New Years Eve, we didn't do to much during the day, we went to shops to get some booze in for the evening. Bill, Carol, Chris and Hannah came over just after 7pm and we had a few drinks here, we then went to the Chinese restaurant at the Fish Market for dinner. It was good as being a Chinese restaurant they were not directly celebrating New Year so it was more relaxed and not massively overpriced for the night. We watched the 9pm fireworks on the telly there but could hear the thumps and booms outside and see the smoke. Once we had finished dinner we made our way home and had a more drinks whilst waiting for the new year to arrive. At the stroke of 12 we celebrated and then watched the Sydney fireworks on TV, again within earshot of it all. We decided against trying to battle the 1.5 million people in and around the harbour and watch it on the telly. We had sparklers in the garden though! Next year I expect we'll book a restaurant on Circular Quay or alike.
2009 A Year in Review
I thought I would do a brief review of the year as 2009 comes to a close, I have to say this has been a pretty monumental year in the life of little old Adrian Steward. A year ago, myself, Kate, Rob, Jo, Stu and Cate celebrated the new year in our beloved SW London local restaurant rehab, this was to be the start of a big year.
January A month of work at Nokia, and behind the scenes preparation for our visa application to Australia.
February More planning and then we took a wonderful holiday to Dubai, this was very relaxing and it was then we got several texts from colleagues letting us know about voluntary resignation packages form work. As we knew we were both to leave in June anyway it was an easy decision to press the button.
March Our holiday in Dubai continued and it was while sitting next to the most magnificent swimming pool I effectively resigned my job on line and started the ball rolling on the adventure to move our lives down under. I turned 33 at the end of the month.
Dubai
April
And so the the final month of work at Symbian/Nokia, if you can call it that, I lost count of the hours we sat upstairs in the canteen wasting time drinking tea. As the end of the month neared our time came and before I knew it I was was walking out of the office for the last time after almost 10.5 years. we had the mother of all leaving do's on April 29th at EV. We miss our colleagues form London a great deal.
May And so to May, a month where we finally got our visa approved, this actually came through on the 29th May, just a day before our leaving do in Rehab and 12 days before we were due to fly to Sydney. We also moved out of our flat in Colliers Wood that day as tenants moved in. Also during May we had a wonderful weekend in Ireland, driving around both the North and South and spending quality time with Hazel and the parents before we left for Sydney.
Ireland Visit Photos
One of my favourite pics
Family Dinner in Temple Bar
June
And so the time came to say goodbye to family and friends and depart for Australia. This was one of the toughest things I've ever done but it was for the right reasons (Kate if anyone is wondering!). I have to thank my parents for making the actual airport parting easy and quick. We arrived into Australia with 2 suitcases each, some money in our back pockets and a whole lot of stuff to do and buy. The last 2 weeks in June, our first 2 in Oz were spent just getting over the whole up heaval, staying at Kate's folks and just getting ourselves grounded.
July
We found a place to rent, and with our our 2 suitcases of possessions started the process of buying everything we need for life. We started buying everything from irons to beds, to furniture to kettles , basically everything. i also got in contact with Oxfam and started my journey of volunteering and working with them here in Australia
August
Much of August was spent volunteering with Oxfam on the trailwalker event, this all came to fruition at the end of the month, it was a blast!
Managing those pesky volunteers at checkpoint 6
September More job hunting, house stuff buying etc. We had a trip to Adelaide at the start of the month and shortly after that I took Kate to Fraser Island and proposed to her, she said yes thankfully! She made me the happiest man alive. Soon enough we jumped back on the plane and headed to the UK for Stu & Cates and Anna & Mikes weddings at the end of the month. it was great to see everyone at home and it was then the folks told me they were coming to visit in November, this made laving the UK again a bit easier.
Adelaide Visit
Up the hill
Fraser Proposal Photos
Just after I popped the question
The Maheno Wreck
Visit back to blighty photos
A trip to Swanage
Anna looking lovely (and kate too!)
The Happy Couple plus some other bloke
The Girls
October
Back to Sydney and straight to Melbourne to work for Oxfam for a number of weeks on a contract. This was pretty intense but good event mgt experience. At the end of the month it was back to Sydney and onwards with job searching.
November
Soon enough the folks were on Aussie soil and we spent a lovely few weeks doing stuff with them, including the great ocean road.
December
As the start of the month disappeared it was time for the folks to head back to the UK, the airport experience ins never a pretty one and especially for them heading back to the cold of blighty. Soon enough its Christmas, not that it feels like it in this heat, but it has been a lovely Christmas time surrounded by Kate's wonderful family and friends. I'm sure I've missed of a massive amount of stuff throughout the year, its been a roller coaster, and now 2010 will see us stabilising everything job wise etc before we get married in early 2011.
New Years Dinner
Our own mini fireworks display in back garden
Happy New year Everyone!
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