Fatherhood This post I am about to embark on is in many ways the most personal and powerful I have posted to date. Stepping away from the undercurrent tones, I have decided to do something different here. I want to give this lovely smileyape community a raw, unfiltered essence into the world of fatherhood through…

Boomerang-a-tang I know in previous posts I’ve made no attempt to hide the fact that I am a big softy. Not only on the account of my Dad-bod (I wear it loud and proud), but on account of drawing on the moments of simply looking at the happy faces of my young children, and “not…

I’ll be Happy when… Let me just come right out and say it: “I’ll be happy when” is the most conveniently inconvenient whisper I tell myself, right up there with, “I’ll just have one biscuit”.  But I’m not alone in this personal mantra, as I’m sure we smileyapes all do it to. “I’ll be happy…

A slice of mindfulness It all began with a piece of bread and a stubborn toaster. A simple breakfast mission – nothing fancy – no avocados included in the production of this. Just toast. Bread, heat, crunch, done. But on this morning, my toaster had other plans. I chose the big end slice (you end…

What does it mean to persevere? Does it mean to arrive at a foreign place not ventured before, or does it mean going beyond limits to realise what true worth of the self is? I’ve recently walked both paths. And like slow moving waters of reflection, ever shifting – never still, I arrive at a…

As I sit here, looking absently ahead, as if trying to see the words that will form this post; like shooting stars, welcoming a wistfulness, I’m left searching, searching for the words that can accurately capture each emotion, colourful, vivid, visceral. And present them to you in simple black and white. The truth is I…

I’m sitting at a Café Nero at London Heathrow airport waiting for my 21.30 flight to Manchester this evening. After a few weeks abroad on holiday – only having retuned a few days ago, I find myself back at the airport. But this time, no sunny shore awaits me. Quite the opposite. I will be…

Komorebi … the Japanese word that means “to the sunlight shining through the trees” There are approximately 600,000 word forms in the English dictionary.  Yet there is no English word used to describe the gentle phenomenon of dappled rays that peek through the dense foliage, casting a soft enchanting glow on the planes beneath. We’ve…

This is my first post since the birth of my beautiful baby daughter. Beauty of course is in the eyes of the beholder. And yet, even after observing the somewhat creepy expression she makes just before soiling her nappy (“soiling” being polite for military grade onslaughts) – as if to warn me of the unpleasant…

Hi world! I’m Maisam (“Mais”) Toor. I’m a fun-loving movie fanatic who is prone to all things sweet. I’m the guy who laughs at dad jokes – genuine belly laugh, who is never far from a punishingly bad pun; pun intended 😉, and who loves to sing along (very out of tune may I add)…