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Oh yeah, the blog…

I knew I forgot something.

So yeah, I’m back. Just when you thought it was safe, etc, etc. A lot’s happened since my last post in — when was it? (shuffles papers) — October. Boy have I been slacking. Anyway, here’s the juice:

Home. We did manage to move back in just before Christmas — three days before, to be precise. It was a huge effort from all involved to get enough of the kitchen and bathroom ready in time, but we made it. The place was a bit of a mess for a few weeks afterwards, but things are coming together nicely now. The kitchen and new staircase, in particular, have turned out really well. It’s finally starting to feel like a real home.

Work. Is okay. In turns engaging and frustrating. I’ve not worked for a company with this many employees since I was at Cheshire County Council back in the early ’90s, and the bureaucracy is somewhat annoying after having become used to more direct code ownership.

Expecting. The really big news: Paula is pregnant, and we’re expecting our first child in May! We’ve been trying since we got married, so although it was not entirely unexpected it’s still took a bit of getting used to. There are big changes ahead, and a few uncomfortable decisions that will need to be made, but I’m really looking forward to becoming a dad :O)

Well, consider yourselves updated. Sorry for the long delay between posts, normal service should hopefully be resumed from this point onwards.

October status report

I’ve been a bit lax on the blogging front lately*, so an update is long overdue. Things have been so hectic, I hardly know where to start.

The pit. Funny how progress on the house seems to ebb and flow: seemingly little progress for weeks on end, then suddenly a few jobs start to come together and it almost seems worthwhile. Then one of your water joints fails, floods your cloakroom and writes-off several hundred quids worth of furniture. Stuff like that. Anyway, the new target date for moving back in is Christmas (that’s Christmas this year, you comedians). Most of the plumbing and drainage is in now; the bathroom and en-suite just need tiling really. Our new staircase will hopefully arrive by the end of this week. Then the final major outlay will be the new kitchen. We’ve ordered the appliances (online, to save some money), but not the units as yet.

Time off. My employer was gracious enough to allow me to take a few days unpaid leave. Coupled with my remaining holiday for this year, that meant a two-week break to allow me to work on the house, place orders, accept deliveries, etc. This is the start of my second week. It’s been very useful: there’s certainly no way I’d have accomplished as much during lunch breaks and at the weekends. I could have done with an even longer break (say a month or so), but two weeks is better than nothing.

Other stuff. I’ve been concentrating so much on the house recently that there’s been little time for anything else. Managed to squeeze in a visit to see the One Man Star Wars Trilogy (most excellent!), but other than that, nothing. I haven’t spoken to some of my friends for months, which is really bad. I’m hoping that things will calm down a lot after Christmas, and my life will get back to something approaching normality.

* Like I’m so prolific usually, ha!

I’ll get my coat…

I quit my job earlier this week. I’ve been with my present employer for just over three years, so it was probably time for a change: I was starting to get too personally attached to the projects I was working on, and this was causing some friction with other team members, which is rarely a good thing. That’s not my only reason for leaving, but my blog isn’t the place to air that dirty linen.

My new employer will be Moneysupermarket.com. You may have heard of them, or even used their product-comparison web sites. I’ll be coding in C#, which is the language I’ve been using for the majority of the past couple of years, so that’s good. It also looks like I’ll have the opportunity to learn about some areas of the .Net framework that I haven’t yet used, such as remoting and web services, which should be fun! I’m really looking forward to starting there next month.

Plus they have free parking for everyone! w00t!