At the coffee machine, catching up with the new, younger engineer who shares my first name, he asks me what my surname is. I give him the anglicized, easy to pronounce version which doesn’t satisfy him. He asks me how I would pronounce it - cue five attempts, after each of which he fails colossally to reproduce the sounds I make somehow ending up adding, subtracting and transposing syllables through his various attempts. ...
In the picture are two of my favourite things: coffee, particularly that festive specialty ginger bread latte and wasabi peas which have been out of stock at the shop next to work for a while. Which is why I went a little over the top once they were back in, ordered four little packs. #Bliss
Each year, on the last day before work officially resumes, I pop into the office to clear my desk. Something about the emptiness and the quietness allows me to, as I put away the detritus of the past year’s work, progressively bring myself to a place where I feel prepared to face the new work year. A large part of that is about trying to ease myself into the routine of work, acclimatising to my work space again after what usually has been two to three weeks of absence, and a food fuelled haze of sorts. ...
My first run since I cracked a couple of bones in my foot last October went without incident, all fifteen minutes of it. I took my usual route, up the Beach Boulevard and then towards the Beach Esplanade; the long, straight stretch of which I have come to love for the sense of exhilaration I get as my feet pound the ground in time with whatever song I am listening to. ...
This year, instead of a bucket list of things I am hoping to achieve, I chose to identify 12 things, key changes which in my opinion if implemented in my life would deliver the biggest value. The intent is to focus on one for each month, the idea (referenced in this Matt Cutts TEDx talk) being that focusing on one change for a thirty day period gives one a fighting chance of making lasting change. ...
A Year of Lessons Learned - some at great cost - in no particular order: Doubts not dealt with at inception are unlikely to go away of their own accord, they are more likely to fester and then lead to a cataclysmic event; It is almost never ever about you alone, people can (and probably will) get hurt by the fallout of your (in)decisions; The health, quality and colour of the grass across the fence are notoriously difficult to predict, one is perhaps best minded to live by the dictum ’ a bird in hand is worth two in the bush’ ; Mutuality - another notoriously difficult thing to predict - is everything; There is nothing to be gained from overthinking things; Time is perhaps the greatest contributor to clarity and healing; God does still come through, only He does have a peculiar sense of timing. For 2016? ...
Notes 3% reduction in overall networth vs YE 2014; driven mainly by the impact of the crash in the value of the Nigerian Naira on my Nigeria domicilled bits and bobs Full Year (FY) spend was 96% of net earnings (v. 104% for FY 2014); non-charity spend at 71% of net earnings (v.74% for FY 2014). Unsustainable in the long run but headed in the right direction I believe. FY spend ~12% above plan, main driver being expenditures related to my decision to live alone from May (and outfit my house) Main exposure is ~£4k in outstanding loans; not including the £1.5k I wrote off at YE 2014. Key 2016 Actions ...
That perfect year? In Work: Did finally get offered a staff position somewhere that ticked all the boxes I deeply desired at the beginning of the year (O&G operator, strong technical focus and scope to evolve my role). As a bonus, the official job title is now half a sentence :) In Women: The G ‘problem’ ended being resolved in dissolution. Sucked but we were clearly headed no where. I suspect it was me tearing things up instead of dealing with them, again. :( In Faith and Worldview: Not a lot of progress, very easily my worst year faith wise. In Weight: 1 kg net loss, give or take, I do have the excuse of a broken foot in Q3 to blame here though :) In (Net) Worth: Stalled again, slight decrease from 2014 actually - not helped by the Naira tanking and wiping out a shed load of my Nigerian savings and investments.:( F0r 2016? Wash, Rinse, Repeat I guess - but with a lot more fight.
Trying to get a lot more structured with reading - 25 books in total spread across 5 categories - Christian Classics, Literary Classics, Popular Fiction, Modern Christian Writing and Productivity, Personal Development & Non-fiction. Completed: Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer The Pioneer Detectives -Konstantin Kakaes The Best American Essays 2014 - JJ Sullivan (ed) The Land of Steady Habits - Ted Thompson Sexual Detox - Tim Challies NW - Zadie Smith Crafting the Personal Essay - Dinty W Moore What’s so Amazing About Grace - Phillip Yancey How To Be Alone - Jonathan Franzen The Best American Essays 2013 - Cheryl Strayed (ed) The Seven Good Years - Etgar Keret Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez - Richard Rodriguez The Children Act - Ian McEwan The Things They Carried- Tim O’Brien Something to Answer For - P.H. Newby
…Neither saint nor Tzadik nor prophet standing at the gate; he’s just another sinner who has somewhat sharper awareness and uses slightly more precise language to describe inconceivable reality of our world. He doesn’t invent a single feeling or thought – all of them existed long before him… He’s here, at our side, buried up to his neck in mud and filth. The Seven Good Years: A Memoir, Etgar Keret