What did I learn about my trip back to the UK?

The reason for my short trip back to the UK was to attend a funeral for my dear Nan, she was 97 years old and although a good innings it was still very sad. I don’t find myself rushing back to the UK anymore so it would take an event like this to get me back, but on review, I am glad I did.

It is all too easy to be impressionable to views of others around you, I guess this is what creates cultures in society and ensures a level of harmony, but I hate it.

I am continuously questioning if I am making the right decisions about where I choose where to live, I am all to aware that life is short and that we only get one shot to experience it.

If you were to believe my peers in Thailand they would convince me that Thailand is the place to live, in fact when painting my lifestyle to friends back in the UK they would also think the same. But I remain unconvinced.

It all comes down to how you choose to live your life and that does not need to be dictated by where you live. Let me explain. In the UK most people are tied to their jobs, schooling and mortgages, it means they have restrictions on their decision making. When it is cold and dark during certain parts of the year most stay indoors and just watch television after their hard days graft. To me this is painfully depressing and a sad way to live your life. On face value living abroad in Thailand is light years away.

However, there are some things that can start to chip away at you if you are not careful. For example, my Facebook feeds are filled to the brim with food reviews from expats experiences in different venues, it is like the big gossip every day. It is boring and largely irrelevant to me. But these guys have time on their hands and this is one of the common ground subjects for everyone – we all, after all, need to eat. I really need to cull these groups and people who fill up my news feeds with this, it does not mentally stimulate me at all. I want to be surrounded by innovators and go getters.

Due to the large contingent of retirees in Thailand it means I am surrounded by people with time on their hands, as opposed to the UK where my circles all still work and compete in the rat race. On face value, this is why living in Thailand with the warm year-round tropical climate always wins and I agree with that whole-heatedly. It is just a nicer environment.

But then I changed the way I looked at this. If you were to get to a position to live on your own terms you don’t have to fall into these categories. This is what we should all aspire too as it means we are in control of our life rather than just a conforming cog in society. The issue is most people cannot ever get to that point as they work the 9 to 5 for someone else.

We must always try and call our own shots

Through work and forward thinking I always have a plan and it is not without reason to think in a few years I could quite easily relocate back to the UK live in a big, mortgage free house and enjoy the perks that come from living in this country. I don’t want to get caught back in the rat race as this forces you to live in the way all my friends explain it to be. I can work from home on my own business interests and live in my own bubble. I then get to spend more time with my family, have a different type of holiday experience from Scotland to Europe and – this to me is fundamental – change another chapter in my life. Change freshens things up and allows you to keep squeezing more out of life.

Even after a relocation from Pattaya to Hua Hin which, although very nice, still does not really mix it up that much more in terms of life experience. It does however reconfirm my view that making a change is beneficial and exciting to ones life. I loved Pattaya but after the move I would not want to move back.

This article could very well read as a series of rambles and, I guess, it is just that. I am writing this whilst still in the UK on the day I travel back to Thailand. The rambles come as I, myself, try and find the right answers in life.

I go back to my earlier point. I am always looking to keep my life enriched and exciting and just wonder if this can happen if I just stay put in Thailand. Where does my next buzz come from? All I need is to have good money behind me – which is why I always work on more than 2 or 3 projects at any one time – and never settle for anything less than extraordinary. If you dream and think differently to the expectation of the circles of where you live, then you can break the mold and choose how you really want to live. This is absolutely irrespective of where you live.

If we live on our own terms then it does not matter where you live but we should also not fall into a trap of monotonous routine (Be that the UK or Thailand).