I’m 29 and a day!

YAY!
Happy Birthday me!!!!
(Can I be more self-centered?)

I’m feeling so great since yesterday. I received lots of messages through facebook and emails. I had to reply to 54 comments / wall posts / messages! Not to mention my new blogger friends! Lots of people called me as well. Even my ‘man to be’ called me from Brazil! I’m so happy!

Thank you all so much!!!!

I am SO not going into that...

My many-days extravaganza started Tuesday night by going to see ‘Alice in wonderland 3D’. Although not delivering something extraordinary the movie was really nice. It follows the well known (at least to me) creations by Tim Burton with a predictable story. However, the aesthetics are captivating and I didn’t get tired or bored with the story. I’m a huge fan of Helena Bonham Carter and she delivers an incredible Red Queen.


My journey to the client yesterday went very well. I traveled there just for the day. I had 2 hours 20 minutes of journey each way. Since I don’t do this kind of trips often, I didn’t mind. I had my book, my PSP and one of my new graphic novels and I was happy. Unfortunately during the trip, mobile phone’s reception was lousy and I missed some birthday calls. I came back to London with ‘JJ’ waiting for me in the train station!

It wasn't as tacky as that

I was planning to arrange a posh, romantic, dinner with him in a nice restaurant. I wanted to do something different for my birthday. Getting ready for the client visit however occupied most of my time and state of mind that I didn’t prepare anything. By the time I was back in London I was exhausted to even think of something extravagant to do.

We ended up having a not so aristocratic dinner in a Chinese place close to my place but we didn’t mind. I received my bday presents (yes in plural) as well there. I was quite surprised finding out that one of them was a pair of cuffs. Unfortunately we were both too tired to try them yesterday but I am not going to miss the chance in the near future… (I have the best boyfriend ever…)

The celebration continues with plans to go clubbing / dancing / drinking this Saturday with ‘gb’ and other of my friends. I haven’t been out since the early hours of the morning for a while now and it is long due.

Things turn ugly…

I came to work yesterday morning all happy and chatty about my half marathon. I was greeted by my colleagues with humour and laughter by all, except one. One of my mates at work did not join in the conversation and I noticed it at the moment but didn’t pay too much attention to it. An hour after that, I saw him leave the office without telling anything. That also stroke me as weird but I knew that he is frequent smoker so I thought that he would go out for a cigarette.

Then we received an email that he has been made redundant!
Almost nobody knew about it and we were stunned. I was speechless.

We are quite a small company and no one was fired / been redundant in the past years. My colleague’s departure yesterday was quite noticeable. I can’t help but feel sad for him. He was one of the latest additions to the company, more than a year ago, that means that he will not get compensated enough. The times are still tough and I don’t think it will be easy on him. We’ve been out a lot of times in the last months and we were getting along very well… We’ve already arranged his birthday drinks at the end of the month.

The question that came to everybody’s mind though is: “who will be next?”.


On quite a different subject, I am happy to say that it is my birthday tomorrow! I’m turning 29! I’ve arranged to be out of the office for the day. I even plan to be out of London to be more precise. I’m visiting some clients / users for some consultation and training on our software. It’s the first time I’m doing that and I’m quite excited about it. I like the fact that I am beginning to have a more active role in the company and (maybe) secure my position here (hopefully).



As a pre-birthday gift I’ve ordered and just received the following comic books. I’d like to thank Dyl for recommending / suggesting one of them that I never heard before: the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis

Guardians of the Galaxy: Legacy

X-MEN: God Loves, Man Kills

I survived the experience

I had the most amazing weekend!On Friday night I went out with ‘JJ’ to the local ‘Ballans Café’ for dinner. It was nice seeing him after a few days apart and sharing our latest news over a nice dinner.We woke up really early on Saturday morning to go to get the rented car. Fortunately for us they didn’t have available the type of car we booked (Vauxhall Astra) so we got upgraded for free. We had the option between Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Zafira and Renault Scenic. For no particular reason we picked the Scenic and drove to Windsor. The day was wonderful, slightly cold but sunny. We walked to the castle and took some photos. We spent the rest of our visit enjoying breakfast in the high street and then walking all the way to Eton to take a look at the famous Eton College which most of the royal family attended. It was fun watching the (filthy rich) pupils running between classes.

The crooked house of Windsor

The Windsor Castle

Eton

Next stop was IKEA. It is like a tradition we have now. Each time we have a car we HAVE to visit IKEA. ‘JJ’ wanted to buy a new bookcase and as always I was able to find some little bits to buy as well. I got some funky pillows for my living room. The day ended with us having large portions of pasta (to get some carbs) and watching 'Run fat boy run' which was appropriate for the occasion. (I love this movie)…

However the major event of the weekend was the trip to Bath and my half marathon on Sunday. My housemate (‘hm’), ‘JJ’, me and ‘gb’ (also doing the run) left London around 7 o’clock in the morning. It’s a little bit more than 2 hours drive. We made our stop for breakfast and coffee where I only had some fruit and nuts. I was feeling a bit nervous but the journey itself was pretty nice. We were singing, dancing and laughing in the car (as usual), making a fool out of ourselves to the other cars. We arrived there in time to find a decent parking place within a walkable distance from the center and we headed to the starting point.

The place was packed. There were 15,000 registered runners. Imagine all of them accompanied by family and friends. It was simply awesome. Bath was overwhelmed. I left my housemate and ‘JJ’ to find a spot between the spectators and I headed with ‘gb’ to our starting point. When we registered for the run, we registered our target time of finish. That information placed each runner into a specific position separating the runners from the joggers. We were in the last group to reach the start line but of course we didn’t mind. The weather was amazing, a bit cold but very sunny. We were so excited about the whole thing.

And the race began.I stayed with ‘gb’ for the first 5 miles. We then separated with him running ahead. He is in a better shape than I am and he has a natural talent in running. He used to compete when younger. I finished the rest of the race running on my own.

There were so many spectators however cheering, yelling and clapping their hands in the freezing cold that made it all bearable and much more enjoyable. It was sunny but very cold (around 2 degrees Celsius) and there were people outside their houses for more than 2 hours trying to cheer the runners! It was an amazing experience. I had my name written on the front of my t-shirt and I could hear people calling me, trying to encourage me. I can’t explain how empowering that was.
I also managed to see ‘JJ’ and ‘hm’ in both laps. They were ecstatic trying to get some pictures of us running and also cheer for us!

I still remember a guy holding his baby in front of his house next to the river, yelling: ‘Hey Nik, keep it going son, you can do it’! There was another guy playing a guitar in the cold for more than two hours! I can’t really explain what it meant for the runners.

On a very funny side, there were runners dressed as supermen, batmen etc. There was a guy dressed in a medieval armor, another dressed as PacMan and two guys running with massive fake boobs for the breast cancer foundation. I was told that there was a guy running with a stroller and his child in it (I missed that).
The route was very beautiful since it included parts of the city centre and parts in the nearby wooded area. Unfortunately it was a bit hilly making it a bit tough for me. I was really struggling in the last mile but I was so happy and proud when I reached the end!
I did the 13.1 miles (22 kilometers) in 2 hours and 33 minutes. I don’t know if it’s too slow but to be honest I didn’t train that much and I was ill the past week.

Overall it was an amazing experience and I will do it again. I don’t care that I have muscle pain and walk funny for a few days…

The medal