So my blog is woefully neglected at the moment, which seems an opportune time to give an update on what's going on with me. Especially since this weekend has been particularly lazy - though I did find the time to rearrange my kitchen.

Firstly, on the work front, things are somewhat stressful. I work in quite a dynamic industry - IT Project/Programme Management - and in particular I work in a small subset of the industry that is very VERY fast paced and demanding. Travel is now more and more frequent - In the next 2 months I will be traveling to 3 different countries (plus one for personal reasons) plus I suspect a little more domestic travel as well. I'm enjoying it, but at the same time people and processes frustrate me in the extreme.

On the home front, there is a mix of good and bad. The good - obviously - is that I thank my lucky stars every day to have found Paya here at GA, and that we managed to move together (in his case over 1000 miles to be with me). The bad is that I have some health issues that although not major, are very long term and are take some adjusting to. I have had, for example, to make a radical change to my diet in order to lessen some of the symptoms. I wont go into too much detail, but some of the treatments are very unpleasant too - and since the major benefits of this regime wont be felt for 6 months or so, it makes it hard to commit to.

We have both made a conscious effort to make more of living in London. We have some of the best museums, art galleries and attractions in the world, and many of them are free to visit. Others, you can get really good deals by purchasing an annual membership. A couples membership for Historic Royal Palaces allows unlimited entry to the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and the Banqueting House. It costs only £61 and if we only visit each one ONCE, it saves us over £100.

Merging both work and home then, working in the City of London has a certain "lifestyle" attachment. A lot of "business" is done in bars and restaurants. In 2 weeks time I shall be in Belgrade, where there will in all probability b a whole week of hard drinking and excessive eating - none of which is in line with the doctor's recommendations. I have a plan to cope - which is to order none alcoholic drinks on the sly and order as healthy options from the menu as possible - however a lot of my willpower comes from Paya. Without him there, I really think I could slip up and do some damage. I need to be very careful.

In terms of my online life - I still haven't managed to engage fully back into the community here. That's not through unwillingness - it's through a combination of boredom and lack of time. The soapbox had many ills (and probably more negatives than positives in many ways) but one thing it did was to keep me engaged and interested here. I need to find something to hold my interest I guess - anyone got an idea?

Otherwise, I'm pretty content. Over the past weeks I have immersed myself in some history books which has been a lot of fun. For those that do not know, I have a passion for history in general but British History in particular, and also have a strong interest in heraldry. That has brought me to researching again my family tree, which I have mentioned before is documented as far back as 900 AD (we were once a prominent family - LONG ago - which makes such documentation easier). I think I may have found a link through a church in Normandy that can take that record back slightly further - but I will need time to verify it.

Anyway, if you've got to the end of my ramblings without falling asleep - you get a gold star.

Thanks for Reading

West