The Year of Living Dangerously (or not...): 2012!

This is my first blog post of the New Year and I have made a mental promise to my my legion of adoring followers (all 8 of them) that I will attempt to keep this up to date as much as possible. Something short of a diary, but long of a once monthly update...

2011 was a long and tough year, and the knowledge that it would be was what prompted me to start writing this blog. Starting an MBA and having a heavy work schedule that meant the days were all eventually merging into one, meant that writing some of the things I was busy with down made for an effective way of keeping track with my own life. Obviously, the speed of the year and the nature of the things I was busy with eventually undid some of my own good intentions and my blogs became slightly few and far between.

One day I would like to sit down and read back about all the memories and highlights/lowlights of the year and hopefully this blog will allow me to do it! (okay, enough self-motivation...)

2011 was the year I sold my soul to academia. In stark contrast to 2010, where I got married, watched a load of World Cup games, visited Mexico and the States (on holiday, not work!) and Thailand and Hong Kong on honeymoon, as well as a whirlwind trip around South African with Joe and Melissa, 2011 was highlighted by weekends in classrooms, nights with syndicate groups, early mornings with unfinished assignments and lots and lots of work!

Looking back, it was an incredibly successful year for reasons that only my early blog posts can describe; my New Year's resolutions were all but achieved and coming into 2012, they continue (as they are not short term and by virtue of that fact, require some ongoing attention!)

I have continued to run, sometimes like a mad person. I started a twitter challenge with some work colleagues which has now become quite successful. The just of it is that we each have to tweet our run distances to each other to keep track of the total distance run over the period of a month. So where I had set myself targets in 2011, I am now kept accountable by others and by myself, much easier to get yourself out there when you don't feel like it! Since the challenge started in November, I have run 360km (100km in #NovChallenge, 140km in #DecChallenge and currently 120km in #JanChallenge) My target this month was again 140km, but with 8 days left, I can probably get up to about 160.

I also ran my first half marathon of the year last weekend. The Dischem is widely known in Johannesburg running circles as the first real race of the year. The turnout was huge, 6000 runners from all the clubs around town and a whole bunch of them, no doubt, there to hang on to recently made NY resolutions of their own. The race started quite slowly as the pack of people was challenging to get through, once the field had spread out a little, I managed to open up and ran the first 10km in roughly 5min15 per km. Good going, except that the second half of the run comprises of an 8km climb spanning from the 10th km to the 18th! Safe to say, I probably used up too much energy in the first half! The hills taught me a lesson and reminded me that no matter how much training you have done, a hill after 15km is not nice!

I ran the 21.1km in just under 2 hours and while it was a solid time for the first run of the year in what is one of the tougher half marathon's, I was left to wonder how much better I could have done had I not plodded up the hills on the back half the way I did. Subsequent to this, I have added interval training and hills to my regular runs and am already feeling stronger. Next target is to go under 1:55. (sad to think that I ran my last half marathon at varsity in 1:41....)

The MBA is moving along nicely and I managed to come through the first year very well in the end. So far I am averaging around the 70% mark based on the subjects completed (14 to date). Second year is all focused on your thesis (research) and electives. I am yet to finalise my thesis topic and this past weekend of lectures has gone a long way towards making each and every one of us question what we have in mind to write about! The selection of my electives is also still to be finalised, although my choices are largely strategically focused. The year also culminates in a global elective, with the States, Brazil and China the most commonly visited. By that stage I want to have my thesis well and truly behind me so that I can enjoy the trip.

This is in bold so that it does not get forgotten! I have to stay committed to this thesis, as it is one of those deliverables that can very quickly get away from you and before you know it, you're playing serious catch up.

Our second anniversary is coming up in March! Last year's trip to Zanzibar was amazing (and my only real holiday the whole year). This time around we are taking it easy, but do have a trip to Europe pencilled in around the middle of the year.

2011 was also the year we found our two boys, Jelly and Squeaks. They are the most amazing little (not so little anymore!) kitties. Jelly remains the naughty one and takes every opportunity to jump over the wall into the neighbour's garden when they're outside. This has necessitated us investing (substantially) in garden trellaces so that the cats can't just get out and wreak havoc outside of our garden. Jelly is a big boy now and really enjoys his kitty feeding time (dinner)

Squeaks has two passions in life, his time in the garden (he is the most loving and floppy cat you will ever meet when he is inside, when outside, he doesnt want to know about us, he chases bugs, eats leaves and runs in and out of the bushes like a kitten on a mission!) and secondly, his bobbly mouse. This is a toy that has a mouse on a spring that sits on a half moon plastic ball. So basically it never stops bobbing back and forth and he literally plays with this until a). it goes under something like the fridge or the tv cabinet (we spend a large portion of our lives retrieving bobbly mouse) or he literally cannot play any longer. I ran an experiment a few days ago, we wanted to test if he loves the garden or bobbly mouse more. Squeaks was in the garden and I tapped bobbly mouse with my foot, he came SPRINTING inside to see what was happening to his beloved toy! I guess the results of that experiment were clear :)

We also installed an airconditioning system in our house (at further great expense) so that the cats dont get overheated in summer. Yes, we are slaves to our cats :)

2011 was also the year I moved into Group Innovation. It has been a great journey to date and has resulted in me doing a number of firsts:

First overseas trip for work to San Francisco (August)
Second overseas trip for work to New York (September)
First presentation to the CEO and Group Exco (October)
Formally joining the executive structure of Retail and Business Banking
Multiple workshops with global partners (too many to even name and some are still under wraps, so I couldnt even if I wanted to!)

2012 has a lot of things on its plate already and we have some exciting items up our sleeves. I actually have my performance appraisal today, so hopefully my view of 2011 is shared by the boss!

Now, one of the NY resolutions was about building our house at Pecanwood. I am very happy to say it is progressing fantstically. The foundations were down just before Christmas and were allowed to settle over the New Year period. Building of the walls commenced last week and we popped out yesterday afternoon to have a check (I had to slip out of lectures, otherwise I never would have had a chance to see it!)

We still have some admin to finalise, the building loan needs to be registered and this has been an arduous process as a result of the fact that the attorneys want different documents to what the bank wants. This is a frustration and has resulted in much to-ing and fro-ing between ourselves, the builder, attorney and the bank.

Nevertheless, we are on track for a mid-year completion and very excited about the chance to move into the home we designed from scratch!