Much like last year, this year was pretty rubbish. Partly due to the continue of COVID19 and struggling to get motivated and partly due to the unexpected loss of my mum at the end of the year. Like previous years, below I wanted to write about some of the things good/bad that I did or didn’t do this year.
Again, like last year, I started off the year by creating a Trello board to try and keep myself motivated.
The good stuff:
- I started the year taking part in dry January to give my body a bit of a break.
- February I was invited to speak on a podcast which was a first for me. It was great to speak with Neil Studd and record an episode for the Testers’ Island Discs Podcast
- In February I also got invited to speak at the Ministry of Testings UI Automation Week to give an experience report on C# UI Test Refactoring
- March I was invited to speak at TestFest 2021 where I gave a new presentation, refactoring legacy tests.
- I also renewed my contract with my current client which meant I got to stay working with HMRC as a platform test lead.
- October I finally managed to get the Ministry of Testing DevTools course (A Software Testers Guide to Chrome DevTools) completed and published! What a relief.
- I also got invited by Mark Winteringham to be a guest on the Ministry of Testings ‘Meet the Contributor’ podcast where we spoke about the DevTools course which we released.
- To end October I gave a new talk on ‘The power of Mocks and Postman’ for the online TestFlix 2021 conference.
- November we got an offer accepted on a new house which was a nice way to end what turned out to be a rubbish end to the year.
The not so good stuff:
- Mum sadly passing away, absolutely unexpected and rubbish
- Again, deciding to not attempt to run the 6th year of SwanseaCon
- I didn’t attempt to attend any in person events
- I thought I’d get around to writing more but ended up only writing two blog posts
- Didn’t read as many books as I’d have liked to have
2022.
Things can only get better. Here’s hoping..
