How Busy Am I?

I was talking to my friend Alex on Tuesday and he said that he'd seen this blog and really liked it. I thanked him and said he could tell when my life is busy and less busy by the frequency of my blog posts here. He was understanding as a busy person like himself would be and the conversation moved on. Well, my life has been very bust recently and as a reflection, this blog has died down. Saying that, I think I'm getting to grips with my new role at work, so I guess that means I can start blogging again.

Before getting into any chess, I just wanted to talk coffee. I may have found my favourite coffee in Melbourne, thanks to my wife, Caroline. Caroline works in Richmond and when I occasionally give her a lift to work it gives me a chance to try cafes in an area that I rarely go to. In Church Street, Richmond there is a cafe called The Fair Foodstore which I will be going out of my way to go back to because the coffee is simply fantastic. The coffee has a rich texture and fruity flavours, with a definite hint of apricot, and though I've not tried any food, the menu has plenty of interesting things on that I'd like to try and anywhere that does pulled pork can't be that bad! Go check out this review which also loves The Fair Foodstore.

For the past 6 weeks I have been so busy that the World Chess Championship seemed to slip by without me really noticing. I was aware that it was closer than last year, that Anand made more of a fight for it, and that Carlsen won, but what with a busy schedule, and a terrible time zone for watching the match, I really didn't see too much of it. And the high level chess has continued unabated with the Qatar Masters and Russian Championships on at the moment. Sorry, but I just haven't got the time to follow this much chess. I hear the results on Twitter or somewhere but don't seem to see many games or positions. It's just too much like hard work! Which is a shame because I've agreed to play in the IM section of the Australasian Masters starting next week. I am horribly unprepared, and badly short of match practice, but hopefully it will be fun and I'll get the chance to bring my game back up to scratch.

There'll be more blogging and some pictures during the Australian Masters but I'm keeping it short for now, as I'm just get back into this bloggin thing. I will be less busy after next week, so expect the blog to pick back up, at least for a while.