Legless in Thailand
by John McMiken
This book is my autobiography. Most of my life, I have been an engineering professional, and also being an ex-military “RAF” Commissioned Officer, I have been used to having a reasonably straightforward, practical outlook on life. The first main hiccup came in my life about 20 years ago when, having recently left the British military, I was employed by a large multi-national organization that sent me to Thailand to take care of a major government project there. While I was in Thailand, I met a girl to whom I was very attracted and eventually married, so I moved to Thailand to live and be with her.
The book only covers the last 8 years of my life in the Far East because many unusual events happened during this particular period that changed my life and my outlook on life forever. The book opens with a motoring accident that happened 5 years ago. This event affected my life not just physically, but more importantly, emotionally and psychologically. It also covers the period leading up to the accident. It covers how I had to deal with these situations alone, in a country where I had limited friends and no family to help me with my difficulties.
The book mainly revolves around the psychological effects I went through with nobody to help me and also my inexperience with this kind of trauma, which I had never experienced before. Obviously the book goes into more detail and covers many of the unpleasant things that subsequently happened such as partner infidelity, HIV, attempted suicides, and lack of sufficient funds to survive adequately.
Many of the things that occur in this book are probably just what people would loosely refer to as bad luck, but they are also many of the things that happened where, due to my misunderstanding of personal relationships in a cross-cultural situation, I hope people can learn from the many mistakes I made.
Because it is an autobiography and the person living through it is still alive, the story continues with new situations developing on a daily basis, so unfortunately, I cannot say this story will have a happy ending, even though that is what is still being sought after. It just covers events up to date.
The main character in this book has a new outlook on life that he now tries to live up to: “Always try to expect the unexpected.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John McMiken was born in Prescot, Lancashire, England in 1951. He was the eldest son of Eric and Janette Reed. He lived all of his early years in St Helens, Lancashire, in North West England until after finishing secondary school. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force in January 1968 and attended RAF college for 2 years in the profession of “Flight Systems, Electronics.” He graduated with honours and went on to serve the RAF in many locations in the world for the next 12+ years. He left the RAF by choice in September 1980 and went into employment with a major computer company, GEC Computers, in the UK and served as a Field Service Engineer for 4 years. In 1984 he joined a major UK Defence Contractor as a Project Engineer and took care of their business in Europe and Southeast Asia. In 1986 he moved to Thailand, having met a girl there from a previous business visit, and tried to start a new life. Since then he has just tried to survive as a foreigner in this country and make a living. It has been very difficult for him, but he is still surviving.
He is now incapacitated, having lost one of his legs below the knee in a bad traffic accident in Thailand 5 years ago. He wrote this book to record some of his experiences in Thailand, which have been far from normal in recent years.
(2006, paperback, 50 pages)
Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days.
This book is my autobiography. Most of my life, I have been an engineering professional, and also being an ex-military “RAF” Commissioned Officer, I have been used to having a reasonably straightforward, practical outlook on life. The first main hiccup came in my life about 20 years ago when, having recently left the British military, I was employed by a large multi-national organization that sent me to Thailand to take care of a major government project there. While I was in Thailand, I met a girl to whom I was very attracted and eventually married, so I moved to Thailand to live and be with her.
The book only covers the last 8 years of my life in the Far East because many unusual events happened during this particular period that changed my life and my outlook on life forever. The book opens with a motoring accident that happened 5 years ago. This event affected my life not just physically, but more importantly, emotionally and psychologically. It also covers the period leading up to the accident. It covers how I had to deal with these situations alone, in a country where I had limited friends and no family to help me with my difficulties.
The book mainly revolves around the psychological effects I went through with nobody to help me and also my inexperience with this kind of trauma, which I had never experienced before. Obviously the book goes into more detail and covers many of the unpleasant things that subsequently happened such as partner infidelity, HIV, attempted suicides, and lack of sufficient funds to survive adequately.
Many of the things that occur in this book are probably just what people would loosely refer to as bad luck, but they are also many of the things that happened where, due to my misunderstanding of personal relationships in a cross-cultural situation, I hope people can learn from the many mistakes I made.
Because it is an autobiography and the person living through it is still alive, the story continues with new situations developing on a daily basis, so unfortunately, I cannot say this story will have a happy ending, even though that is what is still being sought after. It just covers events up to date.
The main character in this book has a new outlook on life that he now tries to live up to: “Always try to expect the unexpected.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John McMiken was born in Prescot, Lancashire, England in 1951. He was the eldest son of Eric and Janette Reed. He lived all of his early years in St Helens, Lancashire, in North West England until after finishing secondary school. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force in January 1968 and attended RAF college for 2 years in the profession of “Flight Systems, Electronics.” He graduated with honours and went on to serve the RAF in many locations in the world for the next 12+ years. He left the RAF by choice in September 1980 and went into employment with a major computer company, GEC Computers, in the UK and served as a Field Service Engineer for 4 years. In 1984 he joined a major UK Defence Contractor as a Project Engineer and took care of their business in Europe and Southeast Asia. In 1986 he moved to Thailand, having met a girl there from a previous business visit, and tried to start a new life. Since then he has just tried to survive as a foreigner in this country and make a living. It has been very difficult for him, but he is still surviving.
He is now incapacitated, having lost one of his legs below the knee in a bad traffic accident in Thailand 5 years ago. He wrote this book to record some of his experiences in Thailand, which have been far from normal in recent years.
(2006, paperback, 50 pages)
Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days.
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