Its now officially a year since I left Leeds, a place which I had called my home for nigh on 15 years since moving away from my parents to come to university.

And what fun I had for the first ten of those years 😀 In fact I know most of my friends list from that decade of young adulthood. However by the last five years the shine had gone, and the search for better residences had begun. It was a frustrating search because of the property boom we gradually got priced out of Leeds and the immeadiate surrounding areas. However the gameplan changed considerably after I got my job in Manchester when moving over ‘the wrong side of the Pennies’ to Oldham we’re my wife Rachel’s parents live made a lot more sense. Finally the death of Rachel’s grandmother sealed the deal as we moved into her old house.

To be honest I can’t say I’ve missed Leeds at all. I’ve missed the people, but moved about so much as a kid I’ve even got over that quickly. The thing that really shocks me about the whole affair is how quick the year has gone, and despite the big things that have happened personally in that year how it only feels like a couple of months ago.

Just had a cool but rather odd midweek break at Sherwood Forest Centre Parcs. I had fun and a welcome break, but had to temper it with Rach being ridden with snotty coughy cold, so we didn’t do as much as a couple as we had hoped. Despite this had a relaxing break which put allot of things into perspective.

Not going to move jobs, unless something too good to be true turns up, until way after Newtlet is born (which is around May 12th ). So we’re looking at sometime in October. In the meantime I will polish my skills, avoid the shit that is flying around at the moment (a new dollup turned up this morning), work out exactly what I want to do (more mussing about that later) and generally enjoy the last months now that I know there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

On the RPG front, I’m going to focus on finally getting my Monkey (as Magic/Journey to the West) game done (release date Oct 21st-22nd just in time for Furnace 2007) and D101 games up on its feet. All other writing is going to get quickly finished off (as in the next couple of weeks) and published mainly via the web.

The war against Lard starts now. I’m not going to go into this in great detail, but I need to actively start becoming a slimmer fitter Newt. I know how to do this, its just a matter of applying myself.

All this is due to me reprogramming my brain over the last couple of months, realising that certain old patterns of behavior (dating mainly from puberty) are doing me no favours at all and replacing them with more positive and effective measures.

UPDATE: I must remember to have fun and keep my sense of humour while doing all of the above.
{hee hee}