Life, Travels, and Daily English Posts
It's been raining all day today, so for the first time in Thailand, I turned off my air conditioner. I also wanted to visit the swimming pool, but the weather was bad. I felt cold because the wind was strong. Only in the evening did the weather get better.
Well, today is my last weekend in Thailand, so I want to share my next plans in this post. As you can already tell from the title, I couldn’t go to the Phi Phi Islands and visit my dream island, Maya Bay. It’s really sad because I promised myself I wouldn’t leave without visiting that place.
Continuing my previous post about the military summons, I want to share some updates on this topic. I received a notification that my letter had finally been delivered to the military office on 14 July. Now I'm sure that they received my data for clarification, and soon I should receive an answer. By the way, this notification was left in my mailbox, and I'm not sure what time it was dropped there. Although, at this point, it didn't really matter what time it was left in the mailbox.
Here and here, I shared posts about how I got a military summons and how I sent my data to clarify everything. However, I still haven't received any answer to my letter. Instead, I got a notification saying that they will restrict my rights because I didn't come to the military office. The thing is, I shouldn't have gone there on legal grounds because I was sick that day, which is a valid reason for not showing up. However, the letter says that I didn't have a valid reason. So now I have two thoughts: either they declined my reason for being sick, or this letter is just an automatic notification.
During those two hours, I sat in the dentist's chair with my mouth open and listened to them talking to each other as they discussed the implant installation process. It wasn't easy for me because my mouth gradually became tired, especially my lower jaw. Thankfully, I had plenty of opportunities to close my mouth and rest a little from time to time. Even so, I still felt a bit uncomfortable. However, everything was tolerable and completely painless.
Today at 6 PM, I left home and drove to a nearby city for an event with people I know. Luckily, everything was fun and enjoyable. There was no tamada, no dancing, no singing, or any other activities that I don't really like. We just spent time around the table, talking, enjoying the meal, and chatting until 11 PM. So I got back home only around midnight.
Today, after my trip to Kazan, I went for a ride on my bike along my usual route. But this ride wasn't very successful, as I got caught in the rain twice while riding through the meadow and forest. Luckily, I didn't get completely soaked, but my sneakers and legs got wet, especially in places where the grass was very tall. Still, I couldn't skip my ride today because I had already missed it yesterday. So I decided to give it a try, even though the sky was cloudy and the weather forecast said there could be rain within the next two hours. Of course, they were right, but I still didn't give up and reached my goal of keeping my consistency.
Yesterday I took several blood tests: a complete blood count, a coagulogram, glucose, and infection tests for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and syphilis. They emailed me all the results except for the infection tests, since they're considered sensitive information. So I'll need to visit the clinic one more time to pick those results up in person before the surgery and bring them to the dentist's office. After that, they should decide whether I can go ahead with the dental implant surgery.
This is so crazy: I drove to refuel my car's tank in the middle of the night without any rest or sleep. But I had my reasons, as all the gas stations were crowded and had huge traffic jams during the day whenever fuel was available. So instead of waiting under the hot sun during the day and wasting my time, I had one plan: try to refuel at night. Luckily, it was successful.
Today I decided to take my next blood test in Kazan at a private clinic before my next dental implant surgery. My family members also decided to go on this trip with me so we could visit our relatives afterward. But something went wrong. When I finished my business at the clinic, we got a message saying they had already gone from the city to their country house. So we changed our plans and drove there instead, as we had some presents for them and couldn't just cancel the visit.
My usual outdoor activities started closer to 5 o'clock, once the weather became sunny and dry. Despite the rain earlier in the day, the ground was still comfortable enough for a bike ride, so I headed out as usual, wearing my damaged New Balance sneakers. I had cut them during one of my previous bike rides while trying to avoid obstacles on a forest trail, but they're still comfortable enough to keep wearing. Other than that, the ride was pretty ordinary. I cycled through forests and along highways, where I noticed horses and a wild rabbit sitting on the forest trail. It didn't get scared of me—it just noticed me, looked around for a moment, and then calmly continued on its way.
The day went quite well, without anything unusual or unexpected. I tried to spend it as productively as I could and complete some of my tasks while staying at home during the cloudy weather. Fortunately, the weather improved during the second part of the day, which gave me another great opportunity to leave my place for a bike ride among the trees on the forest trail.
These days have been a bit cloudy, but without any rain that could bother my outdoor activities. So while the weather gives me the opportunity, I keep working on the goals I've set for myself. Even though it's just 10–15 km across fields, meadows, and forests surrounded by hills, every ride is enjoyable. Not only do my bike rides help me keep my body toned, but they also give me the chance to enjoy nature and take photos along the way. Because of that, I've been especially busy experimenting with photography during my rides over the last few days. This time, I tried taking photos where I included my mountain bike along with parts of my body, like my hands and legs. I think that kind of perspective is interesting and a bit unusual.
Yesterday, I was wrong about the obstacles in the forest, saying that all of them had been removed. Today, when I reached the forest and started riding along the trail, I noticed that all of those obstacles had been restored. But after restoring them, some of the obstacles became much stronger than before. If they had used only small branches and fallen trees before, now that crazy guy—or guys—used huge, long logs, which can be quite challenging to move without extra help.