Blog.

Having been toying with the idea of writing a blog for years now I've been waiting for a suitably pivotal point in my life to arrive with enough reasons to actually start one. It looks like I've finally got my act together and accumulated a few, so here are the ones I've settled on:

- I recently (mid 2014 if you can call that recent) moved away from home. I waved goodbye to the rolling green hills and Range-Rover plagued country lanes of rural Warwickshire for a grittier, more stimulating life in the Jewel of the Midlands (That's Birmingham to you and I) - the city that I love. Despite the skepticism of many around me, I manage to keep my head above the water with a cunning combination of being tight, and working like a dog. At least I sleep well at night!

- My second reason for starting this online commentary is that I recently got myself a new job working away from 'the High Street' which I have known and enjoyed my entire working life. No longer a shop lackey, I'm keen to see where my new adventures will take me. I'm also getting fed up of people asking me about it. Harsh? Probably. At least I'm not gassing about the weather...

- There are lots of reasons why I've wanted to do this but the third and final one I've settled on is simply with the fact that when it comes to communicating, at least on an electronic basis, I am worse than useless. I leave texts unanswered, I tend not to read emails straight away, and I can't remember the last time I dialed a number into a phone or wrote a letter... 

So there you are. I've always been an open book and I don't keep secrets about myself (sometimes to my detriment) but I don't care. Secrets eat people up and tend to lead to gossip which, as many who know me will tell you, I loathe. 

I now find myself sitting in my favorite coffee shop mooching off their WiFi and sipping a mocha that I can barely afford before I venture back into the icy streets of the city to attend a meeting on behalf of one of the choirs I sing with. I feel I should leave soon before the hipsters notice I'm using an iPad and accept me as one of their own.

They gave me all of my accumulated annual leave at my current job this week. Much as it felt good to glide through the stomping sea of angry, chain-smoking commuters on my way here without a care in the world, I'm determined not to get too accustomed to today's new-found man-about-town lifestyle. I'm sure it would all go to my head and I'd end up drunk, broke, fat and sucking on the end of a cigarette. Plus I don't think I'm fancy enough.

Adventures to follow...

With any luck... 

Warmth, Ben x