Every year I’ve been doing these ‘retrospectives’, usually once per year but sometimes a couple of times per year.
Things have changed quite significantly since the last retrospective , and I was in a pensive mood, so I thought I would write a retrospective for half the year.
I finally found a job, with CGI, early in the year, and started in March 2023. Unfortunately, for reasons I’m contractually obliged not to get into, it wasn’t long before I was looking for work again. I resigned from CGI at the end of June.
I currently am going through the paperwork to start at my new employer, BAE.
These large companies take a long time to onboard and there is so much paperwork and checking, but that’s just the nature of the industry and their size.
I am really looking forward to start at BAE as my finances have taken quite a hit from the 12 months I had to take off work for cancer treatment, and the subsequent struggle I had to find work after that gap on my CV.
In the meantime I’ve been keeping busy, working on my hobby technology projects, but also spending a lot of time cycling on my electric mountain bike https://davidcraddock.net/my-bike/ . I aim to cycle every day, and I have bought many accessories and support gear to make that happen. So far I have noticed a real improvement in my health and fitness and energy levels, and I absolutely WILL keep this daily cycling a feature of my life when I start work again.
It has been hugely beneficial for my mental and physical health, and just general independence, as I cannot drive, and never have been able to, and neither can my wife.
I’ve stopped DJing regularly, and sold my DJ equipment. This was a positive step, as I wasn’t happy doing the DJing regularly - it was amazing when I first started DJing on Twitch.tv, but recently it’s just been a huge effort to get motivated to do it - just about everything has changed about the community since I started doing it around lockdown time. With the new Twitch.tv ’tax’ on DJing I wouldn’t have been able to make any money to cover my costs at all, which was something I was very happy I was able to do for the 3-4 years I was doing it. So I am glad I stopped.
I have been working on other side-incomes, such as my professional career tutoring for software/IT technical people, and selling stuff via eBay, not just my stuff (we have had a huge declutter of the house) but selling things for friends who are not able to sell them themselves.
I’ve also spent a lot of time working on my home Plex Server , which now has nearly 300 films and nearly 50 TV series on it. I have been ripping films from Blu-rays I buy second-hand, and then donating those Blu-rays to charity shops in Withington. It gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to donate the amount I have. I have also ripped my entire CD collection (over 300 CDs) and given them away to charity.
In terms of cancer, I am still cancer-free, and it has been over 1 year since my stem cell transplant. If I make it to 2 years the doctors told me I can consider myself essentially ‘cured’. The risk of cancer returning is highest in the first few months after the stem cell transplant, so by now there is very little chance that I will not be cured.
The clinical trial that I was a part of was such a success that the drug I was on - ‘Nivolumab ’ has been approved as a treatment for the type of cancer I had. So I am glad that I was able to contribute to cancer research (and also directly benefit from it!).
We have a new Labour government, which I’m SO VERY happy about, having been a long-term supporter of the Labour Party for many years. One of the things that kept me going throughout cancer treatment was the hope that I’d live to see another Labour government, and indeed I did.
Conny has moved to part-time working now I am able to work full-time again, and she is so much happier - she is smiling nearly all the time, and I’ve really noticed a change in her. She has done an absolute ton of things around the house, including completely transforming the rear and front gardens.
I am very happy with the way things are going with us, and it really feels like we have come out of a really horrendous time and things are getting a lot better for us.
So yes, that is the update for mid 2024, really quite positive compared to my last update, and indeed the last few updates. Long may this positivity continue.