Poker can Change your Life: August 2021

Been a while again and since my circumstances have changed abit I thought I post a new update since a bunch of guys are still following here.

After the latest lockdown in the Philippines I decided to leave the country I currently consider home and basically spent the last couple of years in with destination Dubai. Given the looming Delta variant I was basically waiting for this to happen so when everything was announced I had a good week or so left to make a decision and get the fuck out for good (for now).
Overall Manila has been mostly ok during the last 18 months but for me the uncertainty and always returning lockdown just have been abit too much and all this also took a big toll on my physical and mental wellbeing so that escape was the only valid option in this case. While most of the stuff I usually do was possible you needed to have appointments if going to gym or pool, gym was closed on and off for a long time, constant nightly curfew in place etc etc. For a person like me who values freedom higher than life itself a situation like this becomes bothersome after a while.
Now they introd another full on lockdown with gyms closed for at least 2 weeks but in reality probably much longer and there latest gimmick is them even forbidden you to go running outside. You can take alot away from me but once you take sport I wont play ball anymore.

So after the lockdown announcement I was fully expecting all this to go into effect and basically took another 2 days to make a decision and book my one way to Dubai. I wasn't very interested to spend time this summer somewhere in the EUssr and since Dubai so far seem to have had a very solid approach with covid with most freedoms still intact it was a logical choice.

Plan for immediate future is to spend 4-6weeks here, then visit my parents which I havent seen in over 2 years (and they also aint getting any younger) and then come back here for another couple of months and also secure permanent residency and look into real estate options. Probably not looking to return into Manila before they got their shit together which may very well take a long time given how things are going...

My overall goal still is to put the elusive trifecta into place where I have property in 3 countries combined with solid visas so I can live 4 months a year in each place w/o getting bored and also have options to escape to when one place/country turns to shit. I recently bought a villa in Bali which will be finished end of this year so only thing missing is a Dubai flat but Indonesia all things considered is probably even in a worse situation with covid so that I realistically dont see myself living in that aquired villa anytime soon either.

While health wise things havent been great for the last 18 months business wise things have been outstanding so that in all of this madness I performed very well. Noteworthy is the moment I arrived in Dubai I am already feeling much better than I have felt in Manila for a long time and I hope it stays this way.

In Dubai I am grinding Airbnbs now for the next couple of weeks, testing alot of restaurants, alot of tanning and will also work some.

Overall I like this city alot but it became quite abit more expensive compared to how I remember it from 2013 when I visited last. The district I live in Manila probably the most expensive across all PH but in Dubai can easily expect to put another 50% on top of the bill and I am speaking normal casual places, nothing fancy. However the service and efficiency you get in return is outstanding and probably seen nowhere else in the world. Everybody who works here is very well trained in what they do, staff is always polite, fast and highly effective. Things you value alot when german blood flows through your veins.

A good example of this is the arrival in Dubai. I needed one negative PCR 72 hours before flight and once you arrive at the airport they do another swab. Was zero waiting time for business class and 4.5 laters you got the result during breakfast in the hotel. No need to quarantine for 10-14 days like in most asian countries now which is another one those useless policies that have been implemented. If you test negative before flight and if you test negative after flight and if you test negative 3 days in quarantine it's highly unlikely or outright impossible that you start testing positive on day 10 during quarantine. But in the end it's at the discretion of each country how they handle things and the most damage they do with retarded policies is to their own economy so who am I to judge.

I usually know alot of people in Dubai but during summer nobody is here because it's just too hot. At night it doesnt go below 33degrees usually and daytime is always 40-44 so the main things you can do is be somewhere inside or find a spot at the pool. Still alot better though than being locked into my cage allowed one grocery run / day in Manilly these days. In regards to covid it's fairly easy to get in from most countries and masks are mandatory everywhere even though outdoor nobody really cares and theres also no enforcement.

Lastly to sum this up wanna make some promotion for my crypto telegram channel again (which is getting pretty good feedback so far). It's free and will always stay free and I share important news and developments within the cryptosphere:

https://t.me/CryptoPlaybook

I basically switched to working full time in crypto with the start of covid and it has served me well so far. I am still convinced if you don't have any exposure to this space you are making the mistake of a lifetime but in the end it's obviously your own decision. In short if you dont hold any BTC or any ETH you are reckless and will probably be punished for this financially over the next decade. I even got my 76yo old father at a point now where he will probably buy a small stack of GBTC. As a disclaimer this is not financial advice and should not be taken as such but go buy some BTC, never ever sell with a loss and consider holding it for 10 years as a private retirement plan ;)

So long, TimStone out!

Finishing up with some pictures of the last days as usual: