For Pete's Sake

If Carlsberg took photographs..

As mentioned in my last post Cati and I travelled to Paris on New Year’s day for a 4 day holiday. It’s been several years since I’ve last visited, less for Cati, and to be honest I wasn’t quite sure what we’d do. When Cati lived here we did the major touristy things like going up the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and so on but very little after that. To be honest the main detractor from doing much was that her flat was up seven flights of stairs. At the time I was less fit than I am now and it was quite an effort so we mostly stayed in her little flat; sad I know.

Anyway the trip this time has been a little different. First of all our accommodation isn’t up lots of stairs, this time round we’re staying with a friend of Cati’s from her time here at Uni. It’s outside Paris in what is effectively the suburbs. It’s a lovely place to be and it’s kinda nice to be out of the craziness that is central Paris. This has helped a wee bit as when we went in to Paris yesterday it felt more like a day trip rather than a wander around your own back yard. I get the same feeling with Bristol now that we live in the suburbs. It’s made the trip feel that little bit more special and, as I’m more active these days, we got up to a lot of things in just one day. I shan’t go in to the particulars of what we did as that will appear on our holiday website and I don’t want to steal its thunder but less to say we’ve had a lot of fun.

We’re going home tomorrow and I am looking forward to being back at home. I always do miss home when I’m away but I’ve enjoyed Paris much more than I did than when Cati lived here which is also a sad thing. There are so many things to do in Paris that if I’d have been more energetic when Cati was living here I think I’d have had a greater appreciation for the city than I did till now. Whether we’ll make many more trips is another thing in light of our future plans but I think that I have a greater respect for Paris now than I did purely by getting out there and actually seeing Paris.

I got home from holiday in Taizé last night and this morning I re-read my last post and it was interesting purely for the past week I’ve had no contact with the outside world for a week… and I survived! It was the strangest experience in many ways as I didn’t notice the absence of my phone, laptop, TV etc. However when I got home I felt as if I’d been away for more than a week. I suppose this is down to the fact that for over a week I was in a self-sealed community with no contact to the outside world. I mean there were phones there, even an Internet station, but I specifically stayed away from them all. I left the community only twice in the week but didn’t read any papers or such like. In fact the only thing that I kept on top of was the first Ashes test which I tuned into on Radio 4 Long-wave (which was an awesome first test).

The title of the post really refers to what the overriding feeling I got when I left Taizé early Sunday morning. While it involved Bible study, discussion and prayer; it had also given me time to reflection on what had been going on in my life recently. By the end of the week I had let go of the problems of the past months and although I didn’t notice it at the time I felt a lot lighter spiritually as well as mentally. I’d be the first to say I’m not overly open when it comes to my beliefs and religion. I haven’t spoken a word of it really online and that’s not because I’m not religious. I guess it’s because to me it’s something personal, I don’t want to preach, in fact that’s something I dislike. For me religion and belief is a journey you take by yourself and I stand by that but I opened up at Taizé.

The discussion group I joined was for 25-35yr olds and the topic for the week was “God says yes to what we are.” It was a journey through the Bible from Old to New Testament stopping at Genesis, Exodus, story of Elijah, Jesus healing a paralytic, Jesus washing feet & Revelations. Each day we then split off into small groups in the morning or afternoon depending if you took part in the communal work. I didn’t so my small group meetings were in the afternoon and I’ll say this now, the group I was in, well, I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful group of people. I think this is the main reason I was quite open in groups as I wasn’t quite sure what to expect before I went. Taizé in many ways is like the many Quaker residential weeks I’ve been on with obvious exceptions. However unlike Taizé group discussion is based upon the mornings speaker which was often on a topic based on the weeks theme e.g. the week theme of Peace and discussion about “The Troubles.” I’d never been in a situation where I was talking about my faith and my beliefs before in this way and at first it was strange and a little difficult. I was worried that I wasn’t religious enough because I don’t go to Church, haven’t read the Bible in any depth and generally felt that I was out of my depth. I was very wrong and found myself comfortable talking about the days topic with my group to be frank it was quite liberating.

The other thing that I enjoyed at Taizé was the grand scale and multi-national aspect of it. My group comprised of people from 5 countries and overall there were people from many countries from as far away as Sri-Lanka to someone from Bristol. At the same time though, and this is my favourite story of Taizé, it showed yet again how small the world is. As most will know I was in Seattle in November of last year and as part of the trip I went to see the Huskies play UCLA in NCAA Men’s Football. Although the game was a washout for the Huskies the half-time show was a tribute to Monty Python which was fantastic. Well one person in my group was actually in that half-time show! She was absolutely astonished when we stumbled on this fact and I just couldn’t believe it. Either way it just goes to show what a small world this is.

So as I said, the past week was one mostly of reflection, however it has also been one of fresh impetus. As you can see I’ve changed my blog theme, I wanted to go back to a standard look but one that is simple. I’m also planning to learn Swedish as I made a promise and I look forward to discovering a new language. I also feel refreshed, ready to take on the change of job next month as well as any other challenge that lies ahead. I feel I have support now and a network of friends to ask advice. Life doesn’t seem as daunting as it once did and the experiences of the past week have a lot do with that feeling.

The question really relates to the fact that whenever I end up looking for a new job I always wonder if it’ll be better than where I am. Not only that but I fear that it won’t be. In the situation I am now I have little choice because unless something magical happens by August I will be out of work. It kinda sucks to know this but at the same time I’m thankful that I have a couple months to sort things out, better than a week. I’d like to think I stand out and am employable but at the moment I feel that I am, along with X hundreds of other people, guess a recession does that to a job market. I’m not worried yet but I will be if August grows near and I’ve nothing lined up.

Work is a funny thing, there are things which make you wish you were somewhere else and then there are things or people that make it the best job in the world. For me, I know I’m somewhere good when, no matter what’s happened at work, I can go home and leave work at work. If work comes home with me and I find it affects relaxing at home with Cati then I know something is up. It’s only ever happened the once and I moved on from that environment and since this is one job out of the many I have I’m confident that these are rare occurences but that doesn’t stop me fearing it. Work is a necessity for most people and unless you marry into money or win the lottery you’ve got many years hard graft ahead of you. Therefore for me I’ve got to enjoy what I do, like the environment I work in and feel that what I do makes a difference and I have progression ahead of me. I have ideas of what I’d love to do and when I can I apply for those roles but at the same time I’m acutely aware that I may need more experience for them.

Aside from hunting for jobs I’ve got game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals to watch when I get home. Please don’t spoil it for me as I don’t know the result. I had to avoid a tweet from Wil Wheaton this morning as it mentioned his thoughts on it. I’m hoping Pittsburgh tied the series but at the same time Detroit owned us on their home ice so who knows.  I think since it’s back at the Igloo we’ve got a good chance but Detroit are a strong team.  Continuing the sport theme cricket has been fun. I’ve bowled more than I’ve batted, in fact I’ve only faced one ball so far this season (not out btw!), and have got 2 wickets so far. I’m enjoying it as always and am looking forward to my next game on Thursday, will let you know how it goes.

Oh and before I forget our bathroom is being re-fitted. Currently we only have a loo that works by bucket flushing. Not glamourous but better than no loo. I used our neighbours shower last night but I’m hoping ours will be up and running tonight. Still it’s looking good and will be cool having the new suite in. Our Landlord was very kind and let us select the suite with a budget in mind and they’ve organised the fitting. The same is going to be done with the kitchen too which is pretty cool as storage space is the number one priority there. Haven’t been advised of a budget on that yet so holding tight I would assume till the bathroom is done but it’s all go at the moment. Four days was the estimate so I’ll put a pic or two up when it’s done which should be Thursday as work started on Monday.

So to close things off things are in flux I guess. The grass is looking greener but only because I have no option right now. I’m hopeful right now of securing a new role but at the same time worried that as far as the IT market is concerned I’m just the same as the next guy.

So it’s been a wee bit quiet here of late. Life has been moving on pretty fast and recently I’ve tried to stary away(ish) from the net away from work as much as possible. Aside from playing Football Manager Live I’ve pretty much been off the grid. I think this may have a lot to do with work but not overly so, I just have the feeling of late I should be doing something more after work. Speaking of which I went to my first Wing Chun class last night. It’s been something I’ve been meaning to do for a while after learning that a friend went to those classes. I’d completely forgot about it till Wednesday night, at this friends birthday, the topic came up again and I decided I’d go along. The class was friendly, fun and I’d like to think I did pretty well for my first lesson. I’ll certainly be going back and seeing how things progress.

It’s not the first time I’ve been to a martial arts class though. When I was younger, I think around 11 or 12, a couple friends of mine were talking about their Aikido class. Being young and thinking anything martial arts like was cool really wanted to attend. So I went along, borrowed an outfit (I think), and did so for a few weeks. I don’t really remember why I stopped going, I either go bored, as kids do, or something else which I fail to remember. I do remember some of the classes and two students in particular who seemed intent on doing the moves but then pointing out ways to defend it and showing us that rather than letting us practice as we were told. It was fun though, what I remember, and last night at Wing Chun was no different. It will hopefully mean a more active me, Lindy Hop on Monday and Wing Chun on Thursday with running and cricket in-between.

Anyway, I should really get some sleep, I have a friend visiting this weekend. I’m kinda anxious in so much as I’ve not spent time one on one with this friend. Most of our meetings have been at social engagements and although I get on very well with him I just hope I’m not too boring or whatever. Yet another of my silly worries that I tend to have these days but there are good reasons for it, especially related to friends which is a far too in-depth conversation topic for tonight. All I know for sure is it will involve a Casino this weekend, possibly a cinema visit and some good food.

So it’s been a little while since I blogged and I have been a little bit busier than usual. I’ve also not had much chance to get on a PC at work and just sit and blog what’s on my mind. Not completely to blame as I can always blog at home but it helps as discussion at work often triggers thoughts and things that I’d like to blog. I do have a application on my iPhone which connects to this blog but it’s still not quite there for me to use regularly.

Since my last post about OnLive I’ve actually had a wee holiday over the Easter weekend. This was spent in Wales but more specifically in the Brecon Beacons. The weather was lovely, gorgeous sunshine all weekend allowing us to have clear views from the top of the mountains we went up. The peaks we reached were Pen Y Fan, Fan y Big and Corn Du. Cat worked out that we had a total of 1,081m of total ascent which is pretty cool. We had one really long walk which was about 8 miles and one a bit shorter. It was hard work at times as the climbs up often went right up the contours but was still goo exercise. There are pictures up on Cati’s photo gallery so enjoy the shots as some are beautiful.

The other major thing is two of our friends got married this weekend past and it was such a lovely weekend also. The weather held out, the ceremony was lovely and also one of the strangest thing to date happened to me. Here’s the scoop. I drove down to Bournemouth where the wedding was the morning of the ceremony. I got there in good time and once I’d been led in to check out where it would be held, as I was doing the video recording, I went to wait outside for the equipment. As guests arrived someone said to me “you don’t recognise me in the context do you!?” I then turned to see who this was and to my suprise it was my chiropractor! Now I only met this person by chance as her practice was giving free preliminary back exams at Cribbs one weekend and after that consulation I decided to seek regular treatment. It turns out however that she lived with the brides parents for five years! They say it’s a small world but that was just down right amazing. Anyway it certainly created a talking point for the rest of the weekend.

The weekend ended with a bouncy castle after party which I left around noon to get back to see United get knocked out of the FA Cup. It was a shame but in my heart of hearts knew United wouldn’t win the quintuple. So on to this weekend and Catrin and I are visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Edinburgh. I’m really looking forward to it and with any luck we’ll be walking up Arthur’s Seat.