201 - Review the year - 2025
🇹🇭 V and I are celebrating another Christmas and New Year back in Bangkok - this is our fourth in recent years; Bangkok is just great at this time of year. Like last year I'm taking the opportunity of the Christmas-New year period to reflect and review the year past and we are busy checking and confirming our plans and bookings for 2026. How has your year been? Hope you hit all your goals and did everything that was important for you.
Our year started in Bangkok, enjoying the great weather here - it is much better here than in HK in January and February! It did seem fairly obvious that we were in the calm before what would surely follow. My recommendation then, as now, is to make sure you are where you want to be, doing what is important and that you are not allowing yourself to fall into the habits of the collective. Recall our discussion on the 7-Habits of Highly Effective People - it's good to review here:

It was obvious that 2025 would have a lot happening in the world
For more of my specific expectations for 2025 - see here. Other notes that are worth re-reading are those on The Wizard of Oz and Gnosticism and Hermeticism. And some recommended books here.
As we moved into February, V and I had to make an unplanned trip to Northern Ireland for a bit. My dad fell ill and we wanted to be there to be with him and help ensure that he got proper medical and care support per his wishes.

This was an unplanned trip - family first
Regrettably this illness was hard for my Dad to recover from. We made several more trips to be with him, including to celebrate his birthday and eventually to remember him and celebrate his life. Thanks to all who reached out with support during this period.
March brought us to the end of our stay in Bangkok. By then the weather was heating up and Songkran was approaching so it was a good time to move on to cooler climes.

Click to refresh your memory - especially audiobook of the week
Mallorca is a great location for the spring time. Being in the Mediterranean the weather is sunny most days and from April the mornings are fresh with pleasant afternoons. Moving in to May and June it heats up quite a bit.

Click to learn more - check out two good explainers
We found a fabulous apartment in Palma that is near enough to the centre and walkable to everything that we need. And it is close to the Tennis Club and the swimming pool. Perfect for a few months and family from Belgium came to visit too!
By the beginning of July it feels a bit like Bangkok in March - so it was again time to move on and we headed back to Belfast where (surprise!) they were having nice weather for once! This summer we were staying in Belfast - another nice apartment for a few weeks - handy to public transport and a great base for local travels. And family came from Belgium for my birthday - nice!

Check out Chase's "Game of Life" and Jason's take on Chronicles of Narnia
From Belfast our next stop was Belgium - visiting V's family at the Belgian coast as well as family in Antwerp. It was great to meet up with them and also quite a few friends from when we lived in Antwerp.

Never wanting to stay put too long we were soon back on the road. This time we headed off to Madeira. You might recall that Madeira was one of the first places we visited when we got out of the madness of Covid starting in Hong Kong. Then, like now, people there are open minded and friendly - and this is a great location all year round

Among other things we had family visit us here in Madeira
We found a fabulous apartment right in the centre of town - beside Jardim Municipal. It is hard to imagine a better location. And family came from Belgium to visit too!
Of course we had to get back home to Hong Kong for the autumn - these months really are the best time to be in Hong Kong. The weather is perfect - pretty much dry all the time with fresher mornings and warm sunny afternoons.

Back at this famous spot - perfect hiking weather in Hong Kong
December brought us back to Bangkok again. Being further south it is certainly quite a bit warmer and by December the rainy season has mostly stopped in Bangkok. You can expect sunshine every day going forward!

Gotta enjoy the evenings in Bangkok in this season - click for more
Life after 60...
I recently came across this short video. It articulated rather well exactly what I already knew and had discovered for myself. Perhaps some of you feel it too and many of you have this still to look forward to. Click below to listen and learn:

For me, that particular moment came at the end of April 2022 (it's a story that I have told quite a few of you) and it prompted me to write and share this newsletter that rather encapsulates it all - do go back and refresh your memory.
Check it out - who makes your choices and decisions?
You will see from all the subsequent newsletters that the change was under way and how things have developed since. How about you? Happy to discuss - just reach out.
More in this issue
- Photo memories - Around Patong and Bangkok this week
- Project Updates - Kagi goes from strength to strength
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - Carl Jung - you likely did not know all this









Patong and Bangkok this week
🛠️ Project Updates
Just a couple of updates from Kagi this week. This is one of the projects that I support and I am excited by all they are doing. I use these tools daily. What are you doing?
Finally the Orion Browser has reached 1.0. I have been recommending this for a long time and it just keeps getting better. A great alternative to Safari on Mac and iOS and it supports Chrome extensions like uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger.

It's still only in Beta on Linux - but they do keep making progress.
For sure AI is here to stay. My view is that you should be using these tools consciously and with careful consideration. Not to use them is to disadvantage yourself enormously. You will want maximum privacy - Kagi has a great and developing portfolio:

While I’m no fan of “The News,” Kagi offers an interesting set of tools that deliver curated headlines for your chosen categories, along with supporting analysis powered by their AI and search engine.

You can check their Blog for full information about all their features and releases. They do allow you to try the search for free - details here.
🔗 Links for your edification
Just a couple of links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
Svetski resurfaces, briefly
Svetski has been a very outspoken character in recent years. Recent months he has taken time off to reflect and his latest post should give you pause for thought. I understand fully his sentiment and I think many will think likewise too.

Svetski in pensive mood - rather clear and you likely agree with the sentiment
I particularly enjoyed his novel take on that well known quote of Martin Niemoller:
First they came for the commies - and I didn’t speak out - because they should round up all the commies anyway.
Then they came for everyone else - and I didn’t speak out - because I was too busy focusing on my own life and it was all just propaganda anyway.
Then when my time came, I realised there was no ‘they’ - but that it was just my time and it was ok because I had lived my life already. I didn’t need anyone to speak for me, because I had already spoken for myself.
~ Aleksandar Svetski
Exiting the Matrix
Back in May and June of 2022 I did "catch myself on" and one of the most liberating things that I did was to delete my LinkedIn account. I had been one of the earliest users of the platform and I remember when using it put you on the "leading edge".

More recently - as explained above, LinkedIn represents everything that is wrong with society. Deleting your account is a necessary step to exit the matrix.
🤔 Closing Thoughts
I know that many are challenged when I am critical of organised religion in general and quite some in particular. Every time that I do so I loose some subscribers! So be it - they are welcome to return when they wake up.
Carl Jung - insights you might not have known
Assuming you are still here - this next one should help you understand my position and you may well want to share it with others.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology.
- The core idea that he shares: Beneath your personal memories lies a deeper, collective unconscious—a storehouse of universal images (archetypes) shared by all humans. This should remind you of Rupert Sheldrake and Morphic Resonance.
- Goal of life: Individuation—integrating the conscious ego with these unconscious contents to become a complete “Self.”
- Key concepts:
- Archetypes (Shadow, Anima/Animus, Wise Old Man, Self)
- Psychological types (introvert/extravert + four functions)
- Synchronicity (meaningful coincidences)
- Dreams as nightly messages from the unconscious.
Carl Jung read the Gnostic gospels as encoded psychology: Jesus, he claimed, did not come to die for sins but to transmit a three-step technique for dissolving the “demiurge”—Jung’s symbol for the ego, persona and cultural scripts that keep us trapped in a false self and a false world.

Because every person who awakens weakens the collective spell, the method was hidden in mythic code: parables, symbols and initiation rituals.
The moment you recognise the prison is mental, the walls become permeable; the divine spark (the Self) is no longer a prisoner but a co-creator of reality.
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No one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
- Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix

Any questions or anything else? Feel free to comment below!
You can also email me at: LetterFrom@rogerprice.me
- The Architect
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