It’s December 31st, thank the Buddha, as remembering 2013 (work, travels, music) has turned out to be a bit of an epic effort. Here are the headlines.
2013 in review – music
Much of the music in my life has revolved around the ukulele this year. There have been one or two other highlights but you’ll have to scroll through the Moselelovebomb to get to them.
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2013 in review – travels
Five holidays may seem like a lot but most were long weekends rather than week-long breaks. And only one flight; the rest were by train, kicking off with a 14-hour journey from Bournville to Derry/Londonderry.
2013 in review – work
It’s been a pretty busy and fruitful year on the work front – bar the occasional CMS-fuelled RSI resurgence, which I’ve mostly resolved by working at a stand-up desk since September.
As well as postural changes, there’s been a promotion, a lot of public speaking and the setting up of a new company. More on all of this below…
40 best photos of the last tax year (2012-13)
It always falls in April, my annual pick of the best/favourite photos from my Flickr uploads. Like my tax return, I’m late sorting this year’s out but here they are – featuring kittens, pigeons, flowers, volcanic Gomera and Lanzarote, a steampunk wedding, Spaghetti Junction, Loaf’s Tom Baker, backward clocks and a dodgy looking fiancé in a fez. Slides below or Flickr set for scrollers. Previous years here.
Goodbye Mozart, Bowie, Rebel MC and Wham!
These LPs and 12 inches are just gathering dust so if there’s anything here my Brum chums might want, then it’s all yours – collection from B30. I can offer a very mixed vinyl bag from all eras and for all, er, tastes. (The close-ups, btw, are Paul Hardcastle’s Rainforest and Sister Sledge Lost In Music.) [Update: all gone. I heart the Internet.]
Female programming dream that’s gone off the Rails
I’ve been meaning to blog this for a while but needed to let my feelings settle down a bit…
The first bit of code I ever wrote was a simple program in Basic on a BBC Microcomputer back in 1984 in the tiny school computer room next to the tuck shop. It did very little but ask me questions in a never-ending loop about my answer strings but I did think: ‘Blimey, that’s pretty cool. I got a machine to talk to me!’
I was rarely out of the computer room after that and told everyone I was going to be a computer programmer – and more likely a systems analyst! – when I grew up. (Pretentious, moi?)
However, my gender got in the way of such ambitious plans.
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Engagement
So this happened… out of the blue on April 13, Pete said: “Will you marry me?” And I said are you serious!? And he said yes and I found myself saying yes back and promptly fell into the wall during the ring bit – but that’s another story. It’s discombobulating but in a lovely way. See Pete’s post for more articulate words. I expect he will produce a scribbled whiteboard brainstorm on how to nail this thing in June. I’m on honeymoon duty, naturally. 
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Coworking spaces London #1: Google Campus review
I’m spending January in London for work. But my Fridays are free for random work, meetings and hopefully a bit of Friday School. So today, on Stef’s recommendation, I tried out Google Campus and met with Andy Bull, author of Multimedia Journalism to chat about brand journalism training.
My one line review of the free basement cafe of Google Campus as a coworking space is: busy Shoreditch hipsterish beardy semi-friendly MacBook hangout with good coffee, lack of food (only two ham croissants left at noon) and superfast wifi but crap phone reception.
Here are a few pics…
2012 in review: volcanoes, photos and a few personal firsts
So that was 2012: work was good, travel was good and life was good. That’s 2013 jinxed then. Here’s what went on in 2012 in the form of a quick(ish) roundup…
January
New Year opened with me standing agog at my first sight of a horse and hound (non-fox) hunt in the North Cotswolds. Two weeks later, I was on a train headed to the Cantal in France to snowshoe Europe’s largest volcano. The month ended with the inaugural Friday School – my invention of a weekly freelance training programme involving a moveable cake-fuelled feast of learning.
