Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Back after the break!

For some reason, I keep forgetting that I have a blog (or, to be accurate, several blogs). Most of my updates tend to go on Facebook.
I will try to change this, though it won't be easy - I have Facebook on all my devices, and posting to it is as simple as tapping an icon; updating my blog means logging onto Blogger and typing something (hopefully) interesting.  I'll try.  Especially as I have some interesting travel plans upcoming.

Anyway, what has happened in the couple of years since I last posted?  Well, I paid off my mortgage, so (officially) I am a house owner.  Took 25 years, and there were a few occasions when I thought I might not manage it, but here I am, not having moved house or mortgage provider, and the money was paid.

I've been travelling - Amsterdam and Ireland were my last trips, and my next one involves the Mid-West of America.  The Ireland trip was the second one I did last year - the first involved a certain amount of drinking in Wexford as a bunch of fellow pupils celebrated their collective 50th birthdays.  I got to stay in a really nice hotel, and saw the inside of more Irish pubs than usual.

My trading card podcast, UK CardCast, is on a break whilst I work on getting interviews for a new podcast project, Talking About; however, UKCC is coming back this month and there will be several episodes in the coming months spinning out of the US trip (which will, I hope, also fuel the new show!)

I've been getting more into taking pictures. I'm still using my Panasonic Lumix TS40 compact camera, because it does the job for me and is a lot more portable than a DSLR etc.

Still working - I actually got a 5 year service badge from my employer earlier this year - first time I've ever had anything to mark a period of service, so that's nice!

The tech gadgets have moved on apace - I now have an iPhone 5 (second hand from a friend), a 10" Android tablet (that was cheap in a local supermarket, and which I got cheaper because of things!) and,(most recently) an iPad Mini 4, which I'm pretending I'll use for editing podcast interviews in GarageBand, but which I'm mainly using for games and Facebook updates (though I have been using some of the Apple productivity software and it IS rather nice!)

Can#t think of anything else at the moment, so I'll close, but I really do plan on posting on a more regular basis from now on (not that anyone actually reads this!)  The next few posts will almost certainly be American themed...