It's my 26th birthday today and that's another year gone.

I was going to have a barbeque yesterday but the rain put paid to that. And typically the weather today is lovely even if it's blowing a gale.

My new car is great, so far I've been getting 56mpg which is awesome. All my friends like it too. I did have a little problem with the fabric on one of the back seats but the dealer fixed it quickly.

Mum isn't doing too well unfortunately. She has had a bad back for the last few weeks and when we went to France a couple of weeks ago she was in agony. She couldn't get out of bed for the first couple of days and we had to get the doctor out. He gave her some tablets that made her well enough to come home.

She then went into hospital when it got worse again and she has been there for the last 2 weeks or so. She has had loads of scans and thankfully the doctors now know what is wrong with her. She has lesions on her spine so she will need radiotherapy to make them smaller so that the doctors can operate on them. She should be home next week.

Work on TwoMT has been going well. We have a proper logo now and I'm thinking about getting some signage done for the car to promote it. We even have a secure website up and running now, even though I am still halfway through writing the code for it. A temporary shop is there for the moment until I get it finished but I suffer from motivation issues!!

P.s. I know it's been a very long time since I last wrote something here and I wish I could say that I've been busy but that would be lying. Basically I've not had much motivation to do anything recently.

I am getting really excited about my new car, I know I really shouldn't be but I am.

I just can't stop looking around for reviews to read and blogs to visit. I've found a good one about someone's 107 (it's basically the same car). It's quite interesting looking at all the mods he's done to it.

I've also found an owners club with a forum, haven't had time to have a good look round yet.

Anyway, the dealership rang the other day with the reg number (CK08 FZY, it's been nicknamed "fuzzy" already, not by me) so we can get the insurance sorted. They also said it should be ready a day earlier, so it's only 10 days to go now. Woo!!

First off, sorry, it has been a tremendously long time since there was a proper update so I'll bring you up to speed really quickly.

So the job is going well enough, I know what I'm doing (or at least I pretend to!!). I can't believe I've been there 6 months already. I'll post what I do in a typical day at work some other time.

The first week was spent with some light training in the temporary store in the tent, after that we spent a couple of weeks training in a couple of proper, full size stores.

A couple of weeks or so before the store opened we had to start getting the place ready, we were in there before the builders had finished so we had to wear hard hats and high viz jackets as the place was technically still a construction site. All we had to do really was put up shelving attach labels according to the plans but this was still a huge job. I had to do bottled water, beer and spirits and world foods.

It is a very odd feeling, being one of a few people in a supermarket with no stock on the shelves at all. Those are the plans stuck to the shelves in the picture.

Once the stock started arriving I was given a rather interesting job. Anything that we couldn't get from the depot we had to find somewhere else. It was my job to find local stores that had lots of what we needed, get them to let us have it and then drive a van (with a tail lift) to collect it. That was great.

My favourite run was to Cirencester to collect £35k of TVs. The van was so full of them I had to have one of them in the cab with me. The drive back took me along a very nice road through the Forest of Dean. I still can't believe I got paid for all that, it didn't feel like work at all!!

But ever since the store opened everything has been very routine, get up early every day, go into work while it is still dark, spend ages on my feet, put up with lousy equipment (a post in itself), go home just before it gets dark again and being to tired to do much before going to bed where the whole cycle starts again.

The best thing about this job has to be the people I work with, I know it sounds cheesy but it's true. I get on well with most of the people there and a huge group of us went paintballing a few weeks ago. I had a great time, needless to say, my team won and I have the certificate to prove it!!

Unfortunately there is nothing on the romance horizon but then again I'm not sure I'm over Claudia yet so I'll give it some time.

And finally, I have bought a new car!! I'm so excited, I have never had a brand new car before, they have all been second hand. I'm going to make sure I am the only one who drives it. It's so new I only found out the reg number tonight, it's only just been registered. It's a Toyota Aygo, the 5 door Platinum edition. I pick it up at the end of the month, I can't wait.

It's getting late, I plan on posting more tomorrow.

So it's a new year and time once again to have a look at what happened in the last year and set myself some goals for the new one.

So last year saw a redundancy, a lovely holiday to Tuscany, 3 months of unemployment which was actually rather enjoyable, a camping trip followed by a breakup with Claudia and finally a new job.

There were ups and downs but on the whole I think it was a good year. I even managed to spend less than I earned, despite the redundancy, and managed to pay off a bit of my debt. I also lost half a stone.

So my plans for this year are to find a special someone, lose some more weight and get rid of most of my debt. Aims shared by a lot of other people I'm sure but we will see what happens.

Thank god it's Friday!

Off to work now then the weekend starts at 3pm. I haven't planned anything, I'm just looking forward to a nice long lie in.

I've been in the job for two weeks now and I have been meaning to write a post about it but haven't got around to it yet.

I will write a more detailed post soon but for now Ill let you know that I work Monday to Friday, 6am to 3pm. Yes, that's right, 6 in the morning. I have to get up at 5 in the morning!! It feels wrong getting up when it's still dark and really quiet outside.

Have to go to bed now, up very early tomorrow!!

This is something I have hesitated to write about for a while now. I think I was putting it off because writing about it would make it real. I think I am now ready and the simple act of writing about it will be cathartic.

Me and Claudia have split up. The simple reason is that the distance was just too much and only seeing each other every couple of months just wasn't enough. There were other issues which I won't go into now but that was the main reason.

There are also certain things about the split that I want to talk about at some point but I'm not ready yet.

P.S. I have backdated this post to the time we actually split, I don't usually do this but it makes things less confusing this way.

So yes, it has been a while since my last proper update that isn't a video or book spoiler and there is quite some story to tell.

As you know I was made redundant at the start of June. Since then I have been looking for jobs and I've had a few interviews but until now I haven't had any luck.

I had an interview for the new Tesco store at Culverhouse Cross and yesterday I had a letter offering me the job. I'm a Stock Control Assistant. Don't know what that involves exactly but I start on Saturday with an all day induction. Things are moving quite fast there. Very glad to have a job again, money has been getting a bit tight recently especially due to the camping trip last weekend.

Last weekend me, Claudia, Mike and Emlyn went on a camping trip to Tenby. I had been planning it for 2 months and the plan changed more times than I can remember. In the end we only had the two nights there, It was a tight squeeze in the car, the 4 of us and all our stuff. The first night Mike nearly broke the trampoline before we went to the campsite pub, watched the Blues win and won £20 on the pub quiz!! Result!!

The next day we packed a hell of a lot in, we went to the Crystal Maze and played a couple of games, we had an hour of bowling. Then we went to Tenby and had a wander through town, did a bit of shopping and a walk on the beach with ice cream. When we got back to the campsite we made spag bol and things seemed to quieten down once we broke Mike's frisbee.

That night though we were all outside the tents in our sleeping bags, hopping about and trying to knock each other down. Great fun even though Emlyn landed on my head more than once!!

So we ended up going home much earlier than we intended to but we sure did manage to cram stuff in.

Mike has managed to get me interested in Warhammer 40k again. I've started playing Dawn of War, the WH40k video game. Emlyn has also joined us and has started to build an Imperial Guard army, he went a bit mad to be honest, he bought all sorts of stuff. Dave might be interested too. I had a good look for my stuff but couldn't find anything. I have a feeling that I might have got rid of it all at some point so I'll need to start from scratch.

We were all at Games Workshop today and I bought the rulebook. I still don't know what army to start collecting but I have a while yet before I have to decide. I'm not going to buy anything more until I get paid. That's the big difference between the last time me and Mike did this, we now have the money to put into it.

I think that's enough for now, it's got quite late.

I have the book in my hand! At last the final book in the series is mine!

I intend to post a brief summary of every chapter eventually but there are a few things I just have to tell you. Naturally HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

• Voldemort and his followers have inhabited Lucius' mansion and have Ollivander prisoner along with the Muggle Studies teacher and the Bulgarian Wandmaker.
• Harry leaves Privet Drive for the last time, Dudley, surprisingly, is sad to see him go since he saved his soul from the dementors.
• Many members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Hermione and Ron, arrive to escort Harry using a plan to create 6 copies of him using polyjuice potion.
• The Death Eaters are waiting for them and initially confused by the many copies of Harry split up and chase all of them. Many killing curses and stunning spells later and Hedwig is caught by one and dies.
• Voldemort eventually catches up with the real Harry and he only just manages to fend him off before reaching safety at Tonks' parent's house.
• Harry and Hagrid are patched up there and take a portkey to The Burrow where they find that they are the first to arrive. Everyone else manages to get back relatively unscathed apart from George who has lost an ear permanently and Mad-Eye Moody who has been killed.
• People mourn and get ready for Bill and Fleur's wedding the day after Harry's 17th birthday.
• Harry's birthday arrives and the Minister turns up and gives Ron. Hermione and Harry the items Dumbledore left them in his will. He questions them about why he gave them to them but gets nowhere.
• The wedding goes as planned and everyone is happy. Until the reception where Viktor Krum is enraged that Luna's father is wearing the dark wizard Grindelwald's symbol.
• At the reception Harry finds out more about Dumbledore's family and that he might not know him as well as he thought. It is revealed that Dumbledore used to live in Godric's Hollow, where Harry's parents lived and were murdered. Bathilda Bagshot, author of A History of Magic, also lives there.
• At the very end of the reception news arrives that the Ministry has fallen to Voldemort, the Minister is dead and Death Eaters are on their way to The Burrow.
• The guests flee and Harry, Ron and Hermione apparate to London. They regain their bearing in a cafe and try to decide what to next but they are found by two Death Eaters who are fought off. The three then apparate away to Grimmauld Place where they encounter Anti-Snape spells. The house has been thoroughly searched and stuff is lying everywhere. They spend the night in sleeping bags.
• Ron and Hermione have been getting closer and probably have a romantic relationship at this point that hasn't been defined explicitly. Harry is beginning to regain his psychic link with Voldemort, having visions and feeling his anger.
• Harry wakes up earlier than the others and finds his way to Sirrius' old room, finds half a letter from Harry's mother. The Potter's are apparently good friends with Bathilda.
• Harry finally realises that Sirrius's brother, Regulus the Death Eater, is the one who took the locket horcrux. I have known this since reading the last book and the locket itself was mentioned in The Order Of The Phoenix.
• The locket was in a cabinet downstairs before the cleaning. It was thrown out, Kreacher stole it back and was eventually taken by the theiving Mundungus Fletcher who stole lots of other stuff.
• We find out that Regulus had given Kreacher to Voldemort to test the defenses around the locket. Years later Regulus gets Kreacher to take him to the locket, Regulus drinks the potion and gets dragged into the lake, Kreacher switches the lockets, returns home and tries to destroy the locket but couldn't so hides it instead. Harry sends him off to find Mundungus and bring him to Grimmauld Place.
• In the meantime Lupin has tracked them down and fills them in on what is going on, The Ministry is rounding up muggle borns and has placed propaganda in The Daily Prophet that Harry is wanted for questioning about Dumbledore's death. The public knows that something is going on and that Voldemort is behind it but are scared to come forward and fight.
• Lupin expresses an interest in helping Harry. Harry finds out that Tonks is pregnant and that Lupin is abandoning her because he regrets marrying her, Harry throws him out.
• Mundungus Fletcher is found and it is revealed that the locket is now in the possession of Dolores Umbride.

Edit:
I gave up trying to write this as I went, I got too engrossed in it. However here is a very brief view of what happens at the end.

The final horcrux (apart from Nagini) is at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione return but the Death Eaters are waiting, a battle involving practically the whole school erupts and Fred, Lupin and Tonks are killed along with many other nameless combatants.

Ron and Hermione retrieve Basilisk fangs from the Chamber of Secrets (the only thing that can destroy a horcrux) and Harry finds the final horcrux, Ravenclaw's Diadem (a tiara thing), in the Room of Requirement. It gets destroyed by a cursed fire conjured by Crabbe who perishes in it himself.

Harry follows Voldemort into the Shrieking Shack and sees him kill Snape before disappearing. Snape releases a set of memories before he expires which Harry scoops up and views in the Pensieve in Dumbledore's office. They show him scenes from his childhood where he clearly develops an affection for Lily. They also show him that Dumbledore knew that he was dying from the curse injury to his hand and knows about the plot to kill him and asks Snape to do it when Malfoy can't as it is a quick and painless death. One last memory reveals that Harry has part of Voldemort's soul in him and must die so that Voldemort will die.

Harry finds Voldemort in the Forest and reveals himself to him, He is hit with the killing curse, has a near death experience where he realises only the part of Voldemort's soul has died and not him, comes back and plays dead while he is carried into the Great Hall where the survivors, injured and dead are congregating. Nagini has been killed by Neville and Harry is finally able to reveal that he is still alive and confronts Voldemort.

Voldemort tries to kill Harry but it is rebounded by Harry's Expelliarmus and is killed.

We come back to Harry nineteen years later. Harry and Ginny have three kids, James, Lily and Albus Severus. Ron and Hermione have Rose and Hugo.

The final word is NOT scar as we have been lead to believe all this time. Here are the final few lines...

---

The last trace of steam evaporated in the autumn air. The train rounded a corner. Harry's hand was raised in farewell.
'He'll be alright,' murmured Ginny.
As Harry looked at her, he lowered his hand absent-mindedly and touched the lightning scar on his forehead.
'I know he will.'
The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.

---

A tour of the villa and a look at one of the cats that visited us.