Before the campaign started, you may remember me saying "No matter the success of this campaign, it'll lead to the next step on the adventure"

Never In my wildest dreams did I imagine that, for 1) the campaign would be as successful and 2) the next step would be so immediate.

The last day of cloudfunding was Tuesday 25th, the very next day I received the most wonderful and surprising of emails.

The week before, I had applied for a job I'd read about a few weeks prior to that. The job is Customer Relations Manager at Bristol Ground School. BGS, to give them their obligatory aviation abbr., are THE leading provider of the ATPL theory course. If you are familiar with the route I intend on taking to the commercial flight deck you will know that it's the course I intend to enrol on once I complete my PPL.

The Job seemed too good to be true for me: an opportunity to share my passion and understanding of flight training and enthusiasm for this product with other people looking to embark on the journey. The company's founder and MD, Alex Whittingham, is also chairman of the Wings Alliance - the new(ish) innovative model for mentored modular training that, ultimately, led me to pursuing the modular route. BGS share a building with WA and the job involves promoting both companies. Since I am totally sold on both, I figured this could be a challenge I'm more than capable of rising to. I applied.

The email I received - before any dust had settled from the campaign, before our lives had regained any semblance of normality, mundanity or routine - told me that I'd been shortlisted for an interview.

This is the first of 6 moments that broke my chuffedometer between 26/10/2016 and 26/11/2016. The 2nd was the feeling I had after my interview, it was an entirely new experience made great by engaging and interesting interviewers, I left it feeling very proud of the honest and relaxed account I gave of myself. The 3rd moment was being told I was down to the last two! 4th was being told (a week later, an agonising wait) that I had the job!

We were planting trees on a site called Battle Hill on the day that Aberystwyth was supposedly hit by a tornado - I can only assume that Aber got the tail and we took the full force of its front! It was a crazy wild day. In the morning I discovered an answer machine message asking me to call BGS - this was it, I knew it. I let the boys plant ahead because I didn't want them to see my disappointment when I was told the bad news. "Dyfrig I'm very pleased to offer you the job"

Elation.

The 5th moment came last Thursday when Bella and I went and found our new home in the beautiful village of Wrington, a 6.5 mile cycle from my new place of work in Clevedon. The house is tiny but the place is idyllic - and I'm sure it'll throw up more than a few stories for the blog.

The 6th moment, that took me totally by surprise and left me bereft of belief that this last month is really real, was that on Saturday, I flew my first solo! Now, I can't describe this in writing without repeating superlatives that make it look so dull and entirely ineffective at depicting just how effing ace achieving your first solo is! So I recorded a video for MentourPilot in the fairly immediate aftermath: Here's the link - https://youtu.be/GcI7SIHcuW4

Admittedly all of this is so blinking marvellously wonderful, I am a little scared of waking up. It's like a new baby: It all feels so mind blowingly perfect I'm afraid I'll break it.

Apologies for such a long hiatus between posts, I will endeavour to improve my productivity again. In the mean time we have the small challenge of becoming legally allowed to be landlords, get our house fit for renting, find a tenant, pack our stuff up, move it to Bristol, have Christmas at dads, move our new tenants in and move up to Bristol by the 29th at the latest - ready for my start date on the 3rd of Jan. On top of that I also want to get more flying done, prep for my new job, find a bike and make sure we have something for each other and the kids for christmas - so it feels at least a little bit festive.

One very happy Dyf signing off. Thank you all for the most wonderful of months!