Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8; City Watch, #1) written by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My first Pratchett book. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, from curious start to wildly interesting finale. I’ll definitely consider more Discworld tales in the future. This was a wonderful introduction – to the author, to the world, its characters; and the extreme likelihood of one in a million chances.
A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy written by Miyamoto Musashi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I liked the simplicity of Musashi’s way, told through the five rings. There is a lot to learn from an undefeated champion, philosopher, and artist of this era. He wraps together all his experience, and hones into the most important truths in his carefully considered texts. Perhaps what’s most important, and disappointing, are the many places where “this should be investigated thoroughly” (I’m not sure I’ll get much of a chance to investigate how hacking into the corner of my opponent with a sword will slow him down).
My take-aways are the virtues of patience, mindfulness, and style may deserve greater attention in all situations, not just in the heart of battle.
Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom written by Rick Hanson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed hearing about the workings of the brain, how it is shaped by events, and consequently shapes us. Many say We are what we eat. I now feel, just as importantly, the way we think shapes our thoughts. Taking a mindful approach gives us the best opportunity to best use our grey matter. Well, that’s what I think anyway.
For a few years I’ve been a subscriber to The Listserve. It’s an opt-in email subscription, where each day a randomly selected subscriber gets to share whatever they want via email to the entire group.
Most emails begin with the sender saying they never thought they’d be selected. And I can relate with this thought. It was a year ago today, I sent my message to the massive group.
I had a few rough ideas which I might want to send if I was ever selected. But something else entirely was was on my mind that day.
Following is the message I sent – Wed, May 28, 2014 at 1:02 PM.
Subject: [The Listserve] RUOKday:
New Year’s Day is supposed to be a celebration, a reflection, a hope for things to improve.
From this year on, I will always remember the 1st of January as the day our family friend’s 15 year old son took his own life.
Time doesn’t heal all wounds. His loving family is left with no answers, except that perhaps he is no longer suffering in silence.
News travels fast on social networks. Within a week the boy’s Facebook page lit up with thousands of posts, each one from someone in similar disbelief sharing how much they loved him, and will dearly miss him.
He couldn’t have known how wide and deep his network extends.
When someone who is loved and very popular, seemingly happy with life, and always up for an adventure, decides something is troubling him so much he can’t seek help, what chance do others have?
I know I hugged my sons extra tightly when I heard the tragic news. It was an upsetting and tough conversation to then have with them about why it happened. But it’s an awareness that’s helpful they have.
I tried to make it clear, if they’re ever struggling with life there is always someone to talk to. We can overcome all of life’s problems, no matter how big they seem.
Do all our other family, friends, colleagues know they have someone to talk to when they feel down about life?
There is an awareness programme based on this unusual email subject line. They encourage people to ask “Are you OK?” They believe a conversation could change a life. I believe it also.
I do hope you’re OK.
Perhaps someone in your circle could benefit from hearing you want to know they’re OK too.
Warm regards
Ryan
@rbrink77
ryan.listserved[a t] brinkworth.id.au
Dubai, UAEP.S. Some coincidences are very interesting. Just before I was going to hit the send button on this message, I received today’s list serve message from Tim Rowberry. Not only do we happen to be sharing a post on the same sad topic, the ominous date he mentions as being his birthday, is mine also.
The ListServe lets you choose to add your contact details or not. Due to the point of my message, I wanted to be available for feedback.
In summary I received 19 emails, and 3 or 4 tweets in reply to my post. Overall the feedback was good. Some people shared their own related stories. Others just let me know they thought the email was good or important and that they had bought into the topic. And there were three messages which were completely psychotic – recommending Suicide, and outlining the environmental issues that will make sure nothing gets better for anyone. It takes all types to make the world.
Although I’ll never know what effect it will have on anyone, I’m glad I got the message out there. A conversation has every chance of being the start of something good.
Reinventing You written by Dorie Clark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Dorie shares some tremendous insights, and crystallizes many aspects of success into a simple action plan. Each chapter though left me feeling more and more alienated, thinking ‘That’s a whole lotta work’. For someone wholeheartedly into the title, it might change their life. For someone, like me, who enjoyed hearing Dorie on a podcast and curious about what this is all about, it might seem like a uni textbook or workbook. It holds some interest, I got something from it, but I’m feeling I’m fine without following it completely.
1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3) written by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I enjoyed being enthralled in this quirky, suspenseful story of a bizarre journey between the year 1984 and 1Q84. All the characters are totally unique, and constantly in danger of meeting or in danger of not meeting. It left me wondering what if, and what about… So it was great value all round.
I don’t know the cause of the strange events.
Was it the full moon (a Red Moon at that)? Or perhaps it was the fact that in the days before, I watched two trippy movies which were challenging reality. First it was all five dimensions of Interstellar, then Fight Club. (I started Inception also, though I dreamed I was too tired and couldn’t watch more than 20 mins).
I guess it begun on Thursday when Dubai was subjected to one of the worst dust storms I’ve seen in my six years here. While I was driving, visibility was down to 10-20 metres.
After work when I got home, the front courtyard immediately looked different. The little tent we bought for Owen was missing. The snake I had in there to scare the kids was now lying exposed on the concrete path.
Me & Owen, happy days in the tent
My first thought was someone must have stolen it. Though, anyone interested in stealing kids toys had many more, and simpler opportunities. They had all been left where they were. It seemed quite clear, despite our courtyard having a 6 foot brick wall right around it, the heavy wind must have blown the tent outside.
I looked out in the street and in the neighbours’ yards, but it was nowhere to be seen. It was a shame, though I wasn’t too upset about it. The boys wouldn’t miss it for some time, and it was relatively cheap from IKEA.
The next day was Good Friday. I went to a friend’s place for an Easter BBQ. Everything was going quite well, until the lady at the end of the table turned and started choking. It was clear she was struggling, when she became quite frantic and ran off into the house. Her husband was nursing their baby, so I jumped up and grabbed the little one. And the guy chased his wife in the house, immediately starting the Heimlich Manoevre when he caught her. What a terrifying sight. After 4 or 5 seconds it seemed to do the trick. He thankfully didn’t show us the evidence, but claimed it was a 5 – 10 centimetre piece of roast lamb.
The awkwardness took a little while to leave, then the afternoon beers were flowing nicely. Before it got too late, I caught a taxi home. I focused my gaze at the passing neighborhood I could see out the taxi’s window. It minimised the sensation of the world spinning. All of a sudden though, I couldn’t believe my eyes! I quickly sat upright and squinted my eyes slightly. Outside, pinned against a small, simple wire fence was the same red, striped material of Owen’s tent. But this didn’t make sense. It was on the other side of my neighborhood – so far from my place.
Perhaps a bit forcefully, I told the taxi driver to stop right there and then. He must have thought I was needing to be sick. I opened the door and ran back to what I thought I had seen, and it was proven, I did see it. Here was the kids tent that I last saw in our place, according to Google maps, over 2 kilometres away.
The tent’s end spot near Hessa Street
I guess the shape made it climb like a hot air balloon. And perhaps it didn’t fly in a straight line, so it could have travelled even further.
Imagine if Owen was inside at the time!?
Where I found the tent, 2.22872 km away from our courtyard
I folded it as best I could to fit it into the taxi’s back seat, and returned home. Most of the way I was still giggling in disbelief.
The next day I was keen to check I had not experienced a dream. Nope, the tent had returned – now with three skateboards inside to weigh it down.
This morning at Lewis’s school sports day they had a Dad’s race. I didn’t want to take it too seriously, in case I lost. But I certainly wanted to be calmly competitive and give a good show for Lewis.
As the 10 or so of us took off I tried to stay close with a fit-looking father. He took off with much gusto, clearly trying to take out the race. Prior to the race he happened to share he was a club rugby coach (an intimidation technique). At the halfway turning-point, I took it very slowly to avoid demonstrating my leather shoe’s lack of tread on the carpet-like surface. As I turned around I noticed a couple of other fathers had taken the risk and slipped over amid their 110% efforts. I almost came to a stop to avoid them, which gave a bit more of a lead to the other father – dastardly wearing just his socks instead of shoes. I upped the effort to catch him. As we drew close, with just 10-20 metres to finish, he slipped, fell & rolled spectacularly. I passed him with some caution to not get caught by his somersaulting legs, and I crossed the line in first place. The poor other Dad had to dust off a significant amount of fake grass from his office attire, and accept 3rd of 4th place. At least he gave it a go.
In those final triumphant strides my smile hid a slight grimace. I had pulled my hamstring. It was still totally worth it. After the race I walked back to my spot, concealing my limp. Lewis ran up to me, jumping up and asking if I had won.
I said ‘Yeee-ah’, as if no other outcome was possible.
I’ll skip football tonight.
This tale was inspired by Steve Bradbury.
Oh, and in other news, Lewis had a great sports day himself. And his house team won.
Don’t take my word for it about the Daddy’s Race, here’s the video evidence:
I found that this highlight of my life, led to an unhealthy anticipation in future years:
For the second year in a row I ran in the world’s fastest half marathon. The “in” is important here. The RAK half marathon claims this title I think based on the top ten finishing times being faster than any other.
Dennis Kimetto – the holder of the world record for the marathon, started the event after saying something in Swahili. The adjudicator had a bit of a pause and shared that he probably said best of luck to everyone. Truth be told, he could have said just about anything. I had a wry smile thinking he might have said “running’s for losers, get a life.”
I happily started out slow. After around a kilometre I heard the loud barking of a dog coming from somewhere behind me. I figured one of the spectators must have brought their dog and thought little of it. A little later I heard the loud barking again quite close to me, is there a dog running the RAK half? I turned around and it was a runner, cupping his hands over his mouth, and letting out this loud woof. A few minutes later, “woof woof woof!” Ah, I figured it out. He barks at every kilometre marker. My neighbors had a bit of a giggle and probably ran a little more comfortably, knowing there wasn’t a big dog to worry about chasing us. Although getting chased by an actual dog could probably help with posting a great time.
I always run with my iPhone on my arm. It allows me track my progress and record my pace, not to mention receive the odd random call at an inopportune time. It also allows me to listen to music, when it decides to work. I admit having a device on my arm is a slight inconvenience. I won’t complain again though after seeing the guy I passed with what looked like the Samsung equivalent of an iPad mini strapped to his arm. I even thought it looked like he was running slightly lopsided. But if you do want to stop to read a book or watch a movie, he’d have the last laugh.
And I saw the perfect running shirt. It was a standard-looking t-shirt with a picture of Captain America’s shield on the back – set at the height as if he had it stowed there – ready for action – like Steve Rogers himself.
Once again it was a perfectly planned and executed running event. I’m talking about the organisers, not my running. At least I took things relatively easy and was able to enjoy it to the end.
We stayed up at RAK again this year. It gives us a head start in the morning and allows us to enjoy the evening in a different scene and climate – the northern emirates are renowned for being cooler. My brother and his family had come over to stay with us, so it was doubly good reason to stay. We loved the place we stayed at last year so I quickly searched booking.com for Al Hamra, golf, beach which was in the title and made the booking. It was only when we went to check in that I realised I’d stuffed up. There are two or more different hotels with similar names. We had stayed at the (Hilton) Al Hamra Beach & Golf Resort. I now had a booking for two rooms at the Al Hamra Village & Golf Resort. Close enough wasn’t close enough, but it was quite nearby – and clearly a common mistake. Our actual place was nice enough with lovely views over the golf course. But when we looked outside there was a cat sitting on our patio furniture. I wondered if I had made another error, I had thought I had asked for a “cot”.
The hotel had a buffet breakfast that we just made it home in time for. And there was a pool. And in the evening we ate in the bar and the boys – especially the youngest ones – loved dancing to the band. So all in all, it ticked all the boxes.
The next day we had the obligatory expat stop in Barracuda to restock our adult beverages. Then we left onwards to home, til 12 February 2016 when we look forward to doing it all again. The hotel we need, “Hilton Al Hamra Beach & Golf Resort”.
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century written by Steven Pinker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Not what I expected
Due to its sole purpose, this is obviously a well-written book. I didn’t realise it would go so deep into the mechanics and rules of writing. I did gloss over parts, tho I still happily persevered and learned quite a lot. And I finished with a warm feeling that, I’m not so pedantic over grammar, punctuation and spelling as I first thought.