All my housemates have finished their degrees, and have now disappeared for good. It seems that all my friends are dropping off the edge. I still have another year to go, and sitting here in an empty house that for the past two years has been home to some of the special people in my life is a strange feeling. It is the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one.

Each of my housemates have their quirks, such as the inability to stay silent or being unable to shower in less than 4 hours, but the fact remains that I have enjoyed living and sharing my life with them over the past two years, and wish them the best of luck in whatever is round the corner.

In the meantime, I have Bryan Adams to keep me company, with helpful lyrics such as:

I’ve been wandering around the house all night
wondering what the hell to do …
well the phone don’t ring ’cause my friends ain’t home
I’m tired of being all alone
Got the tv on …
days go on and on, and the nights just seem so long
Even food don’t taste that good, drink ain’t doing what it should
things just feel so wrong …
I keep driving up and down these streets
trying to find somewhere to go
Yeah i’m looking for a familiar face, but there’s no one I know
oh, this is torture, this is pain, it feels like I’m gonna go insane
I hope you’re coming back real soon, ’cause i don’t know what to do

Since my exams I have had a lot to do, but much of it has been general admin stuff: not really inspiring. However, in the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to consider what really inspires me, and a few people have helped me through the thought process.

Last week I went to a meeting of Christan entrepreneurs which considers the role the church can play within running successful and ethical businesses. There I talked to a gentleman who works with business startups in Birmingham about the book ‘Now discover your strengths’ and the associated online strengths finder test. He took the test a while ago, and although finding no startling revelation about himself, it did allow his to reassess his priorities in light of what he enjoyed.

I recently talked to an old friend on the phone, who explained to me how since her term had finished she had been learning all the world’s countries and their capitals. This struck a cord in me, because since organising my trip to South Africa I decided that I should know all the countries in Africa and something about the geography of the area, and have been trying to learn them.

In the past few days, one of my housemates has started playing the guitar. I have still not been able to overcome my first hurdle (spelling guitar!) but I have been inspired to give it a go. I have no idea how long this attempt will last, but time will tell. I’m currently on the lookout for songs that I know that consist only of A,C,D,G and E: Bryan Adams and The Corrs are scoring highly, although both have nasty bar cords in them occasionally.

Many people do not admit to like schooling, but I love learning, I like knowing things and look forward to a challenge, and I don’t think I am alone.

For the past few months I have been working on a project codenamed motortrace which is a piece of server software which allows real time tracking of cars, caravans and other equipment. Previous journies can be viewed and animated on the map, and detailed reports generated. Driver mileage and speeds can be monitored and analysed.

The software is suitable for most tracking applications, from wanting to know the current whereabouts of a single caravan or cherised vehicle to managing a whole fleet of trucks.

This is an exciting project to be part of, and because the mapping engine uses the Google maps api, in order to comply with the Google api the website is free to use! It should soon be possible to sign up for a free account and start tracking your car from your PC or mobile phone. Watch this space!

It felt like it might never come, but here it is, finally! Eight exams later I can emerge from my procrastination state to complete the many tasks that have been waiting for this very moment.

Forms for stuff I am doing over the summer and a call to return off the bank wondering why I have no money are just a few of the many tasks I now have to complete. At least I have almost made a to-do list- virtual post-it notes on my computer desktop.

Anyway, back to the exams: Six of the eight exams were, perhaps as I arrogantly put it ‘A walk in the park on a sunny day’, one was mediocre and one was really quite nasty. I don’t think I would have done badly in it, but I annoyed myself how much I had forgotten since last year.

Roll on the summer!