Daniel Idoine

If what comes around goes around then let it come to me my turn

Thursday 16th May 2024

Currently listening to this track on constant repeat:

Alltta - Sleep in Peace

Beer

Wednesday 15th May 2024

I started my love of beer many years ago like many British youth... As a primitive rite of passage for under age drinkers gulping at the foulest slop called "mild" which was extremely bitter, and progressing to "bitter" which would have been better named "skanky dishwasher". For some reason, it was against the rules of young manhood to drink a much more palatable lager unless it was something made for delinquent drop outs like Tennant's Extra.

For British people of all ages and drinking styles, beer and pub culture is a way of life that is quite unique, even if in my humble opinion, the best of British beers pales in comparison to what can be found abroad.

In more recent times, I got to know Belgian beer through a bar closer to my home. Belgian beer is a magical concoction that is sweet and tasteful but also has well balanced bitterness of hops and enough alcohol to knock you out if you misstreat it. Due to the cost of Belgian beer and thanks to having ample time and unused energy during the Corona years I decided to start brewing my own. 

At first, I started off with a small kit making 4 litre batches of homebrew from premade ingredients, but it didn't take me long to progress to bigger brews and creating the beers from scratch with my own choices of ingredients - Experimenting with additives like rice for a dryer taste, oats for more head and herbal additives like coffee, raspberry, orange peel and chamomile for unique flavours that are almost impossible to find off the shelves.

But for all the fancy things you can think to add, beer actually consists of just a few ingredients:

Water (or it would just be an untasty muesli)

Malt (a mix of ground wheat, oats or other  grain for sugar)

Hops (for flavour and bitterness - hops have a wide range of tastes including fruits like citrus or melon despite most standard lagers sticking to limited boring varieties)

Yeast (to turn sugar into alcohol and give more subtle banana, bread or biscuit overtones)

Each ingredient has equal importance and as yeast is a living organism, other factors such as time, temperature and sunlight can affect the result in good or adverse ways. 

The final important factor is cleanliness. Unless the beer has enough yeast to totally outcompete any other organisms for the sugar, it's easy to end up with a batch of biohazard instead of a nice pale ale.

As long as you follow principles of beer making and cleanliness (not too difficult for a graduate in aquatic biology), in 2 weeks you can have a flat alcoholic drink which can then be put into bottles to mature and get fizzy in another fortnight for about one tenth the cost of anything bought in a shop.

Incidentally, all big brand beers pasteurize the beer to kill the yeast and carbonate the beer artificially which may improve transport and shelf life by killing the yeast but in my opinion doesn't create as interesting a product as bottle conditioned beers like a traditional trappist beer made by monks. Just compare a Heineken to a Chimay and see which tastes better for yourself.

Despite alcohol generally being considered bad for health and great tasting beer is easy to get a dependency for, I still enjoy the sense of community that can be created over a nice drink shared with friends. 

To this end, I created a batch of Belgian Wheat beer (around 9% so it's not for amateurs) that should be ready to drink around the 19th. I will be sharing some of the limited stock I have with friends and anybody who gives me a prod in order to raise a glass to friends here and departed.

Martial Arts

Sunday 12th May 2024

As any boy growing up in the UK, martial arts deemed like a necessary pursuit for urban survival when I was young. During my school years, I wasn't picked on by any bullies worse than anybody else but I had enough experiences to feel martial arts would be a good investment. 

During my 6th form college years in the mid 90s, I joined a Thai boxing club run by Rob Lock in Stourbridge. In addition to hard training, there were rules and a good mix of fun and respect. We even had a fund raising sparring event for 100 rounds. It was one of the first situations that I felt training in martial arts wasn't to hurt each other, but was done to improve ourselves and community. 

Years later, I visited a doctor and found out I had broken a bone in my foot (probably through training) and decided I wanted to try softer martial arts as I was getting older. 

While living in Japan I met two teachers (Oba and Mifune sensei) who were two of the most influential people in my life. Their openness and high level of knowledge, skill and support and the things they shared is something I could never pay back to them and only hope I can pay forwards one day.

My main interest was Yang style tai chi, but I also occasionally joined their classes for Yi Quan and Wu Shu. Japanese people practice hard and follow traditional methods of refining fundamental skills over and over which is something that is sadly missing in Western martial arts training which is more of a democracy with students doing what they want and not following what their teacher tells them. 

Sadly I had to leave Japan but and moved to Germany but something was missing from my training.

Martial arts is divided into external and internal schools of power. Most people don't know what internal power is, or if they have seen it on the internet, they think it's a magic trick or just fake masters conning people out of their money. I watched a lot of YouTube videos looking for the thing I felt was missing and found The Martial Man. After watching his videos a while I saw by chance that he was advertising a training camp in Thailand. After some discussions with my partner, I decided to throw caution to the wind and sign up.

It was an unforgettable experience and I am indebted to Kieren for making the camp a success. Although I liked all of the martial arts masters in attendance, I settled to training Prana Dynamics online with Howard Wang due to Corona restrictions. 

His teachings, martial skills and tangible exercises have made a massive change to my life and approach to any struggles in my work or private life. The martial arts training I do now is all about mindfulness, letting go of ego, avoiding muscular and mental tension and seeing life for what it is.

Every single second we choose our reality and can be a slave to our environment or mould it to our preferences. There is no need for anger, stress or even self doubt if we appreciate what we have. Even during physical confrontation, we can respond with positivity and openness instead of getting trapped by our own internal tensions which can lead to negative emotions and feelings like depression.

 

 

What gets me through - outline

Tuesday 7th May 2024

Thought I would mention what gets me through my life, ignore the day-to-day struggles, and what gives me the energy to keep going instead of giving up. 

Everybody has their own ways, but when we lose our support structures or our daily routines is when we are most at risk of our physical and mental health declining. 

So, I will just outline them here in no real order and go into detail later: 

1 people

2 motorbikes 

3 photography

4 beer

5 music

6 martial arts

7 faith

What motivates you to keep going when the chips are down?

Most of all stay safe

Friday 3rd May 2024

Just found out that somebody I used to know passed away after a motorcycle crash. 

Whenever I ride, I remind myself that this is a privilege and a luxury that could be deadly. If I take a passenger I know I have to be a hundred times more responsible than if we were in a car.

Being able to ride is a blessing. German roads and drivers are good enough that we don't normally have to worry about holes in the road, people driving crazily or being aggressive for no reason. 

However, it just takes a split second, a wrong decision, a moment of inattention and a combination of factors beyond our control to make a great ride the last.

Whenever I get home safe I give thanks for the fun and freedom I can enjoy and also say thanks directly to my bike for getting me back in one piece.

We should always do our pre-ride safety checks, wear a helmet, gloves and safety gear, ride to be seen - safely and responsibly so that we can keep riding until we are old and pray that nothing ever takes us away from our loved ones.

Ride safe all

Ren

Friday 19th Apr 2024

One of the best musicians on the planet right now is a Brit called Ren Gill and had a YouTube channel simply called "Ren" wo i would encourage anybody to check out.

His skills and musical taste is so wide he could be his own musical library from hip hop to jazz to rock. He switches from acoustic guitar to piano and even beatboxing his own beats. Most of his tunes were recorded from his bedroom, partly due to COVID times but also due to his ongoing struggle with Lyme's disease. He talks about it a lot online and covers his pain in many of the lyrics of his songs. However, despite his struggles and troubles, his music is filled with hope and a source of inspiration for many. 

Nobody would make a better ambassador for the Gentleman's Ride than Ren. One of His Tracks "Suic*de" is all about the loss of his friend. There's also "sick boi" and "hi Ren" that cover illness and mental struggles in a way that will leave you a different person than when you started listening. 

If you have 10 minutes, check it out:

https://youtu.be/s_nc1IVoMxc?si=G2W0UUdmLxXU-T2S

There's a reason it had had over 20 million views and spawned a ton of reaction videos.

My reasons for riding

Wednesday 17th Apr 2024

This time last year, we lost a friend and colleague who was way too young. He was somebody who always gave 110%, never complained and I could not imagine would not beat his nemesis just by his positive attitude alone.

Many men act like they are invincible, and we grow up thinking that complaining about anything mental or physical is a sign of weakness, but the reality is that we are all mortal and all need help sometimes. Since my friend passed, I have wondered what I could have done to do more.

I had been thinking to learn to ride a motorcycle for a few years and decided I was at a place to start when my partner did but tell me I was crazy or try to stop me. I deliberated over whether to get an easy 125cc permit without a test as I didn't know if I wanted a bigger mirror expensive bike or if I would even like riding. I'm not the kind of person to do thing half heartedly and commit to my passions completely without being totally rational... So I already bought a motorcycle before I could even ride it. It certainly motivated me to achieve my goal.

Luckily, even though I didn't find the right instructor for me, the experience with them pushed me to learn quickly and not spend more time with them than was absolutely necessary. I passed my test first time for a full motorcycle licence.

Unfortunately, as I was still too new to riding I missed the opportunity to join 2023's DGR. Also, around the same time unfortunately I was out of the country when my friend passed and this made me determined not to miss this event in 2024.

I'm currently studying internal martial arts and other meditation-like practices which has opened my mind to more possibilities. I became more aware of my own mental health and the personal struggles I have had during my life, and also more aware of the blessings that I have every day. And I think it is important to share some of my experiences and good fortunes for the benefit of others too.

So, this year I will be joining the Frankfurt ride on Sunday May 19th and I need to ask for your help to make my contribution to this effort as successful as possible.

I’m humbled and honoured for every donation I have received so far. But more importantly, I want to help spread awareness - just spending a couple of minutes checking in on a man you know just to see if they are mentally and physically OK could change a life which is something money cannot buy.

Distinguished cookies

Wednesday 17th Apr 2024

Recipe: 

1 block room temperature vegan butter 200g

Flour 300g

Powder sugar 90g

Vanilla to taste

Mix all the above. Roll down to about 1cm thick and cut. Makes at least 12 cookies.

Bake 12 minutes at 160 degrees

 

Distinguished cookie cutter shapes optional!

Health

Friday 12th Apr 2024

Maybe it's because I'm getting old but I value health more than money, happiness or anything  else. Above all, mental health is the most precious thing a human can own, and yet is taken for granted without much of a second thought. While a man can survive if he loses an arm or a leg, nobody can survive without their mind. And if anybody loses their mind then what good are their limbs?

One's mind is responsible for creating our own reality. It filters all of the information coming from our various senses and fabricates the world that we can see and feel. It literally creates our universe for us and yet many people take it for granted every day that we will wake up from our sleep and everything will be working as we expect.

What's more, our minds can work for us or against us. The ego mind can convince us that we are better than we actually are (Dunning and Kruger), or it can paralyse us with self doubts, criticisms and stereotypes that can prevent us from reaching our true potential.

And yet we don't often recognise that our ego is not our whole being but a part of our consciousness that can hold us back. If we let the voice in our head that says "you're not good enough", "nobody loves you" or "you're not worthy" take control of our actions, we surely won't achieve anything and can easily be paralysed by or own self-doubt which I'm sure can descend into  depression.

For me, even just joining the Gentleman's Ride, my ego tried to hit me with self doubts "you won't raise any money", "nobody cares about men's health", "you don't have what it takes to join this event", "you could never grow a moustache" and I could easily have quit before I started. But even if I can't be the most dapper gent, I know that whatever I do is better than doing nothing at all. If anything i do or write helps even one person just a little, it will have been worth it.

Rest in peace Brother Dege

Sunday 7th Apr 2024

One of the musical artists I discovered during Corona times was Brother Dege. He has the raw acoustic blues guitar playing and singing that just feels timeless. I recommend to check him out, especially his live version of "too old to die young".

I randomly saw a poster that he was scheduled to come to Frankfurt this year and was overjoyed to be able to see him play live. Unfortunately, when I went to book tickets, the event was cancelled with no opportunity for alternate dates and no other information. 

After searching the internet for more info, I discovered he had passed away in March. Although most news stories didn't provide any further information, I found out that he had taken his own life. It's impossible for me to understand why he would make a decision like that rather than reach out to somebody for help. Having just released a new album and a whole European tour ahead of him, it feels like he had everything to live for. 

It turns out that suicide is way too common along men. Roughly 3 out of every 4 suicides are committed by men and half of those are over 50 years old. In Germany alone, on average 1 man takes his own life every 40 minutes. While every case is individual, it's safe to assume that some deaths could be prevented with more open honest conversations and support. My feeling is that a lot of men are influenced by their role models who are often two dimensional action heros that are impervious to life's bullets and don't need to discuss puny emotions or show any signs of weakness.

The reality is men need a support network to talk about their feelings the same way that women naturally seem to be able to do. There are helplines in most countries and organisations such as the Samaritans that can offer so much support, but perhaps the most important thing that we can do as individuals is just reach out by ourselves if somebody we know seems down or behaving different to normal. Even just offering to listen if a friend needs to talk could be enough to change a life for the better.

 

 

 

Suit is pressed and ready

Thursday 4th Apr 2024

Prince of Wales check will be the order of the day for me.

A blue check for my young copilot.

Hoping we both look pretty dapper once we are all kitted out.

Hope to take more photos once the weather allows and we can try them on for a test run.

Ich fahre für Men's Health bei The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride

Thursday 21st Mar 2024 Am Sonntag, dem 19. Mai 2024, nehme ich zusammen mit anderen Männern und Frauen aus aller Welt am "The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride" teil, um im Namen des Movember Geldmittel und Bewusstsein für Prostatakrebs und die psychische Gesundheit von Männern zu sammeln. Männer sterben im Durchschnitt 6 Jahre früher als Frauen, und das aus weitgehend vermeidbaren Gründen. Die Zahl der Männer, die darunter leiden, wächst, und wir müssen etwas dagegen tun. Bevor ich also meinen Tweed bügle und meine Stiefel poliere, möchte ich Sie bitten, sich mir anzuschließen, um Geldmittel zu sammeln und das Bewusstsein für diese Anliegen zu schärfen, indem Sie spenden, was Sie können, um den Männern, die wir lieben, zu helfen, ein glücklicheres und gesünderes Leben zu führen.