dave-smith.co.uk

So after a flurry of posts after a year of almost nothing I’ve gone a bit quiet, no real reason other than too busy to really be able to post anything vaguely useful or meaningful. I’m working on a couple of useful (for me anyway) reference posts on my preferred way of setting things up and I’ve been continuing to have an interesting time playing with some cool and (sadly) exciting technologies.

Of course in all this cool and busyness something has to give, this blog being one thing and the other being my training, although if I’m being honest with myself the only thing stopping me training is my current lack of mojo. However these is news on this front, although I still haven’t been out for a run, I’ve done a couple of sessions of martial arts and the resultant temporary disability caused by doing something have almost spurred me back into training.

Notice the almost, I’m almost there, almost going for a run, almost dusting off the bike or the gym membership card. Almost.

Just the final step to take, or is it the first step? Every journey starts with a first step, and so does this one, tomorrow evening is martial arts, and from there it starts

One step at a time……

So after 7 years and a month I’ve moved on professionally, a multitude of reasons most of which it wouldn’t be right for me to talk about, but suffice to say the time was right, after all timewise with a good lawyer and mitigating circumstances I could’ve got less for murder!

There is no job to go to at this stage, what there is is a few months of breathing space and a chance to step back, to see what I’d like to do next, so looking for an interesting challenge that will keep me out if trouble, so I you know of anything, let me know.

So no real postings of note recently, not that any of the post postings have been that note worthy…

So yesterday was my first visit to LHR in 2008 and what a joyous visit it was, a quick trip to Madrid…. the airport was fog bound, and flights were delayed, mine eventually boarded two hours late, therefore the work I was going to complete that evening ended up dragging on quite late into the night, on the plus side I had some online company and of course a server to beat into submission, also as the only person in the office I had full access to the available bandwidth which was hand for the various M$ patches that you have to apply (38 patches, 4 reboots, plus a further 2 reboots when joining the server to the domain – MAD PDC is now live!) overall the trip was a success in technical terms with the only sour note being the inevitable complaining by the office manager about the cost of my visit being charged back (I suspect my cheapo economy fare and hotel room are a bit cheaper than the 30K Eur it would take to have full IT help on site for the 4 people in the office…)

So first trip this year, not bad for 8 weeks in, last year I was at LHR 8 hours into the year, got a few more trips coming up, before (hopefully) another protracted stint at home. (Dubai / Hamburg / Stockholm)

Work / Life balance, now there’s a tricky one, I’ve had a few evenings where the laptop has stayed firmly away in its bag and have read instead, not sure this makes a difference to me being actually “there” however it does mean that Octavia does have to put up with the *tap* *tap* of the keyboard or me swearing at the stupidity of an email I’ve just received…. even when I’m just surfing or doing non-work stuff I still can’t seem to break the habit of checking my email…. maybe I should use one client for all my work stuff, and then switch to a different client for my personal email – will have to think about that one.

Iona continues to amaze, she’s walking around 95% of the time now, the other 5% being split between falling over or the occasional crawl, which is very cute, but with being so used to her walking also seems a bit odd. Memorably the other week when Mike and Claire were over for the 5k she tripped on the front door sill as she was coming into the house and managed to blow a raspberry at Mike as she landed on her padded backside, the indignity of it all Iona is still subjecting us to sing and sign DVD’s however at least “Hop little bunnies” is quite such a waste of time, and she certainly seems to enjoy the hopping around that goes with that particular song, she now signs “More” “Mouse” “Rabbit” “Car” “Sorry” (just once, and not to me) “Where” “Bee” “Zebra” so some more useful than others, but it is nice that she can sort of communicate. Iona also understands what we’re saying (probably a lot more than we know!), so if there is a spillage on the floor you can ask her to clear it up, and she will toddle off to the kitchen, get a cloth and then clear up the offending spillage… well trained!

My training (unlike Laras) is going pretty well, doing a lot of base work which I’m hoping will pay off later, it’s hard “running” whilst keeping to an average pulse of 150 – especially when you are overtaken by other runners. Swimming is going ok, I get down about my swim, but considering this time last year I could only manage about 50m before having to rest I shouldn’t complain that an average swim session for me is now 1300m, not fast, probably not that pretty, but certainly improving. I probably need to change my training a little bit as I have a half marathon with Mr Cook in a few months time, but then for me my aim is to get around (and any time I do will be a personal best) not be injured training for the event. m I’ve changed my philosophy to training this year, all purely time based work (well running and cycling anyway) and training smarter, I’m also recognising that I need to rest, if I wake up and don’t feel like training that day, I bin the session and don’t worry about it, it’s my body’s way of saying “take a rest”….

So like I did for the start of 2007, lets do a task / check list for 2008 and hopefully get them all ticked off and become the person I want to be, rather than it just feeling like an out of reach dream.

Life
- We will go on holiday (oops)
- Iona and Octavia will see more of me (sorry)
- Lose weight (dur!) to get below 75 Kilos carried over from 2007 (not yet)

Sport / Training
- Train with a 70.3 in mind for 2009 (not really)
- I will do London at Olympic distance (Done)
- I will do a couple of events at Olympic distance (well one)
- I will complete a sprint tri in under 1hour 20minutes (oops)
- I will complete a half marathon (Göteborg – Done)
- I will complete a 10k in under 50 minutes (nope)

Work
- I will pass my ITIL exams (nope)
- I will progress from wearing jeans “just in case” I end up crawling under desks (nope)
- I will travel less (done)
- I will have a brilliant year (no comment)

So team building last week in the Alps with various senior people from the company I work for, day 1 – team building, day 2 – death by powerpoint…

Day 1, before we get to the high rope course and the exciting afternoon of mountain walk followed by belayed absail the height of BT Tower, I’ve fallen off a log stump, dropped a whole 6 inches to the ground in an unruly heap of bodies and twisted my ankle

*bugger*

I got to sit out the rest of the day watching people on the rope course, then working from the hotel in the afternoon while everyone else played in the scenery…

Still good job I haven’t got a triathlon coming up or a half marathon, that would just be bad timing.

So with the schools holiday the commute to / from work is now a lot faster…

Even though I leave for work at 0600 in the morning the lack of school traffic makes a difference to my journey by 10 minutes or so, but the real time saver is the journey home, instead of taking up to 90 minutes, it takes about the same time as the journey in… seems odd when I tend to bust out of the office any time after 17:00 that the school run has such an impact, but there you go, I shall enjoy it while it lasts.

So no recent postings of any merit, can only mean too much work, and not enough play (although in my defence at weekends I’m trying to spend time with Octavia and Iona rather than posting updates)

Anyway on with the update, Iona is continuing to grow and develop at what seems to be a daily rate, I’m sure that every day (or few days) when I see her she has changed, she can do more, has a new trick, is more stable with sitting up, more confident at holding on to the walker…. I’ve also managed to feed her a few evenings which is fun, although there is certainly a knack to it – part of which is yoghurt with everything! Swimming is going well and now the class is on a Saturday so that should make things from a timing point of view, although it does mean I have to spend the all of Monday in the office, rather than working some of it from home. Should have the photos back from the underwater photoshoot… will scan and post up once they arrive.

Work / Life, work is mainly spent in the UK at the moment which is great as it means I’ve spent a fair bit of time at home (I’m sure Octavia will soon be asking when I’m off again….) I’ve got a few weekends of work coming up but fully intend to get back the time with days off where I can…. I’m also trying to make sure that I leave early or on time so that I get to help out in the evening with Iona (when I can) or just be at home so Octavia has some company…. work is hectic as ever but there is loads of interesting stuff that I’m in the middle of which is fantastic and certainly stopping me from getting bored.

Training, well it’s going, and maybe I could leave it at that…

Actually ended up having all of last week off, which currently I feel better for, did a hard swim session this morning which was 95% crawl work, felt tired at the end but certainly happy with the progress I’m making… running tomorrow morning, trying to do at least one 10k run a week at the moment, not really doing speed work, just trying to get the miles in…

So in summary, it’s all going, and it’s all going good

to the office is clearly at 03:00 in the morning

So here we go, headlong, breakneck speed into 2007, feels like we were only recently at the start of 2006.

There are no resolutions for this year, so I told Barnaby on our run this morning, but then as we were going around the park it would seem that although I’ve not made any resolutions I do seem to have set targets (which is surely almost the same thing)

So here for the laugh, and of course review in Jan 2008 are my New Year’s Resolutions^WTargets^WAims

Life
- Alter the Work | Life balance in favour of Life….
- Be there more for Octavia and Iona
- Lose weight (dur!) to get below 75 Kilos

Fitness
- Get fit, not just don’t die when jogging 5K fit, but fit enough to go out and run a 10K without ill effect
- Do a Duathlon, Triathlon and half-marathon (although not at the same time)
- Get out of the comfort zone when training
- Learn to swim more than 4 lengths front crawl without drowning

Work
- Make my job easier
- Start training for ITIL’s
- Learn a new programming language

So as I said, not much going on there then, tune back in 2008 to see how I got on.