2013 Year in Review

It's now the 2nd of Feb and 2014 is already racing ahead of me. Before it gets much further I wanted to pause for a moment and reflect on my last year.

Culturally it was a another enriching year. It's one of the biggest draws of this city for me, and I am still spoilt for choice every month.
Best play: Chimerica
Best musical: Once
Best exhibition: Ansel Adams photography

I went to my first ever 'panto' at Christmas and went to an interactive theatre experience from Punchdrunk which was unique and impressive.

Travel-wise I was disappointed to not travel anywhere new but I still had some great trips away. One of the highlights was the chance to go to Tokyo for work and then spend an extra week with my school friend Kayoko. Having spent a while in Europe it was refreshing to be in a vibrant asian culture again.

This year I my excursions to Europe included:
Cologne - for the street festival which was amazing fun
France - a week in Provence with Lisa and her children
Tuscany - to celebrate Laleh & Jesse's wedding
Tokyo - for work and reunion with Kayo
Stuttgart - one of my favourite Christmas traditions - a visit to the markets
Australia - going home sweet home for Christmas and Dave & Piero's wedding

I did manage to escape big smoke a little with a weekend in the Lakes with Lisa & Co, a day trip to Whitstable, a hen weekend in Bath, and a visit to Plymouth in Devon to see Ollie's home town.

I had huge amount of fun at Glastonbury again this year. A week roaming fields with great people, listening to music, eating yummy food and generally having a ball. I already have my tickets for 2014!

London life continued to be a lot of fun, and we were lucky to have one of the best (albeit short) summers we've had here in years. I ticked off a few new London activities that I hadn't done before: visiting Kew Gardens, going to Zoo Lates, checking out the Open Gardens; as well as re-visiting a couple of favourites: Taste in Regent's Park and Bonfire Night at Battersea Park.

Mailie and I, plus assorted guests, spent quite bit of time bolstering club activities for #brunchclub and #cocktailclub which allowed me to dedicate time to a few of my favourite things, and spend more time with my new buddy Mailie.

I also spent lots of quality time out and about with my good friends Jaimee & Damian having dinners at Brixton market or cups of tea at local Balham haunts, seeing gigs and eating out with Stuart & Kris, having dinner with Laleh & Jesse, and numerous more coffees, dinners and drinks with Rebecca, Becky and Natalie and theatre outings with Millie. I also started to see Ollie which has made life even more fun :-)

Wedding season saw me happily attend three weddings with many congratulations going to Laleh & Jesse, Becky & Jim, and Dave & Piero.

On the work front, after I finished my client secondment at Sony Mobile, I moved back to the agency and continued to work on the Sony account with my very lovely team. Shortly afterwards the agency moved from Chelsea to brand new offices in Soho which has opened up another side of Soho to me (daylight hours) and livened things up a bit being in the heart of London.  In October I was promoted to Group Account Director which I was pleased about. Less pleased about the pay rise that went with it! In March this year I will have spent 6 years at TMW and so I might start to think about pastures new this year.

French took a back seat this year, mostly because getting there after work on a regular basis is quite challenging. I have tried more consistently to go to Toastmasters each fortnight but there is room for improvement in 2014.

In summer, after 8 years of living in the UK, I became a British citizen. Quite a milestone to have reached and I had a great time celebrating with my London family of friends. Last week I sent off my application for a UK passport.

That seems a fitting note as any to round up the year on. It was a good year in so many respects, and it bodes well for 2014.