My friend Mark does this fantastic thing every year. Well he does more than one fantastic thing a year, but this one thing in particular I'm so impressed with, I'm going to blatantly plagiarise it. He sends out a big yearly wrap up email each year... Well here's mine: but it's in the form of a blog entry instead.

Greetings everyone, friends and family. Here's to 2005 ...

The year started (literally - New Years Eve) with the arrival of Button, a friend for Huckle. She was so tiny - I was amazed. Huckle got used to her, and she worked out just fine.

SDM paid the bills this year. I started off the working year with my first taste of "Away Days" where the entire company gets together for a general catch up and training. It was good value to go across to Adelaide for a few days and catch up with colleagues over a beer or two. The rest of the year with SDM was great. I watched some old friends join the company (Simon, Darren and Elaine), and moved into a more focussed role in an area I kick ass in. We grew with some new people, we lost a few people as well. Such is business sometimes. I look forward to the challenge of next year with the precedents and standards I've set for myself this year. I think I worked too hard this year, and will probably do the same in '06 - but that's just the way I'm built

My big tech discoveries this year were RSS feeds, Podcasts, Offline Files Synchronisation and moving from Winamp to Windows Media Player. I'm not sure how I lived without these before, but I somehow managed :) I read a few baby books and mainly websites this year. Boing Boing, Slashdot and Overheard in New York featured heavily in my RSS reader. I read a lot of Scoble, then eventually started to ignore him as the novelty wore off.

Speaking of baby books, obviously 9 out of the 12 months of 2005 were spent focussed on babies, babies, babies. Steph and I fell pregnant in March, and the first 12 weeks were the hardest time I've ever spent in my life keeping a secret. I wanted to tell the world, I wanted to blog all my anxieties, fears, excitement and euphoria - but kept it all secret until we were safely along the path of no turning back. And earlier this week, just before the year ended, we were blessed with our first daughter, Aurora Jupiter Neumann. I'm sure I'll have much more to say about her in the coming years :) Her impact, I suspect, is not yet fully realised

I saw the following bands this year (in chronological order): Velvet Revolver, Joe Satriani (finally!), Megadeth, Rollins (Spoken Word), Idlewild, Nuno Bettencourt and Nine Inch Nails. I fantasised about Dream Theater touring (alas, it didn't happen). I also saw Best Wishes a few times (and became their official webmaster - http://www.bestwishesband.com). Albums that excited me this year: John Petrucci's "Suspended Animation", Opeth's "Ghost Reveries", Idlewild's "Warning / Promises", Nine Inch Nail's "With Teeth" and Best Wishes "Estate of the Late". JJJ and I grew further apart, I bonded more with RRR, especially their weekend schedule.

Another year spent in Blackburn, but the house got a bit of a boost when we overhauled the bathroom in September. It was a big thing, and something we'd talked about for a few years. When it started I was cursing its cost, and after completion, I was surprised how much it really meant and the true value of having it done. 3 months after completion, I'm yet to paint the ceiling, but it still looks great.

We went on a holiday in August to Auckland and The Bay of Islands in New Zealand. Unlike other compatriots, we didn't bother with the whole drug smuggling routine. I really didn't follow any of the media coverage of Schappelle Corby, the Bali 9, Michelle Leslie or Van Nguyen. I didn't really care - it was too far removed for me, and smacked yet again of the "poor Aussie battler, let's band together!" mentality that I loathe in the Australian media. A nation stopped when Corby was sentenced - I was more upset that I had only recently been introduced to the banshee like behaviour of Mercedes Corby, and was no longer going to be exposed to her screaming fits. In any case, our holiday was fantastic - really romantic, really laid back, just what we needed.

On the friends front, Skogg & KT fell preggers a week after us (they're still waiting for their little visitor), Chris & Mel are due in Feb (I think) and Elaine & Greg at the end of April. Gav & Meg had a wonderful baby boy named Samuel. Jake got married (we went up bush for his wedding - it was great). Tammy and Mark moved in together. Various friends went through some bad times with their partners, some resolving, some not. Tim launched another book (good work!). My sister went to Egypt. The people of Egypt put up with my sister... heh

So that's it for 2005. It was a good year (but in reality, most of them are). It was special. Steph and I spent some good time together. We went through some good times and some bad times. We did a lot of stuff we'd never done before. I love her incredibly and feel closer to her than ever.

And thus, the year ended with the arrival of Aurora, a friend for all of us. She is so tiny - I am amazed. She's getting used to us (I think). She's going to work out just fine.