License is Granted

I stayed out really late last night visiting with one of my friends. He took me on a tour of the main island on his motorbike, and then we took a water taxi to another island. We spent a lot of time talking. It was a great night, but we stayed out so late that I overslept this morning.

I was woken up by a call from the Department of Trade letting me know that my travel business is now officially registered here. I jumped out of bed, took a quick shower, and went straight to pick up the coveted document. After taking care of a few other errands, I met up with the family at the hotel to get them on the water taxi back to our island.

Our friends gave us an electronic fly swatter. It’s basically a tennis racket that zaps flies and mosquitoes on contact. It’s surprisingly fun—and effective. Now we all fight over who gets to use it. I tried to challenge Braden to a competition to see who could zap the most flies and mosquitoes, but he doesn’t think he can beat me. He’s probably right. I feel a little wave of revenge every time I hear it zap.

In other good news, my first package from UPS finally arrived. It had my new credit cards inside. I picked it up from the main island, activated the cards, and now we’re officially back in business.

If there is such a thing as “normal,” I’d say we’re getting close to it. We’re back to sweating in our house, and Angie is feeling much better. We went in for another blood test today and will get the results tomorrow. She still gets tired easily, so I’m helping out with the household chores as much as I can.

We should have internet installed at our flat in the next couple of days. Of course, just as that’s happening, we’ll be heading out of the country for a short trip. We have to exit and re-enter in order to activate our permanent visas. The good news is this means I won’t need to pay for another extension on our tourist visas.

There’s a big meeting happening in Thailand, and we’re hoping to attend. Some of our new friends will be there. We’re not officially invited yet, so we’re waiting to see if we’ll be allowed in. If it works out, we’ll kill two birds with one stone: meet with potential partners and take care of the visa requirement all in one trip.

I’ve had several people request posts from Braden and Kyndal, but so far they haven’t been willing to sit still long enough for me to type what they say. I’ll keep trying—maybe they’ll share some short updates in the next few days.

I still have a few small tasks to complete to finalize the work permit and visa process. Thankfully, the hardest part is done. We’ve got the approval—now it’s just a matter of jumping through the final hoops.