With the length of time between posts ever longer, there is more and more to put on but I remember less and less as I sit down.

Work has taken over a bit recently, I am on my LAST module for my diploma which unfortunately means that even though December is a mad month anyway, my few free evenings have been spent in textbooks and Microsoft Works Word Processor (will I one day own microsoft office for myself? So many problems when emailing docs back and forth from work and not recognising each other).

I am sat in Kent, whose turn it was to host us this year, we are in Maesteg for New Year. I may or may not do a big new year post with our hopes for the coming year, but will say there is (as always) lots we want to do, hope to do, and some we probably won't get round to but wish we did. I do need to perfect a work/life balance for sure because work has been taking over a bit the last few months (for example, yesterday BOXING DAY, I spent the morning writing up a report on legal evaluation of insurable interest for commercial and personal customers).

Having a car makes life a lot easier and along with getting our own home (which comes with a set of problems of its own, never-ending lists of jobs and repair work that needs doing, and trying to get the garden ready for a full on veg assault next year - I don't only grow things on Farmville you see), getting behind the wheel again has been the most exciting thing. I had to do a couple of overnight stays in Cornwall for work recently and driving on my own each way felt liberating.

I am going to spend the afternoon walking around Rochester while Han catches up with some old friends, it is a proper town with unique shops and decent ale pubs, should be fun.

Whenever an opportunity comes along to revel in self-satisfaction, I have never been one to miss it.

Good things at the moment:re-learning to drive after about 4 years. A Passat is a bit of a beast to get used to - very smooth drive (well, it is when other people drive it), but a pain to park due to being so long, and it having been so long since I have performed driving manoeuvres with any sense of knowing what was going to happen. Still, I have driven to work on 3 or 4 days where the weather was too severe to sensibly cycle, and will probably have to on a couple of days next week.

However, to avoid the temptation of wasting money on petrol and burning up the environment through sheer laziness, we did get a new bike this week which runs much better than the 2 and a half year old one which had no brakes and the gears kept changing without being told to. Having a nice new bike to ride ensures I will ride to work whenever I can.

Also, some of our shed roof got ripped up in the recent stormy weather, which also bent the shed door so it wouldn't close properly. We spent about half an hour this morning remedying both problems and having repaired both, had a real sense of proper home-ownership and making running repairs without having to call for help.

Work is mental at the moment, but all good really. We need to do less sometimes I think, we don't have a completely free weekend until some time in January I think, it's all fun stuff, but I do get tired and cranky sometimes. Anyway, think I have a bottle of beer downstairs (note to self, must not watch crap reality TV that I suspect Han has on).

Han has gone to watch Emma Thompson in conversation with Kwame Kwei-Armah (the bloke from Casualty who almost one celebrity fame acadamy) with our extended house guest Karis. Aside from being an entirely random event for Exeter uni to put on, it is a sign that better standard of celebrity is visiting - Gomez, Goldie Lookin Chain, Midge Ure, Dizzee Rascal, James Morrison, Fairport Convention - all bands that have been or are coming to Exeter soon. Not all bands I like, but I have at least heard of, which is some way forward than some of the term line-ups in my day.

The weather keeps soaking me on my way to work, but I am trying not to just drive to work every day just because I have the option. Still, as I got soaked on my way home today I did think I should give up on exercise and drive everywhere, expecially at this time of year.

There are a few different reasons why we are not at a bonfire tonight - I've been Ottery 4/5 times now and couldn't be bothered to sort it this time round, and we went to a small bonfire in Bow last night (which I realised is further in the dark down country lanes than it looks on the map).

Now I am sat here listening to Hunky Dory with all the fireworks going outside around the city - it goes together very effectively.

"Andy Warhol is a scream, hang him on your wall, your wall, your wall".

I spend too much time on Farmville, singing along with people with significantly better voices than myself. Oh well.

My mum is coming down to Exeter for along weekend tomorrow, pray for some decent weather. At the moment Saturday is a toss-up between Living Coasts and Plymouth Aquarium. Must take the camera.

A potted history of the summer

The summer started against a backdrop of looking for (and eventually buying) our first house. This made planning other things fairly difficult as the house buying process is unnecessarily drawn out and stessful due to lots of different things.

Most stressful times in a mans life (probably) - getting married (wasn't too bad really, though very nervous on the wedding morning), having children (I guess, we'll see about that at some point), and buying a house.

We looked at about ten houses, liked a couple, and really liked one. Which we made an offer on, which was rejected, then after a week accepted, so we moved in about 6 weeks later (having an offer accepted, even with a mortgage offer sorted like we had, is still only the first step, and nothing is certain for ages). It made us stressed knowing we were nearing the end of our rental contract, and had to move on the 31st July/1st August.

We did get to Keswick, but couldn't extend our stay as in the end we moved almost straight after returning, and I had to find signal in the lakes at several points to talk to solicitors, sort insurance, talk to estate agents etc etc.

Then we moved on the 31st July. Han was on sabbatical this summer, following 7 years with ICE, and decided to spend it undertaking a patience exercise with BT (who, along with NPower, provide the worst customer service you could imagine, and get away with it because they are so big).

Luckily the house didn't need too much work, though Han has had fun with an overgrown hedge in the garden, and I have dug some up ready for next years veg. In short, everything is going well. I finally have a dartboard up in the house, one joy of not renting. Our diary is busy as ever, but with lots of fun stuff - next weekend, Kent for half term.

I have ANOTHER CII exam on Tuesday, to become a Chartered Insurer really takes too much work, but I am sure it will all be worth it come 3/4 years time when I finally get there.

More posts are really required to extend some things I am flying through, but for now this is an overlong attempt to make up for 4 long bust months away from the world of blog.

[There are pictures to go with this post, which I will edit in once blogger lets me "internal error with upload"]

On Wednesday I went to an evening with Justin Langer, the Aussie cricketer who captains Somerset at the moment. Tickets were expensive, but turned out to be well worth it. Amy and Jake are having their wedding reception at Sandy Park in a couple of months which we are also going to, so Jake asked me to preview the food and recommend the courses. It was all pretty amazing.

Due to having friends in the right places, I was on the top table so got to spend the evening chatting with a famous ashes cricket about all sorts - his family, cricket anecdotes and his conversion to christianity a few years ago, very interesting.

Tonight we have a charity skittles night supporting Tearfund, at the Twisted Oak in Ide. Should be fun.

I had a good run at the end of May/early June for blogging, then went all busy again. Things then back up and get overlooked for posting.

Anyway, I passed my exam which is amazing news. Haven't had final mark yet, just confirmation that I did pass with full write up of my performance to follow in the post, so will cross fingers that it turns up at all (we're having major problems at the moment with post not being delivered). As I had ploughed on writing essays for the next module it would have been discouraging to have to re-revise for a resit, so am mightily encouraged.

Work is good at the moment. I have only had 2 days holiday this year, and just a couple of weeks away from the seventh month of the year (time goes by faster than ever, and still so much we want to do this summer and year!). This means of course that if work does get too busy or I start getting tired and stressed, I have plenty of time I can take off.

All good really. It has been a fairly quiet weekend which is always a nice alternative to the norm. Han has had friends visit, I have finished reading The Discovery of Heaven (I will post seperately on this as it is the best and most interesting book I think I have ever read, and still have to comment on the Decameron).

Rain

We were woken early on our Saturday morning by a great thunderstorm. It was right over us at one point, and was followed by heavy rain for about 12 hours without break. Given that it has been muggy the past few days, thunder was just what was needed to clear the atmosphere a bit. It did mean that we had to have an indoors day, and I have found that wives need just as much entertaining on a rainy day than any child.

I started by getting out the marbling kit I bought a few months ago, then I watched the excellent Immortal Beloved (Gary Oldman is so good) while Han made a mess in the front room.

This wasn't enough. Baking was required to occupy Han for a little longer. A lovely honey cake was the result which I mightily enjoyed while warm with some clotted cream ice cream.

So, a day where we couldn't leave the house (we have today so not an entirely cooped in weekend), but a good one nonetheless. I have even managed to get an essay typed up so about as productive as 2 days off could be.

My bike died this week.

The back tyre had a slow puncture which proved irreparable, so I took Tuesday afternoon off (we had a meeting with our mortgage broker anyway) and left it at Sidwell Cycles where they were going to replace the back tyre and inner tube and give it a full service. Only they didn't, I got a call on Wednesday where they said their quote for all the work was going to be more than the bike was worth. Bike cost £90, repair quote was £160-180. I enquired if they had a bike for about £100, he said I used it so much he recommended I go up to the £3-400 range so it would really last. I said no. Now I am running Han's bike into the ground (won't take long, the wheels aren't straight, it's like riding with 2 square wheels).

Why say no?

We bought the cheapest bikes in the range 22 months ago.

Mine was £90 and I think Han's was a little bit less.

My daily round trip to work is 6 miles. That is 30 a week not counting the mileage out of work.
That is 83 weeks of travelling to and from work (I have taken 5 off for holidays), which totals 2490 work miles.

The bus is £9 a week, which would be £747 spent in the same period.

I think for the £90 I have got a decent return, and would be happy for another £90 to yield the same return. While a £400 bike would have me worrying all the time I left it chained anywhere, I am not overly bothered that my cheap bike is gone. I may put a photo up for posterity as it is my first bike ever.

So, a post of sums in what has been weeks of sums. More to follow, have darts starting again on Monday.