Space year 2008 seemed to fly past while barely leaving much time for reflection. A brief summary, then, of the year seems worthwhile, before I forget it all:
Places visited:
That latter point deserves a little more detail. As places go, Helsinki’s a little out of the way. Most people don’t go there, which is a shame. It’s a nice city, of similar size to Glasgow, and I’m kind of missing hearing people speaking Finnish while out and about. I’ll definitely need to revisit (possibly a weekend jaunt?) at some point, now that easyjet are offering dirt-cheap flights.
Working for Nokia was, of course, my reason for being in Finland for so long. This, too, was pretty awesome. I certainly learned a lot, and worked longer hours than I was supposed to in doing so. But it wasn’t all work-work-work, far from it. I can show you various pubs to prove it.
Also during 2008, I passed my first year viva. While I wasn’t scared of that milestone, it’s good to have it behind me. So I’m starting 2009 on an optimistic note. I’m settled back in Glasgow, I’m really enjoying work at the moment, and things are generally looking pretty good. I possibly have some interesting travel for 2009, for which pictures will undoubtedly appear on Flickr. I’m hoping to run the Edinburgh marathon this year, or perhaps I’ll literally die trying. But, hey, why not aim high? I’m also impatiently awaiting the delivery of a shiny netbook (a Samsung NC10, into which I’ll add another 1GB RAM, and onto which I’ll install Ubuntu); it’s going to me my lightweight, throw-around, working-from anyplace laptop. Aiming to make 2009 pretty flexible. Telecommuting, ahoy!
2009, I’m expecting good things from you.
Posted by Stephen Strowes on Sunday, January 11th, 2009. You can follow me on twitter.
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