Odyssey-23 November 1st

Monday, November 1st

First day of working on my working holiday

Could I really have a "working holiday"?

By "working holiday" I mean more than just continuing to work with my clients during the holiday. I mean that I also intend and have planned to maintain a certain level of rigor regarding eating a healthy diet, taking my daily supplements, and exercising.

Above you can see two sheets on my "desk" top. The first has the title of "Morning Routine for Dwight for 2021/11/1." Heidi preprinted these checklists for each day through November 21st. This checklist helps me keep track of all the items to handle during my early morning times.

The second list just has today's date. In this case, "2021/11/1." This is a lined sheet, one for each day, that Heidi preprinted for me through November 21st. When things come up throughout the day that I don't want to forget to do or I need to follow through on, I easily jot them down on this list so as to not forget them. At the beginning of each day, I start with a fresh list, transferring any items that have not already been handled.

Blue timer

See that blue timer on my desk? It's set for ten minutes. Often I use a timer to support me in alternating on different types of tasks and activities. In most cases, especially in the mornings, I do a lot of writing for this website. But, if I'm not careful, I'll get too engaged in doing that and not leave enough time to get many other things done that are important and I also like to do. With the timer, I typically do ten minutes of working on my website, then ten minutes of other items, back and forth. I'm a big fan of timers!

This is just part of the support structure that I brought with me to create and maintain the "working holiday" that I planned.

Waking-up time

An important part of having a working holiday is arising at 2.00 am consistently Monday-Friday. I'm happy to share with you that this was no problem for my first Monday of this holiday...and I got to sleep early enough on Sunday night that I was well rested!

Riki had prepared all my supplements

Riki, my house manager, had prepared in packets both my powdered supplements and my capsule/tablet supplements. Today was also my first day to take all my supplements. The powdered supplements are already mixed into the cup of water. In one packet are my chlorella tablets. In the other packet are about 25 other types of supplements.

Success!

My "breakfast"

In the bowl are boiled groats and beans, topped off with dried longans, cranberries, goji berries, and one-half cup of mixed nuts. To this, I will add liquid stevia for a bit of sweetening along with a generous cup of hot soy milk.

So delicious, fulfilling, and healthy!

Does the ultrasonic pesticide remover really work?

I've decided to take the risk that it does...and maybe I'll never know. But it's easy enough to use.

I found a microwave on the third floor

In an open kitchen, seemingly little used, on the third floor of this hotel, I found a microwave oven. Cooking vegetables like potatoes and even green beans with my induction cooker would take too long and be inconvenient. After finagling with the Chinese labeled "buttons," I was able to figure out how to set it on 12.5 minutes and they cooked to perfection. I left them there to cook and retrieved them about an hour later.

My hot food for the day

Spiced with some mixed Chinese spices, a bit of hot chili pepper, and some red curry paste I brought with me, this hot vegetable stew/soup was delicious.

Laundromat problem solved!

Previously, the hotel manager Mr. Wen had provided me with the address of a laundromat that I could take my dirty clothes to in order to wash and dry them. However, he surprised me by showing me an old-style clothes washer I could use on the third-floor patio area. He also showed me a place that I could hang up my clothes to dry on the third floor. Talk about making me feel at home!

What does this mean?

Does this just brag that this area currently has a lot of fresh air? Or does it mean that this area is under special protection to make sure it maintains a lot of fresh air?

It would be interesting to know something about his world?

But I don't have an interpreter yet.

These salesladies are finishing up a "let's get back to work" pep rally

This young man prays to one of his gods

Scorpions, locusts, and spiders (my best guess in naming these creatures)

These are just a few of the insect delicacies on display outside two or three different restaurants that I have walked by in the last few days.

Do these restaurants display these foods because some people really enjoy eating them? Or because they have a curiosity or shock value?

Scissors, clothes-washing detergent, food container, apples, red bell pepper, and pear

These cost 43,60 rmb ($6.80) at the local market.

I love to pay attention to prices

You may have noticed that I pay more attention to prices, more than most people. The prices of food, of transportation, of rent, of services, of whatever.

It seems that a lot of people pay more attention to income (what others, often employers, have to pay as a price to hire them) than they do to prices they pay and how they could save money.

Having buffer and freedom with money

I often find that my friends and clients don't have a lot of freedom and buffer regarding their money, whereas I do (earlier in my life I didn't). One of the reasons that I have this freedom is that I pay attention to how I spend my money and I take pleasure in spending less, while at the same time buying just about anything I need and want to buy. In general, I will buy the lowest price I can easily find of any item I want, unless I have good reason to believe that I will be able to experience a difference in value for the difference in paying more money.

The biggest way that I save money

Other things being equal, no matter the other benefits, I would never live in a high- or even median-cost country. Think USA, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, most of Europe, and Australia.

I took some time to create an Excel spreadsheet a few years back. I guesstimated how much it would cost me to maintain my current "standard of living" that I enjoy in Kunming if I tried to maintain that same standard in the USA in a similar-sized city (I like big cities). That means I would rent a 2700-square-foot apartment, I would have a full-time personal-business assistant, I would have a housekeeper, I would take taxis any place I wanted to go, I would eat out whenever I like, go to a doctor anytime I want to get something checked out (it usually costs me less than $1.50 USD here), get a root canal with cap (less than $200 USD here).

Bottom line: it would cost me at least 4.5 times more than here. Unless I was able and willing to remove all time and money buffers from my life, I could not afford that.

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