Coming into 2010, it was clear this was the year that could potentially make or break me. Coming off a mid-life crisis in 2009 a nasty break up in 2008 that was finally formalized in 2009, and major changes that seemed intent on tossing my well laid plans aside, I thought four things would be a small number of items to focus on - turns out even those four are a big ask. ...
So John Terry lost the England football captaincy - strange to me considering the quite public exploits of Sven Goran Ericksson and Mark Pallios back in the day; the recent activities of Avram Grant and the fact that none of the names being touted as Terry replacements have covered themselves in glory in the past. He should simply have listened to the Vera show - and stayed off the friend’s ex… The bloke in the pod next to mine at work says footballers count money in millions of pounds and sense in pence.. Haterade maybe.. But this list of top ten gaffes makes an intriguing read.. ...
Talent is the desire to practice…..It is that you love something so much that you are willing to make an enormous sacrifice and an enormous commitment to that, whatever it is – task, game, sport, what have you. - Malcom Gladwell Last year I closed out a fair bit of my plans - at least I was waaay above the average 12%. This year, I decided I would only do one thing - Live Dangerously. ...
TGIF… I get to stay awake till the wee hours of the morning without thinking about any repercussions! The last bout of insomnia I have struggled with yielded dividends today. A solution that popped up duirng one of those nights sailed through at work today! And in a funny way, I am kinda sad that the insomnia faded significantly.. I miss the late night/ wee hours of the morning pleasure I had for a week :( ...
Hi, My name is theOOhj and I am an insomniac… And I have been this way for all of three years! My friend agony aunt Titi asked me if it was physiological or psychological…..100% gibberish… plenty grammar.. All I know is that I can’t sleep…. and when I do manage to sleep I dream.. of different things.. people.. places…. events… and of her….. the one who chose to fade to black…. her voice is still etched in my mind’s ear like the striations of a fatigue crack.. and I am left with the questions.. the could haves, the would haves and the should haves…..Each day, I remind myself that it is over… dead… that we are done……but…… ...
Last year was about a laundry list - 20 things I wanted to get sorted by year’s end. I did Ok.. Never got to learn french and missed out on the distinction..This year I want to have focus areas - key directions in which my energies will be focused. Career: Manage my transition to a new job/ new city; target getting confirmed on the job and a raise by year end. God and Faith: Get back into the regular church thing - sort out my niggling God issues. Weight and Health: Get a full physical exam - for info - and shed the excess weight sharp-ish. Love and Loving: End my girl hiatus; actively get back into the meeting and friendship scene again. One more, which doesn’t count as a specific goal I think, but which is needed nonetheless, is to toughen up. I fear for the past few years I have grown too soft, more altruistic than is necessary. 2010 is my year.. of living dangerously.. ...
Christmas was ok.. It was WHITE at the third time of asking- wish I took pictures of me trying to move around in knee deep snow. Got invited out to a bash by the guys where there was a wee bit too much alcohol. That is guaranteed to loosen up a few tongues - and I heard a lot about certain people I shouldn’t have heard! Thankfully I’m out of here in a bit, so I can forget I ever heard those things. ...
The rude shock of seeing the bathroom scale inching steadily towards 100kg has given me the proverbial kick up the back side. I need to start eating healthy ASAP. Eighteen months of binging on KFC, Greggs and Pizza Hut has done my weight in, and added a few inches to the waist line. The big problem though is I have zilch experience in drawing up menus and creating shopping lists. I’m good when its a crowd going shopping, and I can eyeball what they are buying and decide. Like the googlephile I am, i jumped to google, to see if there were any hints I could get. I stumbled on the UK Food Safety Agency’s Eat well website. Loads of useful information even though it seemed overwhelming at times! ...
This has been one hell of a ride. There was change aplenty - the good, the bad and the iffy. In hindsight, maybe some decisions in 2008 were hasty, maybe they were not…Bottom line is that I survived.. Call them random occurrences, put them down to luck or whatever – I think it was Divine Providence that pulled me through some really difficult times. It had to be – from getting THE opportunity after it had closed, to significant delays on bus timings that enabled me catch the train that got the ball rolling, to having a friend leave her house at the just the right time I needed a new house to stay in a new city (P you totally rock!), to getting Brooke Fraser’s Shadowfeet at the time things felt the bleakest, there had to be some orchestration behind it all. The plus side is I learned a few hard lessons - still learning even newer, harder ones. ...
This provides some background to this and this (number five) She still wore her hair in a ‘fro… still wore only lip gloss… still wore a yellow shirt and black pants….still followed Liverpool… still had the dimple on her left cheek…. still wrote with her left hand… still kept a big jar of peanut butter in her fridge….still laughed at my inane jokes…still hummed whilst making her mean stew! I could be forgiven for thinking that time had stood still…. and it was the first day again….. only she was more grown up… More alluring.. more woman less girl… ...