Happy Birthday To Me

So some 36 years ago today Betty Maduaka gave birth to me

Birthday Reflections
Your birthday's a time for careful reflection
About your life, and its future direction.
You see where you've been when you look at the past;
Most of it's great; you had quite a blast!
You wonder what's coming, what life has in store;
Will it be just the same? Will there be a new door?
Remember this, as you blow out the last candle:
Life holds no challenge that you cannot handle.
By Joanna Fuchs

Why am I still laughing?

I'm still laughing over X Factor this weekend

I know I shouldn't laugh but oh well

LMFAO

On repeat

This song has been on repeat in the car all day.

The Lil Wayne version but this is all I can find right about now

Good Intenetions

I only have a few days left in London and in good old Joice style I have double and treble booked myself. All of course with good intentions.

Its just dawned on me while I wasted today away. That there is no way I am going to be able to do all the things and see all the people I said I would. Hmmmmmmmmm not a good look.

The list gets longer and longer. Part of me thinks I should get everyone to pass by the house at some point instead of me doing a blue assed fly impression. Driving up and down London like I aint got no place I need to be.



Its both mine and my cousins birthday at the end of this month. As I wont be here for my actual birthday my mum is arranging a family day. My friends also want to go out for drinks and shake a leg this weekend as I wont be here. I'm actually looking forward to both occasions as its been ages since we have had the whole family together and I cant remember what the inside of the club looked like. lol Now we are not quite the the Cosby family but lets say we have some character that if I wrote about them I would be sent to Coventry. lmao




The blackberry pins are coming in from Atlanta with items that Im being asked to bring back. I know what will be first to come out my suitcase when I go over my 23kg.



There is the school reunion dinner with the girls from Notre Dame High School that I have not seen since 1990. Now that's gonna be interesting and fun. Organising this has been harder than a piss up in a brewery. lol



My friend Gina is in town. She lives in Washington and is here for two weeks. We will have to catch up for sure. Probably rope her into family day and top it off with the club. Poor Gina she don't know this yet. lol


and and and

Yep there is no way I gonna get all this done. Oh well like I said I agreed to everything with good intention.



Funny how I manged to find the time to blog and add a new playlist. lol

Yeah I know pull your finger out and go visit someone. lol

Damn I've been in London a long time how many different slang terms have I used in this one blog?




Wise me luck

Final Leg - Part 1 - Poland

So I headed out at the crack of dawn this morning to the airport for my final two meets.

My flight left at 6.55am from London Gatwick. Please don't ask me why I was still in the house at 5.30am but I was. Clear roads, luck on my side you name it but I pulled into London Gatwick at 6.01am. I know cause I checked the clock and patted myself on the back. 31mins for some 20 odd miles.

So I'm travelling with Easyjet known as 'Cheapie Jet' to me. Well let's just say they aint so cheap no more. I checked in online last night so managed to be boarding group A. Not bad Joicey!. But received a frown from the check in clerk because I did not print my own boarding pass. The she dropped the doozie. "Do you have a bag to check in?" To which I replied "yes". Placing it on the scales it weighed 24kg. Hey I'm going straight to Shanghai from this meet. So go easy on me. Would you believe this 'witch' that's me being polite smiled at me and said "That will be £52 eachway to check your bag in" apparently its £16 for a bag and £9 for every kilo over 20kg". Yep I got robbed and it wasn't even 7am and she wasn't wearing a ski mask.



So my mouth was push up as I got molested by the security woman. Remind me to take my bracelets of next time. Then I did the Easyjet run to gate 38 which of course is at the furthest north part of the airport. To then be jostled by randoms fighting to get on the plane to secure that seat at the front. Why is it when they finish the assort like there on the damn 'Krypton Factor' assault course. (Yeah I'm old and what)?. Do they sit there with a smug smirk on their face like they achieved something. Like "Dude the plane aint going nowhere till we all get on!!"



So I'm sat by the window minding my own business when the only two black men on the flight want to sit next to me. (Eye roll) and then want to make conversation. Now remember I've been robbed by Easyjet, molested by security, elbowed in my guts by some random fighting to get a seat as close to the pilots lap as possible. Now these two wanna ask me where in going. "Erm check your boarding pass if you don't know". Its aint even 7am please give me a break. So in perfect Stephanie Durst style up went the hoodie and out came the sunglasses. Lol




I was faking sleep before we even pushed back.
Whilst sitting in the car on the 3 hour drive to the meet Loren (my coach) pins me to tell me that a Lufthansa flight landed gear up and belly first. He's in the queue for take off. Now he's gonna be delayed for some 4 hours. They have to evacuate the people, put air bags under the plane to jack it up, rig wheels under it so it can be towed away. Then they have to clean and inspect the runway.



So now I take back my early morning start cause we all know Easyjet flights get pushed back and pushed back. Europe is gonna be disrupted for the best part of the day cause of this. Now Claxton was supposed to be on the 1pm Easyjet flight. I might see her at midnight. Lol

I emailed my sister to let her know I was ok. My mum the worst in any crisis will convince herself and anyone listening that I was flying to Stuttgart when I specifically told her I was flying to Berlin when I left the house this morning. My sister is the voice of sense and reason. Lol

Whilst driving through German to the meet I saw so much beautiful scenery. I've decided for my birthday which is at the end of the month I want an SLR camera. I need to start taking in all of this stuff. My little digital Canon don't do my pictures no justice. So if anyone is interested I want an Olympus Evolt E420. Lol



I went to the track to do my pre meet warm-up. Gonna get some dinner and go to bed early cause I'm racing tomorrow.

New Find

We all know that music is one of my passions. I listen to EVERYTHING. You would be amazed at some of the stuff I have on my IPOD. lol.

I have to thank my friend and former training partner Jamie Baulch for introducing me to 'Miss A' this evening.

From the first moment I met Jamie we had music as a bond. I had never met some one back in the 90s who liked Prince as much as I did. Then along came Jamie. lol

So I was on facebook earlier this eveing and Jamie posted a link to 'Miss A' asking people what they though. Well I really like her so decided to share. Its nice to hear someone new who's voice and song catch you with the first couple of notes.

I could only find this one tune on youtube. I will for sure be looking out for anything else that she has out there. I love Neo Soul.

I wish her luck and will be looking for her album when its released.

So what do you think?

Final Leg

So I have been without my passport for a week. Its been holed up at the Chinesse Embassy going through the visa application process. Not the easiest of processes like I said its taken a week. I can remember a couple of years ago going throuh the same process and it taking 1 day. Hmmmmmm .

Im sure the pretty visa will confuse the hell out of the passport control person that greets in my Atlanta in a couple weeks. Really dont need another episode like the one I had earlier this year. If you dont remember read here




So I have two more races Shanghai being the last and then the 2009 season comes to an end. Yep the fat lady is tuning up in the wings.



Like I have said before Im looking forward to getting in the weight room, running hills, segment runs and all the other things that make up winter training. Oh cant forget the group warm up. The first time I ever did Lorens group warm up, which takes between 40 and 60 mins I saw stars and nearly passed out. He has us out there like the 'Bolshoi Ballet'
. He has since revealed that he was aware that I was struggling. But, decided to teach me a lesson for turning up in Atlanta a month late by seeing how far he could push me before I tapped out. Needless to say I will be in Atlanta before fall training starts. Point taken Loren.



See the resembalance? lol






Also Im told there will be some new faces in the training group. I cant and wont give names right now but lets say Loren has been very popular this summer. Lots of people have approached him asking him to coach them. Must be nice to be so popular. lol.

So I will introduce you to the new guys in the coming weeks.

Some Berlin/Portugal Pics

I will post some more when I pull them off the memory card


Me and Emily


Louise


Dwain and Simeon


The womens 4x100



Michael



Conrad



Andy and Jess

Song Thats Stuck In My Head

So The Season Is Coming To An End

I'm not going to bore you with a review of the season.
All I know is I am happy because this time last year I was injured in my eye beyond repair. I have rehabbed and worked on rebuilding and strengthening muscles.

I more than anything am looking forward to headed back to Atlanta to start preparing for next season. Which means 'Yes' I will be competing next year. I have a couple more races and then head back.

I have been thinking about all the things I have missed about Atlanta whilst being here this summer

Here they are

1. Orange Chicken


2. Queso


3. My training partners that I have not seen for some 4 months


4. And finally just being in Atlanta I really like training there.





So unless I have some news or a topic I want to share I will probably go back to posting my 'My quotes of the day'

Jx