"It's about time you wrote another blog entry"

Bowing to "popular" demand, it's probably time for another entry. A few things have happened since I got back from Malaysia so I'll try and make it interesting.

The big thing is that I've now moved out of the flat I was sharing with a friend and back in with my parents. Although my flatmate found another job, it didn't pay enough for her to afford to stay and I couldn't afford to stay on my own. After ten odd years of flat/house shares, I wasn't sure I could handle any more randoms with questionable living habits. At my age (late 20s), it's a bit of a change to make. Hopefully, it won't be too long term and it means I can save up with a view to making an escape to a place of my own.

Don't worry, I have also done some (less far flung) travel to balance out my failure to be an adult.

Croydon 
Actually Selsdon - a suburb of Croydon but nobody has heard of there so Croydon will do. I went there for the periodic work annual conference. Two days of talks, awkward videos and group discussions about improving strategies and developing new ideas to become a better company. To make up for this, there was a dinner on the first evening featuring a large amount of wine and a cheesy disco.

Dorchester
Another work trip including a very long train journey. On the way there, someone started a fight on the train causing the journey to take three hours, I was incredibly bored by the time I actually reached Dorchester. I also found myself there on one of the first hot days of the year but unable to enjoy it fully. I did get time to have a wander around the town and establish that nowadays there is a little bit more to do in an evening - even a cinema.

Bognor Regis
A couple of road trips down to West Sussex's best kept secret - an amazing crazy golf course. I even managed my record lowest score of 44 and rang the bell for a free game next time I'm there. The main purpose of the visits was actually to visit my Gran and on both occasions, there was nice, sunny weather so we could take her out for a walk along the promenade.

Central London
To celebrate reaching my late twenties, I had a day off for my birthday. My policy is that I should do my best to never work on my actual birthday and so far, I have successfully stuck to this policy. This year, I went up to central London with my Mum to have a touristy day on the river boat tour. Not the crazy hardcore party antics most people my age get up to but it turned out to be pretty good.

We caught the boat from Westminster Pier and joined a trip to Greenwich. On the way we had one of the crew provide a "quirky" commentary about the various sights of London. For example, "did you know that Big Ben was named after the Clerk of Works in charge of building the Houses of Parliament? His name was Ben and he was 5ft tall. He was also 5ft wide so many people thought he looked like a bell. As a token of appreciation, they named the bell after him". Who knows whether that is true...  We had a spot of lunch by the Cutty Sark in Greenwich before joining another boat for the journey back to Westminster with more or less the same "quirky" commentary in reverse. 

Tower Bridge

The Cutty Sark

Celebratory sparkling wine

I have also relaunched my fatty to fitty campaign. Over the last couple of years, I let my fitness slide a little bit so I decided to use moving in with my parents as a motivation to change that. I started by cycling to and from work every day, regardless of weather. A minimum of 2 miles each way but I've tried to go longer routes on the way home or cycle up some more hills to improve my slightly poor lung capacity. In a week's time, I'm taking part in a ride into and around Central London (part of the Prudential Free Cycle event) which will put all this to the test. Perhaps I will write an update after that to let you know how I got on.

Trips and other plans

At the beginning of the year, I set myself a few targets. Most of which I haven't done too well with despite rebranding them from the more normal term of new year's resolutions.

One of my targets for 2012 was to do a road trip. Since January, I have managed several road trips. Driving to glamorous destinations including Cardiff, Bournemouth, Brighton and Plymouth. My next big trip is on Friday when I am driving to the North of the UK for the first time.

I've done all the preparation - checking the oil, tyre pressures and attempting to clean the car. Now all I have to do is negotiate my way onto the M1 and head towards Huddersfield. Easy right? Fortunately for my fellow road users, it will not just be me on this journey. On this occasion, I will be splitting the driving with my dad.

The plan is to visit Sheffield then head onto the National Coal Mining museum near Wakefield. Staying over in Huddersfield for the night then heading back, probably through a few other fun towns along the way. Maybe not as glamorous as some trips but hopefully it should be fun and the driving won't be too complicated.

I am trying to make an effort to update this blog more regularly so I will write an update on how I get on after the trip.

I also have a conference to attend for work at the end of next month. That too is in a less glamorous location - Croydon. I've only been to one conference before for work and it was two days of awkward team building moments. Fortunately there is an evening do where a lot of people drink too much and do silly things. On the last conference, I enjoyed the complimentary wine a bit too much and was feeling a bit delicate for the group presentation the following day. Not good. This year, I have to give a 10 minute presentation by myself on the merits of being on the staff panel. Perhaps I will provide an update on how that one goes too?

The big exciting trip to somewhere new and fun is in January. I am going to TOKYO! I've always wanted to go to Japan and since my sister will also be there at the same time following her Malaysian adventures, I thought this was the ideal opportunity. Regardless of any less exciting blog updates in the meantime, I will definitely try to keep a record of the trip here.