Here's where the long road of good intentions is put to the test..........
UPDATE 06/06/08
I was going to keep amending and adding to the MCA plan but it doesn't quite seem relevant any more. A friend visiting my site for the first time commented on the page, and when I saw it I realised how much it was generally out of date and out of phase with my thinking.
So where are we then on the whole midlife crisis then?
I left UK aged 39 pretty browbeaten and low from a job that I had grown to hate ,and a girlfriend who'd become a sister to bicker with. I didn't know much other than I had to completely start my life again, find a new career, a new place to live, and redefine the things that I considered important.
This page contained an action plan, a list of things that I'd said I'd do. I thought by putting them in print it would be like an extra impetus to put my money where my mouth was so to speak. So what did I achieve in two and a half years:
1) I found a place to live in a nice area. (though at some point i may look for something else)
2) I got my PADI open water diving certificate
3) I became initially an English teacher, and laterally an Assistant Manager at the biggest single language school in the city within the most prestigious university in the country. I have a lovely office on the 20th floor. My weekdays are filled with music pouring from my ipod, my weekends managing and teaching. I am learning lots of new stuff. I've helped out at summer school language camps, and have been teaching government and corporate classes all sort of targetted language. I think I've effectively changed careers for the better.
4) I've travelled extensively over Thailand and have visited Laos and Vietnam too. Palm lined sun-kissed beaches whilst not part of my everyday ,feature a lot more in my life.
5) I've been playing in a Punk/New Wave band for over a year all over the city. I've learnt a lot about playing rhythm/lead guitar and playing music in general. It's been a very interesting and quite disciplined approach to actually get good as we have become, especially when there are some extremely poor quality bands out there. I still get a buzz and joy from the whole process of playing live, even if we haven't exactly made the Earth move with our music. But that's why we wanted to play Joy Division, the Jam, The Clash etc in the first place, to be different. We may be at a crossroads with the band line-up. I think the bassist may finally leave and the drummers other music project is taking off, but I've said that before, we'll see. I still want to play, but i also see the amount of time , energy, and commitment required to keep this sort of thing going. We've had a couple of great nights playing live and a couple of pretty dead nights too. It's finding an appreciative audience that's the trouble.
6) Although a little bit less of late , i've also been playing a lot more sport. tennis, golf, and football , though after 2 seasons and 3 broken ribs I've decided to knock 11 a side football on the head.
7) I've practically given up TV. I don't subscribe to cable and watch the odd DVD or download when I fancy entertainment. I CONSUME books. If I don't have a book in reserve to read I get antsy.
8) Whilst still painfully slow (as I'm not really straining myself) I'm getting better at speaking and communicating in Thai.
SO WHAT'S THE SCORE THEN...?
I get occasionally lonely. Thing about BKK is that friends tend to leave all the time. This past year has seen 5 leave. Good new friends are hard to find. The effort required and distances that you have to cover to get places and meet up with potential new "friends" can get irritating. I don't think going to a noisy pub in a big group as the best way to make new friends but then i'm getting middle-aged. I find I miss good intellectual conversations with western women the most. They've always got the best patter and most insighful thoughts.
Yup, no doubt about it , I'm fighting all the way down the slide into middle age but it's happening. I still feel like a teenager but the face in the mirror and the photos I see of me confirm a grey haired bloke with the start of wrinkles haha! As a result I'm vaguely aware of my own mortality a bit more..by this i don't mean I'm afraid of dying, but the idea of having a family seems a lot more appealing. I have had a lovely girlfriend for the last 2 years or so,who unfortunately lives on the Island of Koh samui and am currently trying to work through succesfully what is ABSOLUTELY the last long distance relationship I will ever have in my life. Time is admittedly against me on that one.
I really need to focus on writing the book I've been dallying with. Loads of people are always telling me how well i express myself and the breadth of depth of my vocabulary (not that that makes for good writing). I guess I should just write like I think: in some osrt of free form and sort it out in the draft later.
I'd like to find some modest business opportunity to invest in. I have the plantation thingy going on, but i was thinking more in terms of something more cohesive to my life and proactive.
All in all I've very little to complain about. and no need to reach for the prozac. I'm grateful for the life i currently lead, and whilst a lot of my western nurtured ethics and morality values have gone out of crisp focus into a morass of grey pixels and general shapes, I still think I'm leading a worthy life.........a worthy life..there's something i'd never had really thought about back home where 'I'm all right Jack" is the default mode. Living in a buddhist country certainly changes you if you want it to.