Tomorrow, I run a half marathon and I’m running it to raise money for Steven. I can’t do his story full justice here without writing for 24 hours and missing the race. So please go to his website here.

In short, Steven is a Rwandan pastor who is helping out the victims of the genocide and AIDs. He has adopted 20 orphans and has created employment for 250 widows through his tailoring project. He does need your help and money. Email me on admin(at)jameshuang.co.ukif you wish to donate.

I’m also running to achieve one of those “life goal” things that my life coach keeps going on about. Raising money for Steven is part of my drive for efficiency through multi-tasking. The first 9 miles should be fine. The remaining four miles is unknown territory. I would have trained more, but that was curtailed after a netball/rounders injury at the work’s sports day. I’m walking around the house with an improvised ice-pack strapped to my ankle made from ice cubes and a towel.

The most worrying part is that my running shoes have 12 miles life left in them before their warranty expires. After which Nike is not responsible for loss of limbs.

I ate in London’s Chinatown twice in two days, having resisted for over a year. The food was quite average, but chicken’s feet does taste the same wherever you go. So I was still happy.

I’ve had two weekends without needing to study. It’s been great to spend the time reading, playing computer games and cooking proper meals. I spend time in some very esteemed company – five junior doctors shooting zombies at the arcade. This is why no-one makes shows about auditors.

I’m already looking towards the next milestone. I’m relearning the website building skills that I never actually had. Once again, I feel like I have to squeeze every productive second out of the day.

 
I’ve displayed a photo of the Sequoia tree at the Natural History Museum because it is 1500+ yeas old. Our lives are horribly slight in comparison. All that we aim for will not last and probably won’t deserve a place in the Natural History Museum.

However, please forget the trees because each day is important. With every second that passes we loose the chance to practice our audit skills by counting the tree rings.

I used to have random nights where it would take me hours to fall asleep. A year ago I figured out that it was due to excess caffeine during the day. I stopped drinking coffee / tea / red bull / pro plus (caffeine tablets). I learnt to live with my post-lunch sleepiness by taking placebos.

There are good health reasons to cut down on caffeine. But the most important is not to be a slave of “Big Caffeine”. These heartless corporations will put their stores up in every location. They will use subliminal advertising to make you think that caffeine binges are cool. A culture will be created where caffeine teetotallers are social outcasts.

I overcame these hurdles and my sleep problems solved, except for the random nights of exam stress and/or audit stress (should I use pink files or blue files?) Unfortunately, the result was that I developed ridiculous caffeine insensitivity. Even, de-caffeinated coffee will keep me awake.

Yet, I still love/worship Starbucks. How do you reconcile that with a caffeine intolerance? By buying Starbucks shares and drinking caffeine free Diet Coke.

The least-manly drink ever.