So close no matter how far..

I don’t know where the months go. Maybe I’m getting old or something, but the time just seems to fly by :P

The last few weeks have been kinda intense and full on with Charles’ birthday, family meals, and Charles’ sisters’ wedding. I’ve also been working a week of late shift and have had 1 day off in the last 10, so I’m starting to run on empty. And being tired I get very good at waffling, and coming out with stupid brainless comments. Just a bit of advance warning ;P

Come January I’ll have been at my “new” job for two years!.. Doesn’t seem that long,  and the fact that it’s half the time I was at my previous job is kind of scary.
Still loving it though :) I work with a great bunch of people, and the job itself make good use of my “troubleshooting brain” (to quote someone at work). I’ve also found myself going outside of my comfort zone, and found that it wasn’t that bad ;)

I’ve recently swapped web host from Bluehost to WebHostingPad, since I couldn’t afford to renew the old one. Move of the website went smoothly, and as you can see I was able to import everything from my blog as well.

I’ve updated the theme of the blog to a new wider version of the WP-Andreas01 theme, and given it a bit of a colour scheme makeover as well. I’d been thinking about making the theme wider, but a visit to Andreasviklund.com saved me a bit of coding as he’s recently released a new wider version of the theme :)
I’ll probably still have a bit more of fiddle with it and maybe try and make the side columns a bit narrower and the middle column a bit wider. But it’ll have to wait until the weekend.

Next on the makeover list is my website, but that might take a bit longer as I’ll have to work out how to redo the header picture. And I’ve also got to set up my photo gallery again, which will probably take even longer. Then again I’ve got a four-day weekend this weekend, so I’m sure I can find the time to squeeze in some geekyness somewhere along the line ;)

Got refresher first aid course for work tomorrow. It’s a half day course, and then I’ve got the rest of the week and Monday off. Looking forward to getting some rest and getting to rest my brain as well.

Have had somewhat of a geeky evening spending most of it on my laptop in front of the tv (watching Ghana beat USA in the World Cup).

Got some photos of my lovely iPod Nano with Skullcandy Inkd headphones, and (not intentionally) matching Nokia 5310. The case on my iPod is a iSkin Vibes Flower Power one.

I’ve also been drooling over the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro (again). Tiny touchscreen phone running Android 1.6, 5.1 megapixel camera, wi-fi etc, and with a slide-out qwerty keyboard. And SE have confirmed there’ll be an upgrade to Android 2.1 end of 2010.
I wants one.. ;P But given the fact I’m über-skint (on a seemingly permanent basis) atm, I’ll just have to hope it’s available when my mobile contract is up for renewal in November 2011 :/

The power of music never ceases to amaze me.. How it can bring back memories, and feelings.. Was listening to some Linkin Park the other day, and it brought back plenty of memories of rough times I went through 5 1/2 ish years ago. Things that I thought I’d forgiven and put behind me returned at a different level. But it also made me realise how much has changed in the last year, and I saw those memories in a new light..
It’s hard to explain, but suffice it to say that something that 1 1/2 years ago would have knocked me back down (or kept me down) gave me a sense of freedom and relief this time. :)

I suppose I can make an attempt at a short re-cap of the last 11 months.. :)

July last year we went over to Sweden for my dad’s 60th birthday, and had a nice time meeting family I hadn’t seen for years. And there was some cracking summer weather as well :)

Did the Alpha course at the Christian Centre in town in the autumn (October/November time).

October last year I moved flat. I’ve now got my own flat, and I’ve actually got an appreciation for having time to myself (which I never used to have). We still only live 5mins walk apart, so it’s nice to have time together as well as to ourselves, and I think we’ve finally managed to get the balance right between the two.
I like my flat, disregarding the slightly ancient looking kitchen and the greenish turquoise-ish bathroom :)

Had the coldest winter in 30 years in the UK this winter just gone, and I loved it :D Made me giggle how they were referring to it as “The Big Freeze” on the news and in the papers :) We did get snow though and it stayed cold and snowy for a good week or more. It even snowed one day in February.

Went to London for a day in December last year and January this year. In January we went to the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” exhibition at the Natural History Museum with Charles’ mum and her friend, and his brother and sister.

Went to Sweden for about a week in early March, and got to experience some decent winter weather. :) 2 foot of snow and minus 10-15 degrees celcius. I miss the Swedish winters..

In April I officially turned older than 30 :P Had a really nice day tho’, and some very yummy food in good company at Chiquitos the weekend after my birthday. :)

I can’t believe it’s nearly half-way through the year already.. I don’t know where the time goes, feels like I just blink and a week has gone by.

In a month I’ll have been at my “new” job for 18 months. Still loving it, and sometimes feel like a bit of a workaholic ending up staying late seemingly at least a couple of days a week.

I’m really loving work etc atm. Feeling appreciated at work, have met some great people through Alpha and small group. It’s hard to explain, but I don’t think I’ve felt this content for many many years. It’s weird (as I’m not used to it), but it’s weird nice (if that makes any sense). :)

Can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since I last wrote anything..

Quite a bit has changed in the last 11ish month for me personally. When I last updated this blog was when I came to faith, and my outlook on things as well as my view of myself has changed alot since then. I’d be lying if I’d say that all my troubles had gone away, but how I deal with things has changed. And it feels like that hole inside of me that I’ve been trying so hard to fill all these years with material things, relationships, shoes, bags, food, you name it.. that hole has been filled. It’s hard to explain, hard to put into words, but that’s the best way I can explain it.
And I’m going to stop waffling now, ‘cos I’m just getting emotional.. :P

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Haven’t updated for ages.. Time has just been going crazily fast since starting the new job at the beginning of the year.

The job is going well. I really enjoy it and it’s a really nice place to work, and I enjoy going to work. Still can’t believe it’s already been 4 months since I started. The shifts aren’t too bad with working 9am-5:30pm normally, and two weeks out of eight 2:30-10pm. Finishing at 10pm isn’t great fun, but I get half the day in the morning to do stuff. And with getting taxi paid for by work when going home I’m normally home at about 10:15om. I also only have to work one weekend in eight, and it’s only one day either morning (8am-4pm) or evening (4pm-10pm).

So, a recap of the last few months then..

In January I was mostly busy cramming loads of information into my head from all the training at work.

February was good. Had family (my two brothers, my sister and her boyfriend) over from Sweden, and we went to the Metallica concert at the Nottingham Arena. It rocked! :D
The night before the Metallica concert we went to Nandos for dinner and then went back to ours for drinks. I had less fun getting a migraine (after a couple of pints of course at which point I wasn’t keen on taking ridiculously strong pain killers), but everyone else had a good time :) I’m planning on being migraine free for when we go over to Sweden in the summer to see the family :P

Most recently Charles has gotten a full time job doing technical support. It’s really nice to have him home and being able to see him in the evening rather than going weeks in between seeing each other and then cramming it all in a few weeks before him going away again. It’s also a bit more financial stability, which never hurts.

Went clothes shopping yesterday, and remembered why I don’t like it :P
Next weekend we’re going to Charles’ cousin’s wedding, so I had to get some smart looking clothes since I’m not allowed to go in jeans and t-shirt ;) I bought a purple sleeveless top as well as a black linen skirt, and I’ll be wearing a light purple shirt I’ve got from before. Charles thinks I’ll need to wear a name tag ‘cos people wont recognise me :P

I also had my birthday at the beginning of the week. And I’m now officially old ;P

As they’ve changed the pay day at work this month (typically) to be the last working day of the month, I was really skint on my birthday. So today we’re going to Nandos for some yummy foods :)

New Years Eve didn’t turn out too messy, although I did feel a bit rough when I woke up in the morning. But then I’d had 5 bottles/cans (500ml ones) of cider, a tiny bottle of Baileys (50ml or whatever they are), and a pint of snake bite and fruit squash (made with the Super Strong Strongbow that’s 7% or something). :P
On New Years Day we went over to Charles’ uncle and aunts house for their half-house-warming and marvelled at their new huge kitchen/extension, and socialised with other guests/family members. All in all a nice day (despite the slight hang-over ;P).

Have had a busy week this week. And I’m sure I’ve not used my brain this much in the past 4 years or something. Felt really knackered on Thursday after a day of systems training and I’m pretty sure my brain had turned to mush ;P
New job and a lot of training and stuff to take in. It’s a really nice place to work, and I find myself actually looking forward to going to work in the morning(!). They’ve not got a dress code (or rather their dress code is “informal”), free fruit in the canteen, and it’s nice and quiet in the “office” (apart from occasionally when there’s a system glitch and the phones go a bit mental), and I won’t be chained to a phone 8hrs a day. :D

Today we had a nice lie-in for the first time all week. I mean I’ve not had to get up any way near as early as I used to in my previous job. I’ve been getting up at 8am all week for a 9:30am start at work, whereas before I used to have to get up at 6:30am. Being back at work has certainly made me appreciate lie-ins again. :)
Today’s mission is to empty the Sky+ box and re-setting it completely. Charles has been busy recording stuff to DVD most of the week, and we’ve currently got more free space on the Sky+ box than we’ve had in the year since we bought it. :) Hopefully re-setting it will stop it from playing up (been cutting the sound out and freezing up and being a pain intermittently).

On a geeky note (as usual ;)), I’ve managed to get my dream keyboard. And it’s loooovely :D
It’s even more comfortable to type on than my old keyboard, and it looks nice with the backlight on ;) Now I can sit up late at night in the dark and see what I’m typing ;P
Also got myself a new harddrive (to put in my caddy to make it an external harddrive) so that I can fit all the stuff that I download onto it. I’ve been gradually running out of space on my normal harddrives (probably ‘cos I’m a bit of a hoarder and don’t tend to get rid of old files very often) :P

I’ve also managed to get my christmas present from Charles to work (actually did that last weekend), after me being stupid and not reading the info on the website and having to exchange an item. :P
What he got me was a kit to enable me to load custom firmware on my PSP; so I can now play games backed up to my memory stick, as well as running various emulators on it as well :D

[Edited: 2009-01-10, 5:23pm]

..and in with the new.

The last post of the year this.
Lets hope that 2009 will be a better year than 2008. ‘Cos let’s face it..2008 has had it’s ups and downs ;P
Although more ups than downs I think. :)

I could attempt some sort of re-cap of 2008, but I don’t think my brain is up for it ;P
In fact I think my brain will have a shock next week when it’ll actually have to be in use again ;P

Looking forward to the new year and starting a new job and all of that. Even tho’ it’s nice to have time off, after a few weeks or so you run out of things to do and it just gets a bit boring. You can only spend so many hours a day playing Bejeweled ;)

Tonight will be a quiet night in with some (possibly plenty.. actually, probably most likely “plenty”, knowing me once I’ve had a few.. ;P) cider. It’s too cold for going out (and it’s damp and cold, not nice dry and cold). Oh, and I’m too skint to go to the pub.. :P
I’ve had a can of Relentless (500ml energy drink) to keep me awake for midnight (although all it’s probably done is restored my normal “blood to caffeine” ratio ;)).
I’ve got some nice Swedish cider in the fridge, as well as a bottle of St. Heliers, and a bottle of Sheppy’s Cider with Honey (that I bought on Holy Island when we went on holiday to Northumberland in June). Hmmm..come to think about it I’ve also got some Lindisfarne Mead that I bought when we went to Holy Island. And I’ve got a bottle of coffee flavoured Baileys (yum yum yum) that I got from Charles for christmas :) And Raspberry Sambuca.. :) I can see where this is going.. ;P

Roll on 2009! :)

I’m starting to realise just how wound up on stress I’ve been in the last few months regarding my job situation, or rather the lack of it.
I’m usually prone to get migraines when the tension/stress is released after something I’ve been worrying/stressed about turns out ok. Normally this is kinda instant, although this time it took until Sunday (so 3-4 days) before I got the migraine after getting the job offer.. Think it took a few days for it to sink in and for me to relax sufficiently.
Been rather tired the last few days as well. And I’ve started falling asleep on the sofa in the evenings as well; something that’s not happened for a good few months. This afternoon I was nodding off on the sofa at 4pm after just having drunk a can of “Kick” (Tesco’s own-brand Red Bull). Admittedly we were watching snooker at the time ;)

Speaking of snooker, the UK Championship final was a cracking game. And I still love Sky+ :) We’d recorded it yesterday, as we’d be out most of the day, and watched most of it today. It’s also great to be able to play snooker at double speed when it gets too slow ;)