Madness

The last three days or so have been mad. Karl managed to get a news piece in the Manchester Evening News on Tuesday about the EliteXC deal… all good promo for the gym, no big deal (he says) but I think he knew what he was up to….

Then Tuesday morning the phone started ringing. BBC Manchester got there first – 5.55 am. Five to six in the morning. I can’t decide whether that woman has a really lousy job or a really great one. You have to be up at a ridiculous time, but you also get to hear people mumble incoherently when you ask them “can you come on our breakfast show at ten to nine?”. That must be good for a giggle. Tuesday night, channel M turn up to film a short news clip at the gym.

Then Wednesday all the national papers got hold of it, and all hell broke loose. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/cagefighting-from-a-doctorate-in-computer-science-to-a-new-career-853526.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2186176/Cambridge-graduate-is-top-cage-fighter.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1029299/Pictured-The-beaming-mother-ditching-career-professional-cage-fighter.html

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=189850&in_page_id=34

My favourite headline was – bizarrely – in the New Zealand Herald. It’s “Hypergeek turns hard core cagefighter“

A dozen phone calls later, Karl’s answering the phone “hello, madhouse, can I help you?”. To add to the general surrealness of it all, Luis was running around with his pants on his head and his shoes on his hands, insisting “but it IS a T-shirt”. My life is very strange.

Weight training at lunchtime… deadifts, wahay, my favourite.

Then it’s off to do another interview for radio 1xtra. Not bad, a few too many ums and ers, but she asks about my entrance music (Ready or Not by the Fugees) and actually plays it at the end of the interview, which was a nice touch.

I’m under instructions to “do something with my hair” so I stop at the hairdressers’ after the interview (Leon at Razor’s Edge on Oxford Road in case anyone’s interested… he’s very good, and they even gave me a student discount). I’m typically vague about what I want: “uh… something a bit different… some red would be good… nothing too ‘in your face’ though”. Then a bit of a panic, when half way through I get a stressed phone call from Karl asking where I am and telling me I’ve got a magazine interview that I HAVE to do in fifteen minutes. We arrange for me to do it on the phone while having my hair done. Fortunately nobody seems to mind.

Thursday, it’s off to London for Richard and Judy. Can’t believe it’s going out live on mainstream TV… if I actually stopped to think about it, I’m sure I’d be too nervous to actually say anything. As it is, it goes pretty well. We get drinks and canapes afterwards, and I even get a handful of sweets from reception and a snazzy box of bath products into the bargain.

Training, a couple more interviews and a meeting with da management on Friday, and then it’s down to Oxford to try and pass some osteopathy exams. I’ve not been able to do as much work as I’d like, despite spending four hours on the train on Thursday trying to mug up on neurological disorders. The first one seems to have gone ok though, so hopefully my luck will hold for tomorrow…