yoga hua hin

Today at our team Xmas lunch a reasonably tipsy Vincenzo** told me he sees me as very much an Earth Mother type.

You what now?

This is not entirely the image I’m going for.

Is it all the yoga?

xxx

** who I have known since he was a teen at school with Joan

At least I think it’s #6

I resolved to report back on how carting library books on holiday went …

I quickly read two of the three I took with me but the third was rather too gloomy and intense for holiday poolside reading. Fortunately I did also take the kindle so I could supplement with spontaneous downloads. I wouldn’t be averse to taking analogue books again, but it does rather take up space in the luggage, so maybe just one paper book and kindle the remainder.

I returned a quite large unread pile to the library this time around. Nothing was really grabbing me, some I didn’t even start, some were quite dreadful and quickly abandoned.

I tried a slightly different approach to borrowing this time – fewer books (less aspirations) and only selected from those that were on display. On each long row of shelving there is one shelf which is at a 45 degree angle, it holds 3-4 books with covers facing outward, almost laid flat (there’s probably some technical library term for this), they’re frequently rotated. I figure the librarians are trying to tell you something. Either that or they won’t fit on the other shelves.

1. Best friends forever : Margot Hunt
2. An American story – Christopher Priest
3. Not working – Lisa Owens

Ahhh – there was a #5.5. I borrowed Mark Lawson’s The Allegations after really enjoying The Deaths.

This should be enough to keep me going through the holiday break.

Surprisingly, knocking a freshly made pot of coffee over the floor next to my side of the bed first thing in the morning did not portend a dreadful day.

Fortunately, because we are that sort of family, we have a many old towels saved for just such occasions.

We are also the sort of family that really shouldn’t ever have carpet.

xxx

As a kind of towel-related aside, I used to follow the slow your home blog until I read this post about ridding the house of excess towels. This was such a perfect example of the nonsensical Minimalism Arms Race that I stopped reading after that.

Really, truly, you can never have enough old towels.

For a wee while now, Apple devices have had a horrifying pop-up message informing you of your screen time for the week prior.

Yesterday, I was advised that last week on the iPad alone I averaged just under 4 hours (3:54) per day. Ummmm … you what now?

Add in my desktop (and phone) and it paints a rather ghastly picture of what I’m doing with my leisure time.

Little wonder life feels like it is racing by and I don’t seem to have time to do the things I want to do.

So I’m going to add a couple more items to my Xmas list

+ I will go through these 434 emails (likely to be more by holiday start) and listen to at least one song contained within each

+ I will put my iPad away for the duration (rather than just limiting my time on it)

+ I will review the contents of at least 3 tubs in the garage

+ I will recommence that embroidery

Should kick-start me out of my lethargy.

Around three years appears to be a sufficiently long enough time for you to forget how tedious it is to deal with potential buyers after you’ve listed something for sale on gumtree.

As TheUniverse is my witness, we will have a tidy garage again.

While we were on holiday, I hit the TWO YEAR (!) no alcohol anniversary and today marks a whole 25 months (!).

writing “2 years” in the sand on a beach in thailand is a pretty excellent way to celebrate

I’m pretty pleased with this experiment and I can’t see any reason at all to stop. If you’re considering quitting – even for a little bit, why not give it a crack?

I found these books (and authors’ blogs) pretty helpful reading and various points in the “journey”. You could do worse things than give them a read – that’s about as evangelical as I’m going to get.

+ Sarah Hepola: Blackout – Remembering the things I drank to forget
+ Kristi Coulter: Nothing Good Can Come from This
+ Rebecca Weller: A Happier Hour

I’ve also taken much inspiration from the excellent ganching who, although she doesn’t write about it over much, has been doing this much longer than I and has managed remain hip and interesting and doesn’t live like a cloistered nun despite not taking drink.

Amongst other things like health and sanity, I often like to think of sobriety in terms of money not spent. My quite rough calcs of an average of one $30 bottle of wine a day** X 760 days = $22,800.

Rather horrifying isn’t it? I suspect this does somewhat enable those holidays to exotic locations to write in the sand.

Today also marks 347 days since I ate chocolate – that particular challenge has been just about as difficult as you’d imagine.

xxx

** sometimes much more, sometimes much less – both price and frequency, but $30 a day would likely be the low average.

for sale in our hotel in bangkok – price was appropriately eye-popping

A Delicacy Created Through Relentless Passion

The years in the making, Black Ivory Coffee is the rarest and most unique coffee in the world. Naturally refined by elephants, Black Ivory Coffee beans are broken down by the elephants’ digestive enzymes, resulting in a smooth tasting coffee without bitterness.

Thirty-three kilograms of coffee cherries are required to produce one kilogram of roasted beans. With only a few hundred kilograms produced annually you are one of the few people to experience the coffee.

As a result of our commitment to elephant welfare, a portion of the proceeds from this envelope of coffee will support the elephant care giving families in Ben Ta Klang, Surin, Thaliand.

I hope you enjoy experiencing Black Ivory Coffee as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it.

Blake Dinkin
Founder
blackivorycoffee.com

Broken down by the elephant’s digestive enzymes?

xxx

** kopi luwak – truly the world should be overrun with civets given the sheer volume of this for sale in Vietnam alone

14 years ago today, I had been at SML for just 4 days and thought I’d likely made a big mistake taking the gig.

14 years later and I’ve now spent more than half of my working life there.

(My views on the place remain largely unchanged).

Action items for the upcoming 11 day break (which seems VERY far away right now):

+ Annual jigsaw puzzle(s)
+ Yoga workshop (4 mornings)
+ Retrofit inseam pockets to at least 2 dresses
+ One of: swim / bike ride / hike
+ Back up data (including, but not limited to, photos) – YOU SHOULD DO THIS TOO!
+ As little time as possible parked mindlessly in front of the laptop / tablet / phone
+ Low-key celebrate two rather big milestones
+ Set intentions for 2019

need more of this in my life in 2019

There was a tennis court practically outside our front door in Hua Hin. If we were ever going to do this challenge, there was never going to be a better time.

We hired equipment for <$5 (which they delivered along with icy cold water, towels, the works!), I borrowed Don’s swim shorts and a golf cap, and we were good to go!

I played a fair bit of tennis as a child**, but if you’d been watching us, you’d have quite some difficulty believing either of us had ever picked up a racket before. We were so dreadful it was comical.

We improved (somewhat) as time went on, but after our hour I still could not hit anything that came in over shoulder height and Don was still prone to forceful returns that sailed way over the fence and into the jungle.

We had loads of fun though and will likely try to get another game in on future vacations. But I’m not likely to run off and join a regular comp any time soon.

One very pleasing observation was that despite it being very hot and us running around like crazy trying to return wild shots, we were not at all out of breath – which I guess says something good about our cardio fitness.

xxx

** we lived quite close to the public courts and would go hit balls about if we were bored, or play tennis is the street with the neighbours