Apologies for this website showing the same front page for days on end. Believe me, after my religious efforts last year, it's felt strange. Am I addicted to the internet? I sometimes wonder.
The good thing about being away from a PC for any length of time is that you get to smell the flowers, reclaim something of a life (both as lover and adventurer) and a new sense of perspective fills the void that might otherwise be chock full of useless news.
Thats's been good - getting my fill of news in a different language, and only from newspapers, and only every so often. It's the kind of filter that allows only the significant stuff to cipher through.
News of significance is:
Recent deaths in Turkey from H5N1 (Men's Health here carried a 4-5 page article on the subject, and interestingly, their writer's bottom line and mine were pretty congruent).
Oil is back in the $60 range with Kunstler predicting $100 later in the year.
Gold continues to surge, after falling back is biting at the $540 mark. When gold is high, the world is usually worried. One of the reasons gold is so high is because the dollar is particularly weak. China have signalled that they want to invest away from the dollar, and this will cause instability in the market. They can't do away with the dollar completely, because they have a lot riding on the dollar anyway. But it's significant that they are looking elesewhere now.
Home Front
Personally, I am in a strange place. I have moments of great happiness being in South Africa. I love the air and green and exercising is always a thrill. Play is often throwing tennis balls to the dogs and playing with cats (in different people's homes). The fun unfortunately has had to juxtapose with great gloom. The gloom comes courtesy of my Dad, who, instead of providing me with a stressfree base until March, has become stressed, and I've had to tippy toe around him a lot which makes my existence far more troublesome that it might otherwise be. He feels I am 'very dependent' on him, something I find hard to understand as I am buying my own food and doing my thing, only occasionally asking him for the use of the Jeep or to send a fax. I think he is very set in his ways, and would like to be able to do exactly as he wants. We also had a conversation recently, in which he said that he felt I'd achieved 'nothing', and he said he's been waiting and waiting...
Fighting The Dragon
In some ways, what he says is true. In simple terms it is, I haven't achieved very much, especially looking at it as a sum of money. He referred to my Ironman as something for 'kids at school'. I place a huge emphasis on exercise and my training because it not only keeps you healthy, but also sane. It generates a stronger sense of self, and an internal locus of control. It's also a great tool against depression - and one that I have consistently and effectively been able to weild against that dragon. That's not something many people can say. I've noticed a lot of people struggling in atheir mental gulags, and many of them seem to be combatting (their own bad habits and negative patterns of thinking and living) with drugs and expensive therapy. Get out there and train, and wake up - get conscious.
In some ways I also agree with him, but in more important ways I am happy with where I am, under the circumstances, and confident and optimistic about where things are headed right now (he isn't, and doesn't really believe in Heartland, or in my writing - as a job - is an avenue worth pursuing.)
I feel I've done quite well handling a few irrational temper trantrums around me, but I'm human and may eventually lash back.
On the postive side I've produced a number of new articles and am going to send them off and try to hook some major magazines. I've written 'Save Yourself' for Heartland (see below), and Mountain Madness for Men's Health or GQ and Do Pornstars Go to Heaven (also Men's Health, FHM ore GQ).
I'm missing the internet and my buddy Google for quick verifications of such titbits of data such as:
- is Jenna's home in Beverley Hills
- is Henry Tood (from Himalayan Guides)a Scotsman
- sourcing a driver for my Infrared device
- and who visited Sandy Hill Pittman on May 5 just below Base Camp (I'm guessing it was Martha Stewart, and maybe Ivana Trump)
Fransa and I had a lovely day at Pretty Garden yesterday. I took her in the Jeep and we had breakfast and walked around the place, looking at the flowers, many new buildings (many in a sandstone style) and playing with monkeys and parrots. It's been raining a lot, so afterwards we watched a good movie called Into The Blue.
Play
Two weeks ago I cycled 300km over 3 days.
Yesterday I finished the 4th of 4 9km runs over the course of a week.
On Thursday I did the reverse 9km route in 49 minutes (an 11 minute improvement on my first attempt.
Sunday's Run:
Time: 45 minutes (5 minutes per km)
Distance: 9km
Maximum Heart rate 173 bpm
I'm starting to feel lighter and stronger. Let's hope that spreads to the world around me, and rubs off on those around me as well.
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