Hello World

Seven tough weeks eventually came to a conclusion yesterday as deadlines for the two jobs I have been working at with out a real day off were hit yesterday. Main job deadline for the 13th was code frozen on Thursday with only ops work to be completed on the Friday so I took a day off, but only to work on second job for a full day with its deadline being one I was very much involved with. So today I am somewhat more back into the land of the living, although the transition is a bit difficult, Having been working 10 hours a day on weekdays and about 8 hours a day at weekends I am approaching institutionalised and found it hard no relax properly. This will pass I hope.

So apart from a bit of tying up loose ends I spent a lot of time doing housekeeping on the computer, reorganising disorganised folders, re-acquainting myself with personal projects I dropped weeks ago and generally tidying up of the 'office' as well.

I managed to work my way through two bottles of wine, starting around 5:30. That certainly helped the relaxation on its way...

So a quick stock take of life shows that married life seems to be picking up, there is a lot less general arguing and the division of labour is far more even (which also means that my hip is complaining a lot less than it did, in fact quite remarkably so). Jen's late night facebook sessions still put in an occasional unwelcome appearance (Wednesday just passed being a prime example of a very inopportune decision to stay up till 5am, waking me up on the way to bed and ending up with me being rather tired for the aforementioned code freeze but it was the 3rd anniversary of her Dad's death so we let that slip) and I am still at times finding myself in a pre-judgemental frame of mind which I need to get out of as it doesn't help anyone.

As mentioned the constant pain of the arthritis in my hip has been subsiding and it is getting back to the level it was at a couple of years ago where it only becomes an issue if I over exert myself. This is a big boost generally as it had become a constant nag that was dragging me down, not only in terms of the pain but also causing a certain amount of depression about the prognosis for the future and the looming threat of hip replacement that I don't relish at all.

I seem to have started smoking again at some point in the past seven weeks, though not having had a day off and drinking rather heavily to cope with the stress I'm not wholly unsurprised. This will have to be rectified as I don't mind smoking when I've had a few but I am finding myself getting out of bed and sparking up with my morning coffee at times. This kind of behaviour should make my head spin and my stomach feel nauseous, but it doesn't.

And Newcastle won their game against Aston Villa, which puts us in a much better looking position overall after the shaky start against Man City and the draw against West Ham. That is two wins in a row and 7 points from four games, with the Villa game also being an away win. Hopefully we can stay in the top half of the table for the majority of this season.