No matter how old I become, when I think of myself in relation to the people I went to school with, I still see us all as idiotic 17-year-olds. It’s only with hindsight that you really appreciate how clueless you were as a teenager and how wise your parents and teachers were. I still try and find out what the people in my year are up to, either through Facebook or Friends Reunited, but ultimately I’ve lost touch with almost everyone. Every now and then, however, I find out that someone has gone on to do something interesting.

Tom Payne was a kid I never had any ill feeling toward except one time when he accidentally ran into me and smacked me in the head. He was always in the school plays and you could tell from an early age that acting was his thing. According to Wikipedia, Tom is now best known for playing Brett Aspinall in the TV show Waterloo Road. He’s also been in Skins, Casualty and Gossip Girl. I heard that he had been to Hollywood and filmed a part for a movie.

Another Tom, Tom Knights, stood out because he had ginger hair. Thinking back to my school days, I really have no idea what he was like. I think he was quite popular and I remember that at one point (about 14 years old or so) he had a very pretty girlfriend. Tom Knights has now become some sort of electro-cyber-indie punk. He’s a musician, a model and a photographer. He goes by the name The Knight and he’s made a lot of music, although I’ve no idea how popular he is. He’s a fashion photographer, which isn’t my cup of tea, but his pictures are interesting.

Other than these two, the brother of one of my best friends has become a professional poker play. I could see that one becoming because he was always playing PS2 online.

It’s only natural that you compare yourself with the people you grew up with, even if you didn’t really know them at the time. I don’t imagine that many people form my year know what I am doing or have any idea where I am. If someone were to ask me what I do I’m not sure I’d have an answer, especially in light of my move next week.

I haven’t even paid my student loan back next, speaking of which, I’ve decided that I’m going to set up some sort of monthly payment to start clearing that massive debt.

I once fare-dodged my way from Bath to London. My friend Elliot and I spent several hours hopping on and off trains, hiding in toilets, and using our cellphones to outwit the ticket conductor. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my early life.

There’s an age-old rumour that if you stay out of the UK for seven years, your student loans gets wiped clean. I looked into this rumour about two years ago and found out that it’s actually completely false. The student loan can only be wiped, according to the UK’s Student Loans Company, in the event of death or if you make it to pensioner status and still haven’t finished paying it back. I’m hoping for the latter.

I’m kidding, of course. I would love to be able to pay my student loan back, but based on the salary I earn in Thailand, I don’t even qualify to make the minimum payments as outlined in my contract with the Student Loans Company. I have a massive debt of something like £12,000 hanging over me. Every year I receive a letter asking me where I’m working and living and every year I end up with another 12-month grace period.

The big question is: When will I be able to pay my student loan back? This horrible debt continues to amass interest and is a stark reminder that all those days spent as a carefree student came at a price. When I graduated, I found myself with no money. I was actually about £1,600 overdrawn. Being a fresh graduate, I really didn’t care.

I’ve been told that the American system with regards to student loans is much less forgiving and that repayments are mandatory, regardless of how much money you earn or where you are working.

I had been living under the assumption that one day I would net an amazing job and from that point on I wouldn’t have to worry about my student loan. And yet here I am, four years after finishing university and not quite able to say I’m working my dream job.

There’s no way I can be the only expat in this situation. I suspect that most of the expats here around a certain age have some sort of debt following them everywhere they travel. Heck, I’m sure that escaping debt is the reason why some people come here in the first place.

My biggest fear is that I will receive a letter informing me that my student loan has been turned over to another loan company. That would spell major trouble as the new firm would not be as forgiving as the Student Loans Company. There is also the possibility of being served up a court order and having to pay the debt in one lump sum. However, this is usually reserved for people who fail to make payments and earn above £15,000.

At the moment I’m giving some serious thought with regards to what to do about my student loan.

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As I’m in a charitable mood, here is my final roundup of blogs that helped me out during my request for guest posting. I think there are still a couple more blogs that offered to let me write a post, but I haven’t got round to those ones yet. These are four blogs that will make your life better if you visit them.

First up is Bangkok Diaries. I like Bangkok Diaries because the blog has kind of a community feel about it. People submit their blog posts and therefore you have a range of different writers covering a broad base of topics. I wrote a post about the maddest person I ever met in Bangkok. I actually like the post and almost wish I’d put it up here, but such is life. What particularly impressed me the first time I visited Bangkok Diaries was the clean layout of the theme. There’s heaps of material to sift through.

Move & Buy Thailand is a resource that can help you out if you are looking to buy a car or some real estate. There are also job listings, a bunch of classified ads with random stuff for sale and a section where you can buy pets. The holidays section has offers on hotel rooms, while there’s also a lot of information about Thailand. The blog part of the website really takes a back seat for the rest of the material up there.

Jamie Monk the granddaddy of Phuket bloggers. Jamie’s Phuket was the first Phuket blog I ever came across and it’s been around for more than two years. It contains heaps of information about where to eat, drink and sleep in Phuket. It’s updated regularly and is full of pictures. Jamie is the man about town in Phuket.

And finally we come to Tatt2Dude, a British guy who runs a tattoo studio in Pattaya. Si’s blog has gone through several phases since its conception, but it seems to have settled now and there’s loads of content up there about tattoos and life in Thailand. The blog itself is there labelled “T2D Diaries”. The writing is gritty and blunt and has attracted quite a following.

Enjoy these blogs if you haven’t before and if you have, I’m sorry for wasting your time.

East Timor’s hope of Olympic glory in Beijing was dashed on Sunday when Mariana Dias Ximenes, 25, failed to finish in the women’s marathon.

The backbreaking course took athletes from Tiananmen Square to the National Stadium for a grand finish, but Dias Ximenes made it just over halfway when an injured foot forced her to retire.

Dias Ximenes was East Timor’s only athlete competing at this year’s Olympic Games. This was only the third marathon she had ever taken part in a marathon after running one at the Asian Games in 2002 and one in Malang, Indonesia, this year.

Dias Ximenes told reporters that she had been training for two hours every day, except on Sundays when she goes to church.

“I know that the people of East Timor support me and I hope I can do the best for my country,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as saying.

After her whirlwind trip of a lifetime, Dias Ximenes will now return to Bali where she recently graduated.

There was no word on whether the young runner will be in London to fly her country’s flag at the 2012 Games.

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There are more writers in Thailand and more writers who write about Thailand than there are Top Charoen Optical stores around the nation. For a writer to stand out from the crowd, he has to have paid his dues. The writers I've chosen to highlight here cover a variety of styles and niches, from travel and lifestyle to hard news and investigative journalism. These aren't the only Thailand writers out there, but these are a few of the writers I make a point to read, even if it means searching for old stories.

Newley Purnell not only has the best name of anybody I've ever heard of, he is also a solid writer who has been published by the likes of the New York Times and AFP. I like Newley because he's a blogger and he comes across as as a cool kind of guy who has life sussed. I particularly enjoyed reading Newley's NYT article about Khaosan Road.

Andrew Drummond has written so many great stories. He is at the very top of the tree when it comes to Thailand writers. He is published by everyone from The Times to the Daily Telegraph. Check out his recent story about Thailand’s “ruthless marriage market”, written with Ian MacKinnon, another writer whose work I was recently turned onto.

I first came across Andrew Spooner after he wrote an article for the Independent about how dangerous Thailand has become. I and a number of others were somewhat critical of the article, but Andrew was good enough to respond to our criticism and he made a solid argument for his case. I've since met Andrew and he's a decent bloke. It was because of his response on this blog that I looked into other work he has done. Check out "Homestays in northern Thailand".

I urge all of you to go and read Jonathan Head's story about "Thailand's wealthy untouchables". It's such a great piece and is one of many that Jonathan has written over the years. A regular down at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand, Jonathan is an active member of the media in Thailand and he does a tremendous job in his position of Southeast Asia correspondent for the BBC.

I try and read as many Thailand blogs as I can. I enjoy keeping up with people's lives, similar to how you would with a soap opera. Reading Bangkok Pundit is different because he's one of the only Thailand bloggers who puts current affairs before himself. Of course he has opinions, but you'd never read a blog post about BP's pet cat or what he had for dinner last night. He strives to bring together a variety of news sources, Thai and foreign, as well as adding academic insight into news in Thailand. The blog is updated almost as regularly as The Nation's breaking news section.

There have been so many books written about Thailand. You walk into any bookshop and you simply can't escape the variety of books with unimaginative titles. One of my favorite authors is John Burdett. He's one of the few Thailand authors who can tell a compelling story with wonderful style that doesn't get bogged down with cliches and tired formulas. John Burdett is so much better an author than the majority of the people who have churned out a novel while in Thailand. Like Jake Needham, whose crime novels are gripping stuff, John Burdett is a former lawyer. His style is a little more fluid than Needham's, however. Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo are must-reads.

There are travel writers and then there's the guy who wrote the book about travel writing in Thailand and Southeast Asia – literally. Joe Cummings' travel guides for Lonely Planet are the stuff of legend. It's because of him that countless travelers found their trips a little bit easier to manage. He has written so much that he now has tendinitis in one of his wrists. A trooper, in every sense of the word.

Within a week of meeting Cynthia Barnes she'd shouted at me in her office and made me hate her. It took a while, but I eventually grew to enjoy working with Cynthia and she taught me a great deal about travel writing. Having read a number of her pieces, I have a real respect for her work. Last time I saw her she was about to embark on a trip to Iraq. I haven't heard from Cynthia for a while, but I gather she is still based in Bangkok. She can appear rather fierce, but once you get over the initial fear she's a lovely lady. Read her "Confessions of an elephant polo junkie".

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