AFTER THE HIGH...

The past couple of weeks have been pretty good going. The website was up in record time, we found a venue for the club night and saw the first draft of the script! Our first script meeting was very special indeed as we were all bristling with ideas about the visual nature of the Area Boys project. Personally, I was quietly going about my campaign to absolutely destroy my record 10k time because at the rate training was going, I was going to do it in sub 45 mins which isn't bad at all. But it's funny (and very sad in my case) how life decides to throw you a couple of curve balls just when you think you have it all figured out...

Mine came in the shape of a muscle pain I felt during my last run a week ago. 'Just a tight strain in my back' I thought, 'probably from playing too much volleyball and tennis and football and ping pong when I was in Spain.' But lo and behold the pain got worse and more pronounced and by the end of the week it felt someone was sticking a dagger into my left shoulder blade and twisting it for good measure. 'oh oh' I thought, 'I've only gone and trapped a nerve'. The pain was so much that I've been on a full dose of pain killers for the past few days.

Today I went to an osteopathic (?) surgery for the first time in my life and after much popping of my spine and neck (which made me feel very light headed!) I was told it wasn't a trapped nerve but something big and unpronounceable about how my shoulder back muscles were starved of blood and the cells died!!!! All I wanted to know was when I could run again (the Nike 10k is on October 8th!) but it doesn't seem that I'll be doing much of that this week as I'm still on pain killers until at least next tuesday. The battle might be lost but the war is not over by any means! I'll do this run if it means I have to pushed on a wheel chair (thanks Caroline!). I just might have to rethink that sub 45 minute target....

GOOD BYE SPAIN/ GIBRALTAR

Today is my last day in Spain/ Gibraltar. I've been here the past week slugging away on the website with my best friends who run a 'legendary' web and graphic design company called Piranha Designs Gibraltar (just a thought, does the term 'best friend' exist in the world today, or have we all become close acquaintances?). Juls, Yewy and the gang at Piranha have been a real blessing and I truly do not know what I would have done without them- I've found recently there are a few people who will be a blessing to you when you need them most (you know who you are!). I guess like the film we're trying to make, I'm beginning to learn the true value of friendship.



Working on the site has been a mission with ridiculous long hours (we worked till 2.30am last night!) and Yewy's finally showing signs that his eternally youthful features might not be so eternal after-all.

So now it's back to London, where a whole host of different challenges lie in wait, not least finding a suitable venue for a club night we're hosting in mid-October to raise cash. If anyone knows any cool but cheap venues in town who would be willing to help out on this great cause, please, please drop us a line.



Of course it wasn't all work, work. I had to find some time to re-charge the batteries, so here are some pictures I took of our stay in Alcadesa, south of Spain.

Until next time...


Julian and Orkun


Yewhung


Me Chilling

Nike 10k run

So, the first challenge for me in trying to raise attention (and some money) to realise the Area Boys film project was when I signed up to do the 10k run which begins on the 8th of October. The reason I say it's a challenge is because only a few weeks ago, I can faithfully say I hated running with a passion! Even the thought of it made me feel a bit queasy!

The human mind and body is a phenomenum! In the early days of my training, it was a battle to make myself go out to jog 15 mins (and I'm a very active person!). I would make a million and one excuses about why I should put the the run off for another day. The mind is very good at convincing you to do what it wants, and if I didn't have a vision/ reason for running I would have given up on day one.

Now I can run for one hour and feel I still have some more in the tank! Go figure! And it almost feels natural (I say almost because it can be a lonely sport and it's very easy to quit when the going gets tough and there's no-one to push you).

So now I'm running for the 'North London massive' against the coffee swilling south Londoners at the Nike 10k in Regents park. And I'm hoping to do the run in 45 mins (another miracle!)

I'll load some pics of my training as soon as I can.

God bless

The very first Area Boys blog

Hi everyone,
Warm welcome to our blog/ diary of events as we lead up to the dawn of the realisation of a dream. Janette-Nicole Nzekwe and I will be giving you periodic updates of the highs and lows we go through as we strive to raise funds to make our ground-breaking short film project in Lagos, Nigeria...