CRINGE BENEFITS - for subsequent blog posts, go to that page on www.lifeilao.com - we're going onsite!!

Sometimes I get to do ‘non-tax’ essays.  This is one of them…..

We came to Bangkok for many reasons - one of them was medical – my annual, very comprehensive physical exam at Bumrungrad Hospital is one of them – this is the 16^th year that I’ve been doing this..   As usual, an ultrasound was part of the exam but this year was different from other years: there were 3 'things' in my upper bladder that could only be removed in a way no man wants to hear.....

There were no options other than surgery.  Surgery, 8 days after the ultrasound, completely removed 4 'low grade' cancer growths (yeah they found one more - one either smaller than or newer than that which the ultrasound picked up).  There is 30% likelihood of recurrence

and as a result, I have to be 'scoped' everyquarter, for the next 5 years........

That modern medical science has conceived of a way to handle this

situation is a fucking miracle!  Alas, human psychology will never

overcome the difficulty of discussing this type of 'procedure' with

another man -  with any other man, anywhere!  The sympathy pains; the

whole-body 'cringing' at the thought of what must be done is universal to the species.  I'm trying to find humor in this - I haven't, yet.....but I am 'encouraged'.....

I cannot speak highly enough about the three physicians and two of the

registered nurses who worked with me during the 4 day visit to

Bumrungrad Hospital. The RN who withdrew the catheter had my life in her

hands!!!

The inpatient facilities there are superb – and the ability to bring in 'real food' instead of hospital food made it far more enjoyable (although using the word 'enjoyable' is not really what I could ever possibly mean!)  With 4 tubes in and three exiting me, I have new-found sympathy for my forever entwined computer cables under my desk, at home.  Recuperation is going to be slow - I am not quite willing to 'accept' but guess I have to........

I'm going 'easy' through the end of the month here in Bangkok.  My

brother just left back for L.A..  Katherine flies back to Guangzhou on the 20th. Joanna, our daughter, will be here on a daddy-daughter week with me through the 26th, when she departs.  I fly home to Guangzhou on the 28th. If something like this had to happen, at least the timing  is right!  Although finishing a book with a deadline based upon the time I was to be admitted to the hospital is not something I wish to experience, ever again.....

I start the first of those 90 day check ups in May in Bangkok.......

I'll be back again, briefly, in August for another scope.....and later

on this year, Katherine and I  will expand our three month stay to four

months, from mid-November, 2015  through mid-March, 2016 I’ll get two scopes in one trip - think of the travel savings!!  I can easily handle Hong Kong business from here - especially with far better internet than the great firewall of China permits back home.  Frequency of flights between BKK and HK make commutes, as necessary, no obstacle, whatsoever, to spending more time here. Besides, Bangkok is fun!!!

Recuperation time, though, is also a marvelous, unplanned opportunity

for me to spend a daddy-daughter week with my 21  year-old.   

We'll be together after Katherine leaves on 20 February through her

departure on 26 February.  I’m really looking forward to being ‘one-on-one’ with her!!!

'Shit happens' - especially when one doesn't plan for it.........what

else can I say??

Anyhow,  I expect to be fully functional, once I get back home to

Guangzhou  (except for internet limitations imposed by the great firewall of China) and I'm going to be in Hong Kong from 8-22 March

when  'tax season' for the 49th time in my life, officially

begins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy year of the goat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a good day.....

We more or less have our cover for this year's book.....editing and re-writes are coming along well.....Valentine's Day, 14 February 2015, is my target date for getting the whole kit and kaboodle to my ebook publishers.....and the only real question is:  will this, the 6th book of my literary career, be the last??

Plodding right along.....

Yes siree, folks, here I am, slowly but surely, getting sections out for edit and finishing the book.....and truly, in between, I am actually doing some tax work!

The weather has turned hot here but that heat is far more tolerable because while there is humidity, that humidity ain't no where like it is back in the Pearl River Delta, where the temperature is cooler but the surroundings simply not as conducive towards writing a book.

Am I able to churn the words?  Hell yes!   I was advised correctly - write every day - each and every day, or else the words will simply not flow as fluidly as they do, now.....

So onwards I go, content to be a writer, writing.....and when I burn out from that, to become a showman and tax preparer......life goes on, same, same, year after year......including being hacked....c'est la vie.....

In the groove

Last night was a 'killer', sitting at the computer from 11:30pm - shortly before 3am to 'attend' a tax webinar......

More of the same, tonight......exacerbated by the fact that tomorrow morning at 8am there is yet another webinar to attend.......

Such is the life of one in pursuit of CPE!!!

And yet, life is getting a bit more relaxed now that I've finished the first draft of this year's book.....true, there are a couple of additional things I will be writing  for this year's book but they are not going to be difficult writings and it is not a 'burden' as it was last year.  Last year I simply wanted to get it done, get the agony over with....this year I want to get it done right!!

First draft done!!!

.....and on the 24th of January 2015, I completed the first draft of this year's book.....now the review process starts.........goal:  to complete and submit for balance of editing before our houseguests arrive.....and then acclimate myself to being a good host!

Sunday morning in Bangkok

James Harden, one on one, just scored in a Houston-Golden State NBA game playing on my iPad, right next to my computer.  It is 8:30am on a Sunday morning.  Bangkok - at least this section where we dwell - still sleeps.  Me?  I've been at the computer for about an hour.  I've gone through the ePapers for Sunday, printed out the articles I want to read and sorted them into a reading order.  I've got some work I should be doing today but I'm not going to.  The work, the writing can wait another day.  Yesterday was a meeting day - Thonglor in the morning for the 180 (including tip) baht shave and haircut, then a croissants and espresso breakfast meeting.  Home to go pee followed by two meetings at Kuppa, down the block from where we are staying.  3-1/2 hrs of tax meetings....enough for today, enough for the weekend.  Time to slow down, I've moved too fast - got to make the body (and mind) last - in order to maintain this life of feeling groovy in Bangkok!  Breakfast with friends at 10 at Bourbon Street....then meeting Katherine at 12:30pm at the Emporium......Enjoy the day, anyone out there who might read this.....I certainly will have fun!!!!!

The writing game.....

The more one writes, the easier it all flows.....it's true, it's true!

I'm productive....I'm on schedule.....I actually like doing some of it!!!!! ?

I'll finish draft #1 with more than sufficient time to review, edit, change things, et al and get the review draft to my 4 reviewers prior to both my brother and daughter's arrival in Bangkok......

And then, after everyone's left, I'll assemble all editorial notes and correct, as needed and get to the publishers prior to departing Bangkok!!!

The very wealthy minor leagues of professional football in the United States

Big time football and basketball at the university level in the United States is nothing more or less than professional sports.

I watched the Oregon-Ohio State national championship game, yesterday morning in Bangkok.  The quarterback of Ohio State, 6 foot, 5 inch, 250 pound Cardale Jones looked noticeably older than his team mates.  He's only played in three games this year because the two who were considered better than him were injured.  And yet, what a difference he made.

But is the purpose of a university to promote sports at this level?

Cardale is a 'red shirt sophmore' because he was penalized a year of the game due to a twitter posting of his, a couple of years ago, as a freshman:

"Why shold we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS"

Why was he punished?  He's made his point.  Sports, though, at major university level, are here to stay regardless of educating the athletes - big time events bring in the big time bucks that support a heck of a lot that would not otherwise be supported.

Who's to say if it's correct.....yet I must admit, it was a great game to watch and this guy, with only three games under his belt, is a phenomenal quarterback who can run and throw (80 yards - no shit!).

This will be a two game year - yesterday's game and the Superbowl!!!

And on a rare day off.....

Yeah, I am at the computer.  True, I looked at emails, erasing irrelevancies, here and there but basically not answering.

Of course I have some tax writing, just a bit, that I'd like to do but no big loss of I don't write today.

Breakfast with the old farts club at Bourbon Street, this morning.  Picking up a ream of A-4 paper on the way back to our apartment.....and now to watch the balance of a movie I start last night.....of course, if sleep and an afternoon nap beckons, then forget the movie!!!

And jazz harmonica this afternoon?   I'll have my harmonica with me but I don't think I will play.....

Do the maths!

There is very definite value to being in solitude in order to get a jump start on writing:  during the past 12 days Katherine has been in China, I have generated over 28,000 words of what will be a 40-45,000 word book.

The physical and emotional wear and tear upon one to generate so much, trying to create sense and humor out of documentation that does anything but make sense and is the antithesis of humor could only be done in my sloppiness and solitude, and tomorrow will be my last 'intense' day, because Katherine returns on Sunday!!!!   But do the maths:  if the book is going to run 40-45,000 words and I'm going to 'close' tomorrow with approximately 30,000 words, then the pressure is off and 1,000 words a day between Monday and the 24th of January will be a veritable 'piece of cake'!

So pressure-free that I started a new article, today, for Tax Analysts and I will have no problem working on it, daily.......