Afroleft

A Few Photos From Kas, 2023

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 17:03:05 +0000

Sunrise at Kas Peninsula.

Heart leaf.

A Picture in Picture.

7pm, sunset at Big Pebble Beach

Directions

Friday coffee at Fika in Kas.

Sunset at the Kas peninsula bay.

Lunchtime at Kekova, Sunken city boat trip.

This & That #22

Sat, 16 Oct 2021 14:37:00 +0000

A tiny pause in what has been a hectic year has made way for This & That #22. New music and mixes from Dosem, Vintage & Morelli, Cinnamon Chasers, Hausman & MBX and a cheeky 10 year old bootleg from yours truly.

Hope you enjoy.

Tracklist 14 tracks

Highway Pacific Beatless Version Cinnamon Chasers Apple Music Spotify
Highway Pacific Cinnamon Chasers Apple Music Spotify
Almost Home Above & Beyond Extended Deep Mix Above & Beyond Apple Music Spotify
Hey Now Sasha Remix London Grammar Apple Music Spotify
Dawn To Dusk Thomas Schwartz & Fausto Fanizza Apple Music Spotify
Feel Free feat. Christina Coronel Shur-I-Kan Apple Music Spotify
Parfume Dosem Remix Eli & Fur Apple Music Spotify
All Locations Dosem Apple Music Spotify
Rios Alfonso Muchacho Apple Music Spotify
Solarcoaster Marsh Extended Remix Solarstone Apple Music Spotify
Put ’Em High Afroleft Bootleg Paul Keeley & Stonebridge Download
Maheno Extended Mix Genix Apple Music Spotify
Voyager Extended Mix Hausman & MBX Apple Music Spotify
Afterglow Vintage & Morelli Apple Music Spotify

Liked something? Buying or streaming the original supports the artist.

Using What You’ve Learned

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 17:05:06 +0000

A few years back I heard one of my music hero’s Jono Grant from Above & Beyond talk about their process in the studio.

He made a comment that stuck with me.

It went along the lines of “when we kick off a new project, we recite / talk through some of the hard-earned lessons and insights that we’ve made on previous projects.”

When the lights are on you and you’re under pressure, Jono said it’s all too easy to forget the things that you’ve learned from your previous experience.

You’re running the risk of making the same mistakes again and you’re missing opportunities to use previous insights, processes and tools that could improve the quality of your future work.

Chinese fishing nets in Kochin, India.

I’ve noticed this personally when I’m under a lot of pressure or when a project is coming off-track. I’ve missed entire chunks of my process and wonder why I’m struggling to make progress.

Jono mentioned reciting your key insights before a project kickoff is one way of bringing what you’ve learned to the front of your mind.

Medics use Checklist Manifesto.

I’m sure there are other ways too.

I’ve always thought there are a number of things that you have achieved at the end of a project. There’s the object, the actual product itself, and then there’s all that you learned. What you learned is as tangible as the product itself, but much more valuable because that’s your future.

—Jony Ive, 2018

How do you remember to use what you’ve learned?

Let me know on Twitter or send me an email.

2020: PPE, Modular Construction & A Weimaraner Puppy

Thu, 24 Dec 2020 19:59:28 +0000

At the start of the year I had to pull together a little software engineering team to kickstart building out the technology responsible for handing off design, controlling quality and running manufacturing operations at Ideal Modular Homes. I was lucky enough to convince the brilliant mind of Duncan Nisbet, the unstoppable Andy Tango and Chris Moorst of Kitsune fame to come onboard.
We learned a lot about modular construction and sustainable materials in construction.

25,000+ Protective Visors for Healthcare Workers

As covid19 began to bite in Northern Europe, lockdown happened. Central Manchester was baron link
In March we were facing a big shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). I kicked off a thread on Twitter (link) that sparked a lot of conversation about how the indie-maker community in the North West could assist healthcare by making PPE.
2 months / 40 + volunteers / 1 handcrafted ordering and dispatch system / £20,000 in donations later, we had produced, sanitised, packed and distributed well over 25,000 protective visors to healthcare workers right across the UK.
People processed orders, printed instructions, volunteered to produce, worked their asses off and donated generously from far and wide to help us bring this to life.

Yours truly doing my best to hide my west country accent live on Heart Radio link
Liverpool Echo interview link
The website visors.doesliverpool.com

This & That #21

In the summer I produced a new mix.

Afroleft · This & That #21

Cycling beats lockdown cabin fever link
Haven’t been to Cornwall in years. It was lovely to head back there this summer.
We figured out if you put Cornish in front of anything, it sounds scrumptious. Cornish Fuels.
Found some nice old tins for design inspiration.

Photo of Chaka Pup

In August we brought home a tiny Weimaraner puppy. She’s called Chaka and she is bananas. Namesake link
We were lucky enough to escape to Istanbul and Kas for a few weeks. Istanbul is a clash of east and west.

In November we moved Fetch into production; assisting the design, manufacturing, quality control and installation of Ideal’s latest £268million eco-friendly affordable homes project for the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London.

Press coverage: Link
Project background Link

Ideal Modular Homes at Greenwich, London.

🏆 In December we found out we’d bagged an Award for Digital Construction Excellence from Construction News and British Construction Awards named us Digital Initiative of the Year.

Working on Fetch

Sun, 13 Sep 2020 10:39:13 +0000

I wrote a short intro piece for our Software Engineering blog at Ideal Modular Homes.

We’re building real-time, high-dependency software that assists with the design, manufacture and installation of our sustainable modular homes.

We’ll be sharing more about of technology choices, lessons learned and our process in upcoming posts.

The technology is called Fetch.

Have a minute? We’d like to tell you more.

Old Tins

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 19:58:07 +0000

We spent today wondering around Penzance in Cornwall, England.

There was a shop called CASH FOR YOUR JUNK. It looked a lot like my old grandfather’s garage.

A jumble sale of odd things. Plates, lamps, tins, statues, an old petrol forecourt spinning Jet logo etc etc. Hoarder’s heaven.

Loved these old tins dating as far back as 1940.

As we all pull together to cut down on plastic use, what’s the bet that we see the return of the refillable tin?

If these old packaging designs are your sort of thing, you must check out Purveyors of Packaging.

They are a good Instagram follow too.

This & That #21

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 11:55:53 +0000

After a few months of flicking through music, I made a new mix which marks episode #21 of this little show. Soulful music and French house cuts.

Afroleft · This & That #21

Shout out to my Mum and Ryan for putting “Struggle” by Tinush on my radar. A bit of fighting spirit we could all use right now.

Tracklist 13 tracks

Others Wild Beasts Remix Nimmo Apple Music Spotify
Deep In My Soul 16BL Apple Music Spotify
The Day You Got Older and Stronger Cornucopia Apple Music Spotify
Headspace feat. Meliha Dee Montero Apple Music Spotify
My Kicks Vincenzo & Lovebirds Remix Ian Pooley Apple Music Spotify
Twenty20 Spiritlevel Dub Spiritchaser, AM2PM Spotify
Struggle Extended Mix Tinush Apple Music Spotify
Feel the Fire Eli & Fur Apple Music Spotify
Nightwalk Extended Mix Lifelike Apple Music Spotify
Kids PROFF Dub Remix The Midnight Apple Music Spotify
Eu Topos feat. Mimi Page, Extended Mix Marsh Apple Music Spotify
Adrenalin Scuba Apple Music Spotify
Home feat. Tina Dico, Ben Watt Remix Zero 7 Apple Music Spotify

Liked something? Buying or streaming the original supports the artist.

Cycle Route: Marple Aqueduct

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 20:34:22 +0000

Opened over 220 years ago in 1800.

Carries the canal 100ft over the River Goyt.

Nice spot to pour a cheeky flask of tea.

Ashton > marple > Stockport | bike Tour | Komoot

afroleft planned an outdoor adventure with komoot! Distance: 39.2 km | Duration: 02:30 h

komoot

Visors for Healthcare Workers

Sun, 29 Mar 2020 12:52:31 +0000

Healthcare Workers are seeing Covid-19 patients without the appropriate protective equipment. A group of us from Manchester and Liverpool are sourcing materials, producing PPE and connecting small scale manufacturers directly with healthcare workers and centrally with hospital procurement teams across the North West, UK.

Update: We now have a website for this project.

DoES Protective Equipment → Head there to see how you can help :)

To help get protective equipment visors, we are:

Engaging with local manufacturers across the North West that can produce PPE for healthcare
Sourcing materials from firms that might have the materials we need (see below)

Materials we need

The design that are being used at UCLH London & Surrey Healthcare Trust use the following materials:

PLA (Polylactic acid) 1.75mm and 2.85mm sizes
PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate) 1.75mm and 2.85mm sizes. Better we are advised as can be sterilized, but could be harder to print with
Polypropylene sheets

If you can help us reach anyone who might have supplies of these, please (please)

Let us know → It’ll only take you a few seconds and could save many lives.

Discovery

Input from numerous medical doctors has taught us:

Visors that cover the face entire face down to the chin is optimal
Clinicians regularly lean over patients so the visor must maintain its position / structure as they do this. I.e. not flopping over patients body etc.
The visors need to sit a small distance away from the face to allow space glasses and masks to be worn underneath [someone needs to fill inductance here]
The headband may be reusable so we only have to dispose of the perspex visor

Visor Design

Visor design demo’d by Adrian Link

Progress so far

✅ Iain Hennessy, Clinical Director at Alder Hey will distribute across local hospitals 27th March, 2020

✅ UCLH head of procurement now linked with London based collective 3dCrowd for sourcing PPE from local manufacturers. 28th March, 2020

✅ Prototype designs made by Adrian McEwen (link) 28th March, 2020

✅ Kevin McGhee, CEO at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, connected with manufacturing collective 3dCrowd for sourcing PPE. 29th March, 2020

✅ New website launched for DoES PEE (Link) 🚀 31st March, 2020

✅ Demo, production plan video now up (Link) 31st March, 2020

India 🇮🇳 Kanyakumari to Kashmir

Sat, 14 Mar 2020 21:47:47 +0000

Goats taking over.

Munnar

Smelling great today.

Clooney teaching skills at Anjunabeach

Anjunabeats at Anjunbeach

Snap

New Delhi

The Golden Temple

Maz looking good.

Grumbles in all his glory at, Tso Moriri Lake

RIP

Lucky Man — full story Link

Back where it all started.

Brain is still distinctly average. Try better next time and all that jazz.

Patchwork: Lessons Earned

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 20:43:00 +0000

A few months back I moved on from Patchwork—a health-tech startup that’s bringing flexible working to healthcare.

When I joined as its product lead, we were at 1 NHS Trust. Just shy of 2 years later and the company is fast approaching 20—double digit marketshare.

It has a multi award-winning product, it’s been featured in Forbes and it’s been backed by £millions of venture capital funding.

It was peddle to the metal for the 1.5 years I was with the company. So much to take in. There were a bunch of lessons learned. Some with sharp edges.

Let’s shine a light on a few of the biggies.

#1 You can’t just parachute the technology in…

When I showed-up at Patchwork, there were 5 implementation people. Just 1 person working on the product.

For a tech startup, this seemed like the ratio was around the wrong way. But then…

One of the things the founders figured out early on was that you cannot just parachute the technology in. Important for enterprise, multiple by 2 for big healthcare.

Stakeholder steering group off to a flying start.

In enterprise, you have understand the different stakeholders, what they care about, their worn in habits, the processes or lack of, before you can begin introducing the new product, the new way of working.

You have to nail the training, the behaviour change, otherwise your vision of the future doesn’t have a bridge to get there.

Reminded me of the forces of progress diagram from Jobs-to-be-done.

It is easy to overlook the forces working against your new product, idea, solution, even if it is x10 improvement. There are always:

Anxieties about the switch to the new solution
Worn in Habits that need relearning

A thorough implementation process and a solid team removed these obstacles and made way for adoption across the entire organisations we rolled out at.

#2 As you grow, start engaging with all key stakeholders

When you’re a small team, you can gather the 2 useful people for the conversation, cut your decision and run with it. This is fast product management, product management on a shoe string.

All Hands at our All Hands event

As the company scales, this becomes less effective. More people want more things from the product—requests from founders, marketing, customer success—it piles up quickly.

If stakeholder’s requests aren’t tended to, they feel like you don’t value their opinion.

I struggled with this and it caused a number of tensions across the company. Tensions that I never really shook off.

I have ideas for how I might improve the product team engagement going forward—here are a few:

Regularly articulate the product vision—helps people understand what matters and more importantly, what doesn’t matter
Give other teams–marketing, customer success, founders–ways to prioritise their own feature ideas vs. the product team maintaining one big backlog.
Give teams a way to understand why their feature pitches were NOT selected for development. I.e. unclear scopes, opportunity costs, features that will cause more feature requests, not a fit with product vision

This will be a well trodden path for product managers in larger businesses.

But as a gentle reminder to all the stretched product leads in fast growth startups—make sure you’re applying the right amount of engagement as your company grows.

Keep the chakras aligned ॐ

#3 Firing people & ways to think about it

You can usually stick each case in a bucket:

Good people, poor technical skills
Bad people, good technical skills
Good people, good technical skills, not motivated

I’ve found no way to deal with Bucket 2, so they go right away. Doesn’t matter how productive they are. Letting them go might feel counterintuitive—why let go of this x10 engineer? One exceptional player that corrodes the moral of 5 others will only hurt you in the long run.

I found you can work on bucket 1 and 3. Performance management is a two way street but you have to put a clear line in the sand for when you’re expecting to see progress.

The pace of a fast growing startup exposes problems faster.

I let one employee stay for too long. The work was sloppy and there was no sign of improvement. We invested a lot of time. We were carrying a dead weight and that brought the team down.

Eventually we let the chap go. He was a good soul and had a small family in London. I knew this was going to hit his family hard. Unfortunately this was just not the right place for him.

None of this is new, but it’s important to remember that your job as a manager is not just recruiting to your team, but editing your team. It might be painful decision in the short term, but look further out, it’s almost always for the best.

#4 Be quick to teach, slow to anger

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

Says Epictetus, many moons ago.

🎵 Lovely sample in this Anjunadeep number.

I’m a bit of a hot head so I feel uncomfortable preaching about this, but, it’s something I continue to work on over the years and I am still not great at it. Anyways, the best version of yours truly strives for this:

When your team inevitably drops the ball, be quick to teach, slow to anger. Sit their side of the table, spin the problem around with them. Ask them questions about how they might avoid this in the future.

Teaching enables others to perform better next time without you. That scales.

Flipping-out makes others nervous to take action without you. This does not scale.

#5 If your aggressive competitor starts a race to the bottom…

On pricing, on making misleading claims, on dick moves,

Hold your fucking nerve.

It’s beyond tempting to join the in the race especially if the market responds positively to the bullshit. I was impressed with the founders Jing and Anas when they resisted. It’s hard, all your incentives pull you towards joining in the race to the bottom.

Fortunately in a dynamic space like health-tech, it’s never long before those with all mouth and no trousers are sussed out.

Whereas those that actually nail the delivery have the staying power.

A Huge 🙏🏼

At my last Company All Hands back in November, we were bursting at the seems in the meeting room.

With the headcount fast approaching 40, lots of friendly new faces, and a new round of investment behind them, Patchwork are firmly on track to deliver their vision of flexible working for healthcare—A doctor, nurse or therapist, there when you need one most.

I owe a huge thank you to the team for all their time, hard work and support.

Building a company and lightening speed is difficult in many different ways, but these brilliant people made it possible and we had a right old scream along the way.

Cushy

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 11:54:59 +0000

This was an identity idea for an eco-friendly home builder.

Cushy never got to see the light of day so sharing it here with your lovely eyes.

Fetch Logo

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 12:34:34 +0000

After a few years away from the graphics editor, I dusted off my old copy of Sketch to make a logo for a thing.

Chuffed I have an excuse to use a doggo in a logo.

Need @andy88jones to help me with kerning. He has a friend called Kern.

Here is the shot on Dribbble.

Onwards

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:10:18 +0000

It was pissing down with rain—in ways only London can—and I show up at the office for the first time. Before I can even take my coat off it’s:

“We have a half-baked Rota feature, it’s a bit rough around the edges, shall we go ahead and ship it?”

That was my first 30 seconds running product at Patchwork (then LocumTap). Later that day I was reviewing an investment pitch deck with ceo/cofounder Anas.

I suggested some changes.

When do we need to make these changes for? “5pm today” said Anas.

It was 4pm in the afternoon.

“Welcome to the jungle bro”

Patchwork is making a real difference in helping healthcare organisations like hospitals to improve their temporary staffing.

We did a lot to bring NHS clients to two important outcomes:

Saving £millions —> spending those savings on more nurses and more doctors.
Increasing staffing levels —> which improves patient care.

Moving on from Patchwork

When I joined we were at 1 NHS Trust. Just shy of 2 years later we are at 15.

The company is now approaching 40 headcount.

Thanks to the brilliant team, Patchwork is up on her two feet and walking like a natural.

It’s been a good run and now it’s time for new people to take Patchwork on to the next stage.

There are lots of things I’ve learned working here and I hope to write a follow-up post before those lessons and insights loose their sharp edges.

What’s Next?

For the last few years, I’ve been stressing about plastic waste, CO2 and rising oceans but I’ve struggled to picture how I could make a real difference here.

I’m a product guy—I bring software companies to life, not packaging or energy companies.

But then…

I caught up with my former CEO, Luke Barnes. He’s launched a company called Ideal and they’re building modular homes.

I had no idea what modular homes were or why anyone should be getting excited about them.

And then I got excited. A few stand outs:

The homes are manufactured in a state of the art 250,000sqft factory. Then they’re transported and installed on site
90% less building waste is involved in production
Instead of concrete (humanity’s 2nd biggest CO2 contributor) homes are made from cross-laminated timber. Arguably the biggest advancement in construction over the last 150 years. Strong engineered pieces of wood that you can build huge structures with. Cambridge University are having a crack at a 65 story tower in London. Link
The homes look gorgeous
The heat and sound insulation is unrivalled
Of course there’s more here.

The New Gig

I’m building a software product team at Ideal.

To put more homes in the hands of people like you, we need software that enables and scales the design, production and installation of our new build properties.

We’ll be making products for:

🤝 Collaboration—for Design teams to hand off drawings to production lines. 🎞 Watch 1 min video

🛠 Assistive Manufacturing—guiding production line engineers through their work

🏡 Home Customisation—OK, more about that later 🤐

Software development is in many ways building in a sandbox.

You build something and it’s changed a few months later.

I’m looking forward to working on software that shapes real, tangible things. Gorgeous, eco-friendly homes where people like you share their best memories.

Holla at me

If you’re a product designer, product manager, software engineer, QA bod, I want to hear from you.

At the time of writing, we have a few positions remaining. You can head over to our little careers website to learn more or you can drop me an email directly tom@afroleft.com

Stakeholders. What are we optimising for?

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 10:39:27 +0000

One of the things I’m piss poor at is stakeholder engagement—enabling everyone see tradeoffs the way I can. Sadly the problem exacerbates as your company scales.

Helpful to see Chris Thewell speaking at the UX Crunch last night.

On the dial ask

What are we optimising for?

Unpack the tradeoffs.
Involve the right people.
Optimise for the right thing.
Make your informed decision.

Try Different

Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The ceiling of the World.

The altitude was around ~5100m.

This was my guide, Riga.

In desperate need of a shave.

He was a buddhist and he knew a lot about the Himalayan wildlife and the respect you must pay to the vast and temperamental mountains.

I admired his outlook on life.

It was day 3 and after a good 9 hours walking we had covered around 24km. We made it into Markha Village and dropped our backpacks at a tiny homestay.

Butter tea for the win

Took me a while to convince her to have a press shot 📸

I thought of her as Mumma Bear.

She had a gentle smile, tilted her head forward and looked into your eyes—as if she had been expecting you for a long time. She had a calming presence—one that lifted you from the aches and pains of the day’s hike.

She made us butter tea. Literally tea made with butter. Tastes weird at first, but helps the wind-chapped lips.

The sun was setting and Riga reckoned we should head outside to take some photos before nightfall. My feet were in agony so I slipped on my flip flops and we walked for a few minutes to find this spot.

Markha Valley, 2nd June 2017, 7:45pm

At these altitudes the temperature falls rapidly when the sun drops off behind the mountains. After about the 4th picture and a moment of pause, Riga and I headed back to the homestay to warm up.

On our way back, we could see an elderly lady looking a bit panicked. As we came closer, we could see what had happened.

Her horse had escaped. It was running circles around her.

By the time were close to the scene, 5 or 6 men had joined-in to help the lady catch hold of her horse.

Immediately Riga joined the race. He’s a practical, outdoorsy and capable chap, and within a few minutes he managed to corner the horse.

I joined the effort.

As Riga began to move in on the horse, I came up behind Riga on the lefthand side.

I had flip-flops on and suddenly felt a bit unqualified to help.

What the fuck to do if this 300kg horse starts heading for me? I was trying to remember school rugby tactics — go low and take the legs from an angle?

Riga edged closer, he swiped for its neck — but the horse escaped and dashed away.

After a few more failed attempts from the other chaps, I could hear a rattling sound.

It was Mumma Bear from our homestay.

She was carrying a box of animal feed, shaking it to attract the attention of the horse.

As cool as a cucumber she walked towards the horse’s elderly owner. In an instant, the horse trotted towards her for a handful of food.

Mumma Bear calmly took the collar from the owner and after the horse had munched a few more biscuits from her hand, she gently placed the collar around the horse’s neck.

No fuss, no running, no rugby tackles, no flip flops, no broken ribs, no weapons. She handed the horse over to its owner.

I howled with laughter. She was looking at the floor as she walked back to the homestay but I could see she was smiling at my lols.

The gents looked at each other with an awkward smile that leaked a hint of embarrassment — we were using brute force to solve the problem, we didn’t try different.

Sometimes instead of try harder, it’s try different that wins the race.

This is one way to look at how diverse teams can outperform homogeneousness teams (same gender, same backgrounds, for example).

We hear so much of company diversity because it is ethically the right thing to do —which it is— but let’s have those arguments side by side with the very real probability of better decisions and better performance that come from a diversity of backgrounds, genders and opinions.

Take from this what you will, but for me, this serves as a little reminder.

Perspective is everything and if your teams lack diversity, there’s a good chance you’re driving with blind spots that are hiding real opportunities.

Nice Horsey.

A thing called…

🎵 This & That #20 (Asia Special)

Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

It’s more than difficult to explain what it’s like when your senses collide with Asia; the sounds, the smells, the sights.

I sampled sounds from India’s roaring cities, to chanting in Bangladesh, nature’s orchestra in Vietnam, to the bells of Himalayan horses as a way to tell a bit of my story travelling through Asia.

This mix is made up of the tunes that kept me company on the road as well as some of the classical and devotional music I heard out there.

Huge thank you go to @scottjoe for his incredible work on the samples.

Working with him was like a personal visit to Abbey Road Studios.

Lucky Man

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It’s never just an S bend — it’s someone cutting the corner

It’s never just a slow truck — it’s someone trying to overtake

It’s never just a bus stopping — it’s someone getting off

Yep, my poetry needs some work.

Disclaimer: this contains some distressing images. Check out these fluffy hamsters if you’re the queasy type.

I was around 3 hours in to the drive from Manali to Chandigarh. It’s a mountainous drive at the bottom of the Western Himalayas and for the most part, the roads are pretty good. Plenty of bends, but wide enough and good visibility.

It was raining on and off so the road had a thin coating of water. I noticed that as I was taking some of the corners, the tail end of the bike started sliding out. I was in control, taking the corners at a steady pace, but it felt like riding on jelly.

Just as I was thinking the road felt excessively slippy, two guys at a tea stall waved their hands in a downward motion; in most countries this means slow down.

As I approach the brow of the hill I could see a line of traffic and two trucks that had smashed into each other. I drove up closer to the scene, it looked like no one was hurt, and the way the vehicles had landed meant that the traffic could get by.

I let the clutch out to pull away and two young lads riding a Royal Enfield (not wearing helmets!) overtook me on my right hand side. Before I had a chance to finish my “can’t believe those nut cases aren’t wearing a helmet in these conditions” their bike spins out, the pillion rider puts his feet down to correct the slide and comes flying off in the process.

Pillion Rider rule numero uno: Always keep your feet on the pegs.

Fortunately they weren’t going very fast and they both picked themselves up. I slowed down and pointed out that the road has an abnormal amount of surface oil and they should be super careful.

After about 3/4km I approach an S bend. If I’m honest with myself I was going too quickly given the conditions ~30/35km. As I lean in to the lefthand turn around the first part of the S bend, I can see that a 4x4 is flying towards me cutting the corner, he’s about 1 metre over on my side of the road.

I didn’t want to take the corner any harder than I was because the back wheel could have slipped out and I would’ve gone right under the wheels of the 4x4. Instead I manoeuvred away as much as a could but it wasn’t enough. I slammed into the side of the 4x4 and hit the ground.

It felt like an instant that I stood up — howling “ouwch” over and over.

On reflection I’m proud of my lack of profanity.

There was a cafe on the corner, a guy comes over to see me. It felt like he was looking at me like I was an alien. I hobbled along in the kind of pain you experience when you smash your shin into a really nice table.

I asked if the guy could help me pick Grumbles, my bike up. He said he would but he just stood there looking at me. At this point I think he was in more shock than I was.

It didn’t look like he was in a hurry to pick Grumbles up. I was, Grumbles was on a blind corner, and it’s my friend’s bike. Trucks were coming around the bend , skidding and narrowly avoiding him. I took my helmet off and noticed the visor had been smashed off and my nose was bleeding.

The adrenaline must’ve been doing its job. I couldn’t feel any head injury at this point.

The impact must’ve been pretty high because my watch had been hit off, it was about 3 meters ahead of where I landed. Look at that Apple Watch hinge, it’s a robust mechanism.

Within what felt like a few seconds, a guy in a white t-shirt drags a guy up to me in a red t-shirt. Aggressively pointing his finger in his face he says “this is the guy who did it.”

The other driver looks like he’s about to cry, I kind of felt bad for him. The next second, the white t-shirt guy punches the other driver in the face repeatedly, I had no energy to intervene, but I just shouted stop, that this was an accident, they happen, I am ok, we don’t need anymore blood spill.

I held on to the other driver’s hand and said that it’s ok, don’t worry. Quickly I realise he doesn’t speak English. There is a big crowd around us and someone must’ve shouted kiss his feet — which he did. I was already in shock , but this was pushing me over the edge. I was wondering why they were giving the other driver such a hard time.

A good looking, bald, average height, hazel eyes, mid 20s guy called Rahul sits me down, orders me a chai, tells me that he’s called for a tow truck and that there’s a Royal Enfield garage ~30km away. “Right next to Royal Enfield is hospital bro, I’ll take you there.” In an endearing Indian accent he says “everything will be no problem”. He has kind eyes, I trust him.

Rahul’s older brother Ajay comes over with some antiseptic and starts applying it to my wounds.

He’s speaking in Hindi or Punjabi with the crowd of people that are surrounding me, everyone is nodding their heads. He looks at me and says, “that’s unacceptable what that driver did.” Instantly I started blabbing that accidents happen, it’s ok.

He cuts me off mid flow and says, “no my friend, he tried running away. We found him at a coffee shop down the road. He denied the 4x4 with a smash down the side of it was his. We made him empty his pockets and we found the keys to the 4x4. You do not do that in India bro, he could’ve left you for dead.”

Struggling to take it all in I started drinking my tea and slowly I begin to realise the damage to my body.

My jeans are ripped open all the way up my leg, I have wounds on my legs and my right foot is in a bad way.

Rahul, and the rest of the crew load Grumbles on to the tow truck.

They lift me into Rahul’s Jeep. We follow the tow truck closely. Rahul points out that you can’t trust tow drivers, they steal bikes, so we drove like mad to keep up with him. I’m hoping we don’t have a second accident for the day.

The plan was to drop Grumbles to the Royal Enfield garage and get me to hospital.

About 5 minutes in to the car journey I can feel a numb sensation across the righthand side of my face. There’s a pressure behind my eye. I keep closing my left eye to see if the vision is impaired right side. 20 minutes in , the sensations get a bit more intense. I ask if we can find some ice for my face. The lads do an inventive job–emptying a packet of cereal and filling the foil wrapper with ice from the shop.

We get a call from the guy who’s towing Grumbles — the police want to see papers. We arrive at the police check area. I barely make it out of the Jeep and the police “OK, sir, OK”. They can see I’m hurt and let us all go.

Thank you.

We drop Grumbles at Royal Enfield. I use the toilet in the showroom where everyone drops what they’re doing looking at me. I can’t help feeling like an anti-advertisement for riding motorbikes, but they’re kind enough to bring me water and coffee.

I get a job card for the bike repairs and we get to the hospital.

Now the pressure behind my eye is getting stronger and I’m starting to wonder what life might be like with just my left eye working.

I keep flitting between, thank fuck I’m still alive and, whaaaa… the last 400km of a 25,000km ride over Asia and I’m knocked-off in a hit and run, unlucky.

We pull up outside A&E.

I open the car door, put my right foot down to walk. Not happening. Very big and very sharp pain now. I hop along on one leg until they bring a wheelchair for me and insist I use it.

I assume it’s a break. It’s now twice the size of the other foot. There’s a huge queue to see the doctor, but I’m shuffled right to the front.

Crash Bandicoot taken off the track.

Rahul is carrying my bag, whenever I look at him he re-utters “all will be no problem bro.”

The door opens to see Dr Arun. I shake his hand and explain what happened. I can remember the sequence of events clearly — as I’m relaying the events, I remember that this is a good sign. If I can’t remember what happened, that’s serious concussion.

I’m sent for X Rays which only took a few minutes.

Once we pick up the X Rays we go straight to the front of Dr Arun’s queue of patients again. I smile at everyone, trying to get across I’m thankful that they’re letting me go ahead of them. Warmly, they smile back in a way that says it’s ok — amazing how much communication is non verbal.

Dr Arun picks up my X Rays, looks me right in the eye and says you’re a lucky man — I can’t stop thinking of The Verve track Lucky Man — there’s no breaks in my foot. The swelling is a nasty sprain — potential ligament damage — but nothing to loose hair over.

He prescribes me a pile of medicines explaining when I should take them. Some morning, some before breakfast, some after breakfast … I couldn’t take it in, I just watched his lips moving around singing Lucky Man to myself.

Rahul wheels me to the Pharmacy where we pick up my prescription and Rahul’s friend Vishal is outside in his Jeep. They load me into the back. The adrenaline is fading now, the pain is increasing. I’m in agony, but I’m feeling a sense of euphoria.

A renewed appreciation for life, helmets and the incredible people of India.

Just as Vish pulls out of the hospital and shifts into second gear I see this:

Ironically, Rahul’s surname is Thakur.

It must be a sign. I hope it’s a sign.

We find a nice hotel. I tell the guys we’re having lunch. It’s on me, eat as much as you want, eat as much as you can.

From left to right: Vishal, Sadartha, Rahul and yours Truly.

The Peshwari chicken is incredible. ISIS really need to settle down so we can all travel Pakistan and sample their incredible food.

I decide to take a room at the hotel we’re having lunch in. It’s right next to the Royal Enfield garage and the hospital is a stone’s throw away.

The lads carry my stuff to my room. I crawl on to the bed and collapse in a heap. Rahul repeats the instructions Dr Arun gave me about the medicines.

Sadartha says that Rahul is getting married next year, and that I’ll be invited. “We’re your India brothers now. Everything happens for a reason.”

They ignore the no smoking signs and roll up a joint. I can tell they have to make tracks, but they’re staying for a while to settle me in to the room. After 20 minutes or so, they can see I’m tired and taking a bit longer to respond. At which point they make sure I have all of their numbers, and repeat “anytime, you call us, we be here. All will be no problem… We go now ok, but you call us.”

They leave and I drag myself to the bathroom. My right foot trails along behind me. It’s glowing with pain, I’m trying not to react. The headache is cooling off now and the mirror is a fascinating place to look. My face, my body, my life still intact.

I try calling reception for help but the phone doesn’t work. I give up trying to fix the phone and after an hour of haunting flashbacks, I fall asleep at 6pm. I don’t wake up until 8am the following day. I’m happy I woke up.

Today I will be grateful for everything.

After breakfast and fighting the yelps of pain, I make my way to the Royal Enfield showroom. I see Grumbles looking as good as new. I feel like I’m being reunited with my child — I run over and give him a hug chanting his name like a football fan. The mechanics assume my head injuries had a real impact, but they’ve no idea I was a mad hatter before the accident.

The floor manager asked what happened, I explain. Quite quickly there’s a crowd of staff and Royal Enfield customers surrounding me. I use photos and improvise the best I can for non-English speaking folks. As I begin to lecture them all about wearing a helmet, the floor manager shows me this photo:

He was an army officer. The accident happened on the same day I was hit off, on the same stretch of road. He wasn’t wearing a helmet and he died at the scene.

His bike was a mangled mess.

I was shocked but it didn’t properly sink it until I pulled out of the Royal Enfield garage on my way to Chandigarh.

As I changed in to second gear I burst into tears and cried like a baby. Happy sad style.

I couldn’t believe my luck:

I only had minor injuries. Some concussion, and a battered leg.
I had no pillion rider. Less than 24 hours before I had Yula riding with me — she’s a whirlwind a good energy from Israel — I would’ve never forgiven myself if she was hurt too.
Grumbles had a leg guard. This took most of the impact away from my legs, potentially saved my back too.
I was wearing a helmet. Just a few days before my helmet was stolen in Kasol. I was lucky to find one that fit me in Manali. And I was wearing it, please please take note India !
I was wearing protective clothing. When my dad drove me in to the train station before I left for Bangladesh, he said that whenever he rode a bike, he wore a jacket with back protection. If he came off badly, he didn’t fancy having someone feeding him through a straw for the rest of his life. Those words stuck with me and offered enough motivation to buy a decent biking jacket.
I had India brothers. Rahul, Ajay, Sadartha and Vishal all clubbed together, cleaned up my wounds, organised a tow truck for Grumbles, drove me to hospital, took me to a hotel and made sure I was comfortable. All for nothing in return.

India Heals

Today the world looks more beautiful than before.

Himachal Pradesh It’s not changed, I have.

I pull in for chai, and India continues to help.

Just as a finish writing this over lunch, a guy called Dilip asked what happened. He listens with that depth of eye contact you get from Indians and without telling me, pays for my lunch, wishes me all the best and runs back to work.

I am a lucky man.

Stealing Time for My Own Mind

Mon, 03 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Dhamma Setu, Chennai — India

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in room alone,”

— Blaise Pascal.

My step mum thought I was going to rehabilitation, my friends thought I was on a fast-track to becoming a monk, and I was only half sure what to expect when I enrolled for a 10 day Vipassana meditation course in Chennai, India.

On and off and with mixed success I’ve been meditating for the last 3 years.

I was in the middle of a long-term travel across Asia and for a list of reasons as long as your arm, I felt it was a good time to do this.

Lacking Expectations

Before starting the Vipassana meditation course I did my best to resist reading up about it — I wanted to go in with as little expectations as possible.

There were two exceptions:

Francis Irving ’s thoughtful piece ( link ).
Sitting positions for mediation ( link ).

1] A Way Out of Suffering

Vipassana is considered to be the most accurately preserved technique for what Buddha taught us — to purify your mind, to eliminate tensions — namely cravings and aversions — and negativities that make us miserable.

This journey takes you over a Noble Eightfold Path that divides into 3 trainings:

Sīla: The training of Moral Conduct
Samādhi: The training of Concentration, Control of Your Mind
Paññā: Wisdom, Insight, Total Purification of Your Mind

2] The Practice

/Aside:/ /The course leaders asked that we don’t share the Vipassana technique itself since there are a bunch of important stepping stones you need to take before the meditation can be practiced. What I’ve done here is pull out a few anecdotes from the 10 days that’ll give you a small window into some of the surprises, agony and insights I experienced./

If you’d rather, you can skip ahead to Section ❲3❳ “Vipassana & Beyond” for the reflective.

(Day: 1) Arrival

I met a guy from Canada called Mazen in Chennai — he was taking Vipassana too. We shared a cab to Dhamma Setu, just 20 minutes outside of Chennai.

Session Bell

When we arrived we were told to make our way to the dining hall. It reminded me of the dinner hall from my primary school. Beige walls, dated windows, simple furniture, a lingering smell of cleaning detergents.

I remember thinking the fridge looked like the one that rattles around in Requiem for a Dream.

After registration it was the introductory speech. First English, then Tamil. The girls sat the opposite side to the guys. The speakers were quite bad quality and the sound echoed around the room. You had to really sit forward to hear the words.

As of this point, the Noble Silence had started. No talking for the next 10 days. For the most part I was calm, but Wow, the task ahead:

12 hours of meditation each day
Up at 4am
Finish at 9:30pm
No talking
No mobile phones
No internet
No reading, no intellectual stimulation
No exercise
No eye contact — 100% solitude
Separation from the opposite sex
2 simple meals per day (breakfast and lunch)

Halls of Residence at Dhamma Setu, Chennai

(Days: 1–3) The Training of Concentration

Meditation Hall Notes: Day 1

To develop our mental concentration, the first 3 days we exercised ānāpānā-sati — awareness of respiration.

To do this we had to identify and keep our minds focused on the sensations of breathing in and out from the area starting at the top of the nose, down each side of our upper lips — forming a triangle area.

We had to answer questions such as “was the breath:”

long or short?
heavy or light?
rough or subtle? On day 3, we were expected to bring our attention down to an even smaller area, the philtrum — the small area underneath your nose and above your top lip.

This is to sharpen the mind so it can observe the subtlest sensations within the body.

Simple Does Not Equal Easy

All we were expected to do was keep our attention on these areas while observing the breath. Sensations that arose and passed away. Sounds simple, is simple, but this was was one of the hardest 3 days of my life.

One of the biggest surprises was just how much work was needed to direct my attention and keep it fixed on the breath.

The popular idea that meditation is time for inactivity and relaxation never felt so far away.

A Circus of Distraction

The first thing that the strikes you is just how distracted you are. I could go for 20–30 minutes being completely derailed by a thought — a plan for the future, a memory from the past. I only had to do one thing — observe sensations — but it was more than difficult to stay focused.

Distractions dragged me right through the emotional rainbow. Just like life itself, some good, some bad, some happy, some sad thoughts frothed-up to the surface.

According to the Vipassana Meditation book I picked-up, this is an expected part of the journey:

Another surprise is that, to begin with, the insights gained by self-observation are not likely to be all be pleasant and blissful. Normally we are selective in the view of ourself. When we look into the mirror we carefully strike the most flattering pose… In the same we have a mental image of ourselves which emphasises the admirable qualities, minimises defects, and omits some sides of our character all together. We see the image we wish to see, but not the reality…

But right at the heart of Vipassana is observing reality — seeing things for the way they are. Instead of a carefully edited self-image, you’re confronted with the whole uncensored truth.

After working through the distractions — persistently bringing my attention back to my breath — occasionally I could go for 10, 20 minutes with my attention resting on my breath. The hour meditation sessions began to pass by much faster.

Sometimes I’d experience hallucinations. A mixture of peoples’ faces and places from my childhood.

The better I got at resting my attention in one place the more I began to feel an inner calm — as if a huge weight had lifted from my shoulders.

By day 4, I felt a much stronger presence of mind.

At the end of the morning meditation I would walk outside and hear the sounds of nature so clearly, without distraction, without chasing thoughts, without an inner monologue.

My mind had been brought into the present.

The Walking Strip

The Physical Agony

Another surprise is the agony you go through sitting in one place for so long. I had a small meditation mat.

I sat crossed-legged or half lotus while meditating.

At 4:30am, the first 20 minutes is relatively comfortable. As you hit the 30 minute mark, aches and pains begin to show their faces. By 40 minutes the pains turn into agony.

Unlike running across a rugby field with your adrenaline running high, you’re sedentary — sitting still — and you have nowhere to escape the pain.

If there’s one thing that got me through this, it would be the older mediators. At a guess, there were a few old boys taking the course that were at least 70. If they could work through this, then what the fuck excuse did I have?

(Day: 5) Adhiṭṭhāna

Adhiṭṭhāna has been translated as “decision,” “resolution,” “self-determination,” “will”[1] and “resolute determination.”

By day 4 we entered the Adhiṭṭhāna sessions where you’re expected to meditate for an entire hour without moving. No gentle reshuffling to a different position to take the inescapable aching pain out of your knee / leg / back. No opening your eyes. Nothing. Just still.

What surprised me about these sessions was how it forced you to bring your mind to a state of balance.

The word used to describe the state of mind is Equanimity:

“is a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind”

If you lost the balance, the physical pain would become too intense, you’d panic, you’d become overwhelmed and you’d have to move.

A Quiet & Balanced Mind Can Hear Its Body

One of the things I noticed during the 10 days was how your feelings and emotions are reflected as sensations in your body.

When I experienced a thought that made me feel sad, I felt it right in the middle of my solar plexus. When I feel stressed, I felt tension right around the back of my head. When I feel anxious, I felt it in my stomach and facial area. The list goes on.

Meditation brought my mind to a place where I could identify those subtle sensations.

(Day: 7) The Power of Observation

Meditation Hall Notes: Day 7

Possibly the most powerful experience of the whole 10 days happened on day 7. I’d managed to follow through on all Adhiṭṭhāna sessions (no moving, no eye opening for the hour) up until this point, but during the mid morning session of day 7, about 10 minutes in, I began feeling a sharp pain in my left knee.

I’d sat in a bad position that was putting a lot of stress on my knee.

Rightly or wrongly, I was determined to not let the pain get the better of me — I wanted to make the whole session without moving.

As I hit the 20 minute mark, the pain in my knee was sharp and throbbing. For a few moments I tried to think about something else to avert the pain; this goes completely against the principles of Vipassana.

This was bad. I remember being close to tears — in pain, in frustration.

Remembering the fundamental principles of Vipassana (observation and a balanced mind), I started observing the pain. Trying my best to keep my mind calm and balanced, I began answering questions like:

Is it a pulsing pain, or is it a constant pain?
Is it a sharp pain, or is it an ache?
Exactly whereabouts on the knee is the pain coming from? Is it the same pain on the top as it is on the bottom?
Are there any other sensations that are arising over the knee? I kept cycling over those questions again and again.

As I was working through answering the questions as objectively as possible — without reacting to the pain — I couldn’t believe what happened before me.

The pain faded away.

I’d gone from complete agony, to feeling comfortable and calm. I remember my knee feeling warm and a subtle tingling sensation spreading over my legs but that was it. The agony had passed away.

This was the power of observation.

For me, this was the biggest takeaway from Vipassana. Instead of blindly reacting to sensations in the body — which makes us agitated and miserable — we can observe them with a balanced mind. As we continue to observe them objectively — without reaction — the sensations begin to unravel.

They become less intense, they affect us less.

And since the body’s sensations are the direct bridge to the mind’s emotions, observing them unravels their intensity too — until our minds are balanced and calm.

We can unravel the /craving/ sensations for sugar, for alcohol, for cigarettes, for attention and all the other primate bullshit.

We can unravel the /aversion/ to public speaking, to running that extra mile, to having that difficult conversion, to taking action.

I used to look up at this triangle formation the palm trees made. Is there a hidden message there? :)

(Day: 10) Course Completion

As the noble silence lifted and the course came to a close, I bullet-pointed how I felt:

A strong sense of calm
More awake and alert
I needed to sleep less

3] Vipassana & Beyond

My big takeaways and some loose ends I’m trying to get my head around:

Deleting your passion

Ultimately, I see Vipassana is a teaching of dispassion. Passion is the enemy of a balanced mind. If I follow Vipassana properly, I shouldn’t fall in love with a piece of music. Doing so leads to cravings, which creates attachment and attachment leads to misery.

So just as Vipassana expects us to not react to negative emotions, we’re expected to not react to positive emotions too.

I work in startup companies where the life of the company is almost completely dependent on the relentless hard work, determination and /passion/ of the founders. To my mind, the latter is the most essential ingredient.

What happens when passion is taken out of the equation? Does the same amount of hard work go in?

If founders thought about things clearly wouldn’t they see that the deck is stacked against them and that they’d be better off taking a job in the city?

A good friend Francis Irving raises a similar point about Vipassana meditation:

“My big problem with it culturally is the way it devalues the senses and the wonder of the physical world. Isn’t our will to power also glorious? Where is the joy in dancing, in loving, in craving, in living? Can’t a meditation embrace this, not cut it out?”

Being Present

I found ānāpānā-sita — the training of concentration to be fruitful. I’ve often wondered what the zen-types meant when they point out that being present or presence of mind is bliss.

Once you develop the awareness it’s fascinating to realise how distracted in thought you actually are throughout the day — experiencing an orgasm is probably one of the few exceptions.

Meditating to bring the mind into the present was positive for me.

It’s calming, it helps you think clearly and it connects you to your surroundings. You can remember peoples’ names, you can see things clearly.

Use the past to inform your present, but don’t live in the past — and all that jazz.

I think I had a brief taste of this during the course, and it’s something I’ll continue to work on.

Gross Sensations Saṅkhāra?

I value how Vipassana concentrates on the practical, the experiential, the see for yourself teachings of Buddha.

There are however a few exceptions, even if we set aside the widely debated assumption of rebirth, a supernatural phenomenon.

Goenka — the course teacher — explains that the gross sensations (aches, pains) you experience when meditating are your saṅkhāras — mental conditionings from either this life or former lives.

According to the teachings, saṅkhāras — mental conditionings — are impurities of the mind that distort our view of reality, making us agitated and unhappy.

The goal is to use Vipassana meditation to remove our stock of current and past saṅkhāras — this brings us to liberation, a pure and balanced mind.

In a QA Goenka answers:

Do sankharas mainly come out as pain?

“Not necessarily pain, they can manifest in different ways. They can come out as heat, they can come out as pressure, throbbing, as subtle vibrations. According to the type of sankhara, that type of sensation there will be.”

For me, this is a bit of a water jump.

Unlike the emotion to sensation connection you can experience for yourself — there’s no experience or rationale explanation that connects the saṅkhāras to physical pain.

Particularly when coupled to notions of previous lives, the idea that saṅkhāras are reflected as physical pain during Vipassana mediation seem a bit abstract to me.

Pinpointing the Cause of Calm

For all of the positive outcomes that I felt after taking the Vipassana course, initially I found it difficult to pinpoint what the cause was. Thinking about it, it could have been:

The solitude — no social pressure, no burning energy communicating with others
Unplugging from the internet
Avoiding almost all forms of intellectual stimulation (reading, writing, sketching, planning)
The environment
The Vipassana meditation itself

It’s now been over 4 months since I took the course. Now I’m confident that my sense of calm, positivity and mental alertness after the Vipassana 10 day course was in-fact a direct result of the meditation.

I say this because during 6 months of travel in India I’ve been fortunate to experience days — even weeks — where I’ve been unplugged from the internet as well as a few days trekking in solitude, but I don’t report the same experiences as the days where I’ve meditated.

Return on Investment

“My favourite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.”

— Steve Jobs

Time indeed is our scarcest resource. Even with this in mind, I’m happy I invested time working on Vipassana.

For me, the 10 day course was an outline of the work you have to do going forward, not job done. Vipassana is a lot of work, and I’m not 100% sure I will — or even want to — complete the path to full liberation.

That said, I do see that certain steps along the path will be good for me to follow — particularly the training of concentration. Today we are distracted people and I worry that in a world where Silicon Valley is in a race to the bottom of your brain stem, things could get a tad worse.

The presence of mind and calmness I’ve experienced with mediation is a slam dunk for me — completely worthy of the time invested.

Waking Up

The more life experience I get, the more I believe anything that improves your awareness is good. Ignorance for the most part is a problem.

Awareness of your actions, your feelings, your intentions, your cravings, your aversions puts you in the driving seat.

It’s waking up.

Awareness gives you a clear path to make the changes you need to improve yourself. Or — for those lucky ones — the clarity you need to know that you’re already a brilliant person.

Vipassana helped to develop my awareness, it woke me up.

And for that I’m grateful.

Are You Fine?

I’d recommend taking a Vipassana Meditation Course if you are someone who is:

Interested in learning meditation — a Vipassana 10 day course will serve as a brilliant crash course.
Constantly feeling agitated, unsettled, discontent with yourself, others, your possessions — the time to reflect and find your inner calm will be good for you.
Distracted or stressed — the ānāpānā — training for concentration will help to bring your mind into the here-and-now, to the present, which is calming and awakening.

Quieter is Louder

How young are you?

Thu, 22 Dec 2016 08:44:00 +0000

For the last few days I’ve been hanging with Andreas from Sweden. This is a photo of him pulling a silly face.

He is a big, kind, larger than life character. He plays the guitar, takes jaw-dropping photos and wears a Batman cap.

His voice is deep in tone and loud in volume. He’s articulate but at times his English is a bit broken or his grammar is out of whack—but it’s a fair bit better than my Swedish that’s for sure.

He has a filthy sense of humour so we get along just fine.

Last night we were walking back from the night market in Chiang Mai.

When we got back to our hostel, we started chatting with a few girls from California.

In a way that resembled the national lottery “it could be you!” advert, Andreas turns around, points and asks “how young are you?” to one of the girls.

We laughed.

After a moment passed, I thought; imagine if you could answer that question: “I have 32 years, 4 months and 17 days left before I die.”

We laughed about asking the question: “so mate, how many years have you got left?”.

Andreas thought it would be a good one to ask the mother in law when she’s giving you a hard time.

I thought about it again in the shower this morning.

It’s weird thought experiment, but, if we knew, I wonder if we would make any changes to:

The way we spend our time
The way we think about our legacy
The way we think about what others think of us
The grudges we hold
The way we spend our money
The way we earn our money
The amount of peanut butter we eat

You are going to die is a powerful reminder — we are already naked.

How young are you?