But here is a long overdue update. I'm really not trying to bore anybody but … I arrived back in Asia from South America, and promptly had yet another back spasm episode. And it was really bad. I recovered enough to make a brief trip to Singapore with my partners, and then a trip to Thailand to touch base with friends and a couple of medical checkups for my back.

However, my best medical advice ended up coming from a therapist in Holland who is a certified master clinician for Dr. McGill of Toronto. He is the first guy of all the doctors that I talked to both in South America and Asia, who took me through my MRI thoroughly, explaining exactly what was going on. I won’t drag on but I have very thin disks at the L4 / L5 interface and certain motions are probably pinching a nerve that then causes the spasms. So a whole gamut of therapy exercises to strengthen the muscles that stabilize that area. We’ll see how it works.

I am slowly recovering yet again. I went out yesterday and purchased a treadmill which will be delivered this weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that will help me with keeping my running up to par. The doctor in Holland recommended a set of exercises for me which I have investigated online and seemed to get rave reviews from many people. So, I have been doing them for the last week. I will let you know how it goes. They are known as the big three. I am sure that if you search for that term plus the word McGill, you will almost certainly show up results from YouTube from something called the Squat University. I used that channel because it was recommended to me by my clinician in Holland.

I also wanted to share some of the photos from my trip back from Buenos Aires as well as Singapore . Singapore really is a beautiful city.

The above was from the trip back from BA. That room is one of the free resting rooms available at the Qatar Al Safwa lounge in Doha. Exactly what was needed after a 30 hour trip from BA. That photo of the gangway is 5 people who were removed from the plane at Sao Paola airport. 2 Uruguayan women and 3 Brazilian guys. Their tickets were all paid for by some guy in Malaysia but they didn’t all know each other. So this flagged an alarm somewhere in the system and they were pulled off the flight. Another story I’ll never know the end of. What a beautiful dawn outside the window.

The above is Singapore. Such a green city. Ordered, clean, safe. A few too many regulations for me but a lovely place to visit.

I am going through a fairly significant legal process right now. Nothing bad but I don’t want to write about it until it is completed. It was a significant decision for me. I’m hoping by the end of this month if possible. If it happens I’ll post about it straight away.

I also discovered, totally by chance, that citizens of former Spanish colonies (including the Philippines and Argentina) can get Spanish citizenship with 2 years of residency. The Spanish passport is one of the best in the world, ranked #3 (higher than the United States at #6) and the only 2 higher are Singapore and South Korea. [ www.visaindex.com  ] - I am seriously considering doing this. At my age 18 months is a long time but the rewards would be huge in terms of quality of passport and honestly, spending 18 months in Valencia, improving Spanish (and trying to get French and Italian up to the same level) … not exactly incarceration.

I have to get my retirement visa for the Philippines first, then apply for a visa at the Spanish embassy. That will take a few months. I will aim for this and see how I feel once I get the Spanish visa. A person close to me went through the residence process in Spain (as an American) and it was apparently horrendous but from the immigration consultant I spoke with it is much easier for citizens of former Spanish colonies. We shall see.