The 15 Minute Woman...

Phew. Life has been exhausting lately. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely LOVING that my life now involves waking up to an alarm, going to a place of work, socialising and not having enough minutes in the day. Somehow it beats puttering around the house all day and spending countless hours on the Internet day in and day out.

So, what has this Shanadian been up to over the past wee while?

Well, let's start with the wonder of 15 minutes! I've finally moved into my new flat. It's brilliant in every respect - great flatmates (1 German guy, 1 Aussie girl, 1 Korean girl), it's super duper clean compared to the last place I was, it's got a great kitchen with an electric stove (no more fire hazard!!) and dishwasher. Best of all, however, is the location. I can step out the front door of my flat, walk for 15 minutes and be at the revolving doors of Citibank! Oh, how I heart walking to work and NOT relying on pbulic transit.

I had a few days of homelessness, but was fortunate enough to be offered the wonderful hospitality of Shannon Courtney. Ha - I still get a kick out of that and, apparently, so does he because he seems to thoroughly enjoy introducing me by my name(and his!). Anyways, it was nice to be out of the city centre for a few days.Shannon lives in one of the nicest areas of Sydney and, if it weren't for the travelling involved I'd love to live in that area.

Had a great weekend at his place, which basically involved doing a whole lot of nothing...aside from baking a carrot cake for the BBQ party he had on Saturday night. Good fun was had, cake was devoured and I made it through the night without doing anything too riske.

So work is going splendidly. I really should be leaving my temp position at the end of the week, as the woman I was covering is back from holiday BUT everyone seems quite taken with me, so they've found me another holiday cover for the next three weeks and after that I've been told I can move into another role for a few months thereafter. And all because I actually do things when people ask me to! Nothing I do is rocket science, but it does involve juggling a lot of different things. Anyways, I'm super happy to stay on with Citibank for the following reason:

1) 15 MINUTES!!!
2) FREE Gym access in the building (esp important given my plan - see below)
3) LOVE my fellow workmates (more about this later)
4) Will look GREAT on the resume
5) Steady income, steady hours
6) Lots of fun, social things organised - like last Friday when we were all given mini massages at our desks by professionals

Anyhoo, am so glad to finally be in a work environment where I can see myself becoming good friends with my workmates. Not that I haven't had brilliant workmates in the past - I've always been fortunate in this regard. This time, however, they are brilliant AND near the same age AND single. Went out for one drink last Friday night after work and left the bar three hours later. Last night we had an all-staff quarterly update at the Sheraton and many glasses of free wine, followed by more drinks at various bars in and around the city centre.

All the drinking is coming to an end though. More importantly, all the eating is coming to an end because I have a special announcement to make (this is where you insert a drum roll).....

I've Decided to run a Marathon.

I started training today. Acutally I am in pre-training mode because I am sadly, just that out of shape that I need to get back to a place where I can push myseld day in and day out without injuring myself.

Anyone who knows me well is probably surprised and more than a bit skeptical of my plan to run over 26 miles. Well, that's fine. I am doing this because I need to start challenging myself again. I've come to a point in life where I need to prove to myself that I can do something that seems impossible to me. I'm also sick of yo-yoing weight and not being careful with my eating habits.

I am giving myself 6 months to train. I've already found the marathon I will be running - it is in New Zealand. Actually they have a half-marathon option too, which I might consider if I think I need more training time. There will be a marathon in Canberra in April. Anyways, the NZ marathon is called the Buller Gorge Marathon - if you want to check out the website, go for it!

Well, me thinks it's time for bed, gotta get up tomorrow and start training for a marathon.

Life is Great. Remember that every day when you wake up.