A big milestone in my working life today - I finished up in my current job, ending an association going back 11 years. I had been working for the same employer since November 1996, except for a 22-month hiatus from June 1999 to March 2001. When I started with them originally, I was only taken on as a temporary staff member in the run-up to Christmas.

I start a new job on Monday, with new challenges to get the blood pumping again. My focus will be outside of Dublin, which suits me perfectly.

Someone else who has been ringing in the changes is my good friend Willie Joe, who has moved his Mayo GAA blog onto its own Wordpress-powered platform, just in time for the start of the inter-county action. If you are anyway interested in Gaelic football matters, particularly those related to the fair county of Mayo, you should keep his site in your RSS reader or bookmarks folder.

And speaking of sport, I was supposed to be going to Belfast this evening to see Doug Howlett make his debut for Munster versus Ulster, but the weather conspired against this plan. Which is probably better in the long run, as the inclement conditiions might have made the record try-scoring All-Black legend rethink his move to the Northern Hemisphere.