My name is Ben

My name is Ben, I am 30 years old and I live in London near Tower Bridge and work for UBS investment bank in the IT section. I take these facts pretty much for granted, although a 20 year old me would of been fascinated to hear them.

Today I am sick. Which means in between the napping, I have a day off. Not a "day off" like the weekend where I can go out and do stuff, but a day out of the often fast moving stream of life. Indeed the weekends, whilst fun and fulfilling, are rarely "days off" nowadays.

I often wonder why I am doing the things I do. I don't recall choosing them. Well, maybe I chose between X and Y or this and that, but I never sat down and said to myself - gosh, it's a big world of stuff, what would you like to do in it ? I rarely picked holiday destinations, often led by convention or friends ideas. My set of job interviews were somewhat dictated by the pushiest head hunters.

I guess what I feeling today is I don't spend enough, or any, time on these questions. It's not like my lack of decisiveness has led me into a corner - indeed, most of my choices were based on "which life direction leaves me with the greatest number of choices still open". But this thinking may of prevented me from following a hidden passion or interest I really hadn't considered for myself. And later in life, where commitments are more prevalent such as house buying, career progression and settling down, decisions can be made harder by this attitude of keeping options open.

My name is Ben and I am 30 years old. My options are open. It's time for me to start thinking about using them, rather than simply keeping them open. I currently live in London, currently near Tower Bridge and current work for UBS investment bank. All these could or could not change; but they can if I want and so can I, as I choose to, when I choose to. And realising this should not be scary, but totally awesome :)

Spoon are great and so is Italy and so am I

Joyful is I, for today my pre-ordered Spoon album entitled "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" arrived. For those unacquainted with them, Spoon are a superb band, probably one of my favourite of any genre. Catchy chords and tunes, a great singer (Britt Daniels), many different sounds in each album - like the Eels or Blur perhaps - and solid song writing skills add up to a several superb albums, the latest of which might be the greatest. Don't take my word for it though, go listen for yourself.

Just came back from a long weekend in Italy, seeing the Palio horse race. Photos should find themselves onto Smugmug once I've found a spare minute - not likely to be too soon though as this coming weekend sees me off to Wales for more partying and boys-weekend away fun. It's combined with some hardcore outdoor walking too, so net the health might not suffer to much...

Finally today was my financial exam. Felt like I did quite well, but no results yet. Hopefully an e-mail later today will supply that. I guess the last exams I did were many years ago, and I've always had a certain expectation to not just pass but to pass them well. So fingers crossed for 95%+ then :)

[BREAKING NEWS] I got 93% - which I am still pretty bloody happy with :)