In a Sunburned Country written by Bill Bryson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was terribly late on this mandatory reading for any true blue Aussie. I confess upfront to my bias for any glowing testament to Australia. It was a bonus that all 19 chapters were so entertaining. When I wasn’t nodding in agreement at his sharp observations, I was generally laughing in hysterics. Though a slight predicament arose that I was so keen to hear what would happen next, yet didn’t really want it to ever end.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future written by Ashlee Vance
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Elon’s clearly an amazing visionary. Everything he touches is so neatly mapped out to a complete, successful strategy. And once he’s ignored conventional wisdom and led the charge, the strategy begins to make sense. I’d forgo all his riches though if it meant I had to treat people so disrespectfully.
At the start of the year I created two goals.
One was a regimented goal to run 100kms per month, 1200kms over the year. It was a hopeful attempt to maintain a better level of fitness rather than getting into prime shape for a marathon now and again.
Last year I set a goal to run 1400kms in the year. It was a pretty random number except that it was the year 2014 – and I wondered if I could challenge myself each year to increase the figure accordingly.
Nope. I failed 1400, by quite a margin.
So this year, I was more realistic and wanted to be slightly less arbitrary. 100kms in a month isn’t too far for a runner, but covering this distance each month for a year is beyond anything I’ve done before. To put the overall distance into perspective, 1200kms is the distance between Brisbane and Canberra (a 13 hour drive).
Things began well, like each year’s goals generally do.
Though just before summer, without any warning, my job vanished before my eyes. I was seriously considering a return home to Australia.
Unsurprisingly my running was hugely impacted. I managed maybe just one bitter-filled run per week.
I added a median line to the total kilometres graph which my running app plots. Its trajectory showed the 100kms per month I should cover. In July, I think you can actually see my kilometre progress crying in depression as it failed to keep up with the plan.
The kilometres dropped so far that by the end of June I had run only about a quarter of my year long goal.
Fortunately the cliche did apply, ‘When one door closes, another one opens’. In two months I started with a new employer, and gave myself a month to settle before returning to my running goal with a vengeance.
I started a new routine, upping the kilometres in quite a big way. It wasn’t easy to keep up the momentum with everything that was happening in life. Though having gone through such a big challenge on the job front, there was enough new-found determination to keep me unwavering from making the time.
In fact, I only missed two sessions in the next four months of training.
I did the math and planned the distances for each and every run. With two months to go, it still looked unclear whether I’d reach the goal or not.
As I ticked over the runs in the final few weeks I could definitely see the finish line. It was just a matter of continuing the focus. I clearly made it, after a monster 231kms logged in December. It was the longest I’ve ever run in a month, to make it the longest I have ever run in a year.
The other goal I set for myself this year was to read 12 books in the year. Supposedly that’s one book per month.
With all the reading I do at work, I sadly don’t feel like reading for pleasure. Hence the attempt to bring back the habit.
Having these two goals could always make for an interesting finish, as it gets close to the final deadline. I can imagine frantically reading while running the last few kilometres in late December.
But this year I did have an old trick up my sleeve, given my new daily commute.
It could be argued listening to audio books is not reading. My thought is it definitely is. I listen and interpret the words, just as I would if I had read them. I plotted the progress against the goal also, but this trajectory was more easy to manage.
Goodreads, where I plotted my books kept a nice record of the books I read as part of the year’s challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/12648231-ryan-brinkworth. And all the books I’ve read with reviews are on the site as well, https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12648231-ryan-brinkworth?shelf=read
2015 turned out to be a good year.
It’s one I can always reflect on as the first time I smashed my goals, despite a pretty major challenge along the way.
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence written by Doris Pilkington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a touching story I already knew from seeing the film. It’s no surprise that the book gave a much richer experience of emotions. I found it impossible not to be moved, terrified and proud of the feat of these mere children. How did they muster so much courage & determination in the face of a policy which forged completely stolen generations? Thankfully it was a very different time, though stories help us never forget.
All other pains are forgotten once you see the finish line.
I love seeing so many examples of wonderful human achievement. And that’s just afterwards with people piling their breakfast plates with mountains of pork and bacon, seemingly beyond the physical limit.
On the running side of awesomeness, Cheetah won again, breaking the course record with a not too shabby, 1.07.
People outside of Dubai often assume it’s hot here all the time. We actually enjoyed perfect conditions with temperatures around 19-25.
So the timing is perfect weather-wise, as well as fine preparation 8 weeks before the Standard Chartered (full) Dubai Marathon. I suspect, a few cunning runners if they miss their half marathon goal, may relegate the activity to a training run. Or just a means to earn the wonderful breakfast at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club.
This year I was in reasonable shape from having a couple of months of good marathon training under my belt. Though things still got tough in the second half. I assumed I was beaming an appreciative smile to the lovely volunteers handing out water. In actual fact (I thought later) I could well have been looking like a zombie extra from The Walking Dead.
Truth be told I visited the physio earlier in the week. The prognosis was a strained TFL. Nothing ibuprofen couldn’t mask. It led me to using the post-race masseurs for the first time. Poor planning by me was to visit the same Dr/physio I had seen earlier in the week, with his thumbs made of rock, and sick affliction with others’ pain. What was funnier than me visiting him, was him telling me to relax while my body was practically entering into convulsions.
This didn’t detract from the run. The Striders put on a brilliant event as usual, I thoroughly enjoyed it as I do each year. And Inshallah I’ll join another one next year.
The only other slight blip on the morning was the annoying sensation that my toe was wearing a hole in my sock, and was beginning to peak through. It’s an annoying feeling that just gets worse as time goes on. Once home I removed my shoe, and my sock was intact. Uh oh. It was my toe that was the problem, with a blood blister. In an attempt to make it look less gross, I superimposed a couple of props. Enjoy!
I often forget my dreams. At times they’re so boring, I maybe just don’t see the point in remembering them.
But one particular dream I keep remembering. I believe it’s what’s known as a lucid dream.
In it, I was with my brother in a particular shopping mall in Australia (Strathpine to be precise), and at that time I only had my first son – who would have been two or three years old.
Something happened while my brother and I were walking and my son got separated from us. It was a scary situation considering he was so young and the mall was so big and busy with people.
My mind quickly filled with panic. I wondered where he could have become lost.
At that point, I remember it crystal clearly, I thought to myself I could either run around frantically retracing my steps; OR it’s a lot easier to avoid this worry and wake up from this dream.
It was a clear option, a completely stress-free one. So I simply woke myself up and felt instantly relieved. I knew all was well, and felt so grateful to avoid the incident – even if it was just in dream form.
A friend of mine once worked for a large supermarket chain.
The job came with a couple of perks.
All supermarkets have a “Shrinkage” rack. This is where damaged stock goes, before it’s registered for refund and/or trashed.
From time to time, some desirable food items would find themselves on the shrinkage rack, almost coincidentally.
And not too surprisingly, the temptation for hungry staff would be too much.
Management tried a few strategies to put a stop to this practice.
An entertaining one was a handwritten note they added to the rack warning staff “DO NOT eat food from the shrinkage rack as cockroaches crawl all over the items”.
Someone from staff made a mockery of things with their own handwritten response:
Your sense of taste is better than mine.
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives written by David Eagleman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you have no objections with the blasphemy, this is a brilliant collection of potential futures once we leave this mortal coil. Some entertaining, some thoughtful, I found it interesting to consider the possibilities of something we’ll never really know til it’s too late to share with others.
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload written by Daniel J. Levitin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting guide into the different parts of the brain, and our evolution to support many different information systems we take for granted – or ones we may wish to improve upon. Productivity and discipline just seems to make more sense when it’s understood in the context of psychology and neuroscience.
The Machine Gunners written by Robert Westall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Interesting, enthralling story
Nice to hear of the fun times these kids had even during these violent times. My boys and I enjoyed reading it and hearing of their adventures.