After a couple of days of angst about it, especially the fundraising part (one of the most tedious and disgustingly self-aggrandizing things I've ever had to do), I'm relieved and happy that the Cambridge Half Marathon is over. My initial goal of finishing in under two hours was no longer feasible after my injury which kept me from running for four ( Read more... )

It's been something like 9 days and my knee still hasn't recovered. It pains and shames me considerably to say that I have not taken this tiny injury well at all. Instead of focusing on the positives--or rather, the positive fact that it's not anything worse than a bruise--I'm focusing on all the negatives, like I always do. Such as: it's been more ( Read more... )

I have not been writing in here very much, have I ( Read more... )

Tennis

Elijah is very enthusiastic about tennis. Like I told him today, I think the reason I have been so tired in the mornings and having major difficulty getting out of bed before 9am is because our tennis sessions are so intense! We play two sets, sometimes three (like on Monday morning!), if there aren't people waiting for a court; and after ( Read more... )

A quick note (because I am tired from tennis in the morning, 3 hours of editing a textbook chapter on international organisations written by a Swiss-German professor at Espresso Library, and some packing in the evening) on the past couple of days ( Read more... )

It's been a pretty productive day despite my spending too little time on Chapter 5 and getting up way later than I'd planned (i.e. 1.5 hours later). There is always time to make something of your day as long as 1) you are alive and 2) you are willing ( Read more... )

The tone of the previous entry was rather too magic and rainbows for me. In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote it when I was under the slight influence of alcohol...one measly gin and tonic. But maybe the gin was particularly potent, I don't know ( Read more... )

Of late, I am beginning to realise what a difference it makes to my life when I spend time with people who radiate positivity and whose default outlook on life tells them that the glass is half-empty. As a result, I am also beginning to realise that I simply do not win in any way whatsoever when I drag my existentialist despair around like an ( Read more... )

I will get around to writing about my post-tennis and over-dinner conversation with Elijah about positive thinking at some point. What I want to say for now is that I have been making a conscious (and arduous) effort to alter my default mindset, i.e. negativity, and find small glimpses of satisfaction and, dare I say it, happiness whenever and ( Read more... )

Milhan's birthday dinner/party last night was crazy. Dinner itself was tame enough, though I was unceremoniously 15 minutes late and made everyone wait for my arrival before dinner could start. I was just so tired after two hours of (pretty solid) tennis that I had trouble getting dressed on time. It didn't help either that it'd been raining rather ( Read more... )