Back in the Saddle

Been a while since I've done one of these.

Forty-three days! 

I'm well aware of at least five big fans of Project 9626 so it is only right that I get back in the saddle and provide an update for my adoring public. 

Ahem.

Right, last time I said I wasn't that busy and wanted to do more.

I'm now so busy those early days feel like a different life. I'm looking after four main projects which invariably are riddled with things going wrong each and every day. But I'm doing my best and learning a lot, gradually being able to answer questions more convincingly and getting stuff done. Which is important. I spent a good while becoming very frustrated that things just weren't getting done. But as the weeks have ticked by and I've grown more used to working in such a huge company, I've come to accept that's just how it is. 

But that's not to say it's been easy, I've found it to be a real challenge. I've never been a stressful person but man alive, I've felt stressed. So much so that a few weeks ago I was diagnosed with shingles. Shingles! Ridiculous body. I got away with it in all honesty, a week or two of feeling sunburnt on the left side of my back a small rash on my ribcage. Some good anti-virals from the doctor saved the day. 

I've made a conscious effort to not let the work get to me as much as it did leading up to that week and it's working. I'm getting more done and staying in control. Old fashioned to-do lists help. Who knew!?

At the end of the day, it's cardboard and paper... It ain't going to kill anyone. #Perspective

So, the running.

I think my target of 600 miles in the year was a little on the low side (despite being 25% more than 2014!). Considering the 26.2 miles of half marathons in September and all it's associated training leading up to that, I think I will be going past the 600 mile target sometime early October. 

Mental.

I'm continuing to run a longggg way on Friday's, up to 11 miles last week, probably 11 more tomorrow. I've spent a lot of time running in torrential rain recently, which is actually quite good fun whilst temperatures remain around 20'c. Give it a month and it'll be far less fun. But good progress and good preparation all the same.

With only 17 days to go until round one of the half marathon fun I'm ramping up the SPONSOR ME (please!) message. I've reached £100 which is good, but is it great? No siree! We have £200 to go! So as ever, anything you can spare is massive to me and, of course, Balls to Cancer. 

Here is my page, make my day. Thank you!

I finally decided to part with 70 quid to order my new passport so that I'm actually allowed to fly to South Africa in December (124 days!) which is all well and good. However, getting my picture taken in a photo booth was a traumatic experience. It appears my head is not symmetrical. I used all three of my allotted tries and each one was not cool. 

Not cool at all.

I'd upload a picture of the photo booth print out but I don't think I'm ready for the ribbing. 

I'm not having it. The machine must be broken. 

Me and my bizarrely shaped head are up to book #18 now - closing in on the magic #25. Book #16 was the quite frankly amazing 'The Bone Tree' which follows on from Book #10 'Natchez Burning' and features Penn Cage again. It's a huge 850 pages, taking the total of the first two books of this trilogy past 1700 pages - all to tell a story of six or seven days. It's fantastic. If you want a crime thriller to compel you as intensely as these books do, I couldn't recommend any other.

Book #17 'The Power of the Dog' is absolutely nothing to do with animals. Rather, it's a blend of Breaking Bad, The Sopranos and The Wire in book form focusing on drug cartels in Mexico, and the men charged with bringing them down. It's awesome. And easily the most gruesome book I've read. Lesson for all - don't piss of Mexican drug kingpins.  I'm reading the sequel now. 

So there we are. Things are good.

Full steam ahead to the hills of Gateshead.

Comfort Zone

New jobs are hard. 

Who knew?

Today was day eight of my new job and it is proving to be as drastic and difficult an adjustment as I thought, nay feared it would be. To go from an organisation with ten people in the office to an organisation with hundreds in one particular wing alone is a massive change. 

Everyone is extremely busy, everyone knows everyone and then there is me... Feeling like a kid on work experience. But that's to be expected, and each day things get slightly easier. I have more to do, more people recognise (/accept?) me and I feel less like the heavier, spottier, 17 year old version of me that endured five miserable days on work experience at the local paper in 2006. 

That's not to say I'm rushed off my feet - yet, at least. I'm naturally a quick learner and equally fast worker so I've picked up the bits and bobs that have been sent my way perhaps ahead of time. So I'm offering my help to the team and making lots of teas and coffees (PLEASE BE MY FRIEND). My working day (well, the drive at least) now starts at 7.30am as opposed to 8.30am two weeks ago and a few traffic rages apart, it's been alright. Starting at 8.30am means I can leave at 4.30pm which is glorious - home in time for Pointless.

I'm not going to pretend I am anything other than a long way out of my comfort zone but everyone has to go through this at some stage in their career/life so no complaints from BQ. It's a means to an end, and in five months and two weeks time I will be in a much better position than if I hadn't taken this opportunity. 

In other news, I need a new passport. New passports are extortionate. So I'm summing up the courage to part with £72.50 and get that sorted. 

Seen as England have remembered how to play cricket, I'm much more excited about travelling thousands of miles to watch them! 

I'm also beginning to collect various things for the trip, including a lovely new England Test shirt to wear at Newlands. Fortunately I can't put the name and number curse on it like countless ill-advised LFC related decisions... Messrs Balotelli, Aquilani, Kewell et al. Soz.

All of a sudden, it's only 60 (sixty!) days until I drag myself round the hills of Gateshead and South Shields. Which means it's only 74 Days until Robin Hood Sunday. 

So, because I have a degree of sense, I'm picking things up. I ran a steady nine miles last Friday and plan to log a long run every week now until the GNR really. Thankfully, I appear to have retained that good, long distance fitness which means my biggest barrier, as ever, is the impending boredom that running for over an hour creates. Pace wise I'm solid, usually around 7.40min/mile once I get going.

I have decided to run for Balls to Cancer and I'm hoping to raise as much as possible for them. A charity for all forms of male cancer, I thought it would be a great cause to run for. Whilst of course it is not a competition, the male cancer charities seem to get less air time and engagement than the female ones - the wonderful Race for Life and breast cancer initiatives, etc. - so I thought what better cause to choose.

As ever, anything you can spare is genuinely amazing and helps so much during the training and the 11+ mile misery. And I'm doing it TWICE! That's mental. 

#SponsorBQ

As a slight aside, I've now racked up a mighty 414 miles this year which means the 600 mile target is going to be smashed by about October!  

After the wonderful 'Station Eleven' I began my first ever Stephen King novel and Book #14, '11.22.63' - a story centred on the JFK assassination and what you could do to change the events of that day... If you had the chance. 

It turns out, the main character of the story does have the chance through a magical time travelling portal that takes the traveller to 1958 with the ability to live as long as they want in the 'old' world and return to the present day and only lose two minutes. But for every different action and decision in 1958, a butterfly effect follows. The book is long but it is an absolutely stunning piece of literature - one that you actually miss reading when it's finished. Can the president be saved? Can Vietnam be avoided? But what happens to the present day if such pivotal elements of the 20th Century didn't take place? Stunning writing.

Next up on the conveyor belt was Book #15, The Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, the first in the Hannibal Lecter series. I'm a big fan of Hannibal on Sky Living and it was inspired by this book so it was an obvious choice. It was good, much darker than I anticipated (which says a lot) and has whet the appetite to read Silence of the Lambs at some point. 

And that's that. Things are going well on the whole. I'd love to press a fast forward button and arrive in six weeks time down the line actually knowing how do to my job and being settled, but alas, such a life hack isn't available just yet.