Much has happened since my last post

I realise that it has been over two years since I last posted to this Blog, and that therefore it is high time that I set down what has been going on in that time.

As readers will already know I got married in February 2008 to the wonderfully yummy Mrs F.

But looking back on the 24 months since my last post I realise that I have actually done rather a lot of very nice and enjoyable things, as well as working long hours and the occasional weekend.

So on the job front I have, of course, moved jobs and departments again and in October 2008 moved from UKTI to the parent department of BERR / BIS and became Private Secretary to the Minister for Communication, Broadcasting and Technology. This was a real step up, and although I already had some experience of working in Private Office from a three day stint in the Home Secretary's private office this was different. I was responsible for distinct policy areas in a Ministerial office working flat out on the production of a white paper in the technology sector.

Whilst the work was hard, at times stressful and occasionally tedious there were definite high points.

Meeting interesting people, seeing the workings of government up close and personal, getting to see how Brussels works and visiting Finland and China count as just a few things I will look back on with a smile.

The China trip was hard work in that it was four days non-stop, but it was a trip I would not have wanted to miss. I came away from China with a realisation that just as Moscow and Washington DC had set the tone for the second half of the Twentieth Century - and therefore the environment in which my parents and I had grown up; it would be Washington DC and Beijing setting the global tone for the first half of the Twenty-First Century. Europe has, I think, not yet quite realised this at a societal level and at the political level is groping around in the gloom trying to figure out what this means.

As 2010 rolls on, I am still in Private Office but working for the Minister for Digital Britain and trying to get the Digital Economy Bill through Parliament. It has been considered in the House of Lords at all stages and is shortly to be debate in the House of Commons. Much debate both inside and outside Parliament has taken place on the issues in the Bill, but my personal view is that it is a balanced package and is certainly not the last time the issues faced in the changing multi channel digital world will be looked at my the executive and legislative branches of government.

On the personal front the last two years with the wonderfully yummy Mrs F have flown by, and in part that is because we have found ourselves spending a lot of time in the air heading out of Heathrow. We have spent a week in a villa in the South of France with close friends, in New York for another close friends wedding, in central Europe visiting relatives and parents and in New York for our anniversary.

However, it has not been all work and no play. As apart from the travel detailed in the paragraph above we have seen a few films - although not as many as Mrs F would like - and been to the theatre and some concerts. On the concert front we have just booked tickets for Hardrock Calling in Hyde Park and can not wait to see Stevie Wonder rock the park.

I have been running to keep fit and sking in France, Switzerland and Italy, whilst there have been some drunken escapades at some of the parties we have thrown.

So to the present we are house hunting as it is time we bought somewhere together, so watch this space for more updates in the future.