Bangkok: It's been nice but now it is time to go.

Things I will miss when I go:

1. Life on the streets:  Bangkok is one of the most vibrant cities there is.  Everything happens on the pavements here.  Food stalls and market stalls.  Motorbike taxis idle while waiting for fares.  Dogs, cats and people jostle for space.
2. The eternal sunshine: Pretty much every day for 12 months of the year the sun shines.  Even when it doesn't it is only cloudy for a while.  It is perpetually sunny in this country and that is nice.
3. The colours:  Thailand is full of colour.  Perhaps it is the Buddhism, perhaps it is the perpetual sunshine, but people wear colours with abandon. 
4. Double think:  The concept that allows people to hold two opposing ideas and treat them as equal.  This means that you can be the  President o
   f a major Thai corporation and still visit the fortune teller to ensure that you do important things on auspicious days.

Blogging: It's a bit like bank statements

While speaking to my mother the other night she gently chided that I had not posted anything on this site since 27 May and she was left to tracking me through my twitter feed and the photographs of what I ate.  I proffered such excuses as "been really busy", "never quite got back into the rhythm after injuring my foot" and my killer "well I am trying to relocate myself and Mr Lapin to the other side of the world in four weeks time".  All of which are true but it got me thinking about why something I started (running and writing) as a way of relaxing and opening up my horizons has become quite quickly the first thing I drop when life piles up.

The low-fat foodie

I like my food.  As Mr Lapin will attest I enjoy great food with a glass of good wine - the latter unfortunately difficult to get here in Thailand. And while I like to think I eat well my recent medical showed to the contrary and that I need to become more focused about what I eat, erring perhaps on the side of the low-fat end of the dietary scale.

At the same time as my Doctor suggesting I go low-fat, he did remind me that I am still out gunning the bad cholesterol with high good cholesterol numbers - this I put down to regular running, olive oil and garlic.  For the last two, I thank my mum who brought us up on what is now termed a Mediterranean diet, but to her was just how you cooked and ate food. Lots of vegetables, garlic and herbs, fish and olive oil. So eating well for me is not about a radical change of life long habits but is about becoming more intentional on what I cook and how much I am eating.

Being lapped by a Lady Boy...

My first week back to picking up running seriously again went pretty well; as did the dive into exploring a more low-fat diet.  Now I am not going to sit here and boast that all was a cracking success.  A month off running and in fact any training of any kind whatsoever clearly revealed itself to me within the first ½ km of my Monday evening run.  It was hot - I know, I know a reoccurring theme that I am sure you are getting fed up with.  But in the absence of any comment available to me about the terrain or even changing weather patterns you just have to give me the one constant to my running at the moment – it is hot here, hot and humid and about 35C.

Heath Warnings Now Apply

As most of you know I turned 40 last year, I began to run, found I really liked it, ran my first (and so far only) 10k and have been on the fitness motorway ever since.  Since turning 40 I have also started to consider my health a lot more seriously, as in, which parts of me are likely to fall to bits over the next few years, and which bits of me should I start to get checked out on a regular basis?

The past year of self-monitoring has not yielded any useful information other than me wondering whether the slight ache in my wrist meant something other than a side effect of having slept on it awkwardly.  The past year has however seen me become more intentional with nutrition, supporting my diet with vitamins and other supplements as well as trying to understand the best approach to sustaining a healthy lifestyle despite constant travel with the associated hotels and restaurant food that goes with business trips.