Day V7: A Fine Day of Golf

July 7, 2024

The rest was much needed and I could already feel the trip was starting to turn the corner. The wise words from my friend back in Shanghai who is really a mentor to me said, "Whatever happens with the outcome of your visit to the stepmother and the estate, the lawyers and all that, don't let it ruin your mood for the trip. This is already turning out to be one of your best trips."

He was completely right. I realized after having such a good sleep that I'm quite starting to enjoy this trip. This was made even more by that blissful air conditioning that started working in the Airbnb. Right now the weather is exactly the same as Pattaya in the dry season. Nonstop sun, dry heat, and around 30 degrees for a high. People all around me are complaining of this 'heat wave' but I told them, "Get a grip guys. If you go to Thailand in January this is what it's like every day. And people pay big bucks for that travel."

Today the highlight would involve playing a round of golf with another one of my friends from university. We tried to start early but failed after a long political discussion at McDonald's over coffee. Then by 10am it was already starting to heat up. The golf itself was fantastic and both of our games started to improve. The course ranger tried to hurry us up and said, "Are you guys gonna make it? The people in front of you are three holes ahead. You guys have some game, you can play, but you're too slow."

Well you can thank all our discussions for slowing down the play. The time spent with him was night and day compared to the last guy. And what's crazy is we all have the same backgroud, we're all high school science teachers. He also has three kids. I asked about them. The oldest of his kids is going into trades and and skipping the typical education route. With a skilled trade worker shortage in Canada, he is no doubt going to make a fortune.

The sad thing is I hadn't seen him since 2016 which meant there was a lot to catch up on. He was absolutely shocked that I had a wife and said, "Wow, I can't believe this, she must be incredible if she managed to help you settle down" When it comes to sigma males and relationships, there are very few suitable women for us. Honestly I don't know how it happened this way but yes I do feel that my wife is incredible.

But what made this friendship so much better was we got along on so many topics and he was very receptive to learning more about how to be successful in two areas: trading and training. There was limited time on the golf course, but I tried to give him the basics on both. This all started when he said that he pulled a muscle from doing a squat to pick something off the ground and said, "Well I must be getting old" I immediately challenged that point of view in a nice way. True story, one of my personal trainers has a grandmother in her 90s who can do squats and deadlifts. The human body is designed to move, and the root cause of these injuries is not age, it is sedentary lifestyle. The typical gyms don't provide the motivation to work out either, so most people simply half ass it.

After a lot of discussion, we agreed to do an F45 group class together in his area a couple days from now.

Next we talked about stock trading, and again he was super interested and receptive to wanting to try it out. I suggested, "Put 2/3 of your capital into an index fund and the other 1/3 into stocks" then named some. I also said, "I'm not a financial advisor, but I've already helped half a dozen people do this and their trades are going very well."

Finally we talked about work and tried to wrap our heads around the policies that make no sense. For example the "policy" at most schools is that teachers decide individually if cell phones are allowed in the classrooms. Some allow it, some don't, but we need a unified top down policy. I said, "Why don't we just have students walk in the gate, hand over their phones and get a card. Then if they're caught with a cell phone in school it's much easier to police. But what happens now? These morons go around policing the teachers to see who is strict with cell phones in their classroom and who isn't. It's beyond ridiculous"

After this really productive round of golf we then followed our tradition and had drinks and food at a nearby Earl's restaurant. This time he was again shocked and said, "I can't believe how much you've cut down your drinking. Did your wife make you stop or something?" I said truthfully, "No, she had nothing to do with it. In much the same way I sold the condo in Pattaya, this was entirely my own choice. The other day I started to see six pack abs while at one of my fitness classes and realized that all this work doing the fitness was paying off. While of course I love to drink alcohol, if all that is going to offset my fitness gains then I will cut back"

Later on it was time for another glorious nap and then an evening bike ride. The weather was definitely like Thailand now.

Today's ride: 13 km (8 miles)
Total: 161 km (100 miles)

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