Year 3

So Year 3 began this Sunday just gone.

I moved to London on Thursday October 12th 2006, so Sunday just gone was the end of my 2nd year in London.

It snuck up on me last year but this time I was more ready for it. I think it must have been reflective a few weeks ago for our anniversary.

In the last year I've done a lot of things. And things are much better in my life.

Rachel has been the biggest change. And that's a great one.

A lot of effort has been put into getting on top of my finances. And things are better managed. This was the area with probably the best improvement over year 1. Where I completely failed to control my finances and ran up debt. But that is now more controlled and I have a plan to clear it that doesn't involve any of crazy plans you see on tv.

I also gave up gambling during Easter and have not placed a bet since.

I've moved home from Ealing to West Kensington. This has given huge improvement to Quality of Life. Ealing itself is great but South Ealing was too quiet too isolated for me. I was 10 minutes away from anything. Which was a drain.

I started and finished a Marketing Course giving me a professional qualification. I've talked at length about the course and how it affected me over the year. I'm glad I did it and I might go back and do the next level but not yet. I need a break and have my evenings back.
We're more likely to start a Spanish language course. We'll see if there is one we can start in January.

Games
I've not being playing as much boardgames this past year than I would like. I have been along to the group in Ealing a couple of times. Up to a group in Shepards Bush once or twice. In the summer I started going back to LondonOnBoard again in the city, haven't been the last few weeks as been really busy, and leaving work too late. But I might pop along on Wednesday again. Last Saturday I went out of London to play an 18xx with two guys from GridIron. Great time was ahead (apart from the maybe allergic reaction to the house cat). Last year I attended PsychoCon which was on in October, this year it was on in September and I didn't get the train up north for it.

I started playing an American Football management sim called GridIron3. This has been massively enjoyable. Its one game a week on a Saturday, 10 weeks regular season and full 4 weeks post season. First season my team won our division sweeping it 6-0 in divisional games. I've met a lot of new people through the game. We have pub meet ups to get together shoot the breeze and drink real ale. And attending the live draft down in Bristol was an amazing experience. There was around 40 coaches there and it was great to put faces to names.

I have decided to pull back from playing in 3 OLMEC leagues. I've played in SESL for almost 5 years now. I thank Steve for introducing me but it has been too much the last year playing in 3 and running one of them.
I might go back to just one.

I've fallen out with chess and fallen back in love with the game this year. I am now really enjoying my chess and I'm considering looking into a real world club to play. I currently only play on Gameknot

Culture & Tech
I've joined the British Museum, we went to Hadrian which was very impressive. And we're looking forward to Babylon. First I'm going to a discussion on Thursday night about Walls and their effect on society. I'll post more about that later in the week.

In year 2, I think I've been to the theatre 5 or 6 times. Most recently to Wicked musical with Rachel on our anniversary which was great experience and I was really glad Rachel had a good time. I also brought Rachel to Sound of Music (musical).

Also in the last year I went to Boing Boing (comedy) with Alan, God of Carnage (drama/comedy) in the Gielgud with George & Never so Good (drama) in the National with George and Rachel. God of Carnage starred Ralph Fiennes & Tamsin Greig. Never so Good starred Jeremy Irons and was the best theatre experience of the year for me.

In Year 1 i wasn't going to the cinema that much, despite paying for Cineworld. Well Year 2 i have definitely got my monies worth from the Unlimited Card, despite not going at all in September as we were going weekly for much of June through August, and we'll easily go twice a month going forward, which is what we need to do to more than break even on the cards. I bought Rachel an Unlimited as well.

I discovered Iplayer and I love this program. I use it weekly to watch a couple of shows on BBC. Recently I have been trending towards more TV watched online or DVDs over TV. As for DVDs, I cannot highly recommend Lovefilm enough as a source of DVD rental in the UK. In the last year I have rented a lot of TV shows. Rome Seasons 1&2, Black Books 1-3, 24 Seasons 1-3, Desperate Housewives 1&2, BSG 2-3, West Wing 1, Scrubs 1, CSI (Vegas) 1 & Oz 1. Okay BSG 2, Rome 1 & CSI were Year 1 not Year 2. Having watched one disk of Oz I then bought the season and we watched the rest of the season that night. I've just bought season 2 of it. I own Season 5 of 24 so I need to get there with rental. Grey's Anatomy Season 1 has just arrived so we'll watch that next. I've also used it to catch up on a few movies I've missed in the cinema.

Got a new phone. I am loving my N95. Most of this post was written from my N95 during my commute to work.

I also got an Ipod during this year. And this calendar year I have gotten into Podcasts in a big way. I am listening to a lot of different ones. Each morning I get up, turn on the laptop fire up Itunes, start downloading new casts and go shower and have breakfast, sync up and head to work, listening and watching my casts during the day.

Sport
I've been to Twickenham for the first time. Heinekin Cup semi where Irish lost to Toulouse, and then again for the Guinness Premiership season opener. I've not been to the Emirates this past year. We'll see if I make it this year I've not renewed my access membership yet. I went to Wimbledon again this year. This time I was accompanied by Rachel, Peter and Claire. So my girlfriend, brother and little sister. It was a great experience this year ging with people.

Finally, I have been back to Ireland 3 times to see Rachel, once for her sister's wedding, another 2 times for my cousin's wedding, as well as two times to accompany Rachel driving over in June when she moved over and then again in July when Rachel drove her car back to Limerick to leave it there. I doubt I will be back before Christmas, but it is possible I do have time off still this year.