Edward Allen

Dear All,

I’ve been delayed again, my return to Laos has been pushed back a further 10 days. My organisation decided that I hadn’t seen enough doctors and weren’t sure I am nuts enough to return to Laos (you and me know otherwise, obviously) and so have insisted on me getting a mid-term medical and psychological evaluation done, so I’m now due to arrive back in Laos on the 26th February. It is frustrating.

It is frustrating because every day that passes I am getting better, my bad days now are better than my good days were just a few months ago and I am well enough now to head back up country and back to work. My health is better than at any time since the end of September. I am making a very much better recovery than I expected, the consultant doctors I’ve seen have cleared me to return to Laos, even if I’d stayed in the UK these past few years I’d probably have had this problem. Reassuringly, though, the care I’ve received from my Thai doctors at Khon Kaen Ram hospital, according to my UK doctors, has been superb and the Thai doctors are viewed in the UK as being exceptionally good.

There are still some things I find difficult, heavy lifting, being cold for long periods of time and strangely reliably emptying the dishwasher seems still to be beyond me too. And the cold wet sunless British climate is something of a struggle for me, it makes my condition a little worse. I still do need the inexpensive medication I’m on, though I’ve managed to cut back the numbers of painkillers I’m taking.

But most importantly I have got my vibe back, I’m now able to get things done, sort things out, and I feel able to function properly again.

And I’ve broken my laptop, actually I’ve completely wrecked it. A few weeks ago I stood on the power cable and it turns out I ripped out the power socket wiring inside the laptop and shattered the power connector, and my laptop gave up the ghost a few days ago. I went shopping with Mummy a couple of days ago and ended up buying a new Samsung laptop. It isn’t really any faster than my old machine, but it is lighter, bigger, and has about 3x the battery life. And it is dramatically cheaper than a Mac, as tempting as they obviously were.

The other morning I came down to breakfast and was surprised to find my dear father wrestingly with some linen and a large plastic frame. It turns out my father has, obviously, taken up embriodery. He has decided to hand embroider the cushions for the chairs in the dining room, creating a pattern of interlocking diamond shapes over the 6 chairs, using french silk and about 2 years of his life. He has something like 540 diamonds to embrioder, and encouragingly he has done 3 of them so far; it is indeed a bright and very commendable start. He is still well on course for finishing the covers in time for the London Olympics, long may the swift progress continue.

This coming week I’ll be catching up with correspondance, I’ve got horribly behind on replying to emails etc, and I’ll do some more sorting out of things. Hopefully it will be a very quiet and serene week. But I am missing Laos so much, I do long to get back up to Phongsaly and back to work up there and back to living up there, and put these difficult last few months thoroughly behind me. My love for Laos remains unchanged, my heart for the northern hill tribes remains stronger than ever, and my passion to see the dark valleys of Northern Laos bring forth life, and joy, and laughter burns brighter than ever.

love Ned