Asia Mega Tour 2026 - Day One - Travel Kindness

There is no easy way to get from Albuquerque, USA to Southeast Asia. It's just a long way. You have options but they are all trade-offs on a theme of it is a long way and it takes a long time. You add that our first real stop is a place (Medan, Indonesia) that is not easy to get to (much like Albuquerque), then you add more time and effort required. And as I've related in the past, if you're balancing saving money, but still having comfort, it's going to add to the amount of time required to make the journey. 

In our case, we are flew to San Francisco today on one ticket (where we will spend the night), and are doing a self-transfer to another flight that takes us to Kuala Lumpur (via Tokyo). We will overnight again in KL before taking another self-transfer for the short flight to Medan. 

Our flight to SF was mercifully smooth. It was an early afternoon flight so no getting up too early. And we got upgraded to First which rarely happens these days. Upon arriving and collecting our bags, I called the hotel to find out when the shuttle came round. I'd called earlier in the day and had been told it does its round every 40 minutes. This time they told me that the shuttle wouldn't start again until 5:15pm (It was 3:30). What! We're supposed to cool our jets for almost two hours? The person on the phone told me to take a shuttle for the larger hotel across the street.

This seemed a bit wonky to me, but we did it because I wasn't going to waste that amount of time sitting around. Sure enough, the shuttle for the other hotel shows up quickly. It is filled with mostly airline crews. The driver is a young woman and she is doing a yeoman's job getting all the luggage in the back of the bus. 

I was feeling appreciative watching her really doing the work when we got off and was going to tip her anyway. But I noticed that none of the airline crew members tipped. So I gave her more of a tip than I might normally because she was really working hard. We were the last to get our bags off the shuttle. I thanked her and I mentioned we were actually going to the hotel across the street. Wouldn't you know it, she offers to take our bags across the busy road way for us. 

I know I tipped her but I didn't give her that much money. There was no crosswalk between the hotels. We would have had to walk a ways to get to the crossing light. So this really saved us a lot of effort. What a lovely bit of kindness. 

We decided we didn't trust the shuttle of our own hotel to get us to the airport tomorrow, so we've reserved and Uber to give us some peace-of-mind. Tomorrow is the long, long trip. 

Greetings Eldership Group - Welcome To The 2026 Version Of The Asian Mega Tour

Hang on for once again Captain Wife and her intrepid Crew (of 1...moi) will take the Eldership out again for yet another installment of the Asian Mega Tours. Long time reader will recall the first Asian Mega Tour started 10 years ago almost to the day! In the decade that followed we had a second Asian Mega Tour, tours to the Near East Asia, the Caucasus, and of course our spectacular Around the World in 72 Days Tour featuring East Asia and Southeast Asia among other destinations.

Our very first Asian Mega Tour boasted (or wailed about, I'm not sure which) going to:

Six Countries

Eleven Cities

Twenty Air Flights

To show you our maturity and acknowledgement of our age this trip will only consist of"

• Five Countries
• Six Cities
• Nine Air Flights
• Two long ground transports

See! Look at that restraint.

Of course that is somewhat offset by the fact that we are adding an entirely new continent this time. Here is a quick preview of our upcoming itinerary. 

First stop - Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia - Current abode of the mythical Queendom of Pulandia.

Next stop - Phuket, Thailand

Then, a hop over to...Western Australia!

Coming back to SE Asia we will be in - Johor Bahru, Malaysia

During all this we pass in and out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia not less than four times

Tomorrow we depart for San Francisco. We stay overnight and then self-transfer to a flight taking us to Kuala Lumpur where we overnight again. We finally catch a short flight that gets us to Medan. There is simply no quick way to get from Albuquerque to Medan.  

So prepare yourselves for almost 7 weeks of de-I travel posting.  

An Interesting Morning With AI

I am a lightweight when it comes to Artificial Intelligence. I've been able to use it effectively (somewhat) for Theodora work related things. I've been able to improve the depth of my internet searches quite a bit. And I've had some success and failures with various personal projects. Saturday morning I was dealing with a bit of frustration which led to my trying using it. 

(Note: I use ChatGPT mostly as we have the paid version at Theodora. I use it for all my fairly significant work as I have set up a system so it remembers what we've done in the past and can bring that to what I'm working on now even if I don't remember that it remembers. I use Gemini when I'm doing any kind of internet search or have quick questions I want to research as it is built into Google's search engine and is very convenient.)

The morning started out with frustration over my bout with gout (ha, ha like that rhyme!). My doctor and I had be chatting via her online portal and I wasn't getting any significant information. When I had been at the Urgent Care for the initial attack, there wasn't much information either. Wife's brother has gout and she got from him a couple of medications he was using. I was very suspicious of the medication approach as gout is an inflammatory condition and anti-inflammatory drugs tend to all be hard on the kidney, which is not a good thing when you only have one. 

I was sitting at my desk with my computer open and I decided to put into Chat  the sequence of events along with my current questions as to what the heck I was it that I was dealing with. Well to my amazement, I got back a rather lengthy and detailed discussion about gout, what causes it, an overview of potential treatments, and an explanation of how the events that led to my 'flare-up' (that is the 'official' gout term when it hurts like hell). 

That was just the start. I began asking questions about the drugs, explaining my one kidney situation. Now the discussion began to turn to lifestyle changes related to diet and hydration. It asked me a number of questions about lifestyle such as diet, alcohol consumption, water consumption, etc. It asked me if I would be truthful because if I did not give it accurate information, it wasn't going to able provide me with plan proposals that would get the desired results (no more flare-ups). 

It turns out one of the real keys is hydration. This resonated with me as I know I don't drink a lot of water since it goes right through me and I am peeing all the time. We has a long conversation about my traveling (it brought up my recent trip to Ghana since that information was in its history) and how I might manage my hydration in a way where I didn't need a catheter on the plane (that was a joke but Chat said people brought that up all the time in this type of discussion  - which is kind of weird when you realize I'm talking to an AI).

Chat now offered some specific suggestions for changing my lifestyle patterns with a specific focus on doing things that would protect my kidney. Now it got even more interesting because with these recommendations continued the questions as to whether I would really actually do this. I thought the first round was too drastic. We went back and forth a couple of times until we had a plan that I would commit to. I have been putting it into action so we will see. 

But I didn't stop there. As I was sitting there and working with it, I decided to ask it to research some reading material for me. This led to a search for various types of history books related to Persia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. Which then morphed into some very preliminary travel planning for going to Uzbekistan (very high on my list of places to get to). 

All in all, I spent about 2 and half hours. It was a very interesting engagement. And at a minimum, I feel I am way more understanding of my gout and how to try and control it.  

Captain On The Bridge - Eldership Refits For Epic SE Asia/Australia Mission

The decorated warrior, the commander who worked through blood clots and brutal betrayal attacks from her own crew has returned. Elderfleet Command has spoken. The Eldership will once again be commanded by Captain Wife. There had been rumors that the fabled Eldership One might be mothballed, that the days of adventure (and insanity) would be over. But then came the orders.

• Refurbish the ship
• Prepare for another long cruise
• Formulate a plan to tackle a completely new continent and country

 The Captain accompanied by Elderfleet Command's base staff prepare to leave the lift and enter the bridge. 

"Captain on the Bridge"

 The Captain notices a rather sparsity of crew...as in practically no one. A single Elderfleet officer stands and salutes.

Captain Wife is stunned.

"Who allowed this 'PetaQ' on board my ship."

"Nice to see you again too Captain Wife," de-I responds

"You were sentenced to the Albuquerque penal colony for your self-confessed assault on me in Gothenburg!" 

"Um, Captain,"  the base officer interjected, "There was a slight problem with staffing this mission."

"What problem."

"Most of those old enough to qualify for the mission have either retired or have died. It is one of the problems we're facing at Elderfleet Command. We couldn't let you go on a mission without ANY crew. de-I was the only available option."

"I swear de-I, you throw one more suitcase at me, and I'll have you eating Gagh for the rest of your life."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

Wife, turning to the base officer, "And I suppose the Eldership rules still apply that we have to reverse roles on a regular basis?"

"Sorry Captain."

"Fine. Come along de-I. I may have to put up with you, but at least now I have someone to delegate the rather perilous mission of accompanying the Consort of Pu Lee Shah on some crazy quest to conquer Western Australian wine and cuisine. 

A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu - Valentines Day Dinner

I seem to be doing a lot of writing related to dealing with life in the aged state. Could this be because I AM in the aged state? This will bear observing. 🤔

The title of this post is the title of Marcel Proust's monumental seven volume novel written at the turn of the last century. It was originally translated as 'Remembrance of Things Past' but now as 'In Search of the Past'. 

Cooking has been a bit like that as I deal with age related declines. I still love to cook (and eat!) and I bring that to our day-to-day eating. But there is this longing to do the kind of big meals, epic presentations I did in the past. Unfortunately the physical need to be on my feet, and do the tasks necessary for these put a major toll on my body. Then there is the fact that even if I cook that way, there is no way Wife and I can eat that much food.

Despite that I was in the mood to do something a bit extra. Wife is in her before travel, get all the accounting and house care planning mode, which means she is mono-focused. I mentioned I at least wanted us to do something for Valentine's Day and sent her three proposed menus. To my surprise she actually looked at them and made a choice. Here is the chosen menu.

First Course - Shrimp Cocktail

Main Course - Casserole Roasted Chicken and Baked Potato

Dessert - Peach Pudding

There was a bit of a twist with each of the courses. 

For the first course, I made a poaching broth flavored with onion, garlic, and pimenton de Campello. This last is a made up name. It is a pimenton (smoked paprika) I got during our last stay at El Campello at the local market. It is a very cool ingredient. Unlike most Spanish Pimenton, it is quite mild and subtle. Yes, it has the smokey flavor but it never overpowers. 

I put my shrimp into the poaching liquid and turned off the heat. I let it rest for 5 minutes and put the shrimp into an ice bath. Shrimp out and dried, they were stored in the fridge. I cooled the poaching liquid and save this too. All this was done a day ahead. On the day of the meal, I marinated the shrimp for an hour in the poaching liquid before draining and drying it. This resulted in the shrimp being very moist and having a subtle flavor. I served it traditionally American style on shredded lettuce with cocktail sauce of horseradish and ketchup. I love traditional cocktail sauce especially on lettuce. 

A casserole roasted chicken is recipe that comes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It is a classic I have made many times but not in the last 15 years. If you have not cooked from this source, the recipes can seem deceptively simplistic in terms of flavoring. Yet the technique results in massive flavor.

In this case, one rubs down a chicken with butter, salt, pepper, and an herb (I used thyme). You truss the chicken and brown all sides in a large casserole. Chicken is put to the side and one lightly sautes onion and carrot with salt, pepper, and your chosen herb for five minutes until the vegetables get soft. The chicken is put back on the vegetables. A piece of foil is laid over top. The casserole covered and put into a medium oven for about an hour and a half (depending on the size of the bird) and cooked to the proper internal temperature. And that's it.

The result is a chicken that is totally moist and infused with flavor. I carved up the bird and put it into a serving dish and covered it with juice from cooking then brought it to the table. 

I have cooked so many things from this cookbook I don't know why I was so amazed that it tasted so good. 

The peach pudding was an experiment. After the chocolate pudding experience with 2.3 at Thanksgiving, and knowing the massive amount of peaches in our freezer, I conjectured I could adjust the technique to come up with pudding from peaches. I took enough defrosted and drained peaches to account for about a third of the liquid volume required in the chocolate pudding recipe. Then I put in the milk for the rest along with the sugar and corn starch. It cooked up fine as far as texture. However, it was a bit too subtle. I took some tweaking to get the sweetness right. I think maybe 50-50 peaches to milk would be better. It could use some peach extract (if there is such a thing). Or maybe a strong peach or berry sauce with it. It was a worthwhile experiment. 

Of course, all this led to a de-I that was beat and in pain (especially my just recovering foot), and enough food for at least two other couples. 

Wife decides a meal of such proportions deserves its own monumental monolith 

I'm still glad I made it. 

A Week Of Gratitude State Testing

Only a week ago, I was flying over the Atlantic, returning home from Ghana. A first stop in Washington D.C, very early in the morning. I had time to go to the Polaris Lounge and grab a very thorough shower and shave, a lovely indulgence when flying long distances. I ate at the club restaurant and then cranked out some quick emails before making my way to the plane for the next flight segment to Houston. 

I sat next to a delightful gentleman who did satellite communications sales and (unlike the vast majority of my travels) we had a nice conversation. After the meal service, I got my backpack out and reached for my computer to do a bit more work. Except there was no computer in said backpack. I couldn't believe it. I tend to do things when I travel by strict habit and pattern. Surely the machine was in there.

I put the backpack under the seat in front of me. I just sat for a moment. I took it out and looked again. It's not a very big backpack. There aren't a whole lot of places where it could be in it. No. There was no computer in the backpack. "I'm F@%$'D" My computer is like my total mission control central for things business and personal. There's not a day I am not on it using it for writing, researching things personal and business, reading a wide range of materials, running all my travel, all my business.

I was pretty sure I must have left in in the Polaris Lounge. Assuming someone hadn't run off with it (the Lounge was nearly deserted at that time in the morning), I would think the staff would get it. I wondered if I could call the Lounge and somehow have it put on a plane or otherwise sent to me. 

As soon as I touched down in Houston I went to the United Club. I asked the check-in person if there was a way to contact the Lounge in Washington. She was very nice. She explained that an organization like an airline as a HUGE number of items misplaced every day. There is a specific system you have to follow. You go on their website, fill out a lost item form. Then each day the organization matches up what has been found with the forms. This can take days. You are notified at 2, 5, 15 and 30 day intervals the status. If your item is found it is sent back to you. 

Of course, trying to find said form on the airline website and filling it out with my phone was not that easy. But the lovely woman from United kept coaching me through each blockage (even though she was checking in a steady stream of Club visitors). Finally I had the form submitted and got a confirmation email that it was in the system. How cool was having this lovely lady assist me? 

While all this was going on, I hurt  my right foot. It had been bugging me for a number of days before I departed. But on the flight to Houston, I struck the place that was hurting against the metal strut of the seat in front of me and felt a real sharp pain. However, with all else that was going on, I wasn't paying too much attention to it. I still got around the airport and got home. 

While flying the Houston to Albuquerque leg, I found I had free WiFi. I had already been thinking about all kinds of options I had to get computer enabled again. Fortunately, I do daily back-ups and had my back-up in my backpack. Reinstalling your stuff on a new computer is pretty simple with MACs if you are using their backup protocol. I researched new machines and refurbished ones. My existing machine was working just fine, so I figured there was no need to buy something brand new. How cool was that? Being able to line up all those purchasing options while on the plane. 

By the time Wife picked me up, I had worked through what I thought the likely scenarios were. I felt the machine being left in a near deserted club was either going to be found quickly by staff or stolen. It wasn't going to take the airline forever to find it. So either it would be on my way back to me or I would need to get a new machine relatively quickly. Adding a bit of time pressure to this all was the need for me to be doing a virtual presentation on Thursday using a PowerPoint deck. So, we would wait and see what happened over the weekend. 

Getting home I took off my shoe and it was as if I had a jack-in-the box in it. The foot that had been hurting expanded and was clearly totally swollen with something wrong with it. And now I can't get the shoe back on without great pain. In fact, walking at all is nearly impossible. I'm wondering what I broke and thinking of the alternatives since Wife and I are scheduled to leave for Asia in two and a half weeks.  

Saturday morning, the foot is not any better. Is maybe a bit worst. I am hobbling around using one of Wife's crutches from when she broke her foot. However, I do get a note from United Airlines. They've found my item. I go online and figure out how to have it sent back to me. I'm surprised that it won't be that expensive. However, they don't ship until Monday. Hopefully that means I get it on Wednesday so I have it for my presentation on Thursday. The rest of the day, I'm wondering what to do about my foot. I think I should go to foot doctor which I cannot do until Monday, assuming I can get in that fast. 

Sunday morning Wife convinces me I should go to Urgent Care. An X-ray will be needed no matter what and would be done there. I hustle myself off there. I know the long wait in store for me. Going in, I see NOBODY in the waiting room. NOBODY. Am I in an alternative universe. I check-in, immediately have my triage done, sit down and am immediately called in to have my X-rays taken then put in a room. It still takes hours before the attending physician can look at the X-rays and start determining the options. Still how cool is this? 

There is no break (Whew! No boot or cast. I'm VERY grateful for that!). He believes it is either an infection or gout with the infection being the more likely. I am set up on antibiotics. I should start to see some improvement within two days. Except I don't. So now what. I won't be able to travel if I can't walk. I communicate with my primary care physician via email even sending her pictures. She says the Urgent Care doctor had also prescribed a drug for gout, though it never got on the discharge instructions. She says we should try that and puts in the script to the pharmacy. 

We get that drug, but then the foot starts to improve. What should we do? Stay with the current course or change? We decide we will use the antibiotic until it is finished and then switch. In the meantime, I get notifications that my computer has been shipped and I can track it's progress on the FedEx website. Delivery is scheduled for Wednesday. It will require a signature so I will need to be sure to be around. 

While all this is happening, I'm using my phone for Zoom meetings, doing my email correspondence, doing research. There are things I need to do that I simply can't do or won't try to do on the phone. Like write a blog post. I'm frustrated but still feeling pretty grateful that things are coming along.

On Wednesday, I'm geared up for the computer return. It's supposed to show up between 10am and 2pm. It shows up at 5pm. Of course, I am like doing my entire day by the front door so I don't miss the delivery that needs a signature. But finally I have my baby! I promise it I will be a reformed computer owner and will never abandon it again. I get my PowerPoint set up. I have a lovely evening doing my writing. 

It is a good thing that my foot is coming along because after the presentation on Thursday I go in for my second eye cataract surgery. I'm a little worried about being in a sitting position for a long period of time (my therapy has consisted of a lot of foot raised and resting). It takes almost two hours before I'm finally called in for surgery. But my foot handles it okay. Once in, things go quickly. It is a lot less stressful the second time since you know the drill. I chose to not use a sedative (they use a local anesthetic to numb the eye so you don't feel anything) because I want a drink when it is over. Not being sedated, I am quite aware of all the conversation taking place during the procedure. How cool is that? I'm feeling pretty grateful and well taken care of. 

Getting home, the foot is good, the eye not so much. I have a lot of pain Thursday night. When we go for the post-op check up they tell us there was a slight scratch on the cornea. Not uncommon but very painful. They put a 'bandage' over it, which is basically a contact lens. That really helps.

I kind of over did things being on the foot today. I will need to be a bit more circumspect. The foot is definitely improved but not completely better, so I will go ahead and use the gout drug one I've gone through the complete antibiotic cycle. 

It has been quite a week and I can say I have felt a lot of gratitude as I've wound my way between the various ups and downs. 

How cool is that? 

Breakthrough!

I was about halfway through this week in Ghana when a number of things hit my consciousness.

First, Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants' billings and collections for January and February were going to result in substantial surplus cash flow over our required monthly operating expenses. 

Second, assuming we can maintain this level of client billings (and all indicators are that we should), we will be able to accumulate all of the money we need for our annual office rent (we pay rent once a year in advance). This is the first time we have been able to pay our rent out of operating funds. 

Third, by mid-February, will have repaid all the salary arrears we accrued during the lean months of 2025.

Fourth, for the first time ever, we will not use any donated funds to cover operating expenses!

Fifth, instead, we have been able to get this week three major items that have been on our list of 'must haves' in order to be a truly professional operation.

• Truly reliable internet connection via a Starlink system
• Reliable power back-up through the purchase of a backup generator
•  Retention of a trauma counselor to provide this necessary resource for our people. 

Sixth, as we go into 2026, I have come to the realization that we really don't need to do any fundraising in order to be able to get TGVA up to snuff.  

 We still need to develop a reliable new business acquisition system. That takes years but we are getting started. We still are very vulnerable to the loss of clients. But for the first time since we started, I believe we can say we are truly a business capable of paying its own way.