Book: Murder On The Orient Express, Agatha Christie

Fabulous, classic "WhoDunnit".

Race: Old Mutual Two Oceans Half Marathon

Number three done and dusted! Admittedly not my best time, I could give a million excuses, the long and the short of it is that I really had not trained enough (at all) for this one. Each year I say that I need to be better prepared and then alas, before I know it I'm standing in the seeding pen wishing I had put a bit more effort in.

Love the 'gees' it really is quite a fun race.

Above: Started in the same seeding as Jana, her first, she did incredibly well!

Above: my favourite part of the race is coming over Wynberg Hill, terrible photo taken on the trot.

Super proud of us all!

Book: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4, Sue Townsend

What an incredibly fun book! Am still on my mission to catch up on "classics". This book reminded me of all the anguish and agony that you go through as a teenager. Keen to read the read of the series.   

Book: Out of Africa, Karen Blixen

During a recent trip to Nairobi, Kenya, I took the opportunity to visit Karen Blixen's house. To be honest, I really did not know her story as I had fallen asleep every time I attempted to watch the movie "Out of Africa," and also always confused it with "Born Free." 

Now I have a much better understanding; my goodness Karen Blixen had an incredibly sad life. 

It is quite a sad and poignant take on the life in Kenya in the early 1900's. A very different time of hunting wild animals; interestingly giraffes were illegal to shoot and lions were fair game. 

Was super happy to find a copy of the book in the gift shop. 

The driveway leading to Karen Blixen's home.

Karen Blixen's home

Karen's favourite piece of machinery used to work the 6000 hectares of the coffee plantation she had.

Remains of an ox wagon used to transport the coffee; it needed 16 oxen to pull it!

Photo of Karen Blixen in her room

Dining room

Where her writing magic happened.

Outside lawn.

Book: Real Magic, Creating Miracles in Everyday Life, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

As they say, when you are right for it, the teacher comes to you. I bought this book many many years ago. Dr Dyer's book on "Your Erronous Zones," (zooming in on dealing with worrying, guilt, anger etc.), was one of the first books I read in the realm of self enrichment, so was eager to read "Real Magic". When I first started reading it (many years ago), I didn't quite "get" it and didn't make it too far into the book. The other day it caught my eye on the bookshelf, and I thought I'd give it another go.

Am so pleased I did, this time I think I was ready for it. 

It's about realising that we are not humans having spiritual experiences, we are spirits having a human experience. He incorporates different religions. He also focusses on the importance of meditation as well as realising that we are here to serve each other, and ultimately provides a guide on living a more purposeful driven life. 

Book: Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens, J.M Barrie

 

This is one of the first books on my #40for40 reading list. The only thing that I knew about Peter Pan and Wendy is that there are statues of them at Magnolia Dell in Pretoria, which was always such a treat to go and visit. 

Wendy does not feature in this book, so I will work through the other Peter Pan books too.  

What a fabulous, imaginative book, no wonder it is Richard Branson's favourite book. 

Book: The Boer War, Thomas Pakenham

The art of storytelling is so important, especially when it comes to history. It can so easily become incredibly boring to just relay dates, names and facts. Thomas Pakenham gave a very comprehensive, colourful overview of the Anlgo Boer war including the English, Boer and African perspective. 

Personally, my deduction is that this was an incredibly unnecessary war. A war dreamed up by Milner where everyone suffered massive losses. 

It was very interesting to get insight into this war, as I knew (embarrassingly) very little about it. I know that my great grandmother was in a concentration camp. Whenever I think of my grandfather, I remember him reading this book. I think we would have had a wonderful conversation about all the characters and this part of our history; I would have loved to get his take on it. 

It was good to meet all the characters, now when I drive to Stellenbosch and I see Baden-Powell offramp, I can immediately place him. 

The only thing that I found a bit frustrating with this book is that the author would take us on a journey, and then all of a sudden jump two / three months back