The Steve

Well, yesterday it finally happened - I got to meet 'The Steve' !!! It was only a brief encounter as it was at an instore book signing but hey, how many times do you have a chance to meet your boyhood idol. These days its rare for me to get nervous about things but on this occasion I did, so much so that M had to convince me that if I didn't go up and meet him that I'd probably end up regretting it for who knows how long .....she would have been right. It's a shame M's mobile phone camera didn't work otherwise the photo would have been up also. I tried to keep cool about it but I was pretty excited - how tragic, a 31yr old man being so excited about meeting a guy that played a bit of cricket. LOLOL - still, it was pretty cool !

Now, onto other things. Have been reading a book called Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow. I picked it up a few weeks back because 1) It was in my line of sight when I was searching for Catcher in the Rye 2) The Counting Crows wrote a favourite song of mine called, Rain King, the inspiration either for the song or title or both coming from the book. Now I've got to say, the read is so f***ing boring !! It's tedious, cumbersome and so over descriptive that at times I want to burn the book and do many people a favour by taking it off the shelves. The problem I have, which I use to experience when seeing movies, is that when I pick up a book I feel compelled to finish it not matter how crap it is. Now these days if a movie is garbage I'm more than comfortable about walking out of the cinema but for some reason a book ropes me in for the whole ride no matter how bad. Anyway, I'm having therapy for the problem and am looking to have that sorted out by mid 2007.

Only a week until I get out of here and set off for a 5 week holiday. After an extremely average year I think it'll be nice to just shut off from all things routine. There was one stage back in October/November when exams were fast approaching and work was starting to hit me with deadline after deadline. Not the most amusing thing when you're in new role trying to learn as quickly as possible plus deliver credible output. Being mentally switched on from 9-5 each day and then studying from 6-whatever time was so exhausting. I'm kind of thankful that the full feeling of how fatigued I was dissipated with time and now I look back and think, hmm, maybe it wasn't so bad - when in actual fact it was. Anyway, those sort of mind games are necessary if I'm going to get through the next four years, so here's to a very, very easy study load ......pfft !

Anyway, this may be my last write up for 2006 unless I post whilst I'm away. I'll catch me again next year.