Time for a change.....

So it seems I haven't written a long form blog post for six months......I have however been prevalent on that other micro blogging world, twitter, so if you been checking back here for news, you will have at least seen the 140 character snap shots of life.

So, where to begin, it's been a very turbulent period since the last posting, moments of doubt at where I was going, what I want to do and who I'd be sharing that journey with.

Life as a self employed cab driver has been a very steep learning curve, from juggling a 3yr intense knowledge period/9-5 day job & young family....thru to the day to day work search and the uncertainty of whether work is there...

That may sound alarming to some, surely cabbies are always on the golf course? Well, yes some may well be, but it's unlikely if they have small children and mortgages etc

I reached a point in the summer where I looked back and thought "what I am doing?" and "why am I doing it?"
I became extremely depressed, and thoughts were both irrational and fantastical......I really worried that I would not be able to find that illusive light in what seemed an awfully dark tunnel.

So after much soul searching, a bit of therapy and the continued love and support of my wonderful wife, I've decide to start the journey to becoming a teacher.

I've chosen to aim for primary school, for a number of reasons :

- there is a drastic shortage (our boys school has only 1 for instance)
- it's a vital first building block of a childs education.
- I really don't thunk I could handle a lippy 14yr old!

So, that's my new resolve, just 3 GSCE's, a higher level education course and a degree and I'll be there! I'm so looking forward to learning and stimulating my grey cells again.

Lastly, I'm going to get stuck into a regular exercise routine, involving running 3 times a week, and doing toning exercises as well, the worry of the past few months has caused weight loss and want to make sure I keep that going but in a much more healthy manner!

The Country Life?

So, another birthday has come and gone - 38 now, and apart from the middle age spread and the inability to deal with late nights and or consumption of alcohol, I feel pretty much the same as I did at 18 and 28......

I've navigated thru my first tax return as a self employed worker, it was the "nose bleed" that my accountants had warned, but is now done.

So, the stalwart cab trade champions continue to berate the authorities for their lack of action to get the "touts/clipboard jonnies" to disist from their activities, but frankly I have a more pressing issue on my mind, as the title of my blog eludes.

I have two young sons, 7&9 and have found the balance between work and family life is not in the right balance...

We used to live a bit further out of town up to the birth of no2, and then following some compilcations in his early months and couple with an awful commute we (I) decided that we needed to be nearer work and family support. Now we are close to secondary education for the eldest, we need to either stick or twist, and twist is beig investigated now. The idea being we can hopefully reduce our mortgage and get a bit of cleaner living into the bargain...

We saw some great places at the weekend and some lovely locations - sadly the great homes were NOT in the lovely locations!! So the search continues, the property game has changed a little bit, upfront costs for HIP (home information pack for anyone not sure, or non-UK reader).

The hope is that we can do this move by the late summer.... Stay tuned, will post updates

Blog migration.....

Well, I've dilly dallied for ages, bit finally have migrated my blog to the hallowed ground of wordpress... This is short and sweet and blogs will be more frequent and detailed as I get more au fait with the inner workings of it all.

Will leave you with a small gripe, think I may have currency OCD, some womand gave me these two fivers on Saturday, must they be screwed up soo much?

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Gadgets - we love 'em!!

The gadgets refers to the iPhone of which I had high expectations and was as excited about as my first cassette player in the early 80's, I got mine last week and am using to write this blog. It's the first blog since July and hopefully they will be a little more frequent with it's arrival...

Well, where to start, we had a good summer break, a week in Norfolk under canvas, well actually man made fibre nowadays, it was great apart from my childrens near panic filled episodes every time a bee or wasp appeared in the tent. We visited Banham zoo, best zoo we've taken the boys to, really great facilities and you get really close to the animals. We also went to Bewilderwood, a kind of adventure park set in the forest with loads of zip wires etc. Last place to note was a visit to Jimmy's Farm as featured in the BBC documentary of a few years ago - again great day out and can recommend the breakfast sausages!

Following that it was a solid 14 day stint at work, that's August in a cab for you, my resolve is to gradually get to the position when I can take most of the month off.... And spend most of it on hole with my family, next year we're planning to got to France to a friends farm house for two weeks... So anyway, after the long stretch we went down to the coast, Swalecliffe to be precise, where we camped again along with a few friends and although it was only three days, was a chance to recharge batteries.

So back to work in Sept, kids back to school, youngest now has a stricter teacher which will do him the world of good. Work has picked up considerably - much to our appreciation, atended a demonstrations against a convicted murderer doing the knowledge which was succesful.

Have had a few interesting passengers over the past few weeks, PR rep to food industry, some good fares via @tweetalondoncab which is a service offered thru Twitter by a group of likeminded tech savvy cab drivers read more about it here which please do pass on to friends and family, an easy way to assure yourself of a safe and reliable journey....

Passenger of most note was just this week, William Hague, shadow foreign secretary and 2nd in line to the throne if the inevitable happens at the forthcoming general election, a very amiable chap happy to talk about various issues and open about the need for the Tories to change the stereotype view that most folk have... He was on his way to the German Ambassadors residence for a shindig to celebrate the Merkel success.

Anyway must go it's late and I need to get up early for a full on day of church parade with the boys as part of their scouting comitments and rehearsals for my return to the am dram scene as part of Copacabana here's the link if you're in SE London

Thanks for reading, more soon and twitter feed is on your right cheers

Tut, tut, twitter, twitter

Terribly slack on my behalf, but only just getting round to another blog in almost 3months..... no excuses, just a lack of time behind a PC. Needless to say my twitter performance goes from strength to strength, feed to your right!

On that subject some fellow cab drivers have set up tweetalondoncab and has been much publicised including on Channel 4 news.....

Other than that, I've been keeping my head afloat, trying to get a head of steam up to cover some time off during the summer holidays that are looming large. Recent pick ups of note have been Jamie Theakston (not v chatty), and the very interesting and chatty Simon Schama.

Have had a small (!) altercation with a PHV in Covent Garden, hey that's what insurance is for.... Well I'm off to have my tea now, I'd like to say I'll post more blogs soon, but the reality is my twitter feed will be more productive (via mobile) until October when the dawn of the Iphone will hit.....

Cheers

Wow, has it been that long....

.... since the last post! sorry, but as you can see from the right hand side of the screen, Twitter has rather taken my attention of late!

Just a brief posting for now, but I've added my twitter updates here, which are nice and easy to update via ye olde text messages. Recent customer have been Gillian Anderson (X Files), Felicity Kendal (again!), her "Good Life" co-star Penelope Keith, and very nearly William Hague this week (but Tamil protesters in Parliament Square put an end to that!).

Putting the hours in to get the funds for new tent for us, we're off to Derbyshire again at the end of May with a load of friends - can't wait!

Must beggar off now, I only came up to disconnect the Ipod!