These are the things that are going on with me right now (updated February 2025)…
Where?
I currently live in Phuket, Thailand with my wife, daughter and son. We’ve been here since 2020.
Teaching and learning
I teach Science and Computing at the British International School in Phuket, Thailand (BISP). Great to be working as part of two teams. It is also incredibly time consuming so I am always on the search for efficiencies.
I am also tutoring a number of students in Maths and English.
Outlining for my book Bird Brain
I’m trying to develop a solid structure for this book before I start the writing as I think it will be a stronger story with a better character mix if I do this right. Then the fun stuff, writing. However, I’m struggling to find uninterrupted blocks of time to get in a flow state.
Other books
After re-acquired design software, I released Just Call Me Drew, and Help Me Hammer as ebooks. I’m tweaking the cover of Bird Brain at the moment.
Kids
My daughter is doing the International Baccalaureate and some pretty complex mathematics, for which she sometimes wants my help. Right now it’s trigonometry (functions, identities) and calculus: content I’ve never encountered, so I have been learning it, then helping her with questions. Tough but rewarding. She’s interested in doing a half iron man in Queensland next year, so we have been cycling together for distances up to 80km so far. We want to get to 90km before she goes back to Adelaide in June this year.
My son is into strength training at the gym so we go around three times a week. Excellent for the relationship and health, though he seems to like going more on his own recently. We are all looking forward to going to Japan later in the year for some powdery snowboarding and skiiing. It’s been a long time.
Marriage
I love my wife. Make her coffee (with increasingly more complex and professional-looking latte art) every day, go on walks or to the gym, ride the scooter for smoothies and massages, watch sunsets, drink the occasional wine and enjoy life.
Fitness
As I now work at the times of day I was doing my fitness activities, it has been harder to develop a routine. I set my alarm ever earlier, currently at 5:15am, to wake up with a rotation of swimming, cycling and running, then at 7pm, strength training 3 nights per week, though this is difficult to maintain when work demands are high. I got a very powerful bike light to illuminate the dark roads that early in the morning.
Contracts
I take on a contract once a year in Australia during the school holidays in Thailand. It’s good to keep up my professional credibility, meet some new people, and it puts a bit of investing money in the bank. Sadly the tax man loves it a little bit too much as well. Later this year, I will attempt to land another contract for July to September before returning to Thailand to see out our last year (for now).
Guitar
I’m trying to become better at improvising over chord changes. If I get any sort of skill in this, I know my friend Paul (who encouraged me to buy a guitar at age 32) would be ecstatic. I bought a looper pedal to lay down a rhythm and chord sequence, then play over the top. Sometimes it’s like feeling around in the dark but there’s some improvement, though slow.
Investing
I’m a relative newb in shares but I’m trying to learn from the greats. I have a very small portfolio of stocks acquired since the beginning of 2022. I just sold houses in Adelaide South Australia, and Detroit Michigan, USA, both in the same month. I’ll pay down debt and have a little left over for more shares.
Reading
- Nothing is on my nightstand for the first time in about 10 years. I don’t like it.
Now page
Do you want a page like this? See Derek Sivers’ guide to creating a ‘now’ page.
