Happy One Year of Fridays! Plus a video of fire...
Happy Friday!
Would you believe that we've been meeting every Friday for a whole year now? 52 weeks of Friday emails, going between you and me. Thanks for sticking with it!
It's been a year like most years: full of ideas that as often as not turn into stories. Some of those stories I remember still today, and some I'll never forget: psychedelic microdosing and a foundation in counselling, writing Foiled for BBC Radio Wales in Spring and joining Curtis Brown Creative in Autumn, messing around with Stoicism and strange breathing, as well as microadventures on Box Hill and Mull.
I have romantic ideas that you've been by my side through all my peregrinations, peering over my shoulder, seeing what I see, hearing what I hear and sharing my thoughts. I hope I've managed to convey something of utility to you, something that you're glad to remember, or something that made you feel more at home wherever you are. If even for a moment.
So thank you for helping me become a more observant observer. I hope I hold your interest for another year!
But what about you? Where have you been this last year, what have you been up to? I'd love to hear your side of the story. And I'd love to hear your suggestions for where we can go next.
Meditations on Meditations, live-not-live from a mountain bothy on the Isle of Mull. This randomly chosen passage is now one of my favourites.
INPUT
Gimme five.
THEATRE: Venus In Fur, co-starring the unimaginably good David Oakes. Ten times funnier than I expected. Go and see for yourself!
FICTION: Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer. I'm reliably informed that this is his least awful work. 80 pages in, I'm yet to be convinced. Sorry.
WALKING SCIENCE: A 90 minute walk in nature does you good. Who knew? Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation Bratman et al. (2015)
FACE SCIENCE: If you want to get better at recognising faces spend more time staring at their... nose. Super-recognition in development: A case study of an adolescent with extraordinary face recognition skills Bennetts et al. (2017)
RUNNING: The Great Gosport Half Robbery. Next year I'll aim for 11s quicker...
OUTPUT
Fortune favours the Dave.
Tomsleibhe, Isle of Mull (November)
Meditations on Meditations: Praise & Service, Core Beliefs, Adversity, Love, Change, Retreat, Indignation, Contentment (October, November)
"No one ever died while breathing". Psychedelic Breathwork with Alchemy of Breath (October)
The Most Living: Synopsis (October)
COMING UP...
RADIO: Hair salon sitcom Foiled is rebroadcast TODAY at 18:30, with the other three episodes to follow every week in the run up to Christmas (I know - it's crying out for a Christmas Special!)
COMEDY: Jordan Brookes at Soho Theatre tomorrow.
FICTION: My novel-in-progress is critiqued by 15 writers at Curtis Brown on Wednesday. LIKE: Skipping along the top of a railway bridge wall. Terrifyingly thrilling.
CYCLING: To Bristol next week. Starting late on Thursday night. From Croydon. Anyone know somewhere good to sleep anywhere along the M4 corridor?
BLACK FRIDAY: Oh come on. Who cares? But if you are looking for a bike and want to help get refugees cycling - check out The Bike Project sales!
Serious Running Face.
About a mile from the finish line, seriously concerned about whether I'd arrive there at all, let alone in time.
21.1km: four lengths of Gosport seafront. It was a beautiful morning for a blow along the prom. Now begins 50 weeks' training!
Today I really need something from MARGE. Let's see what we get...
Now your remaining years are few. Live them, then, as though on a mountain-top. Whether a man's lot be cast in this place or in that matters nothing, provided that in all places he views the world as a city and himself its citizen. (Meditations 10:15)
Thanks for running with me!
- dc
SALESY BLAH
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