The Year in View - 2006

...Ciao - and more importantly the Ciao members - gave me something to focus on when everything else seemed to be out of my control.

I've met some fabulous people that I'm proud to call my friends and so I wanted to write about 2006 - what's happened in my life, and what's been going on in the world at large. But most importantly I want to thank all the members who've given me so much support. So here goes - a final review before the ...
...that 2006 was designated as the "International Year of Deserts and Desertification" by the United Nations General Assembly. Sounded quite exciting until I realised it was Deserts and not Desserts. Ironically I spent quite a lot of time in deserts in 2006 without realising that they were celebrating their big year.

It's also the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr Hans Asperger - the man who discovered Asperger's Syndrome ... more

It might seem to many members like I've been around in Ciao-land forever, but in fact I only signed up a year ago and didn't start writing until April. 2006 hasn't been an easy year for me but at times Ciao - and more importantly the Ciao members - gave me something to focus on when everything else seemed to be out of my control.

I've met some fabulous people that I'm proud to call my friends and so I wanted to write about 2006 - what's happened in my life, and what's been going on in the world at large. But most importantly I want to thank all the members who've given me so much support. So here goes - a final review before the year ends.

~Things you probably didn't know about 2006~

I just learned that 2006 was designated as the "International Year of Deserts and Desertification" by the United Nations General Assembly. Sounded quite exciting until I realised it was Deserts and not Desserts. Ironically I spent quite a lot of time in deserts in 2006 without realising that they were celebrating their big year.

It's also the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr Hans Asperger - the man who discovered Asperger's Syndrome and the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. Neither fact is the least bit relevant to anything that follows.

~ January ~

My world
I was working flat out dotting I's and crossing T's for the website I was working on for my employers and I was bored silly. Things weren't great with my boss - he'd been avoiding me and making excuses to not fix my objectives for the year. I later learned that there's a technical term for the uncomfortable feeling you get when your boss has stopped talking to you. It's called 'Predundancy'. At home I was still picking pine needles out of the carpets and avoiding making New Year's resolutions.

Real World
 In Israel - Ariel Sharon had a massive stroke and power was transferred to Ehud Almut.
 In the least surprising admission of the month, Charles Kennedy admitted to his drink problem and resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats, thus ensuring that the Lib Dems got lots of publicity as their would be leaders' skeletons come clattering out of the cupboards.
 Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian elections - the west tried to find ways to pretend they couldn't possibly have been democratic elections

~ February ~

My World
 The website was launched and generated thousands of hits, not all of them from my family and friends. How do I know? I had so little to do that I filled up my days tracking hit activity and designing banner ads. Boss was still missing in action - working on the theory that they can't hit a moving target, he whizzed off around the world whilst I chewed the end of my pencil.
 At home the bulbs in the garden were coming up, and I was looking through holiday brochures.
 Northamptonshire Police kindly invited me to do a one and a half day 'National Driver Improver Course' thus avoiding the prospect of getting prosecuted for the car accident I'd had in December 2005

Real World
 The Winter Olympics opened in Turin offering lots of opportunities to watch British athletes doing remarkably poorly at all manner of slipping and sliding events. A plucky classroom assistant from the West Country did some very fast things on a tea-tray and the country rejoiced. A bunch of Scottish ladies sweeping the ice failed to retain gold in the curling - surely the dullest sport ever invented.
 Back home robbers stole £53 million in the Securitas depot robbery - we all sat around mulling over the challenge of how we would spend so much money
 Apple sold its 1 billionth song on iTunes - to date, not one of them to me.
 Dick Cheney accidentally shot his friend when out hunting. Americans sniggered that he's done what they all want to - shot a lawyer.

~ March ~

My World
 The bomb dropped - Redundancy! A meeting with my boss was derailed when I walked in to find the HR director (affectionately known as Dr Death) sitting at the table. The company had decided they didn't want a Head of Marketing - they needed the money to pay for all those bloody accountants, I suppose.
 A large build-it-yourself log cabin (my birthday present - it was intended to be my home office, how ironic) was delivered. One snowy afternoon we built it and painted it blue.
 The day after my redundancy was confirmed, we left for a week's walking holiday in Cappadocia, Turkey. We lived off cheap Turkish pizza and spent as little as we could except for a blow out on a hot air balloon ride. It had been number one on my 'things to do before I die' list and nothing was going to stop me. Hubby who is scared of heights pulled himself together and joined me. There were hardly any tourists - too many people worried about bird flu.
 I did my driving course and against all expectation, really enjoyed it.

Real World
 Slobodan Milosovic was found dead in his cell in Holland. Nobody wasted too much time feeling sad about it.
 The Commonwealth Games took place in Melbourne - what do you mean you'd forgotten? Yep, me too.
 In Spain, ETA agreed a permanent ceasefire - old-style terrorism had gone out of style.

~April~

My World
 I spent the first couple of weeks being bitter and angry and growling a lot. I tinkered a bit with my CV but mostly just enjoyed a bit of self-indulgent grumpiness.
 On 11th April, I discovered that Ciao wasn't just about doing boring surveys and started writing reviews. I had no idea that you could get paid or that other people could tell you what they thought - I was more used to writing Amazon reviews and getting no feedback. Consequently I churned out loads of utter rubbish, which received the contempt it deserved. But I caught on quite quickly and stopped writing quite so much, quite so badly. However I still turned out a shocking 35 reviews in April on all sorts of stuff. Well it was so much more entertaining than working on my job hunt.

Real World
 Avian flu arrived in Scotland allowing me to do a 'told you so' to all the people who'd scoffed at us going to Turkey the month before.
 Iran announced they'd produced a few grams of enriched uranium and the world started getting nervous.
 Explosions in the Egyptian dive resort of Dahab showed that the bombers weren't only targeting Sharm-el-Sheikh and we finally put away the dive holiday brochures and decided not to bother this year.

~May~

My World
 The CV was more or less done and I was setting up meetings with recruitment companies and I made a direct approach to a company I'd always fancied working for. I drove hundreds of miles up and down the country speaking to people
 We went to Lisbon for a long weekend - visiting a friend who I hadn't seen since our wedding. By then I was hooked on Ciao and Lisbon reviews followed. At the end of the month we went to Switzerland to see other friends - all the trips had been booked before the redundancy and we were determined not to let it stop us going ahead.
 I had a day-long assessment for a job in Hull and was allegedly in 'pole position' at the end of the day - this subsequently dragged out until the end of July.
 Members of my CoT set questions for a travel challenge which were written up as "Pooh Bear's travel challenge" and generated my first ever review with an overall 'Exceptional' rating.

~ Real World ~
 In Australia a mine collapsed and fourteen days later two men were rescued to the amazement of all concerned.
 A bunch of men in monster outfits won the Eurovision Song Contest for Finland. The rest of Europe scratched their heads and hummed along.
 In Moscow the first ever demo for gay rights in Russia was held - the police didn't find it amusing and the march was broken up by the authorities.

~ June ~

My World
 The job hunt was swinging along with various irons in various fires. Lots of other Ciao members were job hunting too - we gave each other support and sympathy in bucket loads.
 I got a diamond for one of my least well-rated reviews of May - a review of 'The Deep', Hull's big aquarium which I'd visited after a job interview. No great surprise that Ciao didn't choose a better rated one as I've learned since that there's no real logic to their so-called 'algorithm'.
 We went to India, trekking in the Himalayan region of Ladakh and had a fantastic time.
 Just before leaving, I got a call offering me three months 'interim work' back in the same building where I'd worked before but with a different division of the company. With the long summer months looming ahead and the prospect of a slow job market, I said yes.

Real World
 Montenegro declared independence and 'Serbia and Montenegro' was dissolved adding another to the list of countries I hadn't been to.
 The World Cup kicked off in Germany - and in Ciao world, Spacemonkey kicked off his 'World Cup Challenge'
 Women finally got the chance to vote in Kuwait - let's not talk too much about democracy!

~ July ~

My World
 I started the new temporary job, driving back and forth to Peterborough every day in some of the hottest weather of the year.
 The decisions about the job in Hull dragged on and finally they chose the other candidate - someone who'd interviewed me said they chose 'another bloke in a suit' because they didn't want to change.
 After creating a host of imaginary characters for successive rounds of the Ciaomonkey Challenge, I won the final against the sheer inspiring genius of one the Ciaoists I most admire- Coleecip. On the day I heard that I hadn't got the job in Hull I also learned that I'd won the challenge - that really made up for the disappointment. I also had a call inviting me to Hamburg for an interview in August. One door closes - another one opens.

Real World
 After two weather-related delays, the Space Shuttle took of on July 4th and came back safely nearly two weeks later.
 Italy won the World Cup - Zinedine Zidane was sent off in disgrace after a rather-too-physical defence of his sister and mother's honour. I didn't care - he's still a giant in my eyes.
 Bombs in Mumbai hit commuter trains - the brother of one of my colleagues from my old company was killed; the colleague was on the same train but in a different carriage, and escaped unharmed.
 Hizbollah declared war on Israel.

~ August ~

My World
 Work was dull - I spent most of my time trying to stop my lab team from ripping each other's heads off.
 Friends from Sweden came to visit with their little girl - our cats went into hiding.
 I went to Hamburg for a job interview - with the company I'd approached back in May. As fate would have it, I went on August the 10th - the day when the airports went totally crazy. Armed only with the contents of a small plastic bag and no idea if I'd get back, the company got to see me do 'calm under pressure'. Within a few days they called to say they'd be making me an offer in September.

Real World
 Austrian teenager Natascha Kampusch escaped from her captor after eight years. He killed himself and she went on TV. Within a week or two the media turned against her.
 Pluto was declared to no longer be a planet - Mickey Mouse squeaked 'I told you so'
 A UN-brokered cease-fire was agreed in the Israel-Lebanon conflict.
 Police recovered Edvard Munch's famous painting 'The Scream' - not a painting I've ever liked much but it keeps getting stolen so somebody must rate it.

~ September ~

My World
 We went to Holland to join some friends in celebrating their 25th anniversary. They were one of the first lesbian couples to take advantage of the Dutch laws on registered relationships. To celebrate we all went to the safari park - before you ask, I have absolutely no idea why.
 I flew to Brussels for a job interview - knowing I already had an offer in my pocket from another company. It would have been a tough choice but fortunately the company in Belgium suddenly imposed a hiring freeze so I accepted the first offer and agreed to start in November
 Knowing I had a job to go to, we booked yet another holiday for the first half of November. I know it sounds crazy to have had so many holidays this year but it was the first time I'd been time rich and cash poor rather than the other way round. I was determined to make the most of it!

Real World
 Andre Agassi and Michael Schumacher both announced their retirements - I felt old.
 Crocodiles all over Australia went into mourning when Steve Irwin was shockingly killed by a sting-ray. Having dived a lot with rays, I'll not be able to look at them in quite the same way again.
 In the USA, E-coli contaminated spinach killed one person and poisoned more than a hundred others and giving all those who hate spinach a smug feeling.
 A MagLev train in Germany crashed killing 23 people - the first ever fatal accident with a Magnetic Levitation train.

~ October ~
My World
 I finally escaped the interim job and took a few weeks off - ostensibly to prepare for my new job and to go to Iran - but actually to stay home and write lots of reviews. Inevitable!
 My mother finally forced my sister and I to use our vouchers for a skid pan experience - we drove around like nutters, got covered in slime and had a great time.
 I went to meet one of my dearest Ciao friends, Fritzthecat, and her family and had a lovely time.
 I also attended the London Ciao meet - a great afternoon out with some very interesting and pleasant people.

Real World
 In Pennsylvania, a gunman burst into an Amish school and killed five girls before turning the gun on himself. The Amish community refused to condemn him and offered their condolences and support to his widow. If only more people could turn the other cheek in such a way.
 North Korea carried out its first nuclear test and the UN agreed to impose sanctions.
 In the USA, senator John Kerry accidentally insulted the intelligence of American troops in Iraq. When he apologised he explained that he'd actually meant to insult the intelligence of George W Bush - well that's alright then!

~ November ~
 Much to the amazement of most of our friends and family, we went to Iran for a fabulous two-week tour. The country was full of fascinating sites and friendly people and we had a great time.
 I started my new job up in Manchester, camping out in the spare room of an old neighbour. Everything so far is looking really good.

Real World
 The day before we flew to Tehran, Iran launched 3 test missiles, thumbing their noses at the world.
 Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death
 Former KGB officer, Alexander Livinenko was poisoned and subsequently died slowly and painfully. Before his death he firmly pointed the finger at Putin and the FSB (successor to the KGB)

~ December ~

My World
 I was running around like a headless chicken at work - back and forth to Manchester and Hamburg so getting ready for Christmas was bottom of my priorities and I ended up in Morrison's on Christmas Eve buying food.
 The anniversary of my horrible car accident passed and I heaved a sigh of relief - hoping that my bad year is now behind me. Meanwhile, some of my dearest Ciao friends suffered losses or serious illness in their families and it put my year into perspective. Some of their situations got better - some didn't but I won't go into details. They know who they are and my thoughts were with them then and now.
 We are heading off to Stockholm tomorrow for New Year with the friends who came over in the summer.

Real World
 Tehran held a 'Holocaust' conference and offended people all over the world.
 The Chinese River Dolphin became extinct
 James Brown, the so-called Godfather of Soul, died on Christmas day at the age of 73. A day later Gerald Ford died at the age of 93, having been the longest lived ex-President in American history.

And that's it - the year is nearly over. My problems and challenges have been insignificant when laid out like this next to the real world events of 2006. I just picked a few of the events that stood out in my mind - admittedly with a little bit of a reminder from Wikipedia.

Here's wishing you all an excellent 2007 - bear in mind whatever it may bring, there's usually a Ciao category available to write about it. 

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