A lot’s happened in the last month. For a start, I’ve turned the big four-ohhhhhhhh, much to the amusement of my friends. Then I went to Las Vegas to celebrate heavily and sleep lightly, before returning and enjoying the Christmas and New Year festivities. Soon after, I set about editing my book and applying for jobs. In between, I mourned the passing of my favourite teacher.

Happy birthday, happy birthday

Turning 40 wasn’t too bad. It was, of course, inevitable and something that I’d constantly been reminded of would happen for about the last two years now. I’m not sure whether I have had my mid-life crisis or whether it is to come, but I guess leaving my job and writing a novel, plus throwing myself off tall buildings and partying until 6am with people half my age are signs.

My actual birthday was excellent. Shell’s present was a hand-made DVD in a box within many other boxes around it. When played, it not only surprised me with details of tickets for the Grand National, Michael McIntyre tour and Segway racing, but also Kylie Minogue sang me happy birthday. Ok, she didn’t actually say my name, but I’m sure it was solely for me.
The rest of the day was spent celebrating with mine and Shell’s family, and it was great to see everyone.

What goes on in Vegas…

Vegas was…well Vegas! They say a picture paints a thousand words, so if you can, check out all the photos on Facebook for the whole story. I survived six nights on very little sleep and lots of food and vodka, plus jumped off the Stratosphere for good measure, as you can see to the left.

Christmas came and went in a blur as usual. Not a drunken blur, mind – it just goes so fast when you’re older, don’t you think? We spent our time with each family over several days, nice and relaxed with great food and presents. I even played my first game of Shove Ha’penny and a strange game called “Tip it”. I think the Powell family are hoping that the latter will be a late entry into the Olympics.

Back to work

After Christmas it was back to reality, whatever that means to me nowadays. After a break of over a month (as recommended), I’ve gone back to my novel’s first draft and have started editing it. Trouble is, I’m finding it not exactly straight forward, for the following reasons:

1. I’ve got out of the habit of working on it every day.
2. It’s not like writing in the sense of having a goal of a set number of words to do. How do I know I’ve done enough today?
3. I’m not entirely sure where to start or how to edit it all. Different people say different things. Some say it could take a couple of months, others a year. One writer said he did about ten drafts and wouldn’t let anyone see if before at least draft six.

I’m struggling for discipline and distractions right now and if I’m honest doing everything I can before I sit down and edit it. There’s always something else to do, even with a lot of time on my hands. But I’ll work it out – I want to and I have to. There’s no point in me doing all the hard work to get to first draft and not seeing it through. Shape up Andy – you’re gonna make 2012 happen…and the hard work won’t do itself.

Job-wise, I’m in the hunt again. I’ve been keeping my eye on things for a while but have just started applying to jobs these last few weeks. It’s about time I got out there again and I’m looking forward to a new challenge. Sure, the book thing will continue, but I’m happy to do what most writers have to do, i.e. do it in their spare time. So, if any employer out there is reading this and has a need for a fantastic software Development Manager or similar, then please contact me via this website. Give me a department, project or product and I’ll deliver the results. Plus I can run a mean sweepstake.

4D vision

My final section is on the sad passing of my favourite teacher, Mr Deakin. He was our form tutor in our final year of juniors, class 4D, and not only gave us a good education but plenty of memories, too. He believed in us, and gave us a great start in life, going up to the scary world of senior school.
I always remember that he liked my stories, so I dug out my old report with his comments:

When I considered starting writing again a few years ago, it was partly due to thoughts of these comments that reminded me that I used to write some good stuff as a kid and that maybe I could do it again.

All I can say is that I’ll try and do him proud.

This time of year always feels a bit strange for me, more so this year than any other before. It’s partly because I’m unavoidably sliding down a big tube marked “My 30′s” and in a few days I’m gonna crash through to the adjoining one. But it’s also because I’ve just spent the last four months writing every weekday, so now I just feel like I’m in between the work done and the work to be done.

As advised, I’m not going to touch my first draft until after Christmas. I know I should continue writing something, but I wanted a break, and with birthday and Christmas plans, plus updating my CV and beginning the job search for next year I’ve decided that I’ll only update my blog for the moment. Any experienced writers out there might be thinking right now “Uh-oh – he’s showing signs of stalling – will he actually get back to it or will it be left on the side, gathering dust?” but I assure you it won’t be the case.

I’m actually already looking forward to the editing. I can hear the story calling me, telling me to come back and make it better. The characters deserve to be improved – sharper, funnier, louder, sexier, more evil. The places need to come alive. The story has got to say “This will sell!” I will make a plan – much like I did for writing it – to make sure I edit x number of pages a day. I’m not exactly sure how I will edit it, but I will read up some more and then try it and tailor it to how I feel it will work for me.

I’ve also started the thought process on my next book. What – you thought that was it? I have been known to start the odd fad and never pick it up again, but with running and now writing, I very much want to keep them going. I really enjoyed writing 26 Miles to the Moon, and loved the initial process in coming up and developing ideas. So the thoughts have been coming – nothing firm, just a few seeds drifting in the air that I’ve grabbed and kept, perhaps growing them later. I’m also toying with a sequel; well if Tom Cruise is considering a Top Gun sequel then you can follow anything.

This period’s also given me a bit of time to reflect on things. I’ve been so self-absorbed in my book that it feels all a bit “me-me-me”. I’ve been amazed how interested people have been in it and my progress, and as much as I love telling people when they ask how I’m getting on and what I’ve been doing, it does all feel a bit trivial at times. I’m not helping anyone, battling adversity, enriching my community or doing much for anyone right now. I’ll think about what I can give back in 2012.

For the short-term, though, the Andy Show will continue. My next post will let you know how it feels to turn 40.  If the old adage is correct, my life should just be beginning…

With 2008 out of the way, it’s time to look forward to what 2009 has in store for me. If you’ve followed my blog so far, you will have seen a number of entries where I look at the future and even have a chat with my future self. (Well, sort of.) The future has always interested me far more than the past – I mean, you can get a book detailing the previous thousand – heck, billion – years if you want, but nothing can tell you about even just the next hour. The future’s there, like a blank Sky+ hard drive ready to be written with this year’s episodes. Let’s hope it ends up full of blockbuster feel-good movies, not 80 gigs’ worth of omnibus editions of EastEnders.

Firstly, I want to improve my running. I loved doing New York, and even the training, now I can look back on it. I’m still running, and better than ever. I want to focus on getting faster and stronger, so I’ll aim to beat all of my records, which I’ll record here to show my status at the end of 2008:

Runs: 69
Total distance: 342.64mi (Wow! I could’ve run to Scotland with that!)
Total time: 64hr 13min 52sec (Over 2.5 days on my feet!)
Total calories: 39,754  Avg calories per run: 576.14 (Yes, but I ate more)
Avg pace per mi: 11’14″   Avg distance per run: 4.97mi (A bit wussy)
Farthest Run: 26.81mi (This was the marathon – I think my Nike+ got a bit carried away as it’s 26.2)
Fastest Mile : 8’20″ (Not sure how it worked this out, it might be the fastest average)
Fastest 5K : 26’43″ (I don’t do too many 5Ks)
Fastest 10K : 55’18 (This is one I certainly want to bring down to sub-50)

I might do another marathon later on in the year, depending on fitness and commitments. I certainly want to do some more races, 10Ks, half marathons etc.

Next, I want to travel this year. Haven’t sorted anything yet, but there’s some places I’ve always wanted to go, so why not go there this year? Plus, I’ll be nearer completing one of my ambitions of travelling the world, which I can’t tick off just yet.

I also have to go back to my writing, and get that going again. Need to finish off a few stories and get some new ideas down. There are a few online markets I want to break in to, so will target them to spread my name around.

Finally, this year I want to be more…aware. This might sound strange, but I know what this means to me. Sometimes life can go by and things happen without you really appreciating them or understanding what is happening. It’s all good looking back and being wise after the event, but it’s always better being wise during the event, don’t you think? I want to go into 2009 with my eyes open.

So that’s it for me. To quote from one of my favourite films, “The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

And as for the present? Well, a big “Happy Birthday” today to my favourite niece, Rachel!

Birthdays are great. Not that I had mine recently – July seems to be filled with everyone else’s. Trouble is, you can’t really go out with a couple of mates celebrating a birthday and totally not drink, can you? So, with my schedule suggesting I run eight miles on Saturday, getting drunk on Friday night in Cambridge and then getting up for my longest run was providing a conflict of interests. Surely I could have a good balance?

I woke in the morning thinking two things: 1. What a blinding night that was, and 2. I feel like crap. (Actually, there was a third thought: Did we really sing in the taxi for the whole way back? But I won’t go into that!) So, I had a decision: do I try and run my scheduled miles late today, or postpone it until Sunday, thus messing up my schedule for next week? I’m due in London in the afternoon for more celebrations, so there’s a chance I could be in the same situation tomorrow!

They say to listen to your body, and today it was my legs calling the shots. “We’re fine,” they told me. “Yeah, we ache a bit, but don’t worry about us, we’re much better now so let’s go.” Brain didn’t really know what day of the week it was. Stomach just said, “Ughh.” Before I knew it, legs were carrying me downstairs for breakfast.

Despite nearly being sick several times during my stretching exercises, shaking quite a bit, my legs were raring to go and promising that it’d be alright once I get going. The treadmill was laughing in the corner, so I decided to shun it and get some fresh air instead. Dark clouds flew overhead, daring me to start running just far enough from home so I wouldn’t turn back. This did not look a good idea.

First mile was painful. I realised that my legs had been a bit over confident in their status report, and weren’t quite as fresh as I’d hoped. I started down my usual route – on cycle tracks, a bit of grass, the odd small hill- and then something strange happened: my legs really did take over.

I didn’t have a clue where I should go for eight miles, only that it might be good to go four and then back again in reverse. So my legs just kept me going on and on. And on. And on. Same road, just pounding away, left foot after right. My mind just wandered off into some other place, only vaguely aware of what I was doing. Past the pub that seems a long way even to drive. Up that long hill. Running on the path by the road as cars zoom past just inches away. It probably wasn’t the best of routes, but my legs couldn’t stop! They had a job to do and were on one. I came up to the big roundabout – where the hell were they taking me? – and still I carried on. I found some grass – thank goodness – and kept on going as the lorries rushed past. In the end, I simply ran out of somewhere suitable to run on! That was my cue to turn around after 3.75 miles along a single road.

So the long road back. The upward slopes were tough, but I was determined. My legs knew they had some extra distance to do if I were to reach my eight, so I did a few detours to eat up some more mileage. I even picked up a golf ball I found as I ran past the back of the golf course (and later wondered if there was a frustrated golfer who might still be looking for it. Ooops.) Two miles left and it was looking good. Soft, forgiving grass under my feet, plenty of drink left in my bottle, and a good pace. I was cheating the hangover – nothing could stop me!

And then it pissed down. Not just a small shower – a full-on drenching. The kind of cloud burst where if you’re driving and you see an idiot in shorts running, completely soaked you laugh and are sooo glad you’re not him. But – you know what? I loved it! I didn’t care; I was winning against the odds, and was smiling as the rain crashed down, cooling my tiring limbs. Too late, clouds – you were just making me stronger. Embarrassed by their failure, the clouds soon drifted on, searching for another victim, and the sun came out to see me home.

As I slowly walked home after my wristband said 8.00, my stomach still felt sick. My legs had done their job but were like ten tonnes around my ankles. My white shirt was see-through with rain, spilt drink and sweat.

I felt fantastic.