Deeply Personal.

Some thoughts I had whilst away in Portugal:

1. A holiday is a great way to fish through the waste disposal unit of your personality. I found myself staring into it a few times. There was some junk in there, I won't lie.
2. Categorizing things isn't always the most amenable option to your consciousness (got that joke out of the way early. Does poor timing, explicitly stated, = good timing?)
3. Random Access Memories IS a good record. But not as good as it ought to have been.
4. Expanding a little, the shuffle facility works best when walking through a place you've been many times. For a different atmosphere, select an album prior to every new experience.
5. If Teju Cole thinks cooking is good for the spirit (my term), I'm really happy with that. And I'll be cooking more, better stuff very soon. I might even blog about it.
6. Reading everything is better than reading nothing. My two reads last week: Orhan Pamuk's The New Life and Nancy Jo Sales' The Bling Ring. I enjoyed both enormously, for different reasons.
7. Make a point of turning on yourself regularly. Thoughts get crazy without you there.
8. When holidays make you think of more holidays you know you're in a good place. I made a list. San Francisco, India, Florence and Sydney (again) are on my list. Plus many more.
9. Mexican food is absolutely incredible.
10. Writing less is both good for the spirit - you always finish ahead of time - and forces you (me) to think harder to get what you want out of you. That's rewarding.