When I was planning to come to Australia, I made a list of 12 goals I wanted to accomplish over the year I’m here. I’m hoping that by sharing them, it’ll make it more likely that I achieve them 
I’m also using this page to track my progress!
1. Learn to surf
16 Nov 11 – Booked a package of three lessons! My first one will be Saturday 19th
19 Nov 11 – Made it through lesson 1 and loved it! (Blog post coming soon). Lesson 2 booked for Sunday 27th.
Sometime in Nov – Bought a surfboard! I’m still rubbish but I’m going on with it. I don’t know that I can say that this is “done” but I want to adjust it.
2. Go on three dates.
3. Learn a new programming language reasonably well or get really good at one I already know a bit of, like Ruby. DONE!
17 Nov 11 – Done a lot more work on Ruby, but really hoping to learn Clojure well enough to tick this one off.
Done – I learned Coffeescript on my first project.
4. Find and live in a shared house. DONE!
6th Nov 11 – Found a house!
12th Nov 11 – Moved in!
5. Be ready to take tech lead roles on projects by the end of the year.
6. Teach a diving course. DONE!
13 Nov 11 – Popped into Pro Divers Manly, they advised me to email my CV.
15 Nov 11 – Created a diving CV.
17 Nov 11 – Emailed CV, they rang and I’m going diving with them on Sunday to see how I get on.
20 Nov 11 – Dived off the boat and chatted to Dan (the boss) – planning to join an Open Water course Tues/Thurs, then dive again on Dec 4th.
22 Nov 11 – Assisted on confined dive 1-2 of Open Water – this is getting off to a good start!
Dec 11 – I taught a Discover Scuba course OK it’s not open water, but it’s done!
7. Finish or make a significant contribution to an open source project
8. Present at a conference in Oz.
Oct 11 – Added the Mental Models presentation that I did in Berlin with Barry O’Reilly to the Agile 2012 proposals list.
Jan 12 – Planning to present at SydJS in May, and have been asked to present a lightning talk at WebDirections in February. I still need to apply for Agile 2012 officially. I think User Groups count though!
9. Go on a trip away with somebody I met since I arrived. DONE!
Jan 12 – went to Seal Rocks with Andrea and Jamie.
10. Make a list of at least ten places to go and reasons why and go to at least half.
Oct 11 – List started.
Jan 12 – I cheated on this, because I couldn’t find my old list. So my new list includes some places I’ve already been or am planning to go, so I should achieve this one in March! Here it is:
- Fraser Island (done!)
- Fairvale to stay with Yolly and Casey (done!)
- Seal Rocks (done!)
- Blue Mountains (planned for March)
- Cape Tribulation
- Barrier Reef
- Melbourne
- Alice Springs
- Margaret River (planned for March)
- See where Mum and Dad used to live (planned for March)
11. Organise a study group through twitter and complete seven languages in seven weeks, and blog it.
24 Oct 11 – started a study group while still working in Edinburgh, and kicked it off.
6 Nov 11 – Ruby (chapter 1) completed!
17 Nov 2011 – IO (chapter 2) in progress
24 Nov 2011 – IO (chapter 2) finished and blogged!
12. Go to a kick boxing class. Done!
I have been to a few classes and joined Fight Gym in December – now regularly going boxing twice a week.