A Cyclist’s Life in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Almost everyone has heard of Qantas, Pepsi and IBM. They’ve saturated the world with publicity. These are household names because everyone is familiar with the business & their products. That is to say, we all know they exist, we all knows what they sell, and most importantly we all know how to reach them. 

At the extreme opposite end is a hermit living in Timbuktoo. He doesn’t have much connection with the outside world (if any), hence is local network may consist of him and his dog. So in other words, It’s a question of “popularity”.

Social network theory views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the entities within a network, and ties are the all-important relationships or connections between them. Entities may be organisations, businesses or individuals. They say that any two people on the planet are linked to each other by only six ties, on average.

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Tags: That's Business, Mental Anguish, Science Simplified by Dr. Leslie Brown
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PRACTISE LESSONS:

After attending many driving theory lectures and passing the test in spanish, I recently received my medical certificate after several lengthy delays.

I had my first driving lesson yesterday, in Spanish. Firstly, there is no option for learning with an automatic vehicle. That’s fair enough because this place has no flat roads and autos just don’t cut it here. Secondly, you’re not licensed to drive without an instructor until you’ve passed the practical exam. Naturally I was a nervous wreck, despite taking half a gram of trankimazen beforehand. Inside the car, he started off by explaining all the instruments and their functions. I showed the instructor my clammy palms, and he rather kindly handed me a serviette.

Although he spent a fair while talking about the electric windows, indicators and lights, he then seemed to spend little time explaining the gearbox and handbrake, finishing off by skipping straight over the use of the clutch, foot brake and accelerator. Before I knew it, he was asking me to reverse out of the parking space, and straight up a 15% slope!

From there it was around a tight bend, along a narrow street, and back down a 20% slope (where he gratefully assisted me with the pedals). We travelled from La Orotava through the old windy narrow road to Santa Ursula as far as El Sauzal. I thought we’d be heading straight over the bridge to the quiet zone of El Sauzal, but there was no such luck. Instead, at the last second, without any fore-warning, he made me turn right and incorporate straight onto the TF5 freeway.

Driving on a busy Spanish freeway on my very first lesson didn’t exactly reduce my anxiety level, and after 5 minutes or so, we had to stop for some diesel fuel. He went inside to pay, so lucky for me this was my little 5 minute break. Meanwhile, that sweat-drenched serviette quickly became a soggy ball of paper mush. It was at that point that I considered taking another trankimazen - but I thought I better not because the full gram is enough to knock most people out cold. I still hadn’t managed to get accustomed to using 3 pedals, and we were doing 100km/hr by the end of the lesson. But after having thrown me in the deep end so to speak, confronting my fears directly, head on, I’m sure I won’t be as nervous in future.

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish by Dr. Leslie Brown
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We live in a unique time; our almost instant global communications network is enough to impress anyone; but can all the knowledge it contains be a bad thing? In our time of the internet, both the growth of information and the ability to access that information is also increasing at an exponential rate. The vast amount of accessible knowledge overwhelms even the most capable person, especially about all the bad news we receive. It looms subconciously in our minds, while we try and forget.

We must make more and more daily choices than ever before. For a start, think of all the options on all your personal electronic devices. Customisable features such as screen savers, ring tones, fonts & sizes, printer & graphics settings, software programs. The list is endless.

Which e-mails to delete? Why? What to buy and sell. Where? Who should I meet? When? What information should I try do I avoid, and what information should I attempt to seek out? How do I do that? And ultimately: What choices do I choose to make? What do I do with my life now?

Tags: Mental Anguish, Vida Enigmática by Dr. Leslie Brown
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