What a whirlwind these past two weeks have been! I’ve been so busy learning and doing the new job all at the same time that life has shifted about three gears at once.
Lately I have ended each day with a mixture of fatigue and energy of the “still on a spin” type. So, I end up both wanting to go to bed to sleep until the next month, and wanting to do plenty of things instead, such as reading personal email (something that I am managing to do just about once a week now), looking at friends’ Facebook news and tweets, cooking, watching missed TV series, working on sewing projects, thinking up personal development objectives, brainstorming work-related questions, calling Mum & Dad back, planning holidays, travel, cocktail nights, cultural stuff, dates and dinners with loved ones, reading the Economist (for the past two weeks, I’ve hardly been able to read past the Bagehot column), flicking through Mr Topp’s blog and all of my Google Reader and Del.icio.us stuff, etc., etc.
In the end, this poor little blog has been much neglected, left out of date and lonely in the absence of fresh news…
All in all, I am enjoying this period of manic activity and intense intellectual involvement, absorbing information and understanding its practical use, decoding sensitivities and relationships, thinking tactically and strategically, learning a new language (because, yes, joining a new company is not so different from entering a new country).
My days are very much re-shaped by the new morning hours (earlier!), the absence of running (to be resolved), the train journeys and ways to make them useful, and the decisions that I make in the evening to make the best use of the little time I have for, er, the other parts of my life. I am still to figure out how to get back into running and workouts.
On recent life news, I should like to mention that I recently:
- discovered what a hurdy-gurdy is, and heard one been played
- discovered the difference between Scottish and Swedish bagpipes
- learnt how to smoke a pipe
- customised a company t-shirt
- had a whole afternoon of shopping on Oxford St only to come back home with nothing
- seen AC/DC on stage
- discovered a new bar in Camden that happened to have an AC/DC vintage photos exhibition on.
- created a lamb & mint burger that won much praise at a BBQ
- registered my interest with Shelter to run the 2010 London Marathon for them, but failed to enter the Marathon’s general ballot on time (besides, my butt still hurts from that annoying tailbone injury sustained in my last 10k race
) - paid £12 of late fees on an old credit card that I’m not using anymore and to which a once-a-year payment had been charged unnoticed
- discovered a good Japanese restaurant near Holborn and went to see an odd and beautifully performed play/dance show.
- enjoyed a good evening of music at the RFC that included a really neat piece of Grieg’s music and a great-as-always performance by Sarah Chang, who as usual sported the most incongruously exhuberant outfit (this time, a gigantic neon pink cocktail dress).
- ate four slices of the hottest-ever pizza — Papa John’s Hot Pepper Passion. Four slices.
A life full of stuff indeed.
And to wrap it all up, a few links worth seeing. Because they are fun. Courtesy of, once again, Mr Topp, who does not commute to Staines and therefore keeps his blog updated:
- Horatio from CSI Bad, on swine flu.
- A pretty psychedelic view of the flu (in general – not just swine’s)
- Beautiful pictures of space launches.
- A certain version of the Kama Sutra – spéciale dédicace pour Cyril et Arnaud.
Nighty-night.
