We won our first game of tag in the new league in Wapping on Thursday. Afterwards I had a long catch up with Ollie where I told him what had happened at my previous (and his current) company. He’s not happy there and they have been treating him badly too. I was able to play a decent amount of minutes, managed to score a try (albeit a 1 meter score from the dummy position) and my back didn’t feel too sore after.

Yesterday I picked up a new client – I’m in process of signing terms. In the evening we watched Nick perform in Picadilly in the big French restaurant.

I’m just about to walk up to Dalston with Marta. We are going to Little Duck Picklery.

One numb face and three fillings later and im back on the train to London. The dentist wasn’t too bad. It didn’t hurt. The worst part was the initial injection but even that was OK.

Ive packed up a bag with more clothes to take back to Marta’s. Im not sure where I’m going to keep it all though!

My face is pretty numb but hopefully I’ll be OK to get on the phone this afternoon.

It’s been a few days since I last posted. This is mainly because I’ve been living with Marta and so haven’t set any time aside for my habits especially reading and writing. I havent done much Polish either but Marta and I have had a few short conversations. Yesterday she was telling me the names of the vegetables I was cooking. I need to put at least 30 minutes aside each day to properly practice.

Last night we got two thirds of the way through the latest Charlie Kaufman film – I’m thinking of ending things. I was enjoying it but it was a little slow with long periods containing little action. I enjoyed the middle part which was unnerving without being frightening. Toni Collette and David Thewlis were both very good and kept me engaged. Im keen to see how it ends. I think Marta and I plan to finish it tomorrow.

I’m currently on the train heading back to Maidstone. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow where they will numb half my face for fillings.

At the weekend I went up to Chester to visit Elliot with Guy and Hasan. It was good to see everyone- we had fun. Elliot has a large 2 bedroom house. I really enjoyed the stillness which is hard to find in London.

Last night Marta made a spicy tofu and rice dish. We had a couple of glasses of wine and then watched Married at First Sight (the Australian version).

I’ve been working from Marta’s again today; I quite enjoy the set up. We had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for breakfast and I think we ate going to have a curry and some brownies tonight.

I worked from Marta’s today. My alarm went off at 6 but I didnt get up until Marta did around 7:20. I had training on GDPR, quite a lot of catch up calls and resourcing to do.

I’m now helping Marta with the dinner and enjoying a glass of chilled red wine.

Ive been listening to a lot of Duncsn Trussell on YouTube/Spotify. I really like his take on things. He’s like a jokey Alan Watts.

I worked from Lanas today. Marta called me in the afternoon and asked me if I wanted to stay at hers. I’m now on the way, sitting on the bus near Victoria.

It’s the last day of August and bank holiday Monday. The weather has really changed in the last few weeks; the temperature has dropped and it’s been raining on and off.

I decided to stay at Lana’s for another night. I will work from home here tomorrow and then go back to Maidstone in the evening. Its been nice to have some time to myself even if I felt a bit lonely on Saturday.

Yesterday I went to the cinema with Hasan to see Tenet. I enjoyed it. It was a classic Christopher Nolan action film. The music was a particular highlight especially for the open scene at the opera House. Without giving too much away, the music set the tone for the film by being tense and I think it also included notes played backwards (a key theme of the film is time travel). The only issue with the film was that it could have been deeper and had less 1 dimensional characters. The main antagonist, for example, has no redeeming/good qualities. The heroes, no depth. Maybe I missed something (I do plan on researching the film more) but I felt it could have had more of a message.

After the cinema Hasan and I went to Pop in Brixton where we had a couple of beers and got on to the subject of our jobs (as per usual). We always seem to motivate each other when we have these conversations and I feel I am able to articulate ideas I didnt realise I had. I told Hasan how a major aim of mine is to raise my profile and provide more content. I will do this by writing articles and arranging meet ups. I want Hasan to help me with my first article as it will be on the importance of storytelling and how it relates to interviewing. I am going to talk about Hasan/Microsoft, the this girl can campaign by Sport England and my own experiences whilst on the job market. We also touched on how telling a customer why they should use a product is so much more important than describing the features. I was recently on a webinar to learn how one of our tools/applications work and found it a bit boring even though the functions will help me. Hasan looked the business up and started telling me their “why” from their website and it made me excited about the product as it described why it would make my life easier/save me time. We agreed that when I had the training on it, this should have been the key component but it wasn’t mentioned at all.

I woke up just before 6am and called my dad. He was hungover and in bed. I updated him on my second week at work.

Nick, Lana and Matt left around 10am to go to Norwich and I stayed at the flat as their landlord wanted to show some potential tenants around ar 11:20am.

Hasan then cancelled on me. We were due to go to the cinema to see Tenet.

I think I’ll stay at Nick and Lana’s tonight and then go back to mum’s tomorrow

Ive finished my 2nd week in the new job and I’m so happy with my decision to join. Everyone is friendly, im encouraged to do BD and the systems are far superior to what I had previously. I picked up a lot of leads this week and also managed to pick up two roles – I just need the contracts signed but it’s all agreed in principle. One of the most relieving aspects is that there is no longer any “crippling deficit” to contend with. I didnt realise quite how much pressure this put on me month to month at my previous place. You could bill £30k one month but if you blanked the next you were under so much pressure to bill the minimum you should have previously on top of the minimum you needed in the current month. That model was a sure fire way to keep you tense and anxious which in turn stops you from doing your best work.

Currently on the bus home. I went to watch the Exiles play and had a quick beer in the pub followed by a peri chicken wrap. Lana had another good game and was probably the 2nd best player after Remy.

Work was good today, I picked up 4 strong leads. Its nice being in an environment which focuses on business development.