This majestic city

The sun is setting over Oxford. Midnight blues fuse down into yellows, the hues silently sinking into the Bodleian and Sheldonian.

I can't help but feel inspired. (And a little smug about having what can only be the best room view in the city.)

How many great people have wandered these streets before me? Laboured over books in the Bodleian, and graduated in the Sheldonian? How many great people are walking through them now? Right now?

If I could use just one word to define this majestic city, it would be this: potential. Oxford is home to awe-inspiring potential: the young adults who will become our team players, our leaders, our world class academics, our authors, our businessmen and women, our NGO directors, our politicians and our prime ministers.

I'm going to take my work to the Duke Humfrey's Library in the Bodleian and join them.

Afraid of the light

Today was two minutes walking, two minutes running: twenty minutes in total. If I thought a minute of running was tiring, I was wrong. This morning's exertion seemed properly knackering.

The changing clocks meant that we stepped outside into LIGHT! Funny though, this was not a welcome change. "Everyone can see what we look like!", moaned Cem. Indeed, my red hair produces an unsightly warm blush across my whole face when I exercise. (At least, that's my excuse for it.)

Fortunately, though flooded with light, Oxford still seemed to be largely deserted. I took the opportunity to sing "Play that Funky Music (White Boy)", out loud, running back to Wadham down Broad Street.

Thankfully, my dear Cem does not judge.

"Feeling good"

After having my pitiful music collection rightfully mocked, I decided to improve it and indulge in some jazz. Listen to this, and turn up the bass ...


Michael Buble: "Feeling Good"

The marvellous iPod

Check out the back cover engraving!

It's beautiful. It's pink.

Enough said.

Day #2

Just been for the second wog. ("Wog", noun: interval training that includes jogging and walking.)

Feeling very energised today, if a little sore. Cem tells me she feels no pain. But I'm not all that unfit ... she says perhaps I just run funny. Probably true!

And the worst ache is in - you guessed it - my glutes. Yes, I officially have a sore butt.

Anyone good at massages? ;)

"So, are you really going for it?"

said Zoe, excitedly eyeing up my bagful of library books. Zoe was in one of my student society teams last year, and never seems to stop smiling. She is one of the sunniest people I know.

I recalled a conversation I had with her a month ago, at the end of the summer holidays. About how, last year, I had got so sick of not doing my academic best. About how, in summer, I was studying 40 hour weeks and getting through tens of articles for my thesis research. How I was set on putting in the work to get a first class degree.

I cast my gaze down to the bag I was holding. Indeed, there were six or seven books there, the majority of which had been read.

But these were what I'd read in summer. When I thought of the recently borrowed books in my room, mostly gathering dust, I realised that I'd stopped going for it. That I was so happy to have run a successful Careers Day last Saturday, and so excited to regain my life, that I hadn't actually got around to doing it.

I met a girl today who will soon have an operation on her leg, and, as a result, will be in plaster and a lot of pain for six weeks. Actually, she said she was already in pain. And that she wasn't looking forward to the operation, but was trying to stay positive and make the most of things.

I am in great health. At the moment, I have all the time in the world to do the things that matter to me most ... I can't lose sight of that, and wither away what might, someday, be precious hours.

Right. I'm off to do my thesis. (And I am determined to not post photos of my new iPod until tomorrow!)

Bring on the pink headbands

We were ready to start at 6:45am, all kitted out - cue the pink headbands. (Ok, so only mine was pink.)

It was dark and it was cold, but we took over the streets of Oxford regardless. We walked and we ran, walked some more, ran some more. Up and down Parks Road, up to the little Sainsburys, down Cornmarket dodging all the shop delivery lorries, all the way down High Street. Passing my kitchen timer (!) between us, trying in vain to see the digits in the dark, we made it back to Wadham on a high, having completed Day #1 before the rest of the world was awake.

We rock.

Sunday afternoon television

I lost my laptop charger at the weekend, and was left with just my TV for company. Now, Sunday afternoon television did not appeal in the slightest. Nevertheless, I had it on in the background while I sat drafting a cover letter for a job application.

I soon realised that I'd stopped drafting to actually watch what was on. Has anybody ever watched Sunday afternoon TV? Well, it's all sport. Yesterday was gymnastics.

Next time you have a free Sunday afternoon, put on the television for a huge dose of motivation. All those slow replays: showing the grit, determination and tenacity of each athlete. I realised that our greatest athletes have achieved so much more than success in their sport, and that if I was going to ever do anything well, I needed to get the same mindset.

Now, the lazy me went downstairs to Cem's room to borrow her internet and browse Amazon for books on the athlete's mindset. Then I realised that it might be somewhat embarrassing if my shelf was full of these books, but I was still huffing and puffing up the stairs.

-- "Cem?", I said. "I think I need to become an athlete."

Cem, never one to shoot down a ridiculous idea, simply smiled and asked me in what sport.

-- "Well, I like salsa dancing. But I think this should be something I don't
like." I said.

-- "Oh, that's easy", she said. "RUNNING!"

Known fact: I don't like running. I never have. I think it's boring and tiring and it only ever leaves me feeling defeated.

So, I took a big gulp and went to Borders to buy a book on running. Yes, yes, I know I should be doing the thing before filling up my shelf. But this has a beginners guide (and it's shiny), and I never knew that new runners need to alternate between walking and running every few minutes, to avoid fully depleting all inner stores of energy, dignity and pride.

I've roped Cem in, and we're going to have our first walk/run/walk/run ... thing ... tomorrow. Wish us luck.

New blog

"Unapologetically pink" - I saw this phrase in a magazine to describe a beautiful pink crockery set - I've decided that I rather like it. Unapologetically pink this blog and me will be. ;)

"On what we could be and trying to get there" - I saw a quote once which really hit home: "The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could be" (John Grimes). This made me think about the tens and hundreds of things that I don't do well. Funny, I almost put "can't" there - but the "things" I'm referring to aren't really about ability.

I'm reading a book by Robin Sharma, and he talks about how easy it is to have "a heart filled with regret over a life half lived".

I don't want to have a life half lived.

But it's bloody hard sometimes, isn't it? To focus, to concentrate, to give your all to all that you do. There's a huge learning curve to deal with here.

I created this blog to provide a frank account of every mistake I make and every lesson I learn. I don't want others to fall down in the same ways that I have.

So, here's to "lives fully lived"!