My First Post

Welcome to my blog.

I'm not sure exactly how to start this, except to give you some idea of the kind of posts you can expect from me. I've always heard that you should only write about what you know, so I guess the best thing to do is tell you the kind of things I know.

On the evidence of the last few years, I know about software development and starting a software business, I know all about weddings and coping with a long distance relationship and I know all about living on a tight budget. I now know more than I ever wanted to know about flooding, and how it feels to lose almost everything you own in a couple of hours. In the last year I was also unfortunate enough to learn something about employment tribunals and racial discrimination (from my wife's case).

I also expect video games will come up quite regularly, as it's really the only hobby I've had for any length of time that I still manage to make time for. I think I'll always feel a little guilty that my X-Arcade survived our flooding while wedding photos drowned, but really we both just grabbed what we could... there really wasn't time. Really. I would probably have saved some of these if there'd been any time.

In the coming months, I'm going to be learning about culture shock, as my wife and I start extracting ourselves from the UK to eventually relocate to the US. We just booked a ticket today for a three month trial period. It's about time I was the one to suffer the culture shock, Bea is originally from L.A., and I'm sure that I'll have a much easier time than she's had having to adjust to rural England for 3 years.

As I keep mentioning, we had a recent problem with flooding. Back in January there was a major flood in our area. Here's a link to some news reports:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/4159523.stm

So that, combined with Bea's employment issues (see Too American scanned jpeg or News Link), has really given us the push we needed to think about relocating. Our house isn't likely to be inhabitable again for at least another 5-6 months, so while we're transient we may as well see how far we can go.

Finally, I'd like to link you to my favorite flood picture - we only found it a few days ago - which shows my wife being rescued from our home:-

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/photos/details.aspx?id=32792&category=470