The last week in Dubai was a busy one: book club meeting, office Christmas party, football, magazine fair, and the Dubai International film festival (I caught four films). With marathon training, the day job, and picking up my wife at the airport, I ended up getting a lot less sleep than I needed and almost no time to stop. I felt a bit sorry for the visitor I had from Abidjan who I hardly saw at all.

The week reminded me a bit of the nine months when I studied for my masters. It was a time when I tried to say yes to everything – rowing, extra classes, visiting lecturers etc, as well as the usual regular studies, and church activities (church services and leading a study group). I think underlying it was a particular approach: « Would this event be worthwhile and stimulating? » – and if the answer is yes, to go. Will listening to John Gray or Tariq Ramadan be interesting? Yes. OK, go!

Life sometimes seems to divide down the middle into non-stimulating regular activities, and stimulating activities that really turn your head and get you thinking about your own life. There are of course necessary chores that we all must do, and often responsibilities. But like essays at university, I find they always get done somehow. Often by exploiting the law of ‘everything takes as much time as you have available’, you can prioritize the stimulating things, and let the rest squeeze into whatever time remains.