It's certainly quite interesting at the moment, and I'm not sure whether it's a blessing or a curse to be living in interesting times. I suspect that things would seem more settling if they were more dull, but I would probably be going slowly insane with the dullness. I like to have lots of things to do, provided that those things are actually being done and are at least rewarding if not totally enjoyable. I think that my yardstick for the sort of thing I'd like to do is that it has to be something that I'd enjoy telling someone that I'd done. Given the exasperation involved explaining what I do for a living to my parents, who understand everything I say on the subject, but can't quite get excited about it, it's no surprise that I'm glad that I'm paid for what I do as a living. Though if I didn't do this job, I'd probably still write computer software, I probably wouldn't write THIS computer software THIS way.

As it happens, the work stuff is going as well as it's done in a long time, if not better. I have deliberately set out to do things in an order where the hard stuff didn't bog me down right away, and I may have many frustrations to deal with in the next few days, but so far things have come together well. I've had a plan, which I've nearly adhered to, and when I've not been adhering to it, I've been remembering to stop myself, have a review of where I've gotten to, where the nearest point of delivering something planned is, and then change direction to get there efficiently. It's been good. I've been my own project manager. I'm even slightly ahead of my plan (in preparation for things getting ugly AND hairy in a day or so when I stop the fun stuff).

Outside of work there's more to do. I've been told that long talk of DIY isn't as interesting to read as it is for me to write, so I'll be brief on the subject. With more of my tools now available to me, following this weekend's reclamation of them, I feel more equipped to DIY my guts out. Last night I behaved in a simultaneously hardworking and bloody stupid fashion. I was doing really well, stripping the wallpaper out of a room that is due to have some of its plasterwork redone. I was doing brilliantly. Until I decided to remove the radiator to get behind it. While I did a perfectly reasonable job of undoing the fittings and even getting most of the water out of the radiator, so little into the carpet itself... my inappropriate use of dust sheets and radiator lifting meant that I now have two sets of black stains where the radiator dribbled black goo onto the carpet. This is... well annoying. However, it's not the end of the world. It's the same carpet throughout the house. In one of the rooms, I was expecting to have to replace the carpet anyway, as the floor area will change. So, I'll get the carpet fitter to cut a section of this damaged carpet out to "fix" the upstairs room, and I'll replace the carpet in this one. Not the end of the world. I'm an idiot, though.

So, there's goodish progress on the house front. I even managed to remove a magic shelf too last night - that's a shelf with no visible means of support... until, that is, you start smashing at it with a chisel. Progress in life in general has been a bit weird. I've been reading the blog of someone I know in Newcastle for the last few months. For some reason, and I can only guess it involves infidelity, his wife left him, and he's been going through much the same sort of thing that I went through when my long-term girlfriend left me a half year or so before I started doing stand-up comedy. It's a long road to recover from a long-term relationship and I've been reading it with my "I'm an attached man" mindset. Thing is, I was, I'm not now.

I never know how to explain this, and I've explained it a few times in the last few days. It would appear, empirically speaking, that I'm no longer attached. My girlfriend gained the prefix "ex" and I gained full control over my destiny. The good thing is that neither of us gained any sense of animosity, acrimony or anything else, and I think we're both dealing with the getting on with things in our own way. I suppose that the house-move was the best moment to make a clean break and I can't say that I would ever have thought of it.

So, I'm single. I'm not "dangerously single", though I wouldn't know what that meant. I'm just on my own. Except I'm not. My "girlfriend" with the prefixed "ex" has also lost the prefix "girl" to become "friend" and seems quite happy to help me do DIY jobs. That's almost as good as full sex, probably.

There's a whole load of planning to do to get everything sorted out, and that's just getting my new mobile phone to bloody work! 2007 is not going to be exactly the year I first thought, but it is going to be a big year. I'm sure of it.

Interesting times ahead.

No time for self-pity.