Time ticks on.. never stopping for anyone..

It has been a long long while since I've done a decent post. Yet again this one is done very late at night ( time of the day it seems I like to just be sitting and listen to the wind outside, howling around corners and into little nooks and crannies).

So much has happened since last post. Life at work continued roughly the same as before. We went on holiday to the red sea, and I have to say it was an eye opener, in many ways. Red sea pictures here.

After a week of great diving, me doing my advanced diving course as well and us having a great time it came to an end way to quickly and we left Hurghada much more enriched, and with some more friends (habit we have, go on holiday, meet people, make friends.. most of the time with the crew :)... Got back to a wet UK, went back to work and I can't believe that's been just over a month ago.

2 days later we were back in the routine, as if we'd never been on holiday, but the pictures and all the memories are still there to show for it...

Back at work things we're going to change rather drastically after being back for a week or so, being that I was contractor it didn't affect me, but it did everyone else around me, and that I believe influenced productivity in the general sense. I got to grips a lot more with .NET and with Sitecore ( the CMS that the company now uses)... and learned a lot from a really friendly Danish developer called Kern.

The last week has been filled with leaving do's and drinks. Tuesday past was mine at IMG, then I played photographer at Grea's leaving drinks on Wednesday evening ( see pics here) , and on Thursday evening I met up with the crew of ITV (Central Business Systems) who I used to work with until Feb/Mar this year ( 2007 ). Friday evening we went to visit Pamela so that we could say goodbye to her as well, she'll be off to Algeria soon and won't be returning before we leave for Cape Town.

Those last few words haven't completely sunk in yet, "before we leave for Cape Town".
Loads of people have asked me if I'm not excited yet by the prospect of going home... and I can't answer them. It's not that I don't want to answer them, it is literally I can't answer them.. I don't know.. there are so many weigh ups on that one that somehow I dread going "home". I think I now understand why Micon was in such a weird way when he returned from the UK. He had been out under parental rule, he had made his own rules about coming in, what he ate, what he did, when he was out of the house, when he wanted to be back in the house.. and having done that myself, now more than once as it were, it's weird thinking of going back to living with my parents ( even if just for a short while ).

Comfort zone shifts : They are always.. challenging. Something which is not always a bad thing, just something which is nagging ? As I think about the next month or so it's of going back to what we had when we came to the UK. We moved in with family, so I had familiar people to associate with, roughly speaking that is, but there was a fair amount of stress in those first 3 months, uncertainty is in most cases the biggest stress point... not just here but in any new place I suppose, and although I know a lot of places in Cape Town, and how to get to them, I find myself... looking at pictures of home and missing it dearly, but also uncertain.

Did I accomplish the goals I set out to reach when we came.. the important ones I dare say I did. What does the future hold ? Much promise is what I believe it holds. Hopefully a lot of our friends we've met here in London and Glasgow coming to visit over the next 2 years ( while we build up a little reserve to be able to go visit them again). I know that Cassie, Adrian, Katie, Pamela and Jo have all said they are going to come visit, and they better, we've got their email addresses and we know where most of them live.. beware if ye don't come visit ;). Finding a nice place to live as well, close to campus for Grieks to have good access, getting a kitten ( flats don't handle dogs all that well) and having Micon move in with us so he's close to campus as well ( hopefully he'll get some more sleep in then).

I hope to take my photography to a few new levels ( thanks to G-man for the Strobist link, it looks like an awesome place for ideas / quests and updates on new techniques to learn), and I will be at two weddings in the next 3 months as well, not playing the main photographer fiddle however, just taking pics and hoping to put a different perspective on things. There might even be a nice business idea I got yesterday that I want to try... without adventure one has no idea of what's possible hey ? :) I also hope to get through the material for a MCTS qualification in the time that I have to myself during the next two months. That in part being taken on so that I don't go cold from development and also to cement my past 2 years experience with a formal developer's qualification ( touching a lot of wood ). Also maybe doing some freelance for a few old clients, but we'll see how time handles itself.

My dad has a few days of my time as well planned in helping him with a business idea he has.

All in all I am looking forward to going home, I am excited about everything I want to accomplish in the next 3 - 4 months as well, and there is a lot to be done, my only reservations are getting use to home again. Things back home have changed ( of course they have, life doesn't stand still and wait for you to return) and I look forward to seeing how we'll fit back into it again.

Hope all is well with everyone out there.

Z [out],