In our little world, the world where it's not Trump and Kim, or India and Pakistan, it's been a great February. Chinese New Year in Kuching and our (ongoing) travels in Thailand have been the standouts.



I've had just one or two ongoing work commitments to fulfil (one of which, however, still looms rather threateningly over the next few months).

And we've needed to give some attention to upcoming travel plans, to avoid missing various boats (literally in some cases). This is an interesting and pleasurable pursuit, but it's time-consuming, and it's a little weird to be in Thailand researching Turkey and the Caucasus.

Otherwise, my time has been my own. But where has it gone? I've been busier than ever...

I've been expending some effort on gaining Thai language skills (an engaging and very practical pursuit, as we've been rather off the international tourist trail, and every little helps). The best sources, I've found, are Youtube videos, where various "kru" ("teachers" -- mostly young and female, it seems) very clearly and personably introduce you to a grammar point or area of vocabulary. My favourites so far are Ying and Paula and Learn Thai with Mod, but I've dipped into several other examples from the large quantity out there.


I've also been trying to keep other future-necessary languages at least moderately within brain-reach.

And I've been reading up on Thai history and politics (mobile campaign hoardings, blasting music and party-political slogans, have been a feature of our stay so far...) .

So, I never quite tick everything off my daily list, and I fully realize I have managed to replace one kind of busyness with another...

A friend of mine -- a polyglot and true polymath, with expertise covering an astonishingly broad range of areas -- Facebooked a bit of his own calligraphy this week. He presented two characters: essentially, one was "move", and one was "be still". He glossed it as "equilibrium in motion". The idea is that every move needs to be complemented by stillness. "One movement, one piece of stillness: need to balance."

That's the trick to master... I'm brilliant at the moving. I've just not learned the stillness bit yet...


Anyway, on to the practicalities of the Big OE.

We're doing pretty well on the budget front. We settled into a low-cost but pleasant lifestyle in Kuching, and as a history enthusiast in southern Thailand, you can be intrigued for hours for very little money.


My anti-cancer medicine has annoying day-to-day side-effects, but compared with the reactions others experience, I guess my body is coping pretty well. Most importantly, I've not (yet) dropped dead from a blood clot.

To try to make sure things stay that way, I've taken up dancing. Yep, you're reading that right. After an hour of sitting, I dance a track... As enthusiastically as possible.

That's not just PT being purple... A quick bout of vigorous dancing apparently not only makes a real contribution to your fitness but also makes you happier! (Of course, anyone who has watched Rajinikanth's Petta will know that last bit already.) I'm notoriously unco, and will not be inviting anyone to witness these performances, so I'll leave it all to your imagination. (No, come on, imagine again! I dance better than THAT...)


I'm also doing my best to strengthen my bones, after last month's dispiriting diagnosis. I've been knocking back the calcium, making sure I get lots of sun for Vitamin D (yeah, yeah, not too much, I know, I know...), and exercising. I've not been too successful with specific exercises. I tried one lot, and found the instructions so opaque and frustrating that I gave up. I probably need an actual person to teach me at some point. But I have been standing on one leg a lot...

Plus we walked an average of 8.76 km a day in February. Which is not bad, considering it's jolly hot.

And MM2H, you might ask? Well, we're still waiting. It would have been nice to have heard something, but technically there's nothing to worry about yet. We're still a way off the 30-working-day point that they specified.

Two themes coming up for March:

While we're still in Thailand, I want to continue exploring the story of the "thin" bit of the peninsula we're currently working our way down. Just the title of Montesano's and Jory's edited book (Thai South and Malay North: Ethnic Interactions on a Plural Peninsula) encapsulates some of the fascination.


And then? Russian...

What, straight after Thai? Surely great for brain confusion? But I'm not starting from scratch. I did a Russian course many years ago. And for a while now, I've been trying to do a few minutes a day with that worthy old owl Duolingo. Russian, I hope, will be useful for our April stopover in Kazakhstan, for the Caucasus bit of our overland trip back from UK, and, God willing, for Russia itself, next year or the one after that.

Serious travel bloggers reel you in with seductive invitations like: "Follow my round-the-world adventures as I inspire you to fill your own travels with colour, culture and creativity."

Me, I invite you to follow my adventures as I stand on one leg, do crazy-bops, scramble my brain with language-overload, and wait for government administrations to grind their way through large wads of paperwork. Not quite the same somehow...

But I'm really enjoying it. So far at least, Big OE, big tick.

Let's hope the world stays sufficiently peaceful for us and everyone else to carry on with our plans, big and small, unimpeded by visions of nuclear holocaust.