As most have probably noticed, my posting has dropped below its normally abysmal rate into new subterranean depths. Nevertheless, I know some friends & family still occasionally read this in the hope of finding out what I’m up to and so here’s a quick & dirty update as I sip wine and ignore the [rather chilly] outside world.
Firstly – why have I not been posting? Two major reasons: firstly, I’m old enough to recognise my essential insignificance and hence unless I’ve something concrete to pose about there seems little point in blogging; secondly, Twitter fulfils those tiny moments where I need to vent or bitch or even occasionally comment constructively – and forces me to be brief in my expression as well.
And now, on to the meat of the dish. On the personal side, life continues as it inevitably must. Polly & I are still happily ensconced near the Oval, drinking tea and [in my case] complaining about the commute to work. We’re still saving for a house, and given the government’s contempt for those who didn’t get themselves into silly amounts of debt it looks like we’ll be saving for a while yet, while the banks profit from the practically absent interest rates. Although I’m not too bitter – given that my most cynical estimates of our politicians, leaders and the general populace seem to become closer to proven every time one of such opens their mouths, I’m merely having my misanthropy confirmed.
Despite air travel becoming more unpleasant every time the authorities see an excuse to extend their grasp a little we did still manage a couple of trips, the major one being Rome. We almost missed that one – miscalculating our departure times and ending up at Heathrow 30 minutes before the plane took off. However, Alitalia took pity on us and upgraded us to business class, bless them. Rome also turned out to be one of the few places we’ve left and still felt there was more to see and do, although a break was required before we saw any more Roman ruins – look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.
We also resorted to public transport and indulged my inner-boy, visited Duxford at Cambridge. Not only do they have a mass of planes, but a tank hall as well – what better a place to indulge my inner Peter-Pan? Polly then dragged me up to Northumberland for a week, trekking parts of Hadrian’s wall and even touching on the Lake District. I even managed without Internet for an evening, a feat never (or since) before attempted.
Polly also risked life & limb and had me drive us into deepest darkest Somerset for Ben & Tina’s wedding – very traditional and the first time I’ve been in a church for legit reasons for a long time. Congratulations were combined with catching up with some old friends – and, for that matter, crowning four years in which Ben and I have managed to avoid each other through shear uselessness.
On the work side, Amigo suffered from drifting goals and the business decided to kill it, making us redundant. Worse, this happened after a month’s planning on the subject of escaping Hammersmith and moving to the West End. Still, after a two week break where little was accomplished (and much fun was had) I returned to Signature, rejoining their efforts at world domination via online multi-player gaming, and getting work with grid-based systems as well. So, apart from my still being in Hammersmith I cannot really complain on that front.
I’ve also ended up biking more frequently – between the RMT finding any excuse to strike and the conditions on the Tube during summer it has proved a blessing. And besides, it does wonders for my hips.
On the hobby side, I’ve been struggling with the joys of open source – it’s all very fun creating a project, but support (especially when you end up not using it yourself) soon becomes a horrid drag. And so I’ve ended up being much less productive on that front than I should have, although I hope to learn some Cocoa in the new year as a start at remedying this. Whether I dare release it is another matter entirely.
I’ve also played too much World of Warcraft, although that is now firmly under control thanks to Blizzard, who did their best to destroy the game with their 3.2 patch. In return, however, I’ve picked up EVE and even worse got involved with Goonswarm, and so I have other terrible things to waste my time on. Add to this the superb Dragon Age: Origins, and time becomes a scarce resource.
And so that’s a quick, clean summary of my year. Needless to say, I can’t see updates coming much more frequently in the new year – Flickr and Twitter remain better resources to track me. But hope springs eternal.
Happy New Year to you all!
