One should make one's own fun

We all have a fundamental choice in life, every single morning.

Be brave, positive, looking for the good stuff, and accept randomness and serendipity to screw you over or offer double pleasure. 

Nothing beats that lesson except the next one learnt a long time ago but insufficiently applied: 

#ATRA - these are the things you can control and choose in life

• Attitude: be a stoic or Marcus Aurelius and yell out loud: age quid agis, al de rest zijn vodden
• Timing: crucial in your self-management
• Risk management: what kind of odds and risks are you willing to accept in all your choices and endeavours
• Associates: choose your friends wisely; they are more important than your ennemies

All of this bubbles up after completing a first Marathon; a life-changing experience, but originally not in my bucket list. 

Back 17 years ago, I was already happy to take a shower standing and being able to wipe my own ass. I recall one singular ass-hole saying: you'll never walk again without limping.... a heartfelt fuck-you to that guy and a thank you for being that piercing splinter in my consciousness. I ran, I completed that marathon for all the right reasons and definitely not to prove you wrong. Thanks for all those along the road who brought me (back) and to this point!

Reading: #WhatIlearnedintheFinancialTimestoday every single day
Viewing: OZARK, NARCOS
Listening to: Parov Stelar
Thinking: if human rights are infringed by other citizens, what is the worth of it? (or... why are only States Duty Bearers....) - we're all in this together aren't we?
Travelling: Back from Bordeaux Marathon du Médoc

O valor das coisas não está no tempo que elas duram, mas na intensidade com que acontecem. Por isso existem momentos inesquecíveis, coisas inexplicáveis e pessoas incomparáveis.

Just back from the annual pilgrimage to World Water Week in Stockholm.
What a city!
Over the last 15 years, I've been there every summer and I still find new views, interesting content and excitement in meeting the old guard while discovering new initiatives and organisations.
You' d say it's a load of bollocks, but I find the real-life discussions energizing and motivating for the next semester.

I was intrigued by a comment by one of my old water friends who said he keeps on reading this blog... and that one of the posts is currently going viral? That's kinda cool and I'm curious to be know but probably better off without.... The content of this blog is of uneven nature over time, years and subjects; but upon re-reading some stuff, it still stands the critique. Other is irrelevant, but it still is a sort of history of what has been going on around me, and in the world.

So, at the beginning of this new schoolyear, and to honour Sir David TANG - who passed away this week unexepectedly; I promise I'll write more (and hopefully a little better).

Hat-tip to my dear old friend Cesar SEARA from Sao Paulo for the quote of the title - from F. Pesoa

Reading: Het Smelt - Lize Spit
Viewing: Netflix Ozark
Listening to: Arsenal
Thinking: You make your own fun
Travelling: back from Stockholm
Last picture: instagram toiletogram

Wishing you a less busy 2017

Reading:
Just finished a monumental read from 2016, KL, a history of the concentration camps. A deeper insight in the destructive machinery and administration at the hear to the Third Reich. Scary to note the dehumanisation, the mechanics behind the organisation of the extermination of so many victims and a staunch warning:
Now reading: BUSY, an inspiring book on how to reorganise your life for more health, happiness and fun, by stopping being too busy. A real eye-opener in how we focus on the wrong things in our daily lives.  
Viewing: Captain Fantastic; a moving story of a non-conformistic family trying to not fit in.
Listening to:

Thinking: Be like the rain
Travelling: from Port Elisabeth over Dubai back home, and now in the upcoming months towards Geneva, Barcelona and bi-weekly trips to Paris
Last picture: the incredible landscapes of the Klein Karoo