2011: A Year in Review

Happy New Year!

2012 is upon us so the time has come to reflect on 2011 and look forward to the year ahead.

Travel

(Red = Planes, Green = Trains, Blue = Automobiles)
View 2011 - Year in Travel in a larger map

Iceland

In February, I visited Iceland with my schoolmate Dan. Our mission, to see and photograph the aurora borealis.

We succeeded:

Aurora Borealis over Hella, Iceland. February 2011

Our first night it was raining and on the third night there was a blizzard. Conditions on the second night, as you can see, were perfect!

It was an amazing sight. The lights seem to build up gradually and appear to come up from the ground rather than descend from above as I would have expected. When they first appeared, I thought I was imagining things, it was that subtle. Eventually they built up to the impressive sight I've managed to catch on film. 

I prepared in advance by studying advice on websites written by aurora photographers. Still, it took me several attempts to get a decent photograph. I had to take a 30 second exposure with my DSLR to get this picture.

In the daytime, we explored south west Iceland. Here are some of the highlights:

Strokkur Geyser, Geysir, Iceland. February 2011

Me, wrapped up warm in front of Gullfoss, a spectacular waterfall

The black sand beach at Vik

Florence, Italy

In May, I caught up with Toby, another old schoolfriend of mine who returned from a 2 year contract in the Cayman Islands. He settled in London but I have an irrational dislike of London so we decided to visit Florence for a weekend instead. The highlights:

Me (failing to smile because I dislike posing for photos), beside the river Arno in front of the Ponte Vecchio

A glimpse of the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore

United Kingdom

2011 had me traipsing up and down the country as usual. The usual meeting friends, family, sitting exams, going to work...

Health & Fitness


2011 saw me make strides in this area of my life also. As I mentioned previously, work over my first year in the East Midlands almost killed me. I didn't have 6kg to lose!! So, I took steps. I bought a Withings WiScale to track my weight and resolved to eat better. Progress was made, and I've even exceeded my baseline weight of 69kg! Proof below:

My weight since April 2011

I also took up running. For support, I joined my local running club (Rutland Running & Triathlon Club). With their help I went from wheezing my way through a few hundred metres to being able to run 30+ minutes comfortably. An old uni friend of mine, Drew, introduced me to parkrun in late October. Its a free, timed 5k run every Saturday held in parks all over the country. My first couple of efforts were less-than-stellar. I stuck at it and managed 5 parkruns in late 2011 each time bettering my previous performances.

Me setting a parkrun 5Km PB in November

In April, as well as my scale, I bought a FitBit pedometer to track my steps. I remembered to wear it more often than not. By September, I'd walked 750 miles with it!

My 750 mile FitBit badge!

Finally, in September, I bought a bike. I was inspired in part by my new bosses who are all keen cyclists and do long-distance charity rides every summer and my mate Drew's triathlon preparations. Also, I live in an area with ample cycle routes so it felt right to get back into cycling. Having tried a dozen bikes in the local bike shop, I opted for the Giant Defy 4.

My shiny new bike!

It goes scarily fast and I'm still getting used to the clipless pedals and cycle shoes! There's a local cycling club that I plan to join in the springtime of 2012 when my schedule thins out a little. I've also planned to try a sprint triathlon in August.

Work

Work was OK in 2011. Got promoted in August. Made sure to take all the leave I was entitled to so I didn't burn out like in 2009-10!! Passed an important exam in February, failed another in September. That's all I'll say about work.

Life

Thanks to the running club, I now know more local people. I've let go of a lot of old baggage this year and my uni friends were surprised by my energy when I met up with them in Glasgow! I'm healthier than I've ever been in my life before! Definite progress.

When 2010 ended, I was on a downer. At the end of 2011, I'm on a high and can't wait to challenge myself in 2012. I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, they just don't stick. Instead, I'm going to try to build on my momentum and see where it takes me.

2012, bring it on!!

My Origin Story

Today I explored the various settings behind this blog. I was fascinated by the stats page which shows the blog's hit-count among other things. It seems that my blog has at least been viewed a few times from the UK, Germany, Russia and the USA.

Alas, no followers so far.

To be honest, I'm fine with that. Fame and fortune is not the motivation behind this blog. Besides, I'm aware that, at least for now, my blog is hardly unique. It's early days. If I find a regular audience, great. If not I'll continue to share my thoughts with the void.

I was deliberately concise in my "Hello World" post but now I feel some back-story is in order. Here is my origin story.

This map represents where I've lived, learned & worked.
View My Origin Story in a larger map. 

Birth and Early Years, 1983 - 1994
I was born in Wales in March 1983. Specifically, the small city of Bangor. I lived and grew up on the Isle of Anglesey in a small village called Carreglefn. Carreglefn has its own small primary school which I attended from the age of 4. When I say small, I mean tiny. I was one of only 6 to enrol in my year! Growing up in a tiny Welsh community and attending a tiny Welsh school while coming from an English family was... tough. I coped by focusing on getting through the years working towards the promise of a better life in secondary school. It was during these years that I decided I wanted to become a doctor.

Secondary School, 1994 - 2001
I attended the local secondary school in the town of Amlwch, Anglesey. Life here was marginally better than in my tiny primary school. After all, here I was one out of a hundred and fifty pupils in my year. I had a core group of about 5 or 6 close friends and again coped by studying hard on the promise of a better life at University. Eventually I gained my GCSE's and A-Levels with sufficient grades to be accepted into the University of Manchester Medical School.

University, 2001 - 2006
After an initial period of adjustment (it was a shock moving from the sticks to a city like Manchester!) I was much happier here. I met some wonderful people who remain very close and loyal friends. I can't say I continued to excel at my studies. Now as one of three hundred and fifty students, I was firmly middle-of-the-pack rather than front-runner academically. This didn't bother me particularly as I was mostly very happy. After all, I did well enough to graduate and secure my first job.

Lancaster, 2006 - 2008
At first I felt like I had arrived. Finally I was a doctor. I had the dream career I'd always hoped for. Work was hard but I made some good friends there. Unfortunately there was one person who I didn't get along with at all who in my mind did everything possible to undermine me. To my discredit, I let him bother me far more than I should have. Also, I suddenly realised that I didn't know exactly what sort of doctor I wanted to be. By the time I worked out that I wanted to specialise in Paediatrics (the care of children), it was too late to optimise my CV and I was unable to secure a training job in Paediatrics. This left me with only two options, take a job in General Practice (family medicine) or do ad-hoc part-time work. For security, I took the General Practice job.

Preston & Chorley, 2008 - 2009
My first 6 months were great. I was assigned a rotation in Paediatrics. More than ever I knew that this was what I wanted but now I had become trapped in the General Practice training job. With the help of one of the Paediatricians I worked for, I took a gamble and re-applied for a Paediatric training job. My intention was to remain in the North West of England where I had lived and worked since university. Unfortunately, I wasn't offered an interview in the North West. I was however, interviewed for a job in the East Midlands. While I awaited their decision, I transferred to a rotation in Elderly & Stroke Medicine. I was miserable. This was in direct opposition to what I wanted to do. Fortunately, I was offered a Paediatric job by the East Midlands. I promptly resigned my General Practice Job and made preparations to move.

Oakham, Northampton, Kettering and Leicester, 2009 - Present.
Not knowing the East Midlands at all, I got out a map and pinned all the hospitals I could be sent to during my 8 years of Paediatric training. I visited all these places and decided to move to Oakham, a pleasant, small market town between Leicester & Peterborough. It was roughly equidistant from most of the hospitals I would be sent to work so made sense to me.
My first year was in Northampton. That was a crazily busy job. I ended up pulling extra shifts to cover rota gaps produced by pregnant colleagues. At the time I was just happy doing the job I wanted. I hadn't noticed that I had no friends in Oakham and barely spent any time there between sleep & work. Work was so busy, I often skipped lunch and sometimes was so tired I didn't make myself proper evening meals either.
My second year was in Kettering. I liked working there much better. I was just as busy but work felt calmer, less rushed. I didn't have to plug any rota gaps so had much more time to myself. I slowly started to realise how lonely and isolated I had become from my year in Northampton. My good friend Adam, who I lived with in university and who'd settled near Leicester confronted me about my weight-loss. I didn't believe him at first but got on the scale and was shocked to find I was 6kg lighter than I thought I was!
It was coming up to the end of 2010 when I looked back and saw I had pretty much nothing in my life beyond my work. As lucky as I am to have such a wonderful and worthwhile career, I can't let that be all that I am.
Over the course of this year, I've taken steps to enrich my life. Now, I want even more. That is the reason I started this blog.

Why 'When The World Is Mine'

Like the character Stewie Griffin from 'Family Guy', I often find myself uttering 'When The World is Mine...' at times of frustration. It occurred to me that my life is my world. I have to make it my own.

Hello World

I started 2011 on a bit of a downer if I'm honest. On the one hand I was disappointed by the lack of flying cars & holidays on the Moon that had been promised by 2010! On the other, more serious hand, I was disappointed by myself. I felt that I had become stuck.

I looked-back and, with the exception of my work, could think of no note-worthy achievements for the whole of 2010! I'm lucky that my job allows me to make a real difference in peoples lives but it does tend to consume a disproportionate amount of my time!

I had fallen into the trap. I worked hard at school and got into university. I worked hard in university and got my dream career. Then...

...nothing much else.

So, I resolved to become more than my job and to take back control of my life. Consequently, 2011 has been a much better year! With 2012 fast approaching, I felt the need to find a way to hold myself accountable. Hence this blog.

Here, I will post my goals, my achievements and my failures. Here, I will try to build a life beyond just my work!