And another year has passed. Looking back, it’s been quite a huge year in my personal life and in my professional career. Personally, I’ve enjoyed numerous gigs towards the start of the year (with less and less in the last 6 months), went viral for about a day over the Fast Food Cake, moved in with the girlfriend and so much dancing. I’ve now reached a comfortable stage in my Balboa dancing which was a goal over the last year, which I think is an amazing thing for my dancing. It’s definitely the new love. There were a couple competitions this year, which I did pretty well in, but the biggest achievement would’ve been coming second in a Lindy Hop Open Invitational at the Pan Pacific’s this year! The second biggest would be that I’m now a Swing Dance Instructor. It definitely has been helping with my dancing to take the time and analyse everything that’s going on with my movements.
Work wise, I left the Department of Education and now am working for uno Home Loans which was a start up when I joined at the beginning of the year. We are essentially a digital mortgage service provider for consumers. I’m a Senior Software Engineer here looking after the team of developers, managing sprints and doing my fair share of full stack development. The fun side of it has been that I’m now proficient at iOS and Android! This change was a big deal for me, to leave the security of a place like DoE, but I needed to be challenged, and I definitely have been.
A few trips that I hadn’t blogged about to:
Canberra – This was to the Mulligan’s Flat Woodlands Sanctuary as part of a Twilight tour that they hold. There were so many animals to see when spotlighting.
Melbourne – This trip was only a month ago for a wedding (the couple from the Save the Date shoot) that was held in the Yarra Valley (one of the best I’ve ever attended in terms of the people and the organisation that went into it), but conveniently at the same time as the Melbourne Lindy Exchange, which has been mentioned to me for a few years now and was very glad to finally make it and check out the amazing dancers in Melbourne. Given that there was a wedding, I also opted to get my first bespoke suit for the occasion because, why not? Ashan from Winslow Style sorted me out for the suit. My specs were to have a double breasted swing dancing suit, with a pleated back, waist strap and hight waisted trousers. The rest was all on him to get to the fit and style just right for what I was after and I’m definitely super pleased with it!
Perth – This was an actual holiday for once, as I tagged along with Amelia on her ESA conference. Nick came along on his ‘medical degree graduation / never want to start work’ holiday. It was nice to have the break in Fremantle and then hired a car and drove around the South West of WA for a few days. We checked out many beaches and a huge walk at the end of it. Conveniently, there was also the Summer Swing Fest in town. The Perth dancers are definitely a friendly bunch, with from what I could see, a definite shortage of leads! This leg ended with a trip to Rottnest Island to visit.
Quick mention of this picture below is from one of the numerous national park campsites! Secluded and beautiful beach just for your use!
And from Rottnest Island – Quokka’s and the snorkelling opportunities were amazing!
What a year! I think the goal for 2017 for dancing will be to own my style, which is something I’ve been slowly working on this year, but let’s see if I can feel more comfortable watching myself dance. Everything else, we shall just see what happens! I’d love to settle down for a year and see what needs to happen next! Definitely need to hop back on my bike though… Dance more… and maybe some travelling!