Monthly Archives: July 2010

I’m getting married in the …

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Portelet Bay in Jersey

… next couple of years or so.

For those of you who aren’t members of the illustrious inner circle that is defined by my FaceBook friends list and haven’t already been advised by other means the following constitutes a Rob Dudley BIG announcement.

1 week ago, at 20:15 at Portlet Bay in Jersey, I finally managed to find the courage to man up and ask my girlfriend* of the past 3 years to marry me.

Oh and she said yes!

This officially makes me the happiest and luckiest guy in the world (really – there’s no contest on that front at the moment).

We have yet to set a formal date but we’re likely looking at approx 14 months from now. Since neither of us are loaded and neither of our families are in a position to help out by paying for the whole thing the next few months are going to be spent making sure we can get the day we want without bankrupting ourselves. Fortunately, both she and I are fairly down to Earth in terms of our requirements.

Watch this space for more information over the coming months and thanks to all those who’ve already been informed and offered their best wishes – we truly appreciate it.

* Of course the primary benefit of this whole engagement shebang is that I now have a definite name for the lucky lady. After 3 years girlfriend starts to sound a bit childish whilst “Partner” just sounds pretentious. Having a Fiancée  simplifies the whole taxonomy of our relationship in a very pleasing manner.

1 score and ten

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Ever since I can remember I’ve used patterns and nearest approximation in my mental arithmetic.

8 * 9? Start from 8*10 and lose an 8.

I’ve always enjoyed finding quick routes to calculate the results of all sorts of problems. I suppose I mention this because my age has always been one of the easiest things to work out and therefore project.

I was born in 1980 and from as far back as I can remember I have used this as a basis to calculate my own age.

1990 meant I was 10

1994  I read Arthur C Clarke’s 2001 and I knew that I would be 21 when the events therein came to pass (or not)

1998 saw me reach legal drinking age

2001 graduated and an adult of 21

2010?

July 2010 is upon us which can only mean that I’ve now left another decade behind me. My 20′s were of mixed fare, some of the events of the past 10 years I will still consider to be the worst in my life to date. Others are amongst the best. I’ve loved, lost, kept, cried, laughed, danced, worked, played, made some really poor decisions and taken some amazingly fruitful risks.

I’ve made my way through the professional world and over the course of 6 jobs have built a skill set and career that lacks only the paper to prove I’ve done it.

I’ve bobbed through my personal life in mostly good form, making new friends and losing old ones.

I would count myself as lucky in that, over the space of 10 years, I have yet to be directly affected by the kind of crisis that the world has cruelly cast over some of the people I know.

I’ve learned to drive, bought my first & second cars, travelled across Europe and made a new home for myself in a less than appealing location.

It seems fitting that I should start this new record, a personal journal of thoughts and memories, 10 years after I started my first online home. I’ve worked on plenty of websites in that time, for others clearly defined by contract and for audiences less tangible, defined only by statistics and the occasional comment.

But this site? Well as the URL  suggests, this site is just for me.

I’ve enjoyed the last 10 years, and the 20 before that. This next period, conveniently defined by the procession of a blue green rock that has seen more of my lifetimes than I care to imagine, well this next 10 years look like being better still.

My third decade; older (definitely), wiser (hopefully) and happier …

well …

time will tell.