A year has passed before my eyes...

Long Pond, Clapham Common

So much of my world has changed since I last posted here and I've wanted to write to you for a while, but I got quite lost, quite overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start...

What do you, dear reader, want to know about?

I could talk about work...

This summer I got an amazing job with an amazing firm of some wonderfully mad, wacky people. There hasn't been a day yet where I've *not* wanted to go to work.

Sometimes, as seems to be my way, I stay a little too long.... get a little too involved.... but I do love it so and I'm working on delegating. I swear!

This is getting easier as I learn that I don't need to control everything (Gasp!) and having an amazing minion doesn't hurt, either.

My "Mary Poppins' London" view from my office

I could talk about school (yes, school!)...

Stained red cells from a sample of horse's blood

Bradford Assay of BSA

I've started my BSc after seven lifetimes of not knowing what to do, where to start. I've had mixed results from my first two modules... It seems I'm a lot better with learning and knowing facts, processes, systems than with writing reports.

In fact, I think it's fair to say that I totally stink at writing reports. This fact may make it tricky should I firm up an option to become a research scientist somewhere down the line.

Perhaps I'll investigate exactly what a Medical Writer does. I hear they make good money.

I think the most difficult thing about heading onto this career path will be finding an acceptable balance between doing something vaguely altruistic and accepting that starting this late in life means I can be a little selfish and worry a bit about what my salary would be.

I'm still amazed at where a random comment on an internet forum can take a person.

I could talk about our kitchen...

Not so long ago, MrB commented that we should get a new oven/cooker - ours had a blown fuse so we couldn't use the light nor the extractor fan above the cooker and the bulb was blown inside the oven, it was breaking down... essentially it was in a nasty state of disrepair. While I completely agreed with him; I don't think he expected my response of wanting to re-do the entire kitchen.

See? To me it made perfect sense; whomever installed the cooker hadn't wired it properly so the fuse was behind the oven... If we were going to get a new oven, I would want to get it rewired. Properly. This would mean taking the cupboards, the tiles off the walls and since they weren't fantastic to begin with... I didn't like the idea of putting them back. I also wanted to work out a better layout for the room. We had an entire wall taken up/wasted by a fridge-freezer and I thought we could put the space to much better use.

Once I'd actually said all of this out loud to him he wasn't so freaked, thankfully, and a strange coincidence would put us in touch with a television production company who are doing a kitchen-remodel show and before we knew it; we were signing contracts and putting down deposits to have our kitchen gutted, re-designed and installed without having to lift a finger really. Bliss.

No worrying about calling the electrician, worrying about a late plumber, wondering what colour to choose for the walls, freaking out when the cupboards aren't ready in time and will grind the entire project to a halt.

Have I mentioned it was bliss? It totally was. And the end result? Far amazinger than I could have hoped!

The stolen wall before...

And after...

I could talk about Belfast...

I've been slowly, reluctantly falling in love with the place... against my better judgement. I think little gems like these are wearing away at my resolve...

Victoria Square Shopping Centre

Belfast City Hall

Albert Memorial Clock

I'm headed back next weekend, dear readers... I'll try to remember to snap some more beauties like these.