Day 18: The charm of hotels, books and Avocado Bath Bombs

Rest day today so get ready for total randomness of thought.

Question: do you think spending time in hotel lobbies, having tea or coffee in their comfy armchairs, reading, writing, sorting through things...can be considered a hobby? If so, I am quite taken with it. The problem with many Coffee Shops at the weekends is that they are magically transformed into crèches and/or teen show rooms which as endearing as it might be for some, it really doesn't create much in terms of a creative environment as I crave it.
Hotels on the other hand...they have just the right amount of buzz and goings-on without additional distractions. Love them.
An additional bonus is that they don't close early on Sundays!

If you are into genetics (and/or epigenetics) and you haven't yet read the Inheritance by Sharon Moalem - go and grab it, I think you would love it. I forgot to mention it earlier but I have finished it and it was one of the best non-fiction books I have read (if not the best). It reads a bit like a video documentary! There is not a boring moment in an entire book.

In my teens I was fascinated with genetics, admittedly animal genetics - mainly dogs and horses. If I had a teacher like Sharon during my bio-chemistry focused high school who knows what I would be up to now! ;)

My current non-horsey reading is a little book titled Cider with Rosie which I got from a friend. I shall report on it when done.

I've been mostly trying not to do much work related tasks on the rest day but I failed on that today. I find it almost impossible to switch off, hopefully it will become easier to do so with time. It's possibly rather important to have a brain space saved for other areas of life, right now most of my brain cells must have a shape of a horse's head ;)

Oh, and this lovely, incredibly scented bath bomb awaits its sizzle time tomorrow I had a Lush gift card left from Christmas and finally popped to the shop to redeem it. The whole room smells of this stuff right now ;)



My internet connection is very fragile tonight so I am going to press publish before it dies.
Until tomorrow :)
Wiola

Old books on Horsemanship! And an Elementary Dressage Test from 1994

While waiting for Suzanne to give me a lift after work I started browsing some old books at the yard and what fun it was to look at those photos!

Journey back in time

These tests are from when the British Horse Society was a governing body of Dressage in the Uk (now this is in the hands of British Dressage)

Tiredness continues and my plan for tonight is to hit the pillows as early as possible and rest my brain cells.

Felt very sleepy today throughout the day but this is usually the effect of stress or an adrenaline expectation seems to have on me! Talking about old times - I remember one National show-jumping show I went to ages ago, it was my last chance to qualify for my licence for higher classes (it was in Poland and I am too tired to explain the Junior points system back then ;) and I spent entire journey in the lorry yawning like mad. Body going into stand by mode? ;)

Have a look at the sneaky preview of...

a trailer for My Sister's Keeper , movie based on an amazing book I read about a year ago by Jodi Picoult. The book is beautifully written and very moving, not sure about the movie, guess we'll see. Sometimes books are so much better. 

WOW, Just came across...

Have you ever heard of Project Gutenberg? Well, basically they produce free electronic books (ebooks). I searched their catalog today for some very old books I loved ages ago and voila! I found a whole txt of a book I must have read hundreds of times :)

Baree, Son of Kazan by James Oliver Curwood. Beautiful tale.

About the book by Amazon.

Ever since reading Curwood's books I wanted to have a dog which would look like a wolf ;) One day I shall have one of THESE.

Reading This Week - Charles De Kunffy

British Horse Society's new merchandise website

http://www.britishhorse.com/

Equine Sports Coaching - new book on the market

Thanks to Manage My Horse competition via which I won £400 worth of vouchers of my own choice (I chose £150 of them to be Amazon so I can stock up on all the great books I wanted to buy for a while) I am now book shopping - yay!

This is one of my next reading projects:

I will post a review once I've read it. Amazon says:
"Synopsis
A vital book for equine coaches. Drawing on tried-and-tested coaching practices used successfully in other sports, this book provides an introduction to coaching specific to the equine environment. The coaching process as a whole is addressed for both the horse and rider. The UK Government Coaching Task Force highlighted the need for the development of coaching across all sports, which led to the introduction of the UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC). Soon any coaching of horses and riders will need to be done by qualified individuals only. "Equine Sports Coaching" is ideal for those studying for the UKCC or other qualifications in equine sports and leisure coaching. The key features include: in line with UK Coaching Certificate qualifications; covers performance analysis, periodization of training programs, sports psychology, and communication skills; and, advises on the personal development of the coach to support career development in this field."

About the Author (from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ ): Alison Lincoln has a BSc in Equine Sports Coaching, and has taught on Sports Science and Equine Science courses at several different colleges in the UK. She has over 10 years experience as a Pony Club instructor, as well as experience in business performance coaching and life coaching.