Welcome back

Yes, just when I thought that my blog had died the usual premature death I am taking a minute to update on what has been going on over the last 2 and a bit months.
So the first week after quitting my job I didn't get to go to China but did do efy - Especially For Youth - as a counsellor for a gruop of 10 youth as part of a 900 strong bunch of kids from my church at Manchester University campus for a week. It was amazing. After that I had a week working on my house, fitting the stonework - sills and mullions for my windows that also went in that week. Very proud - I had to keep standing in the street and looking at the job when it was done!
Then I went to Croatia with Dan Jones for a week that was supposed to be chilling but turn into a mental whirlwind tour which was an amazing experience and involved island hopping, sleeping rough on beaches and in an olive grove, lots of swimming in the clearest water in the med and great food! I cannot hope to do justice to it so briefly so my only hope is that I'll remember it vividly (and that I get to go back in spring... plans are being made already).

Then for that last week before starting my new job, my fantastic dad who had only just that weekend got back from slaving on the french house all summer, came to work even harder on mine. He got everything done that I had hoped... all the plastering basically so that the front room is now ready to be decorated. Jon Devine had also come up the satuday I got back from Croatia and helped me board the ceiling. I have the best family and friends ever.

So worked started - Estell Warren - and I love it. I have a nice little office on Blenheim Terrace and my desk is in front of a window that overlooks Leeds University. The work is interesting (well - that's why I moved there). I spent the first couple of weeks working on designs for a small public square just down the road from my house in the new Holbeck Urban Village. My only worry is that the office are thinking of moving to Otley - a small town further out in the coutryside. I am not happy about the extra travel time this would need. At the moment it takes 15 mins door-to-door which is great.

This week I also got some great news... I've won that Landscape Institute award!!! I really hoped I would and thought I stood as good a chance as anybody but I am so chuffed! I have to go down to London for an awards ceremony on the 30th November. Also, my company has won an award for the category they entered and my friend Emma Baker has won the Student Dissertation award - a bit of a Leeds clean sweep really. They were a bit strange when they told me - trying to keep an air of mystery - so I don't really know what level of award I have won, just that I have won an award, but all will be revealed on the night! ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

The reason I haven't been updating this is because I have been serious busy as you can see - and I only posted before because my job was seriously boring!