2011 - 2012

So, its Christmas Day, and I'm probably doing this Blogpost out of the state my mind is in right now, rather than a necessity (Could writing a blog ever be a necessity?

I think then, that now would be a good time to sum up 2011, and what to look forward to in 2012.

2011

March

Moved into my first house, 28th of March I believe, and its a rare occurance when I can remember a specific date!

Its something I've never experienced before, having my own complete freedom. It does come at a slight monetary cost, but not as bad as I expected. I still have a reasonable amount of disposable income.

However more than this, I'm enjoying living with Amelia. I think a couple that is working well together is often a beautiful thing to watch, and I'm fortunate enough that I've got a ring side seat each day. (No pun intended)

May

Its something I can't avoid, but I've turned 26, I'm into the second half of my twenties. This isn't a particularly ground breaking year, however its arrived and I might aswell embrace

June/July

I've been fortunate to see many of my favourite bands, so its worth mentioning Download and Sonisphere this year.

Sonisphere saw me see Metallica for the 4th time, and they were amazing as ever, top shows. How Hettfield and Hammet still play guitar that well and that quickly is still something that I consider a manipulation of the laws of physics. *Jealous*

Download festival gave me the chance to see System of a Down, they were amazing, a 26 song set, filled of short anthems. Brilliant.

December

Christmas, its been a great one. Simple as that.

Obvisouly these are not all the things that I've done this year, but certain highlights stand out... and now Amelia has a Digital Camera, I hope to have more photo's of things I expereicnce. As I intend on doing most of them with her.

2012

I have one single aim for 2012, not a new years resolution, to be the most physically fit I have ever been, in terms of cardio and raw strength, let the training begin...

A New Car..

I'm in a bit of a quandary, and its something that could potentially be an unmitigated disaster.

I'm loosely toying with the idea of getting a new car, trading in the trusty Skoda for something, and here comes the problem. I'm in a complete dis-array at what type of car to go after, there's a few things I have in my mind, however they are vastly different in both the practicallity, their affordability and there overall fun or "grin" factor.

I've always been a fan of cars, driving fast and even to the point of going Go-Karting every week.

However I genuinely now believe I'm going through a mid life crisis, and that's what's prompting the change in car.

So the categories for the car are (With a couple of examples) are.

2 Seater Sports car.

Nissan 350z, Audi TT

I've always wanted a 2 Seater Sports car, and I think it would be a good idea to get one whilst i'm young, rather than on the wrong side of 30 when my back might not be up to it any more.

Pros:

Look good, will hold value, great fun to drive

Cons:

Fuel Consumption, insurance costs, tax costs, no boot.

Very Cheap Small Hatch.

Ford Fiesta, New Corsa,

I've recently had the genuine pleasure of driving a Ford KA, its been an acutal pleasurable experience. Sure, its not going to break any land speed records but its good to go round roundabouts and will not guzzle fuel like my current car!

Pros:

Cheap, Cheap, Cheap, Could be fun.

Cons:

Would it be as fun as putting my foot down to the floor and actually feeling my stomach go into my back?

A Classic.

VW Golf Mk2 GTI,

I've owned 3 Golfs and loved all of them, I'd love to have a Mint Mk2 and really relive a brilliant car, the comforts may not be up to scratch, however I wouldn't have to deal with complex faults going wrong all the time.

Or, just stick with the Skoda, 180BHp, 1.8T, Changed lots of parts, Estate, Practical.

Meh.... Or Maybe a motorbike again....... ?

Sigh. I'm old.

Finished the Internet?

I write this now, completely bored out my tree.

If however I was to take a step a take out of myself, to view myself in a "Gears of War 3" Perspective I would probably find myself shouting at a the Iain in front of me "HOW CAN YOU BE BORED?! YOU ARE CONSTANTLY CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET?"

Let me explain, I'm at work right now on a dedicated break.

I've been to the White Rose centre to my lunch and bought a calorific sandwich. Eaten That.

My usual routine is as follows. (At home the routine includes other websites that would be deemed inappropriate)

- BBC News

- Facebook

- Hotukdeals

- Facebook

- Hotukdeals

- Facebook

And from that its pretty much rinse and repeat, there's a few useful things that I could be looking at, namely a Fireplace/Dual Fuel stove, however I just can't bring myself to it.

13 Years ago, in 1998, I'd owned my Pentium 100mhz PC for around 2 years, and finally got it connected to the internet via a 56k Modem.

I remember the happiness that viewing Web pages gave me, every time you loaded a page it was a host of new information that previously I'd have had to have to ask someone about, or worse. Read a book.

It was also like gambling. There was a strong chance the page you were visiting was so poor that the information wouldn't be useful, and still a very strong possibility it wouldn't load at all!

All the time it was costing 1p a Minute and tying up the phone line from incoming calls (A welcome feature I think)

Looking at the above websites that are rinse and repeat, they are heavily user generated content, if everyone starts to think like me, they may start to cease to exist, just becoming updates for the occasional facerape or silly misprice on the internet.

That would be a sad world.

Anyway, this has taken up 20 mins for my time, back to work, connecting people up to use the internet god knows if I stopped doing that I'd be making the problem worse....

Thanks for Reading

Obsession

Its been a long time since I've updated my Blog, although i'll be the first to admit that a lot has gone on recently.

However, the one thing that's actually prompting me to write this is a single thing. Weight. More specifically... My Weight.

Now before you comment on this, If you have known me over the last 26 years, you'll probably think of me as the Skinny Wretch, Racing Snake, Bean Pole etc etc.

However upon giving myself a "Naked Weight" reading this morning, I now weight 13 Stone 2 1/2lbs. Around 84kg in new money.

And do you know what? I'm not the least bit bothered about it! Its a good feeling to be honest, I've been hitting the gym 3/4 times a week and am lifting heavier weights, so maybe its this showing, I'm eating healthy. I do hold some slight reservation about my cardio capability.

If I could put this on a scale for you out of a 100, mine would be around -10. Its shot, nowhere near the level of fitness I want to be at, so I'm going to start hitting the treadmill and possibly the open road!

Its my new Obsession, and I apologise to Amelia now for harping on about it over the next 2 weeks, until Gears of War 3 comes out at least...