Make a splash!

Let’s just say that W is probably one of the most wonderful letters in existence; Wintonyk, wicked, water and now the W hotel. This venue played host to a wet and wild Song Kran pool party that was one to rival all others. 

Starting out about as interesting as a goldfish in 3 inches of water, as more of my friends arrived and our previous days militia reunited it became more and more fun. With a giant pool filled with hundreds of beach balls ranching from standard size to that of which Atlas holds on his back we knew that things would get to be more and more fun.   

Free flowing mojitos, a wonderful sun shining overhead and a virtually unlimited supply for my SS5500 (decided on this as my nickname for watergun). Jumping in and splashing made the most of the event.

A good friend invited one of her artists that she represents to the party as well, Noe two. He is a graffiti artist that makes some incredible pieces. Presently in town he is working on a temple. As a gift to the monks he is making a mind-blowing art on the inside of the temple.  Part of my experience included him drawing his tag on my chest. With Arturo, Yulia, Julia, Masha and myself all tagged up we ended up taking thousands of pictures with random people.  

After another long day in the sun, I ended up in bed early again. This is what model life ends up being during new years. There is no work going on during that time and with my contract almost over, there is only 1 job left. 

Attack of the sweltering sunshine

Not Impressed by this heat.

If you follow me on twitter, facebook or instagram you will have heard my whining. Lip hanging a foot out, I have pouted about how hot Bangkok is lately and its annoying effects on me. 

Sweat, oh the sweat. I would like to paint you a picture of what a daily occurrence you will find at the moment. So close your eyes and immerse yourself. Okay closing your eyes isn’t the best way to read, just imagine. A cascade of liquid pain (some refer to it as fat crying) slithers down every inch of your body. Searching for shade hop between the shade from a fence, then a billboard, and scurry into 7-11. Thanking Boreas for that cold northern breeze we so eloquently refer to as Aircon. You saunter to the back of 7-11 eyes glued on the water.  There are 3 sizes, but judging from the puddle at your feet you opt for the 1.5 L bottle knowing full well it will only last to your next 7-11 and if your lucky maybe even 2 away.  Arriving at your destination you prepare a change of clothes. First toweling off the salty glistening beads of your efforts, followed by a 10-minute session directly below Boreas breath again.

With sunshine comes beautifully sun-kissed skin or that is at least the plan for anyone heading to a tropical destination. The beautiful woman I talk to on a regular just came home with a glowing radiance that surpasses most people’s personality. With my contract coming to a close, I figured now is as good of time as any to liven up my ghost white skin that makes a polar bear jealous. Nature had other plans of course, spitting out 5 consecutive 40+ degree-days. Apollo beaming and beating on my skin gave me a heat rash. With my past history of food challenges I immediately when the archives deep inside my head of the past 3 days food.

* Tip: If you start demonstrating symptoms of allergic reaction, look back at the previous day or two of food, it could provide hints. After years of being fine, people can still develop a food allergy, shellfish is common for doing this

Well that failed. My previous few days everything checked out. We all tend to fall into habits, I am precisely that kind of guy. Oh the humanity of a rash that feels like a million mosquito bites. Immediately I went to the pharmacy which are almost as abundant as the aforementioned 7-11. Armed with steroid cream (TRT baby) and tips from a very friendly pharmacist, I began to hermit myself. 

For the next 4 days, I remained in aircon buildings as much as humanly possible, and dropped the temperature in my room to a comforting 20 degrees from the usual 25.  This coupled with a cold plunge for 10-20 minutes twice a day seemed to help more than plumber during a toilet emergency.  

The past two days it has rained. This isn’t cats and dogs rain, this is like hippos and giraffes. With that it has cooled off a little bit, but become even more humid (is that possible?) Rather perfect timing for the weather to shift though, Song Kran is just around the bend and everyone is going to be soaked anyway.

Walking on the wild side

I recently discussed the difference between myself and a high fashion model. Essentially I compared a starving cow to that of a full bred bison, horns optional of course. One of the differences of course is that as a commercial model we typically aren’t called upon to walk. Of course as the contract states and I agreed upon, I go where they say to go. 

Fierce like a tiger, use that confidence and strut your stuff. With David Bowie giving a play by play a cool guy walks down a glittered stage. 

Pop Quiz: How do you make sure you are cool guy?

As previously mentioned I have booked the same number of fashion shows from castings as this guy:

I would like to think its my walk or my goofy face. Unfortunately when you are the equivalent to the broad side of the barn and the other models can be thrown, you get passed on easily. Initially it bugged me. Then I got comfortable with the fact I wasn’t the look and now I have come to embrace that I am not a fashion show guy. 

A list, everyone likes a list, so here is my Bowie (Pro) vs Bieber (Con) list for fashions shows: 

Bowie:

Ziggy stardust, game over. 

You spend the entire day with a bunch of models

Free food after and sometimes drinks (champagne, yes please)

Bieber:

You spend the whole day with a bunch of models

Low pay

Hurry up and wait

Herded into a casting like lamb to a slaughter

Herded into a fitting like moo (another pop quiz… remember what moo means in thai?)

Herded into hair and makeup like a bunch of zombies after they hear a gunshot (been reading the walking dead comics lately)

Castings, fitting, all day at show – a lot of time invested

Does nothing for your portfolio

As you can clearly see that Bieber has a much larger list. This is directly proportionate to his fans under 20 compared to Bieber. The negatives far outweigh the positives. I am not exactly sure where I was going with that. Bieber sucks and Bowie is awesome. That is of course my opinion and any prostitot and tweenie can go suck on a tootsie pop rather than chirp me.  

Reminiscent of a zombie feeding frenzy, there were close to 200 hundred models of all shapes and sizes waiting for this casting. Seriously, 5 ft nothing and 6"4, man, woman and everything in between.

I lucked into baep sib baep or those not familiar with Thai, the lucky chinese numbers 88. 10 at a time we were led into a meat market. Clients feast their eyes (drooling at times) on who they wanted to represent they fine threads on the tiger walk (much more fierce than catwalk). Both Thai's and falang (foreigners such as myself) were there together. These guys had a bad walk down pat. Only one of the 6 thai models actually had confidence in his walk. In their defence I think many it was their first time and they were nervous, kinda like daisy a baby calf.   

Time is on my side

 The other day I read about a study about the most stressed people are the ones in the years following university. That 22-30 age group, is not entirely sure where they are, challenging themselves to discover this.  Situated dead smack in the middle of this group, I fortunately am not succumbing to the pressure anymore. These tendencies do pop into my head when I think about after modelling (which I am sure is coming soon). For the moment, the time being, time is on my side.

I am fortunate not to have the big financial burdens of student loans (very fortunate) and do not have a car loan or mortgage right now. The car loan lesson I learned early, with little repercussions (long story short, just because you can afford the payments, doesn’t mean you can afford the car or anything for that matter). Time can be on my side to allow me to travel and enjoy life.

There is a modeling community where people frequently ask questions, not being afraid to pipe in about nutrition related stuff I have found myself a resource for many people lately. I thought lets give some insight on what I got up to today (and ate). 

Except I must be on Canada Time

Last night I had a terrible time falling asleep. Second time in the past week. 

Wake up: 9 am and chatted with a lovely girl in my life back in Canada

Morning exercise: 10-12 I was only planning on 1 hr on the treadmill doing intervals but got sucked into the latest season of top gear. Immediately following I did round of cold plunge and steam for 10 minutes.  Immediately after I had box of Green Tea soymilk.

Breakfast/Lunch: 12:30 2 cups of mixed rice, 3 eggs, 1 tbsp PB, 1 apple, ¼ cup of soymilk (all mixed together into a porridge with cinnamon and some brown sugar) 

Snack on the run: Casting started at 2:30 for FCUK so en route I had an apple and a birdseed bar (sesame seed and sunflower seeds held together by a bit of honey)

After casting:  Around 4 pm I was hungry on my way home so bought some fresh mango from street vendor (this is like candy for me)  When I arrived at home I had some rice crackers with 2 tbsp peanut butter (I can’t get enough of it)

Dinner: 6:30 hunger started to creep in. I cooked close to 4 cups of mushrooms, kale, onion, garlic, carrot with dried thai chili powder and lime. With the meal I had 2 chicken breasts cooked with Montreal steak spice and sirachi (maybe a little too much).  

Before bed: Its now 10 pm and I am starting to get hungry again. Will have to check the fridge but I think there are some strawberries and maybe some almonds. 

This is an example of my day. An average day? Likely not the case. This is just an example of what today looked like. When I do strength training my appetite is significantly larger.