taught in Chaing Mai (which is more the tourist area of Thailand).

She is willing to come to my house.  I am going to instruct her to not even touch the wrist as it is too sore.

Hot and cold packs alternated several times a day is the only thing that seems to help.  Also not typing much, so I will keep this short.

We found a Thai lady who said she did traditional Thai massage.  It was mainly okay, but I have a sore wrist from carpal tunnel, and I was hoping this would assist in the healing.  She gave me this painful massage on the ailing part which was definitely not a conventional massage.  I actually screamed out in pain several times.  She then tells me, “No pain no gain.”  Yikes! I think the temple in Wat Po would banish someone if they ever heard that Americanism.

So, now I am in deep pain and not even able to sleep.  To be continued….

Getting a real Thai massage in the USA is difficult.  One time my husband and I had a business trip at Las Vegas and we arrived from our plane ride a bit stiff.  The closest we could find to a Thai massage was an American lady who said she did traditional massage.

The massage was a total disaster and my husband ended up with a new back pain after he received the very non-standard massage.  The lesson one learns here:  Only get Thai massage from a real Thai person.  Americans are from the West and have a very different attitude about life which also influences their forms of therapy and massage.

I bought the swatch watches by looking at the internet photos of them and then ordering them over the phone.  I even asked questions about them to determine the most appropriate models.  I picked them up from the shop and then decided to check them over a little more carefully. The first watch is gorgeous and I know the recipient will love it.  The second watch is plain navy with a rubber band.  I like it because it is one of the ‘skins” which are very thin and light-weight.  Since I got the second one for 50% off, I have decided that one will be my Christmas present to myself as it is more my style. This time I came out fine, but today I am making the trip to the stores to find her one more present.

I am thinking about taking a trip to Thailand to get a traditional Thai massage from a temple called Wat Po. I understand if you want the very best you can go to Bangkok and either learn how to do this therapeutic massage or just receive it. I have heard you can get daily message for a week for less than one massage would cost here. The hotels and restaurants are also very economical, so if you have frequent flyer miles, you could do the whole trip very reasonably.

My shopping this year is done with a lot of care.  No junk is bought – only things that the receiver will really enjoy receiving and using through the next year. Although I still enjoy looking at clothes for myself, I am now only buying for others.  It really is a lot more satisfying to make new outfits out of the clothes already in my closet knowing that others will have a better holiday.

I queried my best friend as to what five items would be good Christmas presents.  She told me and I have found and ordered three of the five on the internet.  These are all nice items that I know she will enjoy through the year.

My husband and I are getting Thai massages next week and we decided that would be our main gift to each other. I haven’t had one in a long time and I am really looking forward to it.

We asked our daughter what she wanted and she sent us a list of Swatch watches she liked from the Swatch page.   The Swatch store had a deal where the second watch purchase was 50% discount, so we bought her a second one that will be a surprise as it was not on the list.  I hope she likes them!

On November 01, 2008 I wrote my 3 wishes for this country.  After Obama was elected, my first wish was fulfilled.  Now, after  listening to the  recent speech from our President Elect, it appears my second wish may come into fulfillment. The gist of the speech was that this country needs to lower the unemployment rate and get into more production.  Hurray!

I normally never take drugs.  Even when I broke my toe, sprained my back, had wisdom teeth extracted – I withstood the pain and skipped the painkillers.  It was tough, but at least then I didn’t also have to deal with the drug withdrawal at a later time.

I needed the anaesthetic to have the infected wisdom tooth extracted.  The dentist gave me several shots  to sufficiently numb up my mouth.  At the time, I appreciated it.   I do feel the dentist did the best possible job that could be done in the situation as I certainly wouldn’t have been able to endure the surgery without being totally numbed up.

Despite everything going according to Hoyle, I still had to endure some bad days as the anaesthetic wore off.  At that point, I was glad that I had not taken pain killers after the surgery.  Going off the anaesthetic was so uncomfortable that if I had had to endure getting off pain killers, I might not have been able to do.  I now understand how women will get a cosmetic operation and then end up hooked on pain killers for the rest of their life.

Anyway, when the anaesthetic withdrawal got bad, I took all my vitamins several times a day with food, and that helped a lot.  I also soaked in a steaming bath while I drank distilled water.  It has now been 5 days and I feel like the drugs are mainly out of my system.  Who would think that a dental  anesthetic would produce such after-effects!