Something Different, Something New

As per my wife’s request, I’ll be keeping track of exactly what I’ve done today:

5:30 – 6:30: Wake-up, read the newspaper, browse the internet and check emails

6:30 -7:00: Walk down the street, buy Muay Lok magazine and breakfast (Khow mun gai – chicken over rice with broth)

7:00 – 8:00: Eat breakfast, read Muay Lok, try and figure out four fighters from a show 6 weeks ago

8:00 – 9:00: Meeting with the wife

9:00 – 10:30: Out for coffee and to pay my cell phone bill since for some reason I was unable to do so online like I normally do.

10:30 – 11:30: Downloaded and reviewed a show from Thailand to figure out which fighters fought in it.

11:30 – 12:30: Read – browse the internet for information

12:30 – 1:30: Walk down the street to buy a Pepsi and some chicken to make chicken sandwich with. Read, check out photos from an online gallery.

1:30 – 2:15: Read Maxim article on the hyena men of Africa, search for submission guidelines for Maxim. I have never been able to find any of their submission guidelines which makes it a little difficult but not too much so – I’ll need to call them tonight as I’ve got an idea I’d like to pitch.

2:15 – 2:30: Prepare VSH player to record Oleydong’s fight. It’s the next best thing to being there. Fixed sound problem; my wife taped the last fight, Veeraphol’s, and unfortunately there was no sound. This is now fixed.

2:30 – 3:00: Browse online art galleries / check out what my photos look like when they’re filtered

3:00 – 4:30: Watched Oleydong Sithsamerchai vs. Junichi Ebisuoka (17-11-3, 7 KOs)

4:30 – 5:00: Ate dinner (rice with egg)

5:00 – 6:30: Wrote article for the Phuket Gazette newspaper

6:30 – 7:00: Walk down to 7’11, get a Pepsi, some cooking oil for the wife and some Cocoa Crunch cereal for the kids (their favorite)

7:00 – 8:00: Read Irrawaddy Magazine / Browse the internet and read

8:00 – 9:00: Review The Ring ratings and the alphabet ratings, final edit of Boxing Digest article (Sahaprom – Malinga) and The Fist

9:00 – 11:00: Watched TV, relaxed

11:00-11:15: Called Maxim, pitched idea

11:15 – 12:30: Watched TV, relaxed

12:30 – 12:35: Responded to some British wanker’s not so smart-ass comment

Sleep

That’s it – that was my exciting day. Like I wrote before, sometimes the life of a journalist is great – fun, relaxing, full of unique experiences, near perfect. Others, well…other’s it monotonous.

Sunday, Sunday

If I were working in an office, chances are I wouldn’t be working weekends. So when I’ve got the chance to take a weekend off, I have no problem doing so. I’ve got plenty of work to do but frankly, I feel like shit and would prefer to use today to power up in preparation for the next few days.

I did write two articles today though, one for Ring Magazine, the other for the Phuket Gazette. I wrote the articles with mixed emotions as they were both about Veeraphol Sahaprom’s last fight with Vusi Malinga and possibly his last fight ever. I interviewed Sahaprom a few year’s ago and found him to be an intense, serious individual who was dedicated to his craft. To see him battered from pillar to post and hear he shed tears after the bout is the sort of drama I take no joy in writing about. But – at least he knows where he stands in the pecking order of the bantamweight division.

***

The next few days will be spent writing a few articles, working on my expat guide book, Muay Thai book and trying to get a couple fighters bouts abroad. I’ve got a massive headache – I have these every couple of days – and it takes alot for me to work when I feel like throwing up from a headache. Couple this with the pain I’m in and you might get the picture.

A few years ago I had a rather nasty fall from about 40 feet up and I’ve never felt quite the same. Not a day goes but when I’m not in some sort of pain; neck pain (cracked vertebrae), wrist pain (fractured wrist), hand pain (broken hands) a knee (football injury) that collapses out from under me every so often…I’m sure I’m forgetting some places but right now they don’t hurt. Tomorrow is Monday and without sounding negative, I hate Mondays!

A Day of Recuperation

After the excitement of the Sahaprom-Malinga bout I took today off to recuperate. My wife took the kids to a friends last night and they spent the night there so when they came home, we all had lunch together and watched TV. Just finished watching a movie, Catch the Fire, and also a special on Blood Diamonds. Both were interesting and allowed me a brief respite from day to day life.

While most of what I make – and most of what I know – is in some way or another related to boxing, I have other journalistic interests and Africa is one of them. It’s one area of the world I’ve yet to explore and hopefully in the next year I’ll be able to do so.

***

It looks like I won’t be going to Phuket for Oleydong Sithsamerchai’s next bout on June 18th. As much as I’d like to, I simply have too many things to do and if I travel with the referees, judges and  fighters, I’ll need to leave three days before the bout. What that means is three days of spending money. Considering the entire show is full of mismatches, it just doesn’t pay to go.

There are other things going though and I’ll write about them in more detail tomorrow. It’s 8:20 PM and I’m feeling lazy and want to watch the movie Bowfinger for the 50th time.

Tomorrow I’ve got to write-up a piece for Ring Magazine and also the Phuket Gazette.