Venice – Padova

Venice was one place I wanted to visit for some time. But I always wanted to avoid the peak season with too many people. So this weekend was ideal, already warm weather and not yet too crowed.

From one side, I had low expectations (typical mental self-defence) but I really enjoyed.

I travelled superlight and every mornig, I left my stay with debit card, some cash, phone, keys and mask. No backpack, guide, etc. I felt super comfy and “light”. And the best part was walking without a direction once I visited the places I wanted.

My favourite place was Saint Mark’s Basilica. I got my pre-booked ticket and attend side in the first slot. Totally worth it. I am not in expert in Art, Architecture, etc but I really like this type of building, I feel they are the TV/Internet/Mobile phones of those days. The architecture is so different from what I expected. I could feel similarities to Hagia Sofia and not very Renaissance. Strong Bizantinian influence. With touches of Romanesque. The mosaics are amazing. A lot of pan d’or and the initial characteristics of Renaissance and moving away from the Middle Age style.

I visited the Doge’s Palace, Scuola Grande di San Rocco and Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. All of them stunning.

As a geek of Indiana Jones, I wanted to visit one of the places from “Last Crusade”, it was the church of San Barnabas. I didnt enter it, they was an exhibition and just sat around, enjoying the sun. And another of my goals were to visit some bakeries, I found just one by the church, it didnt have good references but I was curious and I got inside trying to find something interesting…. and by luck, I did:

To be honest, I didnt catch the name of this sweet but thanks to the recipe and some internet search, I found out this is “Pinza Veneta”. I must try this recipe soon!!!

The ingredients are simple- white flour, yellow flour, yeast, sugar, and eggs are mixed together. Candied fruits, dried figs, raisins, and fennel seeds are added too.

Another thing that really surprised me, it was seeing kids playing football, running, skating, etc in the squares!!!! No complaints from anybody, no signs of anything forbidden (like where I live) I was so mesmerized….. I wanted to play so badly…. but my legs were destroyed of walking and likely would look like be very weird….

As well, I tried a local biscuit “Bussolai”. It was a big and simple biscuit. And tasty, I dont need anything fancy. Perfect with a thick hot chocolate or cold milk.

Other things that caught my eye:

Actually that Palazzo looked abandoned but there was something in the ground floor.

needed.

and this one made my laugh for a bit (well, more than that, I am still laughing)

As I didnt want to spend all my time in Venice, I decided to pay a visit to Padova. There are many places close to Venice worth a visit (trains are quick and cheap) and in Padova just wanted to visit the Scrovegni Chapel but I failed because I didnt book my ticket the day before…. and the Padova University where Galileo taught for several years. It was interesting to learn about the history of the University from the origin of the main building, the podium of Galileo, the anatomy theatre and the first woman to graduate from University, Elena Cornaro.

As well, I wanted to visit the Saint Anthony’s Basilica. It was bigger than expected and it was quite busy (it was Sunday). I couldnt take pictures inside but I was really surprised by the frescos (mainly in the “bottom” of the basilica) and the remains of the saint. It was quite different from Saint Mark’s.

Something that surprised me, there was a big Sri Lanka community that day. I guess it is related to this.

As well, I wanted to try some local sweets and this blog was in two words a-mazing! I went to the Pasticceria Europa that wasn’t too far from the center and I tried a hot chocolate and two local sweets. The first one was a rice custard cake and the other I couldnt identify.

I walked through the historic center and it was nice stroll.

Scout Mindset

I finished this ebook yesterday. Somehow I had some ebooks to read and they are kind of connected. This one is related to mindsets and relates to this book a read some time ago.

The goal is to have a “scout” mindset that a “soldier” mindset. A scout mindset is the one that see the world as it is, learns from mistakes, it is not biased (something quite difficult) and is flexible. The soldier one doesnt accept what it sees and try to rationalize its believe and mistakes. It relates to the concept of think fast, slow, where your take most of the decisions quickly and without much digging, something critical some thousands years ago . This doesnt really work nowadays for us. In general, we want a quick benefit although long-term is not the best.

The book gives many example of biases / soldier mindset, like Dreyfus affair, political views, feminism view, breast feeding, etc. And how the “experts” predictions are so bad.

Part of developing a scout mindset starts with the self-awareness, that is noticing your (many types) of bias that may change depending of the situation. Other steps are motivating without self-deception, influencing without overconfidence and be able to change your mind.

The last part of the book relates to identities that can make as “soldiers” and so missing opportunities so see other opinions more clearly.

In general, interesting book. And as usual, the goal is to take things and put them in practice.

One thing that I struggle with ebooks is the highlights and notes. In a normal book, I can highlight something and make a small note at the end of the book so I can get a “quick summary” of what I find interesting.

Rustic Bread

Bread is my favourite food and with water, I could live anywhere. I mainly bake sourdough with rye flour based starter. And never managed to get big open crumbs although I have watched many videos, I stick with the recipe I learned.

This weekend I decided to try a recipe for a loaf that looked easy to get open crumbs. I am not sure if it is really rustic but it liked the video and it was easy to follow.

Ingredients:

  • 500gr strong flour (13% protein)
  • 400gr water
  • 3gr dry yeast
  • 7gr salt

Process:

  • In a bowl with the flour, make a well in the middle and add the water.
  • Add the yeast to the water and mix. Then mix everything for a bit
  • Add the salt and keep mixing until everything is fully combined.
  • Let it rest for 1h. Cover it with a shower cap and towel.
  • Fold the dough from the corners several times. Wet your hand with water so the dough doesnt stick too much. Let it rest for another 1h.
  • Pre-heat oven at 250C
  • This is the “difficult” part. In your work surface add flour, and pour your dough over it. Spread the dough in a rectangle. From the top side, start “wrapping” the dough. Then wrap the dough from one side until you have kind of a small square.
  • Flat a bit the dough, and wrap it again starting from the top seam. Then again, fold it from one side. With your hand try to give a rounded form to the dough.
  • Move the dough to a lightly floured tray with baking paper. Rest for 15 minutes
  • Again, flour your surface, pour the dough, form a square and then fold again starting from the top seam. Pinch the sides and main seam to it looks “locked”.
  • Move to the tray again and rest for 5 minutes.
  • Score your dough with a razor
  • Bake for 20 minutes at 250C and 30 minutes at 220C (or as much brown you want)
  • Let it cool down and enjoy!

Unfortunately, the open crumb wasnt as good as in the video so a bit disappointed. So not really sure what I did wrong. At some point I will try again.

Taste wise, it is different from my sourdough loaf. I think I should have left it in the oven a bit longer.

In general it is a good bread, if one day I forgot to have my sourdough ready, I can have a fresh baked loaf in around 3h.

Upside of Stress

Somehow, just by chance, I feel the last three books I have read are connected. And this last one, has been a real slap in my face. And deserved.

In the last years, I have complained about stress at work, dissatisfaction, etc. And questions about what’s my goal in life. What I am really doing apart from working (and climbing and reading and cooking). As well, this is connected to my breakup.

I have changed job twice, and still in the same situation to be honest. I knew the problems wasn’t the job. It was me. It was my expectations. But still stuck.

I have read a lot about Stoicism, Buddhism, meditation, etc. And I really believe on those philosophies as the ground stones of my moral.

But I didn’t lead by example. That is the best piece of advice that my first manager in UK (and the person who gave me the chance to work here) told me and have always try to live by.

The book reminded me the worse experiences of my life: dead, heartbreaks, letdowns, etc. But then reminded me of the growth I experimented after that. I forgot those futsal games that were so intense, those kumites with people much more stronger than me, those difficult exams, competitions, races. I forgot the satisfaction of giving all, the learning, the challenge, the growth from defeat and failures. Growth.

And I know, without that stress, I wouldn’t have improved. So, I have been making things worse trying to escape it.

As the book says, pain is part of life, one way or the other, so you’r better off to deal with it face on because there are too many things out of our control. But we are in control of the most important one, ourselves.

So at the end, it is all about your mindset. The worse moments can bring the best of you. Because you are not alone there.

And this is a new habit I want back to the core of my moral. And think it is already working. For the last weeks I have been struggling with an injure and I knew my feelings about work were not helping. This week, I was nearly alone most of the week dealing with the major projects. Normally I would be very stressed. But I tried to think as challenges. Maybe the week was quieter than normal but I felt better at work and in my body.

I want to see if these are just words or a real shift. More challenging times will come (for sure).

youtube-dl extract specific audio portion

I was watching a concert and I wanted to take just the audio of a song, no video. I knew you could download the full audio from videos pretty easily with youtube-dl but now just wanted an specific portion. Thanks to these links (link1 and link2) I managed to get what I wanted:

$ youtube-dl --youtube-skip-dash-manifest -g "VIDEO_URL"

# copy the second url (audio) from the above command output

$ audio_url="AUDIO_URL_FROM_ABOVE"

$ ffmpeg -i "$audio_url" -ss 00:00:30 -t 00:05:20.0 -q:a 0 -map a sample.mp3

# PLAY IT!

$ vlc sample.mp3

Atomic Habits

I finished this ebook last week. It has been interesting to read about some techniques that I have used without really noticing like adding/removing things from my visual radar.

I believe that the key is to create your mindset and grow little by little (atomic). This in an investment in the long run, on you.

The big picture for building habits:

  • Obvious, Attractive, Easy and Satisfying:

The big picture for removing habits:

  • Invisible, Unattractive, Hard and Unsatisfying.

And this book makes references to “Man’s search for meaning”.

Some other notes from the summary:

  • Happiness is simple the absence of desire (The richest is not the one who has more things but the one with less needs – my grandmother told me that once)
  • Being curious is better than being smart.
  • Emotions drives behaviour. Your response tends to follow your emotions.
  • Suffering drives progress.
  • Satisfaction = Craving – Reward
  • Feelings come both before and after behaviour: Cue -> Craving (feeling) -> Response -> Reward (feeling)

Man’s search for meaning

I finished this book a bit more than a week ago. It is quite short but very dense in meaning. I didnt know it was from a Holocaust survivor and he was a psychiatrist. The first parts is mainly about his experience in the concentration camps. It is not gory in details. It is detailed in his mindset and psychology of the prisioners. It is amazing how in the most extreme circumstances (this is real stress), human beings can survive (by a thin line though). And as well, luck. He mentions the three phases of a prisoner: admission (shock), camp routine (brutality, gave up, apathy) and release (another shock, as your reason for meaning can be non-existing… family gone, society gone, etc)

It is a book I need to read again.

I have some notes:

logotherapy

Existentialism: To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. That is for me, it is Buddhism. And each man/woman needs to find its own.

The last human of human freedoms is the ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances. It is like stoicism.

Nietzsche: He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.

It is hope, it is meaning.

It is not what we expect from life but rather what life expects from us. Our answer must consist in right action and right conduct. Again, like stoicism.

And sometimes, you just have to accept fate and bear your cross.

Man needs tension, can’t thrive in tensionless state and find meaning in life.

“Sunday neurosis” – kind of depression happens at the end of a (busy) week and during the free time you notice the lack of meaning that you can’t ignore – existential vacuum. This happened to me for many years, mainly during my first job. Then in UK, studying for certifications the first years and afterwards, climbing on Sunday cleared that feeling. It was the first time I felt at peace before starting a new week.

Tahini Choco Brownies

This is a recipe recommended by a good friend. It has been a long time since I have baked my choco brownies but I decided to try this recipe as I had my homemade tahini.

Ingredients:

  • 100g butter
  • 100g dark chocolate (85%)
  • 15g 100% cocoa powder
  • 3 large free range eggs
  • 175g sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 180g tahini
  • 50g plain flour

Process

  • pre-heat oven at 175C. I used a rounded cake tin (26cm diameter – a bit smaller is better). Cover the whole tin with baking paper and use a bit of butter on top of the paper.
  • In a sauce pan, at medium heat, melt the butter. Then remove from the heat, and add the chocolate and cocoa powder, whisking until smooth.
  • In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt until properly mixed and thickens up a bit. Add the tahini, mix well. Then fold the flour.
  • Take 1/2 of the tahini mix to a different bowl. The rest, add it to the chocolate mix. Fold until fully combined.
  • Pour the chocolate mix into the cake tin, spreading evenly.
  • Then add on top the reserved tahini mix, with a stick, swirl the mix so you have bit of the tahini mix inside the chocolate mix.
  • Bake for 25m or less. Check the center is moist and sides are set. If not, bake for a couple of minutes more.
  • Remove from the oven and let it cool down for 30 minutes.
  • Cut in squares and try.

To be honest, mine were a bit dry, no moist enough so it is better to check early than leave it in the oven too long.

The taste is different, the tahini gives it a nutty flavour. It is not very chocolatey neither sweet. I need to try again.

Rise

I am not very keen of sportsmen/women biographies but I decided to read this one, after watching this video some time ago.

Although Siya is still young, he relates about his career from a very challenging upbringing to the summit of his sport career.

But what I liked from the book, it is not just the path to success but the persona. How he relates to the problems of South Africa, to his own personal problems. In a very macho sport, it is difficult to imagine somebody talking about his feelings, his wrongs, his addictions. This is another very interesting video about mental heath issues from a “big boy”.

As he shows in the book, he found help in his wife and faith. And admits he is not perfect.

There is a important point about success and values. It is more important to be a well-rounded person than a top rugby player. But we live in a society/world that we only focus in the best, the winner (who takes all) And those are the values we give to kids. As a famous coach said, the result takes care by itself. That means, if you put the work .

You would expect the book would finish in his top achievement but not, if follows with what it is really important to him, make a different in the society. From supporting campaigns against violence to women (and it is not just a problem in SA, we had similar problem in Spain) and setup the kolisifoundation.

Poha

A very good friend of mine cooked Poha for me last week. It was delicious! I had ingredients left so I tried on my own:

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of flake rice
  • 2 medium onion chopped
  • 2 carrots gratted
  • 1/4 cup of peanuts
  • 1 tsp tumeric
  • 2 tsp of mustard grains
  • optional: 1tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 small green chilli chopped
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 1 bunch coriander chopped
  • 1 bunch curry leaves
  • 1/2 lemon juice

Process:

  • Wash the rice flakes in cold water for 10 seconds. Let is rest after that.
  • In a hot pan, fry the peanuts with the coconut oil. Once a bit brown, take the peanuts out and let it rest.
  • Add the mustard grains and tumeric in the pan, let them toast a bit, dont burn it!
  • Add the chopped onion. Stir until if get a yellow color and soften up.
  • Add green chilli, stir
  • Add curry leaves, stir
  • Add grated carrot.
  • Add flake rice and peanuts. Add a bit of salt.
  • Mix all well, rice should get a yellow color.
  • Taste it, the rice shouldnt be hard. Add the lemon juice and retire the pan.
  • Add the coriander and ready to server!

PD: This can be used as inspiration.