2015: Year in Review

Thanks 2015, you were awesome.

The year is nearly over. 2015 was a very interesting year and it had a lot of ups and downs – mostly ups, and when things keep looking up, that’s pretty good too. In summary, I got my driver’s licence, did quite a bit of travelling (both near and far), switched jobs twice (yet enjoyed every part of it), climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, got involved in public speaking and subsequently inspired a few people, and got spoiled terribly throughout the year. 😆

I started doing these yearly summaries in my ‘Hello 20XX’ posts on the first day of the year, reviewing the previous year. It didn’t make sense to do that, though – it made more sense to do it on one of the last few days of the year. Here is my summary of achievements and happenings in 2015, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I also published a post on my Best posts of 2015. ☺️

January

  • I photographed Field Day festival on New Years Day. The music wasn’t my cup of tea but there were some other people photographing, including my friend Gwen – so I had some company. 😊
  • Finally succumbed to seeing a Beatles tribute band with my dad – after previously thinking that there was no point in seeing something that was ‘not the real thing’. After my experience, I threw away my criticisms and had a change of heart.
  • Nick took me on a little cruise boat that went around the harbour. We had a beautiful dinner on the waves. It was probably the most romantic thing anyone had done for me (to that date). Tears of joy. 😭
  • Went to the zoo! 🐨🐯🦁🐷
  • I had to photograph a Highasakite concert. I get in for free if I’m taking photos and I will occasionally get to bring another guest. Most of the time I just buy another ticket for Nick. This time they him in for free for some reason (saved about $60 there haha).
  • Watched an Eddie Izzard show on the steps of the Opera House.

February

  • Nick and I went to Palm Beach then I took him to Sizzler as a surprise. It was kind of hilarious, really, because the only clue I gave was a fire emoji. 🔥 It had been a while since I had been to a Sizzler restaurant.
  • My friend Andrias got married. 💍 It was a beautiful wedding ceremony and reception.
  • Nick and I had an eventful Valentine’s Day with a romantic lunch and a Hey Geronimo show (that was the second time we saw them that month).
  • Nick started photographing my Fashion Friday shoots this month.
A photo of me and Nick on Valentine’s Day
Me and Nick on Valentine’s Day

March

  • I took Nick to the Thirlmere Festival of Steam. It was hard to keep it a surprise but I knew he loved steam trains and I didn’t think he would have ever come across the festival.
  • Went to Wollongong for the Farmer and the Owl Festival. Nick didn’t like it. 😢 I now should avoid taking him to see thrash metal, metal, grunge, hard rock, garage rock or any other kind of sub-genre of rough rock music unless we have seats, haha.
Steam trains at the Thirlmere Festival of Steam
We went to the Thirlmere Festival of Steam in March

April

  • We went to Hunter Valley for Easter and had a nice relaxing trip.
  • I had been really keen to go to a disco that played actual disco dance music from the 70s and 80s, and tried going to an ‘After Work Disco’ that was advertised. I was disappointed to find the place was pretty empty and totally not playing disco music.
  • Apple released their Apple Watch this month, and Nick and I went to the store to have a look. We were interviewed and Nick got famous and appeared in these two news videos.
  • Went to a Ross Noble show. He was hilarious. I like his improv style.
A view from our room at Leaves and Fishes
We spent the Easter long weekend in Hunter Valley

May

  • Climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge! It was not as scary as I thought.
  • Went to a Thomas the Tank Engine event. Aw yes!
  • My birthday present from Nick was a holiday in Hamilton Island. It was beautiful, and lots of fun. I think my favourite part was the jet skiing. I was so scared but it was marvellous and so exhilarating.
  • On my birthday we had a Back to the Future themed hackathon at work. I was quite pleased with the amount of effort that went into the organisation of the day. Nick and I had a really fancy lunch in the Sydney tower, I had coffee and cake with my close friends, and to top it off, watched Hey Geronimo play a show that night.
Nick, Nick’s sister Beck, and me doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb
We climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge at sunset
Me and Nick on a jet ski in Hamilton Island
Nick bought me a trip to Hamilton Island for my birthday. I love this photo of us jet skiing.

June

  • I left my job as a front-end developer at Freelancer.com, and started working at hipages.
  • Saw Jebediah in concert. I love that band!
  • It was Nick’s birthday and my mum’s birthday this month.

July

  • I got to photograph Blur. And see them play, obviously. It was amazing to photograph them, and I am so thankful for the experience.
  • I saw The Wombats in concert. I hadn’t really listened to them but after seeing them live I really wanted to see them again.
A photo of Damon Albarn from Blur
I got to photograph Blur live in July

August

  • We went to a disco which was more enjoyable than the ‘fake’ disco from April. The music was great, even though it wasn’t all Donna Summer and Wham! kind of stuff.
  • I got free tickets to the Dog Lovers Show from work, because we were a sponsor. Of course I attended the event and took some photos as well! I love dogs.

September

  • Went to a Walk the Moon concert. I really only knew Shut Up and Dance, but they proved to be fun to watch.
  • I went to a Chatime tasting session and got to try some of the new sparkling iced teas they would be releasing in the summer (December and onwards). The Sparkling Strawberry Guava Black Iced Tea was my favourite, and they actually chose it as one of the two flavours they released this year! :D
  • Nick and I both bought Canon 6Ds. It was time to buy a new camera!
  • More in Splurging Money on Expensive Things, I pre-ordered my rose gold iPhone and had it delivered to my work office. Everyone marvelled over me opening it.
  • I resigned from my job at hipages. It was very difficult to have left a place I grew so fond of in such a short period of time (four months). I cried a little, and everyone farewelled me warmly, but I had a more exciting opportunity on the horizon.
A photo of my rose gold iPhone and its box
I bought the Rose Gold iPhone 6s in September
A photo of my new Canon 60D
Also spent a lot of money on a new camera…

October

  • Went to Indonesia for my cousin Antonius’ wedding. We had more adventures visiting a few tourist attractions. The funniest part was being bombarded by schoolchildren who wanted to take photos with Nick and myself using their selfie sticks – they love tourists.
  • I started working at Campaign Monitor. It’s almost everything I expected and wanted, but most importantly, I felt welcomed, loved, and very much a part of the team. I feel very lucky to have been given the opportunity to work here. ☺️
Prambanan Temple in Indonesia
Prambanan Temple was one of the few places we visited in Indonesia

November

  • I did my P1 driving test and passed! I was a bit nervous but I couldn’t have done it without some professional help from a qualified driving instructor. They really do tell you everything you need to know.
  • I dived into public speaking, doing an internal talk at work on the topic of microdata. I didn’t practice enough, but a lot of people at work thought my topic was very interesting. I hope to do a much more refined version of the presentation at some point.

December

  • I did a presentation at the December SydCSS event on how important documentation and comments are in CSS (summary and slides coming soon!). By the way, you can have a look at some of the photos. 🙃
  • I also did a presentation at Girl Geeks Sydney about blogging.
  • I spent Christmas with both my family and Nick’s, though Nick’s family were more festive, and so were his extended family. They were generous with their gifts, too. ☺️
  • I went to IKEA for the first time in my life! Big deal, I know. Their veggie balls were yum!
Me speaking at SydCSS in December
Photo of me speaking at SydCSS, taken by Omar.

What awesome things did you achieve this year?

Comments on this post

Sounds like a very accomplishing year! It’s amazing how much we do in a year. I always think it’s good to do one of these post because it helps put things into perspective and we can see what all has happened to us in a year. I’m doing my year in review post, too :) But I’ll be posting mine on December 31, haha! XD

Thanks for sharing your year, Georgie. I’m glad I was able to go through them with you through your blog! ^^

Sometimes I forget things that have happened, and I realise doing those monthly reviews has been a good way of doing an ongoing recap. I actually didn’t look back through those though I probably should have!

I thought about posting on the last day of the year, but I’m still working this week (from home) up until Thursday. Apart from a low-key get-together at one of my friends’ houses for New Year’s Eve, I have nothing planned – so I don’t think anything will happen in the next couple of days that would have been worthy of being in this post. ;)

What an Incredible year Georgie! I think I’ll also be doing a post like this in… uh the last 2 days of 2015! :)

What struck me the most of your 2015 was… CHATIME TASTE TESTING SESSION <3 I love Chatime! hahahaa

And man, that Canon cameraa!

I was going to do it on one of the last days, but as I mentioned to Tara, I didn’t have much planned for the remaining days, so I posted it a little earlier. Chatime seems to be popular in some Asian countries as well! :D When I went to Indonesia they also had Chatime in their shopping malls.

I looooove yearly recaps! I’ve been doing that since 2009 and it’s interesting to look at my previous yearly recaps.

You’ve made a lot of accomplishments, Georgie. Good for you! I’d like to wish you a prosperous new year ahead and definitely more accomplishments to come. :D

This is such a cool way of summarizing the year! 2015 has been so cool for you Georgie! And I have followed almost each part of it, I feel, this year! I hope 2016 is even better! :D

Glad to hear that things went great this year! You got a lot of adventuring under your belt ;). I can’t believe the year is over already. It’s great to read all of the things that happened this year :D. I remembered some of them like the field day festival, wedding, steam train festival, island vacation, getting a new iphone, and especially getting your license! And best of all, you get to roll out in a cool car X’D. IKEA is an awesome place to look around- especially if you want some interior decor ideas.

Hope 2016 is a great year for you as well!

Aw Nancy! I think as I mentioned in a comment on your blog at some point, it’s crazy that I have remembered so many of your posts when you do recaps as well. ☺️ I got my car in 2014 but of course now I get to drive it everywhereeeee! Yup, I did like getting some ideas from IKEA as well, even if we weren’t going to buy anything.

Haha it’s funny you mention about seeing a Beatles tribute band because I totally felt the same way – no point in seeing something that isn’t the real thing. But then I saw Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles this year, and it was like being at a Beatles concert.

Fun fact: pretty sure we’re using Campaign Monitor at work. Glad to hear you like working there. :)

I really like they way you summarized things by each month. I think I am going to switch my year in review up and do something similar. Normally I answer a survey of questions, but I don’t feel like it accurately represents my year anymore, especially since some of the answers don’t change.

Yeah I feel the same about other bands now. I did ask my dad why he didn’t just see the real Village People since they are still around and why he just sees tribute bands, and he said that the lineup isn’t the same anymore. Same as my opinion on the Smashing Pumpkins, I guess!

That’s good to know! Nice to see people use CM over our competitors of course. ;)

I also used to do a questionnaire that floated around the internet but now I prefer to do a summary like this. The questions got boring and not all of them were relevant for me.

Aww Georgie! Sounds like you’ve had a fab year! I’m so proud of how far you’ve come, every time I read your posts I always feel so motivated to do things like that myself!

I hope you and Nick have a wonderful New Year! <3

You’ve certainly had quite an amazing year. Changing jobs, weddings, concerts, traveling! You are one busy lady! My year has been eventful in ways which I’m happy to say are over. These events were quite interesting but also stressful. I will blog about that soon. Speaking of which, I did the 8 photos of happiness. I thank you for the idea. I mentioned you. :) I wish you an amazing year ahead and nothing but the very best. Cheers to an incredible 2016! :D

It’s pretty cool seeing you be an influencer in the tech industry. Although you always were an influencer to me back in the early days of blogging. :)
I love public speaking and can’t get enough of it. We will have to exchange notes one day.

Happy New Year Georgie!

You did a lot this past year! That’s awesome! <3

I've been way out of the loop. I hope to end that with this new year. I want to at least keep up with my blog if not anything else. I miss blog hopping and talking to you and everyone else. :) <3

Happy new year!

It doesn’t matter if you have been out of the loop because I guess this review post brought you up to date! :) I hope you’ve been well and had a happy new year. Hopefully see you blogging more soon. ❤️

Wow, you did so much in 2015! I’m amazed at how many concerts you went to and all the places and events you visited. Congrats on your new job and on passing your driving test in 2015! I’m really glad Campaign Monitor worked out for you. Also, major kudos for doing those presentations. I’ve done presentations at work for our developer lunch and learns, but I don’t have the guts to do one at an event or conference. That’s great that you went for it!

I hope 2016 will be an amazing year for you! Happy new year!