Busy Bee Round-Up

I have been so VERY BUSY recently. I am not kidding, so busy that I don't sit still at all, literally, and in an almost OCD kind of a way actually.

So things I have done recently, and wanted to blog about but just haven't had the time to, include:

Running my fist ever Camel Run. It was awesome! Tough but awesome. It's a 10-mile (16km) run through Noordhoek including what a friend describes as a 'fuck-off' hill up through a vineyard. And that hill really IS steep. So steep it is actually faster to walk up it than run. Really. I tried both. It also has 2 km through thick beach sand and dunes, trails and road. I finished in just under 1:30min which I was very happy with. I came 132 out of about 800 competitors.

The Hot Stepper's Challenge at work. The idea is that 10-15 of us gals at work (mostly PSA and PMs) are competing to see who can clock the most steps. It was going to be for 4 weeks but it has now been reduced to 3, since it turns out we are pretty (no scrape that excessively) competitive and 4 weeks with not a single rest day is going to kill us! I mean I am/was pretty active already, but now it's just bordering on ridiculous. I will dash off to make coffee and go run up to the 9th floor and back while I am about it. At lunch time instead of sitting at my desk I buy popcorn and walk around the field outside while I eat it. I have run every single day since the challenge started. We are all wearing pedometers to measure and send our daily tallies in for collation each day. I had my own already. The other ladies are wearing new ones from Dischem. I have been busting a gut to compete to the point that I have had my highest mileage weeks and highest mileage months ever (since I started running in 2007) and clocked 305kms for September! And although I DID win the first 2 weeks (we are still in the 3rd) it was only just. And not easily. To give you an idea I ran 23kms on Sunday AND cycled 35km and walked some more. I was buggered by the end of the day and could not have done much more at all....  I clocked 26 000 steps that day! But then I lost my pedometer on Sunday night. On Monday I got one of the ones the other's are using and holy crap now I know why it was so hard to beat them before. These ones clock up about twice the number of steps my old one did! LOL. So now I just need to  keep this mad pace up for another few days and I should be able to klap them.... :) It has been really fun though and I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, motivation, fun, competitiveness etc. I have found will-power, tenacity and dedication reserves I never knew I had. On days when I would have not done anything I have pushed through and ended up having awesome runs. I have also found I am more competitive than I ever thought. While this is a surprise to me it turns out everyone else knew already... when I mentioned a colleague said, 'Er,... have you actually MET yourself!?' lol. Also the other night while running on the spot and round in circles frantically trying to make up steps I 'lost' when my pedometer got stuck, A said 'You do know you are crazy right...?' to which I sheepishly replied, 'Yes, but sadly now you do too!'. The challenge ends this week-end. It's been a great kick-start into spring, and we'll see next week-end how I fair when I do my next race.

 Hot-Stepper Week 1 Winner prize

 Hot-Stepper Week 2 Winner prize

Yup, I have entered the Gun Run 10km. I am hoping I can break that pesky 50 min barrier with this one and am definitely going to try!

Oh yes and also I joined a running club! Well for 2013 anyway. It was part of a Gun Run entry promotion with a discounted joining fee, and with all the running I am doing and races I enter, it seemed that after 7 years (and nearly 12 000km) of running it is finally time to bite the bullet and DO IT. So next year I will be running as part of Atlantic Athletic Club (aka AAC). SO next year I will have a permanent number and will have to do races in Club Kit. A big step indeed.

I went to see the movie Step-Up 4 , or whatever it was called. The Flash-Mob one. It is so not my genre of movie and I would NEVER have gone to see it otherwise. But I loved it. Wow the dancing and those flash-mobs were amazing. Very cool.

I got an awesome and pretty exclusive opportunity to attend a talk by Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia) last week. It was so interesting and was one of my 'geek-gasm' moments. He told some great stories and I love his vision and principled approach to what he does. Wikipedia is an NGO and did you notice there is NO advertising on it? So as an example his net wealth is $25M USD, while Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is worth $12.1B USD!!!  I respect HIM way more though.

My sister was in town for an unexpected and very last minute trip last week. It was a second interview to be transferred to Cape Town. It will be AWESOME if she gets the job and is able to move down to Cape Town. It was great to see her and we got to spend some rare time together which was great. She even 'baby-sat', or rather took Griff out on a 'date' one night. They went to the Waterfront and rode on the big wheel and went to dinner and a movie, while I went to the Barnyard Theatre to celebrate my neighbour Ed's 40th at the Icons of the 80s show they did. It was somewhat cheesy but ultimately really good fun. We had a blast and danced and fooled around and got drunk. It was great! We even played pool and clubbed afterwards until 2am.

This week-end is ROCKING the DAISIES baby! I cannot wait. It is our 7th consecutive year going (yup that means the boys and I are one of the few people who can say we have been to every single one). It should be fab. I think the line-up is great and I am very much looking forward to seeing Kongos, Issocronous, The December Streets and Bloc Party the most!

After that is A's 50th Birthday on Sunday and I am taking him away on a secret adventure for 2 nights to celebrate. I hope he enjoys it. So I'll be off work for 3 days and we are busy busy busy here. It's mad actually. People are coming and going, we have crazy mad deadlines and are in a constant state of rush and activity. But I am LOVING it. I am on an awesome project now with a really good team who are doing great. So I hope we manage to pull of this giant task and meet the 1 Jan deadline, and that our contracts get renewed for next year!

Finally, I have gathered all the docs, affidavits and evidence together and have submitted my case to the Children's Court to get the boy's surnames changed, and their passports renewed (without paternal consent). I appear in the magistrates/children's court on 30 November for the court case and then we'll see if the judge gives permission. If so we'll finally be able to move on officially with this part of our lives! YAY!

So life is full and really busy but overall pretty good. I am well and feeling happy. Long may it last.

Ok now I have sat still for WAY too long, must run... ;)