This is for glen – who is a cat lover, and can probably relate to this picture!

This year has definitely been a bit weird for me – work has been a bit unpredictable for reasons i cant go into, it was looking for a while as if i was going to have to completely move away from SharePoint or change jobs, and i considered both because a new management structure left me (and them) with no real idea of what was going on.

It impacted my drive and motivation. My SharePoint Blog has been static because of it and I’ve been considering just joining the technet bloggers and becoming an MVP, but at the moment i just don’t know if i will find the time.

Health and fitness also suffered a major blow in the last few weeks – now work is starting to get more busy I’ve not been finding time for the gym and its impacted my running schedule this week – add to that the fact that i found out how to make marshmallow- and its really ridiculously easy to do – takes about 30 mins, and you end up with awesome marshmallows as a result.

Ive also just not found time to blog.

Now work is getting more busy and my billable time is back up to an acceptable level i can start to feel a bit more comfortable, and start to get control of this sliding situation. Today I am back on track!

I really liked Halo 4 – was totally immersive game play, stunning graphics and a great storyline, it was really awesome, until that is after about 7 hours of coop play I completed the game! Don't get me wrong, multiplayer first person shooters are fun but I couldn't help but feel a bit let down by how short the co-operative play was. Maybe my expectations were a bit high; co-op in the first 3 games were significantly longer. Is this a sign of the way society goes? Focus on the violence and forget about telling a story? You see the same tendencies in the movies….

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So what did i think of it – on the whole, it was chaotic, and i am hoping it will settle down soon. I think my main reason for not blogging is a general lack of happiness with my work situation – Whilst i cant go into details, i can say that the company has been restructured again and its left my working situation in the same chaos as it was a couple of years back (a distinct lack of direction), and in general the company i worked for hasnt treated me well, or kept its promises to me. Although its tempting to just jump ship, there are good reasons to consider not doing so. I am hoping february will be a bit better.

My high point of 2013 so far has to be the chocolate soufflé I made the other day, though ive been watching a number of different master chef programs over the last few weeks and they are pretty inspirational. of all the different versions of the show i have seen the australian master chef stands out as being different: the people on the show are actually really nice to each other, and help each other out.

So lets keep our fingers crossed for February. Work should be better, the weather should be warmer, and maybe i can get a couple of beers in there….

This is my first attempt at a chocolate soufflé and it came out pretty well I think. Very rich, light and fluffy, I could have let it stay in the oven a bit longer to raise a bit more but didnt, becuase I like the chocolate goop at the bottom. I know it's 400+ kcal but don't care! If you can't have scrummy food now and then, what's the point of living!

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I just had my first ever positive experience at a tax office anywhere – I needed to organise a new Swedish ID as I lost my wallet a while back. Things couldn't have gone smoother. Firstly they have moved the ID art of the tax office away from the main tax office which is way more efficient becuase prepping or collecting an ID only takes 10 mins – other people's tax issues can typically take much longer to resolve. I got to the tax office at 9.45 am and was first in queue for a 10am opening. By 10 am there were 6 people in line. When I got in I was ticket 001. I quickly showed my passport and proof that I had paid my fee which took 2 mins. I was sent to have my photo taken, and to sign which took 5 mins – would have been quicker but the woman's daughter is living in the UK and she wanted to chat about it. By the time I left, at 10:10am there were about 25 people all sat down waiting in queue. Kind of incredible. Apparently because my passport is one of the new biometric passports, my new ID will be ready in a week.

So cool. A really good experience, but I still think I pay too much tax.

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