Just to let you know I've not been on WinCustomize for the last two weeks, and I will not be back again in the near future. Call it a break, sabbatical or holiday, after nine years in skinning I think I've earned some time off.

I know a lot of people contact me to sort out moderation issues, or ask advice about the site. Please don't from now on, there are plenty of moderators on the site who can help. They are a friendly bunch you know, and there just for you - you only have to ask

Things have changed a lot for me over the last eighteen months. Some will know the story, some will not. So I'll tell it again for those who don't.

December 2006, I injured my back at work, having been told to a job I wasn't trained for or capable of doing. By the following February I was unable to walk and on morphine patches. I had a prolapsed disc lower back which required five months of physiotherapy to get me walking again. I was off a couple of weeks in June, and when I got back to work the Company I worked for was in difficulty...

Then, with all that, I was back at work only ten days when I was in a serious car accident. My car was trashed by a lorry. The emergency services had to cut me out of the car, but fortunately, apart from whiplash and a few bruises, I was mostly ok.

I went on holiday in September. I got back to find my father in hospital with a heart attack, also, waiting for me, was a letter from a firm of solicitors telling me the company I worked for was insolvent - so I had no money and no job. The only money I had for a month was what I had in my wallet...

I started work for an accounting partnership in December, but they also got into difficulty. At the beginning of March this year I was out of work again. This time though, only for two days. I got the opportunity to work as a Finance Officer for a Sixth Form college (16-18 year olds - don't know what you call those colleges in other countries). It's a really good job...

Throughout all this time I was sole carer for my father. He was 88 in May this year. Having been in and out of hospital all year he wasn't all that well. I got back from a weeks holiday in June to find he had passed away.

So where are we now? Well, I'm free! At last I can do what I want, when I want. I don't get home to a mess or lots of work, or constant complaints - like "I don't like this gravy, you've ruined my dinner..." hehe, that's 88 year olds for you. I have money too - the compensation payout for my back injury was only £1k below the maximum ever, plus, shortly I will be getting a huge sum for my car accident...

Things have not looked so positive in a long time. It's like a whole new me. I'm the same age as Madonna. She is always re-inventing herself, well, I'm doing the same.

I'm completely refurbishing the house. So far I'm up to £7k on new furniture and carpets. Hmmm, the smell of real oak in my dining room is amazing - I've never had anything like this before. Wow!

So what am I going to do next? Dunno really - suggestions welcome! To paraphrase Ferris Bueller: "It's not a question of what am I going to do - it's a question of what am I not going to do..."