Here I am then, at the beginning of my eighth annual blog post. A not impossible, yet highly improbable achievement.

I'm glad I've been able to prove that, with only a negligible amount of time and ability it is possible to publish a post every year for eight years.

My last annual blog post ended on what you could consider a cliffhanger. Past Andy¹ had made a lot of decisions and he was unsure as to how everything would turn it.

Thankfully, Past Andy dun gud. Present Andy doesn't have a single regret.

Moving to Wycombe has really worked out. Sure, it's only Wycombe but it's my Wycombe. I'm lucky to live slap bang in the centre of town so I'm still able to avoid learning to drive. I get to see my brother Matt most weeks and it's pretty easy to go and help Dad out when he decides to dig up the front lawn.²

Rachel is within walking distance, which is handy because it turns out she's even greater than previously noted. Research in this area shall continue.

Work

I've almost been at Bibliocloud for a year. What a ride it's been.

Bibliocloud was always going to be a technical challenge. This was part of the reason I was so eager to dig in. I could play hero; swooping in and solving any problems that the legacy code base was throwing at us.

Unfortunately I was unprepared for the terrifying reality of customers, features, bugs, performance issues, process problems, and time constraints that are the result of having a small team and a complex piece of software to support.

In all of my previous jobs the processes were in place for me to just sit and do programming. I'd never actually seen how those processes came to be or had to think about getting them in place.

Thankfully Emma, Dave and Emily are incredible teammates³. Gradually we have figured out process, hatched plans and solved problems. Every day we make progress and it's incredibly rewarding.

There have also been plenty of chances for me to do the heroic things I had hoped for like installing Rubocop and moaning about code that doesn't have tests.

I knew when I joined Bibbers⁴ that I'd be there for the long term. So, as I start my second year of many; we're at ~26% test coverage, Sara just joined the fray as our fourth developer and we've got some ambitious aims for the future. Exciting times indeed.

Play

Travel continues. Rachel and I visited Gothenburg, and went snowboarding with a gang of friends in Austria. I also spent a long weekend in Hamburg for a stag weekend. The main highlight was Miniatur Wunderland, naturally.

Running continues. I ran the Hackney Half again, and Rachel came along too⁵. I completed it in two and a half hours which is quite a bit better than last time.

QED continues. Had a blast at the last one, can't wait for the next.

Dota continues. I'm still unsure as to why, it's an awful game.

Things

Consumption continues:

• Book: Lint
• Comic: Low vol. 2
• Game: Pokémon Moon (and Pokémon Go, I guess)
• Film: Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2
• TV: Taboo
• Music: La Dispute
• Gig: The Big Moon
• Podcast: The Guilty Feminist
• Show: Polarbear: Dark Corners

Finally

The whole world has gone mad. Brexit has been heart-wrenching. Trump equally so. I've been through the five stages of grief with both of them. Acceptance is not good enough.

The election next month will, short of a miracle, be the third dose of bad luck. Grim.

My dear friends and family are more important than ever and I'm so grateful for every one of them. Also I'm keeping a list of everything I do with them because this is a thing I do, apparently.

Evie⁶ is all kinds of ace and I've already begun loading her up with Duplo.

I'm going to be thirty in a few months. That's weird.

I'm going to see Wheatus live in two weeks. That's weirder.

Onwards.