New Beginning

After leaving my role at Fuel Card, I spent from Wednesday night through till this morning with my love, enjoying some much needed time together.

Some quality time spent lounging in the sun, with a cold one and some tasty lemon. 😄

The Bengals loss Sunday night sucked, but didn't detract from the weekend as a whole.

Today, was the start of what should be, the end of the DeVere nightmare. A new challenge at Saga, with an end in sight. Travel training has commenced & I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.

Starting fresh

Today, I quit my job.

Would staying another day or two have benefited me? Absolutely. But it's been a toss up between that option, or spending a couple of extra days with my girlfriend, who's down visiting, before starting my new role Monday.

Time with loved ones prevails, every time.

A few days of rest before opening a new door into an old world.

Weeks end & the weekend

This week ended the same way it started. Miserably. By kicking out time Friday is was hammering it down. So bad, I decided to pay out for a meter cab outside the station to home. Extortion artists.

My weekend has consisted of mainly gaming. Madden & NHL, plus a bit of halo. Good fun mostly.

Sports for the weekend was tragic. Bengals lost 24-16 after a poorly called game. It's 23:09 and my alarm is set for 05:30.. Tragic.

12, 13/09 & an idea..

I've come to realise, on days I don't do anything worth making a note of, I tend to forget about making an entry. So now, rather than jotting down loads of entries, I'll compile them together every few days & post on the day, for days of interest.

The last couple of days have been awful. Nothing of interest to note. Ill on Monday. A long day at the office today & an even longer one tomorrow.

A moment of interest today - The tickets to the Bengals game at Wembley came today. October 30th is the date.

11/09 Late, again..

FOOTBALL IS BACK.

My Sundays are officially whole again, from today up until February. Football season is the start of something beautiful. It's the beginning of a plethora of loves, all simultaneously sparking within weeks of each other.

September brings, not only the NFL, but college ball too. My beloved Bengals opened the season in New York against the Jets, a 23-22 win. The Cardiac Cats are back! The Bearcats are 2-0 on the season and the Reds put up an 8-0 win over the Pirates last night. What a weekend!

September also means hockey is almost upon us. I currently write for a NY based company covering the Buffalo Sabres & despite it being an unpaid gig, it's one of the coolest things I've ever been involved with.

Putting out articles and knowing that thousands of people have seen and read something I've put together, that's pretty awesome.

Baseball season gradually comes to a close, and although the Reds haven't been competitive for a few years, what with the rebuild in full swing, they've shown flashes, which offers a glimmer of hope.

Fall is also upon us, my favourite time of year. Aside from all the sports, it means the "English summer" is almost over.

9&10/09

Was definitely happy the working week was over.  Thankfully, I was mindful enough to have a contingency in place. 2 weeks to go and then that will fall into place.

Saturday was one of the better days I've had in quite some time. An evening and night spent with old friends, drinking, smoking, reminiscing about days gone by. A 4 hour game of cards against humanity, tied for 2nd! Sometimes going back in time, even just for a few hours, revitalises you. Getting home at 4:40am is most definitely the sign of a good night.

Music and other moments.

Short entry today, trying to be mindful of time & how little sleep I've been getting as of late. The struggle at work continues, I've still not managed to secure a client & have dialled well over 900 times since Monday. Hopefully this luck is flipped on it's head tomorrow and I get back on track.

I got back behind the decks tonight. I find it almost therapeutic. Spinning all of my current favourites into a mini mix for the daily commutes. The plan is to record a few & send the most diverse to a few local bars/clubs and see if I can get a slot somewhere. I think trance would be a refreshing change from the usual drum and bass acts that dominate the local music scene. Not that there's anything wrong with d'n'b, people should give trance a chance. :)

Today's entry took just four minutes to write and my head feels less congested already.

Laughter soothes the soul.

Ever since my wonderful partner purchased Madden 17, I've spent a lot more of my spare time laughing.

Gaming has always been an escape for me. I remember playing Sonic for hours on end as a youngster. Getting a playstation 1 for Christmas and immediately immersing myself in Star Wars Episode One. Then getting my first Xbox.

I received it from my mum as a gift for my 13th birthday, which was also the day the final ever episode of friends aired. Whilst my folks & friends watched it downstairs, I was in my room annihilating the covenant.

Some of my fondest memories revolve around games. Counter strike: Source Zombie Mod featured a tonne of moments that reduced me to a teary, laughing mess. Competitive Halo, CS, even WoW has a couple of great ones. But as of late, the laughter has come from Madden.

With the games becoming more and more realistic each year, things become that much more intricate, the slightest mistake and you're burned for 6. A good friend of mine, Jamie, has always been my madden rival. Our latest competition is based around random team selections and then facing off. The games are full of huge plays, big hits, a tonne of trick & gadget plays, as well as turnovers. Many of which occur simultaneously and cause gut busting laughter. Tonight's game was slightly lop sided & the bulk of the laughter came from me. A 69-14 win. *smug face*

I'm finding I wake up the following morning on a slight high and the part of the day I usually have the most, becomes much easier. I guess it's true what they say, laughter is indeed, good for the soul.

06/09

Another day, another dollar.

These early starts and late finishes are starting to slowly take their tole. A car is my #1 priority once December begins.

My desire to open an investment portfolio is growing, 2017 is going to be an interesting year.

Not much to write about today, especially as the entry is a day late.

Manic Monday.

Day 2. 05/09/16

Today was my "first day", outside of training at my new job. Business 2 Business sales. Nothing fancy, but it's a paycheck and 3 months from now, I'll be debt free. Money has been on my mind a lot lately. In fact it's pretty much the only thing that's been on my mind.

I'd have rather avoided the "young debt" scenario entirely, but life is funny like that. The silver lining is having made the mistakes at such a young age, when I have such a great supporting cast surrounding me. A loan to assist with moving out, a credit card to assist with day to day life. A contract for this, something else on finance. But it's fine, it's all in little manageable repayments each month. Next minute, you've taken a gamble on a job abroad, which turns out to be complete BS & you're living back at home, jobless, desperately trying to keep your head above water.

December 1st is the day I'm looking forward to most. Well, aside from October 30th.. Bengals @ Wembley. Another dream comes true!

01.12.16 marks the start of a new chapter, (my god that sounds cliche). The only monthly outgoing I'll have, is a mobile phone bill. For the better part of 5 years now, I've had no less than 5 direct debits active at any given time. Shackled to all these greedy corporations because of their "services". I'm almost venting now.. Back to risk.

Risk is what keeps us young. It's what makes us feel alive. And if you don't take a risk every once in a while, you might just spend the rest of your life wondering what if. Thankfully, I'm all risked out and have a clear plan devised for the next few years of my life.

When the time inevitably comes and I read back on this - note to self - I hope you've learnt your lesson. And that you aren't in a pickle like I'm just now escaping. I've felt and thought things I never want to have the misfortune of feeling/thinking again. The dark days are almost gone..

Less of a blog today, more of a, brain emptying session if you will. Time for bed.

The first of many.

Day 1. 04/09/16

I've been meaning to do this for quite some time. Create a blog and log my day to day life. Something to look back on one day, like an online memoir.

A safe place to list my thoughts. Feelings. Emotions. Small moments.

The mind is a funny thing. I can recall memories from as far back as twenty years ago. Moments that had no importance... But if you were to ask me what I did last weekend, I'd struggle to give you an instant answer. I tried to think just now, it took me a good 30 seconds.

I had one of these years ago. But it was mostly filled with nonsense, the ramblings of a young, angry teenager. Thankfully, it's buried somewhere deep within the interwebs. 

The bulk of today has been spent playing Madden '17, a mirror image of my Saturday too actually. Sundays without the NFL are just Monday-eves. 

I also finished watching The angriest man in Brooklyn. Robin Williams.. He certainly was something special. Before starting on this, I watched That's my boy for probably the hundredth time, never fails to crack me up.

It's now 9:15pm. Bed is definitely an option. 6am starts bite, majorly.