I’m yet to blog about the year gone by, so I thought it’d be useful to reflect upon the year like many other people have. It’s been a very busy year and I’m surprised to see it go already. I’ve met many new people and had many great experiences and it will be interesting to see how the next year turns out.

Read on for even more detail…

Foreign cities and countries I’ve visited this year (do I list Brisbane as one now?):

• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Bruges and Brussels, Belgium
• Alicante, Spain
• Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China
• Macau, Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China
• Stockholm (twice), Sweden
• Oulu, Finland
• Oporto, Portugal
• Berlin, Germany
• Singapore and a quick trip to Johor Bahru, Malaysia
• Dublin, Ireland
• Oslo, Norway
• Geneva, Switzerland
• Göteborg, Sweden
• New York, USA

Musical events I’ve attended:

• Raindance Underground
• The Delays
• The Camden Crawl
• Pete Murray
• Lior
• The Rakes
• Loveparade
• Red Hot Chilli Peppers
• John Butler Trio
• The Vines
• Muse
• Paolo Nutini

West End Shows (and other theatre things I’ve seen):

• Blue Man Group
• The Mousetrap
• The Rocky Horror Show
• Avenue Q
• Wicked
• Phantom of the Opera
• Momix: Lunar Sea

Conferences I’ve presented at:

• Thoughtworks UK Away Day, London
• XP2006, Oulu, Finland
• Javazone 2006, Oslo, Norway

Cities I’ve worked in:

• London (Hammersmith)
• Poole
• Milton Keynes
• Maidenhead

Definite highlights of the year:

• Being back in Brisbane for Ben and Michelle’s wedding
• Ben’s bucks weekend in Amsterdam
• Helping out with the surprise visit of Gerrod and Kristy to London
• The five course, ‘Culinary Walk through Chocolate’ with accompanying wine/beer that I ate with Kath in Belgium
• BBQ on Primrose Hill overlooking London in summer
• Seeing the Finnish Shouting Choir perform at the XP2006 conference dinner
• The most random weekend away, overseas with mates in Göteborg.

There are definitely more moments I haven’t a chance to write about or reflect upon but overall it’s been a pretty good year. I am appreciating all the time that I have spent over here, and I’m glad I’m still in touch with many people from back home and made many new friends as well.