After 9 days, I have finally seen a doctor and I have the drugs. I guess you are thinking, “typical male … leaves it way too late before seeing the doctor” etc. etc.

Well, in my defence, it is not quite as easy as that. We knew that there was a doctor at the Australian Embassy who primarily looked after embassy staff, Australian Defence personnel and a number of other expats from English-speaking countries (including the Brits). However, we understood the doctor was on holidays and that meant no doctor. We also didn’t know the telephone number.

So finally, I hunted down the phone number and found that fortunately, there was a locum doctor operating over the Christmas/New Year period. The locum was the wife of an Australian expat who was leaving the country next week.

She confirmed that I had acquired the same gut infection that was sweeping through the entire community and no, it probably was not due to the restaurant I ate at the night before. Without treatment, she passed on the heartening news that it took from 6 to 8 weeks to run its course, but was still proving to be difficult to treat.

So I started the drug-related assault this afternoon, which with luck, will have me back in form for New Year. Alas, I am not meant to consume alcohol for 48 hours. Now, when was the last time that happened ?