“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th President of the United States
I know, I know. It’s been ages. I’ve broken promises and resolutions, hearts and heads, but the blog is back again. For a while, at least. Maybe. Fuck it – who knows? The last… puhhhh…. year has been, well.. – an absolute, total and unrelenting disaster for me, on several levels, and – to be brutally honest – the idea of actually writing down and chronicling my misery at the time was just a bridge too far for me.
So. Change. Things have changed. Irrevocably. Things(tm), as they say, are unquestionably better. They are – by no means – perfect, though, this will come in time.
In August last year, as those of you who know me personally will already know, my marriage broke down. I think, on reflection, it was probably coming sooner or later anyhow, and it just took one of us to have enough guts to actually do something about it. We remain cordial and friendly, and not just for the sake of our beautiful daughter, and are both quite happy being apart.
However, the split meant big changes financially (for both of us), and with the IT industry shrinking following the economic collapse last year, I was finding it very difficult to get work in the North. The house dropped into negative equity, and I spent rather a long time feeling very, very down indeed. Something had to change, and soon.
The only long-term work I could find was in the South – and being as the alternative (not working, not paying the bills) would lead rapidly to bankruptcy – I had to make the decision. So here I am, working slap-bang in the middle of the M4 ‘silicon corridor’, in Reading.
Clearly, a Sheffield to Reading commute isn’t possible, so I am going to move to a ‘penthouse apartment’ (estate agent speak for ’2nd floor flat’) down there, and am going to let out the house in Sheffield until such time as the house becomes viable to sell again.
Of course, this is all exciting and new, and a big change – however it will mean that I’m no longer on Aimee’s doorstep anymore, and this is something which is going to be very, very difficult for me to deal with. I keep telling myself that this arrangement isn’t going to be forever, and that regular families deal well with fathers being away for extended periods (armed forces personnel, oil rig workers, etc), but it does worry me a lot. Though I’m sure this is better than being a penniless bankrupt father living in my mum’s spare room.
To try and help alleviate this, Aimee and I have been using Skype to video chat with each other, but nothing beats a good hug and a toddler-slobber kiss! We’ll see how it works out, I guess.
However – all of this change is currently making my life incredibly busy! Flitting between Reading, Sheffield and Corby, sorting stuff out, moving stuff around, bagging up rubbish, going to the tip, packing, packing, packing! Trying to spend time with Aimee. Spending time with my family. Having the occasional malt and hop-based beverage.
I get the keys to my flat next week, and have got the big job of moving my stuff in ASAP. I’m hoping by this time next month, I’ll be all settled in and – maybe – there’ll be a tenant lined up for the Sheffield place. That’d be good. That’d make me twice as happy as I am now – which would be at least 10 times happier than I was in May.
So – with all this going on, I’m resuming writing – because, clearly, I have enough time to do this as well as everything else!
Oh – and what do you think of the new blog? I migrated it all from Drupal to WordPress, and fiddled around with themes and plugins until I had it how I liked it. What do you think?
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