THAI BRIDES AND TAI CHI

My friend Tony has gone to Thailand for two and a half months to see his “Thai Bride” (note it’s in inverted commas).

He responded to my last blog or two as follows:

‘Hello each from a warm and pleasant isle with a cold beer at hand. I read in the Parkinson’s blog that no real decisions were made (in the pub) last week, so I'll put my two and a half Bhats-worth in.

Re the shaky hand when cooking: I have observed whilst here in Thailand that cooking with a wok could be the answer as it involves a lot of shaking and banging about without any spillage and no apparent harm done to the chef’.

(Tony speaks as a man of experience who has had a live frog hop in and out of his frying pan when preparing breakfast). 

I hope he captured it and soothed its sore feet with buttermilk, but I’m not sure.

Tony continues: ‘Re Thai wives, God knows how you ostensibly intelligent men got to this subject (is Bob thinking about it?). (Bob has an allotment, which explains a lot.)

Well that's all from a small warm island not far from the Equator’.

Tony wrote much more about Thai wives but even I could not argue that it related even indirectly or at a tangent to PD. However, I’m going to make a very shaky link to Tai Chi. Ahem.....

TAI CHI

But before I get back to PD I’d like to comment on supermarkets and plastic bags, as Waitrose ran out of bags for life three or four days after charging for bags came in. How long have they had to get ready for the new era? Why did I have to buy a hessian bag? Why did I use two old butcher’s bags from the car boot? Smelling of mince...now it’s a week later, and still short of bags for life!

So, got that off my chest, now what about Parkinson’s?

Two out of three specialists I’ve seen have suggested trying Tai Chi and as I was down in the dumps too at the time decided to give it a try. Indeed in the first 6 months from diagnosis with Parkinson’s I’d have tried anything.

If Thai brides look after all a chap’s other needs, so Tai Chi covers all of the mental and emotional and physical needs they, ie Thai girls, might miss.

Put crudely Tai Chi is a form of slo-mo martial arts. So you defend and attack and skim and repulse. Led by a great leader in Enid Gill we follow her graceful movements in our clumsy ways (ie me as some are more graceful than others*). What I get out of it is elements of balance, control, walking confidently, hip rotating, looking up, and so on and so forth. All the things a PD sufferer needs when he tends to walk like a Lego man and trip regularly .

I’ve been doing it, ie following Enid, for over a year now and I am not sure how or where I’m going to, but the journey is a load of fun.

Tai Ji as it says on my bit of paper comprises 24 postures including Repulse Monkey Right Hand, Play the Fiddle and Grasp the Birds Tail on the Left.

Here are 5 postures only one of which I have made up (no prizes):

· Strike ears with fist

· Needle at the bottom of the sea

· Two fish

· Play the fiddle

· Pull the pint of beer with perfect head 

Watch Calendar Girls for Helen Mirren’s own flexible versions of Tai Chi moves.

A more educated report on Tai Chi to follow – promise!

OTHER STUFF

Meanwhile I got myself swimming again and was welcomed back by the Naked Men in the pool changing room. Conversation included the iniquities of 1% savings rates and the rotten reaction of many Labour MPs to Jeremy Corbyn’s electoral victory.

In the pub conversation ranged from Thai lady girls (a variant of the Thai Bride topic), to Mourinho’s thought processes, to that old perennial, beer quality. Suggestions for new careers for me included Maracas player. Nuff said.

*I have failed at rock and roll and samba handicapped by PD, so Tai Chi seems the best default position available. But I am always open to suggestions.