Review of 2013
So, another new year, another blog post reviewing the year gone by. I’ll keep it brief!
Jamaica
We went to Jamaica this year. Since I’ve been an adult, this was by far the most exotic holiday I have been on. It was fantastic, it’s only a shame we couldn’t be away for longer. Next time we will be, although perhaps we’ll visit other places on the east coast of America. I wrote a brief post about my time in Jamaica back in July.
I got a new Job!
I almost forget that this happened within the last year. Straight after we got back from Jamaica, I started work as the lead developer at Koan. It’s been a really fun adventure so far and a great learning experience as a developer. Here are just a few of the things I’ve been able to work with since I started here:
- MVC
- Azure
- Unit testing
- Selenium
- Raspberry Pi
- Python
- Node.js
- SignalR
I feel that I have progressed a lot as a developer, filling in a lot of the gaps I felt I had in my CV. I’m looking forward to learning a whole lot more in the coming months.
Android development
In the past 12 months, I laboured through writing a Twitter app, only to not release it to the public. Since then I have started a new project, where some of the lessons from previous experiences have been learned, some have not. This is an on-going development experiment, watch this space.
New Phone
I finally have a Nexus phone and have ditched my long term contract with Orange. At the beginning of November I ordered a Google Nexus 5, which (apart from sending the first one back) I have been delighted with. It gets out of my way, I get to concetrate on the apps I’m using, without having to fight the hardware or the OS.
There is some debate as to whether or not I should have bought the black version instead of the white one. I’m not too fussed with the phone I have. I’m happy.
Babies, babies, babies!
This past year seems to have been baby central, everywhere I turn there are babies.
My cousin Ryan and his wife had their first baby (Aria) earlier this year and another cousin (Leonie) has her second. Our friends Nicci & Simon have had a baby girl (Maisie), other friends Lisa & Simon (I know, I get confused, all the time!) are expecting at the end of January.
I fear this is it now. I don’t think I’m going to get away from babies and conversations about babies for the next few years. Once they can talk and walk, I’ll be a lot happier I think!
Onwards.
So, this is 2014. It’s a very futuristic sounding date. There is a World Cup this year. That’s exciting. Hopefully some big life decisions will be made this year, so by the time I am writing this same post next year, I’ll hopefully had an exciting year!
I think I managed to keep this brief. I’ll be back with more posts in the not too distant future.