2023 is already coming to an end, and it’s time for the yearly review.  2022’s year in review I got 80% finished but never published, so I will combine it into this 2023 year in review.

Previous years in review here:

2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

2023 Summary:

  • Got married in early January, and my family came out to visit for the first time.
  • In February we did our annual skiing trip to Niseko in Japan which was incredible.  Perhaps the best ski trip I’ve ever had.
  • In March/April, we were in Phuket working on finishing our house (2 years in the making), and we hosted a few friends for Songkran (Thai New Year)
  • In May we were in the USA for a few weeks visiting family (had a great party with Uncle Tim and had a couple fun nights gambling in Blackhawk), and in early June we flew from the USA to Paris (France), took a train to Cologne (Germany), and then a train to Munich to spend a couple days at Therme Erding.
  • We were back to Bangkok in June, got caught up on work, fitness, etc.
  • In July we visited Nan province to visit Kemji’s family up there.  From there we flew back to Phuket to work on the house more and relax in nature.
  • In August we were back in Bangkok visiting friends and catching up on work, and at the end of August I flew to the US.
  • I spent all of September in the US solo, going to concerts (seeing Frank Turner at the Stanley), going bear hunting with Austin, going to Steamboat Springs with Tim/Karla, and attending Richie’s wedding up near Lyons, Colorado.  Was also in Blackhawk for 2 nights with John/mom and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Also saw the Counting Crows at Red Rocks.
  • In early October before heading back to Asia, Renae, mom, and I went to a beer festival in Evergreen, and then saw Gaslight Anthem with John, Scott, and crew the night before departing back to Thailand.
  • I spent 2 weeks in Bangkok getting settled back in before heading to Phuket to get a new couch delivered in the second half of October.  I also attended the vegetarian festival with Steve for the first time finally which people do piercings and push needles and knifes through their skin – it is pretty wild, google “Phuket Vegetarian Festival”.  It is worth seeing in person.
  • At the end of October, Kemji’s parents came to stay with us in the house in Phuket for the first time, and also took them out on a boat around Pha Nga Bay with Aaron and Lenny.  It was an excellent trip.
  • In November headed back to Bangkok, played with VR games at Emquartier, met up with Josh/Shampoo and their new baby, and attended the Bangkok Light Festival at RCA.
  • In the middle of November we flew to Koh Phangan with 10 other friends to stay in an incredible villa as a group.  It was an excellent retreat organized by Chris with a great sauna, cold plunge, and gym in a remote part of the island.  I hardly left for 10 days, and it was productive and relaxing.
  • From there we went back to Phuket and I competed in the Spartan Asian Championship nearby our house there with Gabe and Lenny.  It was a fun challenge and 80 minutes of effort but a lot of room to improve in 2024.  A week later in early December I attended the Cannabis Festival at Blue Tree to see the latest in the industry
  • In early December we were back in Bangkok for a checkup and some business, and currently it’s December 22nd and I’m back in Phuket at our house writing this report.  In 2 days we have 11 friends visiting and we’re hosting a Christmas Party and will be here through the New Year.  It’s been a busy, but fun and fulfilling year.

WHAT WENT WELL THIS YEAR?

This year was definitely up there as one of the best so far.  The year started with our wedding, along with my family coming out to Thailand for the first time ever. It was a treat to have so many amazing friends and family together in Phuket for a party and it turned out better than expected.  If you would have asked me 5 years ago if I ever wanted to get married, I’d have said no.  I have and do stand by the perspective though that every 4 years your perspectives can quite radically change, so whatever opinions I’ve held and continue to hold now I’ve always held loosely and open to new ideas and perspectives over time.

The wedding was more than anything a great reason to bring together a lot of amazing people to celebrate life really.  Anytime you get the chance to bring together a bunch of cool people to celebrate, we should do it.  And we should do more of it.  I’d also say the wedding gave a strong sense of direction about where the next years were heading, which actually made life better so far.

The primary goal of the year was to focus on health, having some fun experiences, and to start a family.  Kemji is now pregnant and it’s been an exciting experience – I’ll write a full post on that for another date.

We also completed building our house in Phuket, which took a lot more time than expected and was 2 years in the making.  It has turned out well and I suppose the effort is what makes it satisfying.  We’ve hosted a bunch of friends and will spend Christmas and New Years there this year for the first time.

Witnessing one of my childhood best friends getting married in the beautiful mountains of Colorado was a great experience.  It’s always good to see other people happy and getting what they want out of life.

I’ve also had the goal for awhile to get my mom a new home, but while I haven’t done that, I did get her a new apartment which she is enjoying.

Health wise, 2023 was excellent.  I’m as strong as I’ve ever been, been continuously training for strength and working on improving endurance.  In November, I completed the Asian Championship for Spartan in Phuket, Thailand which was a good challenge, and fun.  It gave a good benchmark to compete against next year.  I go into 2024 in the best shape of my life, but with a lot of room to improve and take health to the next level.

I also cut back on drinking a lot this year.  In part that was due to planning to start a family, and in part because it has been something I’ve been working towards for a few years (see previous yearly reports).

Relationships: This year I had a lot of social activities and a lot of fun adventures with friends and family.  You only have so much time and I would like to spend more time with my family and the closest people to me – this involves saying no to more things.

Business: The business has remained steady this year – I hired 2 new staff to help things run smoothly, and I’ve launched some new projects.  Most importantly, I’ve learned a lot and happy with the current state of the business and where it is going in 2024.  I’m planning to make 2024 the best year yet.

WHAT DID I LEARN THIS YEAR?

I’ve learned a lot this year. I’ve learned how to have a wedding, how to build a house, how to have a kid, and I’ve learned a lot in terms of my business, investing, the state of the world, and the nature of my own mind.  I’ve read a fair bit this year and listened to a lot of podcasts, but I would like to spend more time doing this each day next year.

A lot of these things I’ve learned you can only know through experience.  A lot of life you can gain perspective through reading and talking to others, but many things you have to experience to feel and truly understand.  It’s like hearing a love song and trying to understand it when you’ve never been in love.  You have to fall in love to truly understand.

I learned a lot about patience this year.  Focusing on things within my control and dealing with unexpected events better.  I’ve realized that so much of life and the quality of it is how well you deal with unexpected events that arise and come up often.

WHAT DIDN’T GO SO WELL THIS YEAR?

For all the improvements I’ve made, I still spent too much sitting and indoors.  I make an effort to run in the evenings outside, and get morning sunlight often.  But I still find myself indoors most of the time.  It is a major issue plaguing modern society and we should all be making efforts to spend more time outside in the sun with the people we love.

While I’ve cut back on drinking a lot and happy with the progress, I also smoked a fair bit of THC.  I enjoy it to relax but I know it isn’t good for my health nor my productivity.  It’s all about figuring out balance, as with anything in life.  I probably smoked a bit too much this year and next year plan to largely cut it out entirely.

Reading wise, I need to allocate more time to reading as I didn’t read as much as I would have liked.  My to-do list and notes are growing faster than I can keep up so I’m working to build out a better system to be more effective in that regard.

WHAT AM I WORKING TOWARD?

2024 is shaping up to be another interesting and fun year.  In July, we have our first baby due which I’m very excited about.  We have an upcoming trip in January to Japan for skiing, and after, several friends visiting from the USA.  In March/April we plan to be in the USA visiting family and seeing the total solar eclipse.

Aside from that, we’re still trying to finish the bar and interior design on the Phuket house, and I’ve got a fair amount of work projects I’m working on. Specifically, I’ve been playing a lot with ChatGPT and the Open AI API which is mind blowing to anyone who has used it – highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t yet.  I’m building out various tools that use the API to create useful products and services, and to learn exactly how it all works.  Often the best way to learn is by doing.

Learning to raise a child will be interesting endeavor – I’ve been reading a lot and taking notes, and excited to learn through doing.  Creating life and bringing them into the world is magical in so many ways, and the feelings of doing it are so much different than I initially expected.

I’ve got about 25 books on my Kindle and Audible that I want to get through so I’m going to make time to spend more time learning and taking notes, as well as organizing my “second brain” better so I can be more effective.  I also will create more content publicly this year in effort to learn more about that skill, and do hopefully be useful to others.  It seems creating videos is one of the best modern skills to have and it has to be done by actually doing.

ALL TOGETHER

Looking back, it’s remarkable how much can be accomplished in a year.  The key it is stay healthy and fit, make small progress each day, and most importantly, enjoy the journey.  You do better work when you enjoy what you do.  You have a better life when you enjoy day to day.  This year was definitely up there as one of the best so far.  Here’s to an even better 2024!

If you’re interested in hearing more about my daily thoughts, follow me on Twitter @pjkmedia.

All the best in 2024 and thanks for reading.

Last year, in 2022, I had written most of my yearly review but didn’t publish it.  So I’m including a summary below of 2022:

  • We rang in the New Year in Bangkok at Sofitel on the roof.  While the view was good, it lacked any countdown or fireworks which was strange.
  • In mid January we stayed on Kamala Beach with Sam and Chris in a villa deep in the jungle, and later moved to a Hyatt closer to the water.  We were in Phuket to relax, and also visit the construction of the house we’re building.
  • We also went to the Bluetree Waterpark near our new place in Phuket with Sam and Chris.
  • At the end of January I did a fitting for a new tailored suit from Savile Row with Marc.
  • In February, we did a lads trip to Phuket and cannabis was legalized in Thailand.  A big move that made Thailand even better.
  • In March, we went to a great omakase in Bangkok and also celebrated St Patricks day at Osheas.
  • At the end of March we flew to New York City, spent a few days there, then flew to Miami to get on the Flogging Molly cruise.
  • We sailed to the Bahamas with the Flogging Molly and many other bands, along with my brother John and a few other friends, it was epic.
  • In April we flew to Colorado to visit family.  I rented a house in Winter Park with a hot tub to relax in the mountains with some family and friends.
  • End of April, my brother Ron came to town and we went to a baseball game and to walking street in Boulder.  We also hiked around Evergreen Lake.
  • I later met up with Austin in Castle Rock for a day of hanging out and catching up, as well as a gym session.  I also went to a Rapids game with Uncle Tim and Karla at the end of April.
  • During that same week, I took Kemji and my mom to an Avalance hockey game, and also saw Joey Harkum play live in Denver.
  • In early May saw the Menzingers in Denver, and also went up to Garden of the Gods with my Uncle Tim.
  • In June we were back in Phuket for the Kolour Festival.  When back in Bangkok we went to a Westin Pool Party.
  • In July and early August we spent 3 weeks in Turkey traveling with some friends, including 3 Turkish friends.  It was an epic adventure and perhaps one of the coolest countries I’ve ever visited.  We roadtripped for much of it, visiting the famous Cappadocia for a hot air balloon ride.
  • From Turkey, Kemji and I flew to Zurich, Switzerland for a few days before heading to Amsterdam to link up with Bryce and Sam from the US.
  • In September we were back in Phuket and went on a boat with Chris, his sister, and his brother.
  • At the end of September, I took Kemji and her dad to Kanchnaburi and the hotel was generous enough to sponsor the trip for us.  It was an excellent resort along the water and very relaxing.
  • In October, my friends put on a bachelor party to celebrate the upcoming wedding in Jan. 2023.
  • At the end of October, Kemji and I went to Bali for Kemji’s birthday.  I ended up getting food poisoning as I always do there so it made the trip worse than expected.
  • In November we celebrated Loy Kratong, and our friends Josh/Shampoo came from Australia and we rented a villa in Rawai in the southern part of Phuket.
  • At the end of November, Lenny and I ran the Bangkok Half Marathon starting at 2am, so we stayed in a hotel in Chinatown the night before.
  • In December we were back in Phuket to wrapup some things for the wedding.  We then were back in Bangkok and went to Wonderfruit Music Festival near Pattaya.
  • At the end of December we went wakeboarding at Lake Taco and was at Tom and Callum’s for Christmas, along with New Years on the roof of Richmond.
The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profile

Patrick

Web Developer
I write for fun, I travel for fun, and I enjoy learning. I hate sugar-coating things. Understand the world in reality, not by dogma. Question everything.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profile

Latest posts by Patrick (see all)