On Monday 24th of this month I will be on a flight to Thailand. It will only be my fourth flight to see my wife and dogs since I moved here nearly six years ago. But this time, it is not just a short visit, but I am moving back for good. Last Monday I packed up all my test equipment and a few personal items and they were stuffed into a crate to send back to Thailand. What is left I have tried to sell. The few items left will be thrown in a skip. On the 20th the skip is picked up leaving my factory empty, so I move to a hotel over that weekend before I fly.

Of course, missing Ploy and the dogs is a big part of the decision. But also, after making a casual enquiry, I found my state pension kicks in this year. It is not a lot, but in Thailand, where we own the house and car, it more than pays all the day to day bills. It provides what we have never really had - a stable income to supplement that of SingMai. With SingMai having to pay all our bills, it means we accept anything and everything that is thrown our way, many orders being accepted against our better judgement. Just before Christmas, two companies cancelled their orders after I had spent considerable time working on their special requirements. I had sort of suspected things were going that way, but you keep working, more in hope than anything else. Now we have that additional income we can be much more selective about accepting orders that require custom design.

Manufacturing will be subcontracted. So without me having to do that, and not having to spend so much time on custom design, I will get to spend much more time with Ploy. Call it semi-retirement if you wish.

I've had a few health issues since I been in the UK - nothing serious, but some of that is being alone so much. You become lazy. I finish work and slump in front of the TV, too tired to go out, and in any case not wanting to just sit in a pub by myself listening to a group of grumpy old men complain about immigration. I work seven days a week because - well what else is there to do? Thailand encourages a more outdoor lifestyle, if only because of the better weather - but also because my wife encourages me. Loosing a few kilo can only be for the good.

More time to write those books; maybe restart the maths degree? But also to restart SingMai. We had just introduced a new product (but the worldwide component shortages stymied its production) - however we had received orders from all around the world for it, so first job there is to workaround the component problems and reintroduce it.

There is work to be done on the house - Ploy has sent me a link to a cruise she wants us to make: this is far from retirement. But as my life has been since meeting Ploy, this is just the next step in our adventure.