When Shelley and I moved in together part of the reason was so that I could save up to buy the car of my dreams, a 1996 twin turbo Supra. Now we have lived together for nearly a year and my financial situation is greatly improved. My current car is also feeling pretty sorry for itself so I’ve been looking around at possible replacements.

Of course I started looking at the Supra’s and they are very appealing cars but they are quite expensive to buy and very expensive to run. So then I considered a newer Celica, the 7th Gen VVTL-i. These should be more cost effective to run as they are 1.8’s compared to the 3.0 in the Supra and the 2.0 in my current Celica GT. They are also supposed to be more powerful than my current car and they look pretty cool too.

Then I briefly considered an Accord Type-R as it was perhaps a more practical car and still fairly powerful. Shelley put me off this though as she thinks Hondas are all driven by Grandads and to be fair my Grandfather always drove Hondas.

After reading various opinions in forums and owners club sites it seems that the best choice would be the Celica GT4. Now you may notice that the GT4 was not mentioned above and you would be right. In all honesty I love my Celica but as it’s about to require a lot of work I thought I might as well upgrade to a more powerful car. The GT4 is the perfect choice, internally it is identical to my current car, externally it is very similar but mechanically it is quite different. It’s 2.0 turbo engine generates nearly 100bhp more than my GT, and it’s 4WD transfers that to the road more efficiently. With a few “sensible” modifications I can easily get it to produce over 300bhp.

Yesterday Shelley and I ventured to a garage in East Grinstead to test drive a GT4 and a 7th Gen Celica. The GT4 was everything I expected it to be, it felt a little more grounded than my car but the acceleration was something else entirely. The newer Celica was lovely inside, the ride was smooth and comfortable but the engine was seriously lacking. I am willing to assume that this may have been partly down to the automatic gearbox of the model I was test driving but I was still left wanting the GT4.

So it’s looking likely that life is about to change dramatically. Shelley and I are planning to move to a massive flat in Gravesend next week. I’ve never lived with a girlfriend before it’s going to be interesting. The flat is amazing, it will be nice to have more space and a fifteen minute drive to work. Shelley and I have been already looking for things to fill it, she’s desperate for a 52″ telly but I think that’s perhaps a little over the top.

We signed the paperwork yesterday so they’re currently running credit checks on us, then we’re meeting the landlord tomorrow afternoon. If all goes smoothly we get the keys next Saturday and I have to be out of my current house by the end of June so it all works rather well.

Why is it that just as things start going well something has to come along and make it all a mess again? I’ve been so happy lately why do people have to interfere with my life? Someone that I could happily never see again seems to have managed to somehow fuck everything up. Please get the fuck out of our lives!

I’m on a train on my way to London and the guy sat next to me pulled out a MacBook when he sat down and I grinned to myself in the tragic way I do when I see people with Apple kit. Then he opened it and there was Windows XP! I’m still not entirely used to seeing Windows on Macs. He was writing something in Microsoft Visual Studio and he was running it all through Parralells. It got me thinking, I wonder how many people have bought Macs because they look pretty but use them mostly or entirely to run Windows. It’s the technological equivalent of hiding a text book inside a comic.

Things have been going really well lately. I got promoted at work so now I teach all the time. Shelley and I are still very happy together and we’re discussing living together in the near future. All in all I’m a happy bunny.

I’ve had a few freelance jobs on the go; updating Tony’s site and redesigning Danni’s site. I’m also working on a redesign of third-perspective which should be live fairly shortly as well as relaunching imagecircus. I’ve decided that once I’m finished with my current jobs I’m going to take a break from design work again for a while. I just don’t have the time to fit everything in at the moment and I don’t want the company to get a bad reputation. I would rather turn down jobs than do them badly.

Having a break from deadlines will also give me a chance to catch up with some other projects I have on the back burner as well as giving me some time to learn some more languages; php, ruby and Japanese to start with.

I had the best Valentine’s day ever and now that it has a meaning I’m looking forward to the rest of them. I finally wore her down and now Shelley and I are together. I’m so happy and overcome by how glad our friends are for us. She continues to surprise me and I can’t imagine my life without her in it. We’re both truly smitten and it’s great.

I haven’t stopped smiling since Sunday. Seriously, people have commented on it, people I don’t know that well asking why I look so happy. It’s amazing. Neither of us are sure what “it” is but I know that will work itself out. I’m blissfully, deliriously, euphorically happy and it’s her fault.

I’m sat alone on my sofa at 4am typing this whilst my friends are asleep upstairs. I have a happy feeling glowing about me at the moment which is tinged a little in frustration at the things I can’t change. I have made my decisions though and regardless of how things pan out I am certain I have made the right choice.

It’s been a full-on weekend. Chris’ brother Graham came down on Saturday so we had a quiet evening chilling out at home watching Robot Chicken until far too late. After I finished work on Sunday I said goodbye to Chris and Graham as they have jetted off to Oz for a fortnight. Then Ellen, Shelley, Sophie and Craig came over to enjoy a night of movies and highbrow conversation.

We ended up watching High School Musical 2 and Stardust (which, as an aside, you must watch as it is beautiful), with various cult comedy shows thrown in for good measure and talking all through the night. Due to a bout of insomnia on Saturday night and the random blatherings last night I have now been awake for a little over 55 hours but I’ve had a great time.

In a conversation with a friend today I mentioned that I felt bad about something I had thought briefly. He said “We all think like that. That’s why our mouth speaks but our minds are silent.”. I don’t know if that’s a common phrase but regardless I think he is wise beyond his years.