So where has time gone? Thinking through a typical week for me now I’m doing well if I’m home for two evenings a week. That’s mostly due to committing more time to music rehearsals than anything else, which is no bad thing. Certainly, I feel the best way I express myself these days is with my lips attached to a mouthpiece!

Expression, in turn, leads to why this is being typed now. This place was always about me sharing a bit of my mind with the wider web but equally with a close group of friends. That was easy back in my Uni days (something I do miss) but now I’m a bit more mindful, wary even of saying the wrong thing or providing the wrong impression. I suppose this could be called ‘growing-up’ or accepting that I have more responsibilities now than then?

However, I also wanted this place to be something of a reflection on me that in the future I and others could read back as a diary and understand me that little bit more. As such, I intend to make use of this blog again and leave my little mark on the WWW. In fact, my intentions are so strong I’ve even pinned the WordPress Dashboard as an ‘App Tab’!

Dan

It’s weird how certain events in life feel like they happened yesterday and yet at the same time have always been, almost like there wasn’t a time before. I’m greatful and thankful that the second half of that sentence doesn’t apply for my time with Sarah, that I know and remember well our time together.

On the other hand married life feels like it has always been. Even though I know things have changed in countless ways since Kita and I first got together at the same time it feels like our marriage has always been, long established before our wedding day.

It’s odd how it feels like yesterday that Ben and I were both pretty much living in my Uni dorm and yet now we’re both preparing for life away from Uni and that time of living together has passed. Uni life appears to have shot by in the blink of an eye and yet in that blink of an eye it has shaped me in more ways than I probably know. I certainly wouldn’t be where I am now (at work) without that time behind me!

What to write though? Sadly those posts that had been semi-formed in my mind have long since departed and thinking about it now I can’t recall their contents at all. Ho hum!

Perhaps a good way to ‘restart’ this blog then is trying to explain why the barren spell occurred and, perhaps more importantly, why it has come to an end. It’s really quite simple.

My last post coincided with the start of my final academic year and in that first week I started to loathe IT. Looking back it wasn’t IT I was disenchanted with but Uni. Truth is I’ve had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the last 6 months by some very good friends. Why though? Why should the last 6 months have felt so much harder?

The workload certainly increased but that wasn’t the problem. No, the problem was motivation. Whilst my time at HP wasn’t the greatest the months between my placement ending and my wedding were. I’d found myself in a job that was both challenging and rewarding. Perhaps most importantly I felt like I was  meant to be there and the work I was doing had value to it. And that was the problem with my Uni work; it was a means to an end.

Sure it has value; it gets me a degree but for me work needs to be more. It has to effect others, hopefully in a positive way, that I can thrive on. Uni work doesn’t have this element. It feels cold with little purpose, other than to get a degree! Which, as a type this, is of course all it is!

I am  a firm believer in the mantra that ‘no one cares about IT because it works’ or however it goes. That’s what I strive for in my career. My reward is the satisfaction of knowing that everyone else has the tools at their disposal to complete their job to the best of their ability and that my job doesn’t get in their way. Uni work never satisfied this, how could it?

How could a piece of coursework on ‘Investigating the use of Pan, Tilt and Zoom Remote IP CCTV Cameras over WAN connections’ or some Java programming ever satisfy? But then why should this stop my blogging? Simply because it felt like every time I sat down at a keyboard the work I was producing was pointless and that in turn led to me trying to minimize the time I spent bashing keys.

Now though, as I sit here bashing keys with a pint of Tangle Foot, my outlook on IT feels a lot rosier. My work has purpose and I no longer feel frustration when things aren’t going well (IT wise). No, these frustrations are now challenges and overcoming challenges is rewarding.

The work? My final year project.

Admittedly its for the same company that I worked for between HP and my wedding; Chris Lewis Fire & Security. However, I don’t think it’s the company that’s important, it’s the work.

I’ll try and keep this blog up to date again, I certainly feel motivated to. Apologies if it becomes quite final year project orientated and sorry again for the lean 6 months.

Dan

I’ve a couple of decent sized blog posts in my head that I think I’ll write up near the end of this week, once we’ve moved some more into our marital home and I’ve had a chance to set-up my desktop. Whilst I really like my diddy 9″ netbook/hackintosh toy it’s really more for digesting and consuming the digital age rather than contributing to it, if that makes sense?

Dan

Sorry this blog has been oddly quiet, it’s been very busy and I’ll do a proper catch-up in a couple of days but I thought it important to get this post in, to mark the day in cyberspace as well.

What can I say?

I’m ridiculously excited and yet my stomachs doing laps as well. There’s three things I’m dreading and it’s not going to take a genius to guess them. Dreading that I’ll muck them up.

Other than that though I’ve the feeling in me like I’m 7 again and it’s Christmas morning. Hopefully that sentence sums it up, I’m sooo excited, I can’t wait to come out the Church with Mrs Hadland holding my hand.

That’s all I’ve time for really. Time to shower and shave. See you on the other side.

Dan

Whilst the invites have been going along at a snails pace I’m pleased to say that most of the other stuff is getting there and today I got the call saying our rings are ready and would I like to pay for them? So they’ll be with us on Saturday.

I’m sure they’ll look great and having the mental age that I do I’m sure the first thing I’ll say is “Ooh, shiny!”. Having said that there is a pause for some thought.

A pair of jeans lasts perhaps a couple of years, a watch a fair few more but a ring… for the rest of my life, crikey!

I wonder what it will look like when life’s taken all it’s twists and turns and it gets taken off of me. Personally I hope it’s dulled down, scratched here and there and looks well worn. I’ve no desire to wear bright ‘blingy’ jewellery and to me a ring that looks like the one I described sounds to me like a ring that was worn everyday, for a long time, no matter what.

Of course life has many twists and turns, some that you don’t come round but if I do make it to old age, well I know who I want to make it there with.

Dan

The video doesn’t quite do the show justice but still thought I’d share it and remember it.

Dan

Friday evening Ben, Kita, Mum (thanks Mum) and I set about cleaning our old house, working pretty much straight through the evening with all manner of cloth and chemical. Come about 11pm the old house was in a pretty good state. Clean, tidy and ready to be given back.

Saturday morning Ben and I went in the house about 9am and the first thing I said was “Where’s the post?” shortly followed by “Why’s the bed been pulled out?”. From that moment on I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach it wasn’t going to be quite as good a day as the glorious sunshine would suggest it should be.

We’d arranged for the landlady to go through the checking out process at 10am and sure enough she was there promptly on time. The first thing she produced was a letter addressed to the occupier of our Reading place from Thames Water. She thought it was evidence we’d not paid the water bill. In truth it’s a fairly harmless letter, just asking for the new occupier to set-up a new account as I’d cancelled ours. I know, I’d opened it a couple of days ago and left it in the house for the new tenants.

A part of me wishes I’d been a lot less tired and a bit sharper witted. Our landlady had been in our property after we’d left Friday night and picked up the post. That’s a breach of contract, entering the property without our consent whilst we still held the tenancy. If I’d have been more awake and a little quicker I suspect none of what followed would have happened. Alas, it’s a lesson learnt.

She basically complained about the state of cleanliness of the property throughout. In fact I think the only thing she was happy with was the hob which was shining…… as was most of the house. Many hours passed and many comments were made and ultimately Ben and I somewhat gave in on some points which means we’re losing a significant chunk of our deposit. On reflection we could have been a lot tougher, heck based on the previous paragraph we could have been very tough indeed.

In all honesty though my heart wasn’t in it. At the moment there are just too many more important things going on in my life that fighting for some money pails in comparison. Another time and  I suspect I’d have tried a lot harder, or more to the point taken something of a gamble. You see a big part of our problem was our letting agents.

The reason, the only real reason Ben and I negotiated with the landlady direct was because we both felt it would have been a far bigger, messier fight with the agents. Honestly as I type this I’m sure the agents would have gone for more like 85% of our deposit and we’d be fighting tooth and nail over it for the next 6 months. In my final year of uni and getting married in a few months I just didn’t fancy that over my head. If you’re looking to move to Reading drop me a message and I’ll tell you who to avoid!

There were so many silly little details on Saturday that I could write a book on them. It wouldn’t do anyone much good apart from this, my intentions to own the roof over my head have never been stronger.

So Saturday was a write off, I was exhausted mentally and physically and didn’t fancy moving any more boxes into Portsmouth that evening. Sunday though was a success. After a much needed lazy start to the day we went down to our flat in Southsea and moved the final car loads of stuff in and began living there.

We unboxed a bit, got the TV kind of working and made the bed. Thankfully though we both felt like a walk and so we strolled along the beach, laughing and enjoying one another’s company like we haven’t in quite a long time. It was a really great walk, probably the most romantic thing we’ve done since Sorrento last summer.

That would have been a good way to finish the weekend but it got better. As we were aimlessly wondering around we came across quite a crowd. Not really knowing what was going on (apart from a big boat on the grass) we stuck around and to our delight a fantastic firework show took place marking the end of Portsmouth’s Festivities, celebrating 500 years since the ascension of Henry VIII.

So a great way to end a very stressful weekend.

Dan

The flat’s pretty much as we’d been promised (just waiting on a shower to be fitted at the moment) and everything seems to have gone smoothly. I’ll be honest I was expecting something to go wrong or to cost us more than I’d originally thought.

Now it’s just a case of moving out of Reading and cleaning Centurion Close. I’ve boxed a fair bit of the house already and so this evening I’ll be loading the first van full. All being well the majority of our stuff will be in our new flat by the end of the weekend.

Dan

• I’ll be enjoying work again
• We’ll hopefully be all settled in Portsmouth
• More of the wedding should be finalised and in place

Let me ellaborate. Work at the moment feels stagnant and slow. Unfortunately I’ve got to the time where I’m just ‘finishing things off’ and ‘tyeing up the loose ends’. That would be fine if the loose ends were the final strands of exciting and interesting work but alas they’re not and nor has there really been much work in those categories.

Come August I’ll be back in a busy, growing, dynamic department. Work flat out from 8 ’til 6 and I can’t wait. Something I’ve learnt this year in a big way is that I’m something of a workaholic. At the moment I miss coming home from work and being tired because you’ve given a hundred and ten percent. At the moment I come home tired because my brain hasn’t really been turned on during the day.

Of course come the middle of August and I’ll no doubt be bitching I’m tired and when I do please redirect me here

Thanks,

Dan