Saturday 2 January 2016

My review of 2015. Part 1: January-June

For me personally, 2015 has been a really good year and of course I am hoping to continue along this vein in 2016. I hope you enjoy reading about my year.

January: I am a lifelong Queen fan and amazingly, I have never until now seen them live in concert. Of course I would have liked to have seen them when poor Freddie Mercury was still alive but this doesn't dampen my excitement.Especially as a good friend has for some time been extoling the virtues of one Adam Lambert whom I have never heard sing before.  I saw them together on 21st at our MEN Arena in the city centre. Watching Brian May is mesmerizing, he really is a phenomenonally skilled guitar player! I also love Adam Lambert too, he has an amazing voice which fits in perfectly with Queen's music I could hardly believe it :D I hope that he and Queen are working and touring together for many years to come. Seeing them once is just not enough and going to their concerts could easily become addictive. This is definitely a highlight of this year already and a great start to 2015. I am happy. A big thank you to my friend for insisting lol that I take notice of Adam Lambert because yes he is very talented and I do like him.
February: On the 10th I went to Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) after work at 5.30pm for Meet the director Sally Macdonald. A nice pleasant evening which began with Sally giving a talk about the AQA A Level curriculum. Afterwards there was a chance to mingle and talk to other invitees with a nice buffet. Then we had a group photo taken. This was a large group and it was fun. I didn't bump into anyone I know and I have still never spoken/met Sally Macdonald though I know her by site and that she is a very nice lady. Perhaps I will meet her in future, perhaps even in 2016. I did have a chat with an astrophysicist who works at Manchester University.She told me all about her work with moonrocks/meteorites.
Personal- on the 14th Glynn and I had a lovely Valentines breakfast for the first time at The Font, Oxford road. The menu was good and predictably we went for traditional fodder.Glynns brekkie was larger than mine but I had a side order of pancakes. We also had raspberry bellini's :D There are 2 Font pubs near us and we have now tried both ofthem several times so I suppose you could say we like them and are regulars. I certainly do like them.Great food and a very extensive range of both draught and bottled beers.
In February of last year I was very happy to discover an organisation called Chemists Without Borders which I promptly joined. I have participated in a few conference calls with them since then. In such a conference on 20th this year there were quite a few of us volunteers. We were invited to become a member of the team and naturally we all accepted. CWB does important work and this is a great honour. I am still pleased about it as you'd expect. I also got hooked up with one of their board members who has her own organisation AIDSfreeAFRICA which does amazing things in Cameroon. I post articles about HIV/AIDS on the AIDSfreeAFRICA Facebook page. Rolande is very complimentary and seems to love the articles I choose. They also seem to reach alot of people which pleases us both. I am thrilled to be able to help in this small way.
March: Time for my annual run to raise funds for the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, the non-profit closest to my heart. This year on the 15th I ran a half marathon around the Silverstone F1 course. Yes THAT one! Starfish in their loveliness did a webpage for me again on their site. Sarahs Starfish run I am very pleased to have raised £300 for them and always very appreciative of everyone who sponsored me. I have a Facebook page for this run which you can look at if interested, maybe leave a comment too if you want Sarahs Silverstone Half Marathon
April: The end of the Easter holidays saw Glynn and I make a return visit to the wonderful Bletchley Park.We stayed in Bletchley itself from 16th -19th and stayed in the same hotel as last year. Namely Campanille. We were able to use our season ticket which we obtained last time. Also this time we were able to get into The National Museum of Computing which was fab. A real trip down memory lane for geeks and computer owners/lovers. I loved it. All in all this was a lovely weekend and I can't think of (or go to) Bletchley Park without thinking about Dr Sue Black. More about this lovely lady in December :).
May: All personal really this month. Glynn and I celebrated our birthdays which both fell on a weekend this year. I took Glynn to Sheffield for the weekend which is always nice. We stayed in a Travelodge for the first time which was also very nice. Given a choice I would've picked somewhere we hadn't been beofre. Perhaps abroad. That said for my birthday we had a day out at Greater Manchester's Heaton Park which I had heard alot about and amazingly never been to before. It is a big and lovely place. Unfortunately the boating lake was closed but I loved the views and the animals. This month also saw us secure a morgage for our first home. We then viewed a house per day after work. I loved most of them and I enjoy this part anyway. We made an offer on the first house we saw but that was not to be in the end. We do now own a lovely home but more about that in December :)
June: On Tuesday 23rd at 9.45am I had a job interview at a local independent school. It is a great place and just 10-15 minutes from my home. Then in the afternoon we went to look at a house which sadly neither of us were keen on.  On Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th I was at MOSI again doing an event called the Graphene weekender. I'm interested in graphene and had a brilliant time. I have already blogged about that.

I hope you enjoyed this first half of my look back at 2015. Please read part2 as well. The best is yet to come!
Thanks Sarah xxx

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