Sunday Sum - 11th Feb 2024

Hey , welcome back to

The Sunday Summary

, a collection of insights and my behind the scenes from the past week.

🇻🇳 Travel Update:Laos to VietnamThis week I’ve gone from 32c temperatures in mid-Laos down to 12c in northern Vietnam!  Over the course of the weekend I’ve been doing the infamous Ha Giang motorcycle loop.  Fingers crossed I’m in one piece (this was written a few days before starting) 

🌴 Moments of thought and reflection:Laos was a bit of a weird country. It wasn’t on my travel itinerary, but so many people recommended it on my travels.It’s certainly lesser known than the others I’ve visited. Here’s my summary.When people said; “you need to visit Laos, it is so amazing!”, it is my opinion they were generally saying; “the scenery in Laos is amazing, it’s also far less touristy and more untouched than say Thailand”. Both valid points, but being the pessimist I am, I came to the following conclusion.It had less of an identity than say Thailand or Vietnam. It certainly has less of a "feel" to it.Food was pretty naff. Service was shockingly bad, so much so that it felt like a bit of a running joke, travel was also a lot more problematic. It was a little bit more expensive, and certain things were more faff… hiring a scooter was impossible without leaving your passport. 

It generally didn’t hit home for me.  And it’s a similar feeling when people envy someone for one particular attribute without considering all the negatives that come with it.

You can’t have things in isolation.  It’s all or nothing.

Reapplying this to travel/housing. South Africa is a beautiful country. You can get an MTV cribs style house on the ocean in Durban for the price of a 1/2 bed flat in London.  The issue. You live in Durban. Plus extras for security and other untold factors of living in ZA.

It’s similar to Chris Williamson's idea of jealousy being a stupid emotion.  Elon musk is the richest man in the world.  But you can’t cherry pick that attribute as the one want to have, as you can’t have that without all the other shit that comes with being Elon Musk.  I certainly do not envy any other aspect of his lifestyle.

“If you’re not prepared to do a 24/7 100% swap with who that person is then there is no point in being jealous.” Naval Ravikant

🎙️

A taxi feature:Become A Taxi Tour Guide - WizAnn podcast

One of the most enriching courses I've done since becoming a cabbie was the Cab guide course (tour guiding for cabbies) run by The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers.

I got together with Dean, Frank and Nicky to discuss what the tour guide meant for us, and how it has improved us as cabbies.

As a side note, I made a personal new years resolution not to do any more features like this that detract from my video making efforts.  They are fun to do, but I really need to get my down back into the video game 😊 

🎧

On heavy rotation:Equation of State - Vortex

Oh my!  I'm just so lost in this, endlessly playing this.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Please feel free to reach out to me with your; comments, concerns or just general conversation.  

I'd love to know what you're up to or what you might be working on!

 📝😁

Have a great week everyone!

Tom

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