Tonight, Pam, my saint of a wife, and I will attend Nick and Giulia’s wedding on the beach in Krabi, Thailand. We are thrilled to be here and can’t wait for the ceremony.

I have known Nick for over a decade, I was the CFO of a seafood importing business when we met. My task was to interview Nick, a recent college graduate, for a position at the company.

Frankly, I didn’t need to interview him to know that we should hire him. It was clear at a glance of his resume that he was more passionate and knew more about aquaculture than the founder of my company. His brief resume was that persuasive. It was also a bit intimidating that someone so young could have done that much.

With his resume in hand, I walked into the conference room to conduct the interview. By the time I walked out of the room, I knew I had a friend for life.

Initially, he called me his sensei, a title I am not sure I deserved, as I helped him navigate through the surprisingly complex issues within our small company. I enjoyed spending time with him and, much to the surprise of Pam and my grown daughters, who are older than he is, he enjoyed spending time with me.

Nick was, and continues to be, a force of nature. Like a whirlwind, he swept me up and pulled me into his world. I am a better person for it.

Over the years our relationship changed. He went from interviewee to entrepreneur. I went from interviewer to professional advisor. I am proud to have him as a client. I am prouder to have him as a friend. I am thankful to have him in my life.

Pam and I left on our trip on Halloween Day, ten days ago. Our treat of a trip consisted of three segments: Tokyo, Bangkok and Krabi. For the first two segments, Justin, Nick’s business partner, was our tour guide. As he speaks fluent Japanese, having lived there for a couple of years, and has been to Thailand over 30 times, he took the stress out of traveling in these most foreign of countries.

To say I am not the biggest Asian food fan, would be a colossal understement. I am afraid of eating most of it. I do not eat sushi, unless it’s cooked. I have had bad experiences eating shabu shabu and ramen. I do not like shrimp or fish with their heads attached. I do not like eating dark meat chicken unless I cook the chicken myself. I do not like anything strange, which I define by texture as much as anything else. And, lastly, I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to spicy food.

So, while I was thrilled to be going to the wedding, I was a bit leery of what I would eat while I was away. Worst case, I figured I could just eat a rice bowl for every meal.

Our Uber arrived at eight AM, and despite the best efforts of the driver, we made it to the airport safely and in one piece, though we had to endure some ridiculously abrupt lane changes on the way.

The airport was eerily quiet when we arrived, and we were comfortably ensconced in the lounge eating our first meal fo the day, a somewhat inedible breakfast, mere minutes after we checked in and breezed through security.

Boarding was easy, and I passed the time until takeoff by sipping a mimosa. We were in the air on time, and the crew served us lunch about an hour later. I was not the least bit hungry, but I wolfed the meal down anyway.

For the rest of the flight, I watched movies, ate, watched the in-flight display, ate, wrote some of this, ate, watched more movies, ate. All in all, I had about five meals and a snack, enough to keep my need for rice bowls at bay for at least a day.