For Pete's Sake

What day is it again?

So another year is quickly approaching its end, there’s been some ups, many downs but in the end it’s setting up an interesting 2010. It started with our application to migrate to Australia a process which is still ongoing. Spring saw the wedding of two close friends, Summer saw me switch jobs and I turned 26 in October. I guess what I’m pointing out is, in general, this year has been quiet. That’s not a bad thing mind, just I was hoping to have news by now of at least our State Sponsorship.

I’d say in general it was a decent year. Very little to complain about to be honest and as the year draws near it’s only the last few weeks where things haven’t been good. I won’t go in to why that is here as it warrants a post all of its own if indeed I post about it at all.

So what does 2010 hold then since I said that this year has been setting it up. Well first and foremost by this time next year I hope to be blogging about being in Australia and how things are going but also I think it may be the first year in which I’ll be more financially sound. Right now it doesn’t look like it but things have been put in motion and lessons have been learned and as I always say, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of hope. Next I also plan to try and do things I’ve not done before on of which will be to go to a festival like Leeds/Reading or some such. How this will work out I don’t know. I will also be doing the experience day that my sister bought me for my birthday. I’ve still not decided what to do but it’ll be either a Ferrari, Porsche or Nissan GTR that I’ll go for but the Ariel Atom is also appealing.

So here’s a toast to 2009 a year in which we started the ball rolling (finally) on migration but also a year of learning. Here’s hoping that the foundations set by it will lead to an even more interesting 2010.

Looking back and thinking about last week I found that I’m less active on the Internet than I used to be. I then started to wonder why? Roll back 9 years or so when I was at college I was in chat rooms most of my spare time. In fact, I was an MSN chat room moderator for a while. I was also active in forums, online gaming clans as well as jumping in and getting active in Dubit which was a Habbo Hotel style chat place but was based in Leeds near where I lived. I wrote articles to do with online gaming; I was immersed in the online offerings that the Internet gave. Fast forward to now and other than twitter, my blog and Football Manager Live I’m pretty inactive in most places.

Take Facebook, yes I’m on there but I visit it perhaps daily for one or two days then not again for a week or so. Or MySpace, created an account, haven’t used it for probably well over a year. I can say this about many forums, websites and even chat itself (both IRC and MSN) – they interest me less and less. If I was to analyse the cause or a reason I would say that when I was at college I had moved to yet another new town and all the friends I made at college lived elsewhere. I didn’t drive so I could only communicate with them online or via phone and it was more convenient to do it by chat etc as I had the PC in my room. It was heavily used when I got together with Cati for obvious reasons. Now however I live with Cati, I know many people in the city I live in and if I want to visit friends who live further afield I drive. Not only that I prefer a phone call if I want to catch up. Yes I know I could use Skype (and I do when I parents are in France as it’s cheaper) but not everyone I know is on there and I get free minutes on my mobile.

I still use the Internet a lot but as last week showed I can easily go without. There are people I know who are constantly online and updating their status or chatting. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing because as far as I know I don’t think any of them are massive addicts. However at the same time it brings up the current discussions that we as a race are becoming less social beings. The advent of online communications means that we send each other messages on Facebook than say call; or send an e-mail than write a letter, an art they say, is dying. Some would say that this isn’t a bad thing I mean an e-mail gets there instantly and, as long as your recipients net connection is up they receive it. Normal mail is at the mercy of us mere humans prone to losing the odd letter and such. At the same time though I really enjoy the more personal feel of a letter and they say you can learn a lot about a person from their handwriting – maybe that’s why people prefer e-mail ;) Similar arguments can be said for forums, chat clients and so on.

Their replacement of what were normal human interactions have good and bad points. It makes keeping in touch over vast distances easy, convenient and cheap. At the same time however they are pulling us away from doing what is natural and that is interacting, socialising and well, being human. I’m not trying to say the Internet is bad or that anyone should stop using it to keep in touch, far from it. What I am saying is perhaps find a balance write a letter sometime instead of an e-mail or meet up with a friend in person rather than wait till they come on MSN. Like most things in life it’s good in moderation but when taken to excess it becomes detrimental.

Are you an Internet addict or is there no such thing? Or all in all am I just talking twaddle?

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.

As the title says aside from my XBox dying what else has there been going on in my life? Well as alluded to in a previous blog post I was/am quite excited about what the year ahead my hold but I didn’t say why. Well now I will tell since my family now know as do many friends and I’m sure friends of friends. Anyway, Catrin and I have formally and officially started the process to emigrate to Australia.

As many who know me personally will know this has long since been a desire however there was always the stumbling block of money and timing. Well it all came to a head start of this month when we decided we’d waited enough and come hell or high water we’d apply. The economy everwhere is shot so it didn’t really matter and we happened to have funds in place that could assist in our application so we figured why the hell not. So we started things off and then told family. I’m not 100% sure what all their thoughts are as at the moment I’ve just been told good luck and such. I’d rather not speculate so it’s good that the feedback has been positive.

So there we are, breaking old news shocker and no doubt I will keep you all up-to-date with what’s happening on our emigration. Right now Cat is sorting her skills assessment and has an English test 7th Feb I think. Don’t ask why she’s taking just know that it gives more points.

So here were are, finally in 2008. I meant to get a review of the year up before we got here but alas I didn’t but there you go. Then again at least I can say this review is that off the full year I suppose. For me, it’s been a year of ups and downs just as any other year but in many ways the downs have been impacted more than usual.

I guess though the main thing of 2007 was the fact that I graduated from University which was officially certified in November. Catrin and I also celebrated our first full year of marriage with a fun party for all and chances are we’ll do the same next year. I saw my first NFL and NHL game at two great venues and less to say I hope I’m able to do something similar this year and Catrin turned 25.

As for the not so good points I don’t really want to go back over, they’ve happened and a partially document here but I can’t see much reason pointing them out. So what does 2008 hold? First and foremost it’s my 25th birthday this year (although it’s a while till that’ll happen) and Catrin and I will be heading to Iceland in the summer. Not to mention the fact that I have a half-marathon to run as well. Then there are those things that you don’t plan for and just happen. What those things will be, well that’s why life is so exciting I guess. As for resolutions, well I hope to lose weight as well as get fitter but that’s what most people list for resolutions.

So here’s to 2008 and a happy new year to you all!