Well well well. One year ago today I left the not so sunny shores of ye olde Melbourne towne for the adventure of a lifetime – living and working in Thailand. Seems like only six months ago that I wrote about how much I liked it here.

Do I still like it here? Yeah I guess so. The novelty has worn off, the honeymoon is over, and daily life is generally unexceptional and not particularly blog-worthy. I’m eating well (maybe a little too well), not drinking too much, and comfortably in domestic bliss thanks to MyTGF.

Am I homesick? Yeah I guess so. I crave aussie tucker, I don’t get to hear any cool new music or see independant films, I miss male companionship (I have no bloke friends to interact with in meatspace here) and I know I could be earning better bucks back home.

Would I move back home? No f’ing way, at least not right now. There’s still lots of adventures to be had, and things to do and see. I still enjoy the cheap food and cheap living, the need to get out and experience new things when time and budget permits, and the laughter of sharing and discovering the differences in culture with MyTGF.

In the last twelve months I

• Lounged on tropical Islands
• Ate Scorpions
• Experienced earthquakes
• Learned how not to chat up a Thai woman
• And petted wild tigers

Things to do in the next twelve months:

• Learn to speak better/more Thai. After a year, being able to say little more than “my name is Robbie, I come from Australia, do you have a boyfriend yet? Would you like to come home with me?” (one of the first things I learned to say) is starting to wear thin.
• See Angkor Wat. It’s not in Thailand, but its so close it might as well be.
• Go another year without getting in a punch up with a bunch of locals. I might have come close a few times in the first six months, but the idea of getting the almighty bejesus beaten out of me by a dozen drunken thai kickboxing construction-workers has strangely tempered my uhh…temper.
• Have enough patience to teach MyTGF to be able to say “parrallel” so it doesn’t come out like “pallarrairr”.
• Enjoy the best of what this country has to offer while remembering that nowhere is perfect and to make the most of it while it lasts.

So stay tuned, I’m not sure if this thing is even turned on any more (does anybody read it?) I’m sure the next twelve months will be just as interesting as the last.