The Year That Was 2008

Goodness! It seemed that 2008 went even faster than 2007, just like Usain Bolt setting 3 world records at the Beijing Olympics this year. And weren't those sprints a sight to watch! I had my money on Bolt to break those records, and man he didn't disappoint me. I reckon those records will be standing for quite a while, I just hope he is not on drugs! But now it's time to slow down, time to reflect, ponder and contemplate. As a final post for 2008, I would like to reflect on the year - the great times, the good times, the bad times and the ugly times. So here's a rundown of what happened this year.

There were many events in 2008, NZ and abroad, which I will remember for many years to come. The death of Sir Edmund Hillary, the inaugural Indoor Premier League Twenty20 competition with Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals winning on the very last ball, the very successful Beijing Olympics, the NZ Warriors almost dream run to the NRL final before falling to the eventual winners of the competition, the Kiwis stunning victory in the Rugby League World Cup over our favourite enemy, the first black president of the United States, the end of Helen Clark as Prime Minister, and last but not least, the deepening of the global financial crisis which has caused widespread redundancies and losses in many industries, such as Chrysler, Toyota, and Woolworths in the UK. Perhaps the most sobering event for me was the Elim Christian College tragedy, where six pupils and a teacher lost their lives in a canyoning tragedy. Every time I read an article in the paper, or saw news coverage on TV, about the incident, I couldn't help being moved inside. I don't know why that event moved me so much. Perhaps it was the compassion, grace and humanity of Elim Christian College principal, Murray Burton, who was later (and rightly so) named New Zealander of the year by North and South magazine. In the most challenging and tragic circumstances, he displayed true leadership and brought people together without anger or blame. Isn't that someone you want to aspire to?

So what about me? Unlike previous years, I didn't really set myself a list of goals to achieve in 2008. There was only one goal, and that was to embark on that great Kiwi OE to the UK. That goal was conceived in 2006, planned in 2007, and, I'm glad to report, successfully implemented 2008. Having been in the works for over two years, it's been a long time coming. And now that I'm in the UK I can finally say Great Success! But only having one goal, the rest of the usual goals had to be placed on the back seat as heading overseas was so important to me. No marathons, no new interests, and still no Sun Certified Java Developer certification which I resolved to complete before I left NZ! It just didn't happen.

However I did manage to complete the Auckland Half Marathon this year through someone else's entry being transferred to my name, and while I didn't run a personal best, I did manage a solid time with 2 weeks of training. I was hoping for a personal best, but as I reported earlier that wasn't going to happen in 2 weeks. Simply put, I didn't put in the miles, and miles produce champion runners. I hope to put in more miles in 2009?

On the Toastmasters front, my Toastmasters experience has grown to higher levels. During the 2007-2008 year I had the privilege of leading my Toastmasters club as club President. I earned my Competent Leader award, made the club a Presidents Distinguished Club (the highest distinction ever given to a club), and completed one of two of my advanced speech manuals. The manual I completed was Special Occasions speeches, so if you ever need someone to speak at a wedding, anniversary, farewell party, I'm your man! Now that I'm overseas, I hope to find a Toastmasters club in my area so I can complete the other advanced manual, which will allow me to get my Advanced Communicator Bronze award. At the moment, Toastmasters is taking a break as I settle in my new country. The distinction given to our club would not have been possible without the hard work of all the members and the leadership displayed by the committee. For that, I thank you for your effort, no matter how big or small your contribution was.

On the work front, I'm now an Implementation Consultant for my company. I think it's much cooler being called a consultant than being called a software developer or an integration consultant. The former is too geeky, the latter is too confusing. A change in job title has inspired me to rename my blog to "The Consultant". Sounds much cooler than "Two Cents On Anything And Everything", don't you think? The change in job title was a result of going overseas where only consultants roamed the region. Developers only stayed in the Land of the Long White Cloud never to leave unless they give up their developer responsibilities. After 2-3 years of developing software, I found it didn't really push my buttons. So I decided to take my career down the consulting path, and figured that working for my company in a different country (and going on the big kiwi OE to see the world) would be a great idea! It also meant that I wouldn't have to find work in a new country, which could give me all sorts of headaches. I was extremely lucky that my company agreed to transfer me over to the region, job all lined up for me when I arrived. It didn't happen overnight, in fact the entire process took 10 months, but it did happen.

Which leads me to my UK visa application. What an utter shambles, and curse my bad luck at applying at the worst possible time when British Home Office were overhauling their HSMP requirements. In New Zealand, the old HSMP regulations were still in effect at the time, so I applied under the old rules not fully knowing when the new Tier-1 regulations would be introduced. The new regulations would potentially speed up application processing time, and in hindsight I should have applied under the new rules as the application turnaround would be faster. I had no idea that applying under the old rules would take British Home Office nearly 5 months to successfully process my HSMP letter. So while I twiddled my thumbs, Home Office sat on my application from April to September. Finally they pulled finger, processed my application and gave me an approval letter. The approval letter allowed me to get entry clearance, which took an extra month to process. Had I applied under Tier-1 regulations, the entire thing would have been over and done with in 2 months, the only problem was that it wasn't clear when New Zealand would be adopting the new rules. The waiting was over in mid-October, and it took me 1 more month to tie up any loose ends in New Zealand, before I kissed her goodbye.

But I did manage to visit the UK twice while the visa application was in process, an indication of just how long the process really took. The first visit was a week-long visit to attend IHE Connectathon in Oxford; the second was a 2-month stint as a consultant on loan from New Zealand to satisfy the region's short term resourcing problems. It was then that I was originally intending to move over, but the visa wasn't ready by then. With no visa I couldn't officially work in the UK. But now I'm officially here, and I think I'm settling in fine, albeit slowly. I've decided to stay in Reading while I find my feet, and hopefully when the time is right I'll make the move to London. The only problem I can see with moving to London is that the place I am staying in in Reading is really nice, I fear I might get too comfortable, which means it could be even harder to move to London.

Making preparations to move overseas meant that everything else had to take a back seat. I didn't run as much as I would have liked. I had to quit the gym, which I have been a member of for the past 3 years. Cooking and DIY have again fallen off the 2008 radar, however being in the UK meant that I'm living more independently now, so these could feature more prominently next year. Despite cooking a few meals at my new home, my cooking skills are still limited to rice, noodles, eggs and mince meat. A couple of new interests have cropped up, most notably snowboarding and table tennis, which I am keen to expand on in the new year. But the most disappointing was that I didn't even make headway into my Sun Certified Java Developer certification. I purchased the assignment in late 2007, resolved to finish it before my departure, and didn't even come close. Thankfully there is no time limit to completing the assignment, and I really have to start laying into it while I am here in the UK.

So that basically sums up what I've done this year. In a traditional goal-setting sense, this year was a shocker, but for me it was about the OE. And I succeeded in that respect. I managed to get to the UK, but I had to sacrifice everything else that went with it. With travel being so important to me, the other goals were just peripheral. Apart from that, I've ran a half marathon, improved my public speaking and managed to pick up a couple of new interests which I can take into the new year.

So what does 2009 have in store for me? Undoubtedly more challenges at work, hopefully more travel opportunities, new interests and scope for personal improvement. Now that I'm in Europe I really want to see and do as much as I can, but right now my mind is whizzing at a rate of knots trying to make sense of everything here in this country and deciding what to do and where to go. I've realised the best I can do for now is to settle down and find my feet first, which I am currently doing. Once I've found my groove I will start planning all the different destinations and activities that I want to cover for 2009 and beyond. Not sure which countries will feature first, but let's say that a marathon might come into play somewhere. Europe has many prestigious marathons, and often they are very difficult to enter, and if I could run at least one of these marathons I could proudly say to other runners that I ran Paris, Berlin or London.

Well I'll leave it there for now. You'll definitely be hearing more from me again in future. I've given this blog a new look and title, and I hope to keep this updated regularly now that I've started my adventures in Europe, but effective blogging does take time and effort. I hope that you have gotten the most out of 2008. And I hope that in 2009 you will continue to grow and prosper, and even challenge yourself to do something you never thought of doing before. And if you're thinking of travel, consider doing some time in another country to broaden your horizons. If travel isn't on the cards, then hopefully you will be content in your home country, still growing, learning and improving. I wish you all a great 2009!

Being German For One Day

Shamelessly ripped from ChristmasSprite

Germany is home to many beautiful Christmas traditions. In fact, many of the American Christmas traditions originated there. The Christmas season in Germany starts at the beginning of Advent, which is four Sundays before Christmas Day. In fact, Advent wreaths are one of the many symbolic German Christmas traditions. These wreaths are decorated with four candles around the outer circle and with one large candle in the middle. The four outer candles symbolize the 4,000 years that the world had to wait for Christ’s coming. One candle is lit the first Sunday of Advent with two being lit the second Sunday and so on. The large candle in the center is lit on Christmas Day.

Guten Abend! When I moved into my new place, I was intrigued by a wreath decoration on the coffee table with four large red candles around the outer circle. What struck me even more was that only one candle was lit. A small glow from a sole candle illuminated the dim room. Tina explained to me that, in German tradition, each candle is lit on each Sunday before Christmas Day. So the candle that was lit on the day I moved in marked the first of four Sundays before Christmas Day, or Advent Sunday. So, if I ever need to remember the first day of my tenancy, I'll just casually say Advent Sunday. The first Sunday of Advent was 30th November where a single candle is lit, the second Sunday was 7th December where two candles are lit, and so on. At the time it mostly washed over my head, and all I remembered at the time was it was a German thing.

And so I (mostly) observed Tina lighting each candle each Sunday, all the way to Sunday 14th where three candles were lit. However, midweek, Tina left for Deutschland to be with her loved ones over the Christmas season, leaving an uneducated Kiwi bloke-cum-consultant at home alone with the Advent wreath. With her not around, who was going to light the final candle? Surely not the uneducated Kiwi bloke-cum-consultant! This person doesn't even know the tradition, the protocols, or what it really means to light those candles. And if he did, he'd likely set the house on fire!

Days passed. And I thought about that final candle on the Advent wreath. It was taller than the other candles. The wick was still white having not being lit up. How did I notice these minor details? The final candle obstructs my view of the TV from where I normally sit! I didn't dare move the Advent wreath to another place on the coffee table, in case someone might notice and give me an earful. And I was far too comfortable in my normal seat to move to another seat. But if the candle shrank a few inches in height from the burning process then I could get an uninterrupted view of the box. What a great idea! I had to act quickly though; the Sunday before Christmas Day was going by very fast and there was still no one around to light that final candle.

So I did some research. I googled "german tradition 4 candles christmas" and came across ChristmasSprite. And from that site, I finally realised the significance of the Advent Wreath. I also googled "advent wreath" and finally learned a bit of the history and symbolism behind it.

Plucking up some courage, I resolved to light the final candle, Sunday 21st December, 5:00 pm. It wasn't the time I was required to light the candle by tradition; it was just a round hour I decided on, it was the time I finished my research and days in the UK are normally dark before 5:00 pm. One by one, I lit those candles for the final time, from the first Sunday to the next, until I reached that final untouched candle. With Tina not around to do it, I felt really happy to continue on her behalf. I felt like I had found a new sense of Christmas cheer within me.

So what have I learned from this moment?

Coming from a place where Christmas is celebrated in the summer around a barbeque, a swimming pool and loads of beer, I was never aware of Advent wreaths and their significance to Christmas. I have never even heard of Advent Sunday before. From what I've seen in New Zealand, people do display wreaths, and other decorations, around and outside the house. But I think in an average kiwi household, Advent wreaths aren't displayed on coffee tables. And maybe it is less likely that they would observe each Sunday leading up to Christmas Day by lighting each candle. In a recent New Zealand Herald poll, the question posed to readers was What does Christmas mean to you? The majority of voters chose family ahead of the birth of Christ. It's interesting to note that both New Zealand and Germany have Christianity as the largest religious denomination, yet the Germans seem to take it one step further; when celebrating the birth of Christ, they light candles on the Advent wreath. I suppose it's not a kiwi thing to do. In some ways, and lots of people say this time and time again, this shows how much culture and history Aotearoa really has!

I suppose in some ways, having grown up in New Zealand all my life, I have been insulated from all these cultures and traditions, partly because of my unwillingness to learn, partly because these things aren't really recognised in New Zealand. Hence why I described myself as an uneducated kiwi bloke-cum-consultant! But now I'm here in Europe on my OE, and living with a German lady has exposed me to a little bit of German Christmas tradition. Learning about Advent Sunday and the Advent Wreath was the first step I've made in learning about these ancient Christmas traditions from other countries. I would never have gathered this if I was still in New Zealand. In saying that, a kiwi Christmas involving barbeques and pavlova would be completely foreign to those in the northern hemisphere, just as a white Christmas and the lighting of candles is completely foreign to a kiwi like myself.

So, as a final act, and in an attempt to be more cultured, I lit the final candle. I intend to leave all four candles burning, until the end of Sunday, or until I can see the TV uninterrupted.

Here's a couple of pictures of our Advent wreath, with all four candles lit, in its full glory! The first picture has that holy glow effect, which I think is quite fitting for the Christmas season.


Auf Wiedersehen!

Starting Over

Well, I've made it here to the UK, at last.

Having no commitments in NZ, it was the perfect time to go on the big kiwi OE. I could have done it much earlier, but some circumstances made it inappropriate to do so. And now that time was nearly running out, I finished everything I had in NZ and seized the opportunity with hands, feet and teeth before it got too late.

And now I'm here, and sometimes I have to pinch my arm to really convince myself that I am in the UK. Sometimes I have to take a little bit longer to look at things around me for my mind to register that I am in the UK. Though I do have the odd dream where images of home, family and friends flash in my mind.

Today marks 1 month of life away from NZ. The first month of life in a foreign country is actually very difficult. Rather than asking myself what country I want to visit and what places I want to see, I first had to cope with where to live, where to go to get things, money, bank accounts, national insurance, and buying items that you normally take for granted at home, e.g. a coat hanger, stationery items, etc. Fortunately I kept my wits, had time to get accustomed, getting my belongings (new and existing) in order, and generally starting life over again. At the moment I have done no travelling, just surviving and settling in, which takes more time than you think!

I'm currently based in Reading, which is a temporary arrangement just so that I can get settled in. I'm very keen to live in London as that is where all the action is. The place that I am currently staying in in Reading is very nice, a godsend! I am glad that I found it. If I could find a place like that in London I would be extremely happy.

Now that I've gotten myself the bare essentials of living in the UK, I've more or less started to live life again. I recently bought myself a pair of running shoes, and went for my first training run. I have entered Berkshire's premier road race, the Reading Half Marathon, and I am keen to do very well in it. But perhaps looking at the bigger picture, and one of the reasons in doing my OE in Europe, is that I can run those big marathons in all those big cities around Europe. London, Paris, Berlin, Rotterdam, the possibilities are endless. These marathons are run by the most elite runners in the world, which puts Auckland to shame. They are difficult to get into, but I can enter if I was given the chance. A great way to visit neighbouring countries and doing the sightseeing in the city holding the marathon.

I'm also very keen to get into the Indoor Cricket scene over here, and perhaps play the outdoor game as well. Indoor Cricket is quite difficult to find, but I have one or two places to check out. And I'd like to take up new activities and expand my interests. I have decided to take up snowboarding, something I've always wanted to do back home. There's so many things I want to do, and the thought of it can be overwhelming, especially when I'm still occupied with starting a new life in the UK. I have to keep telling myself: slowly, slowly, slowly, you will get there in time.

As for how long I would be staying here, well the visa is for 3 years. So I return to NZ in 2011, just in time for the Rugby World Cup held in Auckland. However, looking at the bigger picture again, I would like to stay here for the required 5 years to get residency in the UK, and a British passport which my children (if I have any) could possibly use. It's a tough decision, and one that I won't be making lightly.

That's basically my first month here in the UK. I have another month to go before I pass the mark as the longest time period I have spent in a foreign country. Will celebrate this occasion with a visit to the local pub. Or a quiet drink at home with my lovely housemate, Tina.

Finally, the title of this blog post was inspired by DEEN, a long-running popular music group in Japan, with their track also titled Starting Over.