Adventures in London: Issue 77

You know it just dawned on me, we are in the year 2010! When did that happen? Like most of you, I returned to work this week and had to start dating my notes with "2010" and well for me that was shocking. It made me realise that 2010 just does not start a new year, but it starts a whole new decade. Do you remember the choas in 1999 with the close of the year and scare of what was going to happen when the clocks turned 01/01/00 00:00? We have come a long since 1999. The Euro was introduced, mobile phones have become more than just a device to talk to you friends/family with, portable music players have been forever changed with the introduction of the iPod, 256K flash memory disk are so last decade, and TV & digital camerasizes, technology, programming and experiences have evolved tremendously over the last 10 years. As Americans we started the decade with Clinton, later swore in President Bush and after 8 years welcomed President Obama. The decade has been marked as the "worst and most destructive decade of natural disasters" with the Gujarat earthquake in 2001 killing 12,000, the boxing day Tsunami in 2004 killing over 230,000 and Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans in 12,000. Over the last decade we were also introduced to three young wizzard battling against the dark lord, the quest of a hobbit, the demise of young Anakin Skywalker, and we saw Neo fullfill the prophecy. The decade also marked the finales of 90201, Felicity, Friends, Seinfeld, Sex and the City...well you get the idea. Lastly, we saw the Red Sox win the world series (TWICE!). (I know I have missed monumental events especially in 2001, but I figured we don't need any reminding of that...we haven't forgotten).

What did the last decade mean for you? For me it marked a return to running; running my my first 10K and half marathon. I joined 2 running clubs and for 2 months had started my own. I visited over 10 countries, lived in 4 cities, started 4 different jobs, graduated from 2 different universities earning two degrees. I also bought my first digital camera, laptop and ice cream maker. I started four different blogs (of which there is only one active one today). I (FINALLY) got my drivers license and became a nationally certified personal trainer. Most important, I made a number of new and cherish friendships over the past 10 years. Scary to realise that there are some people in my life that I knew before the millennium...when did we get so old?

Well back to this year!! Over break I decided to start a "Good Habit Fund". I did something similar a couple of year ago, so I thought I would do another. The idea is, you reward/penalise yourself for certain habits to re-instill a sense of routine back in your life. My GHF is broken down into 3 main categories: health, cleaning and lifestyle. Within each category are sub-tasks.

1. Health: Taking vitamins (+£0.20), eating meals (+£0.25 per meal), sleeping (+£0.50 for 8+ hours, +£0.20 for 7-8...-£1.00 for less than 5 hours).
2. Cleaning: Making the bed (+£0.05), doing the dishes (+0.20), putting away my clothes (£0.05), etc.
3. Lifestyle: Going to the gym (+£0.50), running (+£0.50 per KM), working (+£1.00 if I leave before 6pm, +£0.50 by 7:30p and even worse -£1.00 if I stay until 10:00p, -£2.00 if I stay until 11:00, etc), drinking (-£0.50 per drink)

Let's see how long it will take me to save for an iPod Touch. Granted I could just go out and buy one, but this way is much more challenging and guilt free.

To celebrate being back at work, the new year, and the fact that is was 4 Jan (cause why wouldn't you)...I decided to cook a good ole American meal of meat loaf and mashed potatoes. Over break I definitely got used to the home cooked food. In fact there is nothing like it. After 10 nights of eating in, eating outdoor food lacks a certain flavour or touch. I don't know how to explain it, but there is nothing like winding the day down with a home cooked meal. Fingers crossed, I hope to be able to cook dinner at home not just on weekends, but on weekdays too. Wish me luck :-)

It seems like I am not the only one who has wanted to start the year off one a "quiet" note. On Saturday, a bunch of the girls got together for "girls nite". Either we are all knackered from the Christmas break or we have finally hit that point in our lives. Rather than going out and celebrating with dinner, drinks and dancing, we stayed in. We spent the night drinking tea, eating pizza & cheese, baking & decorating sugar cookies and then we all curled up on the sofa and watched St Elmo's Fire. It was definitely the ideal night! Wow things have changed...I truly must be getting old - rsrsrs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BHAI!!! I love you that much (in case you were wondering)!!

Miss you all and love you more

xoxo

T