Interim - Catchup

Right, it's been ages. Really can't be arsed filling in all the gory details, so will use highly efficient bullet points:

• Regus binned off the project I was working on, mainly due to the fallout of sacking the major subcontractor. This stemmed from a) the contract no longer being suitable to what the project was trying to achieve, b) the project having become overly ambitious and c) Regus management, in general, being a bunch of unreasonable c@*&s.
• I spent too long finding another role, in large part because I thought I had a plum role lined up for me by a friend of a friend. Reminder: if something seems to good to be true, it is. This dragged on for some considerable time. Very irritating.
• A jaunt to Barcelona for the MWC conference led to several nibbles, one of which was converted into contracting for a former employer. This is a very interesting piece of work, and of course working with colleagues and customers that I know well. I will generally be based in Helsinki and Reading, with at some points travel to certain customers and perhaps Montreal too.

During this time I achieved the following:
1) Went out with a smashing girl for a few months, which was enjoyable, but we didn't quite click overall. Shame that, as it was great fun.
2) Lots of skiing - I'd already booked the ski trips, so went on them. Alpe d'Huez was brilliant (apart from the chalet which was a touch pikey), Val d'Isere good (except for me almost losing an eye) and St Anton hilarious fun (marred slightly by rain and Austrians apparently being quite unpleasant).
3) Marginal to no increase in fitness. No excuse here - I had enough time to become the buffest guy in the world - it's a very dispiriting thing to be unemployed and actually having to find a job. You can of course idle away time, but when it comes to planning anything, you feel you can't as you really should be trying to find other jobs. Did do the Reading half-mazza though, and enjoyed it enormously, whilst running a 1h39, which gives me hope for doing more over the rest of the year.
4) Not much else.

However, I have felt that since I've been working again, all is getting back on track. More details in subsequent posts.