Update for 2010

My first post for 2010.

Tomorrow I am going to my least favourite country; Sudan. It will be hot, dusty and it's much worse when there is a sand storm. Fortunately a new hotel has opened and I can avoid staying at the so called 5 star hotel Grand Holiday Villa. The "Grand" is located in a lovely English colonial building but reality does not match nostalgia.

The new hotel (Salam Khartoum) even has what I hope for, a modern fitness centre.

The bad news (other than having to go there) is I have to stay a weekend in Khartoum. It will be unimaginably boring and I have stayed a weekend in a previous trip. To maintain my sanity over the weekend I will bring along a reasonably thick book , an autobiography of Paul Dirac". The New York Times review of the book called it "a gift".

In case I finished the book before the weekend (Friday & Saturday), I will also bring along a DVD of Magnum PI, season 8.

I am still running on the treadmill regularly (4 to 6 km). I also registered for the Penang Bridge run that will take some dedicated and consistent training. Hopefully I won't be doing much traveling until the end of the year. To date, I already had to travel to Vietnam (twice in 2010), Dubai in June (it was hot) and Paris (I like Paris).