Garrulous Geek

Right then. I'm back in London for another week of training... I'm quite amazed how quickly the three weeks in the office have gone really. It's good though, because I've been kept very busy and had lots of interesting stuff to do in the office, so the tempus has certainly fugited. I'm getting to know how things work and I've been getting quite a variety of work, so I'm getting a taste of lots of things. The people are nice and friendly, and there's a good atmosphere for getting on with some work. It's all quite a far cry from my last unmotivated job, which was one of my reasons for moving on, so that's all good. It's good to be back on training now and learning some more stuff, even if I am getting a reputation for asking awkward questions in class! It's good to see everyone on the course too.

I met up with my good friend Sophie last night, whose wedding I went to a couple of months ago. It was really good to see her again and catch up on what she's up to and chat about life and marriage and jobs and stuff. She's good fun, and we had a good laught together. Rocking. I have to say, that while being in London away from my family is pretty rubbish, it is great to see all my friends who live down here. Clouds and silver linings and all that. I'd never have the time or money to visit people down here, so coming down once a month has it's upsides.

I'm very happy with things at the moment. I'm getting into family life and being married and being a dad, which is cool. The house is great, and we've found a fantastic church, which is really helping me to get settled in the area. And of course, as I've said, jobwise things are brilliant. I think I'm probably happier than I've been in recent memory. While different times of my life have had their good points, I think this is the first time in ages that I can honestly say things are really going well. I'm really happy with how things are, and it's a huge blessing to be honest.

I have this weird thing going on where I feel a lot like my dad at the moment... kinda. Maybe it's just to do with feeling grown up. It just seems strange to be getting up and going to work in the city in a suit and tie and doing my thing in the office, then coming home to my house to my wife and child. It all seems so grown up! I think I am, in the words of the surely venerable Chantelle Houghton, living the dream. It might be a very middle class dream, but it's pretty good all told, so I can't really complain. Score.

In other news, I really want a Nintendo DS. Time to get saving...

This morning at work, my phone was cleaned by a genuine real life Rentokil telephone sanitiser.

I had no idea these people actually existed. The truth, it seems, is at least as stange as fiction, if not more so.

I'm at home on a Monday night... It seems awfully strange after the past month of training away in London and Cambridge. It's over at last! I'm very glad to be home and able to spend some time with Ali and Beth. Good stuff. I'm finally in the office this week, and will actually be getting down to work on Wednesday when my inductions get finished. I'll let you know how it goes...

The second week in Cambridge was pretty good. The workload was slightly lower and the days slightly shorter which was a mercy. We were learning all about capital allowances, which I can't imagine you will want to read about, but which I have linked you to anyway. It's been pretty interesting, and certainly worth the time being as it's something we'll actually be doing in the office. The week was also helped along by the addition of "compulsary fun" which was an afternoon off work to do something a bit more exciting. I chose to go punting, which was good fun, but is a lot harder than it looks. We also had the usual assortment of evenings in the bar and playing pool and the like, though I did catch a bit of flak for putting on Leave by R.E.M. on the jukebox, in all it's seven minutes of siren blaring glory. Rock on. The stay in Cambridge also gave me a chance to see my cousin and her husband, who are expecting a baby pretty much any second now, which is pretty exciting.

I've been doing my best to make some new friends while I've been away in London and Cambridge. I'm not always very good at making friends. I certainly failed to make much a terribly concerted effort at uni, as the few uni lurkers reading this will likely attest, and as such didn't make a vast number of friends there, which was kinda unfortunate. I had something of an epiphany, silly though it is, after writing my recent post about how nice it is to have old friends, when I realised that - duh - it's hard to get any old friends unless at some point you make some new ones. Put in the context of the lyric I used at the time, I can't very well attain the precious few friends to whom I should hold on, unless I'm prepared to have some who come and go. So, I've been making more of an effort and trying to get to know people and have fun with them and so on. It's been going pretty well really, which is good. I've been getting to know lots of people from the tax course, in particular the people who I was staying in a hotel with in London. We're from all over the place, so it's kinda weird to be back in my office in Manchester and not be seeing my friends from Southampton or Leeds. It'll be good to see everyone again in 3 weeks when we're next down in London for training. So, I'm making some new friends... which is nice.

In related news, I've managed to get along to the church that Ali has found for it. It's called Christ Church Pennington and it's in one of the adjacent villages. They describe themselves as an evangelical Anglican church, which is pretty much exactly what we're after. We had a pretty good example of that crossover just this Sunday gone - the very Anglican baptising of two babies, coupled with a very spirited sermon from Matthew 25:31-46 about the sheep and the goats, complete with discussion of heaven and hell and so forth. Quite a departure from the usual Church of England baby dunking. So, there we go. Alison has got stuck in to taking Beth along to Mums And Tots and to a thing they put on called Tiny Church. It's good that she's getting to meet some other mums and so on. We definitely need that.

Beth is not well at the moment I came back from Cambridge with a cold last week and apparently gave it to her. She's all bunged up and full of catarrh which is not much fun for her. It makes feeding something of a nightmare, and she spends a lot of her time screaming which gets old pretty fast. She's had a bit of a temperature as well. Ali has got some Karvol, which smells like being ill in my memory, and some stuff which is like Vicks, but gentler. Hopefully Beth will get better soon.

And now... I need to go and feed her. I'll write more another day... always so much more to write! Bye for now.