The Dangers of Strong Opinions and Beliefs – Video
In this video I discuss my views about holding strong opinions and beliefs. Please feel free to leave a comment.
I Hate Typos
I make my living as a writer, but this does not mean that my written work is flawless. In fact I cringe when I read back and notice mistakes that have been made with posts on this blog. One reader left a comment today mentioning evidence of poor grammar and spelling. I felt so embarrassed. To make matters worse they were referring to one of my more popular posts and it has been there online for almost a year!
All writers make these typos, but they are usually caught in the editing process. The problem for me is that I usually add my posts on here at the end of a long work day. Sometimes I only manage a quick edit before hitting the publish button. I don’t see the mistakes because mentally I’ve already started tucking into my evening meal. It probably sounds like I’m making excuses here, but that’s just the way it is. This blog is hugely important to me, but it would probably be fair to say that at times I’ve been sloppy. I would love to go back over all my posts and check for mistakes, but I just don’t have the time.
If any reader does spot a mistake please feel free to tell me. It is not going to crush my self-esteem because I already make my living as a writer – I can’t be that bad. It is my job and I want to at least look professional. I just hate the idea of these typos being left as evidence of my sloppiness. I will try to be more careful in the future 
My First Trip to the Dentist in 12 Years
I’m a bit ashamed to say but I’ve only been to the dentist three times in adulthood. My last visit was 12 years ago to the dentistry school at St Barts in London. I broke a tooth on a particularly hard piece of wholegrain bread (this was during the midst of my alcohol addiction so the fact that I was eating such healthy food meant I was having a particularly good day; unfortunately the broken tooth was used as evidence to support my view that trying to live a healthy life was just a waste of time). A student gave me a temporary cap and told me to see a qualified dentist within six months to get the job done properly. I never went back.
Worrying About Rotten Teeth
In the 12 years since my last visit to the dentist I’ve wasted a lot of time worrying about my teeth. I brush them at least a couple of times a day, but I know that at least some input from a dentist is required. I had a bad experience with one of these professionals in my childhood and so I now fear them. Oa (my wife) finds it strange that I am a qualified nurse yet have this fear, but to me they are not the same thing. So I avoid going to the dentist and just live with the worry that my teeth may be rotten and about to fall out of my head at any second. I also keep remembering that sick joke about the guy who went to the dentist after many years. He is told that his teeth are fine but that he will need to have his gums removed.
Trip to the Dentist in Minburi
Yesterday in a fit of bravery I decided to go to the dentist in Minburi. I felt really nervous during the trip in the car and my wife thought this highly amusing. I almost lost my courage at the last minute. In a show of solidarity Oa decided to have her teeth checked as well; even though she didn’t really feel that they needed checking. They called her in first. I had to sit there with the noise of drilling and whatever else it is they do in there. I brought along my iPad for distraction, but I just couldn’t concentrate on anything. It felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack.
My turn came, and I was expecting the worst. They dentist had a good look and told me that I needed one filling and a good clean. I remember the last time I’d gone to a dentist they had said that my teeth were in remarkably good shape despite my aversion to dentistry. I didn’t expect for a similar outcome this time so it was a real result. The filling and cleaning involved minimal discomfort so I was an extremely happy customer. I also found it amusing that despite the fact that Oa has no aversion to dentists, and takes good care of her teeth, she needed four fillings.
I felt so pleased with myself that I decided to go right back into the dentist’s chair. They had a special offer on teeth whitening – only 2,900 THB (about 70 euro). The next forty five minutes were a bit uncomfortable. I had not done any research because it was a spur of the moment decision. I did not know that the procedure would increase the sensitivity of my teeth – at times it felt like the dentist was sticking something right in the nerve. To be honest the discomfort wasn’t that bad, and I’m really pleased with the results. My teeth look whiter than I ever remember them being. They are not quite celebrity white, but they will do for me.
Drinking Coffee through a Straw
The other thing that I didn’t realize with the teeth whitening procedure was that I would be expected to avoid coffee and tea for 2 weeks. I have been meaning to cut down my caffeine intake again, but sudden withdrawals do not suit me. Last time I went cold turkey on coffee the headaches were terrible. I did some research online and found that it would be possible for me to continue with my caffeine so long as I didn’t allow it to touch my teeth. So now I’m drinking these beverages via a straw.
I wasted so much time over the last 12 years worrying about my teeth. I should have just gone to the dentist ages ago. It really is such a relief to take care of these things rather than ignoring them.
Mindful Eating Update – Who Ate All the Pies!
It has been almost six months since I last did one of these mindful eating updates. Back then I was boasting about how my weight was the lowest it had been since my teens at 69kg (152 pounds). At that time I was preparing to fight Muay Thai and within two weeks after that post my weight had fallen further to 67kg. Fast forward to now and I’m embarrassed to say that my weight is currently 79kg – it was over 80kg a couple of weeks ago!
So What Went Wrong with Mindful Eating
I never expected to keep my weight below 70kg indefinitely, but I certainly never wanted it to go about 75kg again. When I abandoned my fight plans my weight did start to creep up, but this was to be expected and it was starting to level out at 72kg. The killer blow to my plan to maintain a healthy weight began with the Bangkok floods back in October. This meant I could no longer go running or visit Sitsongpeenong for Muay Thai training. Things got so bad during the floods that we had to stay in a hotel for over a month. I coped the wrong way with the stress and ended up doing a lot of comfort eating. I felt physically ill because of the amount of junk I was eating, but I felt unwilling to stop.
The real blame for this weight gain was my failure to maintain mindful eating when things started to go wrong. I’m not going to beat myself up too much over it because unfortunately this is my learning style. It was the exact same with my alcohol addiction; I would get periods of sobriety followed by relapse. Eventually I got the message, and I am convinced that the same is going to happen with my weight. The truth is that it is just too painful for me to live an unhealthy life now. They say that ignorance is bliss but by experiencing how great it is to be physically in shape I know what I’m missing.
Failure is Giving Up
I truly do believe that people only ever fail when they give up. I’m not giving up. I’ve been back exercising for the last two weeks and my weight has already come down by a couple of kg. I’m determined to be back in my safety zone of below 75kg by April at the latest. My previous efforts have not been wasted because I know what can be achieved, and it does not take too much effort. I still have not managed to get back to my Muay Thai class, but I am working on my fitness at home. I’m also doing a bit of yoga in the evenings to see if that helps.
I’ll keep you posted about my progress
Thank You Deezer for the Music
One of the drawbacks of living in Thailand is that I miss out on some entertainment options that would be available back in Europe. One of the internet services that I’ve really been itching to get my hands on has been Spotify – a legal way to listen to millions of songs online with my computer or iPad. Unfortunately it has not been possible for me to subscribe to Spotify because I don’t have a UK bank account.
Deezer Music Streaming
Deezer offers a similar service to Spotify and charges roughly the same membership fee – for premium plus I get access to about 13 million songs. There really is no need for me to ever purchase more music. It is even possible to create playlists that can be listened to offline. I was able to sign up using my Irish credit card details and have begun their 15 day free trial – after that it is 9.99 GBP per month.
I had a good look around today at the Deezer music selection and I am impressed. I noticed that some important bands are missing such as the Beatles, and Oasis. I was also disappointed to find that they only had a small collection of songs by the Pixies. Still it is hard to complain about what is there. I love the radio stations and the ability to share music via social media. The biggest attraction for me is that it makes it so easy to discover new music – I can sort of feel out of the loop by living in Thailand.
I’ve always felt that if there were reasonable options available online it would eliminate music piracy. Options like Deezer and Spotify definitely seem to be the right way to go.
I will see how it goes over the next 15 days, but so far I am happy to give Deezer a huge thumbs up – thanks for the music.
Trip to Life Park Khao Yai
On New Year’s Day we went on a family outing to Khao Yai. I don’t know what it is about this first day of the year, but I always like to visit somewhere outdoors. This is our second New Year in a row visiting Khao Yai, but last year we stayed overnight. I did look around for hotels this time, but everywhere was already booked out. The Thais love this mountainous area and this is their favourite time of year to go there. Many of the Bangkokonians view it as an opportunity to wear their winter clothing even though it isn’t much cooler than Bangkok – even first thing in the morning the temperature was still 25 degrees Celsius.
Life Park Khao Yai
I came across Life Park during an internet search for hotels in Khao Yai. It is right next to the Greenery Hotel not far from the Thanarat Road entrance to Khao Yai National Park. The website for Life Park made the place sound wonderful. I’ve been fooled by false advertisements on the web too many times before so I wasn’t really expecting much. I just hoped that it would be interesting enough to keep a four year old boy happy for a couple of hours.
It was just after 9am when we arrived at Khao Yai and there was already quite a crowd there. I would imagine that around New Year is their busiest time. There was no admission fee but instead you need to buy tickets for whatever rides you wish to go on. We bought a 450 THB ticket that allowed Timmy to go on 5 rides; there are other more expensive tickets that allow for more rides.
brum brum min cars Life Park Khao Yai
The scenery around Life Park is quite pleasant and the area is large enough so that it does not feel crowded. Timmy tried out the ‘brum brum’ mini cars first of all, and he enjoyed that. He got to drive around a little town complete with small houses and roundabouts. He was only allowed ten minutes in the car and this felt an unreasonably short amount of time.
After the cars Timmy tried out the ‘pony pony’. These are a type of rocking horse that can actually move around. They looked quite fun but they weren’t exciting enough for my son – perhaps we should have taken him here before the cars.
Probably the best ride of all was the kiddie bumper boats. Timmy felt a bit nervous at first but he started to really enjoy himself near the end of the ride. The boats move around a pool that is fairly small so I’d imagine that it can be chaotic when it gets busy.
Our final destination at Life Park was Inflatable Land. This is an area full of slides and inflatable structures that kids can crawl up and down on. The nicest thing about this place is that you can stay here as long as you want. The woman behind the counter even said that we could leave and come back again later if we wanted. There are a couple of places for adults to sit and still be able to supervise their kids.
There were many other rides in the park but I didn’t get a chance to try them out. From a look on the faces of other people they were all having fun. Timmy enjoyed his visit to Life Park so we will almost certainly visit again. It is a good place to visit as a day trip from Bangkok.
Life is Mystery When Recovering from Drunkenness
In this video I discuss how life is such a mystery for me these days –
You can listen to the audio podcast of this episode by clicking play below –
Why I Am Not an Atheist
I guess if people were to examine my beliefs they could claim that they are atheistic in nature. I don’t believe in a god and do believe that it is good to constantly question my own beliefs. I think the difference is that I do not find it unreasonable that other people should believe in god/gods; I also have not ruled out the possibility of such an entity existing. I just don’t know.
Is it Reasonable to Believe in God?
I would imagine that most atheists will agree that it is not possible to prove or disprove the existence of God/gods. Their main argument seems to be that it is unreasonable for people to believe in such an entity without evidence. This is where my thinking departs from the atheist. Who gets to decide what is reasonable and unreasonable to believe in? I can decide that it is unreasonable for me to believe in something, but this does not give me the right to decide that the same should apply to everyone else. I have to at least consider the possibility that my view of the world is wrong and give other people the benefit of the doubt.
These days most atheists seem to be materialists and this is another reason why I would not count myself among their number. Belief in science requires a lot of faith. It means accepting that the world exists as we perceive it – something that is not possible to prove. It also involves faith in inductive reasoning – the belief that because something happened in the past it will continue to happen in the future. I agree that science is a wonderful tool for dealing with the material world, but this does not mean that it is ultimately pointing at anything true. Those who seem most blinded by science will respond to any gaps in knowledge by saying that _it will all be explained soon_. This is another leap of faith. I also think it is unfair to keep asking believers for proof of their god in the physical world when it is perfectly possible that such an entity would live outside of it. Many religious people have faith because of personal revelation – they may not be able to prove such belief scientifically but this does not mean that they are unreasonable to hold such beliefs.
The Problem with Atheists
The bullying and arrogant manner of many atheists makes me feel even more alienated towards their arguments. At least the religious fundamentalists do not try to disguise their intolerance. It seems to me that the most dangerous people on the planet are those who believe they know what is best for other people – there are many atheists who would fall into this camp. Some of these folk sound like missionaries out to save the lost souls. All fanatics label those who do not believe the same way as them stupid; alarm bells go off in my brain when atheists do the same.
The argument that much of the evil in the world is caused by religion does not sound convincing to me. It is way too simplistic. Conflict has more to do with human nature than belief in a god. I don’t believe that the world would be any better without religion – that is just another ideology that provides an easy scapegoat. Shit happens in the world and if extremists didn’t have religion as an excuse to do bad things they would find something else. Haters will always find a way to hate.
I don’t really want to offend any atheists with my words here. My reason for writing this is to just clear some of the mental garbage in my own head. For some reason sharing these thoughts with other people seems to be more effective than just writing them in a private journal. There are certainly some powerful minds within the atheist community, but I just sometimes wish they were a bit more open-minded. I wish that modern skepticism wasn’t so tied in with materialism; I feel it is good to question everything. My own view is life is unknowable so anything is possible. That is why I am not an atheist.
The Wonderful Mystery of Life
I’ve discovered that admitting to not knowing things can bring a wonderful type of freedom. It does appear to me that the less I pretend to know the happier I become. I’ve probably wasted a great deal of my life searching for answers to questions that have no answer. The world is one great mystery. I really don’t believe that there is any one person who has a better understanding about what is going on than anybody else. ‘Not knowing’ is now my religion and I’m turning into quite a fanatic. It is just so liberating. People will have lots of things that they believe in or have faith in – but not knowing something is a certainty.
Reality Might Not be Real but it is Interesting
Life is a mystery to be lived and not a problem to be solved – I’m not sure who first uttered this quote but they were very wise when they said it. I’ve spent most of my life trying to escape reality. For a long time I used alcohol to numb my brain, but I’ve also used meditation as a means to escape my normal consciousness. Don’t get me wrong here, meditation continues to be a hugely important aspect of my life but my motivations have changed. I’ve stopped trying to develop the ability to transcend the world.
I want to stop denying life- what is here now is good enough. I’m convinced by the Buddhist idea that the self is an illusion, but it is a bloody good illusion. Maybe the only real task for humans in life is to enjoy the show. Getting overly concerned about how the show came about seems to me to be a waste of time; like insisting that the magician explains his tricks – it also feels somehow ungrateful.
Why I love Christmas in Thailand
A Happy Buddhist Boy on Christmas Day
It is now only a few weeks until Christmas, and I must admit to feeling a bit excited by it all. The decorations are already up in our house; this year we bought our biggest plastic tree yet. If you walk past our home here in Minburi there is a good chance that you will hear Christmas songs. It really is the most wonderful time of the year for me – I love it.
Pagans and Jingle Bells
My current enthusiasm for Christmas is a bit surprising; especially when I consider that it was only a couple of years ago that I was debating whether to even celebrate it anymore. After all, we live in Thailand and we are not a Christian family. I also wondered about the ethics of introducing my son to the whole Santa idea. Then I remembered how much this time of year had meant to me as a child. I don’t want my son to miss out on any of that. Most of my favourite memories of growing up are connected with Christmas. Even when I stopped believing in Santa I still wanted to believe in him – I sort of still do.
A cynic could point out that Christmas is all just manufactured hype; a cunning marketing ploy to get people to empty their pockets before the beginning of the next financial year. Of course it is a special day to most Christians, but even some of them do not agree that it is actually the birth date of their saviour (which is probably in January). It is more likely that they selected the 25th of December so as to take over the winter solstice celebrations that were so popular with my European pagan ancestors. This helps explain why so many of the festive traditions are more related to paganism. So the Christians stole Christmas from the pagans, and marketing gurus in the twentieth century managed to hijack it and turn it into the celebrations we love today. You don’t have to dig deep underneath the surface of Christmas to see that it is built on a shaky foundation – even the much loved song Jingle Bells wasn’t actually written about Christmas!
I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday – So Does Tescos!
Despite the reasons to be cynical this is my favourite time of year. It is a part of my culture that I love sharing with my son. Timmy is growing up in Thailand and it can be a struggle to keep him interested in his western heritage; this is one part of my culture that he willingly wants to embrace. My wife never celebrated Christmas until after my son was born; during our first few years together in Thailand I didn’t even bother with it. Now she loves this time of year too.
Growing up in Ireland I naively assumed that everyone on the planet celebrated this holiday. The Coca-Cola advert assured me that this was true and in those days we were less savvy about marketing gimmicks. I thought it was so wonderful that we had this one day when we all tried to be friends. It gave me hope because if we could get one day right then it would be a lot easier to get other days right too. If that could happen it would be our highest human achievement so far. I’m older now and realise that Christmas is far from perfect, but it probably is the nearest we have gotten to such a marvellous day.
Happy Christmas
Staying Sober in the Midst of Disaster
In this video I discuss staying sober in the midst of disaster. Watch the video below.
You can also hear the audio of this video in the latest addition of the addiction and recovery podcast (press play below to listen)
Coming Home after the Bangkok Floods
Our Flooded Kitchen
The floods have now receded enough for my family to return to our home here in Minburi. Last night we slept in our own beds and it was such a nice feeling. We lost a few belongings but nothing that can’t be replaced. There is still quite a bit of water outside out door, but the inside of our home is now almost completely dry. My wife took charge of the cleanup operation yesterday; she enlisted the help of one of our neighbors. I was given the easier task of babysitting our son from the comfort of a hotel (it felt a bit strange to be saying in a hotel so near to our home). The house is now fit for human occupation again. The only lingering problem is the unpleasant smell from the stagnant water outside. We also have no electricty downstairs until we get an electrician to check everything; at one stage our plugs were underwater.
Good to Be Back Home
I found our extended stay in hotels to be a bit stressful near the end. I love going away on holidays, but it just isn’t the same when you’ve no control over when the holiday ends. I found working on the computer all day to be extremely difficult in a hotel room. My back is sore from spending hours sitting in the wrong type of chair. It is such a relief to be back using a stand up desk in my own home office.
For the last few weeks I have been living out of bags. I never bothered unpacking because there never seemed to be much point. I kept on telling myself (and my wife) that things would be better tomorrow and we could return home. I never expected things to go on for as long as they did. Yesterday I finally got to unpack everything without even the slightest hint of post-holiday blues. I don’t mind if I never get to stay in another hotel – at least that is how I feel at the moment anyway.
Our Post-Flood Toilet
The Journey Back to Bangkok
The drive back from Phitsanulok to Bangkok turned out to be the most depressing journey of my life. I’ve made this trip many times before, and I can normally do it in just over five hours; this time it took twice as long. The floods have done a lot of damage to the roads. We started running into problems about 20km north of Nakhon Sawan; the highway is just full of potholes. For the rest of the trip there were signs of flood damage everywhere. Coming into Bangkok was like entering a disaster movie; people living on the sides of the road alongside flood destroyed vehicles. The traffic jams meant that it took us four hours to drive from one side of the city to the other. The inner city looks fine, but there it will probably take many months before the outskirts is back to normal.
Counting the Cost of the Thailand Floods
The expense of staying in a hotel has been a financial drain, but there are so many people in Thailand who have lost everything. My family has been lucky and as far as I can tell this disaster has ended for us. I never appreciated how important it is for me to have a home; it is a lesson I plan never to forget. For years I suffered from itchy feet, but it now appears that this malady has been cured. I just hope that all the other people who have been impacted by these floods get to go back to their homes and their lives soon.
Bored Staying in Thai Hotels
In the last few weeks I have spent twenty nights in hotels. On holiday this type of accommodation is fine for me, but waiting out the Bangkok floods is no fun at all. I just want to go home to Minburi and get back to my life. The worst thing is that nobody can say when this is going to happen. I’ve stopped trusting predictions made by the experts on Thai TV.
One of our neighbours has managed to return to her home. The water is only ankle deep in her house so it is probably the same in our place. I could live with this amount of inconvenience, and I could even put up with having to shit into a plastic bag. The trouble is that the roads are impassable in that part of the world. She had to go in by boat. It is probably going to be at least another week before we can return by car.
It is hard not knowing how much damage has been done to our home. We only rent the place, but most of our belongings are still there – I heard that at one stage the water was quite high. We managed to get a lot of stuff upstairs before we left, but items such as the washing machine and motorbike were left to face the floods.
We are now staying in Chat Trakan, and this is a beautiful part of Thailand. My wife gets a chance to catch up with family, and my son is enjoying the attention. I lived here before, and I do love the place. It is just different being somewhere when you no longer have a place to call home there.
Life Away from the Bangkok Floods
For the last few days my family has been living out of a suitcase. We spent the weekend in the beach resort of Jomtien, but as the floods show no signs of abating we moved back near my wife’s village in Phitsanulok. As far as we know all our neighbours have now abandoned our housing estate. By Sunday the water level was above waist level – in some parts of the estate it was chest level. We are so lucky to have made it out of Minburi in the car – if we had waited even one more hour the road out of our estate would have been impassable.
Terrifying Escape from Minburi
In my last post I mentioned how the floods caught us by surprise. We had been warned for weeks that the water were about to hit our area, but I’d stopped taking these reports too seriously. The week before we had abandoned our home when the authorities warned that our estate would be inundated with water within five hours – it never happened. So when the floods came last Thursday I decided to wait it out. The water level was rising alarmingly fast throughout the day, but we had been told that it was unlikely to go above half a metre. I battled with indecision, and it was already dark by the time my wife and I decided to once again abandon ship.
Driving out of our estate turned out to be the stuff of nightmares. I’ve driven through floods before but not when it is pitch dark outside – I will never do this again. The water began leaking into the car, and the engine began making struggling noises. I’m convinced that the motor would have packed up completely if we had not hit dry land when we did. Once again the plastic covering underneath the car had come off because of the pull of the water – it was dragging on the ground. I then had the unpleasant task of climbing into the mud so that I could get under the car to fix it back.
Flood Break in Jomtien
We were lucky to find a hotel in Jomtien that still had rooms. We spent the next couple of days looking for a cheaper place to stay, but the area is packed to the rafters with guests. Some entrepreneurs are making a nice profit from other people’s misery. I spoke to one foreigner who rents out apartments in Jomtien, and he wanted to charge us triple his normal rate for a two week stay. My wife managed to hunt down another studio apartment for rent at a reasonable price but they wanted to double this when they found out that she was married to a foreigner. One of the other nasty practices that is going on is that the local hotels and bars are buying up all the bottled water – as soon as a shop gets a delivery they seem to be there waiting. They can then sell this water for at least double the shop price. I think these floods have brought out the best and the worst in human nature.
Back to Rural Phitsanulok
The floods show no signs of disappearing from Bangkok anytime soon, and there was no way that we could afford to stay where we were. On Monday I decided to drive all the way to my wife’s village in Phitsanulok. It turned out to be a thirteen hour journey because I needed to avoid flooded roads. I actually had blisters on the sole of my right foot by the time we arrived here from pressing the car pedals repetitively for that long.
It is nice to be back here in Chat Trakan – there is now a reassuringly long distance between us and the floods of Bangkok. This is where my son was born, and where I lived here for five years – the longest I stayed anywhere as an adult. This area had its own flood nightmares this rainy season, but the water receded weeks ago. I worry about our remaining belongings back in Minburi, but it will probably be a couple of weeks before we can go back to see the damage. The main thing is that we are all safe and dry.
I Should Have Kept My Big Mouth Shut about the Bangkok Floods
The floods from my window- Kum Glao Minburi
In my last post I mentioned my good fortune to have been spared the worst of the Bangkok floods. I even told my family back in Ireland that there was no longer any cause for concern. I’ve been suffering from Thailand flood fatigue so it came as a relief to be able to be able to turn off from it all– I even stopped checking the Thai flood Twitter alerts. I should have kept my big mouth shut, because I’ve angered the Thai gods with my presumptuous claims.
The Floods Have Come to My Part of Minburi
I woke up this morning to a few puddles of water outside our house. The water level has been increasing all day; it is now higher than the worst day of flooding we had here this year. The water is continuing to rise, and it really could end up in our house this time. I’ve predicted this same outcome before so I probably sound like the middle-aged man who cried “wolf”. I guess it can’t keep rising indefinitely so I just hope that it levels off within the next few hours.
I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but the main reason our estate has remained dry is that there has been a pump working around the clock. It is a fantastic piece of machinery. I certainly do not begrudge the few hundred baht we were asked to contribute for diesel. Money well spent is all I can say; I’d be willing to contribute a lot more if I thought it would do any good. The problem is that this pump has nowhere left to redirect the water; we are basically living in the middle of a huge lake. Even the most powerful pump in the world wouldn’t be of much use to use now.
The Waiting is Over
The last few weeks have been so stressful. The worst thing was waiting and not knowing what was going to happen next. There were so many false alarms when we were told that the floods were bearing down on us. It is sort of a relief to have the water arrive now. I guess deep down I never truly expected that we would get through this untouched. The next few days are going to be kind of interesting. I must remember to recharge my camera in case the power gets cut off.
in the US
in the UK