The year MMIX

January 1:  I know its just another day; an arbitrary date that consuls of the Roman Empire took office.  If we hadn’t switched from the Julian calendar, this day wouldn’t even by January 1.  On the other hand, it may be as good a day as any to reflect on the previous twelve months that were 2009.

I greeted 2009 lost in a blue cloud (and not metaphorically); blinded and coughing violently.  It was an expensive, but humorous, start to the year.

The first days of 2009 were spent trading London-white for Agadir-brown (that came out sounding like we were dealing in illicit substances; I was just trying to find a fancy way of saying ‘sun-tanning’).  This was followed by a few days exploring the maze of Marrakech.  12 months and many cities later, Marrakech still rates as a highlight.

Upon returning to London, we had some decisions to make.  Both the lease on our London home and our UK working-visas were set to expire mid-March.  Our housemates were returning home.  It was deep into a bitter winter, and our immune systems were weakened enough that a bout of home-sickness had taken hold.  BUT, M-A was registered to run the London Marathon in April, AND there were still so many places we wanted to visit.

The plan: Work until our visas expired; purchase a motorhome; travel continental Europe for 6 weeks; stash the van wherever we are and jet back to London for the Marathon; resume our travels for another 6 weeks; return to London and sell the motorhome; head back to Oz, arriving just in time for Paul and Kristii’s wedding; restart our lives…again…

Plan in hand, Jan-March was spent working and sleeping, with the remainder split between drinking pints of beer and watching football (which fairly well surmises London in winter).  Speaking of football, watching Arsenal play at Emirates Stadium was another highlight (even if they did save their lamest performances of the season for the times I attended). 

Professionally, these final months working in London were rewarding.  I was working with a great crew at uSwitch, and I’m proud of what we achieved in a short time.  It was refreshing to work for a company where the technology wasn’t just an enabler for their core business, it was the core business.  It was without a doubt the most efficient and vibrant environment I had worked in.  This combined with a good social bond, made going to work each day challenging, rewarding, and fun.  You can’t ask for more.

Also, we weren’t entirely inactive…

February 22: Amy, Jeremy, M-A and I took the train down to Brighton for the weekend, where M-A and I ran the half-marathon; this was part of her preparation for the London Marathon.  It was a tough run; an undulating course with strong winds.  Brighton is a fun place, and we all enjoyed the weekend.

 

March 13: it came quickly.  We said our good-byes (although temporarily; we would reunite in Oz) to Tim, Kate, Andy, and 58 Fortune Green Rd.  A tip: Moving is definitely made easier when you can park your new home outside your previous one.

The next three months were amazing.  They were the headline of our 2009, and I truly believe they will be a highlight of our lives.  I still have work to do in logging these adventures.      

April 26: the middle of our travels; and as planned, we returned to London where M-A completed the London Marathon in 4 hours and 36 minutes.  She had prepared thoroughly:  In the freezing pre-dawn of London, she ran.  On Christmas day, while the rest of us indulged, she ran.  Across the continent, past bicycle-riding, baguette-carrying Frenchmen, past the over-exposed white flesh of holidaying Brits, past wolf-whistling Italian grandfathers, she ran.  It was a great accomplishment.

In the ‘plan’, we had allocated 10 days in London to sell the motorhome, before our flight to Oz.  This had been a compromise between wanting to spend as long as possible travelling, and leaving enough time to ensure we recouped as much of our outlay as possible.  As the three months passed, our nervousness increased.  We knew this would prove the difference between the trip being too-scared-to-even-calculate-what-it-cost-but-totally-worth-it expensive, and eating-home-brand-noodles-for-dinner-for-the-rest-of-our-lives expensive.  But, as with almost the entire trip, it went according to script.  Amy and Jez were generous enough to provide us with a roof while my eBay and Gumtree ads worked their magic.

June 8, and the final tube ride to Heathrow marked the end of a chapter.  London disappeared below, and Brisbane appeared on the horizon.

Just days after arriving back in Oz, we attend Kristii and Paul’s wedding.  It was a beautiful weekend, a great welcoming home for us, and the first of 8 (!) weddings we would attend before the year was done.

We based ourselves with my parents at Coochiemudlo Is. while we found somewhere to live, having decided to leave our house rented.  M-A returned to work immediately, leaving me with the task of finding a suitable residence.  I would have happily traded places.  After a frustrating week or so of attending inspections, I found what I believed then (and still do now) to be a more-than-adequate place to rest our heads.  

For there to be good times, there must be bad times (or else they would all  just be times, right?). 

August 18: I think a fractured skull probably qualifies as a bad time.  And if the problem wasn’t enough to qualify as a bona fide low-point, the solution surely was.  This event relegated most of life to an afterthought for six weeks. 

Having recovered from the surgery, it was time to repair another aspect of my life.  After finding somewhere to live, I had returned to my pre-UK employer, Avanade.  I knew it wasn’t working out the way I had hoped, but the injury had prevented me from dealing with it earlier.  In hindsight, there were multiple factors: I missed the freedom I had as an independent contractor in London, to choose roles that interested me; I missed the money I had as an independent contractor in London; the roles I had in the time since re-joining Avanade were terrible, that rare combination of boring and stressful; I felt I had learned many things in the past 18 months about the process of developing software, and had matured professionally to the point where I was ready to take more responsibility for the outcome of a project; I felt the roles that were coming through at Avanade were not giving me an opportunity to implement these lessons.

September 29: I accepted a 6-month contract with Suncorp, having interviewed the previous day.  The role was just what I was looking for: a green-field project, in the banking sector, using the ASP.NET MVC framework, and an Agile environment.  The project was to first re-write their internet banking site (it had been created over a decade earlier, in classic ASP, and had become difficult to maintain and add new features), and second to implement a suite of new features.  Leaving Avanade was awkward, but it was the right thing for me to do, and I was excited.  The only problem was, the role didn’t start for three weeks.  I had just finished on a role with Avanade, and knowing they wouldn’t start me on another once I had given notice, I offered the option of finishing virtually immediately.  More holidays…Just what I needed!

Work and weddings.  Steve and Kerren; Nigel and Danielle; Kiran and Leanne;  Paul and Amy; Kath and Greg; Michael and Kristen.  These, and the associated Bucks\Hens celebrations filled our weekends for the latter half of the year.  M-A and I are truly grateful for the invitations to attend these occasions.

December 13; Speaking of weddings, this was M-A’s birthday, and a chance for me to plan something without her becoming suspicious.  So I did.        

December 31; We started the year at the beach, and we finished the year at the beach.  Okay, the beaches were maybe 18,000km apart.  We’re spending the final week of the year with Paul and Kristy, Jordan and Kristen, at Point Lookout on Stradbroke Island.  Surfing, boating, swimming, tennis, barbeques, afternoon drinks; there is no better way to end the year.

It seems to be true that as you get older, the years pass ever more quickly.  But 9 countries, 4 residences (including the motorhome), 3 employments, 8 weddings, and a proposal served to slow the process.  2009 felt like a long year, and I attribute that to us treating it like it was an ‘adventure year’; something out of the ordinary.  So, having discovered the secret to slowing time’s passage, I’ve got a plan: treat every year like it’s an adventure.  It’s tiring, for sure.  But totally worth it.

Bring on 2010…