Subscriber Newsletter #04

Being grateful for my health, my wife, and my life, as I turn forty years old. Ayutthaya city trip in pictures and videos.

This year has been tough. It still is tough. Speaking with another British friend, who’s been living in Chiang Mai for a couple of years, he had me chuckling - in spite of our shared financial hardship. He is 39 years old, and like me, has tried in vain to find gainful employment this year. A common complaint I am hearing more often from expats in Thailand.

My friend said to me:

“Who’d have thought twenty years ago that we’d one day both be living in Thailand, calling each other from our shitty $300 per month apartments, having a mid-life crisis.”

Such is life!

One must persist, not merely exist, and never give up - even when the chips are down.

And so I choose to keep the glass half full…

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AYUTTHAYA TRIP

Breaking with the favoured birthday tradition of Brits to drink alcohol to excess and generally cause a scene; perhaps I am reaching some modicum of emotional maturity. In ringing in my fortieth birthday, I instead opted for a healthy end to my thirties - a 5KM run at a huge event with thousands of people in Ayutthaya City. My wife and I woke up at 3am on the day of the race, with the start time being bang-on 5:15am.

It was packed out, in a strange, festival-esque vibe; albeit sobriety and wholesomeness reigned supreme. Whereas I am typically more accustomed to seeing people chewing their faces off with eyes like flying saucers - if I should find myself in a field filled with thousands of people and ten foot tall base speakers blasting out rave music…

The atmosphere at the Ayutthaya World Run Day event was special. Words fail me to describe the overall positivity of the crowd. Here is an upbeat compilation video I found on ThemTube which captures the mood well: