its, semi official....

I've been hinting for a while and chatting to friends and collegues, but as is often the case these discreet chats have become semi common knowledge and I felt today that I should give work notice of my intention to retire at the end of the year, to prevent any chinese whispers taking hold.

Not quite time to make it an official resignation, there's still a few tiny things that can upset the plans, but also no point in giving 11 months notice.. I'll provide a proper resignation later in the year. But I have informed my Dean that I don't plan to be around for work in 2026. so thay can start making plans without me for next year and hunt for a replacment.

I'm going to quit in the Christmas holidays just after my 62nd birthday.

We're going to Thailand... The numbers all make sense, the plan is set up and income streams established to provide minimal income using an old UK private pension I have recently recovered,  which we can draw down on, to suppliment the savings we plan to live off. 

We rent for  up to 1 year, find a perfect house in that time, then buy outright and sit quite comfy till the pension officially kicks in. 

I won't be able to work there, as its a bit restricive for non Thais, but I can do coding and writing still, but we will be on a fairly tight budget but its still leaves us with a similar or better standard of living here...(actually quite a bit better but....dont' jinx it).

There's little to no real advantage for us to wait 5 more years apart from a slightly higher pension, but when all said and done we'll be financially very comfortable leaving this year, or really comfortable in 5 years... but losing 5 years of cosy living.

We have the equity and savings to do it in December, and retire 5 years early.. So this October, our trip will be about finding a good rental home to base ourselves while we transfer finances and some minimal possesions to Thailand. That means a massive clear out of things, guitars, computers, models, furniture, even clothes.. We can ship a small amount over, but we are better repurchasing when we're there.

We are...very very excited about this.. as the days have been ticking down since we decided to make the jump,  I've been busy making inventory and working out what we send, what we sell, what we give away.. 
The house will go on the market in the summer/autumn, with a condition that we don't hand over till December.. Houses here are selling really fast so Im hoping there wont' be any issues....well we''ll see :D Not selling would be the 1 fly in the ointment, but Im not at all concerned, Belcrum is a highly desirable area at the moment, houses sale almost as soon as the notices go up, and desptie a few things needing updated here, this is a good solid home for a couple of young family, ideal buyers.

Ahthankyew

The transition to old age

The last few weeks now, I've had the worst time staying asleep, which some of you might know is my 2nd favoute passtime.

I'm moving into old age at an alarming rate, aches and pains of course but now this sleeping nonesesne, Im only sleeping for 6-7 hours max, even at weekends. Considering I used to love spending 12 hours in bed at the weekends to catch up on nightly shortages over the previous week thats not ideal.

I dunno, maybe its a good thing, I do get snoozy at the end of the evening but if I do actually snooze it means I can't get to sleep when I go up to bed, and when I finally do, I am awake at 6-30....not great

Strange.

The book is almost done now, there were a few small issues with some code not working correctly on test systems, and I had to re-write a couple of sections to account for the fix, but the publisher was happy to give me a few more weeks to tidy things up. I am quite happy with the new book.

I have not however got my website forum back up and running yet though which is a problem. Ive upgraded the site to allow for more space for the new content, but can't seem to get access to it on my current machine, I may have to scrap the old site completly and lose the forum. I really would rather not though... I'll turn my attention to it when the book goes off to the publisher.

Ahthankyew

Happy New Year

It's here, 2025 has arrived, which is good cos there was really not much to celebrate in 2024.

We are however really looking forward to this year, Jirawan and I have a lot of things planned, a trip To Thailand of course and maybe a short break in summer,  and some major life changes that, maybe you know about. But we'll make more public once we've got more things in place over the year.

We have big big plans. And sadly big big changes. A major rework of our life, clearing out a LOT of clutter and getting ready for new challenges.

I just hope I can actually lose some bloody weight this year... its crept back up to 100kg... and all I can hear is mum commenting on my weight.. gotta do something.

So lets get it started, Happy New Year. Lets make this the best one yet.

Ahthankyew

Missing mum,

I miss mum every day, no doubt about it, but this Christmas particularly her presence was missed. 

She was never mad about Christmas, often saying she hated it (lol) it wasn't a big deal for us really but we always shared a message, even when we'd fallen out over something. Followed of course by her posting about how terrible the Christmas editions of the soaps were over Christmas. (she still watched them religiously)

Those little posts, those messages, those wishes for a happy new year... and of course my birthday which is close to Christmas.. It felt emptier this year.

I suspect it will always feel a little emptier, but in time you get used to it, I'm told.

Oh well, new year is coming, this will be a big one for Jirawan and I. Lets hope it has less downsides to it than 2024 did.

take care.

Ahthankyew

Bring it back?

Recently I had to do an update to my www.scratchpadgames.net site to stop them charging me 10euros a month to continue to support what they call an outdated PHP version.

So I did as requested, logged on to the providers site, selected update and it was done.. no more 10euros a month charges... but also, no more forums..which seemed to need that outdated PHP. which is a bit of a pain as the forums are how my book readers contact me with any issues they have. I can probably update the forums from the site content on the old PC.. but its not my main skill. I may have to junk it all and start again.

Now granted its been a while since anyone has had an issue, the book is a bit out of date now, so only a few die hards or people who left it on the shelf a couple of years, have tried to do anything with it. Also as I am working on an updated 2nd edition, the site itself is in dire need of an update.

But... the site was designed and maintained on my old warhorse PC which now lives a quiet sedentry life upstairs, seldom if ever being used.

But now I need it, and of course it really is old, and refuses to do some of its basics, like start... it does get there in about 30 mins, but its very slow..theres clearly some online update happening which upstairs has almost no internet speed.

So it needs to be refurbished while still somehow maintaining most of its software..

Though honestly since its not been actively used for 3 or 4 years, whatever software is on there is not needed or used any more on that system,  but there's some source code  and pics and so on I want to transfer

So I've bought a new GTX710 graphcis card, not exactly cutting edge, but more than it has currently and I have an unused 512GB ssd, to get windows 10 onto.. so once I rescue the website.. I will transplant some new life into the old girl and get her working again. The current drives can be used as long as it boots from teh SSD now.

If nothing else I'd like to use it for making videos and writing content... since there's room up there to keep reference books and I can go back to using my big, but, normal ratio screen that will make videos more useful. My Samsung widescreen is useless for making videos on as they stretch too much on YouTube.(Its great for coding though)

On the subject of YouTube, I've had an ok from our Creative media dept to help me make some nicely edited and shot videos to support the new book, and set up a moderatly technical teaching channel I want to continue with even when the book is been and gone. I can cover some of the topics, that students seem to find very hard in a bit more detail on a video, than I can in a class where they are falling asleep or busy watching music videso...yes Joeren, I'm talking about you...
I've made a few simple test videos myself, but meh, Im shit at this kind of content, so I'm going to get some of tomorow's pros, to help me. 

So this weekend, 1st weekend of the Xmas holidays I am working bloody hard to get upstairs into some level of organisation and ressurect an almost dead PC... wish me luck.

Ahthankyew

Feeling my age

61 on Tuesday, and no matter how many people tell me I don't look it, I feel it, I mean I really feel it. Things hurt, getting out of a chair too fast carries a risk, sitting down in a chair carries a risk...running to catch a train....no, just wait for the next one. Trips longer than an hour need to have toilet routes planned. I alternate between narcolepsy and insomnia. Its pretty horrible..

But Im still fairly sharp and bright, though I do worry a bit about forgetting things and names, I can no longer remember all my students names, which was always somehting of a party trick for me. 

I am stuck with this 16yo brain in a 61 year old body, and it sucks... 

And its fucking cold........I really want to be somewhere warm... soon... soon..

Ahthankyew

Heavy shit man

Well I hope its shit... cos that I can get rid off... back up to 98kg....damn

nope nope nope nope nope.... starve yourself Brian you fat fucker.. thats insane..

So, no booze, no lunch and a tiny evening meal. 

There's no way in hell Im creeping back over 100kg.. no chance.

Ahthankyew