wednesday 1 – really tired but battling on working at home, weather is grey and overcast
guitar practice, doing more spanish songs – el papamoscas and malaguena
thursday 2 – just looking again at the video of my swimming style now, points:
for legs on back – arms stretched out straight, legs kicking not so deep and faster, higher hips/stomach in the water
crawl – can reach out wider with arms, but no over-reaching
in the end didn’t go but went for run instead and stephan was in any case also not going
worked upstairs and helped eve with her presentation in english she wants to do about the queen
friday 3 – chatting with katie about latest jesper juul book and she says to mention the 4 key values so we brainstorm at breakfast to get: dignity (gleichwürdigkeit), integrity, authenticity, responsibility
saturday 4 – going to gasteig and then to get some stuff at staples and reading the business life magazine from the BA flight recently with some interesting quotes and links:
Chris Barez-Brown, writer of
upping-yourelvis.com
talking about trying to stop the subconscious taking over like auto-pilot, putting reminders to snap out of it: put your watch on the wrong wrist or draw a smily face on your dominant hand and when seeing it, reminding yourself to relax/breathe and notice consciously where you are and what you’re doing, ie. be more conscious
“Winner gives all” an article by vikas shah about his interview with Jack Welch one of the world’s most successful CEOs and business thinkers some of the quotes to Jack Welch:
“You cannot be generous from an empty wagon! This nonsense about giving when you’re broke is ridiculous.” ie. you have to make it first. Consider also the spark or motivation that ignited your career.
“Establishing a culture of trust and truth is absolutely critical to being a great leader. And that takes effort and energy every day. You have to ceaselessly reach for truth and trust, and show your people that you have their back … get under the skin of every employee … a chief meaning officer … giving your team purpose, getting everyone on the same page. You have to make sure your entire team knows where they are going, how they are going to get there, and what’s in it for them.”
“Winning is good, losing is bad! If you’re winning, you can give back – to your family, institutions of your choice and your local communities. If you’re losing, your pockets are empty.”
article on bridging the gap between science and natural health about rumanian businesswoman lorena puica who inspired by her own recovery from illness to health (even running the 777 challenge – 7 marathons on 7 continents on 7 days) to launch:
iamyiam.com
sunday 5 – first gig of the band at service, went quite well, have to allow plenty of time for setup and tune up all guitars first!
getting ready for the week ahead with packing ready for an early start tomorrow
helping sabs with importing her photos and then getting them in a document for printing – seemed to go alright – had been loading a few albums for her into itunes, ziggy stardust, meat is murder, the new ones from fews and eagulls
chatting with evie as she was reading all comfortably in bed – chatting that she was a little upset at something she had done and i mentioned how as a parent one has regrets and would like to turn back the clock – still she comforts me, we did a good job look at both daughters! joke a little and she also says something quite wise:
that all parents make mistakes but fortunately growing up children can handle it, otherwise there would be far more children growing into maladjusted adults in the world.
(seems like a manifestation of the theory of “competent children”).
seemed a good time to stop and go to bed.
monday 6 – up at 5am to get s-bahn to airport for flight to frankfurt and then reading on the plane to valencia for training/team meeting.
This quote about mohammed ali in WSJ:
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing.”
arrival a little later than planned so took the bus with the rest of the colleagues from france, who were also late.
have meal for lunch then a few lectures, sitting at back of auditorium next to georgia from greece and francesco from italy
meal at the restaurant near the marina in the evening
tuesday 7 – more lectures, then paella for ‘lunch’, there was a choice of rabbit with snails, chicken or vegetarian
went back for the lab exercises, then out for meal in the evening around the old town of valencia, the restaurant was amazing for the food and service
wednesday 8 – more lectures commencing at 9am again, then an afternoon event, sailing at the marina, although i was in a conference call until 5pm, but made it later
for evening meal we walked around the centre of arts and science, along the park where I’d gone for a run on the first morning then to the restaurant associated with the aquarium with fish swimming around in circles the diameter of the building
thursday 9 – breakfast and then taxi to the airport with georgia from athens and ivan from bern. pick up some horchata de chufa (almond milk) and fartons for dipping in it as souvenirs, as Jaime had recommended this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horchata
flying back swiss air via zurich and reading in the flight magazine about art and architecture and a company called nasire.com making leather bags in marrakesh with a young german product designer – two ideas for sabs!
chatted with katie about how things have been going at home whilst away, not very well unfortunately, i keep thinking that:
“when we waste our time on worry, we start a bonfire of our talents and opportunities”
friday 10 – going for a jog and relating the following story – perhaps it would make a good example of a paradigm shift:
out for a run right up to the , i “saw” some bird droppings on the slide
paul mccartney concert which we’d got tickets for from finja’s mum and dad, wonderful concert especially as he exited the car taking him out of the stadium to say good bye to our block, hauptribune D – a good place to be at the olympic stadium to the left of the marathon tunnel!
especially memorable was ‘blackbird’ which he did solo to a wonderful backdrop on a podium as the night was darkening
he played not only bass and guitar, but also piano and keyboards
saturday 11 – listening to a lot of julia fordham stuff and particularly taken by ‘different time, different place’ and ‘hope, prayer and time’ written by gary clarke:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Clark_(musician)
monday 13 – chatting in the office about thoughts and getting to sleep, with the recommendation, “just rest, if you can’t sleep” and ute comment from a book that you cannot stop thoughts whilst trying to sleep, but with meditation you can ensure that they don’t result in waking up the brain – as humans we possess this ability to work through our thoughts – what went wrong, what should we be doing for the future and that has made us very successful in evolution.
tuesday 14 – more together week and went to presentation on eating to meet needs, some points brought out:
difference between simple sugars and complex sugars on the ability to be absorbed and the rapid shooting up of blood sugar levels in the former cf. the latter which have only a gradual rise.
with the former, this can lead to high insulin levels and a cyclical yo-yo effect throughout the day, going outside of the green, safe levels
outside the top of the green blood sugar level, this can lead to insulin being produced (which interestingly, immediately stops any fat burning in the blood – it only burns carbs, although at this stage it is mainly turning carbs into glycogen for storage) ==> with high sugar levels, all fat and most of the carbs get put on as weight gain around tummy or bum
below the bottom of the green blood sugar level, this can lead to hunger attacks, “heisshunger” which can have us reaching for too much food and the wrong types of food
review of energy content:
1g of carbohydrate has 4 Cals
1g of protein has 4 Cals
1g of fat has 9 Cals
1g of alcohol has 7 Cals
choosing the right foods – dried fruits are concentrated energy which we can eat a lot of before we feel full, cf. high sugar drinks (like the orange juice test shown on tv versus eating 12 oranges) – so be careful, these may be ok for astronauts and mountain climbers, but not always good for us
avoid foods which are high in sugar and fat – since if we go into insulin/storage mode, the fat will just be accumulated
recommendations generally:
have breakfast (it facilitates us easily making it through the day, without the “Heisshunger” pangs in the afternoon and evening)
2 – 3 cups of coffer per day
2 litres of water
care when stressed – we often reach for the wrong/simple foods then
keep alert (innere schweinehund), we are generally lazy in preparation and selection – ditto
wednesday 15 – wrote confirmation of offer on number 11 duckett st
went to guitar course
sue came round to assist sabs with french
thursday 16 – we got talking about James Joyce since there was an article on the radio about him, Sabs quoted a poem from one of the books we have
eve has a french exam today, saw her wander off with hannah laughing
finally get to go swimming – have to remember not to do legs all stiff like a marionette dancing and to place the arms in sharp, not arched like the materhorn – loose legs and sharp arm movement!
friday 17 – watched the film ‘JOY’ with everyone, directed by David O. Russell:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_O._Russell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_(film)
to some extent listening to the interviews, he has a similar view to director Richard Curtis in wanting to bring out the extraordinary in the ordinary lives of people.
sunday 19 – went to circus krone for the lucinda williams concert, refer:
Lucinda Williams concert, Circus Krone, Munich, Sunday 19th June
monday 20 – eve went to take her exam then come home because she is badly affected by a cold in her nose
went to bed at 8pm since so tired and slept through til 6am, have been really tired these last few days, what with the decision needing to be taken about the house and also work is getting really busy right now
tuesday 21 – eve at home to shake off this cold
sabs completing her art project working downstairs and i have to work until 10pm to get some things done
wednesday 22 – eve back at school today after recent illnesses, working at home then go to guitar, just 3 of us
thursday 23 – went out to the office and chatting with dan and valerio about the referendum and football, well not with dan
went swimming with stephan and martina had taken holiday, some excellent weather last couple of days, but still a few there and i found the program interesting for what was stressed:
and what we did:
about 8 minutes crawl, which i slimmed down to about 6 length with a break to focus on style after each length, but i found the variation in breathing quite helpful:
3, 4, 5 – i found the best approach for me was 3, 5, 4, then i got 2 breaths on the left, which helps with changing style for me
we repeated this about 4 times with 4 lengths, of another stroke variation – breast arms, backstroke legs etc
interestingly the variation gave me an idea of how many strokes per length, because i’ve not managed to count this so far, per length i seemed to need:
3+5+4+3+4+2 and touch (ie. breathing twice on the right and three times on the left).
= 21 strokes per 25m
could work at making this more efficient through the slow techniques
went to bed early and tried not to hear anything about the referendum, as the plan was to get up early and watch the result, in the end i heard the first bird tweeting and so woke up at about 4am, by which stage the remain camp were just nudging it, but within the hour it had swung inexorably towards leave
friday 24 – working at home, but not so productive due to the discussions about the result and new programs
had band practice in the evening
saturday 25 – did some shopping at the market in front of st margaretenkirche, was nice to get everything there for the evening meal, well more or less
got back and did a it of work, then started on cooking the evening meal:
did a paella with:
onions, garlic, spring onions, then peppers (red and yellow), brocolli, small and long green beans, for spices, sweet paprika and half a chilli, splitting some out towards the end for eve before adding prawns for the rest of us
eve came round later with finja and marie, so they shared what was left of the paella, which for 3 wasn’t much, before rustling up some pizzas
i got some practice in for the coming weekend, making a fruit yoghurt with some very delicious raspberries and strawberries
sunday 26 – in half-marathon for the stadtlauf, met up with a few from work, including valerio running with his daughter, he was very supportive and gentle to her in hugs and encouragement – kind of fits with where we need to be at the moment with our two as they have exam stress hanging over them for the next 3 weeks
managed it as follows:
not ideal, but then i got round without walking, although the last 3km were really hard and the time pretty crap 02:10:42.
got back and wasting a bit of time listening to some good music which I’m into from last Sunday’s concert
finishing off some work and generally tetchy and highly-strung with everyone, perhaps lack of sleep and the awful brexit vote, which is seeing me sleeping until about 4am latest, came across the following post after reading around having re-installed the guardian app, previously deleting it because it was stealing so much time, but the next few months is going to be thrilling:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/25/brexit-live-emergency-meetings-eu-uk-leave-vote#comment-77205935
monday 27 – walked with sabs to bus before getting train to airport for couple of days in london on the gatwick project
tuesday 28 – in london trying to get this visa, have to get it in Frankfurt with original letter, for lunch discovered an interesting cafe with no name at 10 Shepherd St, part of Shepherd Market in Mayfair just up from Green Park going towards Buckingham Palace – thinking we could do some interesting exploring around here in the summer. Had a nice salad with delicious dressing – it was simply olive oil and lemon juice.
check out book – algorithmic living, sat at table with couple of what I initially thought were jehovah’s witnesses but then concluded were scientologists, since i found out afterwards after they gave me the church details they were at, clue i suppose was the controlling behaviour which i could have picked up via the minutes on the table and some of the discussion about behaviour
the church they were from was third church of christ the scientist, but they introduced it as simply christ church, mayfair!
that figures – the church had obviously a lot of money, was well-organised (meeting minutes) and full of seeming self-important people, with gripes against one or two (in a nice way, if that is ever possible)
went back to office after lunch for a couple of webexes, then train to gatwick, visit to boots for meal deal and reasonable flight back
was really touched on the flight back, because i’d got a seat near the back of the aircraft and there was a group of 20 well-behaved, but fun exchange students/children from the uk, chatting, laughing and taking selfies on the plane on the way to munich
On the flight back from London Gatwick to Munich, I’d got a seat near the back of the aircraft and there was a group of 20 well-behaved, but clearly having fun schoolchildren from the uk: chatting, laughing and taking selfies on the flight.
What I saw going out upon arrival almost moved me to tears – there was group of about 40 german children and parents who were encircling the whole of the arrival gate and holding up posters they had made saying welcome and with the names of some of the children on them; they and their parents were looking so enthusiastic and excited to be re-united with their exchange pals from england who would be coming through in a few minutes time.
and i thought – that is what europe is all about we are fools to think it is anything else!
wednesday 29 – nice quote from someone leaving:
“Und plötzlich weißt du: Es ist Zeit, etwas Neues zu beginnen und dem Zauber des Anfangs zu vertrauen.” Eckhart
went to guitar after another stressful day struggling on getting reliable data
very tired and at times it seemed all too much and that i just couldn’t do it – can understand how it must feel, when one has no energy and cannot follow what is going on and is clearly struggling
anyway i did battle on and a piece i was really struggling to make head nor tail of, actually came clearer when i broke it down, but whenever we did any classical, well spanish, pieces, i would lose my way and have to just listen
and of course, i am really tired from the referendum having averaged about 5 hours sleep since last week and stressed at work, with pressure to get everything done before the summer hols
katie asked me to “study”, ie. not skim an article on highly sensitive people:
http://www.hochsensibilitaet.ch/content/e11223/e12848/index_ger.html
thursday 30 – had nice chat with katie about the various things spinning around:
the disappointment that it doesn’t seem to be coming about that the uk will ignore the referendum result even though it was only advisory and not legally binding
the indication that either tory candidates for the leadership will be planning to have a relationship on the same basis, but that migrants coming to britain must have a work offer, rather than just arriving and claiming benefits – for this, i just don’t believe it is worth it, because that could have been made unattractive, by simply reforming the unemployment benefits system to something which is contributions based and staying in the EU
katie talks about how people are just not in touch with themselves and motives, not so self-aware
mentions how she doesn’t like boris because he has no integrity and it’s a parallel with the discussion about
personality (which folks seem to want in the uk) versus character (which is not immediately obvious to see, but far more important)
seems the uk wants a more authoritarian “character” leading them with bold, ambitious plans to hang on to, even if they are mostly unachievable and lead to decline in other areas, or even in the areas which they choose to focus
for me, the problem in uk politics is of course, the system which is wholly unrepresentative, ie. not proportional to votes cast, resulting in a power which was never inherently confirmed in an election, leading eventually to a hubris in politicians who only have power and selfish ambition in mind – we’re back to them not being in touch with their humanity. The political debate in the uk is based on opinions, narratives and biased statistics, at then end of the day, they want personalities
for me, we should be advocating of course, a european political model of fair representation, open communication, dealing with getting to the facts and the consequences of our actions, thinking through plans carefully and at the end when it is successful:
politics should be as dull as ditchwater!
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