Look back at 2008

2008 was supposed to be about finishing off a commercial product I had already been working on for 18 months, finding a market and selling it. It was the first full year in our new house and it was a big landmark birthday for me.

January
The year started at a small party with some of our friends who live close by. Returning to work, I found one of my team had resigned – this was to set the scene for the remainder of the year. Other than that, and getting over Christmas, January was filled with thoughts of skiing. A great deal of time was spent researching and monitoring the various ski company websites which meant that we eventually booked just 2 weeks before the holiday and received a handsome saving, enhanced by a concession given to us the year before when we had a number of issues with the company.

February
The month started with the skiing in France, which was excellent, the snow was really good and we had a good crowd in our chalet. This year we had no problems with our travelling and no problems with noisy children (there were none in the chalet). The beginning of my work woes for the year commenced when I returned; firstly a witch hunt, trying to find someone to blame for the companies woes, which centred on me, but which eventually failed to point any fingers, and then the announcement of redundancies.

March
The redundancies were finalised an instigated. All but 2 of us left the company, either being pushed or jumping. There was a real end of an era feeling and a great deal of concern about the future, but with the company performing the way it wasn’t, it was inevitable. Herself was also in the process of changing jobs, so this was a very uncertain time of the year. The upside was that Herself went on a short-break with one of her friends to Prague – all a surprise arranged by the two husbands.

April
Things started to settle down again in April. It seemed I was being paid and that there were still bits and pieces of work to be done. A technical audit was first on the list. I also found I was the victim of a nasty credit card con where I was paying every month for membership to a club I knew nothing about. This got jumped on very quickly.

May
Herself’s birthday looms in May. Having decided to buy her a new camera, I spent many, many hours researching the best one to get and finally bought a Casio (somewhat to my surprise). Because I had some more time on my hands, I also started a blog.

June
My birthday is at the start of June and this year it was the landmark 40. Herself organised a lovely surprise and took me to a hotel where I was wined and dined and then stayed the night. The next day I got my presents, most notably my Wii, which has seen much use this year. I also transferred the blog to its current home on Blogspot. June was the month I started mainly working at home, only going into the office twice a week.

July
The main event in July was the launch of the iPhone 3G. I was to be found queuing outside a mobile phone shop in Didcot and did eventually come away with one on launch day (recorded in great detail). The other main event was a fraught computer rebuild, necessitated by a faulty graphics card and a messed-up RAID array, again, recorded in detail.

August
Our month for visitation, with us travelling to visit long-lost friends ooop North, and other friends coming to see us an introducing me to Guitar Hero.

September
Our diving holiday was this month, after the obligatory purchase of lots of kit. I also failed to finish Mario Galaxy (even though I thought I had), and had to shell out lots of money on my Car for reasons which still elude me.

October
I finally finished Mario Galaxy this month and also finally used my Christmas present of a flight simulator experience.

November
November started with the Dive show at the NEC, which was busy but not particularly informative, and ended with Herself’s Mother moving house. In between, I was served my redundancy notice – not unexpected, but a blow nonetheless.

December
The end of quite a year. I officially finish work at the end of this month and still don’t have a new job lined up. Christmas was spent at our house with the whole of our two families visiting for Christmas and Boxing days, which was quite something. Lots more research produced a suitable printer for Herself for Christmas.