Once again that day of the year comes around when I gather up all the bits and pieces from one of my previous travels, order it, catalogue it, mount it then file it in a binder. This is the closest I come to obsessive compulsive, but for the past five years it has been a bit of a ritual, and I notice from year to year the date I tackle this job gets further and further away from when I took the trip. This, of course, is not ideal. You start to forget things. But it also makes the process more enjoyable as you stumble back across all those little things that had completely slipped your mind.

The main bulk of each of these folders I compile is made up of thick wadge of photographs. Usually it can take one to three days to mount them all up, depending on the size of the haul, which gets larger every year. Thankfully, after my US trip in 2005, I managed to cut down the number of photos I actually got printed afterwards (no one apart from myself wants to shuffle their way through over a K of someone else’s holiday snaps) so I just got the salient ones done. Unfortunately I wasn’t so pragmatic about Tibet, Nepal and India, and there is a stack approximately two inches tall on my desk, yet to be tackled.

I would place the photos in slip-in albums, but the cost is prohibitive for what you get and you still have to put them in order. A maximum of 60-80 photos per album usually at between £15 to £25 a pop means that I’d be looking in the region of £250 to mount them up (let alone the cost of the photos), and that would span 10 thickly bound volumes. No, instead I mount them in plastic sleeves with self-adhesive photo corners, which of course also gives me room to insert things like tickets, leaflets, notes etc etc and can usually get it down to one heaving volume. It is a miracle of patience I’ve ever completed one, let alone five - and by the end of the day you are guaranteed a headache from the concentration. That’s why I only go proper-travelling once a year.

I’ve just completed Japan & Australia (2006), but have yet to tackle the latest batch and it’s quite daunting. Maybe I’ll leave that one another year…

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Last weekend proved to be more work orientated than I’d normally like; not to say I didn’t enjoy it, just it wasn’t much of a break from the web.

On Saturday was the first Multipack of the new year and a good turn out. There were discussions of magnitude going on, and I think we made some important decisions. Either way, there has been a flurry of activity this week. Expect some announcements soon.

Sunday started badly at 4am when I finally drifted off to sleep. At 10am I was running a training event with some clients, which of course, was well planned except for the venue. In the end we found some big armchairs and sockets in The Talbot hotel and had four hours playing in HTML/CSS wonderland. It’s not the most riveting way to spend a Sunday, but at least it was painless. Unfortunately the odd schedule meant I didn’t manage to get over to the pool, which was probably the day’s biggest disappointment.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were full of the extraordinary. I’ve been pushing the limits of my knowledge of servers recently, and also trying to break the back of a body of work that has been mostly enjoyable yet time-consuming. Anyway, most of that is under control now and I’ve had a string of new projects float over the horizon, so I’m feeling good at the moment.

Midweek I ventured down to London for a meeting and afterwards met up with Swanny who I managed to prise out of his office at 7pm. After a couple of drinks in a place where it was too expensive to buy bar snacks, I left for home.

Finally the post-new year social activity is taking off again and I’ve come out of the haze that surrounded the beginning of 2008 to establish some firm plans about what I want to achieve in the next few months. I’m looking forward to the challenges. I can’t believe it, but I’ve just realised that what I’m talking about are really just New Year Resolutions. I thought I didn’t do New Year Resolutions. Looks like I’ve been deluding myself.

Oh, and the Macbook Air looks interesting…

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It’s probably best to say Happy New Year at this point. Mine was spent in London, another cheap return ticket by train and plenty of amusement along the bank of the Thames.

Swan and myself started with a couple of beers in Seven Kings before heading into central london where we met with Devito and Ainhoa before finding somewhere to sit in a Wetherspoons somewhere behind the Tower of London. A bit of ameretto and a couple of hours later we took off again closer to the river, having a good little meander in and around walled gardens along the river and through the marinas before ending up outside the Lord Mayor’s office with Swan’s sisters and their respective boyfriends.

It was quickly decided to find some shelter (a bar) where we waited for the strike of midnight. We had stopped right outside HMS Befast, hoping to be able to glimpse the spectacular fireworks, but rather perceptively, we managed to avoid them completely. It didn’t seem to matter too much at the time though - we heard Big Ben, saw some flashes of light behind the City skyline and retreated back inside briefly to place one last order.

At this point Swan, Devito, Ainhoa and myself split away once more and took to scouring the backstreets for some final place to spend the early hours. Despite our best efforts to crash a party without tickets, we found places would let us in if we paid, so we did.

The rest of the evening was spent on a cultural exchange with a group of Swedish tourists. I now know that something that sounds like ‘schlips knutze’ is a tie with a knot, however I am struggling to find ways to work this into conversations. It took about four hours to get back to Swan’s and I didn’t get to sleep until 7.30am.

By the time I arrived at Marylebone at 3pm later on New Year’s Day to catch the train home I was feeling surprisingly awake, but after walking back from the station then fish and chips, I was out like a light.

A good start to the new year by my reckoning.

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I do feel that for various reasons that persons wanting to read this blog might have felt they haven’t been getting their money’s worth in December so here is a bumper round up to clear up what’s occurred during the time I’ve spent not writing very much.

Since Lufbra a couple of weeks ago I’ve been working hard on a number of projects that have been taking up large chunks of time, including building a big contact database for one client, and pushing through a series of refreshes on another of my larger projects. What with the stuff up in Sheffield too, it’s been manic, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been enjoying it.

Despite all this, I’ve tried not to neglect social stuff as best I can, so have recently had a good few meet ups with Will (talking about a potentially very nice bit of work), Steve, John and Tom, Raj, George, and Wii sessions over at other Tom’s (where on my first attempt to use the controller I managed to smash a glass all over his front room).

And further afield, last night I went out in Bank with Swan and Devito, one of two trips to London this week, as I’ll be down there again for new year as well. For the first time possibly ever, I’ve had so many invitations for things to do on 31st January I feel mortified that I’m having to turn people down… after all, the past three years have been very last-minute affairs.

Last night was very humorous. It involved age-old drinking games, posh bars, cheeseburgers, an Albanian, sore knuckles (not from fighting however), falling asleep on a bus for far too long and a Krispy Kreme doughnut. I then spent most of this morning nursing a ferocious headache while my mate’s 13 year old brother hurled insults at me on an etch-a-sketch. It wasn’t a conventional hangover recovery method, nor was it particularly effective.

Christmas itself was the usual family thing, and after having the main event here at home, the next day was over to the relatives in the country, and thankfully it was for lasagna and not for more turkey. Presents-wise I’ve done not too badly, although I’m chocolated up to my eyeballs and visits to the pool have become fewer and further between due to changes in the daily schedule. I’ve drawn up a list of things I need to purchase in the coming weeks, but have yet to venture to any sales. Internet shopping seems far more appealing.

I’m hoping that 2008 is going to be as good if not better than 2007. Still, 2003 is the year to beat in terms of greatness, so here’s to hoping and a belated Merry Christmas to you all.

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I tend to have found that even a year and a half after leaving the place, I have gravitated back to my place of university education, Loughborough, on a pretty regular basis. Once again this was demonstrated by a trip at the end of last week that has meant I swapped part of the week for pretty much the whole of my weekend. It’s 1.30am on a Sunday and I’ve just stopped working. Mike and Swan met me in The Bridge and we took off via car to the ‘Boro for what was billed as probably the last time we’ll do it, at least for a good while. Although student nights out are very funny, cheap and a good place to catch up, they are also not aimed at people who are no longer students. Most of the people we know are now gone, and over the two nights up there, we saw a handful of people we knew, but soon enough another generation will have passed completely through. It was good to make the most of the last crumbs of studenthood while it lasted though. I got back on Friday and went for a brief drink with Will who appears to be really enjoying his time on placement. On Saturday it was yet another Multipack meet up and Stu, Trev, Matt and myself graced Lloyd’s on Broad Street for a couple of hours. Aside from these few hours with friends, the rest of time has been firmly planted in front of reams of code. Of note, 24 Ways have been producing some really nice articles this year (on the most part) and the iPlayer has been updated (Stu – the question is, will I write about it…?). This whole Mac thing is getting easier every week. I've got quite a lot to think about in the coming days; it’s going to be a busy one.

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After my second trip to Sheffield at the beginning of the week, I found myself in Aberystwyth this weekend, and look set to be in Loughborough midweek.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty heavyweight affairs but I think everyone at Rattle was more than pleased with the result (me included). There’s nothing that can’t be fixed up with a craft knife, a roll of masking tape and a power drill (though I get the impression my ‘safety socks’ wouldn’t normally pass as workshop gear. They aren’t steel toe-capped or anything.

While up there I spent one evening trying to locate Tongy’s new flat. He’s been commuting to Barnsley from Loughborough everyday for the past few months and finally decided to get a place a little closer to work as a two-to-four hour commute twice a day is a little on the nasty side of sadistic. Apart from the issues with a lack of postcode (the place is brand spanking new) and most of the roads now part of a fantastic one way system (turns out no one had informed the GPS) we managed to catch up for an hour or so.

Being Sister One’s twenty first this week, I took the train out to Welsh Wales on Saturday and spent a festive night out in Aberystwyth town Despite being three years into her course, this is the first time I’ve managed to make it over there, but it was a good night and very, very cheap. Raj showed his face as well and I sampled the local speciality drink, an ‘Admiral’ which was more pleasant than I had been expecting.

I seem to remember there were quite a lot of hot looking elfish girls wandering around too; always a bonus.

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Not content with one week in Northern climbs, I’m back on the motorway tomorrow morning and on my way back up to Sheffield for (the unplanned) stint two of the C4 project.

This last week has been manic – I made it up at about mid morning on Monday last and spent the next two and a half days at Rattle in a pile of black felt tips, pritt-stick, coloured paper and creativity.

Being as Sheffield isn’t on my usual list of destinations, I tried (with mixed success) to meet up with some folks. Huan was around and about on Monday evening, and we spent a couple of hours in a pub reminiscing about Nepal. On Tuesday, James and Emma invited us out for a Turkish meal then a few pints around and about the city. Despite this, productivity remained high on Wednesday.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of listening to the GPS on the way back down to the Midlands, and it sent me several times around a triangle shaped loop before I got annoyed, deviated from the suggested route, before it misled onto the M6 Toll. Cheers GPS, are you going to pay for that? I should have just stuck to the way I knew.

I have little recollection of Thursday or Friday, but they were much like Saturday and Sunday, spent working. It’s been relentless and it’s set to continue for a while, but I’m off to see Sister One this coming weekend, then have a night out with Swan and Mike in Lufbra a few days later, and finally hoping to catch up with Deako the following weekend.

Christmas? In how long?! Can’t believe it…

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