I was experimenting with Facebook advertising at work the other day.  In the past, I’ve been able to create ads targeted just at people in high school or ‘college’, but I wanted to see if I could target people who were employed as well. 

Since there wasn’t a check box which said ‘employed’, I decided to try typing ‘working’ into the keyword category.

No luck.

The way facebook phrased the results made me laugh though.

Tash

Last weekend, I downloaded a training plan from the Race for Life website. It was a six week training plan, and at that stage, I only had three weeks left to train. Oh well. Next year I’ll start six weeks beforehand. This year, I started from week four, running around the block in 20 minute bursts, singing along to the dance music playlist I compiled for our wedding.

This morning, my fellow Race for Lifer, Anne and I took on a new route: running from Putney Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge. According to mapmyrun.co.uk, that’s about 2.75km each way – and I think it’s even further than that, because the Thames Path diverts away from the Thames in places (we had to run around the Fulham Football Club, for example).

The Thames isn’t the most scenic of rivers. At low tide, the brown water reveals brown mud. But there are benches along the path, and a multitude of dogs, and parks, and the bridge in the distance to aim for. It would probably be a nice walk on a sunny day. We ran today, and it rained on us.

It’s 7 o’clock now and I’ve just got home from writing group. I’m writing this, and then I think that’s enough mental and physical exercise for today. Next on the agenda is some couch time, and watching others exert themselves as the last few sets are played out of the Men’s Final at Wimbledon.

Tash

One of my goals for this year is to run 5km. I’ve already done that, probably 15-20 times since January, at the gym – and now I can go the distance on the treadmill without too much trouble.

The trouble comes when I go outside. Outside and summer doesn’t agree with me here in London, and I can only manage about 100 metres before my nose starts running and my eyes start tearing up. A couple of hundred metres later, I get a side-stitch, I’m out of breath and that’s the end of it.

So it’s kind of worrying that, in just over a month’s time, I’ll be running 5km in a Race for Life event at Regent’s Park. Unfortunately Regent’s Park isn’t a gym. It’s outside. It’s got grass, and given that it’ll be July, it might even be sunny. If you’d like to support me through this trauma, you can click on the rectangular ‘Sponsor Me’ button to the right here.

Perhaps the fact that I’m not only suffering, I’m also raising money for Cancer Research UK, will help me get through.

Tash

Matt and I ‘discovered’ the Guardian newspaper on the Greek Islands, during the early days of our honeymoon.  A year and a half later, it remains my favourite British paper.  It’s got a great book section and podcasts, lots of new media jobs, and um, today in the online version at least there’s an article about volunteering, and work, and that ever popular back-of-the-book picture of… um… me.

One of my goals for this year was to be published in the UK.  This isn’t quite what I meant.

Tash