My Musings

Perhaps I bit later than I originally intended this post to be (as always) but now that I've finished my PMI exam, I have found spare time cropping up here and there that I'd forgotten I had. Regardless of how important or not an exam is, I always have a sense of guilt if I think I should be revising and in fact I'm sat in front of the computer / TV or just generally procrastinating. The last couple of weeks, I've had things spring out of no-where to keep me occupied. Last week I was invited on a spontaneous day trip to Sheffield for a friends birthday celebrations (a trip that ended up costing me far more than I had imagined but was enjoyable nevertheless) a this week saw an organised work social to see the first Die Hard at the cinema as part of the Odeon in Manchester's season of re-showing old films.

It's something that has been coming for a few months now but alas, with less than a week to go before my PMI-RPC (that's Pensions Management Institute - Retirement Provision Certificate to the uninitiated) I have finally come to the end of the notes. Having handwritten now close to 60 pages (double sided) of notes and having typed up only 30% of those so that I can actually read them, I am still feeling fairly well prepared for it - much more so than most of my school or university exams. I suppose with it being a financial sort of thing, I've actually been studying that since I was in year 9 and having done a GCSE and A-Level in accounting and a further certificate in financial studies, I should have an advantage over someone who has come to this without such a background.

Whilst I'm waiting for the second batch of muffins to come out of the oven, I thought I'd jot down a bit of an update. I realise that I've not posted in a very long time but if it helps, I've not really been active on any form of social media recently. Until the other day, I'd not tweeted in ages, my facebook status updates are getting rarer and rarer. I signed up to google + as soon as I could but I've only ever posted one or two things on there, mostly just sharing stuff I find interesting or amusing from the 'What's Hot' section which has become compulsory viewing for my lunch hour.

Welcome to 2012! But what of 2011? For me at least, it was a year of change - big change. I finished one life as student in Sheffield and have started a new one across the Pennines in Manchester. I suspect this post will be very similar to a post I wrote around this time last year 2010 In a Nutshell. Looking back at it, 2010 was a pretty busy year as well, and was summed up as being one of the best years of my life. Can I say the same for 2011? I suppose I can but it wasn't quite on a par with 2010. I suppose the biggest new experience this year has been living on my own. It's something I've never really done for an extended period of time before and I did fear that I would be quite lonely. As it happens, I quite enjoy it really. I love having my own space - particularly in the kitchen and the freedom to come and go as I please without having to fit my timetable in with my housemates. I won't say there aren't times that I would like a bit of company because naturally humans crave social interaction, but I've found that 21st century technology means that you are only a click away from your friends and family (or those of them that are also living in the technology age).

There are a number of really nice walking trails around this area and today we decided to follow one of the paths down to a place called Jupiter's Hole. It was a lovely day, a decent temperature for walking without it being too hot and clear blue skies made for some beautiful photos, all of which can be seen in my Picasa album for those of you interested.

I really could have done with some walking boots for this trip, lose stones and very uneven ground made things very difficult in my flimsy old trainers and I'm amazed I didn't twist my ankle at some point. Nevertheless, the walk was most enjoyable and when we got to the caves at the bottom, I had to go and have a look. This is where things became somewhat difficult. We didn't have any climbing equipment, I was wearing jeans and between me and my step brother, we had one pathetic old torch that wasn't very powerful and just about allowed the person holding it to see a few feet in front of them. I got across the first couple of hurdles and was fifty or so metres into the cave when I had to stop and admit defeat. The lack of light had become so prohibitive that I made the sacrifice and stayed put, allowing my step brother to continue onwards with the torch.

I had found a nice stable rock to sit on and I waited for him to continue on exploring the cave. As he went round the corner, the already pretty dark cave became pitch black. I've never experienced anything quite so dark before, you really couldn't see anything, not even your hand in front of your face. I'll be honest, it was a little terrifying, not just because darkness instils a innate sense of fear of what might be lurking around you when your most useful sense has been rendered useless; but also because if anything happened to my step brother, I was the only one who would be able to assist at first. We were well out of earshot of the parents and I would have to make my way through the pitch black - first of all to find them and tell them what has potentially happened and then scramble back again to try and lend a hand without putting myself in the same danger. All of these things were rushing around in my head as I crouched by the rock which had become my safety net as I waited for my step brother to return.

Thankfully, all turned out ok and even provided a few comedy moments. On his return to where I was waiting, my step bother tried to convince me to explore deeper into the cave with him. Just as he assured me that it was very easy to get back, he proceeded to completely contradict himself by failing (on several occasions) to scale the small - but steep - slope separating us. Apparently it was akin to a travelator (like the ones on Gladiators) but eventually, and with a big enough run up, he managed it and I headed back to the light. Undeterred, he went back for more, and despite calls that it was time to go before the sun began to set and plunge the entire town into near total darkness (street lighting hasn't really reached this part of the world yet) he continued deeper and deeper into the cave. Eventually, he emerged from the other side and found himself quite a long way from the ground in the side of a rock face. He managed to get back safely however, and we made our way home.

There is one last thing that I wanted to end on and that is a rather interesting sign that I came across whilst wandering around the village. I have no idea what it is supposed to represent but I found it rather amusing and I hope you enjoy it too.

Today, I arrived in Spain for Christmas with the family. Since me and my brother have now moved out for good, my parents have been free to flee the country and start a new life in Spain - something they had always planned to do but that I never thought would actually come to fruition.

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the whole thing... I suppose I'll see them less often that I would have done otherwise but I'll see probably get out to see them twice a year and then they will be frequenting the UK a couple of times a year as well so I might even end up seeing them more then I normally would!

After popping in to the theatre last week to watch the rehearsals a couple of weeks ago, I find myself in charge of sound for this week's play, See How They Run.

When I was in Sheffield, I tried my hardest to avoid sound positions at all costs. I'm not a big fan of loud noises - particularly when they are as unpleasant as the chart tunes that were pumped out at the weekday club nights. I was trained to work the desks - as I mentioned in a previous post - sitting in front of all those knobs and faders terrified me, I had to 'watch' the desk once and should anything have gone wrong I would have been of very little use.