2024 In Review

On the face of it, when reflecting back on 2024, it seemed a bit of an uneventful year. No children were born, no major world events happened and I didn't even buy a new bike.

However when I looked back through my photos and had a proper think about what happened, it turned out to be a pretty good year. Plenty of adventures with the family, I went on a plane for the first time and long time and I did buy a bike related thing.

Trips out & holidays

2024 saw a couple of holidays, plenty of days out to musicals and theme parks (it helps that we're Merlin annual pass holders) and I also rediscovered going to gigs (and hope to go to a few more in 2025).

As a family we went to Peppa Pig World, Drusillas, Legoland (twice, once at Halloween and the other at Christmas), Chessington and the Sea Life Centre (Alfie got a bonus trip to Sea Life Centre twice and another to Chessington in the school holidays).

My wife and I went and saw Hamilton and Stranger Things - The First Shadow. We also took Alfie to his first show by taking him to see the Frozen musical in London.

There were only a couple of gigs I went to at the end of the year. Embrace were doing a 20th anniversary tour of their "Out of Nothing" at Chalk in Brighton. My obsession with Bastille this year was realised and I managed to get tickets to their "&" tour at the Shepherds Bush Empire, along with seeing Dan perform some songs at Resident, a small record shop in Brighton.

Holidays this year took us to Wales and to Cornwall. In Wales we visited Bluestone, which is like Center Parcs. The bonus is you get to drive golf carts to get around the site. Cornwall was a family holiday with the 4 of us. It had it's ups and downs (and British holiday mentality with beach visits when it was cloudy) nut ultimately was a great 7 days.

Home

At the beginning of the year we had to deal with a snail infestation in our fish tank. From one, seemingly innocent snail, we ended up with hundreds (if not thousands) of snails all over the tank. We tried all different techniques but the key was a Snailcatcher paired with an assassin snail. The snail is still around (and we think it feeds on some of the shrimp), but we haven't seen another snail since.

With the start of rest days at work (more on that in a minute) I found myself with more time at home without the family, which let me get on with some DIY bits which weren't pressing. I moved and fenced off the compost bin (so I didn't have to look at it) and replaced the rotting wooden shed with a smaller, plastic one.

After endless leaks, our fibreglass kitchen roof was replaced with an asphalt one by the original builders (who had been coming back to patch the leaks). It was no fault of theirs, the material just didn't bond well, nor did it like the English South-Coast weather.

We swapped the kids bedrooms round this year. We bought Alfie a cabin bed which means he has more space in his room to play - something he noticed his friends having. We also took the kids to IKEA for the first time which was an experience!

Work

Work was a roller-coaster in 2024 and ended wih a bit of a squeeze. There were some highlights, however, as we introduced the 9-day fortnight alongside a health cash plan for employees. The 9-day fortnight was well received, with employees getting to select a day over a 2 week period which they can have off as a "rest day". There are some rules and boundaries around it but it seems to be respected and thoroughly enjoyed.

We had a little bit of staff turnover this year (not as much as 2023, mind) with one of our senior backend developers, Zaq, leaving. It was amicable, but he is missed. Autumn saw us hire two developers in his place - a Junior and a Mid.

I did manage to get a "work trip" squeezed in over the summer. In August I flew to Germany for my first TYPO3 Developer Days conference. It was great to meet some of the TYPO3 developer community, along with having a few days away (and getting on a plane for the first time in a long time).

Stats Analysis

2024 saw a good cadence of blog posts (I judge more than one a month to be healthy) but saw only one post from 2024 make it into the top 10. That post about migrating Gitlab has been in the top spot since it's creation and I don't see it moving anytime soon.

Beer reviews, once again, took a little step down. This is slightly fuelled by health (drinking slightly less), partly by money (craft beers are expensive) as well as starting to find a groove of beers I like and drinking less new ones.

With cycling, I've finally divided out eBike rides from non-electric rides to help see where the bulk of the stats are coming from - I was surprised to see my non-eRides being higher than my eBike. Number of rides took a dip but the distance stayed steady.

I purchased a turbo trainer at the end of the year, so I am expecting my distance to be significantly higher next year - I might have to see if I can separate out the "real" miles with the Zwifting ones.

Walking took an increase as I got back into Geocaching. At the beginning of the year I managed a 17 day streak and also discovered Adventure Labs - virtual geocaches where you visit real-world places to answer questions.

A generally active year and I hope it continues.