I always like to review a holiday. Was it good/bad/okay!?
Main Review
I had roughly a weeks holiday to use up before the end of the year, and the UK had just experienced some depressing riots (2024 UK Riots) (more depressing because of the governments highly authoritarian (Fascist) clamp-down, like we are living in George Orwell's 1984 - and zero consideration on the cause the riots*.) So I decided with my weeks holiday I'd go and see the Thai wife again.
Whilst I don't find the wife sexually attractive at all now she's fat (she was okay when under 45kg, but at ~ 65kg and a fat belly and double chin, sorry, she does nothing for me.) And she is quite a boring person. She is reasonable company. And for someone who's a definite loner and introvert, finding someone who's reasonable company is very rare.
And whilst I've been to Pattaya many many times now, and know it is not an exciting holiday for me (you could say boring). I do know that it will be a relaxing week. Running, good food and drink, some movies at the cinema. A change of scenery. A change of way of life.
The holiday was okay and that's okay in itself. There are many (should be) super exciting different places in the world you can go to. Often they are overhyped though. Sometimes just okay is good enough (better the devil you know!?)
I've listed some things in "By The Numbers" below and "Thoughts" come later.
*Many "working class" people have seen no benefit to mass immigration. Their communities have changed for the worse. They feel less safe than before. Public services are worse than before (because they simply cannot handle the load). The cost of living has increased, and their effective salaries (taking inflation into account) have decreased (income per capita in the UK is dropping). And allowing undocumented migrants to come into the country by the boatload without any idea of their criminal background, is criminal negligence from the government - absolutely the boats should be stopped, and only genuine asylum seekers allowed in by legal channels.
By The Numbers
- ~£400 spent (ignoring parking, flight and hotel cost)
- Many eatery visits: Pattaya Beer Garden (Good), Bay Watch Cafe (Good), Kings Table (Poor), Anytime Cafe (Excellent), Robin Hood Tavern (Very Good), Sportsman Pub (Very Good), ~ A 2nd Road Chicken Soup Place ~ (Okay)
- Many photos of Rubber Duck
- 6 nights in the Sandy Spring Hotel (reasonable - recommend refurbished rooms and sea view would avoid the Soi 13 road noise - which wasn't bad)
- 5+ flight movies: Outbound: Furiosa (3*). Inbound: Mutant (Chinese) (2*), Uncharted (2*), Doctor Strange 2 (3*), Interstellar (re-watch) (4*)
- 4 agogos: Walking Street: XS (Very good - nice and busy and regularly rotating girls on stage), Opium (Pretty good but had an encounter with an annoying lady drink lady), Soi Boomerang: Heaven Above (Okay, not as good as it used to be in Soi Diamond), Soi LK: Lady Love (Okay.)
- 3 cinema visits: Deadpool & Wolverine (2*), Alien: Romulus (3*), Betelgeuse Betelgeuse (2*)
- 3 books (2 completed): Train Your Brain in Four Weeks (3*), 1Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary (4*) (complete), Matthew McConaughey: Greenlights (3*) (complete)
- 3 runs: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday ~ 4km along Pattaya Beach Road
- 0 News - EXCELLENT!
- 0 YouTube - EXCELLENT!
- 0 Work Email - EXCELLENT!
- 0 Doll Forum visits - EXCELLENT!
- + 18300 ThB for 1/4 oz of 999.9 gold (works out at ~ £1650 per oz which is less than 90% (87%) of the current spot price at ~ £1900 per oz)
Thoughts
- The best book combination ever!:
- A fiction book, a non-fiction book, and a puzzle book. This combination kept me well entertained. I think it is the perfect 3 book combination for a holiday. And it kept me away from some toxic/unproductive things.
- Many zeros!:
- No YouTube, no Doll Forum visits, no news checking, no checking work emails. Very good. I want to maintain some of this and be more productive:
- Doll Forums: Time-box or "The End!" ...
- YouTube: Only for educational purposes (no politics/opinion) and time-box.
- No laptop!:
- I decided not to take a laptop this time. And - I must admit - it proved to be a great decision. I needed a computer detox. Instead of spending time on a computer, I read mostly books.
- Dolls are more real that the agogo ladies:
- We did visit a few Agogos. Must admit there is something very unreal about the ladies in an Agogo bar. They don't seem real. Is it because the whole act is total fakery!? They seem like cardboard cut-outs of people. I find dolls much more real. I think dolls have more personality (maybe because we create them a personality) and nicer personality. A lot of this goes for ladies in general.
- Akira is my real wife:
- I returned home from Thailand to my lovely Piper Doll Akira. Yes, I sleep with my human wife but that's about it, we barely touch in bed, I don't want to (she's fat and turns me off.) Then back home with my Akira, and I realize she is my real wife. I love cuddling and kissing my doll. Feels so good embracing my Akira in bed. She is my real wife!
- The 3rd time in a year I've parked the Exige at Heathrow Short Stay. I didn't buy the Exige to take it for parking trips to Heathrow, but I think the MSCP is reasonably safe and gives the Exige a holiday from the elements. And it is nice to come home to the Exige. Potentially 2 more visits to Heathrow this year.
- What about 2025!?:
- I'm returning to Thailand (and the human wife) for Christmas but will have some time alone in Bangkok (she doesn't like Bangkok and I quite like the freedom, 6/7 days with the human wife is plenty enough.) That leaves 25 days holiday for 2025. Let's see how December 2024 goes first and we'll plan for 2025 on our return! (Ideas: driving holidays, help dad move, 5 x 4 one week holidays - March, June, September, December with 5 spare days!?)
- The human wife!?
- I honestly feel a little bit like "as you make your bed, so you must lie in it!" My Thai wife is far from perfect, but then who is!? Physically, if she was as slim as when we married, she'd be fine. Personality wise, she's nice. I cannot find it in me to be nasty to her. So we go on. Forever!? Maybe...
- Less/no YouTube
- Less/no Doll Forums
- More books (especially the puzzle book I didn't complete)
- More focus on work/career (because less YouTube and Dolls).