A working day in the life of me

I originally started this blog to keep my family up-dated on what I’m up to - to be honest, if they didn’t read it I’d probably knock it on the head. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to write a piece of my average working day. Maybe I’ll do this annually so I can look back in years to come and see how my day to day life changes.

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I walk out of my apartment and say hi to my cleaner who is on her way in and also the security guard… there a great bunch, they there type of people that would really go out of their way to help anyone. As soon as I walk outside the heat and sun hits my face - my eyes are sore from the bright light but I soon get used to it and enjoy the one minute walk to Starbucks. Here I order an ice latte with an extra shot of expresso with vanilla syrope - I need this every morning to kick start my day.

From starbucks it takes me another minute or so to arrive at my office. On the way I am surrounded by people smartly dressed rushing to work as I live in the business area. I know most of the people walking to work are probably wishing they were at home in bed but I prefer to think that everyone is rushing to work to make more money than they did yesterday. I can almost spell the need for money in the air.

While I was living in London, I often drove around the city center and docklands and I could sense a vibe that this is where things got done - it sounds crazy I know but I also get the same feeling here. I love living and working in the cleanest part of the city, office buildings sky high all around me, business people rushing around everywhere - It creates a great mind set for the rest of the day.

I arrive at work to see all my staff have their heads fixed to the PC monitors. I honestly believe I’ve got some of the greatest talent Thailand has to offer working for me, and they are all so young that I’m able to mould them into my way of thinking regarding work ethics. Sometimes I worry I push them to much, but I think it’s better to have some pressure on your shoulders than none. We exchange hello’s, then it’s quickly back to work.

I then make my way to my private balcony beside my desk with my coffee in one hand and my first cigarette of the day in the other. I stare at the crazy Bangkok traffic below me while thinking that anyone that drives in Bangkok is so bloody stupid. Pickup trucks are filled with construction workers in the back, far too many for it to be comfortable. Most are women.

I then fix my eyes on the guy trying to direct the traffic from the buildings car park with his whistle. I’ve come to the conclusion that the guy loves his whistle more than I love making money.

I then make my way to my desk, sit down and wait for the head rush from the first cigarette of the day… I don’t know why I get that, but know that it only lasts for a couple of minutes and it only happens the once. I open Gmail, Google Reader and Outlook - I have started with this routine every day for as long as I can remember.

I walk around to every member of staff and ask what they are doing - I can sense it drives them mad as I constantly want to I know how long it’s going to take them to complete their current projects so I can prepare the next for them.

After working through the morning, I then go to get lunch from the canteen where I have to choose from such a wide choice of delicious Thai food - all dishes cost less than $1. My lunch’s are very quick, 5 minutes if I’m on my own or 10 minutes if I’m with someone else. People who take a full hour are weak - there’s no need to have a full hour at lunch.

I then return to starbucks, this time I order muffins with the coffee, not for me, but for my staff as they have been working their bollocks off with our recent hosting/server problems. I take the food and drinks back to them and I quickly sense what they are thinking: their thinking they would prefer Thai kanom rather than these high fat content muffins. Arr well, I know for next time.

I’m good at reading people you see, I think I got the skills from wheeling and dealing while I was a teenager. People always owed me money and I quickly learnt which ones were lying and which ones weren’t. It’s great for business and negotiating. I reckon I learned more about business selling what ever I could get my hands on when I was at school than I would have if I had gone to Harvard.

I can still hear the man blowing his fucking whistle… It’s starting to drive me nuts now. How can he blow through that whistle for 9 hours straight? I guess he doesn’t smoke.

During the afternoon I order a big fat dedicated server and ask my team to start transferring the sites across. I didn’t order this just because the other hosting provider lost a weeks worth of our work, but also because our sites are growing so fast it’s time to take the big leap.

My teacher arrives, she always looks a little shy when she comes into the office but over the hour and a half I can see she gradually loosens her shoulders and starts to speak at a normal volume. I know why, she gets shy teaching me words that most students don’t ask, such as “what does picking your nose mean in Thai?” Today we talk about politics… it’s funny, while I was in England I couldn’t give a fuck about politics but since moving to Thailand I’m a keen follower of both Thai and British lies politics.

Today I learn that the current Thai prime minister is considering legalizing gambling - My teacher couldn’t understand that by legalizing gambling it would make Thailand a richer country and would bring many other great benefits, including jobs and letting Chris play texas hold’em legally.

It’s 6pm already… I feel like I’ve not done any work. You see, me directing the office, answering emails and learning the latest trends in SEO and internet marketing don’t feel like work… maybe it’s because I enjoy it so much. The staff leave the office and I come to my favorite part of the day: 2 hours for myself to fully concentrate on my projects alone. It’s silent. Yes, the whistle man has finally gone home.

8.30pm my girlfriend calls me and asks me where I want to go for dinner - knowing I can go anywhere I like provides me with a difficult decision, but one that I would rather have than not. After talking through the different options for 10 minutes, we decide to stay in and order pizza. That’s good news, as I can let the missus view thousands of shoes and dresses listed on ebay while I put on my skype head set and start to talk to clients in the US and the UK.

The pizza arrives within 7.5 minutes of ordering over the telephone. I’m always amazed at the speed of fast food deliveries here in Thailand. I can’t hear the helicopter outside either. I’m used to waiting 45 minutes when I was living in London. Another thing about fast food delivery in Thailand - They never fuck up an order - never. This may be because my missus does the ordering, but we eat pizza a few times per month along with the odd KFC and it’s always been spot on… and piping hot too!

My ear has started to ache as the skype headset I’ve got is proper cheap and nasty… I couldn’t find a good one the last time I visited Pan Tip. I turn skype off to get my hands dirty with what I call real work: analyzing analytics and making a list of changes I want my team in the Philippines to make. Yes, I don’t just have a team in Bangkok, I also have teams in the Philippines, US, UK and in India.

It’s now 3am and my missus has already gone to bed. She’s happy as she has just bought 9 pairs of shoes and a dress on my credit card. Hey, nothing in life is free!

Although it’s very quite and all I can hear are my own key strokes on the keyboard, I’ve got my dog’s head resting on my foot so I don’t feel so lonely. We’ve become real close… she is a super cute dog and the girls love him…

It’s 4am now and my eyes are getting sore from staring at the screen for so long. I open my bit torrent, select some porn tunes to download for the night and call it quits. I get in bed and start thinking what work I’ve got to do tomorrow. I’ve got a pad next to my bed just in case I come up with a million dollar web site idea… I use my phone as the light and scribble down ideas from time to time. More often than not I wake up in the morning only to realize the ideas aren’t that great after all.

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Please let me know if you want to see part 2: “A Friday night in the life of me” in the comments