What Ant did in 2005
As I've been pretty appalling at keeping people I don't see regularly up-to-date with what's been going on in the world of Ant, I thought I would take this opportunity to let people know what I've been up to over the last year. So here are Ant's 2005 highlights, mostly in order of importance.
I've got engaged to Nastia. For those of you who don't know, I met Nastia when I stayed with her in Moscow at the end of my China / Russia trip, and we started going out. We managed to keep a Moscow to Bristol relationship going for a couple of years, but things got a lot easier this year as Nastia won the Chevening scholarship to study Marketing and Strategy at Warwick Business School. She started in September, and now has another semester and then a six month dissertation to complete. Warwick's a bit closer than Moscow, and we're now seeing each other every weekend as opposed to every two months.
I proposed to Nastia in a rather spontaneous fashion at the end of November. We are planning to get married on the 25th March. We have decided to do a very small, simple service, with only our parents, my brother, her sister and close friend each coming along. This was because with Nastia's course and my recent house purchase we don't have the time or resources to do anything big. However, I do have a small reputation for throwing parties (mostly with a ton of sand thrown in), so I am planning a proper celebration next year, to which pretty much everyone I've ever met will be invited. I apologise for not making the engagement public sooner: I would like to pretend that its because we were waiting for Home Office approval (which we now have), but its actually its just because I'm disorganised. (I know this proved inconvenient to some we told - sorry again).
As mentioned, I have also bought a house: completion was at the end of November. Nastia's cat has come over from Russia and is going through quarantine, and so I thought I'd buy it somewhere to stay when he gets out :-). My new place is in Brislington in Bristol, just off the A4 to Bath, about 25 minutes walk from Temple Meads. Its a Victorian terraced place, with a couple of bedrooms, upstairs bathroom, and lounge, study, living room and kitchen and a small garden. It is in very good condition, and doesn't really require much work, so it is just a question of getting the furniture in. After two months it is starting to feel like home and I'm really enjoying living here.
I also managed to complete my Masters degree last year. I've been studying a part-time Masters in Software Engineering at the University of the West of England, which has been sponsored by BT (it costs about as much as a typical training course anyway). This has been really good: its been excellent to go back to University and actually work this time, and to be able to use what I have learnt in my day job. I managed to get a project in BT that let me do my dissertation full time, so I completed this and handed it in at the end of November. I have my viva tomorrow. At the moment I am OK for a distinction, but my final grade will depend on what grade my dissertation is given.
I am still working as a software engineer for BT. I've been on some fairly useless internal projects for the last couple of years, but this has let me get on with the Masters. I have just started as a designer on an external project. This has been a nice change after being stuck in the office working by myself for six months, as I am starting to travel again and will have to dust off my suit to meet clients. I am hoping to be able to use some of the work on my dissertation on the current project as well. I am considering moving from BT, as I have been there for seven years now, but I think I will take my time in choosing where to move on to, as BT is still a pretty good place to work.
Another highlight of 2005 was being best man at my best friend Ben's wedding. This was in Moscow as his wife Liza is also Russian (he got his first). Ben and Liza did an awesome job of arranging the wedding, as half of the guests were from abroad. The day went really well, with the guests getting a tour of Red Square and Moscow University Hill: traditional stops on a Moscow wedding, and with a banquet-like feast at a top Moscow restaurant. I was pretty pleased with my best man's speech as well, as (with a lot of help from Nastia) I managed to get a PowerPoint presentation with a Russian translation and used stupid photos of Ben as punchlines, so Russians and foreigners got the jokes at the same time. Two other school friends also got married last year (both excellent fun!), so I appear to have arrived at a watershed stage in my life.
I've been continuing my running off and on, and entered the Cardiff half-marathon (Bristol sold out quickly). I broke the 1:30 barrier with a time of 1:29:49 seconds, which I was very pleased with. I had been trying to do this for a while, and missed it by 10 seconds in Bristol the year before. This coming year is looking a bit crazy, with Ben and I attempting to train for the Zurich marathon in April, and then we are going to enter the Olympic length London triathlon this summer. I've joined a triathlon club for weekly swimming training, so hopefully this should pay off in July!
So its been a pretty big year for me, and hopefully 2006 will be as well. I hope you can make it to our engagement / house-warming on the 11th February (please mail me if you need details), but I appreciate its rather late notice. I will be giving a lot more notice for the wedding celebration I promise!
Hope y'all have a good 2006 and I will see you soon,
ant