I hope you faired well during your first 28 days of 365 and had some interesting experiences as a result.
My first 28 days were a real rollercoaster, mind-blowing and extraordinary. What happened on day 15 may well turn my whole life around, talk about wake-up calls and amazing coincidences. As you know I was feeling pretty stuck in my job. I had plenty of interesting work but it was still a job. Just to live in the spirit of 365, on day 15 I decided to have my breakfast in a different coffee shop. Now you’re listening to a guy that has been going to Carla’s Café Bar for ten years, she must think I’m dead or something. Anyway a new place had opened up by the station a few weeks before and as I passed I saw a nice young girl busy behind the shiny counter and decided now was the moment to start making changes, however small. I ordered coffee and a doughnut, grabbed the newspaper and sat getting used to the feel, sounds and scents of somewhere new when in walked someone vaguely familiar. Finally the penny dropped and I realised who it was: it was a guy called Tom Botteril . I’d been at school with Tom Botteril and he was the most boring bloke you could meet. He was your archetypal boffin. Wild hair, glasses and always bits of electronic equipment spilling out of his pockets. Well here he was looking totally transformed. He immediately recognised me and initiated a conversation.
“Good God,” he exclaimed extending his hand, “ you haven’t changed much”. He was right, I hadn’t changed much, he on the other hand, looked like a million dollars. He was dressed in a very expensive Italian suit, his hair, no longer wild, was well cut and although he still wore glasses they had obviously been selected with great taste. I became aware of my shabby jacket and none too clean jeans.
“What you been up to?” asked Tom as he smiled at the young girl on the counter and she, smiling flirtatiously, hurried to bring him a coffee.
“Oh, bit of writing,” I replied modestly, “What you been up to, you certainly look different.”
He flashed a smile, “Right place, right time. See that building over there,” I turned to look where he pointed, The Botteril Building, I passed it every day on my way to the office.
“ That’s my company head quarters, we make electronic components.”
“I always knew you were into electronics Tom but that is amazing.”
“Well to be honest I was going nowhere ten years ago but I was sent a gift, I guess you could call it opportunity disguised as adversity.”
I looked quizzically at him, the lottery, had to be the lottery.
“ I was fired. Best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Fired!,” I exclaimed,” what did you do?”
“I quit griping about my rotten job because I didn’t have one any more. I moved from a comfortable three bedroom house to a poky bed sit and started again. I took a long hard look at my life and turned it on its head. It was a challenging way to go but something dramatic had to happen.”
At that moment his mobile rang and it was obvious he had to leave. We agreed to meet again and this café his regular stopping off place.
I couldn’t get him out of my head. He was everything I’d always wanted to be, good looking, successful, rich, everything I wasn’t right now, and he’d started out as the classroom geek! It was inspiring and somehow shocking, it made me reflect on what I was doing with my life and where I was maybe holding myself back. I mean, if Tom Botteril, geek, boffin and general butt of classroom jokes could become the guy I’d just met, what could I become?
As I reached my desk I realised I hadn’t read my 365 task for the day and I found the envelope and removed the papers.
“Day 15. Today meet up with someone you haven’t seen for a long time and see what you can learn from them.”
I was stunned. My heart was beating so hard it felt like it was trying to break out of my ribcage. What the hell was going on? This was scary, it was too much.
Since our initial ‘chance’ meeting, Tom and I have begun to meet up regularly for coffee on our way to work. He’s full of innovative ideas and has asked me to help him write a book about his company. Strange, if I hadn’t stepped out of my regular routine and moved cafes I’d have missed that one.
The Day 15 episode certainly spooked me but I was on a roll and wanted to see the 365 crowd again to tell them what was going on, but I had heard nothing. As I reached day 27 I was really worried about the lack of any form of communication from them, all I could think to do was retrace my steps back to where I’d met them, so I booked the train to the coast and into the same hotel as last time.
It was raining sideways as I got out of the taxi and hurried into the lobby. The manager greeted me and showed me to the same room, it was all reassuringly familiar but not altogether comfortable. I couldn’t settle. Day 28 and I was about to run out of 365 tasks. It had become my daily routine, it was more than just fun, it had been like an expedition into the previously unexplored territories of my own life and I wanted it to go on, despite the sometimes challenging and scary moments it had thrown at me.
Regardless of the teeming rain, I decided the only thing to do was to go out to the cottage and see if the 365 people were still there. I just couldn’t sit and hope for something to happen. The hotel manager, quite obviously thinking I was off my trolley, obligingly lent me an umbrella and out I went. Five minutes it had taken me last time to get back from the cottage to the hotel but after two hours of searching I found no sign of it whatsoever and returned to the hotel soaked to the skin and disillusioned.
It was over: there wasn’t really any 365 just a load of students having a laugh. I peeled off my wet clothes and threw them into the bath. The shower was delicious against my freezing skin then I remembered the objects in the envelope. The whistle, I hadn’t blown the whistle. My spine tingled, for goodness sake I thought, have you really lost it? I picked up the envelope and tipped its contents out onto the bed I shuffled through them with my fingers and picked up the ornate whistle. It lay glinting in my palm by the light of the bedside lamp, picking it up I blew it. Nothing happened, except that it made a surprisingly low, almost inaudible sound that was actually quite pleasant, as though my body heard, or felt, the sound more than my ears. Almost immediately, the hotel phone rang. I felt a crawling tingle from my feet right up to my scalp because I knew then that it was them. The voice on the other end was familiar.
“Excuse me sir,” it was the manager, “you have a delivery that needs signing for shall I sign for you or do you wish to come down.”
“Oh sign for me,” I answered I was disappointed it was not what I’d expected at all.
It was only after I’d replaced the receiver that I realised my mistake, it could be them. I took the stairs two at a time. The manager was at the desk, it seemed the delivery person had already left.
A plain brown envelope lay on the counter with no other marks on it but my name. I snatched it up and tore it open, it contained the next 28 tasks.
My first 28 days were a real rollercoaster, mind-blowing and extraordinary. What happened on day 15 may well turn my whole life around, talk about wake-up calls and amazing coincidences. As you know I was feeling pretty stuck in my job. I had plenty of interesting work but it was still a job. Just to live in the spirit of 365, on day 15 I decided to have my breakfast in a different coffee shop. Now you’re listening to a guy that has been going to Carla’s Café Bar for ten years, she must think I’m dead or something. Anyway a new place had opened up by the station a few weeks before and as I passed I saw a nice young girl busy behind the shiny counter and decided now was the moment to start making changes, however small. I ordered coffee and a doughnut, grabbed the newspaper and sat getting used to the feel, sounds and scents of somewhere new when in walked someone vaguely familiar. Finally the penny dropped and I realised who it was: it was a guy called Tom Botteril . I’d been at school with Tom Botteril and he was the most boring bloke you could meet. He was your archetypal boffin. Wild hair, glasses and always bits of electronic equipment spilling out of his pockets. Well here he was looking totally transformed. He immediately recognised me and initiated a conversation.
“Good God,” he exclaimed extending his hand, “ you haven’t changed much”. He was right, I hadn’t changed much, he on the other hand, looked like a million dollars. He was dressed in a very expensive Italian suit, his hair, no longer wild, was well cut and although he still wore glasses they had obviously been selected with great taste. I became aware of my shabby jacket and none too clean jeans.
“What you been up to?” asked Tom as he smiled at the young girl on the counter and she, smiling flirtatiously, hurried to bring him a coffee.
“Oh, bit of writing,” I replied modestly, “What you been up to, you certainly look different.”
He flashed a smile, “Right place, right time. See that building over there,” I turned to look where he pointed, The Botteril Building, I passed it every day on my way to the office.
“ That’s my company head quarters, we make electronic components.”
“I always knew you were into electronics Tom but that is amazing.”
“Well to be honest I was going nowhere ten years ago but I was sent a gift, I guess you could call it opportunity disguised as adversity.”
I looked quizzically at him, the lottery, had to be the lottery.
“ I was fired. Best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Fired!,” I exclaimed,” what did you do?”
“I quit griping about my rotten job because I didn’t have one any more. I moved from a comfortable three bedroom house to a poky bed sit and started again. I took a long hard look at my life and turned it on its head. It was a challenging way to go but something dramatic had to happen.”
At that moment his mobile rang and it was obvious he had to leave. We agreed to meet again and this café his regular stopping off place.
I couldn’t get him out of my head. He was everything I’d always wanted to be, good looking, successful, rich, everything I wasn’t right now, and he’d started out as the classroom geek! It was inspiring and somehow shocking, it made me reflect on what I was doing with my life and where I was maybe holding myself back. I mean, if Tom Botteril, geek, boffin and general butt of classroom jokes could become the guy I’d just met, what could I become?
As I reached my desk I realised I hadn’t read my 365 task for the day and I found the envelope and removed the papers.
“Day 15. Today meet up with someone you haven’t seen for a long time and see what you can learn from them.”
I was stunned. My heart was beating so hard it felt like it was trying to break out of my ribcage. What the hell was going on? This was scary, it was too much.
Since our initial ‘chance’ meeting, Tom and I have begun to meet up regularly for coffee on our way to work. He’s full of innovative ideas and has asked me to help him write a book about his company. Strange, if I hadn’t stepped out of my regular routine and moved cafes I’d have missed that one.
The Day 15 episode certainly spooked me but I was on a roll and wanted to see the 365 crowd again to tell them what was going on, but I had heard nothing. As I reached day 27 I was really worried about the lack of any form of communication from them, all I could think to do was retrace my steps back to where I’d met them, so I booked the train to the coast and into the same hotel as last time.
It was raining sideways as I got out of the taxi and hurried into the lobby. The manager greeted me and showed me to the same room, it was all reassuringly familiar but not altogether comfortable. I couldn’t settle. Day 28 and I was about to run out of 365 tasks. It had become my daily routine, it was more than just fun, it had been like an expedition into the previously unexplored territories of my own life and I wanted it to go on, despite the sometimes challenging and scary moments it had thrown at me.
Regardless of the teeming rain, I decided the only thing to do was to go out to the cottage and see if the 365 people were still there. I just couldn’t sit and hope for something to happen. The hotel manager, quite obviously thinking I was off my trolley, obligingly lent me an umbrella and out I went. Five minutes it had taken me last time to get back from the cottage to the hotel but after two hours of searching I found no sign of it whatsoever and returned to the hotel soaked to the skin and disillusioned.
It was over: there wasn’t really any 365 just a load of students having a laugh. I peeled off my wet clothes and threw them into the bath. The shower was delicious against my freezing skin then I remembered the objects in the envelope. The whistle, I hadn’t blown the whistle. My spine tingled, for goodness sake I thought, have you really lost it? I picked up the envelope and tipped its contents out onto the bed I shuffled through them with my fingers and picked up the ornate whistle. It lay glinting in my palm by the light of the bedside lamp, picking it up I blew it. Nothing happened, except that it made a surprisingly low, almost inaudible sound that was actually quite pleasant, as though my body heard, or felt, the sound more than my ears. Almost immediately, the hotel phone rang. I felt a crawling tingle from my feet right up to my scalp because I knew then that it was them. The voice on the other end was familiar.
“Excuse me sir,” it was the manager, “you have a delivery that needs signing for shall I sign for you or do you wish to come down.”
“Oh sign for me,” I answered I was disappointed it was not what I’d expected at all.
It was only after I’d replaced the receiver that I realised my mistake, it could be them. I took the stairs two at a time. The manager was at the desk, it seemed the delivery person had already left.
A plain brown envelope lay on the counter with no other marks on it but my name. I snatched it up and tore it open, it contained the next 28 tasks.
