It is traditional, at the end of the year, to reflect upon what has been accomplished in the preceding twelve months. This post, the first for a long time, is a simple acknowledgement of what has happened in 2010. I’ve put different events into bullet points and they are in no particular order because I can’t rank one event above another.

• I started post-graduate studies. Moving from the field of education to computing proved to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated. Nevertheless, I have passed both of the papers that I sat
• I fought a couple of internal stoushes in 2010. I won a big one, and am in maintenance mode on another
• After several years of work with the Ministry of Education ICT Professional Development clusters, I decided to move sideways and work on the technical, infrastructure side of ICT in schools. This hasn’t always been easy. I now work in both Mac and Windows schools and administrate Windows, Mac and Linux servers. I am still more of a desktop specialist than a server technician. This might change in 2011 as I intend to do some study around networking and server environments
• At Christmas I was 10kgs lighter than at the same time last year. I may put on a kilogram or two the way we are eating at the moment
• I spent some time back in the classroom working with real, live kids. Much as I enjoy teaching, I re-discovered that it’s not for me
• I lost my photography mojo this year. For a long time I stopped taking pictures. Thankfully it has come back at the end of the year and I am Ms Paparazzi again, stalking my grandchildren, shooting everything in sight and even getting some passable shots
• In November I became a New Zealand citizen. After 37 years in the country it was time that I showed that I wanted to stay
• 2010 saw the usual round of illness. The spots have come and gone, reminding me when I need to slow down. I’ve had a couple of bouts of asthma and my kidneys reminded me how important they were in July
• We saw Carole King and James Taylor at the Vector Arena, Lydia Cole, Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot and Diana Krall out at Villa Maria and The Topp Twins at the Auckland Zoo. Sarah MxLachlan cancelled her concert. I was quite upset about that
• In April I got a new (to me) car – a lovely blue Subaru Impreza
• My grandchildren continue to be a delight. Olivia is now 8, Keziah is 7 and Camryn is 6. Michael is almost 4. Their parents are doing a fne job bringing them up with love and wonder. Georgia Jane, my newest granddaughter was born on 4th November, 2010. Her parents, Esther and Andrew delivered the baby themselves in his old family home. I am far, far too young to be the grandmother of five
• My youngest daughter, Jesse, moved back to Auckland. It’s been lovely to have her closer to the family
• My youngest child, Ben, turned sixteen. I am enjoying guiding him to adulthood
• Holidays! We have travelled a lot in 2010. We flew down to Wellington early in January and then spent a week in Tairua before school started. In May we visited Dunedin. The July school holidays saw us in Tonga on a professional development trip. In October we spent a weekend in the far north. We visited Melbourne in November and, now, just six weeks later, we are ending the year (and starting the next one) back in Melbourne
• The Tonga trip was a huge big deal. Thanks to the staff at May Road School for including us in their professional development journey. I learned a lot. I confronted a lot of my beliefs about teaching and learning and about the role of technology. Most importantly I learned about myself and dealt with some demons
• I also made a very quick trip to Hastings after my mother became unwell. My parents’ health is an ongoing concern
• I went back to the tablet PC. My beloved 7 and 10” netbooks have gone to my children and I’m now using an HP TouchSmart. It’s not perfect but the multi-touch screen is well advanced from what I was using in 2005
• After losing my beloved Nokia E71, the insurance company gave me a Nokia E75. I hated it so sold it and bought a cheap Samsung Spica Android phone. Only one thing to say: Android phones rock. I am writing this whilst tethered through PdaNet (my Samsung is still stuck on Éclair)
• Blogging has slipped almost completely away in 2010. Instead I am using Facebook to communicate with friends and family (on a personal level) while my Twiter accounts are more open and general. I am reasonably comfortable with the mix although, like the rest of the connected world, privacy is a big concern

And finally, in contradiction of my opening statement, this is the most important …

• Our home continues to be a place of peace, love and happiness. I dearly love the people that I live with and the way that we live. Thank you both for putting up with me. May the love and laughter continue in 2011