We went to beautiful Aberdeenshire to see friends Jo and Quentin and their two baby daughters. Had a fabulous four days of relaxing and resting after a tough year so far.

I got my camera out of it's case for the first time properly and here are some favourites:

I've written before about friend Rob's new business.

He's taken a brave and massive leap from a safe career to train as a psychologist and then set up his own business offering a variety of counselling and development services geared at building your confidence, improving your career and bettering your health.

As part of the process, Rob is also continuing research and one of his current focusses is a survey to establish how people create "meaning at work".

If you'd be willing to spend 20 minutes on a thought-provoking survey and are currently in full-time work, please go here to complete the survey (and find out more):
Visit Bloom

Dull techy post, but someone might be interested... got a BT business broadband hub in the new house and was struggling to get it to reach the far corners of the house to supply a usable wireless signal... I spent a bit of time researching the options for complicated wireless repeaters and range extenders and various forms of WDS (Wireless Distribution Service) - all of which are badly supported or not supported by most cheap routers (including all three that I own) and not particularly user friendly to set up either. Anyway, as it happens, a simpler solution was to hand - raising the power level on the BT hub which is possible (with a little jiggery pokery) although probably not allowed under the FCC radio transmission rules etc but nevertheless this made the difference between sad S (not able to use internet in kitchen) and happy S (able to use internet in kitchen), so it must be good. BT hub power increase hack

It was a pretty hectic week - we moved house, planted our vegetable patch, had some people round for a BBQ, went to work, continued to tidy and finish the house and to top it all off we cycled 60 miles from London to Brighton on Sunday in the British Heart Foundation charity annual bike race.

It was great fun - although the early start (5.15am) plus 6 mile cycle to the start at Clapham Common and the 54 miles and many hills in between were a real challenge. We were all done by 12.30 and after a slap up meal laid on by the hospitable Aunt of one of our team mates "Strictly Come Cycling" (thanks!) we headed back to London in a van.

The finale of the day was a street party in our new street - not quite in our honour but actually because one of the sets of neighbours' further down the street is leaving for Hong Kong. Fabulous opportunity to meet a few new people (desperately trying to remember names etc) and for them to meet us. And very grateful to be fed and watered so well after such an exhausting day. Bed by 10pm...

Sorry about the gap there. Had no broadband for a few days until we moved in and got set up. So bumper update tonight. Catch all the action over at www.grosvenorgardens.com where "we move in".

We reached the culmination of a plan we made 15 months ago to make an offer on a crazy wreck of a house in Sheen, sell my flat, move in together in S's, do a complete renovation on the place and finally move in to our beautiful house.

The builders are still with us - every day pushing us that bit closer to living here on our own - but we are, to all intents and purposes installed in the finished article.

Who would have thought a 20 minute viewing of a dirty, infested, unloved property would be enough to inspire us both to take on this massive project which has changed us and our lives forever? Now we have a base, a foundation, a community of great neighbours and a place we can genuinely call our own - to our design - in this world.

And so I turn to unpacking the many boxes - most of which I've been without for 9 months. I have had a sort of allergic reaction to my own possessions. Some are nice to get back - and remember fondly. Others seem so out of place - from another time and no longer appropriate, I throw them out with disgust. Perspective changed. Yet more bring a tinge of sadness from a life forgotten, dim and distant already despite my (relative) youth - glimpses of the odd past dream. New ones replace them. And a new future beckons.

And to more pressing concerns, like the various new snags we've uncovered as we've actually lived in the place - rather than just walked around it, looking...

before/after:

... and bought a new bike.

Here it is:

A Genesis Day 01. Aluminium frame, Carbon fork and seat post (for a comfortable ride). It's fast, light and has thin tyres. I was always after a mixture of things here - comfort for my daily commute but also light and fast. I felt it was the best combination of those things after test-riding a dozen or so different types.

I rode it home from Holborn (in around 40 minutes which tells me how much faster than the good old Brompton it is) and got a puncture in the last 100m... Good job I bought a pair of Kevlar flat-resistant tyres to go on it - and that was the afternoon sorted.

Anyway, pleased with my new bike but also a bit daunted by the rather more "aggressive" riding position I'll now be adopting for work. Gone is the "eccentric, Brompton guy" and in is the "slightly too serious road biker"...