Relief

Finally, after hours of nervous tension, the news came in that I passed my exam. It was odd - normally, people skip out of work early in order to be at home (or, more importantly, not at work) when the news comes. This time around, I was pressured into being "hardcore" and staying to hear the news with my colleagues.

Normally, the result comes in the form of a SMS text message sent directly to one's phone. It also comes by email, and later by mail. On this occasion, for some reason the text didn't come through until 40 minutes late, so I actually heard the news from people in the next room who had got the (publicly available) pass list up on the internet when it was published! The sense of relief was awesome though.

So now I'm professionally part-qualified (I get a certificate and everything!) and have to write three more exams only to become fully Chartered. Plus I can now concentrate on getting to where I want to go jobwise. So it's all good!

Nerves!

I get my latest exam result Friday, and I'm none too confident.

There's no reason why I shouldn't have passed. Except I spent at least 15 minutes of the (3 hour) exam unable to get Kelly Clarkson out of my head, and therefore writing nothing. Another half hour was spent wondering about my friend who was also sitting an exam in another city. Turns out she was crying during that time, and I wasn't being much more productive. Plus 31% of the paper was a question about exactly my own situation - a large company shutting a division, and how to keep staff motivated. Um, try not telling them right before their exams!

So I'm pretty scared. Worst case scenario, I don't have a job Monday. Hopefully it won't come to that, but it's still holding up my plans as I don't want to push anything until I know whether I've passed. I'll look like quite a fool if I start demanding answers now, only to be begging to keep my job on Monday!

Well I'll keep y'all posted on that one. Currently, on the recommendation of Josh Homme, I'm listening to a whole lot of Johnny Cash, which I actually really like. Plus I got a Human League album today for £3.99 - Morrison's is the place to go - and I have Therapy and Further Seems Forever going on too. So it's all good.

Back to work

The dreaded day came - returning to work. Today was possibly one of the darkest ever - it didn't even get light enough to turn off the car headlights. By the end of it I was so depressed I didn't know what to do with myself, other than write on here, drink a beer and go to sleep.

The day held some good news, though. I'm not sure what took me so long, but I realised last night that there is an ideal path to moving to the US, courtesy of Sen. Sarbanes and Rep. Oxley. Their legislation (cunningly named the Sarbanes-Oxley Act), signed into law in 2002 by President Bush, was brought in to sort out the accounting world after the Enron and Worldcom scandals. As luck would have it, the law is so strict that it applies to overseas companies which are owned by US firms, and to UK firms which operate in the US.

The result of all this is that, incredibly, it is possible that I can specialise in work that involves US companies, US laws and US standards - without leaving Britain! I have asked my firm to consider transferring me to the group that deals with this - so fingers crossed they'll allow it. I think at the very least I'll be able to do that sort of work some of the time, but it would be awesome to be able to specialise completely. Then, when I qualify fully in a year's time, I'll be able to transfer to a US-based partner firm through our international network.

I'm not getting too far ahead of myself, because it could all go horribly wrong, but I think it's a pretty good plan...

Porn free

I've decided recently that, despite the ever-increasing availability of pornography, it is fundamentally wrong. It's a fact that most men, whether they admit it or not, use or have used pornography in the past. But not me any longer.

Now I'm not some sort of religious zealot, although I am a practising Catholic. My view is based on the fact that, in my opinion, pornography demeans and exploits both the women who star in it and the men who use it. It also promotes an unrealistic view of female sexuality.

Yes, I'm aware that the girls who star in it are often paid huge amounts of money for their "services". But what price human dignity? And how many of those women are pressured to do things they don't want to, with money and the threat of violence as incentives?

So there we go. Everyone that I've mentioned this to so far has disagreed with me - and the biggest argument I had so far was on Friday night with my two (female) friends. So please tell me what you think - it would be good to get a proper discussion going on here for once!

Change is good (I think)

Since my last post, which was quite some time ago now, everything has changed.

Firstly, my firm have, in their wisdom, decided to close the Yeovil office where I work. All clients will transfer to the Bristol office and most staff have been offered the possibility of transfer too. It's all come as a terrible shock to most people, mainly because most don't want to move to Bristol or drive every day (almost two hours each way). We had a really warm sense of community in the office; everyone got on and pulled together - it was almost like a family. Naturally that is falling apart now as people pursue different courses of action, and to some extent people go head to head over the available jobs with other firms in the area.

If you read my previous post, you could be forgiven for thinking that my mind must surely now be made up, and that I will be going to Bristol. To an extent you would be right (although there are significant issues which will need discussing). Incidentally, the way is open to transfer to any other office in the country - the firm have offices in all major cities in the UK.

However, in an odd way this has all become somewhat irrelevant now. Following my trip to Florida for Andrew's wedding, I have come to a much more radical conclusion - I am moving to Orlando! I have never been as sure of anything - when I consider the other alternatives it is the only one that actually appeals. Sure, I have nothing against Bristol or London or Manchester or Edinburgh, but I just feel that the United States (and specifically Florida) is the place for me right now. After all, I have no committments in the UK - no girlfriend or kids, and let's face it my success with English girls has been, shall we say, limited. My job has to change anyway, and I don't own property. The only thing I will miss is my close family, who I still live with; however, they probably won't mind coming to visit once in a while!

What has ultimately done it for me, aside from the weather and standard of living, is the people. Almost without exception, everyone I have met on my visits to the US has been friendly, generous, kind and most importantly understanding and talkative. I find that people in the UK are often closed-minded, and although the qualities just mentioned do exist here, on the whole I find people here can't be bothered to try and understand me or listen to what I have to say. Apart from a small number of close friends, most of my interpersonal relations are quite one way, possibly because I do make an effort to listen and understand, but more probably because others don't.

Of course, I realise the following: I only got back yesterday; I went there on vacation and for a wedding; I haven't thought absolutely everything through; I might not be offered a job; the people I met might not be representative etc. etc. I will, of course, have to think about things a lot more, take another trip, and there is a lot to be done in terms of sorting out a secondment and planning the change. My parents don't seem as upset as I thought they would be, but perhaps they think I'll change my mind as time goes on. In fact, every day since Andrew suggested it, I become more certain that it's exactly what I want to do.

More on this story later. Any comments will be most appreciated!

Somerset

My eternal dilemma, as if you didn't know, involves the concept of home. I have a love-hate relationship with it. The county of Somerset, and more specifically the area around Taunton (to be pronounced as one syllable), is one of the best and worse places in the world to live.

The best things first: the photo opposite is the view from the back of my house, and is fairly typical of the landscape in November. Driving around at this time of year, one can't help thinking, "why would I want to live anywhere else?".

The downside, however, is that the beautiful, open landscape is a result of the fact that this is a primarily agrarian economy. There are few professional jobs, and hence few professional people. The predominant binge-drinking culture (not by any means a modern phenomena, despite what the press would have us believe) is an obvious result of the boredom and frustration with the limitations of rural/smalltown life. The fact that Elton John is to play Taunton made front page news this week. 'Nuff said.

That argument can, however, be somewhat negated by the argument that one should make one's own fun. So many aspects of modern culture are transmitted via television and the internet (which is no different here to anywhere else).

[We also have running water, electricity in our homes, and some lucky people even own their own car, or horseless carriage as they're generally know. But I digress].

London is only 2 hours away by train (or about 6 by car by the time you've got into the damn city), and Bristol is closer. Bristol airport is only 30 minutes, from where one can fly to anywhere in Europe. So it's not all bad.

The killer, though, is that professional options are limited. As a professional accountant, I earn (and stand to earn in future) around half the salary of an equivalent position in London. There are few opportunities, and little diversity. I am facing the scandal that, when I qualify as a Chartered Accountant in (hopefully) just over a year's time, I won't actually be able to afford to buy the smallest flat on the market. Plus, the fact is that in order to get the most out of my career, I will almost certainly have to move to a big city.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against cities or city-dwellers. There are a lot more opportunities to meet new people and to experience "culture" than there are out here, on top of the career implications already discussed. What troubles me is that, much as I would probably be happy living in Bristol or London, neither is really home. There's a sense of community here which is peculiar to English-speaking rural areas - the sense of obligation to help your neighbour, whether you like or even know him.

In the next year I'm going to have to face up to this choice: career or community. Where my career and my life will take me I don't know. As my grandfather would have said, "You got yourself a pig in a poke". Which is as true today as it ever was.

Pink bullets

I just bought the video to Pink Bullets by The Shins from iTunes. It's the most moving, memorable thing I've seen in years. The lyrics are so well written, they make good poetry in their own right. I can't recommend it more strongly - and it's only £1.58 for the song and the video.

Is anyone actually reading this?

Exam update

The results came - passed three, failed one. Bizarrely enough, the one I failed was by far my strongest subject throughout the teaching and revision phases. In fact, I dropped 25% between the mock and the real thing! Equally odd was the result in Taxation, a paper I had never managed to pass in revision, where I gained 21%.

Still, I'm quite looking forward to retaking. With one paper to think about rather than four, I should be able to make a decent job of it this time.

Unfortunately, a more pressing matter is how drunk I got last night, and how awful I feel today. Some text messages were sent from my 'phone to certain people... I'll leave it at that, I think.

Back by popular demand

Forty-eight hours from now, I will be drunk. Whether it is bad drunk or good drunk depends on the SMS message I will receive at 1700 on Friday, revealing the results of my recent examinations. The possible consequences of these results range from unemployment to moderate wealth, so one could argue that they're fairly important.

This week, I have been mostly listening to The Shins, a great band. Other than that, work and exercise seem to dominate my life as always.

Last weekend I took the train to London, where discovered that it is indeed possible to travel without using the Northern Line. I visited Laura and Stuart, where I was treated to Dubbin' Up the Pieces by The Ashbrooke AllStars - a bizarre, early 90s remix of Pickin' Up the Pieces by the Average White Band, interspersed with Gaudete by Steeleye Span. Bizarre.

I then made my way to Green Park, meeting Neil, Elly, Chris and Claire for coffee. It's always good to see friends, especially those one doesn't often have the opportunity to visit. I must make more effort in future!

One last thing - Aston Villa 1-0 Birmingham City !!!!!!

The Long Wait

It's been months since I last wrote on here. It's been exams all the way for the past few months, which has made me pretty anti-social recently, for which I apologise to everyone.

Anyway, it all came to a head this week when I sat papers in Financial Reporting, Business Management, Business Finance and Taxation. 12 hours of exams in three days - sometimes I wonder if I picked the right profession...

The good thing is, however, that provided I pass them all I'll be part-qualified, more than half way to being fully Chartered. The results are out in just over a month, 21st October, and it feels like that's gonna be the longest few weeks of my life so far.

All of this leads me to a new dilemma - where next? I'm not really happy living where I am now, and I have some ideas about the course of my career that don't fit with the job I'm in now. Of course, I can't even begin to make plans until I know whether I've passed or not, which means it really will be a long wait to find out...

Here we go again

It's been ages, I know, but I've been mega busy. Since the election I've been working away pretty much constantly, and that looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.

This week, I have mostly been driving to Bournemouth and back every day - a round trip of 5 hours, plus a full day's work. Next week in Reading should be a bit more relaxing.

Other than work, I've mainly been sleeping, drinking, watching movies and chilling out. I should really have been studying, but I've just been to tired. I reckon it'll be ok, though.

Four more years (at least)

The election's over, thank god, with Labour returned to power.

Personally, I didn't win the council seat. I don't feel I did that badly, however, having held the Labour vote at around the same level it was four years ago. Plus, my whole campaign was run for £166, whereas the Liberal Democrats (who won the seat) spent over £100,000 in Taunton as a whole.

So what next? Lots of work, and exams in September. Then another shot at standing for election? Hopefully somewhere where I stand a chance of winning.

The "global village"

On Sunday, I went to the pub for a few drinks with my mate Dave. Afterwards we went to his for a few glasses of red wine and some mindless television. Arriving back home just after 12, I discovered a text message from my friend Vicky. It said simply "I miss you". I almost cried when I read that - I miss her every day.

It got me thinking - this whole instant communication thing is all very well, but there's no substitute for actual human interaction. The people I care about are spread across the country, and indeed the world, and great as the interweb and telephone/SMS are, I wish I could see more of them. Sure, I could move closer to some of my friends, but then I'd only be moving further away from other friends and family.

In this respect I sort of envy my mother. Until we came here about 10 years ago, virtually everyone she had ever known lived in the same town, or at least within a 30 mile radius. In many ways, my life is much richer for knowing people from different walks of life and different places, but at the same time it's difficult never seeing people from one month to the next.

I don't know what the solution is. I'm sorry to sound so negative, but there it is.

A whole bunch of numbers

As if smoking wasn't enough, I've discovered a new addiction.

The quality newspapers in this country have been fighting a war recently around the compelling game of Su Doku. I was skeptical at first; I've never been one to jump on bandwagons whenever they're heralded as "the next big thing".

But I've been in college the past ten days, and everyone there is playing it. I'm one of the few in the class who buys the Independent, and I was regularly being asked to provide copies of the game from that paper after those playing it had finished the versions in the Times and Telegraph.

So, in a moment of boredom, I thought "what the hell, I'll give it a try". Ever since, I've been totally addicted. Most days, I finish the Indie game by the time I get off the train (although this morning I almost missed my stop trying to find the 9s in a particular column). I usually blag the other two games from someone in class once I arrive. I'm not alone - one guy in class paid £10 today for a book of 100 such puzzles, and the internet is littered with stories of people who are so addicted they refuse to speak to anyone while they're playing it.

So my advice to you is this: if you're bored, give it a go. But be prepared to do very little else, possibly for the rest of your life. Take the phone off the hook, put Su Doku or Sudoku into google, and enjoy!

Return of the Jack

It's been a while but I've finally found a moment to sit down and write on this thing.

First things first. Beer. By which, of course, I mean the sponsored walk that took place over a week ago. We had a good turnout (40+) and great weather, and apparantly over £1,500 was raised for charity. The picture of me (left) was taken in my local pub at about 4pm. More on that story later.

The walk itself was cunningly devised in order to pass by as many public houses as possible. The day started at 10am with a "quick drink to send you on your way" courtesy of the landlord of my local pub, where we all met. Then it was into cars and up to the York Inn at Churchinford, about 10 miles (and about 500 feet above) away. A quick pint there, and we were off via a number of other hostelries along the way, eventually arriving back in the village late afternoon.

By this stage, I was a little the worse for wear. But fear not, dear readers, for I certainly didn't stop there. A smaller, hard core of the group decided to wander further on towards Taunton, stopping at the Vivary Arms for a couple. The final destination (for them) being the Westgate Inn, where a live band was playing. But not for me and my good friend Dave - for us it was onwards to several more pubs, and then a couple of clubs in town.

That day I drank a total of 19 pints, mainly Guinness, and walked nearly 15 miles. As you can probably imagine, by 3am (a total of 17 hours drinking) I was pretty wasted. I'm not about to admit to what I did at that point, mainly because my next clear memory is of leaving Dave's house at 9am the following morning. I do feel bad about it though.

Still, it was overall a good day, and amazingly I felt well enough the next day to get up at midday to go see Man Utd v Newcastle in a sports bar in town. Not drinking, though, hell no. Photos of the day will be posted when I can be arsed to sort them out, so watch this space (if you're still reading this far, that is).

In other news, the election campaign is well underway here. I have a leaflet going out at the moment. The only bad thing is that they've moved the count to the day after the election (the national election result gets counted the evening of the poll) cos apparantly they don't have enough staff to count them the same evening. I'm not sure if I can get out of work, which will suck if I can't turn up to my own count.

Well that's probably enough for now. Tune in for more tales of West Country craziness next week when we'll be learning how to train badgers as pets.

The walk of life

Tomorrow (well it's nearly today actually) I will be embarking on a sponsored walk in aid of the Make a Wish Foundation. They help terminally-ill children to fulfil their dreams such as going to a sporting event and meeting the stars, or swimming with dolphins.

The walk takes place over the Blackdown Hills, just south of my home. I heard tonight that apparantly there's a mysterious animal which has been sighted in that area. It's like a very large cat, with long hair and a long tail. Several people I know swear they've seen it, so who knows, it may exist. Or it may just be folklore. I'll have a camera with me so if I see it, you'll see it here first!

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Labour

Your actual outcome:

	Labour 47
Conservative -45
	Liberal Democrat 42
UK Independence Party -12
	Green 10

You should vote: Labour

The Labour Party is broadly pro-Europe and takes a strong line in favour of all anti-terrorism measures, and of course supported the war in Iraq. Labour is against explicit increases in income tax to fund public services and against the abolition of university tuition fees, but has pledged to reintroduce maintenance grants for students.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Probably not all that surprising a result!

Election fever

Today I got going on the whole election thing proper. By that, I mean I arranged for my publicity to be printed, which after all is what so often makes or breaks a campaign. I spoke with my election agent and some of my supporters to sort out how things will proceed. We've arranged profiles in both the local newspapers next week.

I still don't think I stand much of a chance, but I'm gonna fight as hard as I can and work for every vote. I can't wait to get out there and speak to the voters.

Holiday

As a result of not taking all my leave last year, I'm taking this week off in order not to lose it. I had a whole list of things I need to do, but so far I've succeeded in mincing around on the internet, posting to people's blogs, chatting on MSN and watching TV. The only constructive thing I've done is to sort out my election publicity with my agent.

I don't why, but I'm always saying "if only I had the time to do such and such", and then when I get some time I put all those things off and waste it instead. I've got to do some studying - the exams in September won't pass themselves!

Farewell, sweet princess

I've made the decision I hoped I'd never have to make: I'm selling my car.

A 2001 Seat Arosa 1.4 TDi, she was the ideal small car with the impressive combination of 65 miles to the gallon (and more) while doing 0-60 in under 10 seconds. But alas, these things cost money and the loan I took out to buy her just over a year ago is crippling my finances.

She'll probably be replaced with an older equivalent - probably a Peugeot 106 cos those things still do good mileage but they're available at under £1,000. I'm distraught at the prospect of losing her, but I can't keep racking up credit card debts.