Tomorrow I’ll be in Strasbourg for a long weekend. I can’t wait.

For some reason, it feels weird. I’m travelling from Stansted, and I’m not sure how I’m getting to the airport from the other end of the planet (or so it feels, anyway). I thought I was being clever by booking a flight late afternoon, so I could have the morning to myself and do stuff at home. Oh, how confused I was! Turns out it’s going to take me over 2 hours to get to the airport, and since you have to get there earlier, and I don’t know the route, or the actual place… Ugh. Just ugh.

At least, I’m going to catch up with The Pack, the group of friends that were always together at university, here in the UK. I haven’t seen two of them in ages, and the other one, well, I see her pretty much every couple of months (hi Aissa!) It should be a fun weekend.

Aissa wants to go running this weekend, and I’m a bit worried about it. I’ve been avoiding running for many months, and I’m scared I will lace up my trainers and I will hurt myself again. I know I’m just being a chicken, but I can’t help it. However, I have to take that first stride at some point, because we’re starting to sign up for the Movember runs already at work, and I need to know if I can do it or not before I pay the entry fee.

Yes, Movember is almost around the corner (OK, still a while to go), and we’re taking part in the two London runs, the 5k in Battersea and the 10k in Greenwich. Not sure if I will run the latter anyway, because, well, Greenwich. Been there, done that (a few times) and yeah, it hurts.

Speaking of November in general. November also means NaNoWriMo. I don’t know if I will take part this year, since last year was such a disaster. I don’t know what I will write if I do take part. I think writing the half-way-through novel is a bit embarrassing, since I’ve been “working on it” for a few years now. I say “working on it” because I’ve been mostly not writing the novel. I’ve been doing anything but. I think maybe I lost that interest on the topic, or maybe the honeymoon period is over and now I’ve started to see the flaws of this long term relationship that is writing a good sized story. I don’t know. I still have the whole month of October to decide.

Speaking of October. Supposedly, you have to stop smoking during this month, and you have to be sober to fundraise against cancer, or something like that. I think I’m growing a bit disillusioned with fundraising, since I never get much in the piggy bank from people, so I probably won’t even try this time. However, I’m trying to go sober for a while. I keep forgetting and say things like “ooh, beer, I could have a beer now…” before realising and reminding myself that I’ve actually given up alcohol. So far, I’ve never had this inner conversation in a beer-providing place, so it’s been all right. Let’s see what happens when the festivities begin.

Work is also quite busy at the moment. Finally finished the quarterly newsletter, which I never thought would happen, and we’re ready to launch a book club, with posters and all. I’ve been helping with different initiatives and have lots of ideas… I just need to find the time! I think it’s going to get quite busy towards the end of the year.

And that seamlessly brings me to my last topic of the day… Christmas. I don’t know what I will do this year. I don’t know if going back to Spain, or staying here. It seems my brother is staying because he has to work, and it seems he’s told my parents he doesn’t care whether I stay or go. So I’m free to do as I please. I still have about 15 days left of holidays, and I can carry over five, which leaves me with 10 days left to spend this year. That’s a lot of time, isn’t it? Will my conscience let me go back home and leave my brother here on his own? Hum… We’ll have to see.

There are plenty of events and projects in between all those big ones, but I don’t want to bore you all with details. How is your last quarter looking? Are you busy? Are you looking forward to the end of the year?