We deviate from our standard breakfast today. We’ve been avoiding sugar, starch, bread, pasta and rice since arriving here. Not completely, but almost. Today Katja wanted oatmeal and I did a rather large American breakfast. It included fruit, yogurt, corn flakes, two eggs, ham, bacon, sausage and some greens. Add coffee for good measures and I really got my fill. Katja loved her oatmeal with banana and some mangos, so who knows maybe we got a new standard in the morning?

Maccachero’s BJJ classes are really good. It hurts me in so many ways that I just have to sit and watch and not participate. I write it all up, as I did yesterday, and hopefully we can play around with it in the not so distant future.

Today he got placed in the top shelf of instructors I know. His line from the first warm up exercises to the last of the techniques was ever present. It’s the way I like it, when everything you do in training is connected.

Katja got a good partner today and they worked really well together. From there it was sparring and Katja held her ground against a guy that is more experienced and got about ten kilos on her. She really impressed me with her fighting spirit and abilities in that one. She later on got a nice guy who showed her how to do a lot of submissions. Often the better guys will use us less experienced as dummies to try out difficult techniques as we are not able to defend them. And sometimes it’s like today where he got something out of coaching Katja into the different submissions.

We go for a massage and it’s as painful as ever. I need to find the name of all these muscles that hurts so bad. I know my abductors are tight. You know the muscles in your groin and upper inner thigh? The once that screams for mercy every time you try to stretch out into the sideways split? Those.

But also the ones on the outside of that thigh. They’re like the string of the English Longbow. I guess you get the point.

After lunch we booked a couple of private Muay Thai session for tomorrow. I’m going to Moo, one of the guys who run the basic group. Seems like they have put the patient and English speaking trainers there. Gonna do it in the heat tomorrow afternoon. It might be a challenge, but at least I can communicate with him.

Turns out Monday is holiday and Songkran Thai New Year will be celebrated then. They’ve built a stage here and it will be a concert and looking at the videos from previous years it’s gonna be wet. We’ll see if we can get something waterproof for our phones so we can take pictures and video.

We rented a motorbike and headed out on an excursion to have something to do. Katja need healing time for her foot, and since it’s clinch training (including a lot of knees to the ribs) at Muay Thai this afternoon… we pass on that class.

We drive to the Festival mall and get a good cup of coffee. We do a little shopping for needed stuff. You know, like hair bands, cotton and any daily usable stuff. Oh, and I finally got myself new sandals. Been looking for ages, but all they sell here in Asia are flip flops. Finally we came across a store that sells Teva sandals and they had my size also. My previous once have been with me since New York in 2004, so it’s about time they get to rest. And they smell like, ugh, I can’t even describe it.

We drive home via a little Thai restaurant that served sloppy and untasteful food. Katja didn’t eat much of it, so we stopped by Tiger to pick up some take away.

Another day has gone by and the rib feels so much better. Katja got a real deep massage of her foot, and that also feels better. Or is it just the pills?