Max Manders

Monday 30 May 2011

Our flight was scheduled to leave Edinburgh at 13:50 BST, arriving at Paris Charles de Gaulle at 16:40 GMT+1.  It was my first flight abroad, and Jo hadn’t been abroad since she was a lot younger.  We were a little nervous about getting things right at the airports, and unfortunately things didn’t go quite as smoothly as we had hoped; neither the airport signs nor staff were particularly helpful for the first-time traveller.  We’d gone through security: I had a rucksack and a small wheeled suitcase; Jo had her handbag and a small wheeled suitcase.

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May 28th 2011.  A day I’ll never forget; the day Jo and I got married.  It’s always difficult finding the time to write new posts, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at the very least make sure I wrote something about, cliché as it may be, the happiest day of my life.  We’d originally planned the wedding for 10th October 2010: of course that date was nothing to do with the fact that 10-10-10 is easy to remember; not was it in any way related to the fact that 101010 in binary represents 42 in decimal — “the answer to life, the universe, and everything”!  That date wasn’t to be, due in no small part to a severe lack of funds and planning.  Fast forward to May 28th 2011 and having spent a not-exorbitant sum of money on eBay enjoyed a perfectly planned and executed wedding day in Edinburgh.  The weather was even good to us – it only rained when we were inside!  A massive thanks to Jo’s bridesmaids, Jess and Mip for supporting and helping her; my best man Sally for her support and help; my dad for doing a wonderful job of the photography and of course my beautiful wife Jo for doing me the greatest honour of marrying me!

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Another year begins and so too does a time of introspection and self-analysis.  It’s traditional to make lists of resolutions, and while I plan on resolving to change a number of bad habits and adopting new and better ones, smoking has proved year-on-year to be the one resolution that doesn’t stick.  This year that stops.

I’ve smoked for about ten years, averaging 20 cigarettes per-day.  Now it’s time for me to take control of my life and stop smoking once and for all.  There will always be stressful situations, anxious moments that would previously have necessitated the lighting of a cigarette.  Past attempts to quit generally failed due to lack of resolve, always finding an excuse to have ‘just one more cigarette’.  On the recommendation of numerous ex-smokers I downloaded “Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking” on my Kindle.

I noticed a number of repeated phrases and ideas throughout the book: perhaps this repetition was meant to be perceived on a subconscious level, but I was very much aware of what felt like insidious suggestion being snuck in under the radar.  Having said that, the main themes and ideas in the book didn’t focus on the more traditional ‘will-power required’ approach, nor did the book rely on health or monetary scare tactics.  Instead it felt like having a long discussion with an ex-smoker who simply validated and confirmed various feelings and thoughts that were already playing on my mind.  Having someone who has been in a similar situation acknowledge these things is perhaps the nudge that I needed, to confirm what I already knew to be true and stop smoking for the right reasons.

It’s early days but I’m confident I’ve had my last cigarette.  There is no guarantee that this book will work for everyone, but I’d suggest that if you want to stop smoking you’ve got nothing to lose.  If it doesn’t work you’re in no worse a position than you are in now!

A month ago I handed in my resignation to Diet Chef, and this past month has certainly flown by. Today I start a new job with Maglabs.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Diet Chef and will miss my friends there, and with any luck we’ll keep in touch. I learned a lot about marketing at Diet Chef and it was a very different environment to that which I became accustomed to at Valley Technology; but different in a very positive way.

My time there made me realise that I’m very much a back-office PHP coder. I enjoyed the varied challenges there but my passion lies more with getting something awesome working well rather than making something look beautiful (in no way a criticism of my previous employer, far from it, I just want to be more focused in my work); I’m no designer although I definitely believe any design has to be functional and usable. I want my work playground to involve more complicated coding challenges, maybe mashing cool APIs together now and then.

With a wedding to Jo to save for and who knows what in the future I also have to be realistic and that unfortunately means being financially motivated as well as looking for the right career fit. I’m looking forward to being able to fulfil both these needs with Maglabs. With that I bid my friends and colleagues at Diet Chef farewell and the very best of luck and success in the future, while also hoping for the same for myself in the future.