Between Steve leaving and Lyndal arriving, Michaela and I were without responsbile adult supervision, so we did the usual thing for Aussie girls on holiday in Phuket: got tattoos!
The photo above shows me having mine done in the tattoo parlour. We opted to have them done by bamboo, rather than machine, as this was the traditional Thai method and it also meant that we could go swimming straight away if we chose. We both had temporary tattoos made on our right feet on the beach the week before, and decided to make them permanent. Now this might seem strange to some readers, especially English ones for whom tattooing is not common. However, it was the third time I had been tattooed and the fifth for Michaela. Lyndal has two tattoos and their father Geoff has one. Both my brother and father had tattoos. For me, each tattoo marks a significant point in my life. In this case, it marked the transition between my old life in Australia and my work towards the PhD, and my new life, wherever that may be, but it will certainly be without any more university study! :-)
The bamboo tattoo process hurt about as much as you would imagine, with someone repeatedly jabbing a very sharp needle into your foot over and over again. Nevertheless, it was all over in about 45 minutes and we headed back to the hotel.
We sat on our beds, reading, texting, emailing and watching TV for an hour or so. As our feet had begun to swell up by this time, we thought it best just to eat in the hotel restaurant, so that we didn't have to walk too far. So we stood up, literally took 3 steps and were in excruciating pain! We turned to each other and simultaneously said something like, 'how about room service?' and hobbled back to our beds. So we spent the night with very sore feet, but very good room service. We watched one of my Hindi DVDs, in fact my all-time favourie Hindi film: Dhoom 2. A not-very-wild night!
The next day Lyndal arrived to help us be a bit more responsbile, or so we thought ...
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