White Russians and windswept side-boob…

• Week of 19-25 December. Holiday mode.
• Monday, woke up in Cape Town, said goodbye to Heleen for two weeks (off on a desert adventure), lunch at Jacques’, just in time hot water springs booking, epic nap, braai, 10h sleep.
• It’s been a pretty crazy few weeks. Good fun.
• Tuesday, woke up at Jacques’ house, blogging, road trip to Montagu with Mia – RHCP and chats about “hell yeah!” moments over the last few weeks – I managed to list five – Mia could think of two, MCC tasting at Graham Beck – I really liked the Brut Zero, breakfast for lunch in Montagu, some bulk biltong buying at the local butcher, Avalon Springs, epic nap, phone chat with Heleen, swim and super tube ride, minor drama with a bee stinging Mia – in her mouth – after hiding in her virgin frozen pina colada, pizza in Montagu, evening swims in the hot water spring pools with mocktails and White Russians and Lebowski colour bath robes, time well spent.
• Avalon Springs reminds me of the desert casino in Intacto… that luck movie.

• “I may be lucky, but it’s not an accident.” — Chris Sacca

• Crossfit and yoga – the modern religions.
• Top risks leading to death – and why smoking is a bad idea.
• Wednesday, hotel breakfast buffet, swims and super tube rides, back and neck massage while Mia had a manicure, epic nap, Skype chats with Heleen and Georg, more evening hot water spring swims with White Russians and bath robes.
• Pro tip: you should probably not go for lame hotel massages after getting used to deep tissue Thai massages.

• “Once you know the rules well enough, you can break them.” — Mia, no idea where she gets this from.

• Thursday, up early – lots of driving, road trip to Cape Town with Mia with a Moloko soundtrack – chats about Kubrick movies and how MCC is made – we had to phone Paul to check some facts, fetched a repaired surf/kloofing wetsuit from Coral Wetsuits – found this old Stellenbosch underwater hockey photo on their pinboard, fetched my weight belt, a swim with Mia at Waterstone VA, smoothies, dropped Mia off at her mom’s house for xmas, bought a new shirt and a cap for L&L, drove to Stellenbosch, Skype chat with Heleen, soaked up the views from the lawn at Paul’s house, early xmas “blow out” bearnaise steak dinner at Hussar Grill with some great La Motte red – thanks Paul, Balboa.

• “She’s unlucky in love.” — Paul in Balboa, I don’t remember who he was talking about.

• Friday, watched Only God Forgives – interesting, rainy and windy day – David Bowie and Brut Zero, I somehow managed to convince Paul to do a last minute stoic adventure to our ~9th Love and Light party, it’s become a bit of a summer institution, rainy, but great fun, cool people, sadly I lost a favourite green hoodie in an Uber, time well spent.

• “Siri, search closest windswept side-boob party.” — Paul

• “Do you remember that Denzel Washington movie with the submarine? – Yeah, which one?” — Uber ride on the way to L&L.

• Saturday, Zen Dog day, mostly chilled on the lawn with some Leonard Cohen and Cat Stevens, epic nap, watched the end of Neon Demon – yeah, it’s pretty whack, Skype chat with Heleen, watched Sunshine – good movie – thanks Wouter.
• RIP Bowie, Cohen, Brubeck, George Michael.
• Sunday, fetched Mia, drove to Pringle Bay, awesome weather, xmas braai with Jacques, Marietjie, Georg, Elise, Rossouw and Marius – major crayfish braaiing operation – I managed to eat one crayfish (allergy thing – maybe I just had too much in my student days), Mia and Charlotte discovered a quad-bike, sunset drive back to Cape Town, 12h sleep, time well spent.

• “It is better, in the long run,
  to never get there,
  and let the journey decide.” — Moloko

• Tune of the week: The Only Ones – Moloko

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

The unexamined life is not worth living…

• Week of 12 to 18 December. Winding down the year.
• Monday, office, wetsuit fitting, fetched Mia’s wetsuit, lunch at The Kichen in Woodstock, PO Box visit and renewal, beach walk, took my laptop to the beach and process some notes, epic sunset and some Springfield Chardonnay, watched The Neon Demon with Heleen… odd movie.
• Last week’s post was a bit odd (read: lame). It was pretty much about Campari and reading articles about relationships. Must have been stress about moving and making changes. Oh well, only the mediocre are always at their best.

• “Let me remind the reader that I am only an experimenter. Do not set the least value on what I do, or the least discredit on what I do not, as if I pretended to settle anything as true or false. I unsettle all things. No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker with no past.” — The Creative Value of Unproductive Time, and the Power of Not Knowing

• “You are reorganising your brain when you write, autobiographically.”

• Tuesday, early beach walk with Heleen – she had a swim (see below), office, lunchtime swim, vegetarian xmas dinner at Chris’ house with Heleen – chats about our mutual crush on Roman Mars from 99% Invisible with Haley over some Famous Grouse Smoky Black and a George Michael Christmas soundtrack.

• “Being anti-capitalist, while on my iPhone, while flying.”

• Wednesday, Octotel strategy day in Noordhoek, lunch at Cafe Roux, Georg’s Clifton pad finally got fibre internet – 4Mbps – double irony.
• Thursday, Heleen brought me some coffee, I moved house – backups and laundry and packing, dumped some stuff in storage, fetched an old surf suit for repair – for Suicide Gorge, fetched my new open water swimming wetsuit, introduced Heleen to deep tissue Thai massages and the famous burger in a bowl – beer with Nick, watched Intacto.
• Mia was very happy to discover the LLAP emoticon emoji in iOS.
• Taste, curiosity, work ethic, integrity. I keep pondering this. Makes so much sense.
• Friday, my first open water swim, with Heleen, at Clifton 3rd – Freedom Swim Series – 1.6km, 11degC water temp… I managed to finish in 24min – the first 200 meters were insanely cold, Heleen won her race, a celebratory beer with Heleen, fetched Mia, dinner at De Cameron – I introduced Mia to beef carpaccio, ended an epic day with some tiramisu.

• “When you can write well, you can think well.” — Ma.tt

• Saturday, up early, photo and notes processing – a few gaps in my notes – distracted I guess, epic breakfast with Mia at Coopmanhuijs… she opted for her usual berries and french toast, we found Mia a nice summers dress, a swim and steam bath at the Stellenbosch VA with Mia, lunch at Muratie with Jacques, Marietjie, Charlotte and Mia – good Chardonnay and nice desert wine, Jacques showed me his house cleaning iRobot, Mia and Charlotte played Lego Star Wars on the Xbox, we walked the dogs.
• Sunday, up early, 3SOMS Clifton 4th beach swim with Mia, she came first in the ~500m open water swim – I was 2nd… her support crew, Heleen came 2nd in her race (1900m), figured out I’m not very good at SUPing – yet, Clifton 1st with Jacques and his dogs, Mia and I went smoothie and ginger shot shopping, we watched Star Wars Rogue One in 3D IMAX – perfect sound: 2/3rds to the back in the middle of the cinema, braai at Jacques’ with Heleen – some watermelon hacking, time well spent.
• Turns out we went to the same high school, she plays squash, she likes diving for crayfish, and she’s very good with cutting up watermelons.
• I’m excited about the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie… “there are two types of beings in the universe, those who dance, and those who do not.”
• I added the Jordan Peterson and Josh Waitzkin episodes to my Favourite Podcast Episodes list.
• After the Jordan Peterson podcast I’ve been pondering… the hell of chaos vs the hell of order and living in the middle of the Yin and Yang. Dogma vs spirituality and how they need each other. HT to Wouter for pointing me at this episode.
• This week’s little matrix of photos has captions.
• Tune of the week: Wham! – Last Christmas

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

To a universe we choose…

• Week of 5 to 11 December.
• Monday, woke up in Elgin, school run, installed Headspace for kids for Mia, notes and photo processing, drove to Cape Town, WebEx meeting, lunch at La Vie with Heleen, Myog, a few hours of We Learn Nothing audio book listening – great book.

• “Second nature is very hard to teach.”

• “The essence of creativity is fucking around.” — Tim Kreider

• “I’ve demonstrated an impressive resilience in the face of valuable life lessons, and the main thing I seem to have learned from this one is that I am capable of learning nothing from almost any experience, no matter how profound.” — Tim Kreider, We Learn Nothing

• “Most of what we do doesn’t matter. I am not busy. I am the laziest ambitious person I know. The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. My role in life is to be a bad influence. Life is too short to be busy.” — Lazy, a Manifesto

• Tuesday, Headspace, office, catch-up chat with Johann, smoothie with Heleen, swim, Heavy Chef with Heleen, Villa 47 and a nice bottle of Kevin Arnold Shiraz.
• The Heavy Chef chat reminded me of watching Alt-J at Daisies 2013.
• Found this again: Amor Fati, Thomas Edison’s Formula for Greatness
• Wednesday, shrek tea, gym with Ian, office, epic nap, sunset podcast beach walk, sudden urge to listen to Alt-J, watched Citizenfour… good movie.
• Seems she is ISFP.
• MBTI notes:
  Favorite world: Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I*)
  Information: Sensing (S) or Intuition (N*)
  Decisions: Thinking (T*) or Feeling (F)
  Structure: Judging (J) or Perceiving (P*)
• Mission to make people smile. Create useful things.
• Thursday, 15min Headspace meditation, 1km swim and Tea in the (Green Point) Park with Heleen, office, watched more of Citizenfour.
• As Jacques liked to say, the ultimate company: no investors, no employees and no customers.
• Lesson learnt: breakups are great for your health, dating and infatuation – not so much.
• Memories of Amazon Cape Town in 2005 days.
• Friday, rainy day, 15min Headspace meditation, swim, cold showers and j-curls in the steam bath, office, breakfast for lunch with Heleen, manicure, a drink with Paul at Village Idiot, a beer with Carel at the Bitx year-end party, a beer with Paul at the Cartel Rooftop bar – some other year-end party, Village Idiot again for some Don Julio tequila… very smooth, tasty Greek food at Mykonos Taverna with Heleen, an 18yo Jameson at Harveys.

• “What the f… happened to you?” — Paul, from a story about bicycles, hot water springs, first-name basis with medics and relationships.

• Found this again: Why We Fall in Love
• Saturday, breakfast for lunch at the Granger Bay market with Heleen and Paul, a cold weiss beer in the warm sun at Den Anker with Heleen and Paul, Clifton 1st with Heleen, Michel & Michelle, Roxy and Robyn, and some Campari, time well spent.
• Why Our Partners Drive Us Mad
• Sometimes you just have to hang out with somebody that’s nothing like the previous people you’ve dated.
• Try mixing blood orange San Pellegrino with Campari, and a bit of T10, and a squeeze of lime.
• For some reason I thought about this book again: Casspirs en Campari’s
• Sunday, early beach walk, breakfast at Camps Bay Retreat with Heleen, nap, some (stoic) Ataraxia Chardonnay with Wouter at La Vie, a picnic at the Arno Carstens show at De Waal Park with Heleen, Wouter, Zander and Roxy – fun afternoon.

• “There are a surprising number of people walking around which are totally bananas.” — Wouter

• All the Relationship Advice You’ll Ever Need
• Ataraxia is an untroubled and tranquil condition of the soul. Stoicism often made use of the term, as they too sought mental tranquillity and saw ataraxia as highly valuable. In Stoicism, however, ataraxia is not an end to be pursued for its own sake, but is rather a natural consequence that occurs in a person who pursues virtue.

• “I know.” — Han Solo

• Tune of the week: Another Universe

Have a fun week, crazy kids.

Astronauts, swimming and Rushmore…

• Week of 28 November to 4 December.
• Health week 5/5. Fasting week. My 6th 5-day fast, I think.

Monday, office, lunchtime 1km swim with Heleen, researched open water swimming and triathlon wetsuits, afternoon podcast beach walk around Clifton, took my laptop to the beach and worked a bit, wrote a health blog post – nice sunset, watched a video about Total Immersion swimming.

• “How the gym gives back.” — ERnst

• I published a blog post about fasting. I think I’m fairly happy with the More Life Labs blog now.
• I had about 180 unique IPs read my health guide in November.
• Go like the More Life FB page.
• Discovered this again: To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This
• One of the Octotel fibre floaters was rather unhappy when his new name badge title was: “Floater”.
• Top 4 Wes Anderson movies: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, Fantastic Mr Fox. I can’t seem to find a 5th one to make it a top5 list.
• Goals vs. Systems

• “The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.” — First Follower

• Obvious to you. Amazing to others.

• “Embrace your funk.”

• “I think this a song of realization, specifically the brutal reality of New York or any major city. The realization of the fact that people are overrun by the power of money and selfishness. I feel that the rose trees are symbolic for the growing of relationships, which would explain “I thank they Lord there’s people out there like you” showing the appreciation for whomever he speaks of. I think the chorus shows what these people are missing, “turn around and say good morning to the night” shows how these people are letting life pass them by, and “for unless they see the sky, but they can’t and that is why, they know not if it’s dark outside or light” shows that they don’t even know what they’re missing. And the major point of what they are missing is the rose trees, friends, lovers, whatever Taupin means by the rose trees.” — about Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters

• Been listening to: We Learn Nothing

• “Every company is a technology company.”

• “Jedi and Christianity is compatible.” — Jacques

• I booked some IMAX Star Wars tickets.
• Remember to put sunblock on your lips this summer.
• Tuesday, swim, office, afternoon podcast beach walk around Clifton, took my laptop to the beach and processed some notes to an AltJ soundtrack, chilled on the beach till after sunset with Heleen – chats about Total Immersion swimming and lucid dreaming, nice sunset.
• Wednesday, office – green tea, ketone high, lunchtime 1km swim with Heleen, nap, podcast sunset beach walk, phone chat with Ernst – who now uses the word “bro” a lot because of Crossfit, phone chat with Mia – chats about the podcast research project.
• Good listen about rapamycin and metformin.
• Thursday, Headspace app meditation, office, doctor visit, catch up green tea with Jospeh and Ben, 1km swim with Heleen, watched The Arrival at VIP cinemas in the Waterfront… good movie – not what I expected – check it out, First Thursday adventure around Bree Street and a Bardough visit with Heleen, Nick, Michel, Nadia, Lulu, Paul.
• Turns out a night of walking around First Thursday is not much fun on day 4 of a fast.
• I suspect I might be more prone to ear worms than most people.
• Anton made a Suicide Gorge booking for December. Walk #11, I think.
• Nobody is going to help you. Does that encourage you or discourage you?
• I’m busy perfecting the ultimate morning mobility routine… J-curl + squat combo. 3x in the morning.
• Friday, woke up in ~Fresnaye, Headspace meditation, swim, office, Vitality test, a fast-ending smoothie really hit the spot – and a ginger shot – good re-feeding, fetched Mia, the usual biltong stop, drove to Cape Town – chats about “hell yeah! or no”, T10, Mia went for a SUP with Heleen off Clifton 4th, yoga session on Clifton 2nd with Hilah – good fun – took Mia a while to work out if she was up for it – but she joined in and enjoyed it, quick change from beach gear to dinner outfits – Mia refused to let me wear this one shirt (because, she said I looked like a Pokemon) and chose a better one, very nice dinner at La Mouette with Heleen and Mia – beautiful summers night in the courtyard, very tasty Jordon Chardonnay, time well spent.
• There was a moment while doing yoga on the beach that I thought… life is good.
• I finished our November health challenge 5kg lighter and racked up 52k Vitality points. I guess you can’t really have a health blog if you are not at least platinum Vitality status.

• “Digitise, dematerialise, demonetise and democratise.”

• Saturday, early beach walk from Clifton 1st to 4th and a catch up phone chat with Paul, Shrek flapjacks and cacao nut mylk with Mia, Mia did robotics while I had my hair cut at Red Rum, two fittings at Coral Wetsuits, shopping for watermelon and limes, super chilled afternoon on Clifton 1st with Mia and Heleen, Mia SUPed, swim, watched some Star Wars / Clone Wars episodes, ended up not going to the Wavescape film thing.
• Being, not having.
• Turns out she’s a Star Wars fan, did synchronised swimming, and she always wanted to be an astronaut.
• Sunday, early beach walk, breakfast with my mom, nippers, drove to Elgin while listening to an audio book, lunch at The Pool Room with Heleen and Mia – good Chardonnay, walk, tea and crossword puzzles, watched Gattaca… such an epic movie – astronauts, jazz clubs, swimming and cool architecture, watched Rushmore – Mia liked it, time. very. well. spent.

• “What’s the secret, Max? Yeah, you seem to have it pretty figured out. The secret, I don’t know… I guess you’ve just gotta find something you love to do and then… do it for the rest of your life. For me, it’s going to Rushmore.” — Rushmore

• Tune of the week: Ooh La La, The Faces / Rushmore

Have a fun week, crazy kids.