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Hong Kong!

So I’m currently in Hong Kong typing out this quick post in the executive lounge…fancy stuff. Could really get used to this life. Wake up early to hit the gym, eat some fruit and have coffee (more than one) then wander around trying different foods. Here for a full 2 weeks.

The traveling part to the destination was always the worst. 4 years ago I went to Japan and actually had to recover from the two 10 hour flights after changing at Dubai. Not bad this time as I managed to time my sleep, drink plenty of fluids and avoid the delicious aeroplane food…

I woke up today to people taichi-ing along the Shing Mun River, and also some crazy joggers. Brings back memories to about a decade ago when my dad and I jogged in the humidity.

This ultimately is the whole point of pursuing FIRE. Although I am still very far from being able to sustain this lifestyle indefinitely I’m not sure it’d be wise to do so. The only reason it is so amazing at the moment is because how busy my UK schedule is. Being able to live a decent FIRE lifestyle for 2 months in a year when you’re young (30s and 40s) would be amazing and definitely within anyone’s reach.

Back at home I just had an interview on Friday for a research degree (MD) – similar to PhD level but 2 years instead of 3. If you look back to my previous posts when I first started my registrar training I said I would very unlikely pursue something to would delay progression to becoming a consultant. Life doesn’t always work out as planned though and I’m very much looking forward to learning some new skills which would otherwise be very difficult to pick up in a clinical job. One of the guys who is similar clinical level (ST5) but one year into the MD refers to it as “strengthening your CV whilst getting paid”.

In the end the interviewers went easy on me and I got the job despite having no prior research experience.

To wrap up whilst a lot of “success” is luck I’m a firm believer in creating your own luck. This particular job has been known to accept pre-MRCP CT2s so getting the job is probably not the success in itself, but placing yourself in a position to accept the job and make it work for you is the success.

At the end of the day you want to create as many options for yourself as possible. I think passing the respiratory consultant exam early and doing 2.5 years of respiratory/GIM registrar training is the creating your own luck portion. The out of my control luck portion was that this was encouraged by a lot of consultants which I’m grateful for. Of course there is always a flip side to this in that people are biased towards that they have achieved but it will be fun.

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