All is well Down Under

Last month, I had a colonoscopy to check all was well in the bowels. I got to see were the section of bowel was removed - there were still staples inside by bowels ! Otherwise everything looked good, except for a small polyp which they burnt of and removed. It was confirmed as non-threatening just as I was boarding my plan for holidays, which was good news to start on ! Alas I did not manage to fly with Mimi though - she is on a standby ticket which saves about 75% of a normal ticket price, but means she cannot get on any flight that is fully booked, which my flight was.

So the last two and a bit weeks have been spent in Australia, catching up with Mimi's family and our friends. As we were staying with Mimi's brother, we got to spend some good time with his 4 month old son, Luca a.k.a "Munchie", who I have taken to calling "Cheeks" on account of his gorgeous big cheeks. Photos to come soon ! He is a beautiful baby, is very cute when he tries to talk, generally a happy boy and needless to say, he loves beardy kisses from Uncle Ben.

We were also very grateful that Luca's christening was arranged for when we were in Australia, so got to experience a Greek Orthodox service, as well as engage in the whirl of wine, food and loud chatter that is the Greek feast afterwards.

After all that, we needed some time for "us", so I insisted on dragging Mimi away for a day and a night to a surprise hotel / spa package. We had luxury massages, champagne and then some of the best food I've ever eaten at Da Noi - a Sardinian restaurant, which was followed by some quality movie action. After spending the next morning lounging in bed with breakfast we then headed out for a nice walk around the botanical gardens, where I had booked a picnic hamper with good food - and more champagne !

Not wanting to let the moment (and large amounts of champagne) slip by, I then bought out one last surprise for my sweetie - I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. Fortunately, after a small period of shock and surprise from her, she said yes ! So the last few days have been spent by both of us getting used to this idea, and slowly spreading the news to family, friends and facebook :)

Heading back home tonight - alas potentially alone again, as the flight is looking full which means Mimi may need to wait until Sunday for her departure. But first of all, a big send off BBQ with "just the close family" - 15 to 20 people - to say goodbye and announce our wonderful news to those who haven't heard yet. For those back in the UK - see you soooon !

Cold Turkey before Xmas

So today I had my last injection, and tonight I am due to swallow the last of the Cepecitabine tablets. My right arm still hurts a little from a fortnight, my scalp is dry as heck and a couple of my fingers are starting to get quite painful around the nails... but I'm still in one piece !

This morning's MRI scan was delayed due to a broken MRI machine, so I am due to return to their other clinic tomorrow morning to get that done, after which I have an appointment on Thursday to discuss the next steps. Only then will I know 100% if we are going ahead with surgery, which would mean a break of Chemo over xmas, or if they have other things in mind. If they say otherwise, I will scream, but I'd rather do what's best advised rather than what suits me.

Got most of my xmas shopping done over the weekend too (much of it online) so looking forward to a pleasant and manageable run up to xmas holidays. Overall feeling quite confident that half of this is all behind me now, and with help, patience, experience and strength, the latter half will go even better.

More when I've spoken to the doctor on Thursday...

Cheese me

Seven days in the alps a couple of weeks ago were fantastic for my new board and awful for any concept of weight loss I may of been entertaining ! Cheese and beer a plenty kept me fueled for days of piste carving and nights of liver pickling, along with lots of other food things in the category of "not vegetable". Actually the dinners weren't too bad, our catered chalet had some good balanced meals, it was more the lunches of potato, pasta and bread - often all three - that were somewhat nutritionally void.

But the slope conditions for the holiday were unlike more recent holidays - we had powder ! Piles of it ! This came with some nasty winds and hail on a couple of days, but there was some phat, deep snow to play in that made up for it. Being a Euro resort, much of that powder vanished quickly as it got tracked out, but actually I was enjoying the on-piste almost as much, so didn't mind.

Anyhow, lots of photos are online now (hence the delay to this post) and it's been a very good boarding season overall. My boots and bindings are looking a bit shabby though... might be time for some new ones ;)

Le Fat Bob est mort, vive le Titan !

Alas on my last holiday, my beloved Fat Bob passed away. Fat bob was, of course, the snowboard I picked up in 2002. Manufactured by K2, he had to endure my full bulk for six years, going from novice to advanced-intermediate, carving terrible turns to popping terrible jumps, and generally taking a nasty beating off several rocks and snow park features.

All of this finally cracked the metal edge around the edge of the board, which combined with a couple of gouges into the base caused water and air to get into the board-core. Being stored between seasons probably allowed this gap to expand, and so on the first day of boarding, Fat Bob broke down. Many drink were consumed in his honour, and I look forward to mounting him on the wall "trophy-style" in the future.

So as we say a collective goodbye to Fat Bob, we can now welcome the K2 Titan ! Having just waited long enough for the end of season sales, I can safely say I picked up this board for not a lot more than the original full price Fat Bob cost me. However, this is a higher level intermediate board, 2 cm shorter than Bob (166cm long), a little lighter but plenty more "pop and gnarlyness" integrated into it's honeycomb multi-core blah blah blah... actually I have no idea how good it is yet, but with snowboards, price is often the indicator, and this board is around the right price range for someone of my abilities. The slightly shorter length may cause me to curse it's lesser stability, but equally it may cause me to praise it's smaller form as I attempt to pull-off 180 jumps and ride switch.

Next week sees our group trip to Tignes, where I get to try the Titan out on hopefully some good conditions - well looks like it's sunny for the next few days, but on our first day of boarding, it's set to dump fresh sweet powder...

Reaffirmations

As a man who frequently dreams of reinvention, but rarely comes close to doing much about it, I think it might be time to abuse my blog to help reaffirm my goals. Things have slipped a little admittedly part due to my glut of holidays this winter season, one snowboard trip to Les Arcs during which my beloved snowboard, Fat Bob, gave up on being trodden on and busted, making me realise how hard it actually is to find a decent sized wide snowboard for hire (or even purchase) in a French alpine resort. And more recently, a trip to Romania with Mimi to hunt vampires, overtake horse and carts in our rental car and eat lots of meat and pickled things. Oh yeah, and I'm off boarding again in a couple of weeks - poor me :)

So having burnt out all my holiday in winter 2008, I need to reaffirm what to do with the rest of my time. Back in June 2007 I wrote this post which listed five major projects. Firstly was to lose weight, which to a degree I have done. But anyone who clicks through or watches the Traineo image on the right will have noted a static number. I assure you I am still updating this, but cannot seem so shift weight at my currently lifestyle. So it's time to refine that project with two more affirmations:

#1: I will go to the gym twice a week during a normal working week. No exceptions. This is on top of any third activity I do (currently Yoga)

#2: Cut down drinking and unhealthy food by drinking more pints of water when out (half of the "addiction" is having a pint in hand, you see) and trying harder to plan more meals / making more homemade lunches (which is something Mimi and I are both focusing on)

I also stated back in June that I would write more. Well, blogging is always a good background practice for that. I've just completed a creative writing course that didn't teach much technique but did get me writing. So hopefully I can keep some velocity up with that - I started writing up my travels in Romania, so hopefully I can blog some of that later on. So let's try an affirmation of:

#3: I will write more, either about Romania, or another short topic, and blog it. Before the end of April, ideally.

Also, a new affirmation from a comedy course I finally took last December

#4: Perform one stand up comedy gig this year

What else from June ? Coding... well that isn't happening out of hours, but that's not a bad thing with everything else I'd rather focus on. Instead I will make an affirmation to apply it within work - but that will come up as part of my work objectives (currently under review) so I'll leave that off this list. Another thing was finances... well, I am making steady progress in tracking finances, but may of signed up for one too many accounts and cards on the way, and forgotten a few too many passwords for the online accounts. So one extra affirmation to get myself ready for a new financial year and ISA allowance is:

#5: Ensure I have a full picture of all accounts, ISAs and general savings by the end of the financial year.

oh yeah, and...

#6: Sort out final bills from my old house share within the next two weeks (sorry Jon :)

And finally there was talk of learning. My basic German came in some use in Romania when the English let me down, and Mimi and I's French helped support what gaps the German had. So it would be nice to bolster these language skills where required, but in truth without a specific holiday destination requiring them, language learning can be fast forgotten. So I can replace learning with just a resolution to keep in control of things, get on the front foot and take control of things.

But... hold on... what about FUN !?!?!! One more affirmation for me then:

#7: I will find time to play computer games and / or read books at least one hour a week.

oh go on, one more:

#8: I will try and organise at least one board gaming session with friends every month.

Much better !!! Hopefully all this self assurance hasn't been too dull for the reader. Some far more exciting news coming for the next post...

Back from the future (+11 GMT)

I'm back from Australia, but must admit the "wonderment" of being on the other side of the world didn't come through as it did with the round the world travels. Mostly this is probably due to us not actually leaving the city of Melbourne - most of the trip was devoted to seeing friends and Mimi's family, and where it wasn't, it was devoted to sitting about doing blissful, sweet nothing (well, playing games on my new PSP, which pretty much equates to the same thing).

It was great meeting the aunts, uncles and cousins who up until know had been merely a character in a couple of anecdotes. It was also particularly nice to meet up with old workmates and friends from my last time over there. And finally it was great to play a lot of Guitar Hero and drink plenty of Aussie beer. I also got a chance to play through all of Half-life : Portal, which I now declare to be the best game made for the PC since, I dunno, Doom ?

So now back at work and pushing through some new years resolutions type stuff. Trying to push back hard on the weight and fitness again - last year got me almost two stone lighter, but those were the two easy stones I think ! Really hoping to battle my way down to 17 stone the start of this year. Fortunatley, my exercise regime has evolved now, such that I have cycling to work (2-3 times a week), the gym (trying for twice a week, but...), yoga on Tuesdays and practice runs at the weekend when Jon and I are both available. Hopefully by the time the 10K run in May comes around, I'll be in a good place.

Along with the yoga, I signed up for a brief creative writing course. Hopefully out of this I can develop a few writing ideas I've had rattling around for a while, and at least "give it a go". The only failure is not trying ;) Simliarly, a stand-up comedy course I finally took is beckoning me to trying out a stand up gig just the once. Not sure I'm advertising that one just yet though.

Amsterdam

Last weekend was the first time Mimi and I got away from London, just the two of us, and went somewhere new together. Well, somewhere new for her, as we headed to Amsterdam, which I have visited a few times before. This time was different for me though, as I was able to take in more of the culture and feel of the city with new travel-widened eyes, as well as using the time to wind down, relax and recharge my batteries somewhat. Previous visits had been a little more hectic, and involved a lot more time in varied coffee establishments rather than seeing the sights ! Needless to say, we got a few photos

Another great part of the trip was to see old travel friends in there local city, and taking advantage of that local knowledge. Sure, the Van Gough museum was great, and we picked up some nice art posters to add to the empty walls of our new house. But just going to nice cafes, chatting about lives and sharing stories together was awesome. And of course, going out a great bar (The Pacific Parc) to dance at until 3am was great - the music was eclectic and I heard a great tune from the previously unknown to me BALKAN BEAT BOX (go to the site and listen to Adir Adirim - really fun tune to dance to).

Batteries somewhat recharged, we have got two more weeks of trying to furnish the flat (another weekend night in IKEA for me !) and get things perfect for the upcoming house warming. This should tie in perfectly with the final day of Movember - which is coming on nicely at the moment. My face isn't enjoying the regular shaves (never did, hence the beard) so I am letting the stubble get a bit TOO long at times, but overall it's a chopper style masterpiece Mo if I say so myself. And I do. Sponsorship and "Mo blog" links should all be below !

Spoon are great and so is Italy and so am I

Joyful is I, for today my pre-ordered Spoon album entitled "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" arrived. For those unacquainted with them, Spoon are a superb band, probably one of my favourite of any genre. Catchy chords and tunes, a great singer (Britt Daniels), many different sounds in each album - like the Eels or Blur perhaps - and solid song writing skills add up to a several superb albums, the latest of which might be the greatest. Don't take my word for it though, go listen for yourself.

Just came back from a long weekend in Italy, seeing the Palio horse race. Photos should find themselves onto Smugmug once I've found a spare minute - not likely to be too soon though as this coming weekend sees me off to Wales for more partying and boys-weekend away fun. It's combined with some hardcore outdoor walking too, so net the health might not suffer to much...

Finally today was my financial exam. Felt like I did quite well, but no results yet. Hopefully an e-mail later today will supply that. I guess the last exams I did were many years ago, and I've always had a certain expectation to not just pass but to pass them well. So fingers crossed for 95%+ then :)

[BREAKING NEWS] I got 93% - which I am still pretty bloody happy with :)