– after a few extremely hot weeks, the heatwave seems to have eased up in the past couple of days. a breeze is blowing and it’s making it all a little more bearable. it feels good to be able to sleep and not wake up in a puddle of sweat.

– last sunday (after i wrote the last weeknotes), we went to a peaceful protest in cabanas. the local people want a bridge to be built into the nearby islands, so that everyone can go there without having to deal with the local boat mafia. i’m not very hopeful that someone higher up will listen… but if we don’t try, we won’t get anywhere either, right?

– i finished “typhoid mary“, a book about a lady in the early 1900s who was a silent carrier for typhoid in new york, and all the people she infected as a cook. i picked the book because it was written by anthony bourdain, and it did not disappoint. he has a very humane perspective on what the was the difficult life of a difficult woman.

– and with this, goodreads tells me i’ve magically read 52 books this year so far… what?! i thought 52 books would already be a crazy amount to fit in a year — to have this finished in the middle of the year feels insane. most of these were read in hours of insomnia, or while waiting for things to happen… i guess there has been a lot of that this year.

– i’m hopping between a few different books at the moment, and the one that sticks out is “liftoff: couch to barbell“, by casey johnston. it’s about strength training for beginners, and i’m planning on giving it a go. a few things stuck with me from outlive — and one of them is the importance of muscles and how we lose them as we get old. so i think it’s time to get some, before it’s too late. the plan from the book starts off really easy, which feels right for a newbie like me. also, the swimming pool reopens next week, fiiiiiiiiinally!