Book Review: Saladin, by John Man

I should but I don't buy or read many history books. I was gifted this book and on flicking through the first couple of pages for some reason or other it caught my attention and it found itself on the top of my to-read pile! It's an easy, to-the-point read. I can't vouch for its level of historical accuracy because I'm not a historian but it's for sure intriguing to come across a book in which an English author attempts to present a Muslim historical figure as the protagonist in his story. If nothing else, the book will definitely give you a feel for the environment in which Saladin (Salahuddin) lived (the "Near East" in the 12th Century) and the main characters – friend and foe (Nur al-Din, Reynald of Châttilon, Richard 'the Lionheart' etc) – with whom he crossed paths.

Book Review: Massoud, by Marcela Grad

This is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the late Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Massoud and why he was/is revered as much as he is by his countrymen. It's also of interest generally to those familiar with the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and that period of Afghan history (the latter quarter of the 20th century). It's not a chronologically ordered biography but a collection of short reflections by various people who were part of his life. It's well structured into separate chapters where each chapter has a focus on a particular aspect of his life or a particular aspect of his character. For sure it's a book of praise rather than a critical look at his life but it's still a worthwhile read nonetheless. Here are some snippets from the book:

Maryam Massoud: "... Massoud [when he was young] had to be in the mountains all the time. He learned to ride horses, to do handy work. He was always the best, and he was always in the mountains."

Masood Khalili: "... We talked about the past and the future. I was talking more, maybe because I was older, but I found out later that listening was his habit."

Daoud Zulali: "He trusted the men under his command and worked hard to maintain their morale. He taught them ethics and piety more than military issues, and he was kinder to them than a father, closer than a brother."

Hiromi Nagakuri: "... he shook the hands of each villager, down to the last one. If I were the commander, maybe I would shake hands with one or two, but he shook hands with everyone in the village."

Sher Dil Qaderi: "There was another operation where he had twenty-three radio operators, all talking on their radios with him. He was working with all of them at the same time. I have never seen a mind like his."

Haroun Mir: "... I would see him in the garden at his house walking and thinking, thinking and walking."

Ahmad Jamshid: "... During those years I never saw him sleep without praying, and I remember many nights when he didn't sleep more than one or two hours... he had just two hours to sleep, but he would take fifteen or twenty minutes to pray. Imagine how much he loved his God! In my opinion, his success was because he really loved God."

Humayun Tandar: "... I think that is why they killed him – because he represented an opposition which was not so much material as spiritual and religious."

Documentary review: The Story of the Jews, by Simon Schama

I bought this 5-part BBC documentary (made in 2013) thinking it was called "The History of the Jews" and I watched it through to the end thinking as such. It was only when I started typing this Blog post that I realised it was called "The Story of the Jews"! And now the content of the documentary makes a lot more sense. Its title is pretty apt but a better one-line summary is probably: "The Case for Israel, written and presented by Simon Schama". Don't get me wrong though: this is a good documentary and definitely worth the watch. If you want to understand why the existence of present-day Israel is so important to many Jewish people, then this is definitely a good documentary to watch. There are a couple of things to bear in mind however: Firstly, you'll find that modern history is given way more mention than the origins of Judaism; secondly, you'll have to overlook some strange comments like "Judaism was the first monotheistic religion" and "Judaism invented the abstract God". At the end of the day, it's all good food for thought.

3-day family trip to Brecon Beacons

I went to the Brecon Beacons National Park last weekend with the family (9 of us; 2 cars). We booked our accommodation in the eastern part of Brecon Beacons in a place called The Beast House Barn. The barn is located right near a village called Cwmdu with the towns of Crickhowell and Abergavenny just a short drive away. We found the barn to be very easy to get to from London (it's a 3.5 hour drive with no stops; or 4.5 hours with a couple of short stops along the way). Our itinerary for the trip was as follows:

Sun 28 Aug morning: We set off from home around 8am and arrived at the barn around 12:30pm.

Sun 28 Aug afternoon: We had a short rest at the barn, unloaded our baggage from the car into the barn, had some lunch and then set off for a walk. We drove up from the barn on the A479 following it north for 10 minutes to a car park that comes just before the village of Pengenffordd. From there we set off on a walk eastwards up the hills towards Waun Fach. It was nice and secluded; there were just a few walkers around.

Sun 28 Aug evening: Back to the barn for dinner and sleep.

Mon 29 Aug morning: A slow wakeup and breakfast.

Mon 29 Aug afternoon: We drove for an hour to the south-west of Brecon Beacons for the famous four waterfalls walk. We stopped at the first and fourth of the waterfalls (Sgwd Clun-Gwyn and Sgwd-yr-Eira) but didn't have enough time to stop by the second and third (Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn and Sgwd y Pannwr). It's a long walk (4+ hours) so: if you have kids with you, bare that in mind. 

Mon 29 Aug evening: Back to the barn for dinner, toasted marshmallows and sleep!

Tue 30 Aug morning: Another slow wakeup and breakfast followed by clearing up of the barn and loading of our baggage back into the cars.

Tue 30 Aug afternoon: We drove down to Cardiff to get a feel for Wales beyond the Brecon Beacons. We caught the afternoon (Dhuhr) prayer at Dar-ul-Isra Mosque before heading on to Pontcanna Fields for a picnic and a splash in the River Taff.

Tue 30 Aug evening: Back home alhamdulillah!

For a small selection of pictures from our trip, see here.

2-day trip: Devil's Dyke, Truleigh Hill, Shoreham-by-Sea, Brighton

Had a pleasant 2-day trip from London to the south of England last weekend with the wife. We set off from home on Saturday around 12pm and drove to Devil's Dyke in the South Downs. The drive – including a break for lunch and Dhuhr... and traffic – was around 3 hours in total. We chose one of the car parks right besides Devil's Dyke to set down our car and immediately saw a sign for a farm cafe (Saddlescombe Farm) a short walk away... and thus we followed suit! After cakes at the cafe (which were very nice... the Banana Flapjack especially) we walked back to the main part of Devil's Dyke and chilled there for a couple of hours before heading back to our car.

From Devil's Dyke we drive to our accommodation for the night: Truleigh Hill YHA. The distance from Devil's Dyke to Truleigh Hill is only 3 miles but there's no direct road so it's a half-hour drive. We chose to camp out on one of the fields besides the YHA (£13 per person per night) rather than booking one of the rooms. Our spot had an excellent view of the sea to the south and we were lucky in that the field was pretty empty that evening. We set up our tent, got out our disposable BBQ and heated up the chicken that we had pre-cooked at home earlier in the morning. It was a pleasant day and, as ever, it was a joy praying Asr, Maghrib and Eisha in the outdoors.

The next morning – after breakfast at the YHA and packing away our tent – we drove down to Shoreham-by-Sea (half-hour drive) and sat on the pebbles by the sea for a good hour or so. Always a joy to find an empty beach and not have naked people all around! There weren't many people around at all. Just a few people fishing by the pier and a few people out walking their dogs. Maybe it wasn't busy because it wasn't too hot and summer holidays haven't started yet?

After Shoreham-by-Sea we continued our drive on to Brighton. We parked up right outside Medina Mosque (24 Bedford Place), prayed Dhuhr there and then had lunch at a burger place called Chinoz and ice-cream next door at a place called JoJo's Gelato. Plenty of Halal eateries on Western Road right beside the Mosque! We couldn't stay long in Brighton because the parking spot we had was for up to 2 hours and because it's pretty expensive to park around there! £6.20 for 2 hours. So, a word of caution, if you want to go to Brighton, you're better off taking the train.

Here's a small selection of pictures from our trip:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/adilson05uk/albums/72157668500141744

Book Review: Total Recall, by Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Peter Petre

I enjoyed this book. It's a fun read but at the same time it's great to get into the mind of a person who has gone from zero (a migrant entering America from Austria in his early twenties with little English and little money) to hugely successful in not one but multiple different areas throughout his life: sport, business, acting, politics and public service. Here's some quotes from the book that stood out for me:

"... Instead of existing I started to live... Now all of a sudden there was joy, there was struggle, there was pain, there was happiness, there were pleasures..." 

"... If you tuned into my thoughts before a competition, you would hear something like: 'I deserve that pedestal, I own it, and the sea ought to part for me. Just get out of the f***ing way, I'm on a mission. So just step aside and gimme the trophy'..." 

"... I like to always wander in like a puppy. I walk into a problem and then figure out what the problem really is. Don't tell me ahead of time. Often it's easier to make a decision when you don't know as much, because then you can't overthink. If you know too much, it can freeze you..." 

"... The more knowledge you have, the more you're free to rely on your instincts... Yet in most cases, people who have the knowledge get bogged down and frozen. The more you know, the more you hesitate, which is why even the smartest people blow it big-time..." 

"... A boxer brings a huge amount of knowledge to the ring—when to duck, punch, counter, dance back, block. But if he were to think about any of this when a punch comes, it would be over. He has to use what he knows in a tenth of a second. When you are not confident of your decision-making process, it will slow you down..." 

"... I saw myself as a businessman first. Too many actors, writers, and artists think that marketing is beneath them. But no matter what you do in life, selling is part of it. You can't make movies without money. Even if I had no publicity obligation in my contract, it was still in my interest to promote the movie and make sure it made as much money as possible..." 

"... People can be great poets, great writers, geniuses in the lab. But you can do the finest work and if people don't know, you have nothing!... the most important thing is to make people aware..." 

"... Just like bodybuilding, campaigning is all about reps, reps, reps..." 

"... The voters thought that they were getting a diet pill when they elected me. Instead, I had turned around and asked them to meet me at the gym at five in the morning for five hundred push-ups..." 

"... have a vision, trust yourself, break some rules, ignore the naysayers, don't be afraid to fail..."

Book review: True Grit, by Charles Portis

This novel hands down is in my top-5 of all time. I absolutely love it. The 2010 film adaptation by the Coen brothers was good but a film can never quite capture the imagination like a book does. The plot is pretty simple: the main character —  a 14-year-old girl named Mattie Ross — is out to find the man who murdered her father. She enlists the help of a Marshal named Rooster Cogburn and she is adamant on joining the hunt herself. The third main character in the story is a Texas Ranger named LeBoeuf who joins Mattie and Rooster in the hunt for reasons of his own. As I said, the plot is pretty simple. What is standout however is the dialog and conversational exchanges between these three characters. So frank, so direct, so different! I absolutely love it. The actor Barry Pepper who plays Lucky Ned Pepper in the 2010 film adaptation described the language as American Shakespeare! That's a great way to describe it. Here are some of my favourite passages from the book:

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Mattie: "... I have since learned that Judge Isaac Parker watched all his hangings from an upper window in the Courthouse. I suppose he did this from a sense of duty. There is no knowing what is in a man's heart."

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Mattie: "... The watch was of brass but not very expensive but I was surprised to find it because people who will not steal big things will often steal little things like that..."

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Mattie: "... There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it."

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Goudy: "You were backing away?"
Cogburn: "Yes sir. He had that ax raised."
Goudy: "Which direction were you going?"
Cogburn: "I always go backward when I am backing up."

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Mattie: "I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains." (Mattie Ross' response to Rooster Cogburn who offers her a spoonful of Whiskey to help treat her cold whilst they're in the process of negotiating the details of their business agreement.)

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Mattie: "I have never wasted any time encouraging drunkards of show-offs."

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Cogburn: "You might think that Polk Goudy is a fine gentleman to look at his clothes, but he is sorriest son of a bitch that God ever let breathe."

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Mattie: "Well, it is nothing to me one way or the other except that when we get Chaney he is not going to Texas, he is coming back to Fort Smith to hang."
LeBoeuf: "Haw haw. It is not important where he hangs, is it?"
Mattie: "It is to me. Is it to you?"
LeBoeuf: "It means a good deal of money to me. Would not a hanging in Texas serve as well as a hanging in Arkansas?"
Mattie: "No... I want Chaney to pay for killing my father and not some Texas bird dog."
LeBoeuf: "It will not be for the dog, it will be for the senator, and your father too. He will be just as dead that way, you see, and pay for all his crimes at once."
Mattie: "No, I do not see. That is not the way I look at it."

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Mattie: "Men will live like billy goats if they are left alone."

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Cogburn: "... A man my age ought to have a good bed if he has nothing else..."

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Cogburn: "I will not be stopping at boardinghouses with warm beds and plates of hot grub on the table. It will be travelling fast and eating light. What little sleeping is done will take place on the ground."
Mattie: "I have slept out at night. Papa took me and little Frank coon hunting last summer on the Petit Jean."
Cogburn: "Coon hunting?"
Mattie: "We were out in the woods all night. We sat around a big fire and Yarnell told ghost stories. We had a good time."
Cogburn: "Blast coon hunting! This ain't no coon hunt, it don't come in forty miles of being a coon hunt!"
Mattie: "It is the same idea as a coon hunt. You are just trying to make your work sound harder than it is."

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Mattie: "You think I am wrong."
Stonehill: "I think you are wrongheaded."

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Cogburn: "... I robbed one of them little high-interest banks there. Thought I was doing a good service. You can't rob a thief, can you?.."

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Cogburn: "... You go for a man hard enough and fast enough and he don't have time to think about many is with him, he thinks about himself and how he may get clear out of the wrath that is about to set down on him."