Post-Pub Analysis

I've posted before that there are many advantages to not drinking and still going to the pub - for example, I don't have to worry about hangovers, hastily regretted kebabs, making a drunken fool of myself, unexpected nausea and a whole collection of other mishaps.

However, there are also some downsides. I've blogged before about the perils of the diet coke evening which leaves me at home, late at night having consumed far too much caffeine, wide awake for hours.

The other annoyance is how things stick in your mind. Comments made by people quite late in the evening, when they are sufficiently inebriated to make random comments, and you're never quite sure how much notice to take of them. Without the benefit of an alcoholic haze to lose them in, they end up bouncing round your head for a good while after they've been said, and you spend far too much time wondering about the consequences and other things.

Suffice to say, while I had a very enjoyable evening I've had a very contemplative journey home, and am still mulling things over which will no doubt last a couple of hours more too.

Out of the Habit

So after a mere couple of days where I managed to blog successfully, my pattern has been broken. I could blame my illness, but that's a little lame - instead I'll put the blame squarely back with laziness.

However, having dallied on writing this I have little to add now that I am writing it. This weekend I was going to have achieved things, which then never got achieved - not exciting, I know. I was planning to go back to what I am now getting used to thinking of as Dad's house and tidy up some of my leftovers. The reason for this being that Dad has bought a new place in Chester and so the items of mine still at his abode will need to find a place in my home, or a place in the bin.

The other main feature of this week is that for some reason I have the song Mountains by Biffy Clyro stuck in my head. Vexing, as all songs are having been stuck there for more than a few minutes. But it could've been worse.

Slacking

So I've not posted for a couple of days - I blame this on being ill and being lazy. I was off work on Wednesday due to coming down with an annoying sore throat. Laziness was provided due to coming home late from poker last night, and not particularly wanting to blog.

Persistence

So despite feeling tired and not really wanting to spend time writing something, I'm going to do so anyway - out of sheer bloody-mindedness and my inate stubbornness if nothing else.

Today I was in Birmingham for work - it seemed like a long way to go for not a really useful day. Due to late trains I didn't get there until around 11am, and I left at 4:45pm to get back towards civilisation again. In fairness it was some useful feedback from several people, not to mention the fact that being out of the office means I'm actually able to work on things.

However, would still have preferred to be working in the usual office today and home two hours earlier!

Pause

After a sudden run last week - three blogs in a matter of days! - my progress was interrupted by a mere weekend.

This weekend, however, I have an excuse (as far as I am concerned at least!). Chrissi and I hosted our UK wedding 'reception' - why I am posting this I am unsure, as of the four-five confirmed readers I have, three-four were in attendance and one knows all about it anyway.

But I'll recite nevertheless that it was an enjoyable time, that it was great for us to see so many friends and for us to know that so many friends made the effort to come see us. It was a really fun evening and that was what it was meant to be - so a resounding success all round!

Intergalactic Planetary

I've not done a 'my phone' rant for a while, but over the past couple of weeks my phone has been exceptionally annoying - the screen seems to have gone so it appears with lots of faded images and nothing actually loads. It requires a lot of playing around with locking & unlocking to get a screen actually loaded.

Such is the hassle with smartphones, I suppose - you wouldn't get this sort of problem on a good old Nokia uglyphone.

This evening, after much frustration (5 minutes trying to get to read a text message) I finally got around to ordering a new handset - and having logged into my phone account, an upgrade has actually been sitting around waiting for me for the past 8 months.

I went with a Samsung Galaxy S II - a nice little phone, and free (as opposed to the iPhone which I would never get as much out of it as I should to justify the price). This will arrive at some point next week most likely, so I can just swap straight over with a minimum of fuss. I hope.

Late Finish

So I mentioned that yesterday both Chrissi and I were hard at work finishing up details for our reception this weekend - and it wasn't until 2am that we were both finished.

For my part, the board looked most excellent and I'm sure that everyone will be amazed as to how well they can find out where they are due to be sitting. For Chrissi's part, the fudge is almost certainly delicious but as I have been practising rock-solid self control I have not had any myself.

The temptation has also been removed until Saturday as tonight we took them to the hotel ready for them to set up in advance - so no risk of me sneaking the odd piece of fudge and leaving us with nothing to show on the day!

Evening Activity

This evening promises to be one of frantic activity, as Chrissi and I continue to prepare for the weekend events. As well as preparing for the reception - tonight features fudge making - we're also having friends stay with us on the Sunday night, so need to make the place somewhat presentable.

That's the main focus of tonight, so my part is going to be doing my remaining ironing to get that out of the way and the ironing board put away, as well as assisting where I can with the fudge. I also need to do my main task, which is preparing the table plans and appending this to the board purchased for just such a task.

Record Low

This year it seems I'm due to hit a record low for posts, as I'm three quarters of the way through and have yet to even record a half-century.

Leaving that to one side - as all the recent posts seem to have been about how infrequently I blog - Chrissi and I are looking forward with some excitement and a fair amount of required preparation to our pseudo-reception this weekend. I call it a pseudo-reception because it's not really a reception - the best description I've come up with it so far is a wedding themed party.

It should be good, as we have lots of friends coming, many of which I haven't seen for a while. Most amusingly, while the majority of the guests are mine and only a handful are Chrissi's, there are actually more people coming that I have not met than those that Chrissi has not met. This sounds illogical, but makes sense when you consider Chrissi has met all my friends over the years, or nearly all, whereas I've yet to meet the people who work with her and a couple of other friends.

Three days to prepare a few minor things (table plans, a couple of decorations, assorted other small details) and we're ready.

Month Off

So as may have been noted I've again been absent from the blogosphere for around a month. I come back, promise to make an effort, fail, and then disappear for another month or so. I'm now into the third or fourth month of this cycle.

As noted previously, all of this is a good thing - I typically felt the need to blog when I had something to complain about, and mainly wrote for the purpose of telling Chrissi things that I'd otherwise forgotten during the day. However, the reality is that neither of these have been needed for the past half-year.

I can conjure up a reason for this post by informing people that this October Chrissi and I are planning our first-anniversary celebration by inviting to a gathering in the UK all the people that due to geographical inconveniences couldn't make it to our wedding. This will be taking place on October 8th, so if you think you should be invited, please reserve this date in your calendar.

Weekend Countdown

So the decision has been made - the big release will take place this weekend. This is something I'm actually looking forward to - it'll be nice to get it out of the way.

This means staying behind on Friday night, to handle the initial release. Then I will also be working on the Saturday to ensure that it is all fully tested and working as it should be. This does mean a fair bit of working this weekend, but also means a day and a half of time off in lieu to take at a later date - not something to be sneezed at.

At the current rate I'll have enough saved up to have a full week off when I combine it with my leftover holiday before my holiday year runs out at the beginning of September!

Working Family

So as today was Chrissi's first day at work, this also marks the first day of us being an official working family. All very exciting, of sorts - although I won't lie, it's not, but the additional money won't hurt one bit. It means I get to go on more holidays and see more people, which is always something to be excited about!

This week potentially marks a big release at work. Except it might not. The people who are making the decisions are keeping their cards quite close to their metaphorical chests at the moment so I won't really know until later in the week whether the verdict is to go or to pause for a week. Ah, suspense.

Additional Pressure

A conversation yesterday evening reminded me that I have to blog now, because if I don't blog not only will Chrissi not see my blogs, but also it will not guilt Carisa into blogging as well - so Chrissi won't see Carisa's blogs, which is what she actually wants to see. I am purely a means to an end here.

This weekend just gone was a busy weekend, which precedes a busy week. We were out Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night - an impressive tally. Friday night was a games night with work friends which saw us returning at around 4am. Saturday night we were meeting new friends in Woking for a drink, and on the Sunday Dad and Gill came over for a meal, and we then went out to the local pub for the quiz night. All in all, an action-packed weekend, and that wasn't all that was done!

Tomorrow is also an exciting day because Chrissi starts her new job! It's going to be several changes for both of us but it'll be very exciting, and I'm so happy for her that at long last she's got something. It may not be exactly what she was looking for, but after looking for any amount of time you just want to find something!

Week Off

So I actually got back into blogging then suddenly took a week off. Crazy times, guys and gals! There was a reason behind this though - for the last week I've been around the country for work.

This wasn't quite as exciting as it sounds, although I always do enjoy visiting branches and going slightly further afield than London. It did involve nine places and eleven presentations over the course of the five days. My total work week could be broken down into its constituent parts; I spent approximately 18 hours presenting, 3 hours setting up and taking apart the equipment for presentations, a similar amount of time walking between branches and train stations, 16 hours travelling on trains, of which around 8 of these hours were spent sleeping on trains.

This does mean that last week, I was effectively paid for one day which I spent all of sleeping on trains.

Perhaps It's A Good Thing

I'm wondering if it's a good thing when I either forget to blog or simply don't have anything to talk about. I typically used my blog as a place to vent about things that weren't going well, grumble about things I disliked or disagreed with. Instead of late I've found little to say.

Maybe this shouldn't be looked on as a negative. It could simply be that I'm happier and have fewer things that need to be ranted about.

Exciting Evening

So while I attempt to restart the blogging habit, I am faced with the proverbial blank page and little to comment on.

This evening so far I have been working, excitingly so, on my paperwork. This has involved a battle with a Debenhams credit card in trying to pay off the laughable £1 balance (the origin of this was that the card got us a 5% discount, the rest was paid in vouchers). I've also tried to make progress on the council tax payments and gotten somewhere, and tidied my email. It's not been the stuff of great stories.

Tomorrow is work and my appraisal; we will see what comes of this.

Absence Not Unnoticed

So the other day while we were relaxing in our comfortable abode, Chrissi made the point that I sucked at blogging. As painful as this was, it was also undoubtedly truthful, considering that my performance of late has been pretty poor.

This does obviously skip over the slightly bemusing fact that my wife - who now actually has the bonus of hearing about my day while I remember what happened during it - is resorting to my blog to hear tales that I am apparantly holding back. In an effort to reinspire the one reader I have remaining, I will resume my blogging activities.

Today's effort was mainly recovering the four posts I had typed out but never posted while I was in Paris. After fighting with my phone for a while to try and get it to transfer the text from the notes to the browser so that I could post them, it eventually gave up and I decided typing them out would be quicker. You can read more of the story of our trip to France below this post.

Paris 4

Today marks our final day in Paris - our train leaves back to London late this afternoon. We are making a lazier start to the day and will be having a little wander around Montmatre as the sole aim. We will also likely pay a visit to the Sacre Coeur while there.

Yesterday was also a later start - we left just after 10 and wandered down to the Place du Trocadero and across to the Eiffel Tower. The views from here were unsurprisingly fantastic - you could see quite a way! The structure itself is immense. Following a stroll through the CHamps de Mars to l'Ecole Militarie, we caught the RER out to Versailles.

Versailles is a place I have never been before. The palace is huge, and the gardens even more so. The original grounds covered a greater area than modern metropolitan Paris. The rooms were ornate and sumptuously decorated - the long Hall of Mirrors was particularly fine.

The evening - after the return trip to Paris - featured a boat trip along the Seine. This gave us an opportunity to see all of the sites lit up, although as you were at water level some were harder to see than others. It was definately the superior option to see it by night however.

Paris 3

Auj'hordui je suis en Paris aussi! Yes, my feeble smattering of French has been dusted off and I have been communicating with the locals in their own language - to an extent!

Yesterday we went to the Ile de la Cite - the central island in the Seine at the heart of the city. Prior to arriving there we took a detour to the Pompidou Centre, and also went past the magnificent Hotel de Ville.

Once on the island itself we visited Notre Dame, and as well as seeing the magnificent interior also climbed the towers - yielding a superb view over the city. We also visisted Sainte-Chapelle, constructed in the thirteenth century as a reliquary for the French kings, and saw (on the outside at least) the Palais de Justice.

This filled the majority of the day - in the evening we visited the Musee d'Orsay, a former train station that now houses a magnificent art collection including works by Monet, Gaugain, Cezanne, van Gogh and Rodin. After eating we managed to catch a Metro back to the Arce de Triumphe just in time for last entry, and the views over the city and night from here were truly spectacular. We did have time after this for un glace at a fancy cafe on the CHamps-Elysee - tres Parisian!

Paris 2

So today I'm in Paris. That sentence is thoroughly underwhelming - it makes it sound as if there is nothing either unusual or exciting about this. Perhaps a better start would have been 'Today I'm in Paris (trailing exclamation marks)'.

Yesterday we saw several sights but the main highlights were Place de la Concorde, l'Orangerie, Jardins du Tuileries and the Louvre museum. Today the goal is to head to the Arce to Triumphe to start with and then on to the Ile de France to walk around there!

Paris 1

Considering I am not at work, today oddly saw an earlier start than usual. I was up at 5:45 and we left the house at 6:35 to head into Surbiton. We then caught the train into London and the tube across to St Pancras for the eurostar.

Yes, this does mean that we are heading to Paris for a few days! More updates on this will be forthcoming over the next few days.

Friday Freedom

I have definately settled back into this blogging routine. I intend to make more of a habit of it again. Today I have had the benefit of a day off work. Something to do with some wedding, I wasn't really paying attention.

While today naturally met with my full-on republican ire (American readers please note the small 'r') there were still positive notes. I roll my eyes whole-heartedly at street parties, but at one Chrissi and I walked past it was at least nice to see people gathering together as a neighbourhood. Shame it's for such a pitiful reason!

Day Three of Three

So today represented the last day of this short week. Little to report from today so instead I will talk about yesterday evening. After work Chrissi and I met my sister Rachel and her boyfriend Chris. We went for dinner in Surbiton - which was very pleasant.

One thing that did get confirmed today was my annual leave request for the aftenoon the Sky engineer was due to come and install our phone and internet. This should mean that the May 16th date is now set in stone! No counting chickens yet on this one however - for obvious reasons!

Day One of Three

So today saw me back at work - an inevitably tedious experience! It does seem a little rich complaining about work when (a) there are only three days this week and (b) Chrissi would love to have these complaints. Instead, I will grumble about Sky.

The reason for this grumbling is that they were supposed to be coming tomorrow to install our phone and internet. However, they never had our address down correctly, misplacing us at 2 instead of 2b. All the pre-installation work was therefore for the wrong address. After speaking to them on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and receiving three different stories I called them again on Thursday evening.

What transpired then was a frustrating tale over an hour and seventeen minutes. I spoke to four different people, suffered three cases of their computer crashing and one unbelievable occurrence of being placed on hold for 15 minutes. The end result was a new order, many apologies and a new installation date - 16th May. This may be postponed still further if I can't get the afternoon off work.

Not the most auspicious start.

Four Day Weekend #1

So today marks the last day of the four-day long bank holiday weekend. Or I should say, the first four-day bank holiday weekend as next weekend is also four days long. Yes, this does mean that I have a mere three days to work this coming week.

This weekend was spent in Chester, which was very pleasant. Dad and Gill are looking to move up there in the next year or so and had an apartment for the long weekend. As they had two rooms Chrissi and I went up to join them.

Over the course of the weekend we saw some of Chester for a couple of days, in addition to trips to both Liverpool and North Wales. The weather was lovely throughout and it was a very enjoyable and relaxing few days.

On the return journey we picked up some new flat-pack furniture. This may very well prove to be the tale of next weekend!

New Abode

This blog is the first of many to be written from our new home. One of the many overdue updates I had neglected to give was that Chrissi and I had been successful in our quest for a new place to live, and yesterday was moving in day.

So far the progress on our new home has been slow. We did manage to note everything over, and the bed is the one item of furniture that was reassembled where it will stay. The rest of the home plays host to a set of suitcases and collection of flat-pack furniture boxes from Ikea. This will be today's challenge - the only achievement on that front is the part-assembly of a chest of drawers. It is nearly complete, I am simply missing the tack hammer to attach the back.

One thing we are lacking is the internet. We didn't get around to organising this until the end of last week, so it's going to be towards the end of April that we get all that sorted. At least we will be able to use the time to get everything else sorted out before the internet comes to reassert its dominion over our free time!

Morning Woes

This morning I have a spare 10 minutes to blog, an annoyance courtesy of my bus going past three minutes early while I was still putting on my shoes. I'll be getting the next bus in about 15 minutes to get a slightly later train instead.

My blogging has not progressed much of late, and neither has my flashback theme. This was going to be ruthlessly plundered to cover more of the backstory of the past few weeks, detailing events which I had otherwise forgotten to mention. However, all that has happened in the meantime is that I have added further things which need to be written about!

So to summarise - last weekend I was in Barcelona for a colleague's stag do, more of which will be told in time. This coming weekend Chrissi and I are moving house. This is probably everything, but it seems like a lot more - probably because of everything involved in the latter!

Tonight we're headed to IKEA to do some scouting before a full run this weekend. We'll see how it goes.

Flashback: Saturday

As I missed a couple of events I actually wanted to blog about, I will instead resort to employing the age-old TV strategy to incorporate a past event into a current timeline - the flashback.

This flashback takes us back in time to this past Saturday, when Chrissi and I were entertaining friends for dinner. This has been planned for the first weekend after Chrissi arrived, three weeks previous - however, there was a flaw in this plan. Chrissi was ill that weekend so we had to unfortunately cancel and rearrange.

This was not in vain however, as we still had a very enjoyable and succesful night on Saturday. All of my home friends (that still live here) could make it, which was a promising start. I cooked a most excellent curry - in fact, I cooked two curries, one being a chicken korma and one a generic mild curry. I could call it many different names but really it wasn't any of them.

It all went very well and it was good to see people. Chrissi's desert was also excellent, and she has been baking again this week - apple pies - which puts me in trouble with work, but they really are not the sort of dish you can take on an hour-and-a-half commute in the morning without something going badly wrong and them arriving in a significantly worse condition than they departed!

Reasons; or Excuses by Another Name

While reminding a friend of the continued existence of this blog a few minutes ago - available as a source of newsworthy and non-newsworthy updates alike on my goings-on - it did jog my memory that I have not been posting as actively as I perhaps would expect myself to.

There are obvious reasons for this, or as I have more honestly termed them, excuses by another name.

The first is the supposed lack of readership. However, I have never posted for a real audience, knowing that this audience is precisely nil, so it is a distraction. Usually I post because either I enjoy writing, occasionally because I have something to say, or more typically because something is irritating me.

I've also had less time to post recently. This isn't true either. I've had roughly the same amount of time - I've still been home the same time the majority of evenings, and in bed a similar time. I've not been in my room as much so haven't been at the computer and posting, but when I have been, I have simply avoided it or forgotten.

A further suggestion could be that I've simply not had much to talk about recently - less to communicate in my life. This is also inaccurate, considering that I have been working on moving, shopping for items for the new place, meeting friends, many other activities all transpiring. Considering how I would happily fill many blogs without saying anything, this is hardly a reason for a lack of a post!

The other is simply that with Chrissi here, I've been more relaxed, sharing more things with her as I've been able to when I come in - and needing less to post on here to get things off my chest or to make note of memorable things as they occur. This is the most plausible.

However, I am determined to write a little more frequently. As this long excuse has gone on enough, I'll end it here and be determined to pick up the metaphorical writing baton again in the next couple of days.

Irregular

As some people may have noticed, I have rarely blogged since Chrissi has been here. This is mostly because I've not been on the computer nearly as much, but also because the principal reader is Chrissi - and it seems a little pointless to write a blog as to what I've been doing when I can simply tell her!

Yesterday we were looking at flats to rent in the continued pursuit of a new place to live. This was simultaneously exciting and scary. There are a couple of places that looked pretty decent, although both are unfurnished. One we are now less convinced about in hindsight as we can't recall a fridge or washing machine. We hope that they are hidden behind a cupboard-like front to fit into the kitchen, I didn't check the cupboards.

Another place we're aiming to look at after work in the next couple of days and then can have an idea towards a decision this week!

Ten Day Break

It has surprisingly been ten days since I last blogged. I am not sure quite why there has been a particular absence in the blogosphere - if it is even still called that. However, I am making up for that now.

Since I last blogged Chrissi became a UK resident. This is very exciting!

More on this later, I am sure.

Single Digits

Today marks the day that the countdown until Chrissi arrives went into single digits. It is a mere nine days until she lands, which is extremely exciting for me (and I'm sure slightly terrifying for her). As you can tell, I'm quite clearly looking forward to it - will be nice, if a little odd for both of us.

This evening I am listening to an impulse purchase that I picked up while in town on the way home. I was heading to buy earphones - see yesterday's blog - but also saw a couple of albums by a band that friends at work have been repeatedly recommending. I had a listen to their stuff yesterday and was most impressed, so decided to pick the CDs up for myself while I saw them. So far, so good.

Oh, the band is The National, in case you were wondering, as I notice I didn't mention that yet. I'm sure you're all already aware of them but I had not heard anything by them.

Small Things

Yesterday I was off work ill with some form of nasal oppression going on. It wasn't particularly bad - just annoying - and I went through the best part of a box and a half of tissues in the day. Today however I was much better, thanks in part to the common sense approach of resting, not straining myself and also taking remedies to address the problem!

This evening's return journey from work was plagued by annoyances. After the regular buses stop, there are two trains an hour which intersect perfectly with my two buses, an hour. Today I arrived at Clapham Junction to find that - as it arrived at the station - one of these trains had suddenly been changed so as not to stop at Woking. The next train did not intersect so kindly, so faced with a 25 minute wait for a bus I opted instead for the 40 minute walk!

The other irritation was that my earphones broke as I plugged them in - deciding that I really did need sound in only one of the ears. This seems to be a repeated flaw with these earphones and it is becoming vexing. I will buy some more, probably tomorrow night, and then rant at a later date about how flimsy they are when they in turn break.

Early Monday Horror

This evening it is a blog posted on a Monday before half seven - a surprise, considering usually at this time I am still making my way back from football. Today is different, however. Football wasn't on today due to a large number of people being unable to play - likely something to do with it being Valentine's Day.

Now, as you can expect I have strong opinions on Valentine's Day and am not a fan. It does seem to be a remarkably hollow sentiment, that what you do for an entire year does not matter as long as you tick all the boxes on this one day. I am all for good and loving relationships the entire year round and not letting one day be held up as the only time that the other is thought of.

This is before we even get onto the commercialisation of the day. Having read supplements in the papers this week advising on perfect cards, gifts, trips, roses, chocolates, perfumes, colognes, underwear, makeup, etc, etc, without any of which it can't be that same special day, it becomes extremely tedious.

Really, you don't need any of that for a day about the person you love, and nor does it need to be restricted to one day of the year. Personally, I'm looking twelve days forward to when Chrissi arrives here, when I'm sure we'll do just fine without all of the above and on a different day of the year.

Yesterday Was The Day

Having read the news this morning and also last night, it seems amazingly trite that my blog yesterday evening was on anything other than one subject.

Egypt.

After 18 days of protests, Mubarak has resigned. The focus today has rightly not been on the political ramifications, but instead on the achievement, its significance, and the hope and joy on the street. Watching the pictures and reading the stories of those involved, in all that the one moment represented, it was hard not to be moved to tears. The perseverence and resistance of all the Egyptian people involved was simply that strong.

This is a fitting reminder of what people's resolve and unyielding humanity can be.

Return of the Familiar

It's been a while since I've done a post-midnight blog, and this evening as I have just returned from a trip to the pub after work seems like a good point to restart the trend. The main prompt for this being that it is considerably after midnight - in fact, it is just approaching 1am.

While today was a moderately entertaining day and also a decent evening, I don't have an overwhelming amount of information to report. Instead I'll dwell more on Chrissi's exciting news - today is her last day at her work, and it's now only slightly over two weeks until she is here. Just a little packing on her side and a little clearing of the decks on my side - good luck there - and we should be all ready just in time!

Poker Thursday

As this was the second Thursday of the month, this meant that it was poker night! After last month - when this fell during my study leave - I had some ground to make up on the leaderboard. This truly happened in impressive fashion as I managed to build a significant chip lead before having this all evaporated in a final four-way all-in.

The hands ended up being K4, AQ, QQ (me) and KK. The all-in to match for me was only about half of my chipstack, and with pocket pair, increasingly shortstacked opponents and a chance to win it in one fell swoop, I naturally went for it. Unsurprisingly nothing much came up to match considering the cards we all had, and it was the pocket kings that took it - leaving me on the wrong side of a 20k/10k chip disadvantage in the heads-up.

However, some decent heads-up play twinned with some nice running cards meant I managed to claim the victory in the end and in doing so catapult myself up the leaderboard.

Spanish Trip

One thing I've been remiss about informing my handful of readers about is my forthcoming trip to Barcelona. One of my friends at work is getting married in May, and is having a stag do in April to which some of his colleagues are invited, myself included.

This event is taking place in Barcelona, which means that I get to sample the sunny delights of Spain for a weekend. Tragically, one of the most exciting things for me is the short haul flight! A flight time of only two hours and ten minutes representing my entire journey is revolutionary. It's also the first non-American holiday I've been on in over five years - surprising.

I need to brush up on my Spanish, I think, as it's not so hot.

Technical Expertise

This evening my great technical expertise was called on, as I came home to find my sister, her friend and her friend's husband struggling to connect to our wifi. As I spend a lot of time on my computer, this was assumed I would know how to resolve this.

Being the only person who knew our wifi password, I was able to move us along. However, then we had the slight dilemma of the router playing up. While I could connect on my computer, I was unable to connect from my phone and Memet was also unable to connect from his laptop. After deciding it was the router to blame, I decided to use the highly technical approach of resetting this by turning it off and on again. Annoyingly and excitedly, this worked.

In noteworthy numbers, this also marks the 550th blog posted on this website.

Obligatory Post-Football Blog

So as is customary and so much so that I feel it is now almost compulsory, I return from football and post-shower I come to blog. Today I have a nagging pain in my ankle following a particularly unballetic turn in the opening minute of today's game. I sat out for a little while and then ran it off, but it's still nagging at me and I suspect it will be more painful tomorrow.

Besides that today was mostly uneventful - besides the mockery of the Chelsea fans in the office for their naive optimism following last week's transfers. As a result, I will instead tell a bewildering anecdote from yesterday, when I was in the Co-op in the village in the evening and was suddenly jumped on from behind by Mike which prompted confusion and then recognition.

It is a tribute to my vague attachment to reality that instead of generally greeting and conversing, my reaction was 'what are you doing here?' - in a shop, why I suspect they may be shopping. To clarify the they, Mike was also with Laura and Kat. I let them get on with their purchases and continued on in my own world, but this is an immense illustration of my loose relationship with reality.

Follow Up - Reporting Success

After yesterday's comments on my essential shopping trip today I felt the need to provide a follow up and update on my progress.

After a delayed start - I had planned to go into town before lunch, but in the end that changed to after lunch - I set off with a sense of urgency. If I hadn't left at that point, I would have not made it in time. This is the proof of how much I enjoy my shopping trips, particularly for clothes shopping.

Having walked in at a reasonable pace, I set off in pursuit of my targets. I required a pair of jeans, preferably two. A new jumper wouldn't be a bad addition, and ensuring I have sufficient underwear is always a key aim in life. After metaphorically gasping in horror at the price of designer jeans I eventually went for some cut price variants after a little shopping around. The total shopping trip landed me with all of the required items, at a net cost of £17 (although there were gift cards contributing towards this).

All in all, success. Hopefully I won't have to go shopping again in the near future, it isn't my favourite activity.

Early Night

I am blogging in a moment of slight confusion because at this time - a fraction past midnight - I am excessively tired and heading to bed. This is quite unusual for me, as typically I will be up for another 2-3 hours if not more on a weekend. I wasn't even up excessively early this morning to account for this sudden lethargy.

It's also odd as I've not done anything particularly strenuous today. I have done some shopping and that is probably the high point of the day. Tomorrow the list of tasks continues with clothes shopping - essential - and room tidying - pretty important but one that can inevitably be procrastinated on for a little while yet.

I also need to do ironing and other typical weekend pleasures. Should be fun.

Where Are You?

This morning I had a meeting at another office to start the day. This meant that as opposed to my usual relaxed dress, I actually had to resort to formal attire. While I had a suit and work tie for the morning, as I was returning to my usual workplace in the afternoon I decided to bring my fantastic Scooby Doo tie to change into once I returned to the more casual environment. This was well received by all.

In addition to this, I have also received news of my exam that I took two weeks ago - which I have successfully passed by an acceptable margin (32/40 with the pass mark being 26).

I have also made some slight progress with the tidying of my room but that is too boring to elaborate on.

Tidying

This evening I made a start on some of the tidying that is overdue in my room! With it being around three-and-a-half weeks until Chrissi is here, it would perhaps be fair to make some space for her. Things tend to accumulate in my room, so this seemed like a good place to start clearing the clutter.

After a little tidying I have cleared some surfaces and also tidied away one box. As an indication of how often this takes place, in my tidying I found birthday cards from 2010, a birthday gift from work people from 2009, old tickets from previous visits to Chrissi that I was hanging onto because I'm soppy like that, and a lego fireman from Mark & Sophie's wedding.

Don't worry, the lego fireman has still been saved, he's just been tidied away a little more.

One Minute To Save Thirty

This evening, as it is a Monday, I was firstly playing football and then returned home to blog, as I seem to manage with uncanny regularity. Today I was home excitingly early by making all my transport connections by a matter of minutes.

The train from Raynes Park to Clapham was delayed just enough for me to both make the train and then make my slightly delayed connection at Clapham, which got me back to Woking just before my bus left. It meant a 50 minute trip from Raynes Park station to my door, which was quite nice. Had I been a minute later and missed that original train, I'd have been forced to wait another half hour before I got home!

I suppose the hint here is that I should really learn to drive, where one minute later means I arrive ... one minute later and I'm not subject to such potential gaps. Perhaps this is something I will look at more seriously once Chrissi is here.

Second Hand News

This week I really feel that I am simply recycling Chrissi's news and not posting anything of my own. This is also because her news drastically dwarfs my own!

Having booked her tickets, we now have confirmed plans and confirmed dates. This date in question is the 26th February, when she will arrive in the UK. Not only this, but she is flying first class - this is bizarrely cheaper at the time, and also has extra bag allowance. A special treat and well deserved!

I have obtained the Monday through to the Wednesday of the following week off work so that we can spend some time together and get some other things organised. In the meantime I have approximately four weeks to organise everything in my room and clear out everything that should be cleared out so that there is space for Chrissi and her things - when my room becomes our room!

Fancy Dress

Odd as it may seem, I'm mildly peeved at the new policy at work that is going to make a form of dress-down the de facto dress policy. What this means is that I no longer need to wear a shirt or suit, smart trousers or anything of the like - instead I am able to relax in jeans and a t-shirt or shirt at work.

While usually I would welcome this - and on Fridays I do quite enjoy it - it is still a little irksome. It means I need to think about what I wear in the mornings, instead of just picking a shirt out of the wardrobe and putting it on. I may actually need to buy new clothes as I'm going to be wearing casual clothes a lot more. For some reason it's mildly annoying and I'm not sure why!

Approved

Chrissi got confirmation yesterday that her visa application had been approved. She should be over here by the end of February. I rarely tend towards brevity, but there isn't much more to say than that!

Familiar Journey

So this evening, as I write this blog from a train, I am making a somewhat familiar journey. I'm on the same train - albeit at a different time of day - that I would usually take to work. To make this more amusingly unusual for a weekend I am going to meet up with people from work for a drink. One of them is moving and another is assisting, so we thought a drink and meal sounded like a good plan for the evening.

And so it will come to pass. I need to remember to get off at Wimbledon and not at Surbiton - where I am now and where I usually alight! It does feel a little confusing, instinct is demanding I get off here.

Studying

This is a belated blog as it features the event of last week and the beginning of this.

I had an examination this Monday - a Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis, which counts towards a Diploma in Business Analysis. As a result, I was studying for probably the first time in over four years, and taking my first examination since the summer of 2006. The Thursday and Friday of the previous week were granted to me as study leave.

Unusually, the topic was one which was increasingly interesting to me. It was focused on my work, and instead of being quite dull - as may be imagined - to me it was filled with interesting techniques, strategies and approaches which could be used. It definitely helped provide me with some interesting ideas for how to approach work in the future, and I hope to have the opportunity to use some of it going forward! I find out in a fortnight whether I have passed the exam or not, but I would expect to be okay on that front.

Third Version

Usually I tire of bands by around the third album, as it fades ever away from what I'd prefer to listen to. This is especially true nowadays, when it seems rarer and rarer for bands to have smaller albums pre-breakthrough as they may well have done even 10-15 years ago.

However, I'm delighted that Maximo Park's Quicken The Heart is so far breaking the mould. I must thank Mike for reminding me that it was out, and I got this for Christmas. I got around to listening to it at the beginning part of last week and it's fast becoming one of my most played albums.

I always have had an inate fondness for Maximo Park. I enjoy their combination of creative melodies and fantastic lyrics. They use good words in their songwriting, and while nothing will probably compare with the fabulous use of both 'Detritus gathers' and 'lacerate' in The Unshockable from their first album, some of their most recent offerings come close.

My favourite efforts were in Wraithless using the phrase "raison d'etre", while The Penultimate Clinch uses not only the fantastic word in the title, but also amusingly contains the phrase "I've got a bee in my bonnet" - something you just do not hear in songs enough.

Good work all round.

Stand By Your Principles

I've always thought that the most important thing is to stand by what you believe. To stand up for what is right and not to shy away from it.

At the moment I'm not thinking of burning my bridges - which is folly. However, I am planning to much more vigorously reiterate what is right and my view as to how things should work. Standing idly by and complaining about how things don't improve is no defense if you don't also work for that same improvement. It is impossible to plead that you are not listened to if you do not speak.

We will see what happens.

Twenty Eleven

I have lapsed out of the blogging routine, which should be fairly clear to all. Since my last post, we have entered a new year, perhaps a notable event.

I'm never particularly overwhelmed with ambitions for a New Year. I try and set myself aims and goals all the time, whether or not they are particularly ambitious! In fact, having discussed this with a colleague over the weekend, I am disappointed that there has been no questioning on New Year's Resolutions. I had prepared specifically for this by preparing false resolutions on opposite ends of the scale; ludicrously simple and preposterously ambitious.

I urge you all to follow this theme.