Farewell to 2018

Twenty eighteen. It happened!

This year I tried to summarise the year with doodles. It was a fun exercise; I’m still not good at doodling, but that’s okay!

The first quarter was pretty quiet. We attended a couple of birthday parties for friends’ children in January. February was a very routine month, which included working with a dietician on my health, and attending my knitting group. March was also quiet, but there was Easter.

Things got a bit more eventful in April. I attended a baby shower for a friend’s long awaited and anticipated pregnancy. It was joyful and featured pom poms.

Late in April, just as we were preparing to visit my Great Uncle in Canberra, my Grandmother fell and broke her hip! She is 92 and I was really worried that she would give up on life and not work at her recovery, but that was not the case at all. Her surgery was done within a few days, she didn’t let her spirits get low, and she worked at her recovery. What a trooper! She is also getting pretty good at messaging from her iPad. Given that she managed to avoid using a computer since their inception, I am very proud of her.

Mum, Dad, and I went to Canberra while my Aunt went to the hospital with Gran because we had no idea how long my Great Uncle had left. We spent the whole afternoon with him, and it was really special. It turned out to be his last day; he passed early the next morning.

In May we attended my Great Uncle Gordon’s funeral, which was very special. Gordon’s son, Mark gave a personal eulogy and Gordon’s friend and colleague spoke about Gordon’s business and volunteering efforts. John Berry, the former US Ambassador to Australia, and current President of the American Australian Association, spoke to Gordon’s character and war record. Berry also brought two American servicemen to present Gordon’s wife with the American flag, which was flown half-mast at the US Embassy in honour of Gordon! I didn’t think I was going to cry at this funeral because I was happy that we had such a lovely day with him in April, and he had lived a long life, but that flag broke me a little.

At the end of June I flew to Shirahama, Japan to spend a week with my work team. It was awesome! I wrote a bit about it previously, and still a draft post to finish about it! The doodle is of the temple at the top of the Kumano Kodo trail.

July saw WordCamp Sydney 2018 happen! I was lead organiser, so it was pretty intense, but a good time. This year I am on the organising team for WCSyd 2019, but not the lead.

During August my church had a weekend away looking at the topic of Eschatology. Intense and excellent.

At the end of September I jetsetted again, this time to Orlando, Florida and Disney World! There are a number of photos from that trip on my photoblog with more to come (when I get a round tuit). I ❤️ Disney World!

The Orlando trip was for the Automattic Grand Meetup where our company all gets together for one week to work and play together.

October (and November, and December) were busy with preparations for Gutenberg and the release of WordPress 5.0, which was announced during the Grand Meetup. Testing, and bug reports, and documentation – oh my!

Luckily for me, my trip to Western Australia was planned long before the WP 5.0 announcement, otherwise I would have felt guilty about going on vacation in November. As it was, the trip was planned, and my Mum, Dad, and I jetted to Perth to visit my half-brother and his family. We also drove down to the Margaret River for the weekend. In the Margaret River area we visited Mammoth Cave, Jewel Cave, and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet. I didn’t know there was so many interesting things other than wineries down there! Oh, and the cow in the doodle is for Cowaramup, just north of Margaret River: they have many cow statues!

December held a lot more Gutenberg-related things, but since I already doodled that for October, I drew Christmas. I had a nice 1-week break for Christmas and New Year. We saw family on Christmas Eve at my brother-in-law’s house, and had a small family lunch at our house on Christmas Day. Over the break my husband and I played Nintendo, had friends over for meals and board games, and slept.