Hi ! Welcome back. Fun fact: Europe and South Africa had similar noon temperatures this week. One is in full blown winter, one is in full blown summer 😂 . This week I am thinking and writing about gym classes, Camino schedules, gift wrap, focus games and cows- Eve D.❣️

Week in review…

⛰️ I started off the week with a long hike up a (small) mountain. I went by myself, because I wanted to do some deep thinking, mind-dumping and brain-clearing. I anticipated it would be a difficult walk (it was) and that it would take me 2.5 hours (tuned out to be closer to 3hrs), so I went prepared with charged up headphones and pre-loaded podcasts. But when I got to the gate, it turned out I didn’t want any outside stimulation at all. It was 3 hours of just me, talking a lot to myself - it helped that I was literally the only one hiking the trail at that time. I pushed myself - the trail has lots of shortcuts and opportunities to cop out, but I ignored them all and forced myself to prevail. The last 500m were tough, but of course in the end I was thrilled I had done it. There is a good restaurant at the bottom of the mountain, and I had a well-deserved lunch and a strong coffee. Then I went home and needed a nap. Walking is exhausting.

But it got the job done. Walking alone vs walking with people are two very different experiences, even on the same trail. Both have a purpose, and I have made a note to do more of each. My walking partner is away for the month of June, so walking alone is kind of the default anyway. Good. Lots more thinking still to do!

🍷 I had an impromptu and unexpected dinner with G on Tuesday, which was so much fun. And as a bonus, we also shared a bottle of exceptional wine, that went down very well. Grateful for this man everyday 😍 . I also had an impromptu and unexpected dinner with my sister and her partner. Micole joined in for the ride. Always fun to hang out with #mypeople.

💪 I went to a Pilates class at my gym - I made sure to sign up for the gentle version (called “Recovery”) which is supposed to be lots of stretching and holding poses. The idea is that you use your body to relax your soul, while still getting a good workout. The Pilates studio has the reformer beds, so there’s a lot of variety in how your body is manoeuvred. Anyway, got to the class and immediately was annoyed because the music was loud and fast, and definitely not relaxing. Then I felt that the instructor was a bit like an army camp sergeant. He pushed us hard, and I was really suffering, and struggling. I was actually close to tears. I couldn’t believe that my body was so weak that it couldn’t even finish a recovery class. I wondered how I was going to manage an 800km walk on the Camino, with a backpack, if I am this weak? After 30 minutes of the torture, I decided that this was a ridiculous use of my time: I was clearly not having fun, and this was not the point of working out. I excused myself from the class, and mentioned to the instructor that I could not believe this was a recovery class. To which he said…it was not a recovery class. It was the Athletic class (ie. reserved for the very fittest pros) (!!!!). I had confused my times. My recovery class was at 3pm, and I attended the 1pm class in error. 🤦‍♀️ 

At this point my mood changed drastically: I immediately went from someone who could not finish a recovery class to someone who could already do two thirds of an athletics class. Kudos to me! (And as a bonus, I went back to the 3pm class and did that one too!).

🏊️ And in my last bit of fitness news: I also did an aqua class at the gym. I love being in water, even though I am petrified of being under water. Spending 45 minutes in a heated pool, even while doing aerobics, was fun. (Bonus: nobody can see what you are actually doing under the water, so you go at your own pace). Afterwards, I was in the sauna chatting to one of the ladies who did the class with me. She said she has a herniated disc, and being in pain is common for her. But, since she started doing the aqua aerobics (only 3 weeks ago!) things have improved so much for her, pain wise, that when she had to do a long haul flight to Europe this past week she could actually forgo her usual pain injection that the doctor gives her prior to every long trip. I was amazed at this. Doctors are so quick to inject etc, when often we really can exercise our way out of discomfort. We should all be moving more.

😡 People are angry. Have you noticed? And for those who are not angry, they are “lost”, feeling “bleh”, disjointed. Not just my words…these are from conversations I have been having with friends this week, and the trend is clear. I only follow astrology with a big pinch of fun, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there “is something in the stars”. My friends agree:

🤖 Other than all that, the week was smooth. I spent a lot of it writing, reading and deep diving on AI and adaptive strategies, and my head is reeling a bit. We live in unprecedented times - and not even for the first time in my lifetime! I am trying to be excited, but I am also a bit scared, tbh. If you want a good read about where things are headed (for you, and for your kids), I strongly recommend this read.

Concentration Grids…

G pointed me to an online “game” that I’ve been playing with my kids, and I highly recommend it. It’s not really a game…more an exercise in concentration, patience and memory. It’s also brilliant for training yourself to work well under pressure, which is a bonus for when kids have to write exams, or when they participate in competitive sports. Bonus: the game only takes about 5-6 minutes, and is really simple.

You go to concentrationgrids.com/grids , and press start. You will be presented with a 10 × 10 grid, filled with numbers starting from 00 to 99. Your job is to find the numbers in order, and click on them, as quickly as possible. They’ll be eliminated from the board as you click on them, making the board easier to navigate. When I started I needed 6 minutes to complete the challenge, but am down to just over 4minutes now.

I strongly, strongly recommend you get your kids (and yourself!) onto this. The benefits of learning how to focus your mind to deal with pressure, while striving to improve performance are massive.

Cowch

Camino logistics

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how I am going to walk the Camino (and if, to be honest). It’s 800km long, and since I don’t want to walk for more than 32 days (plus one rest day), I need to walk an average of 25km a day. I haven’t actually ever walked that, and definitely not for 32 days in a row ( 😂 😂 ), but has anyone? There is a 10,000 m total elevation across the 800km, which sounds do-able. In reasonable terrain (which I am assuming the Camino will be), I can walk about 5.5km/hr (without a back pack, at this point). So, loosely speaking, it will take me about 5 hours to walk 25km, plus stops etc. Ideally, I would want to be done by 1pm, 2pm at the latest …which means I should be on the road at 6am.

Now, If I have to be honest, being “ready to walk” at 6am sounds like the biggest challenge of this whole exercise. I can be ready (maybe), but I will almost definitely be miserable at this time of the day. Especially if it’s cold. Also…I am definitely not walking in the dark. And Google tells me that sunrise in Spain in mid-September is at 7:30 am and is one minute later every day (!!!!). But that information got me thinking…when I compare sunrise time for my city today, it’s much later than when night actually turned into day. And guess what?! That’s a thing. “First Light time” is different from “Sunrise time”. Who knew? (I feel like this is information I should have known decades ago). When people ask “what time is sunrise?” they are actually asking “what time is first light?”, and are unknowingly getting incorrect answers. As things stand, First Light is about 45 minutes before sunrise.

So: this means I will not be on the road before 7:00am, and realistically it will be closer to 7:30 or even 8:00am as the trail progresses. The good news is that I am much happier with that wake up time, but the bad news is that I will either need to walk faster (unlikely), stop less often (even more unlikely) or resign myself to only arriving at my destination at about 2-3pm (fine, fine!). Luckily, that coincides perfectly with the Spanish main meal of the day (Comida), which is eaten between 2-4pm. (Like literally….it takes 2 hours to eat the meal, and restaurants do not do a turnover of seating). Dinner is between 9-10pm, but you already know I’ll be sleeping by then.

(One thing I can tell you right now: When/if I do the Camino, I will be eating my way through Spain. Or, to put it differently: I don’t expect to lose weight while walking the 800km 😂) .

Lost Opportunities…

Actual spam message I received. Seems very specific.

Odds and ends:

✅ Many/most relatively modern movie plots wouldn’t work today, because of advancement in technology. When characters could just call each other on cellphones, or Google their ex’s, many plots would fall apart. “How many Seinfeld episodes would avoid the central conflict if the gang could text each other to keep their lies straight?”. Ditto for Home Alone plot, Truman Show, and Memento (my movie of the week, see below). Think about it!

✅ This gift wrap paper that looks like bread is genius! And funny.

✅ How beautiful is this detail on the inside-part of a door? Life is so different now. Who has time to make this, and who would have time to appreciate it?

✅ Life goals. I don’t need to own it (looks like high maintenance, to be honest). But I do want to be able to rent it.

I’ve been watching…

This week we watched Memento. It’s a Christopher Nolan movie, and it shows. It’s clever, but also: the point of the movie and its plot is to keep you as confused as possible while also holding you engaged and curious. There are two (very connected) story lines in the movie: one you see in chronological order and in black and white, and one you see in reverse chronological order ie you see what should be the final scene of the movie, first.

It’s clever, because this chronology and confusion helps you identify with the plight of the main character. His wife was raped and murdered, and as a result of this he suffers from anterograde amnesia: he cannot make any new memories, and his mind “resets” every few minutes. He remembers who he is, and his full life up to and including the murder, but cannot retain much from then. And yet…he is insistent on finding his wife’s killer and getting revenge. Difficult to do on the best of days, pretty impossible if you cannot remember anything about your current life or your current investigation. To counter this, he tattoos “facts” onto his body so as to preserve them: Fact 1: killer is a drug dealer etc etc.

Obviously there are twists and turns. It’s a good movie, even if slightly predictable. Watch it.

Thanks for reading!

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