Welcome to my world

I live in London with my two crazy cats, Phil and Grant. This is my online training journal as I will be running the British London 10km in July, and I hope you enjoy your visit!

• Been a bit busy

  Posted on May 1st, 2009 John 2 comments

  So, the new job’s started. A bit of a gentle introduction to the job (well if you count 30 things on your to-do list within 30 minutes of starting quiet!) I get to go jetsetting around the world still … unfortunately nowhere as exotic as Spain anymore. Chesterfield next week (which suits me for visiting the family) and sunny Solihull the week after that. But on the whole I’m enjoying it - it’s a different job entirely and it’s very weird not to be thinking about Helpdesk tickets, moaning customers and service levels.

  And seeing as this is supposed to be my training blog, here’s a training update. I did some gym sessions this week, which went well. My foot seems to be back to normal now so that’s all good too.

  P.S. Have you checked out Walford Web’s new feature - the cast wiki? I’m frantically importing character bios into it, and are up to the surname beginning with V so far. With a bit of luck everything will be imported by Monday. Click here to have a sneak peek!

  Training, Work EastEnders, Gym, Walford Web, Work

• Last day

  Posted on April 22nd, 2009 John 2 comments

  It’s been a funny old day (as Arkwright would have said on Open All Hours). It was my last day in my old job, as I’m off for a couple of days now and start my new role (in the same company) on Monday.

  It’s fair to say that on the one hand I can’t wait to start the new one, but on the other hand I’m bricking it completely. As of Monday I’m responsible for the training, development, resourcing and succession planning for over 900 people! Never done anything like it before so it’ll be interesting times. And I’m not quite sure what I’ve let myself in for, as I received 15 emails in one hit today from my new boss with stuff to look at next week.

  But hey, two days off now … tomorrow’s taken up with a day out at Thorpe Park, and as the weather’s hopefully going to hold out until the weekend I have high hopes that it’ll be a brilliant day out. And if it stays nice I fancy a trip to the seaside, and old haunts so will have to hit Brighton at some point. Call it the calm before the storm …

  Work New job

• Back to the grind

  Posted on April 3rd, 2009 John 3 comments

  So I’m back in the UK now after a lovely week in Spain. Well … the nights out were lovely (if a tad late - I don’t think I could ever get used to still being eating dinner at midnight too often), and the days were busy but flew by.

  Back this afternoon, courtesy of Easyjet (actually an airline I quite like to fly with - they’re cheap, their planes are new and clean and the crews are very friendly). And of course back to my beautiful boys who have waited patiently all week for me to come home to give them some cuddles. Don’t worry - they’re not abandoned whenever I go away, they have a babysitter who feeds them twice a day and gives them lots of attention.

  So, now it’s the weekend … First on the agenda is recovering from the late nights, second is possibly going for a run (my foot has now stopped hurting for three days straight, but I don’t want to risk thrashing it too much) and third hoping and praying the web server is going to stay up long enough to let obsessive compulsive fans of Danielle whitter on about how much they miss her. Me … if I never need another picture of her again it’ll be too soon.

  Work EastEnders, Spain, Work

• Asturias

  Posted on March 31st, 2009 John No comments

  The part of Spain I’m stopping in is called Asturias, and I’m currently in the city of Aviles. It’s a very Spanish bit of Spain - there are very few English speakers around, and it’s fun to try and make yourself understood when you go out shopping.

  Work Spain

• Hola from Spain!

  Posted on March 31st, 2009 John No comments

  So, here’s my first blog from Spain.

  It’s beautiful here in Asturias (which is the northern part of the Spain, and weather-wise very much like the Lake District in the UK), so it’s not too hot and prone to being rainy every now and again.

  The people we work with in Spain are fantastic and always very helpful - they took us out last night for a wonderful dinner of tapas, cider and cider sangria (of all things). So going to bed last night at 1am and back up at 7am does not make for a very rested me.

  And now the bad news. My foot, which I thought had got better suddenly started playing up again on Sunday (which was probably because of too much walking around Stansted Airport before the flight). It’s still hurting a little bit, so if it’s not sorted by the time I get back from Spain, it’ll be a trip to the doctors to see what’s up.

  Training, Work Injured, Spain, Work

• A rushy roundy sort of day

  Posted on March 28th, 2009 John No comments

  First up … my foot’s feeling a lot better today. The pain has just about gone, so hopefully I’ll be able to do a bit of running while I’m out in Spain. One of my colleagues has been out there for a few days and has already told me there’s a beautiful park near the hotel which has a running track going round the outside of it. Makes me ask myself why there’s not one of those in east London … hopefully it’s be a legacy of the Olympics.

  Today mostly comprises me doing loads of washing, packing, making a big list of things to remember to pack tonight - it’s a bit of a packing pain having to take work, casual and gym stuff all at once). And then I’ve got an early start in the morning, flight’s at 11:50 so I’ll need to be gone from my house by 9 to drive up to Stansted (fortunately that’s not too far from me and at that time of the morning it should be quiet). Only thing I’m completely paranoid about tonight is the clocks going forward, so I’ll probably set 400 alarm clocks all over the place to make sure I get up at the right time and in the right timezone.

  Training, Work Spain

• My left foot’s knackered

  Posted on March 26th, 2009 John 1 comment

  It’s not been a very good day - my left foot has been killing me all day … it actually feels like a minor break (having done it before I know exactly the sensation). But I don’t know why it’s happened - I was fine yesterday and probably did something stupid either on the way to work or in the night - it only takes a little turn to injure it.

  So obviously no training for me today, and I’m keeping my feet up tonight and weight off it. If it’s anything like other times I’ll be back on it in a couple of days, in time for my trip to Spain (assuming my employers ever get to authorising the flight).

  If I make it the hotel sounds lovely … it’s a 17th century Palace that’s been converted into a modern hotel. And according to someone else from our team who’s already there, it’s gorgeous. And 22 degrees Celsius at the moment.

  Training, Work Injured, Work

• A windy day

  Posted on March 25th, 2009 John No comments

  Well the weather held (just) even though it rained quite heavily a couple of times, so come 3 o’clock I managed to get out for a run outside.

  It’s a great circuit that I have when I’m in the City, which takes me from Southwark Bridge along the Embankment to Westminster Bridge. From there, the only bit I hate - that’s dodging the tourists who are too stupid and can’t be bothered to look where they’re going as I cross the Bridge, and then running back along the other side of the river, past the London Eye, Tate Modern, Millennium Bridge and back to where I started. It works out at about 6.3km according to my gadget watch (I’ll blog about the toys I have to run with in later posts).

  Today was probably one of the best runs I’ve done in a bit, nice pace, and no pain - in the end I covered the 6.3km in 49 minutes, which I think is pretty respectable. I walk and run in intervals, building up from 3 minutes, through 4, 5, 6 and finally 7 minutes. When I’m on my 7 minute run I’m getting back to where I started. So, as I can do this now comfortably it’ll be time to start on 4 minutes and work up to 8 instead.

  And then … a bolt out of the blue surprise at the end of the day. Now, I was due to go to Chesterfield next week for a management meeting, but my former boss gets hold of me just as I’m about to leave for the day and asks if I want to go to Spain with her next week to do a short project? Erm … let’s think about that. Chesterfield or Spain? So, with my new boss’ blessing I’m off to Spain on Sunday for a few days - I’ll have to take the running stuff with me so I can keep in training while I’m out there.

  Anyway, enough rambling today, and I have a plea. If you’re reading this, it’d be lovely to hear from you and get some comments or encouragement. It’s looking like quite a lonely blog with no comments added to anything!

  Training, Work Running, Work

• I had a job interview today

  Posted on March 23rd, 2009 John No comments

  Didn’t get a chance to do any training today unfortunately as I had an interview at work for an internal vacancy (there’s two very high-powered posh jobs going at the moment, and if I get either of them I’ll be bloody amazed).

  The interview was very strange, being done over the phone so I didn’t need to get dressed up for the occasion (we work in a very laid back office in the heart of Central London), so at 3pm today I was in a meeting room having a mild panic attack (as it was the first job interview I’ve done in about 5 years).

  But … it seemed to go alright. The person interviewing me was impressed with my passion and enthusiasm for the role, and how committed I seemed to be towards making it work (and I actually am - the jobs are all about making sure our employees get the training and career progression they deserve, and in a massive multinational company like the one I work for that’s difficult to achieve).

  I won’t hear anything until next week … so fingers crossed that it’ll be good news.

  Work Interviews, Work