Month: July 2017

2000 km

Yesterday I crossed the 2000 km milestone since I started running (~360km done so far this year). Running was literally a pain in high school, a horror in the army and something I never, never would have thought that I’d enjoy. Almost 6 years ago, on a cold November evening I laced up a proper pair of running shoes that actually fit my needs (I have flat feet), and went on my first run/walk. I haven’t looked back since. 

Get running. 

This week’s long run

Started out early in the morning, but not early enough — the heat was already pretty intense in the parts of the trail that weren’t in the shade.

Sea view

The sea was pretty stormy, and surfers and kayaks were out in force. It looks much windier than it was, though.

Ducks on grass with river in the background
Families of ducks were also out, grazing in the heat. I met them later on, swimming together.

Little egret in river low tide with reeds in the foreground

Little egret fishing on the Yarkon riverbed.

A row of colorful boats moored next to a small boathouse
Boats on the river, lazing in the sun.

Night hero and little egret perched on wooden railing with fisherman to their right side

Three fishermen — man, little egret, night heron.

A group of little egrets in low tide with Reading power station in the background
Little egrets fighting over fish in low tide.

10k nike running club screen capture
10k done — hot and humid summer run. As usual, I didn’t feel like waking up early and going for a run, let alone a 10k, but I’m glad that I did.

This week’s recommendations

  • Book: The Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko. An urban fantasy that has restored my faith in the genre. Very Russian — melancholy, self-reflective, intelligently and subtly written — and very good. Lukyanenko takes Russian folklore and breaths new, modern life to it in a set of three interconnecting stories that have a fresh take on the concepts of good and evil.
  • Podcast: Writing Excuses. This 15 minutes long podcast is all the inspiration I need lately to get my ass into a chair and write. What more do you need? (They need a new, more modern website, but the podcast is great, trust me).
  • Tea: it’s been too hot and I’ve been too lazy to drink much of it now, except the occasional cup of Fortnum and Mason’s Assam Superb in the morning. A fabulous Assam, but still too expensive to wholeheartedly recommend.
  • Also: finally saw Wonder Woman and loved it. A fresh, nuanced take on a superhero movie that doesn’t apologize for having a female lead.

Jaffa street view
Old Jaffa record store baking in the sun

 

Hey, Hey, What’s Going On?

  • I’m working on the second draft of my first novel (so far in Chapter 3 of 22), and outlining and discovery writing my second novel. Scrivener has been a blast for this too, allowing me to manage my characters and references to them without resorting to another tool (I’ll try to do a post about that later on).
  • I meant to give The Rook another try (I got annoyed with it after 30 pages during my first go), but due to a lot of upheaval at work, I started reading Linchpin instead.
  • Two of my co-workers (two of the best), are leaving: one to go abroad, and the other one to a different department. That’s made me rethink my future at work, whether I need to move as well and pick up a new area of expertise or not. After a lot of anxious soul searching I realized what I’d forgotten in all this mess — my dream isn’t to work in tech, it’s to be a writer. My day job is what allows me to write while keeping a roof over my head, nothing more, and every minute that I invest in it is a minute in which I’m not writing. This whole ordeal just made me want to double down on writing even more.
  • I’ve got a busy month and a half in July and August, and then things will settle down a bit more. My updates here may be sporadic as a consequence, as I prioritize my writing and running instead.