Need An Energy Boost? This Will Wake You Up In Seconds!
Get yourself a surge of energy with this electrifying experience—no caffeine required!
Hi there, how you doing? I hope things are well, not too cold where you are.
Welcome to the latest Refreshment, our timeout from the daily grind. Given how it’s still the winter, this edition is good for reading with a hot cuppa and perhaps some buttered toast. Let’s do it.
In Trays, we share suggestions for entertainment from beyond the norm.
New year, new grind—but this time, with a new energy booster to help you power through! If you need something quick, to shake outta your mood, look no further than The HU, a folk metal band that brings the world of the Mongolian steppes straight to your ears. Yep, folk METAL band. Time to turn it up!
If the idea of traditional Mongolian music mixed with heavy metal sounds WTH, well, they’re definitely gonna live up to your curiosity. Their choice of instrumentation will do that as well: horsehead fiddles, jaw harps, and throat singing. Taylor Swift this ain’t.
I came across these guys a few years ago, after finding their song Yuve Yuve Yu, that had clocked up 128 million views on YouTube. Their success is even more impressive, when you consider they’ve only been around since 2018, with just two albums under their belt: The Gereg (2019) and Rumble of Thunder (in 2022). Putting out just two records means they’re an easy band to catch up on—although live, they’re not as easy to get hold of.
Tickets sell out fast! The HU have played the likes of Glastonbury, Coachella, Download Festival, and Rock am Ring, to name a few such places. From what I’ve seen, their stage presence is wall-shaking. You can’t help, but feel their thunderous vibes under your feet, the primal force of life replacing any stress in your body.
Sing it with me: “Ээ дүлзэн сөгд сөгд, Ээ лүндэн бууг бууг, бууг бууг!”
Their website: The HU
Videos: Yuve Yuve Yu and Wolf Totem
In Brick Language, we make space for what matters.
I was in this experience, quite recently! It’s 9am, and already your to-do list feels like it could stretch round the block. You’re not sure where to start, and before you know it, you’re jumping from task to task just to tick things off. Suddenly the feeling of “I have too much to do, not enough time to do it” is in the driver’s seat of your mind. It’s soon joined by “no, I don’t have time to hit pause right now, okay!” and “I need another coffee already!”
When we treat everything as a priority, it’s easy to lose sight of what matters. The most important tasks end up buried under a pile of minor ones. We’re usually high as well—on adrenaline, emotion, stress or just pure urgency.
The thing is, when we’re running on emotion, we’re not really thinking. We’re reacting. We need to stop and take a step back. We’re letting the to-do list run us.
So, how can you take a step back and think more carefully about how to approach each day? Here’s a tip: create your to-do list the night before. Set aside an hour before bed to write down 5-10 tasks you need to do the next day. Once you’re done, put them in order, from most important to least. Be honest with yourself: What truly needs your attention? What can wait? Then, put the list aside and go to sleep.
Why the night before? It’s simple. As the day winds down, we tend to be less emotional. Our minds are more relaxed, which makes it easier to focus on what’s going on. We can sleep on our tasks and wake up with a clearer, more organised mind, and a more manageable day ahead as well. Hitting pause is as easy as that.
In It’s Curtains, we say a fond farewell to the many wonders that have helped bring us together.
And now we say goodbye to the Concorde, the luxury jet that brought the future to life. Introduced back in January 1976, this passenger plane was a feat of engineering, with speeds that could reach twice the speed of sound. This cut transatlantic flights from 8 hours to just 3.5, a game-changer in the world of travel.
What made the Concorde stand out was its iconic delta wing design and nose that dipped down for landing. Yet despite all its fanciness, travelling by Concorde was out of reach for regular people. With tickets costing $10,000 or more—with lobster fishcakes and caviar as the in-flight food—it ended up becoming a plane for celebrities. With high operating costs, along with environmental concerns, the Concorde was eventually retired in November 2003.
Although regular folks couldn’t step aboard a Concorde, that never stopped it from being a highlight at air shows. It wasn't just a plane; it was a project that brought experts from across the world together in pursuit of something worthwhile.
So while we never got to say goodbye to the Concorde, we can still celebrate its legacy, even if it was just something we watched from the ground. It’s a piece of history that’s also cool-looking, in every photo you can find of it.
Uh, talking of grounded birds…
Sometimes, there are facts that are so stunning, they’ve gotta be shared. Take the following fact—somebody somewhere went and did the work to produce this fact for us! Take a bow, yonder fact finder. This is knowledge we cannot keep to ourselves. Please do drop it in every conversation you can, particularly in moments of awkward silence or ruffled feathers (omigosh, another bird reference).
Will you give a try the next time you’re stuck? Would love to know how it goes.
Thank you for reading today’s Refreshment.
If you haven’t already, please take a moment to tell your mates about us and have ‘em come onboard. Because remember: together, the merrier.