Decisions

I often reflect on how lucky I am.  I have an amazing fiancée, a loving family, great friends, a good job – by all standards I am doing very well for myself.  I manage to stay happy by having few (if any) regrets.  I am happy with the choices I have made and with how my life has panned out to now.  Part of the secret to this however is that I have not been afraid to make decisions or take plunges when the opportunities have arisen.  I’ve moved all around the UK with work for example, and have experienced nothing but good things as a result. But...

I’ve been with my current employer for 10 years.  10 good years.  The job is fulfilling, I help people and I get paid well to do it.  I interview people who want to work for us and they always say they want a job that allows them to make a difference – that makes this a good place to work.  I have this feeling in my gut.  It niggles and plays at me.  It is telling me that I am fast approaching a point where a decision will need to be made, and I am beginning to realise what that decision is going to look like. 

I June I will get married.  I’ve been saving like mad for this wedding.  Before that I was saving like mad for the deposit on our flat and before that I was using every spare penny to pay off my debt.  Come July I will not be saving for anything in particular.  That will give me a sense of freedom I’ve not had before.  I’ll still be saving, but it is likely that I will be saving for what will ultimately be a move to Australia.  That, I am very much looking forward to and it is the catalyst for the decision I can feel edging my way.

I am growing incredibly tempted to take a career break and go travelling.  The idea of Rina and I slowly working our way around the globe really excites me.  It is not something I could do tomorrow or the next day (it will take a fair bit of saving) but if it is what we decide to do it will be an intoxicating goal to work towards.

That is where my head is at the moment – sitting on a beach in Thailand!

Dreadful Clarity

I am looking at the world with a dreadful clarity.  It is the horrendous unaltered vision of the thoroughly sober. I've been off the pop since the start of the year and will continue to stay dry until the end of April (give or take a week).  this is all done in the hope of shedding a few pounds before the wedding in June.

So far it is working. The beer belly is shrinking and we are only halfway through the challenge.

Fuck me...another two months of this?!

Ah well.

Got myself a PS Vita this month.  It is the new version of the Sony PSP and it is really rather wonderful.  There has been a lot of online debate about the relevance of the machine in light of the fact that smartphones provide ample collections of games.  The argument is that gamers are used to playing short bite-size puzzle games that cost 69p.  Who is going to pay £40 for a handheld game?   To me this argument misses the crucial point - playing games on your phone is shit.  Angry Birds can fuck right off and any game that tries to recreate a joypad on a touch screen simply sucks the joy from playing.

The Vita feels amazing, it looks amazing and it plays amazing.  'Nuff said.

Almost finished the final draft of the first episode of Scoundrels.  I should get that done this weekend.We will then be in a position to send it off and see what response we get.  That'll be interesting.

That's all for now.

Review Spot - The Lies of Locke Lamora

I have an addiction. I have had it for most of my life and it is not abating.  I am addicted to buying secondhand books from charity shops.

I read voraciously and, I would say, pretty quickly but I buy books at a rate that far outstrips my reading speed. This leads to a situation where a book I have picked up sits unread on my bookshelf for sometime.  There is always a book that is newer, or more exciting (or even just at the front of the shelf) that means certain tomes remain abandoned at the back of my shelf.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch has been one such book for a couple of years.  It was a bulky paperback version - you know, the ones that are somewhere between the size of a paperback and a hardback and as such not as easy to handle as a standard paperback.  I would definitely get to it, I just didn't know when.  Well I have just read it (after buying a kindle version after a recommendation from my mate Ben).  It is really rather good.

I'll start by stating the obvious - the book is a fantasy novel, but please do not let that put you off, it is as far from Dungeons and Dragons as you can hope to get and remain fantasy.  Think of it more like a heist- adventure set in a Renaissance-Venice-like city.

We follow a gang of thieves called the Gentlemen Bastards who, along with countless other gangs, make a living thieving in the canal city of Camorr. The city's underworld is led by the godfather-like Capa Barsavi who has agreed with the nobility a "Secret Peace" whereby the thieves of Camorr will not rob the nobility, rather praying on the merchants and poor of the city.  To all appearances the Gentlemen Bastards abide by this rule, whilst actually preying on the rich with complex confidence games.  The eponymous Locke Lamora leads the Gentlemen Bastards.

The book follows the adult Lamora's latest complex con alongside the arrival in Camorr of a rival for Capa Barsavi's power. Things quickly get complicated for Locke as he is dragged into the plans of both players.

I can't say much else without giving too much away, but I can say that I raced through the book and often wore a grin whilst doing so.  The story is very fast paced with some great cliffhangers and entertaining glimpses into the childhoods of the Gentlemen Bastards.

This book is number one of seven (the third of which is due out later this year) but definitely stands alone as a novel in it's own right.

I definitely recommend.