Goals for 2019 and 2018 Retrospect

Goals for 2019..

..As a developer:

• New senior role: all change for 2019 taking a step into FinTech and Financial Education
• Specialise more in backend Node.js+TypeScript including unit testing and linting for increased quality
• Open source my side projects including a music rating system rather than just working on closed source
• Write technical blog posts to share knowledge
• Grow my business Bubbly Clouds

..As a human ^_^:

• Get out and meet friends and family a lot - go bowling, paintball, pub
• Travel around and book mini weekend breaks for work life balance
• Cook some new recipes
• Read both fiction and non-fiction and share on Goodreads
• Keep active, walking, cycling, badminton etc.
• Research buying a house
• Don't try to do too much at once and stay positive

2018 was a busy year. The highlights..

..At work:

• Rolled out Single Sign On system powered by Auth0 to all customers with GDPR changes.
• Rolled out PDF renderer as a Service which renders URLs to PDFs and puts results on S3. Made with Puppeteer from Google Chrome, Node, TypeScript, deployed with Docker to AWS ECS. Workers are scaled up and down by CloudWatch Alarms when SQS queue contains work.
• Mentoring and reviewing code to elevate dev team members to a senior level and work with them to deliver Digital Transformation with IAM and Microservices. Plus hiring new developers from Southampton uni and planning their projects.

..In life:

• Chilled with close friends and family - cinema, bowling, pubs, comedy festivals etc.
• In June Sister and her boyfriend had a baby boy so I became an Uncle
• Badminton and Cycling
• Trips with Stephen around Taunton, Quantocks and Blackdown hills, Exeter, holiday in The Cotswolds, Bristol (Gromit Unleashed), holiday in Cyprus, Minehead, Woolacombe, Bridgwater Carnival, Dunster by Candlelight on steam train, Bath on Ice Skating, Weston-super-Mare Fireworks at Sea, Wokingham
• Cooked many meals and curries following new recipes, plus BBQs, roasts and meals out
• In February we were up the top of Cabot Tower in Bristol during a mini earthquake
• In March I got snowed in and the UK was shut down following a beast from the east
• Grew Scotch Bonnet Chillis, Cacti and other plants