It’s Boxing Day and I’m a small pile on the sofa. We successfully Did Christmas at ours this year, and I never want to see another mince pie (until next year).
So, what better time than now to look back on the year?
Skip to bits you care about:
The year in...
...big life things
- We bought a house! It's great! I have written at length about the house, but it's still so surreal to be living here. I now have my own office, so I'm working from home a lot more. We're hopefully getting a dog soon, as well. We hosted Christmas for the first time ever, and it was only moderately stressful.
- I've been driving a bit more, trying to get my confidence back up. I had a minor car accident in 2018 that was quite traumatic (nobody was hurt, thankfully) and haven't driven much since. Managed to drive myself to IKEA, and later on the dual carriageway to the out-of-town shopping centre. I still can't bring myself to drive at night (when the accident happened) but I'm hoping to knock that on the head soon. The goal is to be able to drive to my parents' down south without needing James to drive me.
- As I've got more senior in my role at work, my responsibilities have evolved and I found myself really struggling in a way I haven't before. Up until now, I've done fine context-switching constantly, and working in a very interrupt-driven way. I've found that as my work is less well-defined and the problems much more ambiguous – and I'm the one who has to decide what we do – I've been feeling completely overwhelmed and bad at my job. I thought I had too much on my plate, but when I listed everything out it wasn't actually that much. I'd always start to-do lists with the best intentions to try and keep on top of things, but would constantly forget I had them. After talking to various people and reading various things, I actually started to wonder if I had mild ADHD, and it was finally becoming a problem. I've asked to be referred for an assessent via NHS Right to Choose as the standard waiting list for ADHD assessment can take years.
...conferences
I stuck to my 4-conferences-a-year rule from last year, and it was great. Next year I might even do LESS. I love speaking at conferences, and travelling, but I don’t think I have the inspiration or energy to come up with another talk any time soon – so I’ll see who else wants to hear my migrations talk, but I may end up just doing a couple of speaking gigs next year.
- In May I finally got the chance to speak at one of my fave UK conferences, Leeds-based All Day Hey. It was the debut of the talk I wrote based on our experiences migrating to Typescript at Monzo: less of a technical talk than you might think, and more of “how to do any kind of migration, and maybe don’t actually do it, have you considered that”.
- I attended StaffPlus again in June. It continues to be the most relevant conference for what I actually do, but it's a thoroughly overwhelming experience with so many people as the event is combined with the massive Lead Dev. Apparently it's moving out of the Barbican next year, which hopefully means more tickets will become available for StaffPlus. It pains me how expensive it is; I had to borrow someone else's learning budget on top of mine to be able to buy the ticket.
- Popped along to Bristol in June for Pixel Pioneers, a lovely web and UI/UX conference in Bristol. I keep meaning to go back to Bristol and explore some more, as it’s only a couple of hours on the train from London.
- In September we travelled to Freiburg where I was lucky enough to be part of the roster for Smashing Conference. I met some amazing folks, and the organisers are some of the loveliest people I’ve ever met. I tried in vain to practise my extremely rusty German.
- November brought with it Beyond Tellerrand Berlin. It was lovely to visit Berlin again, although I didn’t get much chance to explore. It was great to hang out with some of the folks I’d met at other conferences, and meet some new friends too! Alas, this coincided with FFConf, so I didn’t get to attend that this year.
Next year I’ve got JSHeroes lined up so far, plus one more that’s yet to be announced. I’ve heard so many nice things about JSHeroes, so I’m really excited to be speaking there!
...gardening
2024 was the year I finally got a garden. Well... two gardens, actually! We have a front and a back garden. When we moved in, the front garden was horribly overgrown, and the back garden was just long grass.
- We dug in two beds in the back garden, and moved the path. I've now got a potting shed at the back, which is my own little gardening den. Next step is to get a little greenhouse.
- James built me a couple of raised beds, including a little one for my herb garden. Whenever I need sage, parsley, thyme, chives, rosemary or oregano, I can just pop outside. (I've got basil growing merrily in a pot on the kitchen windowsill, as well.)
- There was a sad-looking apple tree in a pot in our back garden when we moved in, and it's now been planted in the front. Hoping that will grow a bit more!
- My acer, which for years was wind-battered and dehydrated by our front door, is now in the ground in a more sheltered spot. We've got heavy clay, but there are plenty of acers around in our neighbours' gardens, so I'm hopeful this one will do just as well.
- I have killed several plants already, including a brand new clematis.
- We hacked down the tough, overgrown shrubs in the front, allowing the hypericums (aka St John's Wort) and weigela to grow back a lot softer and nicer. We'd like to plant a handful more evergreen shrubs along the driveway to stop litter from being blown into the garden.
- I spent a lot of time fighting dandelions and brambles, to varying degrees of success. I ended up giving up on the entirely-organic approach for the brambles, and poisoning the shit out of them, but it did at least seem to work.
- I've planted a load of garlic in the herb bed (for lack of more appropriate space), as well as a ton of alliums, tulips, daffs and various spring bulbs in pots.
- Hoping that the layer of mulch I put down on one of the beds will break down the clay a bit for the spring.
- The raised bed on the front patio now has a seasonal container for some pizazz, plus a handful of heucheras and other bedding plants around it. Stuck some bulbs in there as well, and I am now at war with a fox which keeps trying to dig them up.
...travel
I didn’t do any Big Holidays this year, because of the house. Instead, we did a few little trips - James came with me to Freiburg, and we visited the New Forest as well.
This year’s lads’ trip brought us to Rye, in East Sussex. My second time in the area, but lovely to come back. We stayed in a lovely townhouse, went birdwatching at RSPB Dungeness, and walking on the marshes. Dungeness is an endlessly curious place and a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), with a unique ecosystem (the largest expanse of shingle in the UK, and the UK’s only desert) and two decommissioned nuclear power plants that loom quietly over the reserve. The reserve itself is peppered with tiny cabins, some built from old rail carriages, and one belonging to the late artist Derek Jarman. We popped into a few that had been converted into studios and galleries.
...books
2024 was the year I caved and started reading romantasy books. Unlike the time some years ago that I read Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight because I felt like I should at least read them before mocking them – and they deserved every single insult – I read ACOTAR and then immediately hoovered up the sequels. They are very enjoyable and so easy to read, which is honestly exactly what I needed this year.
I feel like I’ve done a less good job than last year of reading the kind of books you tell people about and don’t immediately follow with some kind of excuse, partly because I’ve been perpetually exhausted and the only thing I manage to get through successfully is the literary equivalent of a Big Mac. But sometimes you just need that junk food fix in the name of escapism, and you can eat your Booker-prize-winning vegetables when you have a bit more energy.
Or maybe I should just stop being ashamed for liking this kind of book, that works too.
Side note: I feel like I need a separate list for “most tenuous analogies of the year”.
Let's get the romantasy ones out of the way first:
Yes, I read all of the Sarah J. Maas books: they can all pretty much be summed up as "Headstrong female heroine meets her fated true love and saves the world from the Big Bad over the course of 3-7 books". I will obviously read more of them.
- Throne of Glass series: this series is probably the best out of all Maas' work, but the first couple of books are not quite as good as the rest. I think the latter books are genuinely good.
- A Court of Thorns and Roses series: I enjoyed these a lot, ridiculous as they are. I think everyone makes some questionable choices, but it's still a lot of fun.
- Crescent City series: a fantasy romance with a modern-day setting. First book was fun, second was all right, third read like bad fanfiction.
- Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher: fantasy romance, except the characters were over the age of about 25, and the male protagonist was a paladin who likes to knit socks for people. Delightful.
- From Blood and Ash series by Jennifer L. Armentrout: see description for all the Sarah J. Maas books. Literally exactly the same.
- The Fourth Wing: I kind of wish I could un-read this, because the writing is garbage and it's honestly so obvious the "bad guy" is going to be the love interest because of how extremely thirsty the protagonist is from the first page. There's also dragons, and the main characters getting horny because the dragons are getting it on. You see why I want to erase this from my memory. I don't really understand why people like this so much.
The rest of this year’s reads, in no particular order:
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky: a sci-fi set in the far future where we've gone and trashed earth so they're trying to populate a new planet with primates and some virus to fast-forward evolution, only it doesn't quite go to plan.
- A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab: a fantasy story about a magician who travels between parallel Londons.
- Sistersong by Lucy Holland: a retelling of a traditional murder ballad The Twa Sisters.
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: a biography of Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose cancerous cells (known as HeLa cells) were taken and used for medical research without her knowledge. HeLa cells have led to significant developments in medical science, but she and her family never saw a penny. A really fascinating and heartbreaking read.
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu: didn't quite finish this one, it just went on a bit.
- The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: we actually watched the (very good) dramatisation of this on Apple TV with Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, and that spurred me to read the book. A Victorian paleontologist travels to a remote Essex village to investigate sightings of a so-called "serpent"
- Say Nothing by Patrick Redden Keefe: accounts of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the lives of some of the key figures in the IRA. It was a fascinating read.
I read three books by Rebecca Kuang, and it wasn’t until I was halfway through Yellowface that I realised she was also R.F. Kuang who wrote the excellent Babel. She's now one of my favourite authors.
- Yellowface by Rebecca Kuang: the story of a white author who takes credit for her late Chinese-American friend's work, and how it all unravels
- Babel by R.F. Kuang: British imperialism, magical realism, linguistics and silver bars.
- Currently reading The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang: a girl from a poor province of a fictional empire based on China gets into a prestigious military academy and discovers a talent for shamanism.
If you happen to be in central London any time soon (you poor soul), the big Waterstones on Piccadilly has a Booker library on the lower ground floor, with all the Booker prize winners and nominees over the years. It's worth a visit for some reading list inspiration!
...podcasts
My most-listened podcasts this year were:
- If Books Could Kill – sardonic takedowns of well-known non-fiction books and political goings-on
- Switched On Pop – pop music, analysed and dissected
- Darknet Diaries – stories from the world of cybersecurity
- Twenty Thousand Hertz – all things audio and sound.
- I haven’t listened to Off Menu quite so much this year, but the recent Derren Brown episode made me laugh out loud in the street, which was moderately embarrassing.
- New to me this year was Close Your Eyes: a drama thriller about a man who joins a cult to try and find his missing brother. It just gets weirder and weirder.
...music
I’ve officially had enough Taylor’s Versions, and I didn’t get tickets for the Eras Tour (unlike apparently everyone else??). Thought The Tortured Poet’s Department was boring and didn’t make it all the way through. Sorry Swifties.
- BRAT - Charli XCX (or technically ‌Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not): I definitely wasn’t immune to this absolutely ridiculous album’s charms, and some of the covers made the songs even better (girl, so confusing with Lorde is definitely the better version).
- Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute To Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense - various artists: millennials’ obsession with Talking Heads has led to this excellent covers compilation of songs from the iconic Stop Making Sense live album/film. I particularly love Paramore’s cover of Burning Down The House, and girl in red’s Girlfriend is Better.
- No Obligation - The Linda Lindas: the second album by a young band making very good rock music with a sprinkling of riot grrrl inspiration.
- Hopes and Fears 20 - Keane: I was thoroughly obsessed with Keane in my teens. Posters, t-shirts, albums, posting on the official forums, curating a collection of bootleg mp3s. They somewhat undeservedly had a reputation as a very bland, middle-of-the-road band (probably because they were posh and got played on Radio 2), but I still think they’re absolutely brilliant. This will always be one of my favourite albums – it holds up so well – and I love a good remaster. We went to see them at the O2 for the 20th anniversary tour, and they’re as enthralling as they’ve ever been. Incredible songwriting, Tom Chaplin’s extraordinary voice, and beautiful instrumentation. This version also has some of my favourite B-sides on as well: Walnut Tree, Snowed Under, To The End Of The Earth.
- copy/paste vol.1 (abridged) - Garbage: sneaking in at the last minute, this one only came out recently. I looove Garbage and these are some great covers – especially love the cover of Cities in Dust.
- From Zero - Linkin Park: I was never much of a Linkin Park fan (though I feel like I should’ve been), but I honestly can’t get enough of The Emptiness Machine and I think their new vocalist suits them so well. I’ll probably go back and listen to all the old stuff.
- Your Own Adventure - Hollow Hand: I saw Caitlin Rose at Moth Club this year, and Hollow Hand were supporting (and also being Caitlin's backing band). This is a great country/folk rock album by a band hailing from Brighton.
- Bat for Lashes: saw her play at the Barbican this year with my friend who's a big fan, and had only known about one of her songs, but I had such a great time. She really is excellent live. I think my favourite album is Lost Girls (linked) which is very new wave/80s-inspired.
- The Chappell Roan hype train (I am on it): I have finally learned how to pronounce her name (as in Sistine, not David La-), and though I was late to the Chappell Roan party I absolutely love her music. It’s so well-produced, and so much fun.
- Speaking of well-produced, I’ve been arranging Stacy’s Mom by Fountains of Wayne for my choir, and it’s honestly SUCH a good song. We already knew Adam Schlesinger was a genius (he also co-wrote many of the songs for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) but that song is just really, really excellent considering it was treated as just a joke song when it came out.
...video games
I spent many many hours playing video games, and we had some crackers this year. I’ve posted about many of the games I played in my “things I’ve been enjoying recently” posts, so this will be a lot of repeating myself, but think of it as... me reinforcing how good they are.
- La Mulana and La Mulana 2: a fiendishly difficult Metroidvania puzzle platformer set in ancient ruins, where you play an archaeologist searching for the secret of La Mulana (or his daughter searching for her father in the sequel). I've never persevered with a game this much, ever, and managed to make it about 95% of the way through – beating some really hard bosses! Thanking the many people who have published hints for these games on the internet.
- Lorelei and the Laser Eyes: another puzzle exploration game but this time with escape-room vibes. I played this one with my husband, him driving and me helping to solve the puzzles because I am a puzzle fiend. This one is extremely odd, but very satisfying.
- Disco Elysium: a story-based exploration game, where your character (a detective investigating a murder) evolves based on the choices you make. Very funny, and the world-building is incredible.
- Inscryption: do yourself a favour and don’t look up what this game is about before you play it. Creepy deck-builder with escape room elements.
- Astro Bot: an absolutely brilliant adventure platformer that very deservedly won Game of the Year. It’s a PS5 exclusive, and takes full advantage of the features of the console to an amazing extent – they really have done a fantastic job of the haptics.
- Heaven’s Vault: described as an "archaeological science-fiction adventure game" (all exciting words), you play Aliya, an archaeologist on the hunt for a missing roboticist in a strange futuristic nebula in space. You slowly build up a vocabulary of the language of the Ancients, and begin to understand more about what came before.
- Rise of the Golden Idol: the sequel to The Case of the Golden Idol, this one is available for free if you’re a Netflix subscriber. A puzzling detective saga where you have to piece together what happened from clues in various scenes.
...blog posts
This year I published 16 blog posts, which is... considerably more than I expected given my mental state, if I'm honest. I didn't really write many technical ones, which I suppose checks out. I also set up automated posting from bookmarked links in Raindrop, and did it for a few months before my reading list overwhelmed me again.
Some of my favourite posts:
- The art in everyday life
- You should go to conferences
- Just because you can doesn't mean you should: the <meter> element
- So you’ve decided to get into mechanical keyboards
...Christmas dinner
Though I'm usually horribly pretentious when it comes to cooking – favouring recipes that require me to buy a jar of something by Belazu that's only available in a small number of Waitroses, that I use a tablespoon of and then it goes off in the back of my fridge – I went for the full trad Christmas Spread this year (with some outside contributions). Here's what I made (with any recipes), and my ratings out of 12 (days of Christmas). I leant heavily on Delicious Magazine's recipes, and some of them will stay, while others I won't bother making again.
- KellyBronze turkey: 7 swans-a-swimming/12. As it was the first time doing Christmas, I thought I'd splash out on a really great turkey. It was indeed a really excellent turkey – they're free-range, allowed to grow and run around in the woodlands etc, so have a really good flavour, and the cooking instructions were very simple and precise – but ultimately let down by the fact that it is, well, a turkey, and therefore the most mediocre of all poultry. I think next year I'll do something else. (I did, however, appreciate their guidance of "Don't panic, it's just a big chicken".)
- Combination-of-everyone's-recipes potatoes with goose fat: 5 gold rings/12. I let the team down and I let myself down by making too many potatoes and not putting them in a single layer, so they didn't get crispy.
- Delicious Magazine's bread and cranberry sauces: 12 drummers drumming/12. The most heavenly, aromatic bread sauce I've ever had (even for a bread sauce denier such as myself), and gorgeous orangey cranberry sauce. Please halve the quantities for your own sanity (and freezer space). You can make these ahead, too. These two are going into my Christmas recipe hall of fame.
- Delicious Magazine's vichy carrots recipe: 7 swans-a-swimming/12. I was already quite stressed by the time it came to dish up, and the water was supposed to evaporate and leave the carrots in a buttery glaze, but they were very much still underwater. The flavour was very good, but I would not repeat the experience.
- Delicious Magazine's sausage, sage, prune and onion stuffing recipe: 11 pipers piping/12. Very good, but missing something. I think my favourite ever stuffing is Ottolenghi's cranberry and caraway stuffing, but that would probably be a bit much for Christmas. I made double of the Christmas stuffing recipe, and turned the other half into sausage rolls with some leftover puff pastry I had in the fridge.
- Delicious Magazine's fondant sprouts with chestnuts and bacon: 10 lords-a-leaping/12. A timeless combination, and charring the cut sides of the sprouts first gives it a lovely nutty flavour. I think I could probably have just roasted them, though.
- Delicious Magazine's butter roast parnips with hazelnuts and sage: 9 ladies dancing/12. Points deducted due to absence of blanched hazelnuts at local Co-op (and I forgot to put them on the Sainsbury's order). Anything in butter is good, and these were very nice indeed, but again: nobody ate the crispy sage leaves.
- Delicious magazine's marmalade pigs in blankets: 11 pipers piping/12 (can't really go wrong can you). The touch of marmalade is a lovely finish, though one point deducted because I now have nearly an entire jar of marmalade to use up.
- Delia's red cabbage: 12 drummers drumming/12. This is the one recipe we make every Christmas in my family, and it's great every time (this year, Mum brought it). It's tart, aromatic, and comforting.
That’s it for now
Time to revert back into liquid form.
Best wishes for the new year, and I hope it’s everything you want it to be.