Then Ingress came and it added a new way of experiencing my city and using my knowledge of it. Even though I've had to stop running the last few weeks due to an injury to my ribs, I have lost weight by going out and defending the city from the Enlightened influence.

Even during work my mind is still set to the state of planning efficient and tactical, yes I'm being more efficient and tactical with my actual work and not day dreaming on what next to do while playing Ingress.

I have come in contact with out of town and in town players, that some of  might even become friends. I will probably even go out of city to help out other team members in their cities and towns as I have progressed faster into the levels of the game because of the heavy presence of many portals and battles being fought in my city.

At one moment I was deciding on if I was going to stay home or go outside and play (when was the last time you heard a 36 year old say that), when I saw that my arch nemesis started attacking a few of my important portals. I put on my rain clothes jumped on my bike and made the journey to those portals, I recaptured the portals, but found myself out of XM and had to head into the city center to replenish my XM and personal energy I needed FOOD. When I arrived back to further the repairs and upgrades, My opponent had started a new attack. As I know all the streets and alleys I quickly made my way round to hide unseen and started recharging and repairing the attacked portal.With my back against the wall & shawl round my face, I was not merely playing a game I was experiencing it. With wet and cold feet and the rain falling, making it hard to use my phone efficiently, I felt my hart beating and myself totally immersed in what was now no longer a game.

Me and my Arch nemesis, one of the best players in my city, where standing maybe 50 meters apart from each other and neither saw the other, it was weird to say the least.

Though the battle in my city is hard-fought, next week The Enlightened & Resistance will meet for a drink during a two hour truce. After this we will part again as enemies as the battle continues.

I will need to replenish the brakes on my bike for the wet weather, and a spoke that broke while playing Ingress and I will need to start using my phone's protective case as I've already dropped my phone more times in the last week then in the last year.

I can't go as far as saying #Ingress  has changed my life, that would be dramatic and untrue. What it has done is add more fun to the way I was already spending my time in the city. Ingress was made for my lifestyle.

What I'm missing is a bigger team, as the Resistance is outnumbered by the Enlightened. I already have a few serious lieutenants waiting to get into the battle. They are primed and ready to go and right now only you +Brandon Badger can help me build a stronger #Resistance  to help guard #Amsterdam  from the influence of the Enlightened and the Shapers