As we rapidly reach the end of the 2010s I thought I would look back at some of the things that have happened. Most of these things are personal to me, with some being about my career.
2010
At the start of 2010 I was working as first line support, server administrator, general IT person. This would all change as my IT Manager and the entire IT team resigned, leaving me as the only member of the IT team. I could have quit at that point but instead I took it as an opportunity to grow and since then I have considered myself to have a career rather than a job.
In the summer of 2010 I met the person that would become my wife and mother of my children.
2010 also marks the start of me driving around, Got my first car in January, a Suzuki Wagon R+. A great first car, but a bit noisy when driving at speed.
2011
In the new year of 2011 I had my first date with my soon to be future wife, which led to a visit to Gretna Green and a marriage proposal later in 2011.
My sister also got married this year, I attempted to be an usher but arrived at the church too late to do much of it.
2011 was my year of leadership as I rebuilt my IT team and learnt how to interview.
2012
Since my uni days I had lived with friends from Uni, 2012 marks moving into my own flat for the first time. Well not really as girlfriend/fiancee was there most of the time.
The first Destination Star Trek took place in London this year and I took the fiancee in a Classic TOS dress.
2013
Wedding bells occurred in April of 2013 as I became a married man. Great time at the wedding, honeymoon, stag do and all the other stuff that goes with getting married.
2014
Moved into a 3 bed room house in preparation for what might happen the following year.
Major upgrades and accomplishments at work, most notably getting a leased line installed. I also started getting more and more involved in software development and I wrote my first few blog posts this year.
It wasn't all happiness as my wife lost her father.
2015
In 2015 I became a parent when my first son James was born. Being a parent is not easy, but I wouldn't change it for anything.
2016
2016 was a significant year for me as I stepped away from a company I had worked at for almost 10 years. I became a full time web applications developer working in the data team. During my time here I would learn lots about data, PowerBI and the challenges of working in a small company.
2017
I volunteered to use my past experience of IT to help with an office move, it was hard work but the move was ultimately a success. I also got the chance to go to York races with our ISP, a company I had worked with before as my previous role.
My second son Edward was born in 2017 and I began to appreciate the challenges of having two children.
I released an Android App to the Google Play store this year, making use of APIs for checking if your email had been involved in a data breach.
2018
Hard to believe this was only last year and loads happened. I celebrated 5 years of marriage, with a night without children, need to have another one of those I think!
I changed jobs again, this time to a large multi-national. I was a developer in a large development team, dominated by contract developers. I learnt a lot about development during my time here and the challenges that working in a large organisation brings.
I bought a house. So this year featured lots of talking to estate agents, mortgage people etc. But it is great to have a house of my own
2019
The final year of the decade has been a really mixed bag. My wife's mental health has been really suffering, but I am hoping is now improving. As a family we are far from being good yet, but we have some good friends around us to support and help. Most notably is our local church, and the family that lives opposite us.
James started School this year and has quickly established himself as one the best readers in his class. I couldn't be more proud of my eldest son.
I have come full circle career wise as I have become a contract developer with the company that I started my career with at the start of the decade. These job changes have been great for me, as a way of seeing what I liked and didn't like and how different tech can be used in different ways.
In December I took part in #AzureAdventCalendar and created my first technical YouTube video. I hope to do more of these next year, time permitting.
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