2008 #25 - Quiet One

A quieter weekend after last week, involving family time and listening to a lot of but what probably only amounted to a small proportion of the first ever 72 hour podcast (keithandthegirl.com).

What progress?

1. A couple of my meals seemed a little large last week so i'll watch that this time. I'm wondering if I can stretch my Madras to 4 servings, but then thats a lot of meals eating the same thing. This is what the freezers for though, right? Lunch-wise everything is on track and back to normal barring today where a visit to what is essential a health food shop led to me snacking on yoghurt covered raisins. I hadn't had them in a while see..

2. Played plenty of fake poker during the podcast listening hours. Got back up and lost it all again. Standard stuff and the weekday rule remains. It's not pissing me off quite so much now as i've remembered that when I play in the higher cost tournaments and there's less dumb fuck call-all play to contend with, I do better overall. Shame i'm back playing with the morons again.

3. I'm not even sure where my camera is right now, but there was no occasion this week where i'd have taken it anywhere, which is of course, the new rule.

4. Didn't make it out at the weekend but managed a weeknight activity with a couple of people I see a little less often! Saw a pretty cool Jazz duo at a local music bar.

5. I didn't spend any time concentrating on music this week because it was firmly penciled inked in that Sunday would be all about that, with the lyrical half of my loose duo due round to show me his progress. Turned out he a) forgot and b) made other plans. I sent a passive aggressive "ok no prob" in response. No grudge but considering he'd told me he was looking forward to the jam four days earlier it was a surprising turn. So, I fail this one due to others, though I have spent a fair bit of time on the guitar during the week, so it's not a dead loss.

6. Still no work goals. This was actually addressed at our team meeting without any prompting from me. Funny to watch an explanation of the situation as an exception as if it didn't happen every single year.

7. I've been considering career stuff this week, mostly within the company rather than outside. I'm thinking that now I've decided to stick in Leicester for a bit i'd like to get back to working a little nearer. Once again reconsidering what this means in terms of options.

8. Went for my Tuesday swim after a 20 day gap. The first third was an absolute nightmare. I felt no strength whatsoever. I had also made the mistake of cycling to the leisure centre. Big mistake. The distance is just enough to get shagged out whilst not yet being warmed up only to stop for 10 minutes to get changed and start again. This is not the way to ease into exercise, particularly after a bout of illness. I also managed another ride, although right now I have no idea where I went (correction - I went direction Anstey, which is one big up hill struggle). What I didn't do is lift weights, and this is really what I need to do. Mini-goal for the week is to get back into this. Overall though, not a bad week. I also fixed the things on my bike that most needed fixing, which should keep this thing going nicely. Impressed by my abilities in this area given how long since I last did it.

Next few weeks are gonna be more fun than progress I think. I'm in a cautiously optimistic mood. I'm even refraining from a sarcastic toned close of "what's going to happen to change that"? I don't think anything bad will happen this week.

Actually something bad did happen last week, a little distanced from me, but enough to get me thinking. A former colleague with a young family unexpectedly died. Talking here about my thoughts being with the family is meaningless, as nobody knows who I am or who i'm talking about, though they certainly are. More on my mind is my long held stupid assumption that i'm going to be the guy that lives to 100. In those terms i'm only 25% done, but it could just as easily all end tomorrow. In my dying second would I be able to say "no regrets"? Hell no. Not by the longest shot I can imagine. I wonder how people who can say that manage it.

Nonetheless, I remain largely unchanging but cautiously optimistic. I'm really not as smart as I used to think I was. (there's the sarcastic tone!).