This is my now page for Friday 2nd August 2024. What is a now page? A now page goes to a page that tells you what a person is focused on at this point in their life. Inspired by Derek Sivers and his Now page movement and subsequent website.
This is what I'm currently doing:
Where Am I
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. The isle of Borneo. What a place. I love being here, unfortunately only for 2 weeks or so on this trip. Food is good, people are friendly, easy to get around, strong sense of belief in their country, low crime, safe, lots of culture. Yes there is corruption, elites, bad traffic, terrible road management, not walking friendly, but you have to take the rough with the smooth, and compared with how the UK / Europe/ USA / West is, I will take this life every single day.
Where Was I
Japan. I was wrong! I was super worried about Japan being over-touristy and busy everywhere (based on YouTubers) but Japan is great, and you should probably go as soon as you can while the currency is fucked. Stuff was still expensive (hotels especially), but food was mostly cheap and amazing, service quality amazing, people polite and friendly, going out of their way to help, its modern, clean, pedestrian friendly, uber is amazing, public transport is great, they have amazon, they have every type of food and drink you want, they love Europe and you can find great wine, cheese and ham everywhere (literally in every Lawson corner shop) and price is great. Language was never a problem unlike in Thailand. Last year I was thinking about living in Japan, then after watching YouTube I was put off, but now I 100% see the appeal and could definitely live there. If the government came up with a multi-year visa I would definitely do it (anything shorter, you have zero chance of renting a house short term outside Airbnb).
Where Am I Going Next
Back to Chiang Mai and the best part of the year – the cooler months September to January when we don’t use the aircon so much, can sit outside without being uncomfortable and lots of our friends come to visit. So no more travels this year (I hope).
What Am I Working On
Last month was mostly holiday, so I haven’t been working much, but I’ve been thinking a lot about where I want to be and what I want to work on. Laravel, WordPress, generally PHP. I’ve been spending a lot of time on WordPress plugins as I want to drastically scale up my efforts around them.
What Am I Thinking About
As a side project I’ve been thinking about property a lot. Now we’ve finally decided to settle in a place for a bit (Chiang Mai), I’ve been talking and discussing with friends about property and building a bit of a property empire. I’ll either do it myself, or get a few friends together, but it could be fun and something not based on computers, plus the benefits of diversification.
What Have I Been Eating
Lots of great Japanese food; a lot of of tonkatsu, sushi, takoyaki, wagyu, and a lot of great Malaysian food; kway chap, laksa, kampua mee, kolo mee. If you know, you know! All super tasty!
See past Now pages: