Avē !

If you were in Ancient Rome, that's how you'd be saying "hi" back in the day. Hope you're having a great weekend so far and that the weather is appropriately good where ever you happen to be. It's been a wild week of weather in South East Australia so it's meant a lot more indoor time even though we haven't been in lockdown.

Just 1 week til Sunday Surprise turns 1! Still looking for more suggestions, so if you have any, please let me know via email!

As always, a small favour? Could you forward this newsletter to just 3 people that you think would like one of the articles? It helps A LOT! If you're the friend reading this, click the link below to join! Glad to have you here!

In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative update - Interviewing Echolily (~55min)
• Gadgets & Tech - Inkbird Wifi Sous Vide (~$120)
• Read - Stories of your life & others (~$10)
• Watch - How does cryptocurrency actually work? (~12min)
• Quote - “When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself.”

Week in the life

I genuinely didn't think lockdowns would be easing and things slowly returning to normal, so I didn't actually plan much for these few weeks. Since it's the end of the financial year, it's been a bit paperwork heavy with lots of tax things and other things to sort out. Much less fun than going away. 😒

That said, I had to do my minimum on calls at a hospital I rarely work at this weekend which meant that I got to go about an hour away and enjoy some time on the beach when not at work.

It made for quite a relaxing day I have to say, despite it being an on call weekend...

Also, I posted one of my favourite drone shots I've taken on Instragram recently. I'm thinking of starting my print store with that as an option. Would it be something you're interested in as a print? Would love your thoughts!

We celebrated Luna's birthday a little while ago. It turns out that her foster carers recently joined the Facebook group for people who have adopted pets from their organisation and sent us some photos of her as a kitten!

Here's her right now:

Her kitten photos and more over on the blog...

Creative

randInt episode 009 - Interviewing Echolily (~50min)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1OkvGfc9EOGYGFRNPMY0cM?si=6fc68e3936ae4044

You might remember a song featured here a few months ago from another anaesthetist and musician, Michelle C. aka Echolily. In this episode of the randInt podcast, we put on our interviewing hat for the first time and have a guest on the show!

As always, it's a work in progress and feedback is always welcome! Also, drop us a voice mail!

Gadgets & Tech

Inkbird Wifi Sous Vide (~$120)

https://amzn.to/3vHLUpU

A few years ago, I was VERY into sous vide cooking that resulted in some excellent home made steaks and salmon. However, back then I needed a giant sous vide cooker and after a few years of moving around, it got a bit awkward.

A couple of years ago, I kept hearing about the Anova sous vide but never got around to getting one. I was reminded of it recently and when I went hunting for it, found a much cheaper product with very similar features! I still don't really see why you need Wifi on cooking appliances, but oh well, it's there...

PREVIOUS/OTHER PRODUCTS

Some previous things that have been featured:

• Peak Design Backpack - Still my go to for carrying my gear on trips. Their bags are excellent quality and have now lasted me in excess of 5 years of abuse!
• Nord VPN - Keep safe on the internet with a secure VPN. This is the cheapest but still reliable VPN that I've tested.

Read

Stories of your life & others (~$10)

https://amzn.to/3gRS6X8

I've been meaning to read more from Ted Chiang after learning that the movie "Arrival" was based on one of his short stories. It was such a different take on science fiction that it seems to be very much outside the many cliches of the genre and the other stories so far are similar.

Even if you're not normally a fan, it's worth checking out as I find the best science fiction just uses the future/tech etc to explore human tendencies at the extreme and so far, it hasn't disappointed.

Book I just finished:

• Happy Sexy Millionaire - Just finished this and realised that I have read a lot of the other books on the topics covered to the point where I could tell you which other books said the cover subjects of each chapter and in some cases did it better/worse. I think I'll start making little book summaries over at raffyhalim.com and this will be the first one I cover.

Watch

How does cryptocurrency actually work? (~12min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYQgy8QDEBI

A few weeks ago, I shared a summary video of how crypto worked and just a week or so ago, this one was released. This is probably even better with good analogies to explain what is the technology vs the specifics of Bitcoin etc. I don't think you could ask for more in around 10 mins!

Quote I'm pondering

“When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself.”

- Paulo Coehlo

Over committing to things has been on my mind recently as I thought we would have extended lockdowns and hence dove head first into extra work. Now that they have lifted, I'm feeling much more tired than I'd like. This quote was an apt reminder that while I actually enjoying helping people out last minute, I do have to prioritise rest. At the end of the day, if I burn out, then I'll be the one causing them to find last minute cover!

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead, ! Don't forget to send me your suggestions for how to celebrate the 1st birthday of The Sunday Surprise newsletter!

- Raffy

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Sunday Surprise uses affiliate/referral links in the newsletter. This does not change the recommendation/verdict but may result in Photos by Raffy receiving a small commission and will be marked in orange. Non-affiliate links will appear as blue. Prices recorded may vary.