I’ve been training at Tiger Muay Thai and living and eating on ’the street’ for 5 months now and I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how much it costs, where to stay, what to eat and what’s there to do, etc. Especially when compared to the costs of living in Chiang Mai! I’ve stayed in several different places, eaten at most of the restaurants and tried out different gyms. Over time I’ve developed a cost effective, exercise and nutrition routine which is getting me solid results so rather than keep answering the same question, over and over, I’m putting it in to one blog post.
4 Days On A Deserted Island
Freedive UK arranged an incredible shipwrecked event where 14 of us stayed on a deserted island and had to fend for ourselves for 4 days with skills taught to us from some local Moken, learning how to freedive, build spears, spear fish and forage for food!
The first couple of days were spent learning the basics of freediving, getting acclimatised for those visiting from other countries and snorkling/freedive trips by longtail boat. The basic technique of freediving involves resting on the surface and calmly breathing to reduce your heart rate. The less your heart pumps then the less oxygen is taken from your lungs, moved around the body and transformed in to carbon dioxide. It is the build up of carbon dioxide inside you that makes you want to take another breath, not your body asking for more oxygen. You then take a series of deep breaths in, filling all of your lungs and mouth with air to get as much oxygen inside you as possible, then you calmly dive. I managed to hold my breath, on the surface but under water, for 2 minutes and 9 seconds, it wasn’t easy and was a case of mind over matter, I really wanted to exhale and felt very uncomfortable. When actually diving it’s even harder, as you have to equalise all the way to adjust to the pressure and as you swim you use up oxygen faster! I only managed 38 seconds and 10 meters when actually freediving, I need more practice and bigger balls.
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to be and Embrace Who You are
I first heard of Brene Brown after watching her 20 minute TEDx talk The Power Of Vulnerability.
The Gifts of Imperfection offers readers a way to change their lives through adopting the practices of “wholehearted” living, an idea Brené came up with after studying concepts like shame, happiness, joy, anxiety and how they all relate to each other. By learning to embrace our imperfections, and recognise what issues get in our way, such as shame and fear we are able to lead more authentic and compassionate lives.
A Brief History Of Time
One of the best selling books ever, third only to the Bible and Shakespear, Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History Of time was written to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how?
Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we’re looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, Quantum theory, String theory, the nature of time, and physicists’ search for a grand unifying theory.
Tomb Raider
According to Steam, I spent 13 hours playing the latest Tomb Raider game, which cost me about £4.99 in the Steam Christmas sale including all the extras, and it was 13 hours well spent!
It took a bit of a deviation from the Tomb Raider games I’d played before, for one it felt more like a linear RPG, as you could get experience which you could use to level up stats and weapons as you progressed. Also, there was a lot of in game swearing.
Snorkling At The Similan Islands
Last weekend to take a break from training and have a bit of an adventure I arranged a snorkling trip so the Similan Islands through Phuket Dive Tours. There was an offer on at the time and the cost of the trip was 2700 Baht (£53) and included transfer to the boat to the Similans, breakfast and lunch! Snorkles were supplied and fins were 100baht (£2) to rent, I bought my own though, as did a few others, but the gear they supplied was good enough and also in great condition.
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
The Code Book traces the history of cryptography from its recorded inception in Roman times up through to the current applications as of it’s publication date circa 2000. All of the chapters held my interest and were riveting other than the, necessary, latter chapter on the the effects of encryption on US politics but it was Simon’s chapters on deciphering the Enigma code and ancient languages such as Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Linear B that I found most interesting.
The Player Of Games
Iain M. Bank’s second Culture book, The Player Of Games, was much more enjoyable than the first one, to the state that I read the last half in just one day! Unlike the first Culture novel, the protagonist this time is part of the Culture society allowing Banks to expand on the universe in greater detail.
The story is compelling, I could hardly put the book down, and the premise intelligent and unique. I was curious the entire time about the various agendas and motives of all the characters and the plot was gripping. It was very entertaining and I’m looking forwards to reading the 3rd in the series shortly.