These are my Momentos, short personal diary entries I write daily – since 2013 – and publish monthly. Some links are affiliate links.
1
Came home from a nice dinner at a nice restaurant to find a lizard the size of my hand in the kitchen, light blue with red spots, took a bite at a clothes hanger when we tried shooing him out the window. Now there’s a young Balinese man here with a plastic bag tied to a big stick, chasing the thing across the ceiling.
2
Helmet laws aren’t enforced in Bali, see loads of people scooting without them. Tourists, too. Many of them no doubt the same folks who shun non-organic food and are super concerned with their chakras. Meanwhile they’re five times more likely to be killed in a traffic accident in this country than in the UK.
3
We really are living in the middle of a jungle here in Ubud. Squirrels scurry up trees outside our window, geckos live behind our fridge, fireflies hang out in the bathroom, there was a snake on the path earlier this evening, and every night there’s a concert of chirps, croaks and clicks coming from all directions.
4
There are almost a thousand monkeys in here, scattered around 700-year-old temples and gigantic trees that look older still. The monkeys eat sweet potato and sport little mohawks. The males have big balls and tiny penises. There’s a blind monkey named Nelson in a cage all by himself. It’s better that way.
5
A quarter hour north of Ubud there’s a particularly nice stretch of rice fields. So nice that everyone with an Instagram account flocks there to take a billion photos. Couple that with the ridiculous heat today and the donation requests every hundred meters and I’m wishing I’d never been.
6
Every time I do it, I’m less stressed while getting more important work done. What is it? Not checking email or any other messages until the afternoon. Simple, but powerful. And I’ve known this for years. Yet I often go months without doing it. It’s as if I want to be distracted most of the time.
7
Add bats and a mongoose to the list of animals I’ve seen in Ubud. The bats were flapping about the field next door before the sun came up this morning. And the mongoose was snoozing on a table in a cafe in the middle of town. First time seeing one. Mad yokes. Like a cross between a fox and an otter.
8
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to earn money from this site, but in a way that adds significant value to the world, and doesn’t require me to sacrifice my integrity. Been working on reviews of survey sites lately. That’s been a bit of a tightrope. Think I have it figured out now.
9
Today there was a man ploughing the rice field next door. Barefoot in the mud, in 30°C / 86°F heat and direct sunlight, pushing some big contraption of a plow with a cranky engine. Hard, physical labor. He was out there for hours. Probably earning pennies. I’m living such a charmed life.
10
Putting together a post about weird ways people make money online. The Million Dollar Homepage was a famous one back in the day. Looked that up, learned that the guy who made it is the same guy behind the Calm app, which is now a billion dollar company. Wow.
11
Here we go again, moving to a new place, pack and unpack, get used to the new surroundings, go buy a bunch of household things we’re lacking, stuff we’ll have to leave behind in a few months, wrestle with the wifi, think ever more seriously about stopping all this madness and settling down good and proper.
12
Starting to fantasize about having my own place, setting everything up just right. Simple things like an extra shelf here, a few coat hooks by the door, nice kitchen equipment that’ll last a while. When you constantly move around, you’re constantly compensating for lots of little inconveniences.
13
Marking this day. Received a payment of $827.50, bumping me over $1,000 affiliate income for the first time in a single month. Feels good, all the work starting to pay off. Still lots more to do though. $1,000 next month isn’t guaranteed. But this boosts my confidence, validates the plan I’ve been busy executing.
14
In a cafe, trying to get some work done, but there’s a lady doing yoga to my right. Seriously. She cleared space between tables, put on headphones, and has spent the last twenty minutes doing full-on yoga without a care in the world, as if she’s in a park or something. She probably thinks she’s edgy and enlightened. I want to flip a table and scream in her face.
15
We’ve got an overachieving rooster next door. Not content when crowing when the sun comes up, he gets crowing at 4:30am. I used to have the same problem with a rubbish truck years ago. Woke me up the first few mornings after moving into a new place. Then I never heard it again.
16
Pushed through and gave birth to another chunk of content today, my second big swing as an affiliate. It’s a series about survey sites, which have to be one of the worst ways to earn money online. But hey, lots of people are into it, and the existing content out there for them is lacking. I’m aiming to serve them better.
17
Can’t beat the rooster, so I join him, up at the crack of dawn. Wait a little while and you can see the volcano from our balcony as light fills the horizon. I’ll head to a nearby cafe later, whiffing incense, over broken sidewalks, around a truck filled with banana leaves, past smiling old ladies balancing big bundles on their heads.
18
That thing when you’re a tourist in a place and you get pissed off because there are loads of other tourists there, too… been thinking about that, where it comes from. At root it’s probably a desire to feel special, to have a unique experience. We hate knowing there are busloads of other people just like us, lining up to do the same shit.
19
I get tired a lot. I don’t mean recently, because of that asshole rooster, but all the time. I always seem to be pushing up against that edge of doing too much and getting burnt out. Had a decent sleep last night, still wrecked today. That year in Amsterdam might have been the last time I felt macro rested.
20
One thing that might help my energy levels is getting the diet sorted. I eat fairly healthy most of the time, but there are certainly things I eat that upset the bowels. Going to give the low FODMAPs thing a try for a few weeks and see how that goes.
21
Many Balinese live with extended family in housing compounds, which apparently follow ancient architectural guidelines. The northeast of a compound is supposed to be sacred. That’s where you’ll find a shrine. The southwest is supposed to be impure. That’s where they put me.
22
Doing a weekly coffee and coworking meetup here in Ubud now, aiming for every Wednesday. Today was the first one. My girlfriend and a friend showed up, just the three of us, no new people. That’s okay. Going to be here until December now so it should build over time. No rush.
23
Listening to Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi, reminding me to practice asking for things, sometimes even unreasonable things. Because that asking muscle gets weak if you’re not using it. Proceeded to mozy on down to the scooter place and ask for a discount on next month’s rental. Done.
24
They love their kites in Bali. Look up in any town here with a blue sky and you’ll see at least one kite flying. Stepped outside this afternoon, looked up and saw six. Did a little research and apparently there’s some religious/spiritual significance to it all, as there seems to be with everything on this island.
25
You see some mad stuff driving around Bali. Half the people don’t bother wearing helmets. Many of them turn onto a road without looking to see if anything’s coming. One-way streets aren’t taken seriously. Park wherever you like, even if you have to block the whole street. One thing you don’t see is the police.
26
Joined a gym here today. Works out to $190 for six months, so just over a dollar per day. Haven’t had a gym membership since 2016 in Amsterdam. Enjoyed going, but I do find gym social etiquette difficult. Some people are friendly, some just want to be left alone. Not always easy to tell the difference.
27
Came down with a fever of some kind. Super weak after lunch and my body aching all over. Can’t lie comfortably in bed, my back hurting. Sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold. And a constant headache. Will see how I feel tomorrow and maybe call a doctor.
28
Called the doctor. They came here and examined me, took a blood sample, called a couple of hours later with the news: I have dengue fever. Can take up to a week to recover from that. So I’m bedridden for the next few days. My back is feeling better at least. Time to catch up on some Netflix.
29
In a tiny bathroom wearing blue latex gloves and the toilet seat is wet. I used to live with a guy who would piss all over the toilet seat and never clean it. At least this wetness is only from the bum gun. Anyway, dengue comes with diarrhea and in a few minutes I’ll walk out of this bathroom and hand the doctor a warm cup.
30
I wake up in a hospital about an hour away. They brought me here in the middle of the night. It’s a good one, might be here for a week. $500 a night but insurance should cover it. I hope. First time I’ll be making a claim on this insurance. There’s always the worry they’ll be difficult.
31
One nice thing this week: while I’ve been weak and sweating and not doing any work, affiliate commissions have been rolling into my bank account. Earned about $400 the first three days of this illness alone. That’s not typical, but these kind of results keep telling me on the right track.