This is indeed my first time a bloggin'...
Let's start with the 'mundane'.
Another day from Norfolk to London and back - from the risk of mosquitoes and mad farmers with shotguns, down to the City of crazed bombers, and back again.
And all via the worst railway in all Christendom. "One" they call themselves. Named no doubt to reflect the monopoly they enjoy that allows them to treat passengers like dirt, charge £94 to have your fillings shaken loose on the way to London and back, and still stay in business. Outrageous.
But dentistry issues aside, I'm still very much alive, so I certainly can't complain.
A very odd feeling these days. Going from the sticks of sleepy Norfolk, to the City with all the crazy stuff going on amongst the pinstripes, skyscrapers and endless concrete, then back to Norfolk again. And two or three times a week too. Normality mixed with anything but, but somehow all feeling, well, kind of normal. Weird.
My friends and colleagues in London have just sort of got used to it - incredibly quickly - taken it in their stride, and got on with their lives. I suppose like going in and out of airconditioning on a hot day, you notice it all the more than someone who stays either in the heat or the cool all day.
There's me getting off the train and counting the dozen policemen and women I see patroling Liverpool Street station as I get out of the place as soon as I can. Met by a colleague in the office (who took the tube, as ever, to Liverpool Street) who suggests we have our lunchtime meeting in the Sushi bar built over top of the trains back in the station... Didn't even cross his mind - and good for him. Needless to say I said I preferred Italian that day - and in a restaurant a long way from the station. Mark's got used to the heat.
I tip my hat to all of you Marks down there in London just getting on with it. I will do my best to stop sweating as I arrive from far 'cooler' Norfolk. And with the airconditioning on One rail breaking down constantly "due to the temperature being too high" (I kid you not) perhaps I will get used to it sooner than I think?
Hoping it was at least okay for you,
Camtino