Erm….surprise!

And already we’ve had over a week go by without a post. How strange is that? Well actually, you should know by now that it’s perfectly normal.

By all accounts there could have not been another post until January 1st 2013 (so long as the Mayans definitely got it wrong) and it would have been business as usual.

So, anyway. Interesting week. It was certainly interesting moving back into day patterns from night patterns, especially with an 8am Monday start. The train being delayed by 15 minutes didn’t help with that.

This blog post should be posted at around 5:30 this evening. Why a specific time? I hear you ask. Well. I don’t want it to spoil the surprise in case there are nosey people on Facebook instead of looking after babies.

Work-wise I finished a project I’d started a few weeks ago. Followed it through from start to completion in charge of comms and the organisation of work required by other departments along with actually implementing it. Mostly independently with assistance from one or two people. Anyway. It’s impressed people and there was talk about being nominated for employee of the month. Not sure how serious they were. Big boss also said I definitely have a job now. It’s always really nice to be appreciated and to be told that you’re doing a fantastic job. Makes me strive to work harder. I’m not doing anything special as such and I’m not working 100 hours a week and killing myself. I’m just doing what I do to the best of my abilities. And I’ll continue to do so.

On the one hand I really hope I don’t win it. Not in my first month. It would seem a bit weird. On the other hand though, it would be pretty awesome

This week, Sue went to visit her mum and dad in York on Tuesday afternoon. She was going to spend a few nights with them because they haven’t had a chance to spend that much time with Harry. Especially now that the little rugrat is so interactive.

Anyway. Yes. Two nights. She didn’t really have anything on until my day off tomorrow (i’m working the weekend) but she didn’t really want to lose any time with me. At the same time her mum and dad are having a whale of a time and are really loving it. I talked her into spending another night with her mum and dad so they can have more time with Harry. I say talked her into. She wanted to but didn’t want to miss out on time with me.

I thought I’d enjoy the time on my own. Truth is I’ve been lonely. Pining for them to come back. Not played on any computer games. Which is unusual. It’s about that time of year when I have an Xbox 360 drought anyway and leave it turned off for three months anyway. I don’t think I’ll ever stop playing computer games, it’s part of who I am. Also I need to keep on top of them for when Harry is playing. Need to make sure I give him a good run for his money.

It’s not even like I’ve been sleeping better. So much for uninterrupted sleep with an empty house. If anything I’ve slept worse this week than I have since Harry was up for feeds every 3 hours

So, yeah, I’ve missed them.

Last night, fairly late on I decided to have a look at an idea. I was in Leeds anyway, I have a day off on Friday, why not look at a train from Leeds to York. Once in York how do I get to her mum and dads which is a good 15 miles from the centre without someone having to pick me up (spoiling the surprise and putting someone out). I found a bus that goes from the centre to the bus stop outside their house.

I love being spontaneous.

Train : £11.70
Bus : £4.60

Seeing Sue and Harry’s face when I turn up at the door? Priceless.

I miss my family so very much. This way Harry gets more time with sues mum and dad and I get to see both/all of them.

I can’t wait to read Harry a bedtime story tonight.

I’m turning into a creature of the night

Not the type with fangs and a pale(er) complexion (Sorry Vron).

So tonight I start working nights for the first time ever.  These are sort of 7 hour training shifts running from 11pm-7am with the real night shifts starting later in Feb being 12 hours a piece.

Only being 7 hours means I have to work 5 of them so I don’t finish until Saturday morning.  I’m back in doing some afternoon shifts next week running 3pm-11pm.  These two weeks are one offs – both the day and night shifts at the second site are 12 hours – I either do three or four of them and get 7 days off afterwards – can’t complain too much.

Slept quite a lot over the last few days and tried to get a couple more hours this afternoon but couldn’t get off to sleep.  I think the hardest part will come towards the end of the shift around 5-6am.  Hopefully it’ll be very busy and the time will just fly by.

Quite excited, at the same time a little nervous – in a month I’ll be flying solo and if anything goes wrong it’ll be down to me to either fix it or mobilise the right people to fix it – waking them up at 4 in the morning.  Scary prospect really.

There’s a 24 hours McDonalds just two doors down from the office and a KFC over the road open till 2am – can’t see me going hungry but it’s going to be dangerous trying to resist the call of fast food in the early hours.  I’ll see how I go  Will also be interesting walking up through the center of Leeds at 10:30pm – Friday even more so when it’s full of partygoers.

It’ll be a very big change for me but I’m embracing it – the eight weeks extra holiday a year is worth the pain

2012 – Priorites

Herein lies a list of my priorities for 2012.  They are in no particular order and I’m purposefully not calling them resolutions.  We all know they are resolutions but resolutions are made to be broken.  These are things that are important to me.

Being a good dad

Whilst I said that these were in no particular order, I didn’t say that one wouldn’t be more important than any of the others.  This is probably the most important of my priorities.  My son, Harry.

Probably the single most important event in 2011 was the birth of my son, Harry.  Sue and I had been trying for a baby for an awful long time and just when we thought it was never going to happen – it did.  The first half of 2011 was an extremely stressful time – it was far from a smooth pregnancy but it was worth all of the worry and stress for the end product.  A baby boy who has very quickly become the centre of my universe and it’s very difficult to remember exactly what I did with all my free time before he arrived

Being a good dad is very important to me.  He’s my legacy – I need to impart on to him whatever knowledge and wisdom I can to make sure that he grows up to be a decent human being.  Both Sue and I have a role to play in this, but it’s very important that I play my part as much as I can.  In turn he’ll pass that knowledge down to his children and he’ll keep the family line going.

As I look at him now, I wonder what he’s going to look like when he grows up, what colour his hair will be, what his favourite film will be and I also wonder if he’ll be taller than his dad.  One thing I can’t let him do is beat me at computer games.  That’s one father/son tradition that I won’t be allowing to happen, not without a fight anyway

We’ve bought a bedtime story book that contains a story for every single night of 2012 (including Feb 29th!), whilst some of my upcoming training shifts won’t allow me to be the one to read him the story for that day, I’m going to make sure that I read as many to him as I possibly can do.

I also need to make sure that as much as work allows that I help Sue out with as much of the day to day stuff as I can.  Daddy needs to be more to Harry than just playtime.

My Wife

Second only to Harry is my wife, Sue.  We’ve been through a lot together and nearly been stuck with one another for 14 years.  We’ve still got a lot to look forward to and I need to make sure that she knows how much I love and appreciate her.  She’s doing a fantastic job with Harry – during the week when I’m working, pretty much on her own.  With us being short of money towards the end of 2011, I wasn’t able to get her as much for Christmas as I would have liked.  I’ll be making sure that she’s well supported and looked after in 2012 and that every day I tell her that I love her.

My Career

My career is currently undergoing some changes.  I’ve moved jobs in the last month to improve my options and moving forward I think this can only be a good thing.  I’ll also be working some shifts – whilst this is a fairly big lifestyle shift, the extra time off it will allow me to spend with Sue and Harry will be priceless.

I’m growing into the role at the moment, the team is a brand new one and is all coming together from a restructure.  I work with some really committed people and whilst the commute is quite different to what I’ve been used to, it’ll soon become second nature to me and I won’t mind it as much – especially when the days start to get longer and the weather improves somewhat.

Looking Forwards

This one will be something of a balancing act.  I need to look towards the future without compromising the here and now.

 

Jedi Master Yoda :  ”This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away, to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was! Hm? What he was doing! Huh. Adventure. Eh!    Excitement. Eh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!”

I’ve been guilty of dwelling on the past far too often.  I need to look towards the future, whilst keeping myself in the here and now.  There’s no point in wishing away the days on a countdown towards a holiday, I need to life each and every day to the fullest, learn at least one new thing every day and make sure that I spread as many smiles as I can.

Whilst there’s no way to stop the Earth from spinning and there’s no way to slow down the passage time, there is a way to make sure that you live your life to the fullest and that’s what I’m going to do.

My Weight

I’ve struggled with my weight all of my life.  Ever since I was a child, I’ve always been big – I don’t know why this is and I don’t know the root cause.  What I do know is that I’m the only one that can change it.  I’m the only one that can make the changes that I need to make in my life to lose the weight I need to lose in order to be happy and healthy.  The gauge for me being happy and healthy will mostly boil down to me being able to go on rollercoasters without worrying about the harnesses, being able to squeeze through a gap between chairs and tables in a restaurant without people having to move, buying clothes from anywhere that sells them without having to worry if they do them in my size or not.

Previous attempts have had varied success – the old Weight Watchers plan seemed to work really well for me until I took a break for a few months to congratulate myself for losing four stones.  That was probably the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.  I’ve got some plans in place and I’m going to see how they progress.  Needless to say, by the end of 2012, I’ll be a shadow of my former self.

My Family

I don’t see my mum and dad (and my brother and sisters) nearly as often as I’d like to.  I’m going to make an effort to see them as often as I can and at least once a week.  I love them all very much and the time we spent together over Christmas was special and made me realise just how much I need them all.  Christmas Day being out only day where we all get together and sit down for a meal isn’t often enough.

My Friends

I am at my happiest when I’m surrounded by people I care about.  I have a lot of friends, many of them from previous jobs.  My commitment to them is to make sure that I do my utmost to keep in touch with them and arrange as regular a meet up as schedules allow.  People naturally drift apart, especially when they no longer share a workplace for example.  I need to make the time to get out and see them, spend time with them and keep those friendships going strong.  That means I need to go to Nando’s with Jamie a little more often than I currently do.

Money

The change in jobs has meant a slight increase in salary.  Once Sue goes back to work after her maternity leave has finished we’ll be in a much stronger position financially.  We still have a lot of money that we owe, the priority for 2012 is to make sure that the debt we have is decreased as much as possible.  Living on 3/4 – 1/2 of the money we usually have whilst having to provide for Harry has taught me a lot about being frugal – the disposable income for the immediate future has dried up and we’ve adapted to this.  When the disposable income comes back, we can continue to live without it and make sure that the money goes towards paying off the nursery furniture on the credit card, as an example.

Me

I want to make some changes to myself.  Changes that go deeper than losing weight.  I need to re-organise some of my priorities in life (this post being the start of that).  I need to re-assess what I class as important and dump the stuff that isn’t important.  If I want to write about how I’m feeling, I need to do that rather than worry about someone taking offence at something I say.  I need to remove the dependancy I have on having the latest gadget, having access to the Internet wherever I am and always knowing exactly what’s going on.  I might even try this out for real when we go to Centerparcs in February – I won’t go as far as leaving my phone at home but certainly won’t take the laptop away with me but I might leave my phone turned off for the week.  Go off the grid as it were for a week.  It might even do me some good.  The camera is definitely getting an outing, I can assure you of that.

I need to find out the things that make me happy and lose the things that don’t.  I also need to develop a more positive outlook.  Negativity breeds contempt and this leads to no good.  I need to work on my glass being half full rather than half empty (or completely full as the other half is always filled with air anyway).

I’m going to make sure that I smile every day too.  Yes.  Smile.  I used to do that quite a lot.

So to sum up:

Happy New Year!

May 2012 bring you happiness, good fortune and good health.

New Year, New You… erm I mean me.

Hello World.

Welcome to my new blog.

If you were expecting to see more than just this solitary post on 01/01/2012 then I sincerely apologise.  There are 269 blog posts which have now been archived.  The posts go back to the start of 2008.  I posted something very similar to this about it being a new blog, yada yada.  Anyway, if you want to read those posts, click the handy link on the right under links that states ‘Old posts’.

So, then.

Things have changed.  I’m now a dad.  I don’t have as much free time as I did before.  I don’t play as many games, I don’t get as many opportunities at the moment to get out and about with my camera.  On the flip side, I have the most beautiful and adorable son in the world.  The world.  All of it.  He’s amazing.  There are so many things to look forward to over the next few years.  I can’t wait.  My wife is also amazing.  She’s doing a fantastic job of raising Harry pretty much all by herself because I’m mostly at work at the moment during the week.

Speaking of work, things have changed there too.  I’m no longer working in Halifax, I’m now working in Leeds.  There’s a strange transition I’m going through at the moment with regards to commuting – I picked the worst possible time of year to change jobs with the worst possible weather.  It’s okay though, the days are getting lighter.

So, New Year, New Blog.

I’m not making any new years resolutions, resolutions are a waste of time.  I’ll be writing a number of posts over the next few days though about what I’m going to do going forward.  Fresh start and all that.  As always, I’m still not entirely sure what I’ll be posting up here, we’ll see what comes.  One thing I will be doing is making sure that I post.  I’ve said that before.

I’ll be making a number of changes in my life going forward.  Lets see where it takes us.

It begins, now.

Happy New Year