Nearly There...

First things first, my apologies for completely slacking on the 9626 front. It's been a busy old time! 

That said, it is high time for an update.

If you cast your minds back to late September, I had just completed my second of two half marathons in three weeks. The third and final run of the challenge came the following weekend and the records tumbled. Powering through the hills of Tissington (erm... Peak District, I think?), I registered a 1hr 35, which SMASHED the previous record (1hr 37) which only stood for a mere week. 

Mental. 

An average pace of 7.16 mins/mile which is daft, including a 6.57 mile ten which still makes me laugh and shudder in equal measure seven weeks later. 

Since then, I have bought some trainers that you can see from the moon...

                                         ... and bought loads of winter stuff because it is bloody freezing. The upshot of all that is the initial target of 600 miles for the year is loooong gone. About 125 miles gone, to be precise. 

I set a target of 800 miles once the initial 600 was hit, but unless I get overcome by wanting to go for more than a couple of runs a week in the cold, wind and rain... I expect I'll fall just short. Never mind, in the world of Project 9626, I've got a big tick next to the running challenge. Maybe we'll look at 800 miles next year...

Arguably the biggest target of the year was to get a job, which I finally managed to get back in June (YES.) As I approach the end of my six month contract, things are looking positive about continuing my stay at Boots and I hope to be able to confirm something soon. 

As we move in to December, it's great that everyone else in the world is getting onboard with the whole Christmas thing. It's about time. I've never enjoyed the arrival of Christmas songs and adverts as much as this year. 

The last five months have been all kinds of hectic but it's been amazing (and a massive bloody relief) to see so many of the projects we've been working on arrive in store and look so good. I've become an expert on things I'd never spent one second of my life thinking about before this gig (wall cladding?)... but they look great and I now find myself going in to Boots stores just to look at the windows and see what type of pillar cladding they've got (round vs square... who knew?!).

Out of nowhere, it is now only 29 sleeps (excluding naps) until I get on a plane to Cape Town to watch the mighty England take on South Africa in the cricket. I'm so excited. I could do with getting some sun cream and a big floppy hat because it is going to be HOT. 

I've been making steady progress on the reading...

Book #18 - 'The Cartel' is the follow up to 'The Power of the Dog' and continued in similarly brutal vein about the battle between the Mexican Narcos and the (mostly) good guys in the war on drugs. It's very, very good. 

Book #19 - 'The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair' is a strange old book. It is a classic mystery intertwined with a critique on the shallowness and falseness of modern day love/relationships. I liked it, though it borders on trying to fit too many narratives in to it. 

Book #20 - 'The Kind Worth Killing' was fun and a bit mad. Quite similar to 'Gone Girl' in many respects, but actually had an end. In fact, thinking about it I bloody loved the end of this. Very clever. Take note, Gillian Flynn.

Book #21 - 'The Stand' by Stephen King is the biggest book I have ever read (1300+ pages!) and it is the very definition of an epic. I read the extended version and it captivated me from the very start. Few authors drag you in to a world of a book and keep you there throughout like King does. Wonderful.

Book #22 - 'Mr Mercedes' is another King book, but about 900 less pages which is always nice. A formulaic thriller that reminded me quite a lot of 'Red Dragon', the first of the Hannibal books. A good read all the same with characters you actually care about.

So I have three books to go. Which, worryingly, is quite a lot to read in a month. Deciding to read a 1300 page book at #21 was probably ill-advised... but nae matter, I've got about 18 hours in the air to look forward to come the 29th December!

(It may be a Mr Men book if I'm stuck on 24 with only a few days to go. Soz).

So that's that, up to speed. Enjoy your chocolate in the morning, Christmas is coming!

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. 

Half Term Report (NEW JOB! NEW JOB!)

As I've dedicated many, many words to going on about two near misses recently, I will use this entry more as a half-way-through-the-year (give or take a week or so) update on Project 9626 as there is lots to update you on.

NEW JOB!!!

Last time I posted, I came THIS close to getting the No7 Assistant Marketing Manager position at Boots. To not get it was a big blow but apparently I was doing something right and had made an impression on them. Fast forward about ten days and I was invited to apply for a position on the Christmas Campaign Team for In-Store Marketing Communications. The would-be manager had been impressed by my CV and recommendation from the No7 interview and wanted to see me as soon as possible... she'd met with two internal applicants already and wasn't sold so there was a big opportunity there for me.

i.e. interview well and it's yours BQ!

I went for the interview a few days later and seemed to impress enough as I was offered the job of Assistant Marketing Manager the following day.

The one slightly negative issue is that it is only a six month contract with it being a Christmas-focused role. But it is a route into the company, and an opportunity to hopefully impress enough so that I can get a permanent job in the New Year. 

I'm basically treating it like a six month placement or job interview. It will be a hell of a motivator to knuckle down and work hard to secure a longer term career at Boots, whilst at the very least six months at Boots will be very strong on my CV if I wasn't able to stay on after.

Whilst I had a couple of other interviews lined up (one at a final stage), I wasn't in a position to turn Boots down. A job offer always outweighs a one in three chance. 

I start on Monday 6th July!

South Africa: Booked

This actually happened quite some time ago, but the blog took a big turn to misery-inducing job process entries but the big end of year trip booked!

I've decided to travel with the Barmy Army tour party so that I'm part of a big group of England supporters, with everything taken care of and not having to rely on anyone in Cape Town to put me up and entertain me for ten days. It is the more expensive option but having saved up for a good while, I'm not too worried. Travelling on my own and on my first cricket tour it felt like a no brainer to make it as easy as possible. Hopefully there will be some future tours where I can rope in some mates and we can go cheaper.

I fly 29th December!

Running

Man, I run a lot. 

I'm in that dead space that was always going to arrive in the middle of the year. Months from my last Half, months until my next Half. So it's very much a case of ticking over the miles and working on my pace. 

I'm well ahead of schedule in the race towards 600 miles and at this stage wouldn't be surprised if it topped 700 miles before the year is out. 

My pace is steadily improving with a ten miler a few weeks back at 7.48min/miles (which is a long way quicker than the 8.12min/miles at the Reading Half in March) and a 7.33min/miles five miler this morning... so the pace is there, it's just a matter of maintaining it.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but for some utterly ridiculous reason I have decided to enter the ballot for the 2016 London Marathon. 

I won't find out till October if I have a place, and at the moment I really don't want a place but I guess it's always good to keep pushing yourself. Right?

Right?!

Christ.

Books #10, 11, 12 and 13

As it's been such a while since I did a normal post, I've read four books.

Book #10 was 'Natchez Burning' which was fourth instalment of the Penn Cage series and it was probably the best of the lot. An 850 page mammoth though!

Books #11 and #12 were two books I picked up from Waterstones without really checking out their reviews on Goodreads. And it showed. 'The Three' and 'The Accident' ranged from meh to ok and taught me a valuable lesson. Never judge a book on it's cover and always, always check them on Goodreads.

Book #13 was the absolutely glorious 'Station Eleven'.

This is probably the most beautifully written book I have ever read. It focuses on a group of people adapting to life after an apocalyptic event wipes out 99% of the world's population, touching on fame, art and general day to day life in response to the world ending. It's brilliant. 

So there we are! Half way through the year and things are looking positive. Three weeks left in my current job so that promises to be very busy, and then the first day at big school will be here.

I better go and buy a pencil case.