lekowala!

Its been 6 months since Jen and I took our long walks in the forest. This I call my mindfulness walks and she calls it trail walking.

It was 5.15 pm when we set off from the start of the trail and by 7 pm it got a bit dark. As we were walking along the boardwalk I began to smell the scents of the forest. I remember reading that moth-pollinated flowers tended to maximise their output of floral scents in the evening. Read more about floral scents here at the full content paper in the journal Plant Physiology

By this time of the walk we were into the 8th kilometre of the walk and so endorphins were kicking in and no doubt we were feeling good. The nice scenery helped

Here’s the lake of reflection. If you read The Monk who sold his Ferrari, there would be mention of a lake where the monks spent the first part of their day, which is early in the morning meditating infront of a still and reflective lake, visualising their goals.

Okay, Bill Bryson is officially one of my favourite authors. I am only halfway through “A Short History of Nearly Everything” I think I am only at the part where he was talking about Protists. But that book’s great. Bill has a way of presenting facts in a most interesting way. He makes it so easy and interesting to digest scientific facts - like how Isaac Newton used a knitting needle to feel around his eye socket just out of curiosity… this I always tell my friends who do Physics. Anyway, that super informative book’s real thick so its used for on the bus reading, plus, its easy to pick up again cos its almost like a reference book.

Anyway, besides reading randomly some serious books i bought in June, I haven’t really gotten down to seriously reading, you know, like getting totally immersed into the pages of a book. So I needed something light to get me on a role. My goal is 20 books by the end of the year - so far 2 in the bag. The Buddhist monks believe in reading as a form of lifelong learning. Also this was recommended by Robin Sharma. So at Popular bookshop a few weeks ago, by happenstance, I met “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid“

Abit americanish but still that doesn’t take away from the essence of of the book which is basically a humourous reminiscence of his childhood. He’s managed to poke fun at his own pubescent years in a really funny way and at the same time provide some nuggets of American history (again in his own interesting style). Every page and then, there are those laugh-out-loud moments and seriously tears down the cheek kind of laughter.

Books read (starting Nov 2007)
1. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
2. The Monk who sold his Ferrari - Robin Sharma