This gallery contains 13 photos.
More pottery painting with the family which has become an annual event. This year we had a T-Rex statue, a kitten mug and a “Tigger” side plate by our three kids; a funky cup and saucer by my good lady … Continue reading
My first Mac was a MacBook Black, so I felt it fitting that I adapted the image that is everywhere on the web right now and made it glow slightly just like the back on my MacBook did. RIP Steve and thanks for giving me the tools to work, rest and play in techie style.
Woke this morning to the news that Steve Jobs had passed away during the night. Felt numb as if I’d been told an old friend had died. Despite having an iPod since the iPod Video came out in 2004/5/6, I’ve only really been a full-on Apple fanboy since I got my first Mac, a MacBook Black, off of eBay in 2008. I’ve since found with the iPhone and iPad, and to a lesser extent with my MacBook Pro, that Apple kit is a ubiquitous part of my life. I guess that Steve’s passing has saddened me because he’s given me so much. What other CEO and mega-rich businessman could prompt such a worldwide reaction of grief. God bless you, Steve, and rest in peace.
Most people who know me, know that when I’m not sparring (kumite) that I say I hate sparring. When asked why my main reasons are because I’m not good at it and I don’t like getting hit – a lag-over from childhood bullying coupled with a couple of shiners picked up from an overzealous instructor when I was a student thrown in for good measure. Anyway, the marble of this post is that last night’s Senior class was all kumite and, despite some knocks, I really enjoyed myself. I’m improving and storing combinations that seem to work for me in my repertoire so much so that I scored some points. My mentor & Sensei gave some key points which spoke volumes to me persinally in order to up my game so we’ll see what happens. Amusingly, I have had a GKR Essex Dragons t-shirt for some time with “Train Hard, Fight Easy” on the front. Maybe I should wear it more often….?
I woke up this morning tired but relatively fresh and came to the sudden, saddening realisation that I had woken up hacked off and feeling low. Maybe I was looking forward to yesterday’s events too much or something, but I was left with a mild sour taste. Three people’s attitudes or comments towards me rankled and one persons reaction left me mildly shocked & stunned – certainly enough to comment twice about it to my wife. Now I just want to go to bed and sleep until the weekend. And it’s Monday morning. sigh
This is, frankly, ridiculous. I checked my blog this morning and realised that my last actual post was in January 2010, so I haven’t written anything for 18 months now. That is an unacceptably long amount of time. I even said to myself 18 months before that that I should start a journal and what happens? I just don’t bloody bother!
*sigh* So here’s what you missed….
The last journal entry I wrote was in September 2009. At that time I was just about to embark on a new phase of my career as a contractor at Commerzbank looking after data compliance and audit globally. This was to be a temporary posting until they looked to make me permanent after 6 months.
As it turned out at didn’t actually happen. Instead I was poached by BNP Paribas for the same global facing contract role but on more money (yay!) although it adds 30 minutes each way to my previous City commute as they are based in the West End (boo!). I’m now on the IPUG Executive as the Chair of the Data Compliance and Audit Special Interest Group (SIG) and have also given addresses to COSSIOM, the French market data consortium, on data compliance & audits. I’ll certainly be at BNPP until at least April 2012 as the project I am mainly working on will last up to 3 years.
All in all my career has found a new lease of life, I’ve managed to carve a niche out for myself in the industry and I’m happier professionally.
My karate has also taken off in leaps and bounds. I’m over half-way to black belt and qualified as a karate instructor (Sensei) in January after a 3 month course. Shortly after qualifying I also took over as the Branch Instructor of Sandon dojo in Chelmsford. I took over the class with 12 students on the roll, we’ve had a bunch of new students through recruitment drives & word of mouth and now have just over 30 on the roll with 24-28 students attending every week for the past month which is quite impressive. They are a great bunch and it is a pleasure and a privilege to be their sensei.
On a side note, training an average of three times a week and eating salad for lunch, I’ve lost several stone and gone from a 40″ waist and a 44″ chest to a 36″-37″ waist and 42″ chest. I got some t-shirts on Father’s Day and they were Mediums. I’ve only just put the XL ones in the eBay bag and bought some Large ones so maybe I’m still slimming down. I’m certainly physically fitter and feel much healthier than I have for years. My wife says I look hot too as my stomach is flat. Fantastic!
My digital life has totally changed.
I have pretty much completely moved away from using my Windows based PC across to my MacBook Pro (which I upgraded to at the start of the year from my first Mac, a MacBook Black). The only time I boot up the PC personally is when I want to game on there or the rare occasions I need to do something on there which I cannot do on my MBP for whatever reason. Then at Christmas this year my wife gave me a lovely, lovely iPad. This little device goes pretty much everywhere with me and has supplanted both the MBP and the iPhone for the majority of my digital experience. I use the MBP for big or lengthy tasks and the iPhone for mobile quick and dirty stuff; mostly relegating it to it’s core mobile phone and iPod function which is no bad thing. But the middle ground is firmly taken up by the iPad and quite comfortably too. In fact, I’m writing this post on the Blogsy app and can touch type quite well with the on-screen keyboard.
My gaming life has also pretty much completely changed. My primary platform is definitely now iOS and even then I now favour the iPad over the iPhone – I’m currently addicted to Tower Madness HD. Leave my sheep alone, you aliens! I still play on my PC and the Wii, but the iPad is the main place. I’ve also tried playing on the PS3 and even bought Batman: Arkham Asylum for £7 to see if I could switch to consoles with a title I enjoyed on PC and figured a 3rd person game rather than an FPS might be easier to get to grips with. Apart from getting headaches dealing with gaming on a big screen, it is going rather well (weirdly I don’t get headaches with the Wii – hmmm). With Steam now releasing more games for Mac maybe I will switch across from PC there too but I doubt it. Certainly for now I want to get Bioshock Infinity on PC rather than any other platform, so watch this space!
As for life in general, all is great: my wife and I are even more in love, which I didn’t think was possible; the kids are happy and all doing stormingly well at their respective schools, one of which I’m Vice-Chair of governors at; I’ve become an Uncle after my brother and his wife had a daughter; and my friends are all sound and hale and living their lives happily with people that they love.
Now. Let’s see if I can keep this blog up to date. Again.
