I really didn’t sleep well last night – despite being awake for over 24 hours! I tried to go to sleep at some kind of “normal” time. I think my body was all confused. I finally gave up at seven and got up.

The shower took a while to warm up, but was deliciously hot! Breakfast was this tuna scrambled egg thing with tortillas – which was surprisingly delicious. The focus here is on healthy, presentation isn’t a consideration. The machine coffee is also good.

I’ve just seen the nurse; my stats are better than last night. I recon they thought I was going to have heart attack on them!

There are not that many people in the centre at the moment. It looks like there are only half a dozen guests here, I think the centre can accommodate 24 people in total. The other patients appear to be here for cosmetic surgery; I was hoping to meet others liked me, but so far I remain unique!

---

Marla arranged for a driver to take me into Tijuana for the afternoon. $40 to take me and bring me back; I’m to message him on WhatsApp when I’m ready to go back to the centre.

The initial impression of Tijuana centre was a little overwhelming; I’m here on my own and missing my husband, who would boost my confidence just by being beside me. The pavements are narrow and they are made narrower by all the street vendors. The smells are amazing because so many of the vendors are selling food. There are loads of tourist tat shops and vendors, but there are many indoor markets, which have some fascinating shops (plus an enormous number of places selling phone cases).

I found a bureau de change and swapped some of my dollars for Pesos. I don’t think I needed to do that as many of the places I went asked for dollars. I also lost track of what the Pesos were worth in sterling! However, dollars are all exactly the same size and only vary slightly in colour; Pesos are all different colours and sizes and are of the same kind of manufacture as pounds and euro notes; it’s a lot easier to select the correct notes when using Pesos!

When walking or driving around Tijuana, do keep your eye open for street art, some of it is really very good.

There were street performers, one of whom had a huge tuba oompahing.

I went into the cathedral; it was small but beautiful and busy and was a very active place of worship. I bought a candle for my mum and nan, but also for my husband and me. I sat in the church and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere for a while.

The first eatery I popped into turned out to be a Chinese restaurant! I can get “Chinese” at home, so I made my apologies and left (“los siento, yo quiero comar mexicana” is what I said). I eventually had a couple of tacos in a little side cafe; they were filling and tasty! I bought some churros from a street vendor, they too were delicious, but both the tacos and the churros were large portions and I was quite full.

There looked to be a few gay places in Tijuana centre, which I found encouraging and helped put me at my ease (as a one man pride parade). They were closed though, so I didn’t get to see what they were like.

After wandering and exploring for a couple of hours, I eventually found a place that sold coffee. There were lots of bars, but I didn’t see many coffee shops. What I had though was good coffee!

It seemed as though Mexican men wore a lot of black and dowdy clothes, so I stood out like a sore thumb wearing my blue T shirt and shorts, white converse with rainbow laces. Even without the rainbows, I couldn’t be mistaken for a Mexican! As Mother Superior said of Delores van Cartier: “that is not a person you can hide. That is a conspicuous person designed to stand out.”

---

My husband called me from Legends bar in Brighton where he was watching a Whitney Houston tribute act; he held the phone up and she and I waved at each other. It was so wonderful being connected with my darling husband across the ocean for that while!