Fast Forward Button

I remember being told when I was younger that time moves faster the older you get. I ridiculed this in a typically naive and childlike manner. How could time move any quicker or slower? Time was time. It was the same at all times. Except at school, of course. At school it could d-r-a-g. But looking back, it didn't really, did it?

It's been nearly 80 days since I last wrote on here. I thought it had been no more than half that. That's how fast time is moving. It feels like someone has accidentally pressed the fast forward button on the remote and everyone is speaking and moving 2x the normal speed. Somehow, it's nearly May already, the football stickers for the summer tournament are out and I even saw the muppets who will be 'singing' for the UK at bloody Eurovision on TV the other day. 

The beauty of Project 9626 was that the targets I set out for the year were very easy to break down and gradually tick off individual milestones. I wouldn't say I've struggled for motivation this year, but the things I am looking to do are far more open ended which can make progress feel much slower. 

But perhaps it isn't.

On Tuesday this week I will have had my braces on for TWO MONTHS. 

This is big news in the world of BQ. Due to the mashed up nature of my teeth, I had to have one removed to allow space for the others to move in to. This was not pleasant and meant I had a gap about 5mm which is obviously nothing, but when it is in your mouth it is EVERYTHING. The gap is getting smaller and my teeth are definitely moving, so that's good news. On Friday I am having the wire changed which my dentist has booked an hour appointment in for. Yay.

It's not the greatest image at all (and I'm pretty sure the image has been flipped...) but things are moving. Four months more worth of movement until I have a Hollywood smile.

As an aside, turns out the tooth fairy doesn't come to 26 year olds. 

Fuming.

Something that wasn't planned for this year was to get another new job. But sometimes opportunities come up that are impossible to turn down. So in the words of John Lennon in one of the more tolerable songs of the season... 'So this is Christmas... (but-on-a-permanent-contract-not-just-for-six-months)'.

My new job is sort of my old job but I'm really looking forward to starting again. In an ideal world I wouldn't have left the Christmas team back in January but I've had a good four months in the Opticians team where I've been lucky enough to work on a few really big, exciting campaigns (Zookeeper Zoe is amazing by the way) and it was great to get an opportunity to work in a different part of the business.

And who wouldn't want to be planning Christmas in the summer?

(Honestly, it's exciting really).

The merry road to Berlin is going pretty well, a solid run at the Reading half a few weeks ago and a quick 10k in Derby over the weekend. I've got one more half in June and then it is all eyes towards the 26.2 miles that I've somehow got to drag myself through in September. In March I ran a 15 miler in two hours which lessened the panic somewhat, and watching Eddie Izzard's utterly ridiculous Sport Relief challenge on TV the other day has helped to put it all in to perspective.

Also, I'm eating a shit load of jaffa cakes and chocolate at the moment to balance off the amount I'm running so that is a-ok with me.

I have admittedly sucked at the whole moving out research thing so far. I am saving money but working out what I want to do has fallen to the side a wee bit. Before the next entry I will find out what all this help to buy spiel actually means, as well as how much an iron, ironing board and other super cool stuff is going to set me back. Yes sir.

One thing I have surprised myself with is churning out 3577 words of the pipe dream that is #BookBQ! I'll give it to Paula Hawkins, writing is a little harder than I thought. But I'm pretty certain the first 3577 words of my story are better than the first 3577 words of The Girl on the Train.

I've got until the end of May to get up to 10,000 words and then I will enter this competition if it is good enough.

So that's that, a bit of an update. 

Oh, and if anyone stumbles upon a Thomas Müller football sticker I'll give you a quid. 

Cheers!