2011 in review
Tradition dictates that I review 2011, as I've done it now for the past 5 years... so let's do it again now. Suffice to say, as you can probably tell by the state of this blog, I did not spend 2011 blogging :) I'd say I did spend a fair bit of it tweeting though, and I developed a socially acceptable addiction for Facebook and LinkedIn.
In summary, 2011, as every other year always is, was extremely busy, but on the whole, a pretty great year. I've just spent the last 10 days off work, doing pretty much nothing - stayed at home, cleaned up, organised stuff, played with the kids, etc. I didn't realise how much I just needed to stop and chill out, and with time to reflect, I'd definitely say that 2011 was pretty full-on. But I'm not looking back on it with any overwhelming sense of negativity. Certainly there were some hard parts, but for the most part, it was a productive year and as a family, we moved forwards in leaps and bounds.
Again, it's quite easy to break the year into 2 parts; work life and home life.
Let's start with work life. Well, 2011 was pretty massive. Let alone all the "work stuff" that I probably can't talk about here, there was stacks of stuff that did happen that I can talk about :) For starters, I officially changed roles early in the year, moving from being the General Manager to the Managing Director. What did this actually mean? In essence, it was a watershed moment for the CEO to officially hand over the reins to me, and I inherited the final few bits of OBS reporting into me. Other than that, it was business as usual, just trying to make OBS an awesome place to work. Which I think we managed to succeed in again, as we ranked for the 3rd year in a row in the Top 10 of BRW's "Best Places to Work" - pretty significant for us, but a good reflection on the company and our culture. Other than that, I managed to get along to a "corporate event" for the first time in a long time - entertaining some customers at the Australian Open Quarter Finals (which I enjoyed a lot). We opened an office in Perth - which whilst taking a lot of planning, only resulted in a couple of trips over there for me. The office is going well, I'm very proud that we managed to get it up and running. Oh, and finally, we did something we'd never done before - we ran a company-wide internal conference, called "OB1" (probably my crowning glory - coming up with the name for that one). It was on the Gold Coast for a couple of days, we flew everybody in, talked about and workshopped "Stuff"... it was something I am extremely proud of. Can't wait to do it all again :)
In terms of home life, we all had our rewards and challenges. Affecting us all was Aurora's first year of school. For her, it was immense - she had highs and lows (making friends, fitting into a community, the excitement and the tiredness that each day brought), and she learnt how to fluently read and write (which, at the moment, amazes me daily). The flow on effect in the Neumann house was pretty big as well - daily schedules were rearranged, Atticus suddenly found himself alone a lot of the time and Steph and I got more involved with the school than we probably expected. It was pretty big news all round. Aurora handled it well though, and I'm really proud of her transitioning to being a preppie. In 2012, she'll change schools (for a variety of reasons), which will probably bring a whole new set of challenges - but after this year, I think as a family we're reasonably well prepared for it. Otherwise, Aurora continues to develop and seeks to understand the world a little bit more every day, which is a wondrous thing to observe as a parent.
Atticus grew into a real little boy in 2011, which was a joy to watch. His personality developed a lot, but his speech took (and is continuing to take) a little longer to catch up. He's been seeing a speech pathologist for the past 9 months or so, and is making progress, if not a little slowly. It's hard to see him so frustrated in not being able to communicate effectively - and that frustration usually channels itself into him acting out (often physically). As his language has gotten better though, he's developing a calmer, more agreeable personality (and maybe moving out of the "terrible twos" as well). Other than that, he's proven himself to be a very funny, very affectionate little boy, and he, along with Aurora, continue to be the centre of my universe.
For my Facebook friends, the children's musical education is continuing well. In 2011, I was pretty committed to exposing them to a lot of different genres, bands and songs, and have managed to keep it up most weekends. Aurora's favourite bands are The Get Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World and the Beatles. Atticus likes music that gets you moving - Jamiroquai had a big effect, as does anything funky or particularly rockin'.
Steph was a real rock for me this year. Upon reflection, I'm amazed at everything she did this year, and the support she gave to the whole family throughout the year. At the risk of starting to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech, she really did underpin everything we achieved as a family this year. She made Aurora's first year at school as comfortable as possible. She led Atticus in his speech improvement. She instigated us (as a family) learning keyword signing to help Atticus communicate (which was very effective in hindsight). She acted as an invaluable counsel for me on work stuff that was going on. And she struggled with her own challenges all throughout that - me having some pretty heavy travel periods throughout the year, her making new friends in the school parent community, a serious neck issue that sidelined her for a few weeks, as well as a million other things. She's a friggin' champ. 2012 is going to be a big year for her - more on that later - but I have no doubt she'll eat it up, as she does with pretty much everything. She's an inspiration.
In terms of concerts, I managed to get out and see a couple of decent bands... Tool, Iron Maiden, Stone Sour/Sevendust/36 Crazyfists, the Soundwave festival (Primus, Coheed and Cambria, Millencolin, Slayer), A Day To Remember, Kyuss Lives, The Get Up Kids, Children of Bodom, Opeth. It's hard to pick a highlight... there were so many amazing moments. I can tell you that Maiden and The Get Up Kids were a bit disappointing though... fortunately I'd seen them both perform way better at earlier concerts, so they get a free pass. I already have tickets for 4 concerts (!) in 2012; The Dresden Dolls, Soundgarden, Soundwave 2012, Bodyjar/Game Over... so I suspect it'll be another big year of music (which suits me just fine)
So that's pretty much 2011 in a nutshell. It was a big year for everyone I think - and we made it through, which I'm really proud of. We did some great stuff. I hope 2011 was a good one for you.
Cheers,
Andy
In summary, 2011, as every other year always is, was extremely busy, but on the whole, a pretty great year. I've just spent the last 10 days off work, doing pretty much nothing - stayed at home, cleaned up, organised stuff, played with the kids, etc. I didn't realise how much I just needed to stop and chill out, and with time to reflect, I'd definitely say that 2011 was pretty full-on. But I'm not looking back on it with any overwhelming sense of negativity. Certainly there were some hard parts, but for the most part, it was a productive year and as a family, we moved forwards in leaps and bounds.
Again, it's quite easy to break the year into 2 parts; work life and home life.
Let's start with work life. Well, 2011 was pretty massive. Let alone all the "work stuff" that I probably can't talk about here, there was stacks of stuff that did happen that I can talk about :) For starters, I officially changed roles early in the year, moving from being the General Manager to the Managing Director. What did this actually mean? In essence, it was a watershed moment for the CEO to officially hand over the reins to me, and I inherited the final few bits of OBS reporting into me. Other than that, it was business as usual, just trying to make OBS an awesome place to work. Which I think we managed to succeed in again, as we ranked for the 3rd year in a row in the Top 10 of BRW's "Best Places to Work" - pretty significant for us, but a good reflection on the company and our culture. Other than that, I managed to get along to a "corporate event" for the first time in a long time - entertaining some customers at the Australian Open Quarter Finals (which I enjoyed a lot). We opened an office in Perth - which whilst taking a lot of planning, only resulted in a couple of trips over there for me. The office is going well, I'm very proud that we managed to get it up and running. Oh, and finally, we did something we'd never done before - we ran a company-wide internal conference, called "OB1" (probably my crowning glory - coming up with the name for that one). It was on the Gold Coast for a couple of days, we flew everybody in, talked about and workshopped "Stuff"... it was something I am extremely proud of. Can't wait to do it all again :)
In terms of home life, we all had our rewards and challenges. Affecting us all was Aurora's first year of school. For her, it was immense - she had highs and lows (making friends, fitting into a community, the excitement and the tiredness that each day brought), and she learnt how to fluently read and write (which, at the moment, amazes me daily). The flow on effect in the Neumann house was pretty big as well - daily schedules were rearranged, Atticus suddenly found himself alone a lot of the time and Steph and I got more involved with the school than we probably expected. It was pretty big news all round. Aurora handled it well though, and I'm really proud of her transitioning to being a preppie. In 2012, she'll change schools (for a variety of reasons), which will probably bring a whole new set of challenges - but after this year, I think as a family we're reasonably well prepared for it. Otherwise, Aurora continues to develop and seeks to understand the world a little bit more every day, which is a wondrous thing to observe as a parent.
Atticus grew into a real little boy in 2011, which was a joy to watch. His personality developed a lot, but his speech took (and is continuing to take) a little longer to catch up. He's been seeing a speech pathologist for the past 9 months or so, and is making progress, if not a little slowly. It's hard to see him so frustrated in not being able to communicate effectively - and that frustration usually channels itself into him acting out (often physically). As his language has gotten better though, he's developing a calmer, more agreeable personality (and maybe moving out of the "terrible twos" as well). Other than that, he's proven himself to be a very funny, very affectionate little boy, and he, along with Aurora, continue to be the centre of my universe.
For my Facebook friends, the children's musical education is continuing well. In 2011, I was pretty committed to exposing them to a lot of different genres, bands and songs, and have managed to keep it up most weekends. Aurora's favourite bands are The Get Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World and the Beatles. Atticus likes music that gets you moving - Jamiroquai had a big effect, as does anything funky or particularly rockin'.
Steph was a real rock for me this year. Upon reflection, I'm amazed at everything she did this year, and the support she gave to the whole family throughout the year. At the risk of starting to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech, she really did underpin everything we achieved as a family this year. She made Aurora's first year at school as comfortable as possible. She led Atticus in his speech improvement. She instigated us (as a family) learning keyword signing to help Atticus communicate (which was very effective in hindsight). She acted as an invaluable counsel for me on work stuff that was going on. And she struggled with her own challenges all throughout that - me having some pretty heavy travel periods throughout the year, her making new friends in the school parent community, a serious neck issue that sidelined her for a few weeks, as well as a million other things. She's a friggin' champ. 2012 is going to be a big year for her - more on that later - but I have no doubt she'll eat it up, as she does with pretty much everything. She's an inspiration.
In terms of concerts, I managed to get out and see a couple of decent bands... Tool, Iron Maiden, Stone Sour/Sevendust/36 Crazyfists, the Soundwave festival (Primus, Coheed and Cambria, Millencolin, Slayer), A Day To Remember, Kyuss Lives, The Get Up Kids, Children of Bodom, Opeth. It's hard to pick a highlight... there were so many amazing moments. I can tell you that Maiden and The Get Up Kids were a bit disappointing though... fortunately I'd seen them both perform way better at earlier concerts, so they get a free pass. I already have tickets for 4 concerts (!) in 2012; The Dresden Dolls, Soundgarden, Soundwave 2012, Bodyjar/Game Over... so I suspect it'll be another big year of music (which suits me just fine)
Onto reviewing my goals for 2011;
- Spend time with Atticus, helping him develop into a great little boy
- Spend time with Aurora, helping her get through her first year of school
- Keep connected to my wonderful wife
- Stay healthy and try to get healthier
- Make OBS a great and successful place to work
So that's pretty much 2011 in a nutshell. It was a big year for everyone I think - and we made it through, which I'm really proud of. We did some great stuff. I hope 2011 was a good one for you.
Cheers,
Andy
posted by AndyN at 11:58 AM
1 Comments:
A crisp and clearly articulated blog which sums up a whole year so beautifully, Nice one.
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