2019

There’s a guy alone here in the cafe taking up a 4-seater table for the past few hours. If I’m alone, I always feel I should take a small table in case the place fills up. Not sure if he has a healthier sense of entitlement than me, or if I’m more thoughtful than him.

The past two months I’ve been averaging less than 7 hours of sleep. Thought that was rough, until I met a couple who sleep 2-3 hours per night. I don’t know how they function, but they do. You think you have it bad but there’s always someone out there with a bigger struggle.

When we first came to Bali, we were shocked by a lizard the size of my hand crawling the kitchen walls, had to call someone to get him out of there. Now there’s another one in the kitchen, and we’re not bothered. He can stay so long as he’s not in the way.

Changed my mind. Readers don’t care whether I pay for a course or get it for free, so long as I go through it thoroughly, write an honest review, and help them make a smart decision. No sense digging myself a thousand dollar hole needlessly. I can put that money to better use.

Hefty bald white dude cuts me off dangerously on the scooter. He’s in a rush going nowhere, has to stop for traffic up ahead. I pull up alongside with the horn blaring, making sure he knows that’s not cool. His tough mug roars at me in a language I don’t understand, and I let him go.

Loving the gym these days, go pretty much every morning now. I keep the workouts short, ~45 minutes. Run and stretch and lift while listening to a good podcast. The body’s looking better, feeling better, and I seem to have more energy. I’ll have to prioritize joining a gym whenever I move some place new.

Another thing you see all the time in Bali are the canang sari. Intricate little things about the size of beer mats, small trays made from betel leaves, decorated with flowers and often containing rice or a small biscuit. These are daily offerings to the Hindu gods, left on shrines, steps, and in every doorway.

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.

Been all around the world, fifty-odd countries, but there’s plenty of Ireland I’ve yet to explore. We’re up around County Galway the next few days, staying in a small town that had more heads before the spuds went bad. Yeats lived near here in a castle, and now a bunch of Brazilians call the place home.

Brain can’t stop thinking about business. In the middle of Carnaval and I’m contemplating the profitability of these parade floats — 100 people on the big ones, €70 a head — and appreciating how Captain Morgan passed out free pirate hats and now have several hundred mini billboards walking around town promoting their product.

Two years deep. Sitting and reminiscing. Kinda crazy how many places we’ve been together, all we’ve experienced. Prague, Barcelona, Kyoto, Crimea, Istanbul, Vietnam, the Canaries and Faroes… just to name a few. Hasn’t all been plain sailing, but it’s all been worthwhile. And, on balance, better than I could have ever predicted. Here’s to many more.

Okay, gotta shake out of this grumpy mood. Back in Chiang Mai now and everything is easy again but still suffering from some lingering crankiness. Feeling unsocial and uncooperative. Really hard to like myself when I’m behaving this way. Let me go do something nice for someone. That might help.